You need the power of the wind to go!
No good setting up your rig in the living room to practice, you need to get in the sea. And no good standing there in the shelter of the harbour on a calm day - that gets you nowhere!
If we’re serious about this we need to find some courage and head out into the deep water where the strong wind will fill our sail and send us racing.
And similarly God fills with His Holy Spirit and power those who move out of their comfort zones to obey Jesus as His disciples and witnesses.
Check out this imagery from Psalm 104 v 4:
‘He (God) rides on the wings of the wind. He makes winds His messengers, flames of fire His servants.’
Makes you wonder whose idea windsurfing was originally!
But these words were accurately fulfilled on the Day of Pentecost in Acts 2, when the Holy Spirit filled the Early Church with power to evangelise. On this occasion the apostles saw what looked like flames and heard ‘a sound like the blowing of a violent wind …from heaven’.
A short time before this Jesus had promised His followers, ‘You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses…to the ends of the earth.’ (Acts 1 v 8)
The original Bible languages have the same words for ‘wind’, ‘breath’, ‘life’ and ‘spirit’. Those who trust in and obey Jesus are made alive in a new way by His Spirit, and can draw on this same Spirit to powerfully equip us for active service.
The wind gets us moving!
Don’t try and fight it.
Surf’s up – let’s go!