When I read the book of Acts, I discover a group of people who did not slavishly follow a plan or remain in a single direction without frequent course corrections. I read about people who followed the Spirit at all costs. They arose each day and allowed the Spirit to set the course for their lives.

Back in my 20s, I used to crew on a sailboat in the San Francisco Bay. The boat was a flat deck Cal 25 owned by a friend of mine. The boat was equipped with a spinnaker rigging. A spinnaker is a large billowy sail that hangs off the front of a sailboat to catch as much wind as possible. It is a sail hoisted when a vessel runs before the wind. In other words, when you are sailing downwind. It increases the speed of the sailboat. What I always liked about running before the wind was the sense of calm that came with that rigging. The crew could talk in a normal voice and not have to yell like it was when sailing into the wind. Sailing with the wind was different. It was quiet, fast, and powerful. 

Perhaps one of the most important things each of us should do each day is to ask ourselves, “What direction is the wind of the Spirit blowing today?” To the planners and those trapped in slavish human logic following the wind of the Spirit can be considered a form of intellectual compromise or flippancy. The planners want us to stick to the plan at all costs. The logical ones have no place in their thinking for anything as whimsical as following a wind. Throughout the history of the Church, the decision to follow the wind of the Spirit has faithfully led believers to supernatural outcomes not possible when plans and logic demanded an unchallenged allegiance to their direction.

Which way is the wind of the Spirit blowing in your life today? Turn the course of your life to align with the Spirit’s flow and set your spiritual spinnaker to catch the wind. Your choice will accelerate your effort, and you will enter a beautiful place of calm that only comes when the wind of the Spirit is leading the way.