And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. … And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost Acts 2

If you look, the blessing of wind is scattered throughout the scriptures. However, wind is also used to identify cursings and the influence of Satan. I see the wind as a fascinating metaphor used by God to represent covenants.

I suppose that the wind was the source of cooling, movement, power, and destruction most often experienced by the ancients. They didn’t have jet engines, air conditioning, guns, or bombs that responded to their commands. They depended on and succumbed to the wind and gave it metaphorical powers.

Maybe, that is why Mark 4:39 is such an important verse in the Gospels. It showed that Jesus was a God as he could ‘rebuked the wind’ instead of succumbing to it. It connected Jesus to the God of Noah in Genesis 8:1 that ‘made a wind to pass over the earth’ to support Noah.

Nephi’s and Jared’s experience in the Book of Mormon paralleled Noah’s. We see in these experiences that God’s wind moves us to Zion or the promised land and that without His wind, we cannot arrive. Just as He ‘breathed into [Adam’s] nostrils the breath of life’ (Genesis 2:7) and filled the Saints of Pentecost with ‘a rushing mighty wind’ (Acts 2:2), Zion cannot be established without God’s wind.

But what is the wind of God?

Is it His spirit or power? I think those things are the result of His wind. I wonder if the reference to ‘wind of doctrine’ in Ephesians 4:14 provides the answer. The wind of God is the doctrine of God. From 3 Nephi 11:32–35, 39 we see that the doctrine of God is faith in Christ through covenants. It connects the wind in the story of Nephi, Ether, and Noah to the covenants they hold with God.

I think it is fascinating to think about covenants like the wind. They work, have existed eternally, can give us power and destroy us, come from God and can be mimicked by Satan to our detriment. Those covenants are not controlled by us like air conditioning or an engine but are negotiated. Like a sail in the wind, we must adjust to the covenant direction of God. Like the wind, covenants are relational and dependent on the situational moment. Both follow laws but adapt to the current relational environment’s rules and move through time to affect others along the way.

Read the following list of wind’s features and see if they don’t equally describe covenants’ doctrine.

• No clear beginning or end.
• Has a location but no specific position.
• Defined by its directional impact instead of its locational impact.
• Can impact a broad set of people without diminished effect in affecting the next group of people on its path.
• Is controllable by our relation to it instead of our ability to create it or terminate it.
• Can provide little benefit or great benefit depending on how we interact with it.
• Can’t be stored and saved for later. Only used at the moment.
• Man can hide from it but not remove it from being.

If we look back at the scriptural history, I think we will see the covenants of God with His patriarchs often signaled with wind.

Dispensation Head	Wind
Adam	Breath into his nostrils (Genesis 2:7) and Caught away by the spirit into the water (Moses 6:64)
Enoch	The powers of heaven move Enoch’s people into Zion (Moses 7:27 together with Hugh Nibley’s translation)
Noah	God’s wind with the ark (Genesis 8:1)
Abraham	God references the wind (Abraham 2:7)
Moses	Parting the dead sea with wind (Exodus 14:21)
Jesus Christ & Peter	Jesus rebukes wind and the Saints at Pentecost (Mark 4:39 and Acts 2:2)
Joseph Smith	Kirtland temple dedication (D&C 109:37 and Goerge A. Smith’s journal)

While Abraham’s covenantal connection to the wind in scripture is less explicit, The Abraham, Pt. 2 show from The Bible Collection Volume I provides a beautiful vision of Abraham’s covenant that day. Interestingly, there is a powerful story about the filming of Abraham, Pt. 2 and the wind. I suppose we could call it the Moriah wind.

Being God’s wind

In 1993, John H. Groberg talked about the Lord’s Wind and provided a great context to help us understand the covenants and faith that come from His children reaching to Him for a covenant. His story is about a man that rowed a boat for him, but could you imagine him describing Abraham’s, Isaac’s, or Jacob’s covenants with God that bless us to this day.

In the annals of history, few will be aware of this small incident. Hardly anyone will know about this insignificant island, the family who waited, or the obscure, old man who never once complained of fatigue, aching arms, painful back, or a hurting body. He never talked about thirst, the scorching sun, or the heat of the day as he relentlessly rowed uncomplainingly hour after hour. He referred only to the privilege of being God’s agent in bringing a missionary to teach the truth to those who desired to hear. But God knows! He gave him the strength to be His wind that day, and He will give us the strength to be His wind when necessary.

Like the wind, God’s covenants are not just two-way contracts. They are multi-directional and multi-temporal.

VaShawn Mitchell’s Wind of God provides a great way to conclude this post. The wind of God is blowing our way.

The wind of God is blowing my way
I don’t know where it’s coming from
But it’s headed in my direction
There’s something about the wind of God
That changes everything

And it’s blowing my way
Can you feel the wind blowing

I know where it is coming from
It is coming in my direction
There is something about the wind of God that changes everything

Wind references in scripture

God’s spirit

• Genesis 2:7: And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
• Acts 2:2: And when the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. … And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost
• John 3:8: The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.

God’s wrath

• Jeremiah 51:1: Thus saith the Lord; Behold, I will raise up against Babylon, and against them that dwell in the midst of them that rise up against me, a destroying wind;

God’s guidance or navigation

• 1 Nephi 18:8: And it came to pass after we had all gone down into the ship, and had taken with us our provisions and things which had been commanded us, we did put forth into the sea and were driven forth before the wind towards the promised land.
• Ether 2:24 For behold, ye shall be as a whale in the midst of the sea; for the mountain waves shall dash upon you. Nevertheless, I will bring you up again out of the depths of the sea; for the winds have gone forth out of my mouth, and also the rains and the floods have I sent forth.
• Ether 6:5,8: And it came to pass that the Lord God caused that there should be a furious wind blow upon the face of the waters, towards the promised land; and thus they were tossed upon the waves of the sea before the wind. … And it came to pass that the wind did never cease to blow towards the promised land while they were upon the waters; and thus they were driven forth before the wind.
• Genesis 8:1: And God remembered Noah, and every living thing, and all the cattle that was with him in the ark: and God made a wind to pass over the earth, and the waters assuaged;

Satan’s wind

• Helaman 5:12: And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the rock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty storm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall.
• Alma 37:15: And now behold, I tell you by the spirit of prophecy, that if ye transgress the commandments of God, behold, these things which are sacred shall be taken away from you by the power of God, and ye shall be delivered up unto Satan, that he may sift you as chaff before the wind.
• Alma 26:6: Yea, they shall not be beaten down by the storm at the last day; yea, neither shall they be harrowed up by the whirlwinds; but when the storm cometh they shall be gathered together in their place, that the storm cannot penetrate to them; yea, neither shall they be driven with fierce winds whithersoever the enemy listeth to carry them.
• James 3:4: Behold also the ships, which though they be so great, and are driven of fierce winds, yet are they turned about with a very small helm, whithersoever the governor listeth.
• James 1:6: But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering. For he that wavereth is like a wave of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.
• Ephesians 4:14: That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;
• Mark 4:39: And [Jesus] arose, and rebuked the wind, and said unto the sea, Peace, be still. And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm

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