Clouds With Water Appear Dark (Vol. 1)

“These people are like blemishes at your gatherings, selfishly eating with you without a care. They're like shepherds who only care for themselves. Imagine clouds that look beautiful but bring no rain, just drifting wherever the wind takes them. They're like autumn trees with no fruit, completely uprooted—dead twice over.” (Jude 1:12 NIV)

This verse doesn't sound very exciting. It is a little intimidating for Jude to include “dead twice over.” However, what he's describing we can identify with when we see clouds in the sky during spring or autumn. These clouds are majestic, white, and fluffy. We like to play visionary games with children, such as "Do you see faces or an animal in the clouds?" It is beautiful to watch these clouds move across the sky; sometimes, they offer shade. But what we realize is they're not rain clouds. They're not taking care of our drought seasons or watering the earth. They're just beautiful to look at and may offer protection from the sun's rays.

Often, we encounter individuals in the Christian community who may seem appealing or impressive but fail to contribute to what is truly needed. Their presence is like beautiful clouds without water. They know how to be friendly and polite, but they are guarded when it comes to giving you a drink of water.

Considering Jude’s imagery about clouds, consider what clouds with water would be like. They are dark clouds over us – no sun, stars, or moon. They may give us a sprinkle of rain or a major downpour. And sometimes there is a lot of thunder and lightning. Particularly from the perspective of someone in Florida, where weather patterns often shift dramatically, it’s easy to notice the impact of rain clouds. During extended overcast periods, one might long for the sun, wondering when it will shine again. Jude addresses our spiritual needs with the imagery of believers as "clouds without water."

Let’s Look at Genesis 9:15 where we are reminded of God's covenant after the flood: "I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the water become a flood to destroy all life." God sealed this promise with a rainbow set in the clouds. Interestingly, we often see the most vibrant rainbows following great storms—after the dark clouds and heavy rains have passed. These rainbows are a powerful reminder of God's faithfulness and grace, a covenant sign that emerges only after enduring the storm.

God made a promise to us before we were even born that He would never destroy humanity by water. Thousands of years after Noah, we know that God’s promise is still present in our lives today when we see a rainbow in the sky, especially after a storm.

Ezekiel 1:28 says, "The rainbow is seen in the clouds." A question to ask ourselves,
“Does the cloud contain water?”  

David wrote in Psalms 18:11, "He made darkness his secret place. His canopy around him was dark waters and thick clouds of the sky." 

We know the rain is coming when we see those thick, dark clouds in the sky. We may have concerns if the lightning strikes near us when we hear the thunder. We do an instant shift, trying to get out of the rain, not wanting to get wet. Jude describes this natural awareness with dark clouds and rain as our spiritual condition.

The dark waters and thick clouds are a canopy over God’s secret place where a “rainbow covenant” with God is manifested in our lives.

Job 38:9 says, "When I made the clouds its garment, and thick darkness its swaddling band."  This verse is God's conversation with Job after he went through many trials feeling hopeless and defeated. Yet God told him that He made those dark clouds a garment to swaddle Job in. The word “swaddle” is what we do with babies to help them feel more secure and loved. We wrap them in a blanket. God is giving Job a big Papa hug of rest and love with those dark clouds.

Dark clouds in our lives are opportunities for blessings and hidden treasures deep within us to develop, and we're not cognitive of what God's trying to do because we are too busy trying to figure out how to dodge the rain. When God made the clouds a garment for Job, He was wrapping him with mercy, and compassion. 

God's mercies are new every morning (Lamentations 3:23). So, when we see dark clouds surrounding our life, we pause and ask God if He is trying to tell us something we can’t figure ourselves out. Is He planning to unveil something unique within us? As the winter is gone and spring is coming forth, but before the flowers come out, we can feel it in the air; we can tell there's a newness, goodness, a new mercy to let go of yesterday. “My beloved spoke, and said unto me, Rise, my love, my fair one, and come away. For, lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone; The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds has come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in our land” (Song of Solomon 2:10-12).

