And the Spirit was hovering over the waters… (Gen 1:2b)
I’ve always been intrigued by the Spirit of God hovering over the watery chaos just before God speaks order into the vast and formless deep. On the one hand we have the watery chaos, and on the other hand we have the soveriegn Creator Elohim who is just about to bring everything to order with a speech act. Right in the middle of this cosmic “stand-off” is the Spirit of God, ready for action, ready to respond at the word of Elohim. When God speaks, the Spirit moves.
The imagery of this is not unlike what happens when humans speak: the breath carries the word into real time and space. The very word for “spirit” in Hebrew can also mean “wind” or “breath”. We can imagine God speaking order into the midst of the chaos and the breath of God thrusting the powerful, order-creating, life and light creating word into the darkness.
Isn’t it interesting that even the watery darkness and chaos are obligated to obey His command, but humans, every day, every moment of everyday, rebel against the Word of power? Isn’t it intriguing that humans, being created in God’s image, have been created with a choice, with a will to decide?
The work if God in the life of the believer is not unlike what is happening in the creation account that we have described above. God wishes to speak life and light into the dark and damaged places in our life. When he speaks the Word of life, Jesus himself (the incarnate presence of God), enters into our midst via the Holy Spirit.
The role of the Holy Spirit is to bring the transforming, creative presence of Jesus into darkness. The Holy Spirit is always glorifying and magnifying Jesus as the incarnate word. That incarnate Word brings order and life to our pain, to our darkness, to our wounds.
We cannot overlook the nature of the “Word”. It is not a unintelligible force that enters into our lives and circumstances and magically performs a change function. No, it is an intelligible relationship that is the ultimate catalyst for change. We must listen to the word, engage the word, converse with the word, walk with the word. It is through relationship that life is manifest.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God – John 1:1
