Clouds are referenced 162 times in 149 verses in the Bible. These scriptures use clouds as imagery of the presence of God. God reveals Himself in nature and in the written word.
Exodus 13:21 - The Lord went ahead of them. He guided them during the day with a pillar of cloud, and he provided light at night with a pillar of fire. This allowed them to travel by day or by night.
Here in this scripture, it tells us how when the Israelites were walking in the desert God guided them by a pillar of cloud. I think this would look something like a calm, damage less tornado cloud.
The overshadowing of clouds is not always a bad thing. Sometimes it protects us…. This is about it when we are at like 105 degrees during the summer, we are begging for cloud coverage to help give us relief from the heat that is beating down on us.
So, when we see the clouds, we can always remember that God is with us always.
1 Kings 18: 43-44
Then he said to his servant, “Go and look out toward the sea.”
The servant went and looked, then returned to Elijah and said, “I didn’t see anything.”
Seven times Elijah told him to go and look. 44Finally the seventh time, his servant told him, “I saw a little cloud about the size of a man’s hand rising from the sea.”
Then Elijah shouted, “Hurry to Ahab and tell him, ‘Climb into your chariot and go back home. If you don’t hurry, the rain will stop you!’”
In this scripture Elijah is praying for rain… he expected an answer, and he would not stop praying until he saw the answer come. So, he sent his servant out to look for the clouds of coming rain. The servant went out and saw nothing; Elijah kept praying. Five times more the prophet sent his servant to see the answer to prayer and the servant saw nothing.
Finally, the servant brought a report: “There is a cloud, as small as a man’s hand, rising out of the sea!” The evidence of coming rain came slowly and in a small way, but out of this small evidence God brought a mighty work.
When you feel like you can not go another day pray and ask God to bring the rain of relief. Pray with certainty that He will bring it. That’s what Elijah did and that is an example of what we should do.