October 8, 1998
Here is a piece of scripture for you...
Hebrews 11:6 But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is,.....
He who comes to God must believe that He is!
This may sound too simple of a statement, yet, it is the most basic bottom line thought there is to unlocking the scriptures and is the very starting point of your spiritual journey of faith. "believe that He is". Did you know that all other revelation is dependent upon the acceptance of this one little statement being true? Why? Because if a person doesn't believe that "He is", the person is truly faithless in the things pertaining to God and he won't, or can't believe the rest.
Yet God has shown not only that He exists but even demonstrates what He is like. How?
Romans 1:20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse,
He has made all things and these things give testimony that God is. "Not so", says the skeptic, but if you read the rest of the passage in Romans you begin to understand that the problem is not in accepting the proof of His creative hand, for they certainly do believe that creation exists. The problem they have is that they reject the knowledge of Him who had created it. They then began to give credit to the creation for their existence and then gave them the attributes of God. They then bowed themselves down to the gods they have created with the power of their own imagination. They started on a journey into the realm of idolatry and it still exists even today in its various forms.
As an example, many scientists today carry on the tradition of bowing down to the creation rather than to the creator. How so? When they insist that the universe gave birth to itself, with no outside cause, they have made the universe its own creator and they are its children, for they are from it. Therefore the universe is their god, for they believe that all things proceed from it.
Yet God continues to make Himself known, from the very beginning until now, through the revelation of His word. There were stories that were passed down from generation to generation by the descendents of the witnesses. There were written records that were found speaking of those days lost in antiquity. Then there were the men and women whom God revealed Himself to. One of those men to whom God talked to was called Moses.
This is what Moses revealed...
Genesis 1:1 In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
This was not Moses' witness, for He wasn't there. Moses was relaying to the people the testimony that the God of Israel gave to him.
This is the very first statement that comes from the pen of Moses, the first revelation, and it is the most important revelation, for all of scripture rests upon the faith fact that He (the God of Israel) is the creator of the universe.
It is of interest to note that the Hebrew word for God in this passage is Elohim, which means great one or strong ones. This word can denote a single person or several. So which is it?
Let us look at three of the verses in this chapter:
So what has been revealed so far is that there is the one who spoke and one who hovered over the face of the waters. A plurality... "us". Yet Moses also reveals in other writings of his that God is one God;Deut 6:4 "hear O Israel, the Lord thy God, the Lord is one". He is one and He is many, thus fulfilling both definitions of the word Elohim.
What else has been revealed about who God is?
This is what Jesus has revealed to us... that He has a Father! Jesus was not referring us to his earthly father but to a heavenly Father. We also know that when Jesus was baptised by John in the Jordan river the Spirit of God descended upon Him. Therefore we now have three main people in the story. They are: The Father, The Holy Spirit, and Jesus.
If the Father is God, and the Holy Spirit is God, we then have the two who are mentioned in Genesis 1. Or do we? To find this out we need to see what the apostle John wrote about Jesus.
John 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.
And guess what? vs.14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. It is Jesus who John declares to be the Word made flesh. Therefore if Jesus is the Word made flesh we can transpose His name in John 1:1-3 and it would read like this;
In the beginning was Jesus, and Jesus was with God, and Jesus was God. Jesus was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Jesus, and without Jesus nothing was made that was made.
Where does that leave us now? That Jesus (the Word) was there at the beginning; His Father was also present; and the Holy Spirit was hovering over the waters.
Who did the speaking? The Word... (Jesus). He who spoke in Genesis 1 is the Word. He was in the beginning with God. Who? The Father and the Holy Spirit.
All things were made through Him! The word used in the King James bible is "by", yet the word "through", in other translations, is the better word. In Hebrew, the word denotes the channel by which an act is done. The Word, Jesus, was a channel for the act of creation. He spoke.
So now, how does all this relate to the first chapter of Genesis?
God said... He spoke... the word... that brought all things into being. That is the part that Jesus played in the creation of all things.
Who is it that obeyed the word spoken? Simply put,the Spirit of God that was hovering over the waters. Understand, whenever the Word speaks... the Spirit moves. It was the same way when the Word became flesh. It was the Spirit that brought all things to pass that Jesus spoke. The Spirit moves according to the word of God... which is, in this case, the Word of God. It has always been this way.
So far we see that there are two; the Word and the Spirit, but where is the Father in all this?
Jesus said that he came to do the will of the Father. And the word is always what the will of the Father is. That too is what Jesus, the Word, has always done. He also said that whatever He sees His Father doing, He also does. So then the Father is the very center from which all things proceed. It is the Father's will, the Father's plan, that Jesus, who is the Word of God, reveals by speaking out.
Therefore we have the following understanding of who was there at the beginning.
You can see then that it is one straight line... from the Father... through Jesus... by the Spirit.
And these three are one, and are each one, God.
This is who "He is".
What does all this mean to us? That is a fair enough question.
If we believe who He is, (Father, Jesus, Spirit), then we know the basics of how things are brought about, (His will, His word, His Spirit).
And Guess what? Each of us are here, as sons and daughters of God, to perform the will of the Father. Therefore we must follow the example of Jesus and discover what the will of the Father is and once knowing that, speak the word. Do you know that whatever word we speak, that is according to the will of the Father, the Holy Spirit will perform it, must perform it? Why? Because God cannot deny His own existence!
Understand that we are no longer under the law, nor do we move under the law, but we move and live according to His dynamic, living, moving, Spirit. Therefore whatever the Spirit reveals to you to speak... speak that, and it will come to pass. Again, why? Because the Holy Spirit gives to you what the Word of God speaks, and the Word only speaks according to the will of the Father.
This is the way in which all things began, are being done today, and will be done in the future, for God does not change.
But first you must believe, "He is"! And this is who He is!
May the Lord grant to you the ears to hear what the will of God
is.
For when you speak those words, you truly are the sons and
daughters of God.
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