TD Jakes - In the Beginning God
Well, this is a very special night indeed. It is an opportunity for those of us who respect God as the giver of life and strength to worship Him, to praise Him, to celebrate where we’ve been, and to anticipate where we are about to go. And what better way to do that than to delve into the Word of God! I invite you to prayerfully consider the book of beginnings. If you don’t recognize that name, it’s the book of Genesis, which literally is the book of beginnings, and we are beginning again.
So let’s go back to the book of Genesis, chapter 1, verses 1 and 2, and hear the word of the Lord. I thank you for logging in tonight. I thank you for being a part of this service. I thank you for your commitment and your diligence all year long. I thank you for the great things that you’ve enabled us to do because you stayed with us, stuck with us, sowed into us, and prayed for us. Most importantly, we were able to work under hardship and adversity, yet still function and do what God has called us to do. Whatever the future holds, I know who holds the future, and I’m looking to Him so that we can begin again.
The book of beginnings, Genesis, chapter 1, verses 1 and 2. If you were here, I would have you stand, but since you’re out there, do as you will. The word of the Lord is still the word of the Lord, and it reads: «In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth, and the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.» I actually read more than I needed because I really want the first four words: «In the beginning, God.» That’s what I’m going to talk about tonight: «In the beginning, God.» That’s all: «In the beginning, God.» Let’s pray:
Spirit of the living God, fall fresh on us tonight as we delve into Your Word. Let it be made flesh in us in a supernatural way, that we might extract from this Word those truths that are relevant not only to the historical context and the continuity of Scripture itself, but specifically to the rhema word that we need for the times we are in right now. I thank You for being God enough and good enough. If You were God enough but not good enough, we still couldn’t have it; but because You are both God and a good God, we believe You for things that are absolutely amazing, beyond human comprehension—staggering for us to understand and yet comforting for us to believe. Now, drop us down into the depths of Your Word and baptize us in the revelation of Your Spirit. Let us rise up, walking in the newness of life in a new year, with a new walk, a new talk, and a new attitude. We are going back to the beginning again. In Jesus' sweet and righteous name, we pray, Amen.
Shout «Amen», type «Amen»! Put someone on their emoji if they have an emoji for «amen», a hallelujah! But say something to affirm, «Let it be so.» In the beginning, God. We are in the book of Genesis, which is part of the Pentateuch, mainly written by Moses, given to him by revelation from God. Moses represents that generation of people who had been in Egypt for 400 years—actually 430 years. Moses spent most of his life in Egypt and many of his years in exile away from Egypt because he took matters into his own hands, trying to bring about justice in his own way. This led to him being exiled and having to stay in Jethro’s house until the burning bush appeared to him. God revealed Himself to Moses, saying, «I am the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.»
Moses had not met Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob, but he had met their God, who embodies all that they did. They represent his ancestry, his history, and Moses represents a generation that has not experienced Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob for hundreds of years. Now he writes to us out of the revelation that he received from God. God said, «Other prophets have I spoken to through dreams and visions, but with my servant Moses, I will speak face to face.» Moses has had a face-to-face relationship with God, and God allows him to see His history, what the Old Testament calls His inner parts. Moses writes the Pentateuch, recounting a time he did not see, as he was not in the beginning. Adam was not in the beginning, nor was Enos, Methuselah, or even Noah.
There were no choirs, no entourage, no apostles, no disciples, no prophets, and no sages of the ages in the beginning. As far back as Moses takes us is not the beginning of God but the beginning of us. When he goes all the way back, he hits a stone wall from eternity: «In the beginning, God.» God was not created; He was there when the beginning started. God was the author of the first day, the architect of creation. In the beginning, God; He does not explain Himself, nor does He explore God. He does not spend a great deal of time talking about Elohim; He simply announces God, because God is. God just is. He is not becoming; He is not the past; He just is. He is before there was a «where,» a «when,» or a «this» or «that.»
God was before anyone could tell Him He was God; He was still God before anyone could praise Him as God. He was God before the angels flapped their wings, before the cherubim said, «Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God.» Of course, the whole earth is full of His glory. He was God before there was anyone. Nobody elected Him, appointed Him, or placed Him in position. He is absolute, and the Bible later tells us in Hebrews that «he that cometh to God must first believe that He is.» Thus, God announces Himself in the discovery of our beginning, as preceding our beginning. David makes it clear when he says, «From everlasting to everlasting, Thou art God.»
Everlasting speaks to eternity, so God has lived in eternity and created time. You have to understand that time is just a sliver of eternity. If eternity is a pie, time is just a tiny slice—the beginning and the end of days. It’s just a slice, and God created time for man to dwell in. Our God is eternal; He is everlasting; He is immutable; He is unchangeable; He is sovereign; He is absolute; He is Yahweh; He is God all by Himself. He said, «I looked for God beside me, and I found no God but Me. I alone am God, and beside Me there is no other. In the beginning, God.»
And if you stumble over this, then close the book, because the rest of the book will mean nothing to you unless you embrace the fact that God transcends clocks, calendars, times, datelines, centuries, eras, and millennia. Before there was any metric system that could chronicle time, God stood outside of time. So when He goes all the way back to the beginning, He was God; and when He gets all the way to the end, He will still be God. God encapsulates time. Time is a matrix inside the universe of eternity. All things were made by Him. «In the beginning was the Word» (John 1:1).
