The Holy Spirit in the Creation

Scripture Reading: Genesis 1:1,2

 1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. ² The earth was unformed and void, darkness was on the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God hovered over the surface of the water. ³ Then God said, *“Let there be light”; and there was light. ⁴ God saw that the light was good, and God divided the light from the darkness. ⁵ God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. So there was evening, and there was morning, one day.

Key Verse: . . . and the Spirit of God hovered over the waters (Genesis 1:2)

Meditation: Throughout the history of the Christian church there has been an unbalanced emphasis on the person and ministry of the Holy Spirit. One extreme neglects or ignores the person of the Spirit. The other disproportionately magnifies the Spirit and thereby eclipses the other persons of the Trinity. The common expression, “This is the dispensation of the Spirit” suggests to the hearer that there is now a  discontinuity of the work of the other two persons of the Trinity.  Nothing could be further from the truth of Scripture.

In the following several devotional readings we will search scriptures to find the balanced emphasis on the Holy Spirit and hope to avoid any extremes. From both the Old and New Testaments the work of the Holy Spirit unfolds, and we will be awed by the wonder of Go plan of redemption.

The Holy Spirit is first mentioned in Genesis I. First, He is referred as the Spirit of God, suggesting He is side-by-side or close together with God the Father. (2)He is also depicted as overseeing the unordered earth, protecting it before God made it habitable for man.(3) He also appears as powerfully ready to implement God’s words, “Let the be These three functions of the Spirit in creation of the natural world suggest His future work of redemption of sinful fallen mankind He is either “hovering over us” or “following after us” as the divine Hound of Heaven.

Thought for the Day: Confident of the Spirit’s presence, we ca obediently go into all the world.

* Interesting that the first thing God created was Light- not the sun and the planets. That was later on day  4 of creation.   A similar passage can be found in the New Testament from the pen of John- Jonh 1:1-5

In the beginning was the Word  and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.² He was with God in the beginning.³ All things came to be through him, and without him nothing made had being.⁴ In him was life, and the life was the light of mankind.⁵ The light shines in the darkness,and the darkness has not suppressed it. - from the Complete Jewish Bible