My work space is a mess. There is fabric everywhere, poles, half completed worship flags, scraps, and threads…everywhere. there are strands of thread. I don’t even know how thread strands end up around the house?! My poor pooch, more than once we’ve had to deal with a thread strand that ended up going through her. TMI? Yeah. Well. You’re not the one who had to deal with it. (*eyeroll)
Hovering Over the Chaos
It looks like chaos and it’s hard to believe anything beautiful can ever be created amidst the mess. But, it does – week after week, year after year – beautiful worship flags are produced here.
Earlier this week, I received an email from a Fire Catcher who expressed some concern about the spiritual chaos happening in her country. She questioned whether God was involved in it, or not. It was such a real, and honest question, and my heart had compassion for her.
The deepest questions of my heart always have me running to the Scriptures to read what the Lord has already said, and I am reminded of Genesis 1:2, “Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.” With a little bit of understanding of Biblical Hebrew or Greek, we know the concept of ‘hovering over the waters’ means to hover, cover or shake the chaos (waters = teman = chaotic spirit). Hmmm, interesting.
According to Mark 1:10, Jesus’ baptism broke also opened the chaos.
“Just as Jesus was coming up out of the water, he saw heaven being torn open and the Spirit descending on him like a dove.”
The word, ‘torn’ is the Greek word, schizo (from where we get the word schizophrenic). You could say Holy Spirit hovered over the chaos and rested on Jesus. Hmmm, interesting.
The Scriptures are full of stories, about real people, who lived real lives. They lived in the chaos and even when Holy Spirit hovered, it probably felt more like ‘shaking’, than covering. We see moves of God in hindsight and it looks really neat and tidy but the reality is, when the Holy Spirit hovers over the chaos, it becomes really messy.
In Noah’s time, chaos reigned. When God showed up and hovered over the land, he showed up in a flood to cleanse the land.
When the Israelites were slaves in Egypt, the Lord hovered over the chaos and sent a deliverer, Moses, to free the people. Remember what happened at the time of his birth? Infanticide. All the Hebrew babies were being murdered.
Around the time of Jesus’ birth, Hebrews were oppressed from Rome, and even more so from their own religious leaders. Jesus was born, in what was most certainly messy chaos, and the Spirit of the Lord hovered over Jerusalem and all the baby boys were killed (infanticide, again). There was destruction upon destruction until 70 AD.
In the midst of every move of God, what we see with our 5 physical senses is very seldom what is actually happening. Instead, we need to have our 5 spiritual senses open, and an eternal perspective to accurately assess when the Holy Spirit is hovering.
From the beginning of time, until the New Covenant what God is doing is neither simple and easy, nor neat and tidy. Think about it. Have you ever seen a non-messy birth? No, it’s bloody, and poopy, and sometimes it takes someone with true discernment to understand what is, and what isn’t.
I had complications throughout my pregnancy. I delivered my son at a teaching hospital, which basically means there are a lot of people in the delivery room. The medical intern maneuvered my son through the messy process of birth, and before he could ask my husband, “Do you want to cut the cord,” the obstetrician quickly took over by saying very curtly, “There’s no time for that.” All of a sudden there was a flurry of activity because my son was in distress.
Your Turn
What I’m trying to communicate is that new life is messy and we can’t always tell what is supposed to be there. What can look chaotic and messy is actually the Spirit of the Lord hovering and making something beautiful out of it.
Dear one, the Father has compassion for you when you are confused and are genuinely looking for answers. He doesn’t mind questions or your anger when everything looks upside down. Paradigm shifts are difficult. It’s okay to not understand everything that is happening.
What are your stories? Is the Holy Spirit hovering over your life, does it feels like chaos?
The Lord may just be bringing everything into order.
P.S, did you like what you read, and want to read more? Check out the most popular post I’ve written for Fan the Flame so far. Okay, so it’s the only other post so far, but it’s still worth a read. In it, I have a prophetic word for you, which I know you’ll want to check out.
