God's Creative Process
- God is always prior
- Creation is potential
- God is intimately present by His Spirit alongside creation
- God speaks a good word that reflects His good nature, calls forth sthg that is not yet (sometimes its purpose is explicit, sometimes hidden)
- That new reality comes into being (sometimes it springs into being instantly; other times it requires further fashioning) Rom 4:17 "the God in whom he believed, who gives life to the dead and calls into existence the things that do not exist."
- God sees that it is good (n.b. Hebrew tov does not mean 'perfected', far from it, it means packed with further creative potential)
- God distinguishes and separates it from that which it is not (calls it out)
- God names it, endowing it with the dignity of its own being
- It inaugurates/fulfils its purpose
Our Creative Process
- Sons and Daughters of God are God's image-bearers and partners in bringing in His New Creation, He has chosen to work through them
- They see the hidden Kingdom potential in the wilderness and people around them
- Their personal presence wherever God has placed them, as bearers of the divine image and presence, makes a real difference
- They declare in faith new realities as yet unseen that reflect the goodness and generosity of God
- That new reality is initiated/uncovered in the heavenlies and is inaugurated in the earth
- They and God look on it with faith, encouragement and approval
- They acknowledge and give it its own unique new place in the new creation order
- They name it. In Ge 2:19 we see God's excitement as He shows Adam the creatures He has lovingly made, to see what he will call them. "And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name." God deliberately leaves aspects of His good creation open to be completed by us, then confirms our free choice. This is our high calling and our deep privilege as His creative image-bearers.
- It inaugurates/fulfils its purpose
- Rest, and repeat with new variations! :)
Key differences
We are not the Creator, so our speech-acts of sub-creation are acts of uncovering what is already potential in God's good creation; but until we unlock them, they are not fully real, not yet "created". Invention is discovery, both of the incredible potentials God has built into His good creation, and of our own genuine creative potential as His image-bearers restored through the grace of His Son. Our Father trusts us to exercise real power and authority in His New Creation, and is excited to see what His children will make of the world He has gifted to them.
Note
As we meditate on all of this, it is vital for God's Word to dwell in us richly, and to keep in close step with His Spirit so as to grow in wisdom, maturity and discernment, and so avoid the errors and excesses of parts of the Word-Faith Movement. We do not merely speak into being whatever we fancy, naming it and claiming it, but, just as we are being remade into the image of Christ, praying and suffering with Him in the wilderness of this world, so we also share in His glory, the joy of beholding in faith a New Creation unfolding, speaking it into being with Him who has called us out of darkness into His wonderful light :)