King Solomon is speaking to his beloved bride. This relationship between God and humanity matures into oneness with Christ Jesus. The swaddling is intimacy between the bridegroom and bride, not the baby in a manger. The water released is a consummation between heaven and earth, and the rainbow is the Divine realm, “Let There Be Light” …let there Be ME manifested in the body of Christ today.

 

1 Kings 8:12. Solomon said, "The Lord said he would dwell in the dark clouds." If you're seeing dark clouds out there, and I'm saying literally out there, stop and ask yourself, are you seeing God's presence? 

In 2 Samuel 22:12, "He made darkness canopied around him, dark waters and thick clouds of the sky." 

How many times do we have a universalness of fear, oppression, depression, or anxiety in general as our perception of the world around us? We hear that those dealing with PTSD are living in a place of darkness. However, how often do we ask God, "Lord, what are you doing?" 

Genesis 1:2 says, "The earth was without form and void and darkness was on the face of the deep, and the spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters." This is the place where clouds are residing. The cloud of witnesses is not only on this side of our natural flesh but on the other side for those who have already crossed over. That cloud of witnesses says, "You are a Divine being. There is light in you, and I'm calling that light out, and I'm calling you and all of your treasures to come forth and renew your spirit, your soul, and your mind." Out of your heart, the mouth speaks words like a fountain of living water because it's in the cloud.

Humanity can store their information, pictures, and stories on the “cloud. Our smartphones and digital devices are just communication devices; our information is stored in the cloud. Clouds of what? Clouds of water, clouds of the word becoming flesh, and the newness of who you are in Christ. 

2 Corinthians 4:6 says, "For God, who said light shall come out of darkness, is the one who has shown in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. But we have this treasure in earth and vessels that there surpassing greatness of the power maybe of God and not from ourselves. We are afflicted in every way, but we're not crushed. Perplexed but not despairing. Persecuted but not forsaken. We were struck down but not destroyed. Always caring about in the body, the dying of Jesus, that the life, the resurrection life of Jesus also be manifested in our body."

Wow, did you know that that's really what's going on with dark clouds, trials, and tribulations? We could simply do a shift, letting it rain while God has you in His secret place. Let those latter rains come forth. 

Proverbs 16:14-16 says, "As messengers of death is the king's wrath, but a wise man will appease it. In the light of the king's face is life, and his favor is like a cloud of the latter rain. How much better to get wisdom than gold and to get understanding is to be chosen rather than silver." 

Isaiah 55:10, "For as the rain comes down and the snow from heaven and do not return there, but water the earth and make it bring forth and bud, that it may give seed to the Sower and bread to the eater."

Jeremiah 5:24 says, "They do not say in their heart, let us now fear the Lord our God who gives rain. But the former and the latter in its season he reserves for us, the appointed weeks of the harvest.” 

Today, we are living in a harvest season. That harvest season is the love feast, where love should be abounding 365 days of the year because every day is the day of the Lord. Not just Sunday or the Sabbath. Not just Christmas, not just Passover or Easter. Not just your birthday, or your friend's birthday, but every day. 

We can choose daily to receive a blessing from God and give a blessing to someone: give a rose, a kind word, or even a loving thought. We can choose to release blessings through the priestly anointing we have through Jesus Christ, even when we don’t feel like it. A priestly anointing means that when the accuser of the brethren comes pointing a finger at you and says, "You, you, you," you keep your peace, and you ask the Holy Spirit to convict your heart.

When you don’t react to the accuser's voice but pause and listen to the Holy Spirit, you realize that your heart is in the right place. Maybe the blessing didn't come out quite right, or what you thought, but your heart intends that you planted a good seed in that soil, and God will bring it up to have fruit. Those accusing voices may have been generational voices that have come through white clouds with no water. That's not your heavenly Father.

Your heavenly Father made you perfect and beautiful and knows exactly what he's doing for such a time as now, in this season. So, everything of yesterday, good, bad, or ugly, He uses for His glory to unveil the essence of the face of Christ in you. 

Jeremiah 29:11, “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end.”