Scripture Reading: Ezek. 1:4; Psa. 75:6-7a; Ezek. 37:9; John 3:8; Acts 2:2, 4a; Exo. 24:16a; 40:34; Deut. 4:24; Heb. 12:29; Ezek. 1:27, 28; 8:2, 4; Rev. 4:3; 22:1
In this message I would like to give a further word concerning the experience of the wind, the cloud, the fire, and the electrum. My burden is to point out that the wind, the cloud, the fire, and the electrum should be a Christian’s spiritual life story. Throughout our whole Christian life, our spiritual experiences should be a continual cycle involving these four matters.
What we spoke in the previous message regarding the wind, the cloud, the fire, and the electrum is absolutely not a theory but something of spiritual experience. If a person has never experienced the wind, the cloud, the fire, and the electrum, that person surely is not a normal Christian. A certain person may have a little doctrinal knowledge of the truth concerning salvation and then be baptized in a formal way without having any experience of the wind, the cloud, the fire, and the electrum. A genuinely saved person is one who has had spiritual transactions with God, one who has experienced the blowing of the wind and the covering of the cloud.
Before you were saved, your life might have seemed peaceful and tranquil, but one day you heard the gospel and experienced the blowing of a mighty wind. As a result, you were awakened and began to wonder about the meaning of human life and, in particular, about the significance of your life. You began to question yourself, saying, “Where did I come from, and where am I going? What is the purpose of my life? What is its meaning? If I continue to live the way I have been living, where will I end up?” The wind kept blowing upon you and within you until you believed into the Lord and received His full salvation.
A spiritual wind not only blew upon us when we were saved but also blows every time we have a spiritual revival. A particular believer may be quite careless regarding his spiritual life and yet be quite content with his spiritual condition. If such a believer is in a good mood, he may read the Bible and pray, but if he is in a bad mood, he may neglect prayer and Bible reading. The situation is very different with a believer who experiences the blowing of a mighty spiritual wind. When the wind blows upon him, he cannot feel satisfied with his spiritual condition. On the contrary, he will become restless and quite concerned about his situation and begin to ask questions concerning the condition of his spiritual life. The principle with the church corporately is the same as it is with a believer personally. The blowing of the wind always makes us feel restless and concerned about our situation and condition. I deeply long that a rushing, mighty wind would blow upon all the saints in all the churches and make them restless and cause them to seek the Lord about their spiritual condition.
The blowing wind brings the covering cloud. We have learned from our spiritual experience that when the Holy Spirit blows upon us and touches us, we sense that God is overshadowing us and exercising His care for us. His presence is like a cloud covering us and surrounding us, and we can sense both His presence and His care. Following this we experience the burning of the consuming fire. This burning makes us realize that we are wrong in many ways and with many persons. Such a burning exposes our condition and causes us to confess our transgressions and deal with ourselves before God. The more the fire burns, the more we confess and the more we are sanctified and purified.
I would ask you to consider the matters of the blowing wind, the covering cloud, and the burning fire in light of your own spiritual experience. Have you not experienced the wind blowing upon you, the cloud covering you, and the fire burning and purifying you? Before you experienced the Spirit’s blowing and burning, you might have felt that others were always at fault and that you were always right. But then through the blowing of the wind, under the covering of the cloud, and by the burning of the fire, you began to see how sinful and corrupt you were. The fire burned you to such an extent that you realized that even your love was selfish and fleshly.
This fire consumes not only our pride but also our humility, not only our wickedness but also our kindness, not only our hatred but also our love. When we are under the blowing of the wind, the covering of the cloud, and the burning of the fire, we will not feel that we are all right. On the contrary, our “I” will fall apart and be dissolved. Eventually, this fire will burn away everything other than God. Only God can pass through this burning.
We thank the Lord that in the fire there is the glowing electrum. I would remind you that the electrum, an alloy of gold and silver, signifies the redeeming God. After we have been burned by God as the consuming fire, we sense that we are filled with God’s nature and glory. This means that once we have experienced the wind, the cloud, and the fire, the only thing that remains is the glowing electrum, the redeeming God. The wind and the cloud bring forth the fire, and the fire manifests the shining electrum. The issue of the spiritual transactions involving the blowing wind, the covering cloud, and the purifying fire is always the radiant expression of the redeeming God.
At this juncture I would like to give a brief testimony of my experience when I was in my twenties. Having been attracted by the Lord, almost every morning I went to a mountain near my home to pray. As I consider my experience in light of Ezekiel 1:4, I can testify that I surely experienced the wind, the cloud, the fire, and the electrum. Shortly after I reached the top of the mountain, I sensed the moving of the Holy Spirit, the blowing of the wind. Often as I was singing, my tears flowed freely. At those times I sensed also that I was under the overshadowing of the great cloud of the Lord’s presence. At the same time, I had a strong realization that I was sinful and corrupt, and I confessed my sins to the Lord. After praying in this way and after reading the Bible, I was filled with something sweet and glorious — the redeeming God as the glowing electrum. This experience was repeated morning after morning for quite a period of time.
