Hello everyone! What a wonderful three days to be in the Chronological Study Bible and spiraling deeper into God’s love story. I am always amazed at the new insight the Lord provides as I revisit His Holy Word. So many little details fill my mind as I glean from what I have read.

Today Kandi Stewart, a previous co-worker, has agreed to share her takeaway over the role of the Holy Spirit in the creation from her writing on Courage to Conquer Cancer’s Facebook page. When I read over it, I was truly moved by her insight and immediately asked if I could share it with you. She is a dynamic writer, terrific educator, dedicated encourager, and a tough fighter! I hope you are blessed by her writing as much as I was.

God Creates Purpose Out of Chaos

I’ve began rereading the Bible with a focus this year on the Old Testament. Genesis 1-2 is the story of creation I’m sure most are familiar with the story. As I read this, I began wondering what can I take away from this that will make a difference in my life right now. I got stuck on Genesis 1:2 where it says, “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.”

There in the darkness, in the chaos, was the Spirit of God waiting to turn the chaos into purpose. There was a plan. It was good. But before it was good, it was dark, formless, and chaotic. Isn’t this how we view the tough times in our life? We see them as “dark times”, we can’t figure out what’s going on or what the purpose of our lives are so it seems “formless”, or we feel like we’ve lost control and everything is “chaotic”. Yet, there above it all, sits the Spirit of God waiting for us to call out to the Father and have faith that He will create purpose out of the dark, formless and chaotic moments we find ourselves in. Creation didn’t stop in the first week. Creation is ongoing. God is waiting to create a new creation within us by using every dark, formless and chaotic moment in our lives. No, they aren’t good YET, but He has a plan to turn even this (whatever your “this” is) into something amazing!

I’ve read this part of the Bible so many times throughout my life and have never considered once that God’s spirit was hovering over my life just as it hovered over the dark, formless and chaotic universe waiting for me to call out and ask God to create purpose out of all of this!

Kandi’s bio:

Kandi Stewart is a woman who has lived her life at 100 mph with the windows rolled down. She grew up on the Oklahoma/Kansas state line out in the middle of nowhere where one can see for miles and run free like the wild ponies. She is 100% a middle child raised number 3 of 5 children to Cliff and Linda James. The James traits of stubbornness, hard working, and being a fighter run through her core. Her parents raised her in a strong, Christian home, but after the death of her father at the age of 21, Kandi questioned everything she was taught to believe about God and spent the next 20 years in a push and pull relationship with Him.

Kandi married Jonathan Stewart in 1995 and together they have loved and raised 4 children, Chelsye, Tessa, K’Lee, and J.T. From those children have come 6 grandchildren loved deeply by their Nonna and PaPa. Kandi invests a lot of her prayer time on these children and grandchildren as they journey through the mountains and valleys of life.

In 2014, Kandi was diagnosed with breast cancer and would undergo multiple surgeries and chemotherapy in one of the biggest fights for her life. Remarkably, months before her diagnosis her daughter, K’Lee, shared a dream she had of her walk through Heaven. This dream would forever change Kandi’s relationship with God and her understanding of the Word. It would be this dream where Kandi learned what faith is all about leading her to walk through cancer in the light and peace of God Almighty.

Despite being told she no longer showed signs of disease in 2015, her cancer was still running amuck. This past fall in 2022, Kandi’s cancer returned and she stood again at a fork in the road wondering how God would take this mess and turn it into something beautiful. She’s fought cancer with Joshua 1:9 at the forefront of her mind. It is her battle verse.

Kandi believes we were all created by design, no life without purpose, but sometimes it’s hard to understand the whys behind our existence. For many years, Kandi questioned her existence. Now, she knows God has always had a plan for her life, and it is good even when it looks bad on the surface. Beneath the darkness, the light is waiting to burst out with a display like a Panhandle winter sunset. Kandi chooses to live her life today realizing that the smoke from a fire makes that sunset more gorgeous, the fire refines us, and the grass coming up from the ashes is always the greenest for joy always comes in the morning, or the morning after that, but joy comes.

Thank you Kandi for allow Refining Ministry to feature you and your wonderful insight. Our prayers are with you in your fight. Embrace the journey with God’s refinement.

May joy fill your life.