"And It Was So"

We now come to Day Four of Creation, part one. 

^14 "And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:

¹⁵ And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so," (Genesis 1:14-15).

What God speaks His spirit makes come to pass.   "...And it was so."   This declaration of finality is repeated six times in this chapter (verses 7, 9, 11, 15, 24, 30).  Afterward, God's Spirit moves on to the next creative work.

One of Christ Jesus' names is Alpha and Omega, representing the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet, being the Beginning and the End.   His name is not Alpha or Omega; He's both Alpha & Omega at the same time.   That is important to understand simply because it means when God begins something He is simultaneously ending something else.

For example, on the Cross Jesus cries out, "It is finished," (John 19:30).  He did not say, "I am finished."  He completed his earthly assignment only to enter into another dimension of service for His Body.  He is our High Priest who ever lives to make intercession for us (Heb. 7:25). 

When God's Word declares, "And it was so," the Alpha and Omega is completing something in order to start something new.   With that in mind, let's take a closer look at Genesis verses 14-15  and see what God accomplished before stating, "and it was so."

A.    "God said, Let there be lights...".  We are dealing here with a spoken word of God.   This is the second time God is directing light(s) into a specific location.   When He first said, "Let there be light" in verse 3, and "THERE" was light.  Where was "there"?  Answer:  into the dark waters over which His Spirit had been hovering face to face above the surface.   Where is He now directing multiple lights to go?

B.     "...let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven...".   So we see that these lights did not go into the waters, but rather, into the heaven. 

 If you're imagination takes you were mine did, you will automatically assume that these lights in the firmament of the heaven are the stars of heaven.   They are not!  At least, they are not the "physical stars" that can be seen with the human eye.   Stay with me and you'll understand.  What is the purpose of these lights being placed in the firmament?

C.    "...to divide the day from the night...".   Didn't God already separate the day from the night on Day One of Creation?  So, why the need to do it again?  

Acts 15:18 says, "Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world."  God already knows that He is going to make man.  The Omniscient One already knows that man is going to fall into darkness and will need light to shine.  Man will find himself separated from God and unable to hear the voice of God clearly.  God will be "invisible".   The Light of God will be incomprehensible.  Nevertheless, God was releasing "lights in the firmament of heaven...".   Their purpose?

D.     "...and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years."   Notice that these lights are not for measuring a twenty-four hour period of time.   These lights are marking time on earth differently...prophetically and seasonally. 

 The lights in our world are not just natural, but spiritual.  The first part of God's work on Day Four of Creation is in the spoken realm: "God said...".   Although God's Word and Light carry the power to make things manifest physically, often times the spoken Word of God does an "unseen" work.  Jesus stated that He is building His kingdom within us.  We can't see it because the Word of God declares that the kingdom of God does not come with observation because it comes within us (Luke 17:20-22). 

Living Light

God is Light (I John 1:5).  God is the source of all life.  Without light, things cannot grow; they cannot live because light and life go together.   What I am saying is this:  Light is alive!  It must be alive in order to spawn life in created things.   For something to be alive, the life must be contained within a 'body' - whether a natural body or a spiritual body.  

When God spoke, "Let there be lights..." He was releasing spiritual light and life even as He had released the Christ when He said, "Let there be light" in Genesis 1:3.  Christ did not just get here when Jesus was conceived by the  power of the Holy Spirit overshadowing the Virgin Mary.  He was the Spirit of the Lord spoken of throughout the Old Testament.  He came upon the prophets of old and empowered them to write holy scriptures and to be His mouthpiece.  He was Israel's manifested pillar of fire by night and cloud by day.  He did not return unto the Father until after he had received his earthly body ("...a body hast thou prepared me," Hebrews 10:5) and died upon the Cross, and commended His spirit back to the Father.

"And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ," (1 Cor. 10:4).

Christ manifested in various ways to His chosen people, yet He did not have His own body.  He has always been Emmanuel, God with us.   You need to comprehend this before you can receive the revelations that are coming.

Beloved, I submit to you that the lights that were set in the firmament of heaven to "give light upon the earth" (vs 15) and that are for signs and seasons and days and years, are not the natural, but spiritual lights - even the lights that represent the lives of the children of the Most High God. 

We were placed in heavenly places before we were born. Like Jesus, we didn't have a body.  God told the prophet Jeremiah,

"Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations,"  (Jeremiah 1:5). 

