Wind of the Spirit

John DeVries, founder of Mission India, provides a wonderful analogy of why the church in America is struggling in his book, “Why Pray?”  “The western church (that’s us) may be compared to a little boy trying to fly a kite on a windless day.  He runs furiously up and down the sidewalk, pulling his little kite behind him, and as long as he runs, the kite flies.  The moment the little fellow stops, the kite plunges to the ground.  His problem?  The wind isn’t blowing.  The Western church, with its members burned out from endless programs, seminars, classes, committee meetings, planning sessions, and organizational flow chars, is much like that boy.  We are too often trying to carry the church and its programs by our own efforts.  The wind of the Spirit is not blowing.  What the church desperately needs is a new wind of the Spirit; but when the Spirit comes, we must not stop working or consider our work less important.  The Spirit fills our works and lifts it up, far beyond the world of human expectations and limitations.” 

(“Why Pray?” available from Mission India: books@missionindia.com, 877/644-6342, Mission India, PO Box 141312, Grand Rapids, MI 49504.)