Hermeneutics (the study of the Bible) has a governing principle called the “Law of First Mention.” You can tell how important a doctrine or subject is in the Bible by when it is first mentioned in scripture.
God never wanted mankind to be without His Spirit: He has never wanted us to be without His Presence. Many people criticize Spirit-filled people as simply being too emotional or greatly unstable. But when you look back to the very beginning of creation, you will find God creates humans to not only need His Presence but to desire His Presence,
Gen 1:2 states “The Spirit hovered or moved over the face of the deep.” The Holy Spirit was waiting for the words to come out of God’s mouth “light be!” “animals be!” “trees & grass be” so He could enforce or activate the power of what God’s words wanted to create. English translates the phrase “let there be light,” but in Hebrew, it’s translated as “light, be!”
When you look at Genesis chapter one, you will see God spoke every plant, every tree, every animal, and every bird into existence with His Words. Then on the 6th day, God didn’t speak man into existence, but He kneeled down and, with His own hands, formed man out of the dust of the earth….(not dirt, dust). I’ve always read that passage and assumed man was made out of the earth’s dirt, but read it again: mankind was not made out of the dirt; he was made out of the dust of the earth.
Then He kneeled again and breathed into man the breath of life!
The elements were created with His word, man was created with His touch!!
He didn’t breathe His life into the oceans, fish, animals, or trees: all those were spoken into existence.
Man He formed with His hands (receiving His special touch….receiving special attention), and man was birthed with the very breath that came out of the lungs of God!!
My point is, if God gave this kind of special care & attention at the very beginning of the earth for mankind, this tells us He has NEVER wanted us to be without His Presence; He never wants us to be without His special touch in and on our lives…
Inside every one of us is a craving, a desire to know the creator in a more intimate way. Has there ever been times in which your heart ached for a special touch from the Maker? It’s there because God, in the beginning, took special care and gave special attention to creating mankind in His image and His likeness.
The question is, what can we do to position ourselves to receive another special touch from the Master’s Hand?
1.Humility. I find two degrees of humility in scripture:
James 4:10 “Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.” Every time I read this scripture, I cannot help but think about Peter on the day of Jesus’ crucifixion, when he should have been following close to Jesus, scripture says he followed Jesus “afar off.”
Then Peter takes it deeper in 1 Peter 5:6 wqhen he says,
“Therefore humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord that He may exalt you in due time…”
The question I think of is this: do I want to follow Jesus afar off? Do I just want to be close enough to Jesus to see Him or He sees me? Or do I want to live life “underneath His mighty hand?”
That place inside you that cries out for a closer walk with the Father; that desire to draw as close to Him as you humanly possibly can, refers back to that Law of First Mention: the beginning of time when God took special care…when He made a special concerted effort to capture the dust of the earth and form you in His image: that’s the reason your inner man will groan and travail, for His special touch and for the freshness of His Presence!
2. Brokenness
I wish there were a different way, I really do. Paul described his experience with brokenness in
2 Cor 12, when he spoke about the thorn in the flesh that was given to him to keep him grounded and to keep him from being lifted up in pride over the abundance of revelations he received from the third heaven. I absolutely do not care for brokenness. But it is an invaluable part of the maturing process for the New Testament believer.
I have been broken by carelessness, foolishness, sin, and arrogance (there’s a huge difference between boldness and arrogance). And I have been broken by the Presence of God. I would rather be broken by His Spirit than be broken by sin, which only brings shame & condemnation. When sin breaks you, it pushes you down. When the Presence of God breaks you, He lifts you up.
3. Hunger.
Jesus sums it up in Matthew 5:6 “Blessed are they which do hunger & thirst after righteousness: for they shall be filled.
The next time you find your heart longing for God to touch you in a special way, remember, that desire goes all the way back to the beginning of time when God did something for Makind He didn’t do for the birds, or the fish, or the flowers or the trees. He knelt, gathered some dust, created man, then breathed into him the breath of life.
That’s my King!!
