Regional Synod of Canada - Reformed Church in America

Pioneer Christian Monthly

Date - June/80

Contributor - Robert Westra

Title - The Rush of the Mighty Wind

Topic - Pentecost

When I was a boy and still on the farm, I had a favourite place in the field where our milk cows were kept. It was on a hill enclosed on the north and the east with two small groves of poplars. On warm days, with cloudless skies and with little or no breeze I loved to lie on the brow of that hill and listen to nature's heartbeat. In the trees I could hear the birds busily defending their territories, and from the meadows below I could hear the distant cowbell and the occasional duck arguing with its mate, over and above the continual din of the incessant croaking of the frogs. It was peaceful but alive. Every few minutes short gusts of wind could be heard rising from the valleys below, causing the leaves in the poplars behind me to suddenly awake with a rattle. As suddenly as the leaves began to rustle with the gusts of wind, just as suddenly they became quiet. Every once-in-awhile, a great gust of wind would rush by and make the leaves shake as if they were about to be torn off. It was those occasional mighty rushes of wind that would make it through the trees to me lying on the ground. The wind would soothingly flow over and around me as if it were cleansing the air. It felt so pure and so refreshing.

Reading the experience of the disciples on Pentecost, as recorded in Acts 2, reminded me again of those spring days out on that hill top overlooking the meadows below. Like the mighty rush of the wind through the poplars, the Holy Spirit came that Pentecost day and completely changed the lives of those people that were assembled together in that small room. It was as if that "mighty wind" blew into their lives and made each a new person. And that is what did happen.

The expected Holy Spirit came in such an unexpected way. It was sudden. It was real. It was powerful. Didn't these same disciples hear Jesus say to Nicodemus that the power of the Holy Spirit was like the wind? - - "You hear the sound of it, but y do not know where it comes from or where it goes". So is everyone who is born of the Spirit!

"The rush of the mighty wind" means different things to different people and yet each experience is described in a similar manner. He comes suddenly - He is real He comes powerfully - He completely fills - He seems to surround you so entirely that it appears He is everywhere. We become so filled that we cry with excitement and joy, "Can't you feel His presence? Can't you see?"

This month is Pentecost. It is the day that we celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit to the early Christians. Have you experienced the "sound from heaven like the rush of a mighty wind"? You may! Ask Him to come into your life today - right now! There is still time!

God can hardly wait for you to say "Come into my life today so that I too may experience 'the rush of a mighty wind' ".

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