Hearing the Shepherd’s Voice…

I recently had the joyful privilege of traveling with my wonderful husband on two business trips back to back…first stop, Singapore!  Then on to Snells Beach, New Zealand (about 90 minutes north of Auckland).  It was absolutely amazing to be able to travel to these two locations.  And they couldn’t have been more different!  We actually took advantage of being able to check two bags for free ~ one was packed for the 90 degree humid weather of Singapore and the other for the 60 degree rainy weather of NZ!  I was so grateful for the two companies that made the allowance for me to attend these trips with my man!

What I want to focus on in today’s blog is the lesson the Lord taught me in New Zealand.

I don’t know about you, but honestly, the first thing I think about when I envision the land of NZ is…wait for it…The Lord of the Rings & Hobbit movies!  Yes!  I admit that I love these movies!  And Air New Zealand loves these movies too ~ they have a channel within their onboard “movie channel” dedicated to just those six movies ~ awesome!  Of course, the other thing I think of is sheep….lots and lots of sheep!

Staying in Snells Beach was a blessed retreat away from the hustle and bustle of the city.  And honestly…away from the hustle of “regular life.” Rolling green hills, the bay on either side of the little town.  To one side you could see the Mahurangi Harbour and on the other, Kawau Bay.  I felt a little bad that Tony was working more on this part of the trip, but I was delighted with the gift of some time alone to see what the Lord has for me next.

We arrived quite late in the evening, so it was very dark upon our arrival to our little apartment on the campus where the animation studio is where Tony would be working for the next few days.  The next morning, he was off to work after breakfast in our room and I joined him a few hours later for lunch at the studio.  He happened to be walking over to the apartment when I was on my way over to meet him, and I couldn’t help but grin and say, “I’m walking around in New Zealand today!  How cool is that!!”

But soon, I would be driving around the area ~ and on the “wrong side” of the road and the car!  If I may brag…I did quite well!  And it was so much fun!  But I digress to my point….

The sheep!  Seriously ~ they were everywhere!  And I loved it!  So many different breeds and color combinations, but still the same.  Either lounging in the sunny spots in the pasture, or head down munching on the luscious green grass of the farms where they lived.  And I desperately wanted to cuddle one of those little lambs ~ you see it’s Spring time over in NZ (September) so there were little lambs prancing around all over the place!

One of the men that Tony is working with on this project, also runs a small farm filled with cows, a bull, pigs, piglets, and SHEEP!  He indulged my wish and ran after a little lamb so I could hold him.  Oh.My.Word!  The cutest thing ever!  And he was only about 10 days old.  The eyes of his sheep-mama and the eyes of the ram were on me constantly…what was I going to do with their little lamb?  Oh man…I wanted to take that cute black and white lamb home with me!  I know…I know…not practical!  And they grow up!  HA!

The next day, a new friend there, took me to a magical place…Sheep World!  Yes…this is a real place!  I was able to help sheer a sheep and feed a milk bottle to a one month old fluffy white lamb.  This was seriousness cuteness folks!

But the whole time, I could not get out of my mind the fact that Jesus is referred to so many times as the Lamb of God.  And we, as His followers, are often called His sheep. (yes…I took this pic…there’s more!)

In this passage, we read that sheep follow their shepherd because they recognize his voice.  But how do they know which voice to follow?  They are trained and they learn what to listen for.  A tone of voice…a familiar call or command…a unique whistle ~ they know their shepherd’s voice!

We are called to do the same with our relationship with Jesus!

But we have to spend time with the Lord in order to KNOW His voice and to discern His commands and callings.

Do you see what it says here in the last part of Psalms 95 verse 7?  “If only you would listen…”

If only we would take the time to listen to the voice of our Savior.  To spend time deep in His Word so that we recognize His voice.

 We spend so much time on so many other things that we think we fill us up.  Yet, I know that when my focus is on expecting outward things to complete me, I end up feeling totally empty.  Christ is the only One who is able to fill up all the empty spaces and seal up all the cracks in my heart.

