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WHEN THE WIND BLOWS "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." (John 3:8) When a man is born of the Spirit, it is because he has repented of his sinful unbelief and has received Christ as his Saviour. Jesus compares this to the blowing wind. He could have compared it to still air only, but that would have been incomplete. Wind is MOVING air that can be detected and measured. Wind is unpredictable, yes ("canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth"), but it is not merely air without detectable movement. You can hear it and feel it, even if you can't discern its direction or speed. To say that repentance is only a change of mind is similar to saying that wind is only air. While technically, in substance, that's true, it is also very misleading, because wind is a certain KIND of air. It is MOVING air. It is air with ACTION. By using the wind similitude, the Lord Jesus gave a perfect illustration of how the Holy Spirit moves in the hearts of men, and that's why repentance all through the Bible is not merely a change of mind, but rather a change of mind with action in the context. Like the wind, Spirit-led repentance always moves. It can move a little or a lot, producing little results or great results, but wind is never inactive air, and repentance is never an inactive change of mind.