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God (John 1:2). All things were made by Him; all materials were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made. I’m talking about your God. Your God is not Buddha; your God is not Confucius; your God is not something you carry in a bag or put in your purse. Your God is God. He is God of all gods; He is King of all kings; He is Lord of all lords. In the beginning, as far back as Moses could go, God was still there.
As far as he backed up to the beginning of time itself, while the earth was covered with mud and there was no light to be seen, no stars to be cast, and there was no sun to shine—neither the shimmering light of a falling star—God was still God. Before the earth took its first spin or rotation, God was God. Before the morning stars sang before God, God was God. They didn’t make Him God; they didn’t appoint Him as God; they just acknowledged that He always was and always will be. Until you can believe that, you will stumble over everything else, because, in the beginning, God.
Now, let’s be clear as we go into this word: this word is not sent to prove creation; this word is not sent to explain creation; this word is not sent to validate the authenticity of God. God does not have to prove Himself because no man can take Him to court. This word is not given to explain or analyze God; God just is. He just is—type it on the line: God just is. When Moses would later ask, «Who shall I say sent me?» God said, «I am that I am.» I just am; I just have; I’m not trying to be; I’m not fixing to be; I’m not wanting to be; I’m not wishing to be; I just am. So, in the beginning, God—great God of mercy, sitting all by Himself, standing on absolutely nothing—God.
If the Bible says, «In the beginning, God,» it all starts with God. This Bible is given to us to explain God’s revelation for man’s redemption and man’s plan for salvation. It is not given to chronicle or explain the authenticity of God as if He had a competitor. He’s just God alone. When we believe that, we can come to Him, but until we believe that, we are locked outside of the conversation. If you’re standing outside waiting for God to prove Himself to be God to you, who are you that God would have to prove Himself to you? As He told Job, which the book of Job was written before the book of Genesis: when He talks to Job, He says, «Where were you when I cast the stars into the sky and made the moon to shine? Where were you?»
I don’t have to explain myself to anybody; I just am. When you know who you are, you don’t have to explain anything; you just are. In the beginning, I thought someone said, «God.» When you say «God,» demons tremble, and hell gets nervous. When you say «God,» witches flee, and Satan backs up. When you say «God,» every enemy and every adversity has to stagger at the concept that we are not here by ourselves, that we came and descended out of the mind of God, the thoughts of God, the logos of God. God stepped out of nothing and created. He created. The word «create» in Hebrew is «bara,» which means to make without the aid of pre-existing substance. He had no recipe; He had no materials; He had no matter to work with. He created without the aid of pre-existing substance, which means He stepped out on nothing and said, «Let there be something,» and it became what He said, because He’s God. He didn’t need anything behind Him, with Him, or around Him to create; He just created because He is the Creator. When you are the Creator, it is no problem to be creative.
So God causes us to understand that I am able to be creative because I am the Creator. And what did He create? He created time itself. When we go to the cemetery and visit the graveyard, we see the birth date and the death date. It talks about how long we experience time before we go back into eternity. We came from eternity, and we will go back into eternity. Can you prove that? Yes! Go to Jeremiah. God told Jeremiah, «Before I formed thee in the belly, I knew thee.» «Knew me? Where? How could You know me before my birthday?» Because in eternity, you were Mine! «I knew thee; I ordained thee, and I sanctified thee to be a prophet unto the nations before I formed you in the belly, before you had the first date on your tombstone.»
I knew you in eternity past. And then the second date on the tomb, which we call the death date, is still just like the first date; it’s just another kind of birth date. The second date on the tombstone just marks the date that I leave the matrix of time and step back into the eternity that pre-existed. Jesus said it this way: «Glorify Me with the glory that I had with You before the foundations of the world.» In other words, Jesus had a glory with God before the foundations of the world. In Genesis chapter 1, we are down at groundwork, at zero ground level of the foundations of the world. Jesus said, «I had a relationship with You before all of that. Take Me back and glorify Me with the glory I had with You before the foundations of the world.»
We are so worried about what’s going on in the world, and God is so comfortable because He dwells in eternity. This is just a dress rehearsal for something way bigger than life itself. Life is but a fleeting favor; man rises up like a flower and soon withers away, and it’s gone, and God is still God, and eternity is still eternity. And in the beginning, God, you can’t have a beginning without God because God is the architect of everything that happens after those four words: «In the beginning, God.»
God becomes the architect for everything that precedes that and everything that will be after that. Everything that will happen after that is a result of the architectural design of God. What a mighty God! We said that He would have a mind without a pencil, pad, paper, computer, or laptop and design the universe, the planets, the galaxies, the stars, the hemispheres, the stratosphere, and the atmosphere—all of it to rotate without Him ever having to get up and do it again. He did it once and for all; He settled it; it’s done. Whenever He does a thing, it is done; whenever He finishes a thing, it is finished; whenever He commands a thing, it is commanded, because the Bible says in Hebrews chapter 1 that He upholds all things, all materials, by the word of His power. If you talk to scientists, they will tell you that atoms and molecules are joined together by something that does not even exist. They cannot explain what holds them together, but the book of Colossians says, «By Him all things consist.»
