The Wind of God, the Wind of the Holy Spirit Numbers 11:18-20, NIV “Tell the people: ‘Consecrate yourselves in preparation for tomorrow, when you will eat meat. The LORD heard you when you wailed, “If only we had meat to eat! We were better off in Egypt!” Now the LORD will give you meat, and you will eat it. You will not eat it for just one day, or two days, or five, ten or twenty days, but for a whole month - until it comes out of your nostrils and you loathe it - because you have rejected the LORD, who is among you, and have wailed before him, saying, “Why did we ever leave Egypt?” ’ ” I would like to share the grace of God under the title, “The Wind of God, the Wind of the Holy Spirit,” which is based on Numbers 11. Please repeat after me: The Wind of God, the Wind of the Holy Spirit. The most important thing in our Christian life is to be filled with the Holy Spirit. We can have power in our Christian life only when we are filled with the Holy Spirit. Only then can we live victoriously, defeating the power of sin. We will however be powerless and easily get into despair if we are not filled with the Holy Spirit. Therefore we must strive to be filled with the Holy Spirit. For three and a half years the disciples followed Jesus: listening to Him, learning from Him, and witnessing the miracles He performed. However, they were still powerless until they received the Holy Spirit. All the disciples, except John, fled when Jesus was crucified. They even went back to their old habit of life after they met the Resurrected Lord. They went to Galilee to draw nets for fishing. However after they received the Holy Spirit they were completely changed. They were totally renewed after they received the Holy Spirit. After they received the Holy Spirit and they preached the Word; thousands of people were converted on a single day. More than anything else we need the fullness of the Holy Spirit these days. “Lord, fill us with the Holy Spirit. Make us into people of the Spirit. Make us Your servants who are led by the Holy Spirit to participate in doing Your great works.” We have been filled with the Holy Spirit but whether we recognize it or not, the fire of the Spirit is getting extinguished. “Lord, restore us. Let the fire of the Holy Spirit burst into flames all over again in our hearts.” When we adore the grace of the Holy Spirit, God will pour His amazing grace upon us, renew and use us as His precious servants for the glory of God. I would like to draw attention to the work of the Holy Spirit through the miracle God performed in Numbers Chapter 11. First, I want to talk about man’s thoughts. The Israelites had been slaves to the Egyptians for 430 years. In utmost agony, they cried out to the Lord for deliverance from the hands of the Egyptians. God used Moses at 80 years of age to miraculously deliver the Israelites from Egypt. However the Israelites had to go through the desert to reach Canaan. God protected and led their steps with a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. God gave them water out of a rock when they were thirsty, and sent them manna from heaven every morning for their daily food. However, the Israelites kept on complaining because of their deep-rooted mind of slavery. They never stopped grumbling. They did not give thanks for the many blessings they received. They complained again and again over trivial things. They grumbled, saying that they wanted to eat meat. If they had been patient a little longer, they would enter Canaan, the land flowing with milk and honey. But they grumbled. Christians often complain and grumble over trivial things without giving thanks to God. We are not much different from the Israelites during their Exodus years. We often go back to our old self, easily complaining and grumbling. Numbers 11:4 says: “The Israelites started wailing and said, ‘If only we had meat to eat!’ ” What caused them to complain? It was because the rabble with them began to crave other food. Numbers 11:4 says: “The rabble with them began to crave other food.” The rabble means the gentiles who went out of Egypt with the Israelites. They started to complain first. These people were used to indulging their cravings so they started to complain over little things. Their complaints soon contaminated the Israelites who began to complain as well. What is a craving? It is greed, overwhelmingly wanting something to excess. Greed is to want something beyond what is given to us without being thankful. How much grace and blessings did the Israelites receive? God gave them manna every morning. He provided them with water when they were thirsty. They lacked nothing but they still complained against God. Their excessive craving caused them to complain and grumble. Paul exhorts in 1 Timothy 6:6-8: “But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world; and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that. Jesus said in Matthew 6:31-32: “So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ ‘What shall we wear?’ For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.” This virus of complaints transmitted to the Israelites. They complained with the rabble who were in their midst. They also forgot the grace of God. That was why they could complain against God so easily. They forgot about the toil and agony they lived under as slaves to Egypt for 430 years. They forgot about God’s miraculous deliverance and salvation. They complained because they forgot about God’s grace. We used to live sinfully, unrighteously, and debauchedly before believing in Jesus. We were destined to be born in sin, to live in sin, and to die in sin. However God’s amazing grace has saved us and made us His children. The grace, blessings, and miracles that we have received from God are beyond description. Nonetheless, we often forget about His enormous grace. We often complain over trivial things and blame others. We hopelessly sigh at our own weakness. We should never forget the benefits from God. Psalm 103: 2 says: “Praise the LORD, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits.” We must always be thankful for His grace of salvation. The complaints of a few people started to spread out among the whole community until all of the Israelites began complaining and wailing. Numbers 11:10 says: “Moses heard the people of every family wailing, each at the entrance to his tent. The LORD became exceedingly angry, and Moses was troubled.” God detests resentments and complaints. Complaints and grumbling are the tools of the devil. We must take off this tendency of our old self and give thanks to God. It is the secret of true happiness. It is the short cut to receive God’s blessings and grace. Therefore we should always rejoice and give thanks to God. 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 says: “Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus.” We should always rejoice and give thanks to God in the Lord. Rev. Will Bowen is a pastor of a church in Kansas City. He was running a Summer Book Club in July 2007 and he realized that complaints caused all the mishaps they were experiencing. So he wrote a book, “A Complaint Free World.” Rev. Bowen told his congregation he wanted to make the world a complaint-free zone and he passed out purple bracelets to each church member and offered them a challenge. “If you catch yourself complaining, take the bracelet and move it to the other wrist.” As long as people wear the bracelet, they will be reminded not to complain when they look at it. Bowen tried to persuade people to form the simple habit of not complaining by making the purple bracelet. Rev. Bong-Joon Kim of Kuro Full Gospel Church also made the bracelet and passed them out to his church members. He got this idea from Will Bowen. The person who wore this purple bracelet pledged not to complain for 21 days. He would look at the bracelet and suppress a complaint that he was about to make. Again and again whenever he would want to grumble and complain about something; he would look at the bracelet and stamp out that urge to complain and give thanks to God. Soon people began to change. Their grumble disease began to heal. Bad relations were restored. Their homes were renewed. They began to enjoy God’s blessings. The complaints free world campaign, which started in a small church, began to spread out all over the United States. Rev. Bowen appeared on the Oprah Winfrey Show and the Today Show and today this campaign continues to grow all over the world. In his book, Rev. Bowen says, “Negative words call for negative thoughts and it produces negative outcomes. We should stop complaining in order for the whole society to be happy and successful. If you complain about not having shoes; this would be because you have not seen those who have no feet. The one who can change oneself can change the world.” He also said, “Today, you are where your thoughts have brought you today. Tomorrow, you will be where your thoughts will bring you tomorrow.” He emphasized that we should think, speak, and act righteously. After believing in Jesus, we must think righteously, positively, creatively, and productively. Our life will change according to our attitude and language when we march forward with a positive attitude, faith, and dreams, confessing our faith. What we think will determine the kind of life we are going to have. Therefore, we must always rejoice before the Lord. We must always praise the Lord. Charles Surgeon said, “When we give thanks to God for His blessings, they will be extended. When we give thanks to God for our mishaps, they will end.” It is true. When we give thanks to God for His blessings, He will continue to bless us. When we give thanks to God even in the middle of problems, God will solve all our problems and bless us. Therefore, I pray that you will always give thanks to the Lord in the Name of the Lord. Second, I want to speak about God who is our problem solver. Moses could not endure the complaints and grumbling of the Israelites. He was much distressed because so many people went to him complaining and wailing for meat to eat. As the leader of this large community Moses was fatigued and lonely. During those times he felt so burdened that he wanted to die. Numbers 11:13-15 says: “Where can I get meat for all these people? They keep wailing to me, ‘Give us meat to eat!’ I cannot carry all these people by myself; the burden is too heavy for me. If this is how you are going to treat me, put me to death right now-if I have found favor in your eyes-and do not let me face my own ruin.” Moses asked God to put him to death because he was too distressed. The burden was too heavy for him. He did not know what to do when the Israelites kept wailing to him for meat. God appointed elders of Israel to help Moses carry his burden because He understood the kind of burden and pain that Moses felt. God told Moses to select seventy of Israel’s elders to help him carry the burden of the people so that he would not have to carry it alone. Numbers 11:16-17 says: “The LORD said to Moses: ‘Bring me seventy of Israel’s elders who are known to you as leaders and officials among the people. Have them come to the Tent of Meeting; that they may stand there with you. I will come down and speak with you there, and I will take of the Spirit that is on you and put the Spirit on them. They will help you carry the burden of the people so that you will not have to carry it alone.’ ” Hallelujah! We need faithful co-workers in the Lord. In our dedicated glory to God; we must become each other’s co-workers of faith so that we will pray for and help one another. Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 says: “Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work: If one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up!” When we are about to fall; we need co-workers in the Lord, who will encourage, help, and pray for us. It was too much a burden for Moses to lead 60,000 men, and over two million people, with women and children. God appointed seventy elders to share the burden of Moses when he was no longer able to carry this stress. God filled these elders with the Holy Spirit. Today all church leaders should be filled with the Holy Spirit so that they would fulfill their tasks as servants of the Lord. The most crucial factor for church leaders is the fullness of the Holy Spirit. We are going to appoint many church leaders as elders, senior deacons, senior deaconesses, and deacons and deaconesses. The first condition for these offices is the fullness of the Holy Spirit. We must elect Spirit-filled leaders so that we could have one heart in perfect harmony. A great revival will then come to us when we pray together and dedicate ourselves. God appointed seventy elders of Israel for a specific job and filled them with the Holy Spirit. We must pray to God to pour the Holy Spirit on the leaders of our church so that they will strive together to achieve a great and wonderful work for the Lord. “Heavenly Father, chose our leaders and anoint them with the Holy Spirit. Pour Your Spirit on us as You poured the Spirit on the disciples in the Upper Room on the Day of Pentecost. Fill us with the Spirit and help us achieve Your work. Fill us with the Holy Spirit.” We must yearn to be filled with the Holy Spirit. God answered the wailing of the people after new leaders were appointed to help Moses. Numbers 11:18 says: “Tell the people: ‘Consecrate yourselves in preparation for tomorrow, when you will eat meat.’ ” We must consecrate ourselves before the Lord. Numbers 11:18 continues: “The LORD heard you when you wailed, ‘If only we had meat to eat! We were better off in Egypt!’ Now the LORD will give you meat, and you will eat it.” God heard them and said that He would give what they wanted. Numbers 11:19 says: “You will not eat it for just one day, or two days, or five, ten or twenty days, but for a whole month-until it comes out of your nostrils and you loathe it.” God told them that they would eat meat for a whole month. God is the answer and solution to all our problems. Hallelujah! Philippians 4:6-7 says: “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Jeremiah 33:3 says: “Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.” Hallelujah! I pray that when you are in trouble you will kneel down before the Lord and cry out to Him. Keo-Chang High school in Keo-Cgang, Kyungnam Province, Korea is a famous school. World famous conductor Mr. Myung-Hoon Chung sent his two sons to this school. 88% of its graduates go to college. 