Kite-Boarding in the Spirit

Suzanne and I are on vacation at the beach this week. Enjoying the surf. Bobbling in the ocean. Late in the afternoons, we see the kite-boarders heading up the shoreline. We never saw it before, but it looks like loads of fun. It is a large sort of kite tethered to a board rider (the board is, we expect, strapped to his feet). The kite catches the wind and pulls the board rider along the surf. It takes a bit of skill, we understand, but the boarders glide along the water, skip across the waves and somersault almost at will. They are propelled at the pleasure of the wind.

What a wonderful thought that is, especially when we consider that both the Hebrew and Greeks words usually translated as “spirit” can also be translated as “wind.”

The Bible talks about being filled with the Spirit — that is, the Holy Spirit — and how that brings forth manifestations of the presence and power of God in our lives.

Though He is fully divine, the Lord Jesus Christ did the things He did because He was anointed with the Holy Spirit and with power. That is because He is also fully human, and He operated on earth as a man fully obedient to the will of God and anointed by the Spirit.

The Spirit of the LORD is upon Me,
Because He has anointed Me
To preach the gospel to the poor;
He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted,
To proclaim liberty to the captives
And recovery sight to the blind,
To set at liberty those who are oppressed;
To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD .

(Luke 4:18-19)

God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, who went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him. (Acts 10:38)

Everything Jesus did, He did in the Spirit. Even when He walked on water, He did it in the power and anointing of the Holy Spirit. Even Peter, for that brief moment that he walked on the water, did it in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Think of it as kite-boarding in the Spirit.

Can you imagine Jesus yelling “Whooo-eee!” as He skipped along the waves, carried along by the wind of the Holy Spirit?