I AM Here...

In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness wasupon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.

Genesis 1:1-3

There are a few things from these precious first three verses of the Bible that seem to apply to our lives if we look carefully through the eyes of the Spirit.  It is certain that there are times when life sometimes just does not seem to make sense at all and it is this point which we will take a few minutes to consider.  In order for us to trust God in those chaotic places on the pathway called life and for there to be some clarity we need to first appreciate God and the way He often works knowing that all He does is for our blessing.

"In the beginning God..."  Such a profound statement.  Can you ever think of a time in existence when He wasn't there working behind the scene?  Now, who invented camouflage (Think tigers, deer, walking sticks, etc...)?  In essence, He is always there but at the time of crisis He seems to be hiding somewhere out of sight, but rest assured God is there.  Where can you go that God is not present?  David plainly answered this for us in Psalm 139:7-12--enough said.  What are you facing that He doesn't know about already?  Nothing!  You see, He was, is, and will be there, and He understood the end from the beginning long before your dilemma manifested itself!

Without form, and void; and darkness...   Such words!  These almost seems like a contradiction following the revelation of God.  If God is there how could there be chaos, emptiness, and darkness?  Let's consider another verse which gives some interesting insight--Matthew 4:1, "Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil."  The Holy Spirit led Jesus to a place that must have seemed like a low point in His life.  While dark times don't seem to be congruent with a God of love, it is His love that brings us to dark times.  He sees the pain and confusion, but He has a lesson for you.  When my wife and I were once flying to Hawaii, the plane came to a storm that was too large to divert around.  Rather than fly into it, the pilot flew above it.  It was amazing!  It was a beautiful sunny day above that storm.  Maybe God is trying to pilot you to a higher place where you can see His glory above the storm?

And the Spirit of God moved...   So the LORD has led you to a valley, one so bad that you think King David named it in Psalm 23.  Elijah had one of those days.  After the great victory against the vain idol, Baal, and his priests, Elijah ran like a baby at a mere threat from Queen Jezebel.  Funny, her name means "Baal exalts" but all she did was bring the prophet to the lowest point of His life.  In a cave miles from the threat he sulked.  It was then that God began to move to get his attention.  Finally the still small voice of the Spirit spoke and prepared Elijah for greater things.  The lie, Baal, just wood and stone, could not exalt like God did!  Elijah was soon caught up by the Spirit into the very presence of GOD. Now that is being exalted! Stop looking at the darkness around you and listen.  That sound you hear is the ever presence of the Holy Spirit moving on your behalf.

And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.  It is certain that when the Spirit moves God is speaking.  The question then is are you listening?  Things sometimes get so tough that we focus on the confusion and not on God.  At those times, the problem seems to preoccupy us that we can think of nothing else.  I once was in such a dark place as this when an Army Chaplain took me to the side and said, "You need to quit worshiping the problem and begin to worship the Problem Solver."  It brought light to that dark place!  At a personal level, Jesus Christ is not Soon2come.  No!  He is already here.