In other words, God is holding your chair together, your house together. God is standing in between the molecules; He is that invisible force that causes one molecule to connect with another. There is God, and by Him, all things consist. There wouldn’t be anything without Him, and there wouldn’t be anything after Him or before Him. He is God, and He is the architect, putting His name on creation when He says, «In the beginning, God.» It would be like an artist signing the canvas before He draws the painting. God said, «This is Mine; this is My business. Everything that happens after 'In the beginning, God' is My business. I am in charge; I am sovereign; I am absolute.» Now let’s go just a little deeper, because in order to have a beginning, everything begins with God. If it doesn’t begin with God, it won’t last. One man said, «If it be of God, it will stand; if it be of man, it will come to naught.»
Everything that begins with a man will fall apart, but everything that begins with God will stand. It starts with God. He said, «I am Alpha and Omega; I am the beginning and the end; I am the first and the last. If I started it, I will finish it. I alone am God; I’m called all by Himself.» When you praise God, don’t confuse God with the church. God is not church; God is not denominations; God is not organizations; God is not affiliations. God is God. All these other things have a birth date, and eventually, they will have an end date. It was founded in 1992; it was founded in 1836. Anytime you can trace it back to a date, it’s man-made. But God has no birth date.
The Bible says He has no beginning or end, he has no birth date; he has no death date. He cannot be destroyed; he cannot be shot; he cannot be killed; he cannot be cursed because he has no beginning or end. He’s a circle; he’s a wheel in the middle of a wheel. The reason God is seen as a wheel in the middle of a wheel is that if he were seen as a line, he would have a beginning and an end, and like a tombstone, he would have a birth date and an end date, and he’d have a metric by which he could be measured. But God is a circle, a wheel in the middle of a wheel; and because he is a circle, a wheel in the middle of the wheel, everything he spoke came out in circles.
That’s why the Earth is in a circle; that’s why all the galaxies move in a circle; everything God created came out in the same DNA as God, moving in circles. Your cells are circles; God is a circle. You can’t find the beginning of him, and you can’t find the end of him. You just stumble into him if you go as far back as you can go. All you can do is bump into God; you can’t bump into the governor, the president, the bear, the internal revenue. You can’t bump into angels or seraphim; you can’t bump into the 24 elders; you can’t bump into the bishop’s board or the council or the internal revenue. If you keep going back further and further and further, you run back into Ruach, the breath of God; the breath of a God who is breathing and moving. He is wind; he is Ruach; he is Pneuma; he is God; he is God alone, breathing all by himself, life all by himself, wind all by himself, force all by himself. In the beginning, God. Why are we talking about this? I’m going to show you in a minute, so hang in there; I’m going somewhere.
In the beginning, God created, and what the Bible wants us to know is that God is creative. He is creative; he doesn’t need things to be working in his direction; he doesn’t need things at all. God can step into absolutely nothing and start something. God can step into a family where there has never been a preacher and start something; God can step into a family where there has never been an entrepreneur and start something. God can step into a city that has never regarded God and start something because God doesn’t need our help to help him get the wheel done. Ask Sarah; God doesn’t need our help; he doesn’t need our Ishmaels; he doesn’t need our ideas; he doesn’t need our creativity; and he sure doesn’t need our talent because whatever talent we’ve got, he gave it to us. So why would God need what God had, and God had to have it to give it to you? God is God, the all-sufficient one, the El Shaddai, confident within himself, complete within himself, lacking nothing of himself, immutable all by himself. God is God, God, God.
When you praise God, you’re praising something. The problem with the church today is that we’re not praising God; we’re praising singers, we’re praising preachers, we’re praising organizations, we’re praising churches. But if we ever start praising God, hell will have to flee. In the beginning, God; everything that God starts, he will finish, and what I want you to do is purpose in your heart that you’re not going to do anything in 2022 that doesn’t have God in the beginning. I’m tired of doing stuff and then asking God to bless it; I’m tired of building stuff and then asking God to move on it; I’m tired of marrying people and then inviting God into the marriage. No, in the beginning, God. God said if you don’t remember me in the beginning, there is no guarantee that it’s going to turn out right. You can’t bring me in and then ask me to take over your mess.
In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth, and the Bible then goes on to tell us that the earth was without form and void, and darkness covered the face of the deep. Many people call it the pre-Adamic world; some people call it the gap theory. It is a theological term that says that the earth was chaotic. Chaotic! What does chaotic mean? Without form or void. Let’s take a look at the definition of chaotic and put it up there on the screen so that we can begin to understand that when we start talking about chaos, God operates in the midst of chaos. He does not need everything to be fine and neat and nice and complete in order to work. God is operating in Genesis chapter one in the midst of chaos. No, let’s go deeper; God is creative in chaos. God is creative in chaos; God is creative in chaos. Nobody else likes to work in chaos; I don’t like to cook in a messy kitchen. No builder wants to build in a junky room. But God said, «I can step into a messy, muddy, dark, chaotic mess where the waters have mixed with the earth, and they are indistinguishable from one another.»