25% of the 180 graduates go to top universities of Korea. How can a small rural school be such a good school? Mr. Young-Chang Jeon, a former principal, devotedly worked for this school. He came back to Korea from the United States after he received his degree. Mr. Jeon had been offered a guaranteed position as the vice-Dean at a Theological School but he went to the country and began to run a small school. The School opened in April, 1958. It was founded around the same time as our church. There were only eight students at the principal’s inauguration. The school had so much debt at that time that it might well have closed. Mr. Jeon took his Bible, hymnal, and a blanket to a mountain, which was about 10 miles away from Keo-Cgang. He went into a cave, placed the blanket on the ground, and fasted and prayed for a week. He prayed, “Father, I came back to Korea, wanting to establish a good and new education system. How can I do this if I fail to run a school? Lord, help me. Help me pay off the debt and establish this school.” He cried out to the Lord with fervent prayer. He fasted for one day, two days, and three days. He became nervous and impatient because he had not yet received any answer from God. So he prayed, “If you cannot help me, this is what I will do. If you do not answer me by the time I finish this week-long fasting prayer, I will go to Seoul and put an ad “God does not exist” on Dong-A Newspaper.” He prayed fervently with this request for the entire week. He came back to school after a week and found a letter for him at school. An American Christian sent a check to his school in the amount of $2,050. It was exactly the same amount of the school debt. Hallelujah! Let us give glory to God. He paid off the debt and worked devotedly for the development of the school. In 1971, he made another strong request to God. “Heavenly Father, help me. Now that you are helping me, grant me another request. We need better facilities and equipments.” He prayed fervently for the construction of the main administration building. God answered his prayer again. Rev. Robert Schuller from the Crystal Cathedral sent him $220,000, which enabled the school to upgrade itself to the prestigious school it is today. Hallelujah! God answers our prayers when we pray. We cannot do anything with our own power. God will perform His work when we pray fervently to Him on bended knees. Third, I want to talk about the wind of God. In what way did God work? Numbers 11:31 says: “Now a wind went out from the LORD and drove quail in from the sea. It brought them down all around the camp to about three feet above the ground, as far as a day’s walk in any direction.” How could it be possible to feed more than two million people with meat? The Lord caused a strong wind to drive quail in from the sea and bring them down all around the camp three feet thick as far as a day’s walk in any direction. A day’s walk would be about 20 miles, which is 32 kilometers. God drove quail from the sea and piled them three feet high on the ground 20 miles in every direction. All the Israelites could see around them was a huge pile of quail. They were able to go in any direction and pick quail to their heart’s content. They could boil, roast and fry quail. There was so much quail that the Israelites were able to eat meat for a whole month until they tired of it ? until it came out of their nostrils and they loathed quail. Today, right here, we need the wind of God. The wind we need is not an ordinary wind but the wind of God. Wind is written in Hebrew word “ruach” in the Old Testament and is written in Greek word “pneuma” in the New Testament. It means wind, the Holy Spirit, and the breath or respiration of God. A wind went out from the Lord and drove quail in from the sea. It brought quail down all around the camp to about three feet above the ground. Quail was their meal for a whole month. More than two million people ate quail for a whole month. God answered their prayers and performed His wonders when the Israelites were in trouble. After the Israelites fled from Egypt and the Red Sea was in front of them; God drove a strong east wind to etch out a dry path through the deep water. The Israelites crossed the sea on dry ground. Exodus 14:21 says: “Then Moses stretched out his hand over the sea, and all that night the LORD drove the sea back with a strong east wind and turned it into dry land. The waters were divided.” In what manner was man created by God? God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed the breath of life into his nostrils. Genesis 2:7 says: “The LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.” The Scripture says that the man became a living being. When the wind of God blows, when God breathes His breath of life into us, it will bring wonderful miracles and blessings to our lives. In a vision, the Spirit of God took Ezekiel to a valley full of dry bones. Even though the bones were dry because the corpses were so old; God breathed and revived the bones. They formed a vast army. Ezekiel 37:1 says: “The hand of the LORD was upon me, and he brought me out by the Spirit of the LORD and set me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones.” When