Can you see the wind? No. So, how do you know it exists?
You can feel the breeze on your face, but that’s not proof of wind. It’s only evidence of wind. You can see debris swirling in midair as a black tornado funnel approaches. That doesn’t prove the wind either. You can’t see it lift a truck and spin it. You only see the truck tumbling twenty feet above the ground.
“That’s ridiculous,” a skeptic might say. “Everyone knows it’s the wind on your face, and a strong wind can destroy a truck.”
Okay. If the skeptic accepts that evidence of the wind proves wind exists, then the same skeptic must also accept that evidence of God proves He exists.
Of course, the skeptic rarely accepts such evidence.
John 3:8 (NASB) says, “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it but do not know where it comes from and where it is going; so is everyone born of the Spirit.”
That’s a quote from Jesus. His comparison of wind to the Spirit. And He added that we can’t master either one. We can’t harness the wind. We can’t manipulate God.
So, if the skeptic won’t accept God’s existence even when shown the metaphor that Jesus Himself presented to Nicodemus, how can Christians prove God is who He says He is?
We can’t.
We can only provide the evidence.
“What evidence?” you ask.
Here are some examples:
- We can reflect the love of Christ and give God the glory when we succeed in giving ourselves in service to others with compassion, kindness, and joy.
2. We can share with the world what the Cross means for eternity.
3. We can point to the historical record of Jesus’ life, death and resurrection.
4. We can show how and where and when Biblical prophecies have been fulfilled.
5. We can quote the words of Jesus.
One hindrance to our efforts to help others know that God is and Jesus loves us is the wall that separates believers from nonbelievers.
Let’s assume a stone wall separates my property from my neighbor’s. I can stand in the center of my yard and feel the north wind. But if my neighbor to the south is sitting against the wall, it blocks the wind. She doesn’t sense its presence at all. Unless she peers over the wall, sees my hair swirling around my head and feels the wind on her own face, she remains unaware of the wind.
So it is with the Spirit.
Many people are behind a spiritual wall. They refuse to believe God can move on people’s hearts. They can’t feel the wind of the Holy Spirit. The wall blocks all evidence of Him.
Just as my neighbor won’t feel the wind until she chooses to stand in the open or until the wind breaks the wall, so it is with those who don’t believe in God. Until they choose to interact with Christians and listen to the Gospel with an open heart, or until the Holy Spirit breaks down the walls they’ve built to keep Him out, they will not experience the wind of the Spirit.
Once no wall exists and they come to believe in Jesus, then like all Christians before them, the new believers won’t be able to prove God’s existence either.
They know what they know. That’s faith in the evidence of things unseen. But it’s not proof of things unseen.
Who can prove the wind?
No one. The evidence in association with it causes us to believe. Romans 1:19-20 declares that every single human being has the evidence of God built into them. That evidence for the existence of the Holy Spirit is far more powerful than a mere truck tossed in the air by a tornado.
We don’t need to prove the wind. We know it’s there.
We don’t need to prove the existence of God. We know He is with us.
