We are constantly trying to figure out the cause of certain things encountered in life, from important and complex situations to simple trivial situations.

For example:

• If there is liquid on the outside of your brand new punch bowl, and you do not assume it is only condensation but check the bowl for damage, and find there is actually a crack in the bottom of the bowl, you would have to return it.
• When a serious crime is committed, detectives try to determine the motive that could lead them to the perpetrator.
• When we encounter a person in a grumpy mood we ask them what’s wrong.
• When it comes to physical health we know that serious diseases like cancer are sometimes caused by inflammation due to an acid-causing diet and toxicity. So we now know we can prevent certain sicknesses and diseases.
• When a married couple is having problems we don’t just deal with the symptoms that cause stress but we deal with the root cause, so we can stop the symptoms.

It is important that we understand the cause of things and not just deal with symptoms.  That being said, we all want to walk in our purpose and have goals that enable us to fulfill our purpose. In order to do this, we first need to understand our beginning or what caused us to come into the world. This is necessary if we are going to know the “how” and the “why” of our lives.

What was the very beginning of all things? Most people think it started with Genesis 1:1: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” But there is something in the Bible that comes even before this. John 1:1-4 says: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men.”

John 1:14 says: “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.” Of course, John 1:1 is speaking of the fact that God the Son preceded the creation of physical matter and time because He is the creator and originator of the universe as the Word of Father God. He was in the beginning; He was with God and was God. He then became flesh when He took upon Himself the form of a human being when He was born of the Virgin Mary, and we called Him Jesus. The four gospels unpack His life and the epistles teach us how to live as a faith community in light of His ways in our everyday lives.

What I want to do in this article is take some exegetical liberty and impose on the text a secondary meaning of how these passages can be applied to us in principle, because we can see the following pattern in all of Scripture.

John 1:1: “In the beginning was the Word.” The original Greek word for “Word” is logos which means a word, a message, reason, logic or truth. Thus, Jesus is the message, image or word that expresses the heart of the Father. This means when Jesus created the universe and all living things on planet earth, including humanity, He declared the heart of the Father. Because His word is so powerful and potent, whatever He declared was instantly manifest in the physical realm.

Thus, behind every material thing in the universe the Bible says there is a word that caused it!

Scientists have even shown that within each cell of every living thing, whether it be plants, animals or humans, is something called DNA, which is a complicated language or set of words that determines what every living thing will become. For example, as each acorn has the DNA to become an oak tree, each cell in our body has the DNA that matches who we are supposed to be.

This means that over each of our lives is a “word” spoken by God that determines who and what we would become.

Each of us needs to know the word or vision God has for us in order to know the lives He designed us to live and walk in.

So it is not just prophetic words that we receive to help us understand our future but most importantly it is the original divine word spoken over us that we need to understand. This divine word over us is unique. No one else who has been born, or ever will be born, has ever had our particular word that manifests itself as DNA, imparted to their lives. Thus, the word spoken over us will determine our personalities, natural giftings, abilities, physical and mental capabilities based on the natural design God gave us to supernaturally empower us to walk in our purpose on the earth.

Hence, we are not just supposed to “get a job” for money. People who do this are the most miserable people in the world who cannot wait for retirement. We are to walk in our vocation or calling no matter what we do to make a living. Anything we do just for money and not unto the Lord using our God-given abilities will not bring fulfillment to us.

Natural gifting and ability need to correlate to our divine calling. For example, if a person feels called of God to be a singer then they need to first determine whether or not they have the natural ability to sing. If a person feels called to administration they need to have the personality and mental ability to administrate. If called to be an evangelist they need to have a magnetic personality and the ability to speak well and influence people, even before they were converted to Christ!

“The Word was with God”

When we walk in obedience and the creative ability God designed for us according to our calling and yield to God’s Spirit then we walk with God, and God’s presence is attracted to us in the same way the Holy Spirit was attracted to God’s creation in the beginning.

Thus, walking in God’s presence is the result of walking in God’s word spoken over our lives. Thus, we are called to not only walk in the Spirit but also in our natural giftings as well.

“The Word was God”

According to Scripture, our ultimate call is to walk like Jesus (Romans 8:29; Galatians 2:19-20). We will never become exactly like God, nor are we evolving into little gods, but we are called to be Christ-followers so we can reflect God in and to this world. Thus, once we walk in our natural design, in the power of the Spirit, we reflect God to those around us and we become the salt and light of the world.

The world doesn’t merely need to see our personalities or abilities; the world needs to see our lives saturated with the presence and power of God which alone will convince them of our Savior. Christ-likeness is the most important calling any of us have.

“The Word became flesh and dwelt among us”

The last thing that happens—after we walk in the God-given vision spoken over our lives in the power of the Spirit, and we conform to the image of Christ—is doing the works of Christ. The Word becoming flesh has to do with us practically showing who Jesus is by our love, our accomplishments and our ministries in the real world. It is not enough just to love God personally, privately or inwardly. It is not enough just to sing songs of praise and read the Bible and attend church services. The manifestation of God in word and deed takes place in the grid of real-life experiences, in the conflicts of life in family relations, ministry relations and in our calling in the public arena of our vocations.

Let’s bring the power, presence, calling and person of Christ to this world through yielded, committed lives.

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