Jesus makes a profound statement in John 20:21, "...as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you."  Even as?  Meaning, in the same way in which I was sent into the earth, even so I send you into the earth.   Did He not also say in John 17:14, "...they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world."

Are not God's people set in this world to be lights that shine upon it?  You are still spiritually seated in heavenly places  (Eph. 2:6), even while you live in your season upon the earth.  Even in the book of Isaiah do we not hear the prophet saying, "Arise, shine for thy light is come and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee" (Isaiah 60:1).  "And" is a conjunction joining to separate things: peanut butter and jelly; mashed potatoes and gravy; salt and pepper; thy light and the glory of the Lord.

Does not God give people upon the earth for seasons, signs and wonders?  Has He not marked time by the coming and going of certain ones upon the earth at appointed prophetic times?  Look at Methusaleh who lived to be 969 years old.  As long as he lived, the flood could not come.  No man has ever lived longer.  God used this man as a sign.  In His compassion, he extended the life of Methusaleh longer than any other in order to give men as much time as possible to repent.  Nevertheless, man's heart was continually wicked.  Methuselah's life was God's "season of mercy".  When the life passed, judgment came and the floods were loosed.     Moses was a sign.  So many of God's people leaders, judges, prophets, etc. were called into the earth to fulfill a certain purpose at a specific time.   Their life and their death set specific things in motion.  God used the prophet Hosea to marry a harlot and have three children who would each represent a sign to His people Israel even through the names that were chosen for them.  Enough.  You get the picture.

This may be a lot to meditate on for some.  We will not deal with all of Day Four in this blog.  Let's wrap up verse 15:

"...and it was so."

By now I believe you're beginning to understand.  God concluded the first part of His work on Day Four and emphasized that something had been finished.   Therefore, what is about to take place in verses 16 & 17 is not the same work that He just accomplished.    We'll break it down in the next blog.

We invite you to join us on Monday nights at 9PM EST as we expound further on the revelations we share on this blog site.   The number to call is 530.881.1200.   Access code is 448699#.   Previous blogs and recordings may be accessed as well. 

Let There Be Light!



^3 "And God said, Let there be light: and there was light," (Gen. 1).

 In our last session we began laying a foundation for this series of revelations on the light.  "In the beginning" is a phrase used both in Genesis 1:1 and St. John 1:1.   As we began comparing the account of creation, we saw from John 1 that the word God spoke in the very beginning was Christ; the same word that became flesh and dwelt among us.

 God's word is spirit and life (John 6:63).  Because God is Light, when His word enters your spirit, it brings light also:

"The entrance of thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple," (Psalm 119:130).



 

Jesus told us that he came to give us life more abundantly (John 10:10).  He said to the Father, "I have given them thy word; and the world hath hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world," (John 17:14).  By giving us His word, He has given us his spirit, his life, and his light.  In other words, He has given us Himself.  Truly we are heirs of God, meaning, we inherit God!  Those who are joined to the Lord become one spirit.  His Light within us [Christ in us the hope of glory, Col. 1:27] dispels our darkness.

 

"For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light," (Eph. 5:8).

 

Do not be fooled by the darkness.  There is a power to see in the dark and to believe that the darkness is light simply because you can see.  

 

"The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.

²³ But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!" (Matthew 6:22-23).

 

As we stated in our last session, in the beginning when God directed His light into the dark, murky abyss of putrid water over which His Spirit had been brooding, He did not destroy the darkness, but rather, He separated the darkness from the light.

 

^4 "And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.
⁵ And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day," (Genesis 1)

Notice that God saw goodness in the light, but the scripture does NOT say that "he saw the darkness, that it was good."   Remember a key to unlocking certain revelations to come?  I shared it with you last week:  What God doesn't say is significant and powerful for a purpose.  We'll discover that in the weeks to come.

The darkness was not destroyed by the light, but it was divided from the light.  How?  I used to conceptualize the separation by distance, but it is not.   Think about it.   How did God divide the light and dark?  He did it by giving each its own time.   In other words, there is a time for light to shine that's call Day.  And a time for darkness to prevail that's called Night.   Notice that the "evening and the morning were the first day".   Our "day" is backwards from God's.  We start in the morning and end our day in the evening.  However, God counts a day as starting in the evening and ending in the light.

