Holy Spirit as Wind: Ready for Action

For the next few weeks after Pentecost Sunday, I'll look at some of the ways in which the Holy Spirit is made known to us and what that might mean for us!


Genesis 1:1-2

In the beginning when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep, while a wind from God swept over the face of the waters. ~ NRSV


In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Now the earth was without shape and empty, and darkness was over the surface of the watery deep, but the Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the water. ~ NET Bible

First this: God created the Heavens and Earth - all you see, all you don't see. Earth was a soup of nothingness, a bottomless emptiness, an inky blackness. God's Spirit brooded like a bird above the watery abyss. ~ The Message
In the beginning Elohim created hashomayim (the heavens, Himel) and haaretz (the earth). And the earth was tohu vavohu (without form, and void); and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Ruach Elohim was hovering upon the face of the waters. ~ Orthodox Jewish Bible

The Holy Spirit likes to blow!

The same word for Spirit in Hebrew and Greek (ruach and pneuma) also means "wind" and "breath."

And the very first act of the Spirit - the Breath of God - was to hover over the waters.

You can just see life beginning to form, can't you? I mean, what two things bring to life more than "breath" and "water?"

From the very beginning, the Spirit of God was poised for action, ready to blow.

It's as if movement itself is the very thing God's breath is for.

As if the whole purpose of the Holy Spirit is to move!

To move us. To move creation. To move hearts from anger to love.

To move the course of history.

To move darkness into light.

To move a soup of nothingness into something of substance!



Prayer: Spirit, blow your Holy Wind to move me today toward action in your name. Amen

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