You're listening to a bonus episode of the Daily Article podcast, presented by the Denison

Forum. Empowered, Day 20, The Spirit and Wind. One of the most powerful parables I've heard

is called the Old Men Who Know. A village was established in a beautiful valley where grass and game

were plentiful and water was abundant. The town grew and prospered. Over time, a group

of young pioneers climbed the nearby mountains and brought back an excited report to the village.

On the other side there was even more plentifuliful grass game and water. The people should move there,

as they would thrive even more fully. However, there was in the village a council called

the old men who know. They said there can't be anything like that. We've been here all our lives,

and this is where we'll stay. So they stayed until the

years passed and the town outgrew its resources and the people began to die. In

desperation a few hearty souls followed the young pioneers over the nearby

mountains where they found just what they had been promised, an even broader

valley with even greater resources, so they settled and grew and prospered.

Years later, a new generation of young pioneers climbed the nearby mountains and brought back

a report that the valley beyond was even broader with greater resources for the village, but the

original pioneers had become the old men who know. When we think we know all we need to know

about God's will and ways, we impede His Spirit's work in our lives. He is calling us always

to the next opportunity, the next challenge, the next place of service.

Complacency is the enemy of spiritual power.

Jesus taught Nicodemus, the wind blows where it wishes, and you hear it sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes.

So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.

John 3.8. Spirit, in both Hebrew and Greek, translate the word wind. The metaphor is appropriate

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