What do you think about when you think about the Holy Spirit?
Chances are many of you don’t believe in the Holy Spirit. Not really. Practically, you live your life separate from the Holy Spirit.
This is true for a lot of reasons, but for many of us who are striving to follow Christ, this is how we live. We are trying to be disciples of Jesus without the help of the Spirit of Jesus.
This past week I was running through the parks here where I live. We’ve got this beautiful new park with beautiful soccer fields and more. As I was running the trail around that park, I noticed these signs everywhere.
“GAME FIELDS. NO UNAUTHORIZED PRACTICE OR GAMES.”
I know why they put those signs up, they want to protect their fields from intruders.
I think a lot of us, including myself, grew up in churches that had these signs at the front door. “Church of Christ. No Unauthorized Use of the Holy Spirit.” Maybe not literally, but that was the unspoken rule.
We saw what happened in other churches that “had the Holy Spirit.” And we didn’t believe in any of that. We were trying to protect ourselves from what we didn’t understand.
So, practically, the Holy Spirit wasn’t welcome in our churches and as a result, we grew up with a version of Christianity that largely excluded the work of the Holy Spirit in our lives.
So what do you think about when you think about the Holy Spirit?
I think this is an important question because for many us when we hear that question, the truth is we don’t know what to think. We were raised in a culture that didn’t talk about the Holy Spirit. Or we were raised outside the church and we don’t even know what or who the Holy Spirit is.
If you were raised in church then maybe you’ve heard “Bible Stories” about the Holy Spirit. You know the one about the Holy Spirit appearing like a dove. You might know that the Holy Spirit came like fire. Or like the wind. And you know stories where it seemed like the Holy Spirit did things that were amazing, miraculous, unexplainable, and powerful.
But you’ve never seen anything like that in your personal life or in your experience with church.
The Problem
The problem we face is that we don’t know the Holy Spirit. The good news is that we can know the Holy Spirit.
But we do need to start with this important distinction… The Holy Spirit is not a power to use but a PERSON to know.
And I want to know the Holy Spirit. I want us to come to know the Holy Spirit. To be filled by the Holy Spirit. I want us to be gifted by the Holy Spirit. To know what it is to be loved by the Holy Spirit. And I want my life to be led by the Holy Spirit.
I want us to know Him and experience His activity, His ministry, and His working in our lives.
In the beginning…
It may surprise you to learn this, but the first time we learn about the Spirit of God isn’t in the New Testament. It’s not from the words of Jesus. It isn’t in the activity of the Spirit in the early church. We’re going to find the Spirit in all those places as we continue this series but the first time we learn about the Spirit of God is in the very first book of the Bible, in the very first chapter of the Bible.
“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. The earth was formless and empty, and darkness covered the deep waters. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the surface of the waters.“ – Genesis 1.1-2
You’re only two verses into the story of God when you first encounter the Spirit of God. Before we learn about God the Father or God the Son, we learn about God the Spirit.
In Hebrew, it’s the ru’ach elohim. Ru’ach is the Hebrew word here that is translated as Spirit. It can be translated as spirit, wind or breath. And elohim is the Hebrew word for God.
So when we first encounter God in Scripture, who we encounter is the Spirit God. The God who is Spirit who is hovering over, moving over, the darkness of deep waters.
That word “hovering” in the original Hebrew language means to move or flutter. It’s the image of an eagle hovering over its young (Deut 32.11-12).
It’s the Spirit of God present over the primordial earth that was formless, void, empty and dark. This is the very first image of creating and the very first image of the Spirit of God.
The Spirit of God is present over that which is formless, void, dark, empty and chaotic. There is no order yet to creation. No definition yet to land and sea. There are no species yet to inhabit this creation. There is only this picture of initial chaos, and the Spirit of God is present over the chaos, hovering, fluttering, moving, vigil above it all ready to create.
The Spirit of God in Creation
I think it is of huge significance that the first time we read about the Spirit of God we read about the Spirit of God creating.
And it’s not just me. In fact, if you fast forward through the Hebrew Bible, your Old Testament, you’ll find that this is how the writers of the Hebrew Scriptures thought about the Spirit of God, too.
In Psalm 33.6 (AMP), this is what the Psalmist wrote…
“By the word of the Lord were the heavens made,
And all their host by the breath of His mouth.”
Ok, you may not see it. Did you see the reference to the Spirit? Remember that the word for Spirit in the Hebrew language is the word ru’ach. It can be translated as Spirit, wind or breath. Here in Psalm 33, it’s rendered as “breath.”
So the host of heaven, in other words, all the stars of heaven, were created, were made, by the breath of God, the Spirit of God, the ru’ach of God!
This same idea is found in the book of Job, the oldest book in your Bible.
“His Spirit made the heavens beautiful…” – Job 26:13 (NLT)
You’ll find this kind of language throughout the Hebrew Bible, this understanding that it’s by the Spirit of God that everything that has been created was created!
What is the work of the Holy Spirit in your life?
So, what if the work of the Spirit of God in the beginning is also the work of the Spirit in the present?
What if the work of the Spirit before your life is also the work of the Spirit in your life?
Here’s why I ask that question…
Because I believe this is the question we all want to know the answer to…
Can God fix the brokenness, the chaos, in my life? Is He able to bring light into my personal darkness? Can God bring form and order to my life from the mess I’ve made? Is He able to fill the void in my life? If so, how? How can God do that? How does God work in my life?
Here’s what I believe is true, the same Spirit that hovers over the chaos in the beginning is hovering over the chaos that is in your life.
The same Spirit of God that was present in the darkness of creation is present in the darkness of your life.
The same Spirit that created something out of nothing is at work creating something out of you, in you, for you even when it seems like nothing is happening.
Transformed
This is the work of the Spirit, not just to create, but to re-create! To make and to re-make. Form and to re-form. To make things new and to make things new again!
This is why the apostle Paul once said, “If the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, he who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through his Spirit who dwells in you.” – Romans 8:11
And he also said this, that…
“…we all, with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of glory to another. For this comes from the Lord who is the Spirit.” – 2 Corinthians 3:18 (ESV)
This is what the Spirit of God did in the beginning and this is what the Spirit of God is doing now. The Spirit of God is creating and recreating. Forming and transforming. Making and remaking. Giving new life to us so that we won’t just be alive, but so that we can be alive in Christ!
The God who created you wants to continue His creative work in you by the power of His Spirit.
Open to the Spirit
We are all being shaped or formed by something. The question is, what is shaping or forming you?
What would keep you from opening up your life to being transformed by the power of the Holy Spirit?
Would you be willing to open your life up to the Holy Spirit? Would you be open to praying, Holy Spirit, transform me. Help me. Change me. Make me new.
The God who formed you wants to TRANSFORM you into the image of His Son by His Holy Spirit dwelling in you.
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