A few concepts are introduced in these verses:

1.     SEPARATION.  This is going to be a key concept.  The initial work of creation was to bring about a separation of darkness from light. What is the first work God does in the life of a newborn believer in Jesus? 
       SEPARATION.  He immediately translates you out of the kingdom of darkness and into the kingdom of His dear Son (Col. 1:13).  To "translate" you means He picks you up and carries you out of the darkness and sets you in a place prepared for you in His kingdom!  Glory to God!
2.    TIME.  God dwells in eternity, but He set time in motion upon the earth. 
3.    A DAY.  It is greatly debated as to whether or not the "week" of creation was a literal seven day week.   We will give evidence from scripture that will help you draw your own conclusion.  
4.     NAMES.   God names things.  He give the light a name, "Day" and the darkness a name, "Night".   Man who is made in the image of God is the only part of His creation that has also been given the ability to name things.

 

"And out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field, and every fowl of the air; and brought them unto Adam to see what he would call them: and whatsoever Adam called every living creature, that was the name thereof," (Gen. 2:19).

 

Let's take a closer look at what God does on day two of creation:

 

^6 "And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.
⁷ And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.
⁸ And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day."

Notice the same concepts are repeated?

1.     SEPARATION.  God separated waters.  How?   The Word of God (Christ) was instructed to go into the waters ("let THERE be light").   Now that he's in the midst of the waters, the Father directs the Word (His Son) to create a "firmament in the midst [or middle] of the waters".   Strong's Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible defines a "firmament" as "an expanse; the visible arch of sky".  Can you picture it?  Christ was in the midst of the waters causing an expanse of space, air, sky to push half of the waters above the expanse while the other half remained beneath.
2.     TIME as marked off again as a "day".
3.     NAME.  The expanse or firmament was given a name.  It had not been there before.  It was brought up out of the midst of the waters.  What was the firmament called?   Heaven.  This is obviously not the heaven where God's throne is or from which He dwells, but rather the atmospheric circumference of what will be named "Earth" (vs. 10.).

Go back to Genesis 1:1 for a moment:  "In the beginning God created the heaven...".   Yes, He did.  And verses 6-8 show us how He created it.  Remember we said that the first verse was like an introduction to what God was going to do and that the rest of the chapter shows us how He did it?
He created the heaven by bringing it forth from the midst of the waters.  I have another profound series of teachings entitled, Something About the Waters.  In that series we share a stream of revelations about waters from Genesis to Revelation.  Suffice it to say here that every creative work of God was done through waters.  He moved upon the face of the deep in the very beginning and then sent His Spirit into the waters because He needed to do something to the waters before He could do something through the waters.

So, we see that heaven (or sky) is a created thing.  It was created on day two.  One more thing to tuck into your spirit before we move on: the four-word phase at the end of verse seven, "...and it was so."  Those words tell us that the work was completed, done, finished.  Afterward God names the work that He just ended:  Heaven.

Let's look at day three of creation:

^9 "And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.
¹⁰ And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good.
¹¹ And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.
¹² And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
¹³ And the evening and the morning were the third day."

1.     SEPARATION.  God called for the gathering of waters into one place so that dry land could appear.  In other words, He separated the waters from the land enough so that for the first time, that which had been beneath the waters and concealed by the waters was now made visible:  land.   That land was saturated with waters. God called forth vegetation upon the land that had been saturated in water.
2.     TIME is again marked as a day.
3.     NAME.  God called the dry land "Earth".   The gathering of waters, "Seas".  

Are you seeing the pattern?  Next week we will look at day four of creation week and we'll explode some revelations into your spirit.   This week's blog is laying a foundation and giving you some ground work for what's to come.

Please review last week's blog.  Listen to the playback of our conversation regarding it.  The playback number is 530-881.1299.  Access Code is 448699#.  The reference number for last week's call is 4 followed by the # sign.

I hope you'll be in the weekly Monday night live call.  The dial in number is 530.881.1200 and the access code is 448699#.   We start at 9PM EST.

 

 

 



 

 NEXT WEEK



 

^14 "And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:
¹⁵ And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so."


¹⁶ And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.
¹⁷ And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth,
¹⁸ And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good.
¹⁹ And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.

Jesus Is the Light

"This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all," (I John 1:5).

"I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness," (John 12:46).

^19 "And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.

²⁰ For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.

²¹ But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God," (John 3:19-21).

We are about to embark on a series of revelations that are fresh manna from heaven for this generation of believers.  We will explore and expound on many scriptures so that your confidence rests in the Word of God.  I pray that your spirit is illuminated to these truths in such a way that you will never be the same again.

