Focus: Make Things Happen

Text: Gen.1:1

"In the BEGINNING GOD CREATED the heaven and the earth."

Our text is the first statement of the Holy Scripture and it unpacks eternity for us.

The first thing to see in this sacred text is the Being of God, the fact that He exists before all else that exists, and the fact that He is the reason behind or the cause of all that exists, namely, the heavens and the earth.

The first thing about the Being of God is His Doings. The heavens and the earth are the doings of God. Creation is the doing of God. Humanity is the doing of God.

Our text says that God CREATED everything. To create means to originate, to initiate, to cause something to be or exist, and to create requires intelligence, brilliance, artistry, ability and industry. Simply put, God is creative. He is a doer.

Apart from God revealing Himself to us, the Being called God is known by His doings. In Genesis 1:1, God CREATED… That's 'bara' in Hebrew. In verse 2, His Spirit MOVED upon the earth's surface. That's 'rachaph' in Hebrew, and it means to brood, to hover, to incubate, and to shake. It is the same as a hen sitting on, or incubating her eggs in order for them to hatch and produce. In verse 7, God MADE… That's 'asah' in Hebrew. In Genesis 2:2, God ended His WORK. That's 'melakah' in Hebrew. God as worker had concluded His work. That speaks of ability and industry. In Genesis 2:7, God FORMED… That's 'yatsar' in Hebrew. In Genesis 2:22, God MADE… That's 'banah' in Hebrew, which means to build. All these words - bara, rachaph, asah, melakah, yatsar, and banah - give different nuances and connotations in Hebrew, and they demonstrate dimensions of God's creativity and industry. These words buttress the fact that God is designer and doer.

In the beginning God acted and created. As creator, God is a thinker. All creators are thinkers. And as you know, to create involves making something exist independently of you. God possesses creative capacity for production. In Business Administration we are taught that activity is not a substitute for production, and production is not a substitute for reproduction. God is the God of creativity, activity and industry.

Here's the point I'm making. God created man to be a creator and made him to be a maker. At a point in time God made things happen. He didn't wait for things to happen on their own accord. The whole universe was His idea and making.

A man is only as powerful, wealthy and successful as what he makes happen. Your life is either a reflection of what you make happen or a reaction of what others make happen. Heaven and earth were in God until the day He uttered them out and gave them a sort of independent existence.

The Lord Jesus Christ taught us to pray, "Our Father who ART IN heaven…" Genesis 1:1 says, "In the beginning God CREATED the heaven…"

The implication of this, is that God is now living in the very heaven that He Himself created. The universe is now God's house. He lives in and rules over it. The God who created the heavens now lives in it.

Stop living your life like there's nothing at stake. The worst kind of poverty is living meaninglessly in this world and finally leaving it without making any positive impact in it.

Are you going to live this life being the needy or the needed? Charles Darwin, who believed in the survival of the fittest, interestingly said that "it is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change." 

Making things happen requires having a change of mind and attitude. It involves becoming industrious and enterprising. Beyond living a salaried life, you must find ways to create strings of income. Become productive. Become a creator. Become a maker. If you make effort, you'll find a fort. Erica Jong says, "And the trouble is, if you don't risk anything, you risk even more." Creators change life from what it is, to what it is supposed to be. I join Shirley MacLaine in saying that you are the architect of your own personal experience. You can make the best out of this life, and I charge you to make things happen to change your life and your world. God made you in His image. Therefore emulate Him.

by Bishop Moses E. Peter