In the Beginning

Isaiah 46:9-10 “Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me, 10 Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure:”

God declares Himself over and over again in Isaiah. 

Ezekiel experienced a vision of water flowing from the temple of God. He was ankle deep at first and kept going until there was water deep enough to swim in.

There are provisions in the river of God. Press your way in. Every provision that you need is in the presence of the Lord. You’ve got to get all the way in, not just ankle deep. Keep going in God and you will find everything you need in Him.

In Isaiah, God declared ‘the end from the beginning.’ 

Isaiah 40:21-31 “Have ye not known? have ye not heard? hath it not been told you from the beginning? have ye not understood from the foundations of the earth? 22 It is he that sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in: 23 That bringeth the princes to nothing; he maketh the judges of the earth as vanity. 24 Yea, they shall not be planted; yea, they shall not be sown: yea, their stock shall not take root in the earth: and he shall also blow upon them, and they shall wither, and the whirlwind shall take them away as stubble. 25 To whom then will ye liken me, or shall I be equal? saith the Holy One. 26 Lift up your eyes on high, and behold who hath created these things, that bringeth out their host by number: he calleth them all by names by the greatness of his might, for that he is strong in power; not one faileth. 27 Why sayest thou, O Jacob, and speakest, O Israel, My way is hid from the Lord, and my judgment is passed over from my God? 28 Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding. 29 He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength. 30 Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: 31 But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint.”

Isa 48:3-5 “I have declared the former things from the beginning; and they went forth out of my mouth, and I shewed them; I did them suddenly, and they came to pass. 4 Because I knew that thou art obstinate, and thy neck is an iron sinew, and thy brow brass; 5 I have even from the beginning declared it to thee; before it came to pass I shewed it thee: lest thou shouldest say, Mine idol hath done them, and my graven image, and my molten image, hath commanded them.”

Hebrew has three levels of language in one, numeric (each of the 22 letters have a numerical value), phonetic (the letters have sounds), and pictorial (pictures, with a message in the word, deeper than the word itself).

In Genesis chapter 1, God declares Himself to be the Creator. He says through the pictorial message that He dwells and has a purpose. One of the words has in one letter pictorial a hand pointing to another pectoral letter, the cross. What a powerful language this is! In the middle of that Hebrew word, there is destruction, symbolizing the destruction of sin. God portrays letter by letter, number by number, 4000 years, a new beginning.

God spoke the end from the beginning. 

Acts 11:15 “And as I began to speak, the Holy Ghost fell on them, as on us at the beginning.”

Peter called the outpouring of the Holy Ghost, ‘the beginning.’ What the cross came to do was not complete without Pentecost. Passover was not complete without Pentecost. Peter declares that Pentecost was the new beginning, the fulfilling of the covenant, reconciling us with God.

Looking at that experience that took place at Pentecost, thank God we can go back, looking, and experience the same thing.

In this hour and in this time, God is restoring and calling us back to the original, to the beginning and find at the beginning, He declares the end of all things.

What does God say about you in the beginning?

Phil 1:6 “Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:”

2 Thes 2:13-14 “But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth: 14 Whereunto he called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.”

We are called to obtain the glory of Jesus. 

The Word is eternal and will never pass away. As we take on His Spirit and His nature in us, we have got to learn to walk in that eternal essence and understand that eternal promise. It’s already settled outside of time, but we can interject it into the state and time that we live and experience those things that He declares to us.

2 Cor 5:17 “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.”

James 1:22-24 “But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves. 23 For if any be a hearer of the word, and not a doer, he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass: 24 For he beholdeth himself, and goeth his way, and straightway forgetteth what manner of man he was.”

You’ve got to put the Word into action. Be a doer.

James 1:25 “But whoso looketh into the perfect law of liberty, and continueth therein, he being not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this man shall be blessed in his deed.”

God wants us to view ourselves as we are going to be in the end, in the perfect law of liberty, living in those things, through His Word, in His Spirit, instead of returning back to what we were.

To look into the perfect law of liberty is to see yourself and your heart like God sees it through the New Birth and His Salvation plan for your life. We cannot understand it and remember it if we’re operating by our feelings or our human understanding. We’ve got to look into the perfect law of liberty, His Word, and see what God says about us.

Jer 17:9-10 “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked: who can know it? 10 I the Lord search the heart, I try the reins, even to give every man according to his ways, and according to the fruit of his doings.”

God understands our heart, but we can’t. We must trust His Word and grow in the Lord. We’ve got to trust Him.

God spoking to Samuel about David:

1 Sam 16:7 “But the Lord said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart.”

God sees deeper than outward appearance. 

In Numbers 13, Moses sent twelve spies into the Promised Land. Two spies came back excited and ready to take it. Ten spies came back terrified.

Num 13:33 “And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.”

Because they saw themselves as grasshoppers, that’s how they thought their enemy saw them. However, this is how the enemies really saw the Israelites:

Joshua 2:9-11 “And she said unto the men, I know that the Lord hath given you the land, and that your terror is fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land faint because of you. 10For we have heard how the Lord dried up the water of the Red sea for you, when ye came out of Egypt; and what ye did unto the two kings of the Amorites, that were on the other side Jordan, Sihon and Og, whom ye utterly destroyed. 11 And as soon as we had heard these things, our hearts did melt, neither did there remain any more courage in any man, because of you: for the Lord your God, he is God in heaven above, and in earth beneath.”

God delivered all of Egypt into Israel’s hand. It’s really the enemy that’s trembling. We must stand as the people of God, knowing our Lord. It’s not us, it’s Him in us. It’s not who we are, it’s Who He is.

There is no need to fear because He is the one who is in control. 

1 Cor 15:49 “And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.”

2 Cor 3:18 “But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.”

Gal 2:20 “I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.”

Our problem isn’t our belief, it’s our doubts. We are new creatures in Christ. This is the truth which sets us free. The devil is a liar and will try to bring up old regrets, but in Jesus, we are brand new.

Sometimes, you need to take the devil by the ear and tell him that the old you doesn’t exist anymore. He’s dead and buried through repentance and baptism. He is a brand new creature because of the infilling of the Holy Ghost. Because of Jesus, we have experienced our own death, burial and resurrection. We rise to walk in newness of life.

Your struggling faith that seems not enough, throw yourself on the mercy of the Lord. When faith can’t do it, God’s mercy will. It’s the goodness of God that leads us to repentance. I live by the faith of God. My faith is weak, but His is perfect. His life in me and my life in Him, I am strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus.

Eph 2:18 “For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father.”

Gal 3:13 “Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree:”

If you can let Him live in you, there is hope. He became a curse for you so that you might be free.

Gal 3:14 “That the blessing of Abraham might come on the Gentiles through Jesus Christ; that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.”

We have access to the blessings, not the cursing. God wants you to understand His divine purpose for you is blessing. God declared from the beginning, the end, the blessing that He has declared for your life.

If you don’t know what to say to Jesus, just say as Thomas did when He saw the resurrected Jesus. He fell down at His feet and said, ‘My Lord and my God!’ Declare Him to be your Lord and your God.

More Questions for Personal or Group Study:

1. What really spoke to you in this sermon?
2. How do you see yourself? How does this differ from the way God sees you? 
3. Read Rom 12:2-3 and Phil 4:1-9. What does God want us to think about? How does this affect the way we see ourselves, others, and God?
4. How can you take this understanding and encourage someone near you?

Excerpted from a sermon preached by Missionary/Evangelist Monty Showalter.

For the full YouTube audio/video, click here.