There were a few other key moments of those two “sheep days,” that God revealed to me.

As I was holding the little lamb that was almost 2 weeks old, was noticing how the huge horned ram was standing at attention in the field.  He did not allow his gaze to be interrupted.  I felt in that moment that this is how God the Father intently looked upon Jesus the Son, as He entered the world as a defenseless baby ~ as the Lamb of God.  The Father’s eyes are never off His children.

When we let the little lamb go and put him down onto the grass, he bleated his little heart out!  All the other mama sheep out there started bleating back…with the exception of his actual mama.  That was confounding to me!  What was happening here.  Then I looked back at the lamb and he was pacing back and forth, unwilling to step further.  He just stood there and bleated like crazy.  In that moment, I felt God showing me that when I stand in one place and act like a crazy person yelling out to God, without actually focusing on Him peacefully, even if He was calling out to me I wouldn’t be able to truly hear Him.  Once the lamb stopped calling out for his mama, started scampering toward the herd, all the other sheep began to quiet down.  His mama never took her eyes off her baby, and she began to baa for her little lamb. He immediately heard her voice ~ and ran straight to her.

That little lamb took the time to HEAR the voice of his mother so he could easily identify where to run!

The last moment to share was how the sheerer/shepherd (at Sheep World) was telling us how the sheep get from the hidden tops of the hills down to the corral.  With just a few verbal commands, he sends one of his trusty sheep dogs out to round them up.  That dog took off, jumped the corral fence, tore up the hill and began bringing those sheep down the hill in about 2 minutes.  This dog never barked…he only LOOKED at the sheep to get them where he wanted them to go.  And his goal was to bring the sheep as close to the shepherd as possible.

Now, this may be a stretch, but hang in there with me for a minute.

Jesus is referred to as our Shepherd* mulitple times in the Bible. The Holy Spirit is referred to as our Helper**/Comforter*** in God’s Word.

The Holy Spirit doesn’t bark at us ~ He uses the truths of who our Shepherd, Jesus, is and whispers those truths to our hearts.  His goal is to bring us back around as close to Jesus as possible.  Once we are close to our Shepherd, we can be cared for as needed.  We may need to be sheered ~ ridding our self of the excess in our life.  We may need to be fed ~ filling up our soul with the Bread of Life.  We may need to be washed ~ being cleansed from the filth of sin that creeps in.

Take the time my friend to get to know His voice.

Listen and run to Him.

Allow the Holy Spirit to lead you back to Jesus.

Blessings,

René

p.s. ~ Just because I love the joyful freedom of the picture…here’s one more from the trip!

* mentioned 34 times in the ESV: https://www.biblegateway.com/quicksearch/?quicksearch=shepherd+Lord&qs_version=ESV

** John 14:26 (ESV)

*** John 14:26 (ASV)

Name(required)

Email(required)

Website

Comment(required)

Submit

Δ

The Rooms in Our Heart….

The other night I had an incredible vivid dream.  Now, this wasn’t surprising to me, because I’ve always dreamed like I’m in a movie.  Even before meeting my husband (who works in the entertainment industry) I dreamed in color, mostly in sequence, always wearing fabulous outfits, and if the dream didn’t end like I wanted it to…I’d make myself go back and finish it right!

Back to last weeks’ dream…

I was living on a beautiful piece of land, in an incredible two story home, and was surrounded by friends and family.  I determined that we were having some sort of party as there were loads of food & drinks, great decorations, and fabulous music playing.  I decided that our family must have recently moved into this new home and that we were having a “welcome to our new house” party.

Again, this did not surprise me as every time we have moved (14 in all in the past 26 years!) I have always ended up scheduling some kind of party within a month or so of moving in.  It’s something that drives my wonderful husband crazy, but he knows the method to my madness and loves me anyway!  What better way to get everything unpacked, put away, with artwork & photos hung up on the walls?  Have a party!!