It was into this chaos that God comes, and the earth was without form; it had no form; it had no shape, and it was void, meaning it was empty, and still God did it. Oh, you need to know that because some of you have had a year of absolute chaos, and you say, «As soon as I straighten this out, God is going to come.» No, you can’t straighten it out; God is going to come while it’s still chaos because the creativity of God is stronger than the chaos of men. I’m going to say that again: the creativity of God is stronger than the chaos of men. Oh, I’ve never seen such chaos as we’re seeing today. There’s chaos in government; there’s chaos in academics; there’s chaos in the church; there’s chaos in various countries; there’s chaos all over the world. People’s hearts are failing them for fear; drama is everywhere; trauma is everywhere; confusion is everywhere. People are killing people and don’t even know why they did it, breaking into places and shooting everybody in there and having no explanation as to why. Chaos is coming from every direction. It used to be when I grew up, little boys were scared of grown men standing on the corner, but now grown men are scared of little boys standing on the corner because the world has turned into chaos.
But God knows how to operate in the middle of chaos. He is not intimidated by the chaos you’re in right now. You’re watching me right now, and 2020 was crazy; it was chaotic. 2021 was chaotic; you went through hell, all kinds of drama. You said, «Where is God?» God gets in the middle of the chaos and will be creative because God doesn’t need anything in the chaos to straighten it out. God steps into the chaos; in fact, he said, «My strength is made perfect in weakness.» I look the best in a mess. I walk right up into a mess and stand up and show you I’m God. I’ll wait until you’re too old to have a baby and then I’ll cause you to be pregnant. I’ll pick a woman who’s never known a man and give her a child. I like to work in chaos; I will move in the middle of chaos; I will move in the middle of cancer; I will move in the middle of trouble; I will move in the middle of trauma; I will move in the middle of adversity; I will move in the middle of Down syndrome; I will move in the middle of autism; I will move in the middle of heart attacks; I will move in the middle of COVID; I will move in the middle of things that are impossible with men so that I am distinguishable as God.
I will step into the chaos and sit down and be creative, and draw up some plans and design, and call order, order in the court. Genesis is about God calling order, and calling order means setting boundaries. He set boundaries to the sea, pushed it back, and said, «Here and no further.» He set boundaries to the land masses and caused them to stand in one solid place. He set boundaries to the heavens, the firmament above the waters, and the firmament beneath the waters. God just starts separating things. I believe that 2022 is going to be your year; that God is going to set some boundaries in your life; that God is going to set some order in your life; that God is going to set some structure in your life.
God is going to begin to stop things from flooding over into this and that; what’s going on in the marriage is acting out in your house, and what’s going on in your house is acting out on your job, and what’s going on in your job, you’re coming home with it, and it’s bleeding over into your house. Your life is in chaos because your mind is confused, your body is confused, and your blood pressure is up, and your moods are all over the place. It’s chaos because one thing is bleeding over into the next, into the next, into the next, but I came to tell you, in the beginning, God. And when God sets down into chaos, he will move by his power.
And I will say it again: when God steps down into chaos, he will call things to order. When God steps down into confusion, he will call things into order. When God steps down into chaos, he will begin to push things back and say, «Here and no further, and you go stand over there, and you go twinkle in the sky, and sun, you blaze in the daytime.» And the Bible said when God stepped down into chaos, he said, «Let there be light,» and darkness started backing up and running. Darkness started fleeing from the face of him because when God steps into a situation, all darkness has to recede; all darkness has to go back; all darkness has to move; all darkness has to flee. Some of you have to cut me off because I got too much light on me; I got too much glory on me; I got too much anointing on me. That’s why every now and then, the witches will start screaming because when God steps into a situation, darkness has always got to back up.
Back up, darkness; here comes God; back up, COVID; here comes God; back up, depression; here comes God; back up, disease; here comes God; back up, mood swings; here comes God; back up, anxiety; here comes God; back up, trouble; here comes God; back up 2021; here comes God. God didn’t keep me alive to do a repeat performance of last year; God kept me alive because he said, «I will do a new thing in you.» And I came to tell you tonight to get ready for a new thing. I said get ready for a new thing. You may have to move some old people to get ready for a new thing. You may have to put some people in their place and say, «Here and no further,» because when God starts calling order into your life, you start setting boundaries.
Your life has been out of control because you have no boundaries: no time to get up, no time to lay down; anybody can access you; anybody can get to you; anybody can get on your nerves; anybody can upset you. No wonder, no wonder, no wonder you don’t have peace. How can you have peace when you don’t have boundaries? But whenever you set some boundaries, you set the groundwork for peace, and God opened his mouth and cleared his throat and said, «Let there be light.» «Let there be light» means whatever is opposing light, turn it loose! Whatever has got light tied up, turn it loose! Whatever has got your joy tied up, turn it loose! Whatever has got your creativity tied up, turn it loose! Holy Ghost just said to me you were writing a book and you got writer’s block, and the enemy is trying to tie up your thinking, but God said, «Let there be light!»
He’s going to loose some things that have been restricted; that have been on lockdown; that have been tied up; that have been hindered. Looked like everything you go to do, it’s a fight; everything you go to move, it’s a struggle; everything you want to do for God, it’s a fight because the forces of this world have had you tied up. But I just got a word from the Lord, and the Lord said, «Let there be light.» I don’t know who you are; I don’t know who I’m talking to, but 2021 has been a year of struggle. It’s been a year of struggle, of pulling and tugging, a warring, of wrestling and fighting. But I declare you loosed! Can I say it for the people in the back? I declare you loosed! I declare you’re loosed; you’re loosed from the chains that held you; you’re loosed from restrictions; you’re loosed from public opinion; you have stopped because of what people said. But I declare you loosed, and you’re not going to run from darkness; darkness is going to run from you.