the message of God was spoken, the Spirit of the Lord went into the bones and they came to life, forming a vast army. Ezekiel 37:9-10 says: “Then he said to me, ‘Prophesy to the breath; prophesy, son of man, and say to it, “This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe into these slain, that they may live.” ’ So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet-a vast army.” Dry bones were transformed into a living vast army. This world is like the valley of dry bones. Many people are filled with despair and pain and are immobilized like a valley of dry bones. They may look alive but they are not much better than dead. We need the wind of the Holy Spirit right here. We are desperately in need of the wind of the Holy Spirit! Dead souls will come to life as dry bones came to life when the wind of the Holy Spirit blows. Dead souls will come to life and appreciate the work, miracles, and blessings of the Lord. The Holy Spirit worked greatly with David Livingstone, the explorer and medical missionary of Africa. He wrote to his friend, Dr. Bennett and said that even the women sat unmoved regardless of the operation he was performing. “I have been quite astonished again and again at their calmness. In cutting out a tumor an inch in diameter they sit and talk as if they felt nothing. ‘A man like me never cries,’ they say ‘they are children who cry.’” But when the Spirit of God worked on their minds these people cried most piteously. Sometimes in Church they endeavored to hide themselves from the eye of the preacher by creeping under forms or hiding their heads as a remedy against their convictions. And when they found that this would not do anything to remove the guilt of their convictions; they will rush out of the church crying and run away with all their might. One would think that once they had run away from the church, they would stay away; but that is not so. They would come back to the very next meeting. They had never cried before other people. They would sit calmly as if they had felt nothing even during the pain of an operation that was cutting out a tumor without anesthesia. A grown up was not supposed to cry. However, when the Holy Spirit moved their hearts during a worship service, they would begin to cry. The Holy Spirit worked so powerfully that they would rush out of the church crying and run with all their might to hide their crying from others. The Holy Spirit convicts us of our sins when the wind of the Spirit blows. It will compel us to confess and repent of our sins. It causes us to cry before the Lord. It also brings changes to our lives. Our souls are healed, changed, and renewed by the Holy Spirit. The 52 year history of Yoido Full Gospel Church has been a history of the work of the Holy Spirit. The wind of the Holy Spirit blew into the tent church at Bulkwang-Dong and the people who gathered therein were blessed. They cried and experienced the grace and healing of the Lord. Their problems were resolved. They were freed from curses. They experienced the miracles of the Lord. We need the wind of the Holy Spirit today as well. The wind of the Holy Spirit is needed. The Lord has not changed at all for the past 52 years. The work of the Holy Spirit has not changed, either. However, we have changed. We often complain instead of thanking the Lord for His blessings even though we are better off then the people who gathered in Yoido’s tent church at Bulkwang-Dong. We must repent of our sins of holding grudges over small things instead of rejoicing in the Lord. “Heavenly Father, forgive us. Let the wind of the Holy Spirit blow right now right here. Pour the Spirit of repentance upon us. Restore our first love for You. Fill us with the Holy Spirit so that we will change by the grace of the Holy Spirit and that we will be Your faithful workers. Blow the wind of the Holy Spirit into our hearts, into our homes, into our church, and into this country. Revive all the churches and change all the people through the wind of the Holy Spirit. Reunite the country through these changes.” Wonderful things will happen in our lives when all of us are filled with the grace of the Holy Spirit. Let us pray. Our Father of infinite love, grace, and mercy, we are nothing. We were like dry bones without life. We have lost all things. However, Your great love has saved us and made us Your children. We repent of our sins for we have complained and grumbled over trivial things instead of giving thanks to You for Your enormous grace. We thank You for teaching us that we are just like the Israelites who craved for meat and complained with wailing. Blow the wind of the Holy Spirit to us right now so that we will take off from our old self negativity, complaints, and grumbling. Help us not to be easily dismayed or frustrated over trivial things. Renew and restore us so that we will be used for Your glory. I pray in the Name of Jesus. Amen. 1