Then the Lord spoke to Job out of the storm. He said:
“Where were you when I laid the earth’s foundation? Tell me, if you understand.
Job 38:4-7
Who marked off its dimensions? Surely you know!
Who stretched a measuring line across it?
On what were its footings set,
or who laid its cornerstone—
while the morning stars sang together
and all the angels shouted for joy?
We are first introduced to the Creator Spirit, ‘the Divine ‘ruach’, acting like a ‘mother bird’ hovering over the waters of Creation. In the Nicene Creed we call him the ‘Lord and giver of life’—He is always delighting to bring about God’s ‘New Creation’.
It is always the Holy Spirit who ‘hovers’ over chaos, disorder, creating life. Instead of staleness, something fresh and glorious. Hope for our despair and fruit for our barrenness.
‘And chiefly Thou O Spirit, that dost prefer
From John Mlton’s great poem ‘Paradise Lost’
Before all Temples th’ upright heart and pure,
Instruct me, for Thou know’st; Thou from the first
Wast present, and with mighty wings outspread
Dove-like satst brooding on the vast Abyss
And mad’st it pregnant:
What in me is dark
Illumine, what is low raise and support;
That to the height of this great Argument
I may assert Eternal Providence,
And justify the ways of God to men.‘
‘And though the last lights off the black West went
From Gerard Manley Hopkins’ ‘The Grandeur of God’
Oh, morning, at the brown brink eastward, springs –
Because the Holy Ghost over the bent
World broods with warm breast and with ah! bright wings.‘
Come Holy Spirit!
We need to let him into the dry and barren places in our lives and in our world. He always delights to be invited and to come and do God’s ‘New Thing’ in and through us. We need not be fearful, for whatever he does, as in the first Creation, we can always say that it is ‘good’
‘God saw all that he had made, and it was very good’. (Genesis 1:31)
The Holy Spirit has been constantly at work since the Creation, inspiring and enabling God’s people, speaking through the prophets (past and present), equipping God’s people (both Jews in the Old Testament days and Christians today).
‘The Spirit of God has swept over the chaos once more to renew the face of the earth, watering every barren place with a rain of charismatic gifts and blessings. The tongues of men declare God’s mighty deeds and proclaim his word in the power of the Spirit, while the Lord works with them and confirms their message by accompanying signs (Mark 16.20).’
Basil the Great
The Glorious Spirit
“The Holy Spirit acts – he searches, knows, speaks, teaches, regenerates, re-creates, helps, guides, comforts, testifies, reveals, convinces, commands, strives, moves, sanctifies, inspires, makes intercession—crying out in us ’Abba Father’, performs miracles, raises the dead…… and so much more.
He is affected as a person by the acts of others. He can be resisted, quenched, vexed, grieved, blasphemed, He is addressed personally in payer.”
A.H.Strong
The Holy Spirit is the very Presence of God within the Christian believer! We can talk to him and he communicates with us if we listen. We can love him and walk in his presence through life. He is described in picture language as a sensitive dove, (if we offend him he goes away), gentle (he works quietly within us and around us), self effacing, always pointing us away to Jesus.
I want more of him in my life.
A Daily Prayer
Creator Spirit -‘hovering’ over me
Come, and welcome !
Blow away the cobwebs of familiarity
and the stale air of predictability
and recreate something new in me.
Bring me fresh air, invigorating,
health giving, God empowering,
Christ exalting.
Begin, again in me, I pray.
Veni Creator Spiritus
Next Page – Living Under and Open Heaven
A Listening Heart 