Welcome to Refinery Life Australia.
Today we continue our series titled The Doctrine of God.
Today we are talking about The Winds of God.
Prayer
In Jesus name we pray.
Amen.
Text
Acts 2:2 AMP
2 and suddenly a sound came from heaven like a rushing violent wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting.
Scripture Reading
Acts 2:1-13 AMP
The Day of Pentecost
1 When the day of Pentecost had come, they were all together in one place,
2 and suddenly a sound came from heaven like a rushing violent wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting.
3 There appeared to them tongues resembling fire, which were being distributed [among them], and they rested on each one of them [as each person received the Holy Spirit].
4 And they were all filled [that is, diffused throughout their being] with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues (different languages), as the Spirit was giving them the ability to speak out [clearly and appropriately].
5 Now there were Jews living in Jerusalem, devout and God-fearing men from every nation under heaven.
6 And when this sound was heard, a crowd gathered, and they were bewildered because each one was hearing those in the upper room speaking in his own language or dialect.
7 They were completely astonished, saying, “Look! Are not all of these who are speaking Galileans?
8 Then how is it that each of us hears in our own language or native dialect?
9 [Among us there are] Parthians, Medes and Elamites, and people of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia [Minor],
10 Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the districts of Libya around Cyrene, and the visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes (Gentile converts to Judaism),
11 Cretans and Arabs—we all hear them speaking in our [native] tongues about the mighty works of God!”
12 And they were beside themselves with amazement and were greatly perplexed, saying one to another, “What could this mean?”
13 But others were laughing and joking and ridiculing them, saying, “They are full of sweet wine and are drunk!”
Introduction
There is something mysterious about the wind.
If you don’t believe that, try to explain the wind to a child, or try to understand an explanation of the wind in scientific terms.
Because the wind is so mysterious, it is fitting that it is used as a symbol of God’s powerful Holy Spirit.
What preceded the passing of the children of Israel through the Red Sea?
All through the night the trembling Israel cringed in fear between the chariots of Egypt and the sea while the terrible winds of God cut a path through the heart of the waters.
Exodus 14:21, Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea; and the Lord swept the sea back by a strong east wind all that night and turned the seabed into dry land, and the waters were divided.
We are told that when Elijah begged to see the face of God, in 1 Kings 19:11, So He said, “Go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord.” And behold, the Lord was passing by, and a great and powerful wind was tearing out the mountains and breaking the rocks in pieces before the Lord; but the Lord was not in the wind. And after the wind, [there was] an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake.
Of the reaction of the onlookers on the day of Pentecost we read in Acts 2:6-7,
6 And when this sound was heard, a crowd gathered, and they were bewildered because each one was hearing those in the upper room speaking in his own language or dialect.
7 They were completely astonished, saying, “Look! Are not all of these who are speaking Galileans?
We also read in verse 12, And they were beside themselves with amazement and were greatly perplexed, saying one to another, “What could this mean?”
How we need the winds of God to blow upon us!
When they do, it makes all the difference in the world.
The Christian movement experiences a new birth of power, and people marvel at God’s wondrous works.
The unsaved ask in awe, “What does this mean? By what power have you done this?”
And scores of people cry out, “Brethren, what shall we do?”
Today let us gather this thought into one simple affirmation.
Wonderful things happen when the winds of God begin to blow.
- Ordinary people do extraordinary things when the winds of God begin to blow.
Simon Peter was an ordinary man.
Unstable, wishy washy, and impulsive when Jesus first met him.
Peter nonetheless became the heart of early Christianity just as Paul became the brain.
It has been said about Peter, that he never worried about what he had said because he never thought about what he was going to say before he said it.
Yet at Pentecost when the winds of God began to blow, those who heard him, were pricked in their heart it says in Acts 2:37, and three thousand people were converted.
Francis of Assisi was an ordinary man until one day when he saw a loathsome leper by the wayside and the Spirit of God struck his heart in a mighty conversion experience.
Retracing his steps, Francis ran to kiss the leper, who ten seconds before he had despised as an unclean thing.
When the winds of God began to blow, Francis of Assisi ran to God as easily as running into the ocean as a child.
Until the winds of God began to blow, Martin Luther was just another ordinary, brown clad monk seeking peace in his heart, but by God’s power he was urged to change the history of the world.
Wesley, Spurgeon, Booth, Moody, and a host of others, although they were ordinary men and women, God used them mightily to do extraordinary things when the winds on God began to blow.
You and I may be ordinary people, but if we would wait on God in prayer and in faith until the winds of God shook us to the depths, hHe could use us to do some extraordinary things.
2. Ordinary churches do extraordinary things when the winds of God begin to blow.
What are our churches doing that amazes and confounds an unsaved world?
The great sin of our churches is that of being ordinary, that of doing the same old things in the same way over and over again.
What chances have we taken for God?
What risks?
When have we laid it on the lone, trusting the power of God to see us through?
In our churches the time is here when we must no longer be ordinary.
We dare not!
Every ordinary church must begin by the power of God to do extraordinary things if it is to make an impression on this world in which we live.
After their failure at Kedesh-barnea, the children of Israel wandered in the wilderness in the region of the “Mount of God” for forty years as judgement on their disobedience.
In Deuteronomy 2:1-3, however, we read of the Wanderings in the Wilderness.
1 “Then we turned and set out for the wilderness by the way of the Red Sea, just as the Lord had told me; and we circled Mount Seir for many days.
2 And the Lord spoke to me, saying,
3 ‘You have circled this mountain long enough; turn northward,
Where He leads, we must follow!
Conclusion.
This era must be the era of the Holy Spirit.
We need only for the winds of God to begin blowing, that in every worship place there would be heard from heaven a sound like the mighty rushing wind.
Until next time
Stay in the Blessings
I really want to encourage you to be diligent with your Bible study time, because God has so much more for us than we can get from just going to church once or twice a week and hearing someone else talk about the Word.
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