The spiritual history of every Christian should involve the wind, the cloud, the fire, and the electrum. When we were saved, we experienced the Lord in these four ways, and we should continue to experience Him in this way. In fact, every time we are graced by the Lord, we have spiritual transactions with Him involving the wind, the cloud, the fire, and the electrum. When you wake up in the morning, you may sense that the wind of the Spirit is blowing upon you and that a cloud is overshadowing you. Then as you spend some time to pray, you may sense that a fire is burning within you to consume your corruption, worldliness, and many other negative things. Eventually, you may sense that within you there is something bright, beautiful, and dignified — the glowing electrum. As a result of this experience, you may live the whole day in the enjoyment of the glowing electrum. However, as you live and walk in this corrupted world, you cannot avoid being defiled and contaminated, so at the end of the day or the next morning you may have a further experience of the wind, the cloud, the fire, and the electrum. Once again the wind blows, the cloud broods, and the fire burns. You confess your sins and deal with your filthiness, and following this you once again enjoy the shining of the electrum within you.
This kind of experience is inexhaustible and unending. Day after day, week after week, month after month, and year after year, we need to experience the wind, the cloud, the fire, and the electrum. Every time the wind blows, the cloud covers, and the fire burns, we will be enlightened to see that we need to deal with matters about which we had no awareness before. As these negative things are burned away, we experience a further purification and have a deeper enjoyment of the glowing electrum.
Some believers have been saved for a long time, but their spiritual condition remains the same. In their Christian life there is nearly no experience of the wind, the cloud, the fire, and the electrum. The wind does not blow, the cloud does not cover, the fire does not burn, and thus there is no manifestation of the electrum. Such a situation is altogether abnormal. If a believer wants to be graced by the Lord, he must experience the spiritual wind and the spiritual cloud — the more, the better. Sometimes we need to experience the blowing of a mighty wind, a wind that causes us to have a great turn. Whenever we make such a turn, we receive much grace from the Lord.
I wish to emphasize the fact that being graced by the Lord is a matter of the wind, the cloud, the fire, and the electrum. The Holy Spirit blows upon us like a wind from God. This is the beginning of our being graced. Then as we are under the brooding, covering cloud of the Lord’s presence, we spontaneously realize how sinful and impure we are. We may have an experience which, in principle, is like that of the prophet Isaiah. When he saw a vision of the Lord in His glory, he cried out and said, “Woe is me! for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips: for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts” (Isa. 6:5). After he confessed his sinfulness, he was cleansed. Concerning this Isaiah said, “Then flew one of the seraphim unto me, having a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with the tongs from off the altar: and he laid it upon my mouth, and said, Lo, this hath touched thy lips; and thine iniquity is taken away, and thy sin purged” (vv. 6-7). Whenever the wind blows, the cloud covers, and the fire burns, we will sense our sinfulness and realize that we need all the negative things within us to be burned away. Everything that does not match God’s holy and glorious nature will be consumed. Everything that is not of God — everything related to sin, the world, the flesh, and Satan — must be burned away. The only thing that can pass through the consuming fire is the redeeming God as the glowing electrum.
The more you pursue the Lord, the more you will realize that the holy fire burns not only your weak points but also your strong points, including your natural goodness, your natural virtues, and everything in you that you and others admire, appreciate, and hold in high regard. Like Augustine, you may eventually feel that even your confession and tears of repentance need the Lord’s cleansing.
The issue of the blowing of the wind, the covering of the cloud, and the burning of the fire is the radiant manifestation of the electrum. As we experience the burning of the consuming fire, God Himself is manifested in us. The more we pass through God’s wind, cloud, and fire, the more the Lord is manifested in us in a dignified and glorious way. When He is manifested in such a way, we sense that He alone is precious, lovely, bright, majestic, and glorious. Like the disciples on the Mount of Transfiguration, we see “no one except Jesus Himself alone” (Matt. 17:8). The only one in view, the only one in the scene, is the lovely, precious, glorious Lord Jesus. Then we can do nothing other than bow before Him, worship Him, exalt Him, crown Him, and pour out everything to Him. In this way we gain the Lord, and He gains us.
May we all be deeply impressed with the picture in Ezekiel 1:4, and may our Christian life be a continual and inexhaustible experience of the wind, the cloud, the fire, and the electrum.
