TD Jakes - Moving with the Rhythm of God
We must understand that when we start thinking about the spirit, we also start to think about Him as «Numa,» which means «breath.» We begin to understand that He has given us the breath of life. If we surrender to the hovering of breath above us, then we have muted the Holy Spirit. We are warmed by His presence; we are raised by His hovering, but He is not conversant. The second thing God wants to teach us about the Holy Spirit is not only that He hovers and is intimate, in some way hatching us like a bird brooding over its eggs, but that He wants to be close enough to connect with us. He desires us to tap into His breathing to the point that we align ourselves with His rhythm.
Everything that God does has a rhythm; everything that God is has a rhythm. The first time I went to Jerusalem, I visited the Wailing Wall, and I will never forget it. There, my Hebrew brothers, my Jewish brothers, showed me how they approach the Wailing Wall. They rock at the Wall because the rocking symbolizes the understanding that God is moving. I found myself at the Wailing Wall, rocking while placing my prayer requests into the cracks and crevices of the remains of Solomon’s Temple. I was rocking in imitation of God’s motion. From the Book of Genesis, where the Spirit of God moved, to the Book of Revelation, where it says, «Even so, come, Lord Jesus,» our God is always in motion.
Whether He is leading us through the wilderness by a pillar of fire by night and a cloud by day, God is a moving God. In His essence and power, He hovers, but He also moves. When you see the rustling at the top of the trees, it signifies His movement. We want to be in rhythm with Him because God is rhythmic. I envision Him in musical terms because God is rhythm itself. Everything that God creates has a rhythm; your pulse has a rhythm. Your blood oxygenates your body rhythmically, carrying the invisible wind you breathe to your fingertips in such a profound way that we can take your pulse without putting a hand to your nose. The breath travels all the way to your fingertips, not just through blood, but in rhythm.
The blood carries oxygen, leading to devices like an oximeter, which tests blood oxygenation by placing something on your fingertip to measure how well your blood has carried the wind to your fingers. Therefore, there is a correlation between blood and spirit, a connection in creation that we embody. Let’s back up for a moment to establish the rhythm. Everything God created had a rhythm. The solar system has a rhythm; the sun has a rhythm; the Earth moves in a rhythm, and tidal waves come in a rhythm. The Earth spins in a rhythm.
When God created man, He did so with rhythm—that is why you have a heartbeat and a pulse. What we want is to be in rhythm with God. We don’t want to be syncopated or out of rhythm; we want to have the same beat. If we are to be in the likeness and image of God, we must consider the intimate relationship introduced to us in the Book of Genesis. We see that God does not stand afar off from creation; rather, He has come through the Holy Spirit to touch what He creates. God does not stand at a distance from man; He has come down, lip to lip, breathing into him the breath of lives, and with it comes a rhythm. That rhythm has continued from your first cry to your last breath. All your health, well-being, and life depend on this rhythm. We monitor your blood pressure to ensure it has a rhythm and that the rhythm is correct because all your health and well-being rely on being in rhythm. We can tell by the rhythm how well you are.
Let me check your heart; let me feel your pulse; let me feel your breath. You are still rocking with God, still moving with God, still involved with God through the giving of His Spirit—the breath of God has given me life. When we talk about the posture of the Holy Spirit, what I want you to take away from this class tonight is how close the Holy Spirit comes to what He involves Himself with. The connectivity between heaven and earth is significant: the divine touches the human, and the celestial comes down into the muddy mess of the Earth. All we can do is describe it through anthropomorphic symbols that help us understand that His presence has warmed us, protected us in the freezing deserts of this world, and been warmth to us in oppressive places. It has always been for us.
The hovering of the Holy Spirit, seen in Genesis, extends all the way to the Book of Revelation. It is God’s way of reaching out to you, touching you. Later, we will see the scripture say, «Sing unto the Lord a new song, for He has done marvelous things; His right hand and His holy arm have gotten us the victory.» Who has believed the report of the Lord? And who has the arm of the Lord revealed? The arm of the Lord revealed, the arm of God is an anthropomorphic term for Christ; the hand of God is an anthropomorphic term for the Spirit. He touches me with His hand; He touches me with His hand. He reveals Himself through His arm—as God’s arm reaching out to us through Jesus.
