Catching the Wind of the Spirit

A few years ago, my wife and I were sitting near the bay in Tampa, Florida, watching dozens of people learn how to sail. Some were moving smoothly across the water. Others were struggling to keep their boats upright. The difference wasn't the wind—it was whether they knew how to position their sails.

As I reflected on that moment, I couldn't help but think about the Holy Spirit.

One of the most common biblical pictures of the Holy Spirit is wind.

Throughout Scripture, God is described as breath, wind, and the moving presence of His Spirit. Paul tells believers to be continually filled with the Holy Spirit, and the language he uses paints a picture of a sailboat learning to catch the wind.

The Christian life is not simply about having a plan. It's about learning how to position ourselves to move with the Spirit of God.

And nowhere do we see that more clearly than in Acts 16.

The apostle Paul thought he knew exactly where he was going. His strategy was clear: take the gospel to Asia. It made sense. It fit his calling. It fit his vision. Yet twice the Holy Spirit prevented him from going where he intended to go.

Imagine how frustrating that must have been.

Paul had a good plan. He had a godly plan. But God had a different plan.

Eventually, in the middle of the night, Paul received a vision of a man from Macedonia calling for help. The direction became clear. Asia was not the destination. Macedonia was.

So Paul adjusted his sail and followed the leading of the Spirit.

That passage reminds me of something I've learned over the years:

The devil will often tell you "yes." God will sometimes tell you "no." But learning to trust God's no can be one of the greatest acts of faith in our spiritual journey.

I've discovered that when God says no, He's often protecting me from something I cannot see or preparing something better than I could have imagined.

Sometimes the Spirit's redirection is actually His protection.

Sometimes the closed door is His kindness.

And sometimes the better path only becomes visible after we've surrendered our own.

Paul's story reminds us that strategy matters, but strategy alone is not enough.

We need strategy and Spirit.

We should make plans. We should think ahead. We should prepare. But every believer must leave room for the Holy Spirit's veto power. We must hold our plans loosely enough for God to redirect them whenever He chooses.

The truth is that God's strategy is always better than ours.

Paul likely never would have chosen Philippi. It wasn't the largest city. It wasn't the most influential city. Yet God led him there because Philippi sat at the crossroads of east and west along one of the most important trade routes in the Roman Empire.

What looked insignificant to Paul became strategic in God's hands.

The Spirit saw what Paul couldn't.

And often, the Spirit sees what we can't.

When Paul arrived in Philippi, he found something unexpected.

There was no synagogue.

There was no crowd.

There was no obvious ministry opportunity.

Instead, he found a small group of women praying by a river.

One of those women was Lydia.

At first glance, it might seem like a small moment. But Lydia was anything but ordinary. She was a successful business leader whose influence stretched across regions. She traded in purple cloth, one of the most valuable luxury goods in the Roman world. Her clients likely included political leaders, wealthy merchants, and influential people throughout the empire.

Yet despite her success, God had already been preparing her heart.

That's one of my favorite truths from this story: God is already at work before you arrive.

Before Paul ever spoke to Lydia, God was moving in her life.

Before the conversation started, the Spirit was already preparing the soil.

The same is true today.

Every spiritual conversation you have is a conversation where God has already been working behind the scenes. We are rarely introducing someone to God's activity. More often, we're joining what God has already started.

Acts 16 also reminds us that God cares about every person.

The chapter begins with Lydia, a successful businesswoman.

Later, the gospel reaches a Roman jailer and his family.

Then it reaches a servant girl trapped in spiritual bondage.

The gospel moved from the social elite to the working class to the marginalized. No social system, status level, or life circumstance can prevent the grace of God from reaching a human heart.

Jesus is still drawing people from every background to Himself.

And He often does it through ordinary believers who remain open to the leading of the Spirit.

That's why one word keeps coming back to me from this passage: Stay open.

Stay open to God's direction.

Stay open to God's interruptions.

Stay open to conversations.

Stay open to opportunities.

Stay open to what the Spirit might want to do next.

The text says God opened Lydia's heart. Then Lydia opened her home. Eventually, she opened her hand and became one of the great supporters of gospel ministry in the early church.

An open heart led to an open home and an open hand.

That's still how God works today.

As a church, that's the kind of people we want to be. People with open hearts through prayer. Open homes through hospitality and neighborhood gatherings. Open hands through generosity and mission.

Because when we stay open to the Holy Spirit, we position ourselves to catch the wind of God.

And when we catch the wind of the Spirit, there's no telling where He might take us.