If I’m talking to you, I want you to give him 20 seconds of crazy praise right now. You got 10 seconds left to give him some kind of praise, any kind of praise, any kind of praise. You got to open up your mouth and give God a praise right now; praise him until hell gets nervous, until demons tremble, praise Him until your hair begins to grow back. Praise Him until you receive revelation knowledge. Praise Him until you get a commitment from God. Praise Him until you get a vision of the impossible. Praise Him until the road is clear. Praise Him until the door is open. Praise Him until the way is made. You have five seconds left to give God some praise. I dare you to praise Him. I dare you to praise Him. I dare you to praise Him. I dare you to praise Him. I dare you to praise Him. I dare you to praise Him.
You must know that God kept you alive for a reason. You must know that God sustained you for a reason. You must know that the sickness didn’t kill you for a reason. You must know that God held your mind together for a reason, and it’s time for you to let there be light. Get over it! Whatever hell did, get over it! Whatever they said about you, get over it! Whatever they did to you, get over it! Because this is about to be a new beginning. If it’s not a new beginning, it’s a continuation of an old life. You can’t say it’s a new year if you’re still mad about last year. You can’t have a new year if you don’t have a new mind. You can’t say it’s a new year if you’re still in your old ways, and nobody is worth it. Nothing they did is worth it. Nothing they said is worth it. Nothing they want to do is worth it. Who am I talking to? I’m talking to somebody out there. I’m talking to somebody sitting on the couch.
I’m talking to someone sitting on the side of the bed. I’m talking to somebody sitting at the kitchen table. This is your breakthrough year. This is your year to shake off 2021. Take it off! Shake it all off! Shake it all off! Because God wants to do something new in your life. He wants to do something new in your life. He wants to do something powerful in your life. You need to get a t-shirt and have them put on it, «In the Beginning, God.» So when you run into the demons, they’ll understand that this is God’s business. And if God started it, God will finish it. God is my Alpha. God is my beginning. He is the author and the finisher of our faith. All of y’all that messed around now and made me feel like preaching, I feel like preaching because I’m a designer’s original. I’ve been created in Christ Jesus. I belong to God from the crown of my head to the soles of my feet. I belong to God!
My whole body belongs to God. My kidneys and liver belong to God. My lungs and heart belong to God. My windpipe and lips belong to God. My knees and ankles belong to God. My toes and fingers belong to God. Satan, take your hands off! Darkness, flee! Let there be light in my body! Let there be light in my finances! Let there be light in my mind! Let there be light in my heart! Let there be light in my family! Let there be light in my emotions! Let there be light in my head! I will get over this! I will! I will! I will! I will survive! I will survive! I will survive! I will survive! Grab your kids and pack your bags and tell them we gotta go! We gotta survive! We gotta survive the plague! We gotta survive the chaos! We gotta survive the confusion! We gotta survive the turmoil! And we gotta survive the trauma! This text starts out with trauma, and then the trauma breaks out.
The trauma doesn’t understand that you’re messing with God’s stuff, and whenever you’re messing with God’s stuff, you got to take your hands off of God’s property. If you’re God’s property, type online, «I am God’s property.» Type it right now! «I am God’s property. My children are God’s property. My house is God’s property. My business is God’s property!» And then start praising Him like you lost your mind until every devil knows that I belong to God! I belong to God! I belong to God! My future belongs to God! My January, February, and March belong to God! My April, May, and June belong to God! My August, September, and October belong to God! My November and December belong to God! I just gave God all of 2022, so it ain’t no need to be staying up worrying about 2022 because I just gave it to God. I turned it over to Jesus. I turned it over to Jesus.
I love you, but I’m turning you over to Jesus. Here, little children, I love you, but I’m turning it over to Jesus. If Jesus can’t straighten you out, Daddy can’t straighten you out either. If Jesus can’t straighten you out, Mama can’t straighten you out either. Mama’s gotta have some peace. I’m turning you over to the Lord. Somebody help me praise Him just a little while! Now let’s go into this word. When we look at the book of Genesis, Genesis has a testament. It has a companion word called the Gospel of Saint John. They both start out the same way: In Genesis, it says, «In the beginning, God created,» and in John, it says, «In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.» And all things, all things, were made by Him, and without Him was not anything made that was made. It’s talking about God creating by the power of His Word.
The reason that you are here tonight and not in Joe’s strip club is that you need God’s Word to create a way, to create peace, to create deliverance, to create an open door. And you can’t get it in the pub. You can’t get it from the fireworks. You can’t get it in the streets. You can’t get it anywhere else. In the beginning, God! If it starts with God, it will end with God! Are you with me, somebody? You will remember how Nicodemus came to Jesus by night. Nicodemus was part of the Sanhedrin court, and he slips away because it was absolutely forbidden for one of the Sanhedrins to seek counsel from Jesus, who was so unorthodox. Nicodemus comes to Jesus and says, «Good Master, Teacher, I perceive that Thou art sent from God.» The very fact that he perceived that he was sent from God meant that he had got the key that unlocked the door. He that cometh to God must first believe that He is.
