The way the wind blows

The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit. –John 3:8 (NIV)

Nicodemus wasn’t tracking with everything Jesus said, but he knew he wanted more. Jesus gave a depth of meaning and insight that was missing in the teaching Nicodemus was accustomed to. His heart had told him there was something more, and he sensed that this rabbi was the one who could show him what that something was.

In this discussion with Nicodemus, Jesus stressed the necessity of being aware of and open to the direction of the Spirit. Nicodemus did not fully make up his mind that night, but he was on a journey that would eventually lead him home. He finally laid his cards on the table when he helped take Jesus’ post-crucifixion body down from the cross and lay it in the tomb provided by Joseph of Arimathea (John 19:38-41).

For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. –John 3:16-17 (NIV)

Back to the clandestine conversation though – how did Nicodemus know? What prompted him to seek Jesus out when his contemporaries were looking for ways to shut Jesus down? That gets back to Jesus’ words. As it is today, there were plenty of voices out there, screaming for attention, all saying, “Follow me!” But Nicodemus was a student of the Scriptures with the heart of a seeker. When he saw the real thing, something inside him recognized it.

I think this still holds true. With all the competing voices, recognizing the Spirit’s leading requires a degree of wisdom and discernment. It requires us to be in tune with the Word of God and the will of God and the heart of God. I can only trust my instincts if my instincts are shaped by God. My human wisdom, even when informed by the best thinking that mankind has produced, will ultimately fail me.

Dear friends, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. This is how you can recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God... –1 John 4:1-2 (NIV)

Study the Word. Pray for wisdom. Test the spirits. Not every idea is a good one. Not all motives are pure. Even if the thought is right, the timing may not be. But I need not fear or doubt or hesitate when the Spirit is leading me. Even when (and perhaps especially when) He says something I was not expecting.

But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God. –John 3:21 (NIV)