The Spirit Blows Where He Wills

In the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

The Spirit blows where He wills. This is a great truth of the Christian faith. It is also a great mystery to Christians. The Spirit blows where He wills: is this Law or Gospel? Is it good news or bad?

In a very real, forthright sense, it is Law. The Spirit blows where He wills. You cannot control Him. He starts where you cannot see Him, and He comes and goes as He pleases. He is here when He presents Himself. He promises to be where the Gospel is preached, but He does not guarantee to remain where He is not received. He blows upon whomever He chooses, and He calls to faith those whom He wants.

You are not the standard of the Spirit's work. He does not visit those you wish He would, simply because you think He should. He does not flow here or there, doing what you would like. As little as you can direct the wind, even less can you direct the Spirit's coming and going. He may convert those filthy heathens that make you recoil in horror, because He loves them too. He may not convert your loved ones who shut their ears and their hearts.

When you hear the preaching of the Gospel, rejoice because the Spirit is here. For where the Word of God is proclaimed, there the Spirit is, doing what the Word says – breaking sinners and forgiving the contrite in spirit, making saints out of sinners. As the saying goes, He afflicts the comfortable, and comforts the afflicted.

But some will fall away. Not all who say, “Lord, Lord,” will inherit the Kingdom of heaven. Some will reject the Word of God. They will choke it out with the cares and concerns of this world. They will leave it exposed for the birds to peck away at it and carry it off. They will get caught up in the weeds and miss the forest for the trees. After all, Nicodemus stared the Kingdom of God square in the eye, and he missed Him altogether.

You cannot do the Holy Spirit's work for Him. The Spirit blows where He wills. He works faith in the dead, broken hearts of sinful men and women. He makes alive those dead in sins and trespasses. But He is no captive monkey. He does not dance to your tune.

A great many in the Church have tried to capture the Spirit. Men have created a whole industry of motivational speakers, strategists, planners, and consultants to come up with ways to “grow the Church”. This is sheer idolatry. The Spirit blows where He wills. You cannot conjure Him up as you desire. He will not grow the Church in the way you think He should.

Consider the example of our Lord. He added to the number of the faithful from the ranks of the sinners, tax collectors, and prostitutes, from the Gentiles and the half-breed Samarians. The Holy Spirit began the work of the Church on Pentecost by calling over three thousand to faith, but then Paul's preaching in Athens fell on deaf ears, and he was shut out of Asia altogether by the Holy Spirit.

You cannot presume upon the Lord's mercy any ole way you please, either. He has promised to be with you, to be merciful and gracious, but that is a promise, not a guarantee that He will act according to your wishes and whims. The Spirit blows where He wills. You cannot take Him with you where you wish Him to be. Neither can you deny Him what He wants. He certainly can keep from you what you desire, but you cannot stop His working, no matter how hard you try. He does not need your help or consent, or even your willingness.

Nicodemus thought he had it all together. He was a teacher of Israel. But yet he did not know the rebirth from above. He had no idea what Jesus was saying when our Lord held forth on the need for a rebirth of water and Spirit. Poor Nicodemus was staring at the Kingdom of God in the flesh, and could not see Him for what He is. The Kingdom of God is not a physical realm. It is not a temple made with hands, or a throne with a fleshly king on it.

Nicodemus did not know that you cannot debate with the Word of God. He will not be swayed by displays of your wisdom or your intellectual prowess, or even the number of Bible verses you have memorized. The Word of God acts according to what He says, and He says what He means.

Nicodemus came by night, not with faith, but with speculative curiosity. He came to debate with the hot new wise man of the day. Jesus was in the habit of saying some fantastical things, so Nicodemus wanted to flex him theological muscles and give Him a few rounds. After all, that is what theologians do for fun.

But the Lord does not play games. Despite what Nicodemus may have in mind, Jesus does not spar with him. The Lord shuts down any attempt at debate. Flattery accomplishes nothing. “Unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” It does not matter if that Kingdom is sitting right across the table from you. Jesus deliberately confutes and confuses Nicodemus at each query and question. The Word of God provides no satisfaction to the debater of this age.

Likewise, the Lord rejects practicality and pragmatism. He does not work through human means. The Spirit blows where He wills. You must be born again. But how? By water and the Spirit. But how? Don't you know? Moses lifted up a serpent in the wilderness; you will see the Son of Man lifted up in the wilderness also.

Sin is no abstract theological debate. It is not a bit of mis-doings, a failing or foible here and there. You cannot minimize it or push it aside, as much as you would like to. All flesh is grass, and the flower fades away, but the Word of the Lord stands forever. What God calls sin, is such. The Word of the Lord kills, because He demands perfection and you are not perfect. Jesus will not let you confine sin to a classroom or a dissertation. He will not let you relegate God to the same column as Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny. He will not simply overlook sin, like some jolly old grandfather.

Repent.

On the other hand, however, the Spirit blows where He wills. This is Gospel – glorious Good News for you and for all mankind. For this means that the Holy Spirit is not bound by your thoughts, actions, or intentions. He saves those whom He chooses.

After all, the Lord got His way with Nicodemus eventually. Sure, that night in the dark, Nicodemus left unsatisfied and unconverted. But in the end, who was it who did for the crucified Lord according to custom? When all the apostles had run off in fear, Nicodemus came forward to claim the body of Jesus and bury Him according to the custom of the Jews, even though this brought ritual impurity upon him for the Passover Sabbath. Nicodemus showed himself faithful in this small thing, even against the fearful disciples.

The Spirit blows where He wills. He saves people in spite of themselves. He saves people out of themselves. Turned inward on his own wisdom and reflection, Nicodemus failed to see the Kingdom of God in the flesh right in front of him. But when the emblem of death was lifted high above the earth, he saw and believed and received life. Just as Jesus had promised.

Now, did Nicodemus know that Jesus would rise from the dead? Perhaps, in some veiled, dim way. He probably knew that it would happen, somewhere in the back of his mind, as something filed away long ago and nearly forgotten. After all, Nicodemus was a teacher of Israel, a leader of the Jews. He knew the Scriptures, how from ancient times Moses and the Prophets had foretold the coming of just this one, the Holy One of Israel. He had been around to hear Jesus preach, to hear the predictions of His passion and resurrection. But he just could not connect the dots. The connection between the Torah of old and the Messiah of the present was veiled from his sight.

But somewhere along the way, the Spirit blew as He willed. The Spirit blew upon Nicodemus with the breath of life. He blew the scales off his eyes, and Nicodemus saw the Lord. His eyes were opened to the One whom the Scriptures had foretold, and he knew what they said, what the Word made flesh said, was true – that Jesus is the Christ, the savior of the nations come. Of course! How could it not be! Jesus had said that it would be so.

Of course Jesus suffered and died on the cross. Of course He was raised from the dead. Of course He atoned for the sins of the world. Death is dead and life must live. Now the grave cannot hold you. It must be so, because Jesus said it would be so. Moses and the Prophets declared it to be so from of old.

And so it happens for you. The Spirit blows where He wills. He blows upon you and blows the scales of sin, guilt, and shame from your eyes. You experience this when the Spirit blows upon your heart and mind, and you sit up, stiffened by the realization of your sin. Or, better yet, when your heart leaps for joy at the remembrance that your sins are forgiven. The Spirit blows where He wills. And He wills to blow upon you, to bring you the forgiveness of sins sent by your heavenly Father, which was won by the Son of Man upon the cross for you.

In the Name of Jesus. Amen.