So, the dream…..

Well, this home was amazing!  It was everything I’d ever wanted or dreamed of!  The party was in full swing and I was apparently taking guests on a tour through the house.  Each room was decorated perfectly and exactly how I wanted it to be.  Because we wanted to make sure this house was really “party ready” we decided to give ourselves about 6 months to get everything done.  This was finally going to be “the house” that we lived in forever!

After touring our guests through the house, I was leading them back out to the party outside to our park-like backyard.  But someone stopped me and said, “Wait….you didn’t show us what was in some of the rooms upstairs?”  I turned to them and told them I had shown them everything.  I mean, how could I live in a house for 6 months and not already know every inch of the place?

The guests insisted that I’d skipped several rooms, so off we went back upstairs so they could point out what rooms I’d missed.  I thought it was pretty funny and wondered how they could have been mistaken.

However, I’m the one who was mistaken!

The first door we opened was decorated all in shades of white (yes…there are many many shades of white!) and it simply sparkled with loads of silvery decor!  It had a gorgeous king size bed with a ton of pillows and of course was very frilly!  I could hardly believe my eyes as I took it all in.  How could I have missed this room?  I didn’t decorate it ~ how could I have when I didn’t know it had been there.  There was a lovely sitting area off to the left and there were several open windows, with the breeze flowing in and fluttering the curtains.  The incredible crystal chandelier radiated light everywhere and gave the room a lovely feel to it.  All I wanted to do was curl up on that bed and read to my heart’s content!  Just as I was truly absorbing all the beauty contained in this one room, someone else grabbed my hand and said, “This room is great, but I want you to tell me about this room.”, and they led me to another room across the hall.

I stood in front of ornately carved double doors and just started laughing.  I couldn’t help it because I knew I was about to open a door to another room that I had had no clue had been there.  But how?  We had meticulously decorated the whole house and the entire outside area for the past 6 months.  How had we missed entire rooms?

Well, I opened the double doors and discovered an incredible peaceful room.  It was done in various shades of green…not icky green or bright greens…delightful hues that begged you to walk in and make yourself comfortable.  There were deep couches and huge ottomans with trays on them filled with teapots and goodies.  There were mirrors, large windows, gauzy curtains, and the most luxurious cream colored blankets strewn across the  couches & a decadent chaise lounge in one corner.

This was getting wild!  I could hardly take it all in!  I asked my husband if he had surprised me with these rooms and he didn’t seem to be.  He just stood there smiling!  How was this possible?  I had never seen these rooms but I was completely thrilled with them!

Oh, one interesting fact of the dream was that each of the two rooms that I’ve described above, was that when I opened the doors it was as if the decor of the room was a little fuzzy.  It was then I realized that there were enormous sheets covering everything.  You know, like you see in the movies when someone has moved out of a house for a season and they cover everything up so the dust doesn’t settle into the furniture?  It was like that, and as soon as I removed the sheets, these spectacular rooms just lit up!

But there was one last room.   As I put my hand on the door knob, I just knew that this room was going to be my office.  A place where I could go to escape the noise of life and write, read, and study.  I just knew that it was going to be even better than the other two rooms.  In my excitement and anticipation, I threw the door wide open and was absolutely flabbergasted at what I saw.

It. Was. Horrible!

It was the “catch all” room of the house.  Old ratty furniture, empty bookcases, terribly dated carpet, and wallpaper that was peeling off.  The lighting was dim and the painted ceiling was dingy.  There were bags full of stuff to give away and old clothes hanging in the closet…that had lost its door at some point.  Oh, and don’t even get me started on the heavy mismatched curtains that were covering up all the windows!  I was so sad and disappointed.  I figured that this last “surprise” room would be the best one…one made just for me!  I remember feeling heartbroken in my dream.  Then I began to feel upset and confused.  Why would this room be so awful and unattended to.

