Genesis 1. 2:
"The Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters."
Isn't that amazing. Right at the very beginning of everything, before the beginning of time itself, God's word tells us the Holy Spirit was there. And right from the start there are things we can learn about who he is and what he does....
Who he is... The identity of the Spirit.
The Hebrew word Spirit is "Ruach". It is the same word that can mean breath or wind. Both breath and wind are "air in motion". The word "ruach" describes energy, power: it may be gentle as your breath, or strong as a hurricane, but it is never standing still. The idea of the Holy Spirit NOT doing anything is foreign to the Bible. He is active; he is powerful.
He is called the Spirit of God. This is the Old Testament's most common way of talking about the Holy Spirit. Remember that the OT had no concept of the "Trinity" as we have: no idea of God as "Three-in-one". All they understood was the "One"... and sometimes, when they were describing a situation where God was at work, they spoke about "The Spirit of God." That is really important too: the Holy Spirit is not just power that comes from God; he is not just from God: he is God. All that God is, the Holy Spirit is. That doesn't mean that the Holy Spirit is just another way of taking about God. He is God. People talk about the Trinity, and sometimes illustrate the Trinity by talking about ice, water and steam as all being the same stuff: water, H2O. That illustration doesn't really help that much: water can become ice; ice can melt into water. But the Father doesn't become the Spirit; the Son doesn't become the Father: they are all God - one God not three - but each is a distinct person. So in Genesis 1. 3 we find that God says "let us..." There is a conversation taking place within the Trinity, the three-in-oneness of God. and the Spirit is part of that conversation because he is perfectly God
And conversation points towards the third thing to note about the Spirit. He's not just something that comes from God. And he's not a force or energy. He has power but he is a person. He is part of that conversation. He has character; he has personality. He feels; he speaks. He is a person. Jesus says, "God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth." (John 4:24) That is true, but the Old Testament wants us to understand that God is personal. And the Holy Spirit, breathed out by the father, the Holy Spirit, God in motion, is personal as well as powerful.
What he does... The Activity of the Spirit.
Genesis 1. 2 tells us the Spirit of God was "Hovering over the face of the deep." The word hovered can mean brooded, or relaxed, or moved...
That means literally, continued brooding over it, as a bird does, when hatching eggs. How did the chaotic shapeless empty universe become one full of order and life? The Holy Spirit. Brown Driver and Briggs say he "ripened" the shapeless universe until it was ready for creation to start. That is one of the things the Holy Spirit does. He hovers like a nesting bird. He relaxes, stretches out and rests over what he creates. The earliest mention of Holy Spirit gifts were in the realm of understanding dreams (Genesis 41. 38) and of making things (Exodus 28. 3; 31. 2)
The Holy Spirit, then, is supernaturally creative.
* In the world, he is hovering, resting over what is good and positively creative, in science, in the arts.* In your life, he is creative. He is hovering. He wants to make something good, orderly, beautiful, from your life. He has some brilliant ideas for you that you can't begin to imagine. He wants to release your creativity. There are abilities he placed in you that he wants to ripen so they can hatch out! He has gifts for you.
* In the Church, he is creative. He is hovering, looking to see the Church and its witness take shape in creative, adventurous ways. He wants to relax over the life of the Church and see the church becoming a purposeful, beautiful, living fruitful universe.
I wonder, what the power of the Spirit wants to create in you, in me, in us?
One last thing about what the Spirit does. After the hovering brooding of the Spirit in verse 2, Genesis tells us in verse 3 that "God said..." The creativity of the Spirit, works along with the creative influence of the word of God. God says... and things happen. "Let there be light." We can barely begin to imagine a universe without light. Imagine being in a place that is completely dark. A moonless night in the middle of a forest, miles away from any town. And when God says, this astounding force that is both energy and matter, that will eventually enable life to exist on the planet, just begins to exist. How mind-blowing is that? And the idea of that energy had been there in the mind of God for all eternity. It took only an utterance: two Hebrew words "Yehi or" or "Be light!" And that idea becomes a physical reality. It's the power of the word of God.
And the Spirit works with the word. He doesn't just "brood" on his own. He works along with the Word. He always works with the word. The creative things that the Sprit does, are regulated by the word. They are executed by the word. And the Spirit inspires, breathes and empowers and uses the word of God in Scripture in preaching and in personal ministry.
So the spirit of God is "God in motion." He is powerful, personal, and perfectly God. We welcome him with awe and reverence and love and faith. And the creativity of the spirit is associated with the Word of God. We expect him to do new things, to hatch vibrant God-revealing new creation in our lives - and to do it hand in glove with the Word of God.
No comments:
Post a Comment