The Bible is a psychological revelation, not a historical account. Every event occurs within the mind, describing the movement and activity of awareness itself. When the Scriptures speak of wind, flame, breath, or fire, they are using universal pictorial symbolism, to describe how consciousness operates—how the unseen moves, stirs, and becomes visible through mental activity.
Wind as the Motion of Mind
Throughout Scripture, wind represents the shifting and circulation of thought within consciousness. It is the unseen current that moves between states of awareness, carrying ideas, impressions, and assumptions.
In Genesis, “the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.” The term translated as Spirit is ruach, meaning breath or wind. This movement represents the first stirrings of awareness within undirected mind—it is thought beginning to take shape before form appears.
The “rushing mighty wind” at Pentecost is the same movement on a higher level—the activation of conscious awareness in man. It symbolises the moment the individual becomes aware of the power within—the realisation that imagination is the creative Spirit.
Wind, therefore, represents mobility in consciousness. It shows that the mental world is never static; thought moves continuously, reshaping the inner atmosphere. When one’s internal movement aligns with a chosen assumption, the outer world reorganises accordingly.
Fire as the Illumination of Awareness
Fire symbolises the fixation of attention—the ignition of an idea in consciousness. When a concept becomes alive with feeling, it burns within; this is the creative fire of imagination.
At Pentecost, “tongues like as of fire” appear upon each person. This is the illumination of individual consciousness—the awareness that thought, once felt and accepted, becomes the spoken Word in action. “Tongues of fire” are not literal flames but ideas becoming alive through belief.
The burning bush that is “not consumed” reveals the same principle. The imagination, when focused on, moves with energy, yet the form it animates remains intact. Consciousness never destroys; it transforms through attention.
So, fire symbolises directed awareness—the point at which imagination accepts an idea as true and begins to express it through experience. It is not destructive fire but the light of inner recognition.
The Relationship Between Wind and Fire
Wind and fire are companion symbols: movement and fixation. The wind represents the transition of mental states, while the fire represents the realisation of one. Thought (wind) gathers momentum until it settles into conviction (fire).
Neville Goddard taught that “assumption hardens into fact.” The process described by wind and fire is precisely this: movement of thought becoming the burning certainty of experience. Consciousness moves (wind), focuses (fire), and manifests (form).
The Psychological Structure
All biblical imagery of storms, breath, and flame describes the same internal law: consciousness in motion creates form. The wind corresponds to the mental activity preceding manifestation. The fire corresponds to the fixed assumption that determines it.
Together, they portray the inner mechanics of creation—the way awareness shifts, stabilises, and externalises what it holds as real.
Conclusion: The Bible as a Map of Mental Motion
The wind and the flame are not forces outside man; they are descriptions of the living processes within his own mind. The Bible, read psychologically, reveals that all divine activity occurs in consciousness.
Wind is the fluid movement of thought—the breath of God as mental motion.
Fire is awareness intensified—the mind’s light when it knows itself as cause.
Every miracle, every sign of Spirit, every sound of rushing wind or tongue of fire is the same revelation repeated: all transformation is movement within the mind.