UGH!  I even tried going back through the rooms (in my dream) to see if I found something different, and each time it was the same.  I awoke in the morning feeling a bit discontented.

A few hours later, I texted my daughter who lives in another state, and asked her what she thought of this dream.  She has studied biblical dream interpretation a bit and gave me some basics to start with.  I’ve also looked up a few online references for biblical interpretation, and it’s all pretty revealing!  So often God uses dreams to show us who He is or what He is calling us to do.

When you dream of ‘rooms’ this is God’s way of telling you that there are parts of your heart that are possibly not fully open to Him; or maybe areas of your life that God is wanting you to enter into but haven’t opened the door.  Rooms can also symbolize ~ intimacy; rest; privacy; peace; or covenant.  Oh, and a house represents a person, family; ministry; or church…and a two story house reveals a double anointing!  Windows was another big part of each of the rooms in my dream as well and they allude to ~ vision; letting light in, spiritual sight, and opportunity.

As for the colors, here are what the colors (in the beautiful rooms) mean: White ~ righteousness, holiness; Silver ~ redemption, grace ; and Green ~ growth, prosperity, conscious.

In the unfinished room, since it felt very negative in there when I entered, these colors are represented this way: Brown ~ compromise, humanism; Yellows ~ fear, cowards, intellectual pride; and Gray ~ weakness.

So as I have laid all this out and studied it this past week, I realize with great humility what God is trying to teach me.  Oh, and I never actually saw my husband in my dream or even the faces of the guests at the party.  But I was comfortable with all of them.  Sometimes in your dream a reference to “husband” can be a representation of God; as He is the ultimate head of household in our life.

Through this incredible adventure of a dream, I believe that God was showing me that what I think has been veiled is really ready and waiting for me to discover and it is perfect!  It is perfect because HE is the one who put it all together. I won’t have to do a thing except enjoy the blessings that He has for me.  The Lord has a life ahead of me full of growth, grace and a desire to live my life rightly before Him.  As exciting as those two rooms were for me to explore, “my room” that I opened had to be explored as well.

Through that ugly room, I believe God is showing me that there are parts of my life that are full of compromise, weakness, and fear.  And I know exactly what He’s talking about.  I know exactly what areas He is showing me.  And although I was feeling judged and discouraged, the Lord reminded me that my dream really did have a happy ending.  The last time I had “gone back” to that room in my dream, I remember turning and asking the guests who had been standing in the hallway (probably afraid to enter!) to come in and help me.  As these helpers came in, I remember feeling more encouraged and determined to make this room as special and inviting as the other rooms were.  With their help, I began to see the possibilities of what this room could look and feel like.  I began to get a picture of what could be accomplished in this room ~ but I couldn’t do it on my own.  It was a difficult yet soothing realization.

I believe that God has a double blessing of some kind for me and that He wants to shower me in the light of His love.  He wants me to turn to my ‘helpers’, which I believe represents the Holy Spirit, to show me what path to take to “get my room in order.”  God is revealing so much to me even now as I write this and it is almost too much for my heart to take!

Through all that I’ve learned, I hope that you can take something away today to apply to your own life.

Be encouraged to look at the rooms of your heart and see what God wants you to do with them.  Are there rooms that He has readied for you that you just haven’t discovered yet?  Are there rooms that you blindly walked past without noticing there was a door to be opened?  Is there a room that is in desperate need of your attention ~ one that you have kept locked up for so long you don’t know where to start with the clean up?  And the beauty of it all, we don’t have to clean up alone.

We are called into fellowship with each other, and with the Lord God!

Hebrews 10:19-25 says, “Therefore, brothers, since we have boldness to enter the sanctuary through the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way He has opened for us through the curtain (that is, His flesh), and since we have a great high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a true heart in full assurance of faith, our hearts sprinkled clean from an evil conscience and our bodies washed in pure water. Let us hold on to the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. And let us be concerned about one another in order to promote love and good works, not staying away from our worship meetings, as some habitually do, but encouraging each other, and all the more as you see the day drawing near.”

