Where is the Holy Spirit at work?

In the Old Testament, the feminine noun ruach(רוּחַ) is variously translated into English as “spirit,” “Spirit,” “wind,” and “breath.” Is ruachthe wind, the breath, or the Spirit of God that hovered over the waters in Genesis? Yes. It is wind, it is breath, it is spirit, and it is Spirit. It blows where it wills. It/she/he is personal.  

The Holy Spirit is not at work in: 

• The spectacular or sensational
• The glitz and glitter
• The popular
• The consensuses of opinions
• That which makes us comfortable
• The status quo
• That which does not challenge us
• Wealth, coercion, or power
• Nationalism, militarism, or civil religion

But in:

• Those creative unobtrusive souls who habitually and slowly breathe deeply and observe the everyday preternaturalness of life. People who know how to breathe – the quiet spirits, are most often the ones inspired with virtue.
• Those who have a hunger to know Jesus. Those longing to go back to the authentic living Jesus, being with him to learn from him how to be like him.
• Those willing to live in community; those committed to community because the Holy Spirit transcends the individual. 
• Those on fire for social justice, who long to set the world to rights on behalf of the marginalized, for it is the elderly, the women and the slaves who are singled out at Pentecost.
• Those who quietly care for “the least of these.”

(Special thanks to John R. (Jack) Levison, W. J. A. Power Professor of Old Testament Interpretation and Biblical Hebrew at SMU School of Theology)