So Nicodemus comes to Jesus and says, «I perceive that Thou art sent from God.» When he says that to Him, Jesus says, «Verily, verily, I say unto you, ye must be…» not can be, «you must be born again.» Because this level of revelation opens up a door for you to be born again. Nicodemus is thinking in the carnal; Jesus is speaking in the spiritual. Nicodemus says, «How can I be born again? Shall I enter into my mother’s womb and come back out? I’m too big; I can’t go back where I came from!» Good God Almighty! There are some of you right now trying to figure out how to have a second start, and you can’t go back where you came from. You can’t fix what you did. You can’t change who you robbed. You can’t fix who you hurt. You can’t go back in your mother’s womb and start time rolling backward to do it over again. But that’s not necessary. Because it is not in the beginning your mother; it is in the beginning with God! All you got to do is go back to God!
You got to be born of the water and of the Spirit. When you’re born of the Spirit, you won’t need your mama for this. You won’t need your baby daddy for this. You won’t need your ex-lover for this. You don’t have to go back to them; you got to go back to God! Because if God gets in the beginning, He will change everything in your life. Glory to God! You got the wrong goal! You think your goal is to change people’s minds. People are going to think whatever they want to think. Let them think whatever they want to think. Let them say whatever they want to say. You can’t go back to your mother’s womb, Nicodemus. You must be born of the water and of the Spirit because everything about your future must begin with God. It’s got to start with God! Your business plan has got to start with God! Your relationships have got to start with God! Your ministry has got to start with God!
That house you’re going to build has got to start with God! You have to purge your mind from every evil work that would hinder you from flowing in the direction that God has for you. Can I go a little bit deeper? The Bible says, «Seek ye first the kingdom of God and its righteousness, and all these things shall be added unto you.» So when you seek God first, everything else shall be added unto you. Everything else is going to come from putting God first. If you get God in the beginning, everything else is going to follow after you! David said, «Surely goodness and mercy are following me all the days of my life.» When you put God first, surely, surely, somebody shout, «Silence! Goodness and blessing shall follow me all the days of my life!»
It’ll follow me through my 20s! It’ll follow me through my 30s! It’ll follow me through my 40s! It’ll follow me through my 50s! It’ll follow me into my 60s! It’ll follow me into my 70s! It’ll follow me into my 80s! I’m 90 years old, and it’ll still be following me! Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life! Somebody say yes! Somebody say yes again! Somebody say yes! Somebody say yes again! Now, now, now, let me slow down here because I’m getting kind of happy, and I have something to tell you, and I want you to get it. I don’t want you to get excited and miss it because a lot of people are trying to figure out, «How do I put God first? How do I know that what I’m trying to do is God-first, help us, or is it me?» And I don’t want to leave you in the euphoric ideology of a principle that has no pragmatism. I want to give you the kind of theology that is practical enough that you can apply it starting January 1.
I want you to be able to test your vision to see whether it be of God, and I am going to give you some simple principles that will help you to test whether your vision is of God or not. Are you ready for this?
Number one: Is your dream or goal designed to bless others beyond yourself? If your vision and your dream don’t bless anybody but you, God is not in it. Because whenever God gets anything, God is here to serve you. God is not in your life to serve you; you’re in God’s life to serve Him. And if your vision only serves you, then it is selfish and not of God. So I want you to test whatever you’ve been dreaming about, whatever you’ve been thinking about, whatever you’ve been writing down, and whatever you’ve been planning on. I want you to ask yourself, «Who else does this bless?» Because if it doesn’t bless anybody else, it is not of God. It has to be a vision that is inclusive and not exclusive. It is a statistical fact, for example, that people who go into business to make money go out of business more readily than those who go into business to provide a service to others.
In other words, God doesn’t bless selfish agendas. So you may be trying to drag God into something that you were at the beginning of the text. Can’t read «In the beginning, Roger,» and then five chapters later, you’re trying to pray God into Roger’s vision. If it’s only done because of something you want, it is not what God wants. Jesus, in the Garden of Gethsemane, said, «Father, if it be Thy will, pass this bitter cup from me.» In other words, «It’s not what I want; nevertheless, not my will but Thine be done.» If I have it my way, it’s not going to go down all right. But if I do it Your way, it might be tough, but when it’s all over, it’s gonna turn out all right!
So the first test is to see if this serves some higher purpose than you or if it’s all about you, boo. If it’s all about you, then none of it is about Him! So these are how we are going to test our dreams for 2021: Is it all about you, or how does it serve other people? Because if it serves other people, it will always be open. For example, the hospital will always be open. The funeral home will always be open. Healthcare for the elderly will always be open. Anything that you build to serve other people other than you will always have a customer. But if all it does is serve your hidden agenda, it will never be successful! That goes for marriage. «I just want to get married.»
That ain’t gonna work! That goes for ministry. «I just want to preach.» No, no, that ain’t gonna work! If it doesn’t serve a higher purpose, it can be the right thing but have the wrong motive! Oh, y’all don’t hear what I’m saying to you! Oh, you were shouting real good when I was hooping. You were shouting real good! But when I started breaking down what it costs to get to «In the beginning, God,» you’re getting kind of quiet now, but I want you to get these four points because they’re important—five points for you to receive.