My prayer for you today ~ build your house on the foundation of God’s Truth; keep all the doors open to His love, direction, and correction; and open the windows to feel the warmth of His grace flow over your life!

Blessings,

René

Name(required)

Email(required)

Website

Comment(required)

Submit

Δ

 

Bootstraps break…

We’ve all probably heard the familiar phrase, “Just pull yourself up by your bootstraps.” ~ or at least something like it.  Maybe you’ve said it to you someone, or you’ve had it said back to you.  It’s phrase that is supposed to muster up courage and admiration, whether in yourself or in someone else.  But does it really?

Have you ever put on cowboy boots?  They have those looped straps on the outside of each boot, so they do serve a purpose.  When those cowboys are out on the range all by themselves, they needed something to help them get their boots on…and the cows couldn’t help out!  And really….could you see a couple of cowboys helping each other put on their boots.  Hahaha!!  Those bootstraps fulfilled a purpose; and fairly quickly became a “self help” slogan.  No where in the Bible does God teach us to do anything on our own.  Even the Lord Jesus taught us that it is important to partner with each other, and more importantly, partner with the God of the Universe!

In John 7:16-18, Jesus shares these wise words, “So Jesus answered them, “My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me. If anyone’s will is to do God’s will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority. The one who speaks on his own authority seeks his own glory; but the one who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and in him there is no falsehood.”

Again, although this phrase is meant to be a compliment/encouragement, there are some hidden dangers you’ll encounter when you try and pull yourself up by those hypothetical bootstraps.

One of the first dangers that come to mind is pride.  The infamous verse in Proverbs (16:18) is known by most people, Christian or not ~ “pride goeth before the fall.”  When we have an attitude of pride, we cannot always see clearly the circumstances that require us to pull up said bootstraps.  We’re so busy looking down, struggling to get our feet to go where we want to go, that we will miss the path that God has for us.

Look at Jesus’ words in John 5:30-31, “I can do nothing on my own. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is just, because I seek not my own will but the will of him who sent me. If I alone bear witness about myself, my testimony is not true.” He was Jesus!  The Son of God!  The Messiah!  The Savior of the world!  And even He knew that He could not do anything on His own…He had to commit His ways to the Father God.

The only thing that you could even remotely say that Jesus did on his own, was His death on the cross.  However, in this action, He was given full authority and ownership to lay down His life for our sins.  Jesus, the Son of God, knew what the outcome would be and He went willingly; Jesus, the Son of Man, knew what the outcome would be but needed a charge from His heavenly Father to complete the task.

See here in John 10:17-18 the simple beauty of obedience alongside serving the Father, “For this reason the Father loves me, because I lay down my life that I may take it up again. No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down, and I have authority to take it up again. This charge I have received from my Father.”

When we believe the lies of the world, tv media, social media, and let’s face it…our own thoughts sometimes…and strike out purely on our own to accomplish something, we are not walking in the truth of God’s word.

But what if that thing, that task, whatever it is that we “pulled up our bootstraps on our own” goes amazing well?!  What then?!  My friends, these are the moments that satan uses to blind us to our need for fellowship and obedience to the Father.  We start believing the lie that we don’t need God and maybe, we don’t need anyone else.  This kind of thinking is cute when it’s a toddler saying, “I do it myself.”, but it is not cute the older we get.  As we mature in our relationship with the Lord, we are learning to lean on Him and others more and more!

There is absolutely nothing wrong with asking for help!

Yep…you heard me right!  Sure, there are plenty of things we can do on our own ~ seeing to our basic needs, driving a car, paying bills, laundry, cooking, etc.  But even in those things, there will come a time in our life where we will need help with those basic tasks as well.

To give you some encouragement to ask for help (from others and from the Lord!) let the kindness of these verses wash over your tired soul ~ from John 15:12-14, “This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command you.”

