In the Beginning God…was the Word

Genesis 1:1& John 1:1

It is so natural to bring a New Year message with a “Beginning” word. Yet when God comes to superimpose His take on the natural thought process so gently and so profound it is wonderful.

In 2 Corinthians 5:17 we see the essence of what we celebrate in New Year. The old passing and embracing the New. Yet not all what we embrace is good or right.

The Lord is making a statement. In the beginning…God…Yet very often what begins is not God but a representation of self and its foundation less structures of thought. Yet for us to come to a beginning we must come to a end of something. The end is the essential part of coming onto the new season of things pertaining to God.

It is stopping to think about what God wants to do in our day, what does He want to speak, what does He want to do through us.

There is a “New” which comes at the end of Revelation: “Behold I make all things New” . We can all rejoice at this divine declaration. To get there however is a different scenario that determines if we will be part of all things new.

Several weeks ago I saw a open door in the Spirit realm coming out of Acts 3:19-21 in that Jesus comes to us to restore all things. If we really want to be part of Jesus’ programme, and be in His Will we must first know what this is, also evaluate the personal cost this will mean. To have the restoration we must first recognise our need of it. Second receive the consciousness that to have what we need we must count a personal cost. For me personally nothing makes sense outside the sphere of intimacy with God.

Philipians 2 shows us what route Jesus had to tread to receive the exaltation. The ultimate in humiliation.

To have God in a beginning, knowing that John 1:1 terms Him being the Word, that “Word” being a intention not an inevitability, as the Greek shows, it only becomes manifest as we receive God’s intention by faith and allow it to frame our World. Hebrews 11.

It is no good asking for the New if what we cling to belongs to the realm of worldly wisdom. This shall be consumed in God’s appointed time.

New Year is embraced with vows of good behaviour and habits, yet by the end of the first week good intentions have been failed and forgotten.

God has a NEW for us. Behold He is making all things new. It is time to recognise the forces within us all, individually and collectively, that are blocking this divine objective. When families, Churches, communities become divided we know that what is at work is the spirit of the age. Not God.

And those of us who profess His Name and His Word must see that to submit to His New must start a process of letting go in prayer and a walk of love to see clearly that those who know Him must bear the responsibility for change. Must start somewhere!

The New only starts when the old has gone. The beginning only starts when there has been an ending.

The Year does not start with a beginning but starts with an ending first. That ending is determined by us.

One example is Northern Ireland which saw a community divided along religious and political lines. For the most part the Agreement has first agreed to end violence. This ending made the way for a new beginning. It is still fragile but the old days of terrorism are over.