Number two: Are there proclivities or preparations in your past that preview where you’re trying to go? Are there proclivities or preparations in your past that preview where you’re trying to go? There ought to be some clues in your history that validate your destiny. Your history ought to have some hint of your destiny inside of it. If you are trying to do something that now was never you, you may have difficulty getting it to work because if it be of God, God has been giving you glimpses of it all your life, and you ought to be able to see some little breadcrumbs, some little clues throughout your life that lend themselves to where you’re trying to go right now. You cannot sell what’s not in your warehouse; you can’t fulfill orders if it’s not in your inventory.
There ought to be some sign of it in your childhood; some sign of it ought to be in your life. You might have been using it in the wrong way; you might have been using it to sell drugs, you might have been using it in the street. You may have perverted your talent, but there ought to be some indication of talent. We may have to turn it in the right direction, but there ought to be something. I want to read this again because I want you to get this; I think this is important. Are there proclivities or preparations in your past that preview where you’re trying to go?
If they’re not, maybe you’re supposed to support somebody who has the past to match the promise. See, we got everybody trying to do, when there are some people that need to support others that are called to do. But the need to be seen, to be important, and to get credit causes you to say, «In the beginning, Fred; in the beginning, Mary, that which is born of the flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption.» If it starts in the flesh, it’s going to corrupt; if it starts in the spirit, it’s going to of the spirit reap life everlasting. Oh, I’m in the Word of God; y’all don’t hear what I’m saying.
Number three: are your motives pure, not grounded in spite, ego, or evil? Are you doing it from a pure place, or are you doing it to prove something to your sister? Are you doing it to prove something to your ex-husband? If your motives are not pure, you can’t say, «In the beginning, God.» You have to say, «In the beginning, anger; in the beginning, jealousy; in the beginning, frustration; in the beginning, envy; in the beginning, strife.» And if God is not in the beginning of it, there ain’t no goodness and mercy to follow you if your motives are not pure.
Now this is going to be hard because you’re going to have to be honest, and it’s hard to get people to be honest about motives. You can do the right thing for the wrong reason because your motives are not pure, and if you don’t fix it this year, it’s going to look like last year. Oh, y’all don’t hear what I’m saying. I don’t care how much you change the calendar; if you don’t change your motives, you won’t change your outcome. Can I go a little bit deeper with this?
Number four: do you sense God being the architect of your dream, or are you a schemer, Jacob? Are you always scheming, manipulating, moving things around? When God is the architect of your dream, you’ll be shocked how things fall into place; you’ll be shocked how God will send people that you need when you need them to help you. But when you are the architect, you have to manipulate, trick, and scheme to make it work out, hire people and not pay them, borrow money and never give it back, use them and abuse them, and then call them haters when they want what’s theirs. Y’all don’t want to get with me; y’all don’t want to get with me. It’s too late for this; y’all can’t handle this. Y’all can’t handle it; only the real people can handle it. You have to be a real person to challenge your own dream.
Can I say that again? You have to be a real person to challenge your own dream, to confront your motives. I’m not talking about your actions; I’m talking about your motives. Why are you doing it? Not your what. Why? You fix your what, but your why is sick, and if your why is sick, your what won’t work. Oh, it’s quiet; oh, it’s quiet because out of the heart flows the issues of life. The heart is where the motives are, your intentions—what causes you to do it? Well, I’ve started in the church. Yeah, but you’re trying to spite the pastor down the street, and you want God to bless it to prove to him that you really are more anointed than he acknowledged. Your motives are not right.
Oh, I lost some of y’all on that. You see, you might want to click me off because I’m going to say it again: your motives are not right. Anytime you’re trying to prove something to flesh, your motives are not right. This has to be «In the beginning, God,» or it will not work. «In the beginning, God,» or it will not work. I don’t care how many times you get married. «In the beginning, God,» or it will not work. You can’t get married to show your ex that you are still marketable and then ask God to bless your marriage. How can God bless your marriage when you won’t let God fix your motive? Oh, God! Can I go deeper?
Number five: are you willing to endure the process, or are you just attracted to the promise? Everybody wants to go to Chicago, but no one wants to drive. Everybody wants to go to Heaven; nobody wants to die. Everybody wants to be successful; nobody wants to work. Everybody wants to be a millionaire, but no one wants to do the labor. Everybody wants to get a reward, but nobody wants to make an investment. Everybody wants a return, but nobody wants to plant a seed. Everybody wants a harvest, but nobody wants to put anything in the ground. Are you in love with the promise more than the process?
You cannot embrace promises without process; the process is a part of it. Somebody give me 30 seconds of praise. We’re not praising Him for the promise; we’re praising Him for the process. We’re praising Him for the struggle; we’re praising Him for the correction; we’re praising Him for the judgment; we’re praising Him for time-out; we’re praising Him for correction; we’re praising Him for spankings; we’re praising Him for putting us in quiet time; we’re praising Him for putting us on hold because the more He corrected us, the more we knew He was with us. I know I belong to Him because He corrects me. I’m so glad You correct me; as long as You’re correcting me, You’re not deserting me. Can I get y’all to give God praise?
I know You’re with me; I know You have something planned for me; I know You’re going to do something in my life; I know You have something for me to do because when I get it wrong, You make me get it right. You make me get it together; You make me apologize; You make me say I’m sorry; You make me go back and fix it. That means I’m Your child because whom the Lord loves, He chastens! That’s how I know I’m not illegitimate because He chastens me. Somebody ought to praise Him for chastening you. You ought to praise Him for correcting you. I praise Him! I praise Him for every bit of trouble we went through. I praise Him for every bit of trial we went through. I praise Him for how long it took us.