The more you continue to pull up on those bootstraps of yours, with your own strength and determination, the more you will wear them out ~ and they will break.  Trust me ~ you don’t want to be out all alone on the prairie of life somewhere with broken bootstraps.  Oh how much the Lord will welcome you into His arms, when you come to Him asking for direction in your life…and He will fix those broken bootstraps of yours as well!

Psalm 37:23-24, “A man’s steps are established by the Lord,
and He takes pleasure in his way.  Though he falls, he will not be overwhelmed, because the Lord holds his hand.”

Blessings,

René

Name(required)

Email(required)

Website

Comment(required)

Submit

Δ

 

Captive OR Captivated?

Are you living a life that is held captive by something or are you living a life that is captivated by Someone?

What’s the difference you say?

BIG difference!

To be captive by someone means to be “a prisoner; ;slave; made or held prisoner, especially in war.”  To be captivated by someone is the opposite, “to attract and hold the attention or interest of, as by beauty or excellence“ ~ one is negative and one is positive.

If you are familiar with the Old Testament, there were laws set in place by God that the Israelite’s were to follow.  These laws served an important purpose in their lives as God’s people were able to focus on serving Yahweh (God the Father).  There were covenants made between God and His people (all throughout the book of Genesis); the 10 Commandments given to Moses by God on Mt. Sinai (Exodus 20); a variety of Festivals honoring God (Exodus 23); sacrificial offerings for forgiveness of sin and for celebration (the book of Leviticus); and other laws that were given to the Levitical priests (the book of Numbers and Deuteronomy).

So. Many. Lists.

In the New Testament, Jesus came with the express purpose of teaching us directly about the Father and the grace & mercy He was offering.  Jesus wants to reconcile and redeem ALL of the people back to relationship with God the Father.  However, it just seemed “too incomprehensible” to the Jewish leaders of the day to believe that everything they had been doing for centuries, were no longer needed.  Jesus wanted to shed light on the fact that the Jewish people were living as captives to an old set of laws that didn’t need to be practiced anymore.  Why?

Jesus coming to earth as a man AND at the SAME TIME as part of the Trinity, and eventually fulfilling prophecy of being crucified and risen again, we mind-blowing!  By each miracle, by each teaching, by each healing ~ and ultimately by His Resurrection, Jesus made the absolute and FINAL sacrifice for us.  With that fulfillment of Old Testament promised prophecy, the old laws that governed the Jewish people (and all people for that matter) were finished.

The gap was forever bridged by the cross.  

The throne room of grace was opened for everyone to enter into and sit at the feet of the Father.  The Holy Spirit was made available to live in us and be our Intercessor.

But habits can be hard to break.

There are so many amazing truths that have come to fruition by the coming, death, and resurrection of Jesus Christ that we can move from being captive to the old laws, to being captivated by the beauty, grace, and mercy of the Lord.  HIS ways are meant to be attractive to us, to hold our attention so that we can live a full and complete life.  Hear me when I also say that these promises of the Lord do not mean we will be exempt from troubles.   If I could sit across from you at one of my favorite coffee shops, I would listen to you as you poured out your heart and hope to encourage you not to lose hope…to not lose faith in God’s goodness.

At bible study today, one of the women in my group shared a powerful image with us.  We were talking about having faith and peace in our lives, the kind that only can come from strength in the Lord.  She held her coffee cup up and squeezed it just a bit.  She likened that motion as to what we do when we are holding “the cup” (whatever circumstance we find ourselves in) that God has given us but then we start gripping it, squeezing it as we try to take back that situation and bring it under our own control.  We have to learn to be content in the place we are at…easy or difficult…it is a place of God’s design.

No need to just take my word for it ~ read the promise from God in His Living Word in Romans 6:14, “For sin shall no longer be your master, because you are not under the law, but under grace.”  I think I hear a Hallelujah from somebody out there!