The hand of the Lord was upon Ezekiel; the hand of the Lord was upon Elijah. All those terms express how intimately God engages in human affairs through the presence of the Holy Spirit. Our discussions concerning the posture of the Holy Spirit have explored the intimacy of the divine touching the human, the holy interacting with the mundane. However, if we leave Him muted, we will fail to understand the power. The same God that moved is the same God that spoke. When we begin discussing the pronouncement of the Holy Spirit, we realize that the Spirit is not just steam hovering, clouds gathering, or wind blowing—He speaks.
The vocalization of the Holy Spirit is as consistent in the Book of Genesis as it is at the Tower of Babel, as it is in the Book of Acts. He cannot be reduced to mere force or wind; if He has speech, He has thought, He has personality; He speaks. When we talk about the Holy Spirit hovering, if we focus solely on the posture without recognizing that out of the vast power of His wisdom and counsel, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, we overlook His thoughts. Out of the abundance of His thoughts, He speaks.
If He was speaking in the Book of Genesis, we cannot be surprised when He speaks in the Book of Acts because He is still speaking to us. Thank you, Cammy. The pronouncement of the Holy Spirit is a vital fact for us to understand because through that pronouncement, we begin to comprehend who He is and who we are. He begins to create by His power what He has designed for us. He said, «Let there be light»; He never said, «Let there be darkness,» because darkness didn’t have to be created. Darkness is not a thing; you cannot quantify darkness, measure it, or capture it. You can quantify light—its brightness can be measured, but darkness can never be quantified since it is merely the absence of light. Thus, God never had to say, «Let there be darkness»; instead, He declared, «Let there be light.» The entrance of Thy word hath given me light; let there be light. There is a synergy between the speaking of the Holy Spirit and light and life.
Now, let’s consider Paul’s words in Second Corinthians 4:6-1: «For God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness hath shined in our hearts.» Notice the parallel he draws: «For God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.» Yet we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of us. Then he speaks to our chaos: «We are troubled on every hand, yet not distressed; we are perplexed but not in despair; persecuted but not forsaken; cast down but not destroyed. Always bearing in our body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus might be made manifest in our bodies. For we which live are always delivered unto death for Jesus' sake, that the life of Jesus might be made manifest; let there be light in our mortal flesh.»
God who commanded the light to shine in the darkness has caused the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ to shine in our hearts. Without that infusion, that discussion, that pronouncement, we would be helpless. When we talk about helplessness, imagine Adam lying on the ground, formed like material clay, an object. Imagine that until God breathed into him the breath of life, and he became a living soul. He was utterly helpless, just as the Earth was helpless, just as the early church on the day of Pentecost was helpless, waiting on the breath of God—the mighty rushing wind—to appear. From that mighty rushing wind, they were allowed to go forth and preach.
I ponder when Jesus says in Acts 1:8, «Ye shall be witnesses unto me after that the Holy Spirit has come upon you.» I find it perplexing because they had already witnessed the resurrection of the Lord; yet He said they were not witnesses unto Him. They had eaten fish with the resurrected Jesus, but they were not yet witnesses unto Him. They had seen Him on the seashore, but they were not yet witnesses unto Him. He had appeared to them on the road to Emmaus, but He told them, «Ye shall be, not that you are—but you shall be witnesses unto me.»
Suddenly, I realized He wasn’t seeking the witness of our memories of our experiences with Him; He was looking for the witness that was with Him before the world began. So when He says, «Ye shall be witnesses unto me after that the Holy Spirit has come upon you,» it is because the Holy Spirit is the only one who could bear witness to who He was before the foundations of the world. The Bible states the Holy Spirit shall not speak of Himself but shall testify of Me. Without that, we were helpless, so all they could do was wait—the waiting church, the waiting Earth, the waiting Adam speaks to our helplessness without His breath.