# 45 The Wake of the Holy Spirit

Joh 3:8 "The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit”

Jesus is seeking to explain the necessity of regeneration of the individual soul to Nicodemus. And He uses one of His favorite techniques in teaching….a parable.

(A parable is an earthly example with a spiritual application.)

So as Nicodemus is puzzling over this necessity of being born again (regenerated) through water baptism Jesus says,  ‘Nicodemus, take the wind for example,” the reality and fact of the wind is beyond question. Our senses tell us of its existence and the direction of its flow, but where does it originate, where does a gust of wind stop?”

Of course, no one can answer that question but God!

The point that Jesus is making is the connection between the fact and reality of the wind, and the fact and reality of the work of the Holy Spirit. We can hear the effect of the wind, we can see it, even feel it, and that’s how it is with the Holy Spirit. We can’t see Him but we can see His effects on the soul.

A tornado leaves obvious evidence as it moves through  the earth, the Holy Spirit leaves evidence in His wake as well. It’s called the “fruit of the Spirit” And it’s spelled out for us in  Ga 5:22,23 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,

 23 gentleness, self-control.”

We need to be careful here, because we can read this and think that at times the third person of the Trinity runs amuck like a tornado, and randomly saves this soul and that soul, skipping others.

That’s not what the Scriptures teach about the Holy Spirit and regeneration. The Holy Spirit always works regeneration through Word and Sacrament.

As these “means of grace,” come upon men, through the preaching of the Gospel, not all will receive it. Not all will be regenerated.  Grace can be resisted.

The fact that all who are reached by the Spirit are NOT reborn is not due to a lack of saving will on the part of the Holy Spirit, (who desires all men to be saved, 1 Tim 2:4) or to a lack and deficiency in the means the Holy Spirit employs, (Word and Sacrament) but to the wicked and permanent resistance of those who remain unregenerate.

Those who resist the Spirit of grace are like those Stephen spoke to before he was stoned to death. He said in Ac 7:51 "You stiffnecked and uncircumcised in heart and ears! You always resist the Holy Spirit; as your fathers did, so do you.”

Don’t be like those who stoned Stephen. Don’t resist the Holy Spirit, believe His Word, trust His means of grace, and be saved. Leave that trail for others to see that the Holy Spirit has touched you! The trail of love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.