My encouragement to you today as you read this, is that you make that full transition to become CAPTIVATED by the immense peace and beauty of our Lord Jesus.  When we allow our entire mental, emotional, and spiritual attention to be focused on Him, we will be able to be confident on the road ahead.  We can have faith that as we follow Him, He will not disappoint.

Blessings,

René

*http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/captive?s=t

*http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/captivate?s=t

*All verses found at: https://www.biblegateway.com

Name(required)

Email(required)

Website

Comment(required)

Submit

Δ

When “Hovering” is a Good Thing

In the past couple of days, SoCal has entered what we all hope is finally the beginning of Autumn.  Yes, I know it’s towards the end of October…we’re getting there.  One thing I love seeing is the return of the fog.  We live near some mountains and it’s such a majestic site to go out in the early morning to see fog hovering over tops of the mountains.  The high temperature of the day only gets to about 72-75 degrees, the air conditioning never comes on, and my favorite part…opening the windows and feeling the cool breeze.  At night, the misty fog returns to rest upon the crest of the mountains and lend a sense of closure and protection to our little city below.

But there have been times in my life when fog has not been beautiful or majestic at all ~ it’s been downright frightening!  I have driven in the famous Sacramento “Tule Fog” in the middle of February, on an unfamiliar road, not knowing that it was not a good idea to drive in fog with your high beams on.  Um, yeah…scary!  I was on this road for about 2 hours, going 15 miles an hour, 8 weeks pregnant and had to use the facilities in the worst way.  Let’s just say, I made it to my friends house just in time, but absolutely stressed out vowing to never drive in those conditions again.  Well, in those conditions alone again.

One of the most visual images about the Holy Spirit, at least when I think about Him in this way, is what is described in Genesis 1:1-2:

“In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. 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.”

To hover is to “to keep lingering about; wait near at hand.”1  Can you picture this?  The Holy Spirit’s job at this point in Creation was to wait near and linger over the heavenly waters as God the Father began to create “the heavens and the earth.”  He was not separate from the creation story ~ the Holy Spirit is part of the Trinity and has a very important job.  

Although as we read further in Genesis chapter 1, we see that in order to make the earth and heaven, He had to separate the waters to those “that were under the expanse from the waters that were above the expanse.” (vs. 7b). But wait…when you separate something, it means that there are usually two halves still remaining.  In verse 6 of chapter 1, it tells us, “And God said, “Let there be an expanse in the midst of the waters, and let it separate the waters from the waters.”” That expanse we know as the sky (or atmosphere).  There are heavenly waters that still exist as well as the waters on earth that we know as the sea.  Personally, I have always loved going to the ocean because it just feels like God to me.  The expanse of the sea, the depth of the oceans, the peacefulness of the crashing waves, and the coolness of the water ~ that all reminds me of the profound power and grace that encompasses who God is.

Depending on the commentary you read, the Holy Spirit is known by at least 35 different names in the Bible.2  Most notably, the Holy Spirit is known as our Helper, our Counselor, our Comforter (see John 14:16, 26; John 15:26; John 16:7; Isaiah 11:2).  After Jesus was resurrected and spent time back on earth with the disciples, He appeared before them one last time before He ascended to Heaven, (see John 16). He gave them ~ and all of us who believe in Him ~ the immensely personal gift of the Holy Spirit to be our: Counselor, Advocate, Helper, Friend, Comforter. The role that the Holy Spirit has is to guide us in our thoughts and actions, and to be a intercessor between us and the Father.  He is with us and with the Father ~ the Holy Spirit is hovering between the two, never leaving one or the other.

Today, let me encourage you to settle in and allow the Holy Spirit to hover over you.  Hear Him speak words and promises of joy, comfort, and even correction to your soul and seek the Lord as you move forward in your relationship with Him.  Don’t miss out on the beautiful way the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, will hover over your life, bringing you great comfort and peace.

Blessings,

René

1. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/hover?s=t
2. http://www.compellingtruth.org/names-Holy-Spirit.html

 

Name(required)

Email(required)

Website

Comment(required)

Submit

Δ