I praise Him for every church we pastored that wouldn’t grow. I praise Him for preaching to 20 people. I praise Him for preaching in empty buildings. I praise Him for putting my paycheck in the offering to keep the doors open. I praise Him for everybody who lied on me. I praise Him for everybody who walked out. I praise Him for everybody who quit. I praise Him for the sister that stopped paying tithes when her tithes were almost all we had because when she stopped paying, God started paying. I found out I didn’t need her like I thought I did. I praise Him for experience; I praise Him for challenges; I praise Him for struggles. That’s why I can preach in an empty building, because I started in an empty building, and if you start in an empty building, the devil can’t threaten you. I will not be threatened, not by any demon, not by any power because I’ve been there, done that, got a t-shirt.
Somebody say yes, Lord! I got one more point to make and then I’ll be through. Everything God created, John said, was a Word. Genesis says it was God; John says the Word was God. All things were made by Him, and not anything made that was made. Y’all thought I lost myself, but I know exactly where I am. John and Genesis are saying the same thing. They’re describing the creation in two different ways. God said let there be, and it became what He said. Let there be light, and there was light. Let the firmaments above the waters be separated from the firmaments beneath the waters, and it was good. Let the lower lights rule the night and the greater light rule the day, and it was good.
God spoke to the sea and said bring forth, and the fish began to swim. He spoke to the air, and the birds began to fly. He spoke to the ground, and the grass began to grow. Everything He spoke to, something came out of it. If God speaks to you, something will come out of you. If God speaks to you, something will swim in you. If God speaks to you, something will fly in you. Somebody say, «Speak to me, Lord! Speak to me, Lord! Speak to my heart! Speak to my mind! Speak to my spirit!» I got a word for somebody right now: God is getting ready to speak in your life, and nothing anybody else said is going to stop you from getting your year. Nothing anybody did is going to stop you from getting your blessing. Nothing anybody else did is going to stop the door that God’s about to open in your life. Everything God spoke to, it brought forth.
Everything God spoke to, it brought forth. Everything God spoke to, it brought forth. But when it came down to man, that’s the only time God deviated. He didn’t just speak to man; the Bible said He formed him. The Hebrew word is «panna;» it means He shaped him, it means He got him together, it means He touched him. The Lord said, «I’m not only going to speak to you; I’m going to touch you. I’m going to shape you, I’m going to develop you, I’m going to make you, and then I’m going to set you in a prepared place.»
Whoever I’m preaching to, 2022 is already prepared. God has a place for you, and He’s going to set you in it. Somebody needs to step in it. God’s gonna set you in a place of blessings right now. Whoever I’m talking to, praise Him like I’m talking to you right now. Praise Him! Praise Him! Praise Him! Praise Him! Praise Him! Praise Him! Devil, this is my word! Devil, this is my word! I’m getting ready to cross over into another year, and as I cross over into another year, you think I’m going to praise Him for the doors He opens, but what I’m going to do is praise Him for the doors He closed. Thank You, Lord, for the doors You closed. Thank You for the places You didn’t let me go. Thank You for the people that won’t cross with me. Thank You, Lord, for the breakthrough I got in my life!
Somebody type on the line, «Thank You, Lord.» Just say, «Thank You, Lord.» Somebody just type, «Thank You, Lord.» Somebody type, «Thank You, Lord.» Somebody say, «Thank You, Lord! Thank You, Lord! Thank You, Jesus! Thank You for who’s not going! Thank You for who I left behind! Thank You for where I can’t stay! Thank You, Lord, for the yoke that broke! Thank You, Lord, for the chains that fell! Thank You, Lord, for the water I parted! Thank You, Lord, for the coat I came out of! Thank You, Lord, for the bag I left behind! Thank You for the lunch I gave! Thank You for who walked off and left me! Thank You for the doors You closed! Thank You, Lord!
It hurt me, but I thank You, Lord! I cried, but I thank You, Lord! I crawled, but I thank You, Lord! I crawled out of it, I crawled out of it, I crawled out of it because I knew God had something for me. As I close tonight, I close the door on what’s been tormenting you. I close the door on what’s not shut, available. I shut the door! I shut the door! I shut the door! I shut the door! Shut the door! I gotta shut it before twelve. I gotta set it before midnight! I gotta shut it, I gotta shut it! It’s 11:59! I gotta shut the door!
Somebody run and shut the door! Praise Him like you’re going into 2022! Praise Him like the devil can’t go with you! In the name of Jesus, from going into 2022, you got to stay in last year! This is my year! Type it on the line! Type it on the line! This is my year! I’m crossing over! I’m crossing over with a praise! I’m crossing over with a praise! I’m crossing over with a hallelujah! I’m crossing over with joy! 2021, I’m gone! See you later! I’m out of here! I mean, I’m stepping over into 2022! The devil didn’t want me to make it, but I’m crossing over into a brand new year. Somebody say, „Happy New Year! Happy New Year! Happy new life! Happy new peace! Happy new power! Happy new deliverance! Happy new visit! Happy new understanding!“ Open your mouth and praise Him with a brand new place! I will bless the Lord at all times; His praise shall continually be in my mouth!