Do you remember this song from Seals and Croft?
“See the curtains hanging in the window, in the evening on a Friday night; A little light shining through the window, lets me know everything is alright… Summer breeze, makes me feel fine, blowing through the jasmine in my mind; Summer breeze, makes me feel fine, blowing through the jasmine in my mind…
See the paper laying in the sidewalk, a little music from the house next door; So I walked on up to the doorstep, through the screen and across the floor…
Summer breeze, makes me feel fine, blowing through the jasmine in my mind; Summer breeze, makes me feel fine, blowing through the jasmine in my mind…
Sweet days of summer, the jasmine’s in bloom; July is dressed up and playing her tune; And I come home from a hard day’s work; And you’re waiting there, not a care in the world; See the smile waiting in the kitchen, food cooking and the plates for two; Feel the arms that reach out to hold me, in the evening when the day is through…
Summer breeze, makes me feel fine, blowing through the jasmine in my mind; Summer breeze, makes me feel fine, blowing through the jasmine in my mind…”
In John 3:8, Jesus says, “The wind blows where it wants to, and you hear its sound, but you don’t know where it comes from or where it’s going. That’s how it is with everyone who has been born from the Spirit.” Nicodemus had objected to Jesus’ teaching because he did not understand. Jesus shows him that he ought not to reject it on that account, for he constantly had a problem believing. Jesus’ words might appear incomprehensible, but His teaching was to be understood by its effects. As in this case of the wind, the effects were seen, the sound was heard, important changes were produced by it, trees and clouds were moved, yet the wind is not seen, nor do we know where it comes, nor by what laws it is governed. So it is with the operations of the Holy Spirit in the life of a person.
When the Holy Spirit comes, we see the changes produced. Men who are sinful become holy; the thoughtless become serious; the licentious become pure; the vicious, moral; the moral, religious; the prayerless, prayerful; the rebellious and obstinate, meek, mild, and gentle. When we see such changes, we ought no more to doubt that they are produced by God ‐ by the mighty Agent, than when we see the trees moved, or the waters of the ocean piled upon heaps, or feel the cooling effects of a summer’s breeze. In those cases we attribute it to the “wind,” even though we do not see it, and we do not understand how it operates.
Here are four things we learn from this passage:
1. That the proper evidence of conversion is the effect of change on the life.
2. That we must not search for the cause or manner of the change on the life.
3. That God has power over the most hardened sinner to change him, as He has power over the loftiest oak, to bring it down by a sweeping blast.
4. That there is a great variety of the modes of the operation of the Holy Spirit. As the “wind” sometimes sweeps with a tempest, and knocks everyone down all before it, and sometimes blows upon us in a mild evening zephyr, so it is with the operations of the Holy Spirit.
The sinner sometimes trembles and is prostrate before the truth, and sometimes is sweetly and gently drawn to the cross of Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit’s invisible operations gives visible evidence of His power. The Holy Spirit works His own way beyond our comprehension just like we do not know the law of the wind.
So, as our summer draws nearer and covers us with its warmth, remember as you feel the summer breeze upon your face, that God, by the invisible power of His Holy Spirit has moved you and changed you, and is in the process of changing you, from glory to glory into the blessed, holy image of His Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen.
Have a blessed summer!
In The Hands of the Refiner 