We will ask many questions along the way and lay a foundation for understanding some things about our Father that only He could reveal.   It will be important for you to grasp the insights on a weekly basis so that the foundation that is laid in your spirit is complete and unshakeable in the knowledge of Jesus Christ.

Today's blog is introductory, but profound.  There is a truth that I want to tuck deep down in your spirit:   What God doesn't say is as powerful as what He does say.  In teaching me from the inner perimeters of truth, God has often had to reveal to me what He didn't say in order for me to grasp the magnitude of His work and His power.  In other words, even in His silence, God is mighty. 

For example, the Lord asked me a question concerning the account of Creation in Genesis Chapter One.  God created by using His spoken word, "Let there be..." and it was so. However, when He began the work of creation, He never said, "Let there be water".   He never said, "Let there be darkness"; or, "let there be evil".   Yet these things existed.  The answers to why God didn't speak these things is quite profound and we'll discuss them in future blogs.

I want today's blog to spark something deep in your spirit, beloved.  Read St. John 1:1-14.  These verses are worth committing to memory.   They will be extremely important to us in the days to come.   From these verses we learn some things about Jesus Christ:

1.     He is the Word that was with God from the very beginning.  

2.     He made all things that were made.  This means that in Genesis Chapter One, Christ was there doing the work of creating.

3.     Life is in Christ.

4.     The life of Christ is the light of men.

5.     Jesus is referred to as the Light  (not just "a" light... lower case "l", but "the" Light).  The definite article ["the"] sets Him apart from any other light; the capitalization of the "L" in the word "Light" honors him as deity.  Jesus is God; and, "God is Light" (I John 1:5).

6.     Jesus is the true Light  [as opposed to Satan who transforms himself into an "angel of light"  - 2 Cor. 11:14, but he's not really light at all].

7.     Those who receive Him receive power to become sons of God.

8.     The Word that was with God from the beginning is the same Word that was made flesh.

This passage of scripture also speaks of John the Baptist, a forerunner sent to bear witness of "that Light" (vs 7).   Because that Light came into the world, condemnation came (John 3:19).  We are not condemned because we sin; we are condemned if we refuse to come to the Light and allow our sins to be exposed for what they are.  Those who hate the Light repeatedly find excuses to justify living in darkness.  They rename sin to make it more palatable:  an "alternative lifestyle" or a woman's "reproductive rights" and so forth.  When we accept the rebukes and reproofs given by the Light and embrace the truth, the truth makes us free.  The truth tells us to repent and it draws us out of the kingdom of darkness and translates us into the kingdom of God's dear Son (Col. 1:13).

"Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life," (John 8:12).

God allowed Saul to be temporarily blinded by His Light so that his real eyes could be opened to the truth of who Jesus is.   When Paul testified before king Agrippa, he revealed that he had been commissioned by God as a light to the Gentiles,

"To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me," (Acts 26:18).

As God's people, it is still our assignment to reveal God's light:  "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven," (Mt. 5:16).

"That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world;" (Phil. 2:15).

We were once a part of the darkness.  "For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light," (Eph. 5:8). 

"Ye are all the children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the night, nor of darkness," (I Thess. 5:5).

Because Jesus is the Light and we are in His image and likeness, we too are "light-beings" who radiate or shine forth.

"And they that be wise shall shine as the brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness as the stars for ever and ever," (Daniel 12:3).

"Then shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear," (Mt. 13:43).

When the Word of God speaks of light and darkness, there are both natural and spiritual connotations.  For example, things associated with darkness include nighttime, Satan's kingdom, wickedness, death, misery, depression, hopelessness, sickness, fear, sin, etc.   Things associated with light include joy, peace, growth, love, rest, God and His kingdom, health and well-being, life everlasting, etc.

As we study about the nature and character of natural light, we will learn more about the nature and character of "spiritual light".   Both kinds of light exist in our world.   Both came into being on this planet in Genesis, Chapter One.

Not once, or even twice, but three times Genesis, Chapter One deals with sending forth light.  The lights were both natural and spiritual.  Don't try to figure it out on your own.  It will take the revelation from God to see this.  And we will in next week's blog.

We may go into some of that revelation on our "Church by Phone" call this coming Monday at 9PM EST.  It's going to be powerful!  Dial in to listen in:  530-881-1200.   Access code 448699#. 

BURGESS MINISTRIES - "Building the Kingdom by Building People"

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