Seven Days of God’s Process: 4. Day One

Day One

In the first chapter, we examined the significance of the day of the Lord in conjunction with the number seven and its particular meaning. God is a God of process. He is not bound by any particular means by which He must act. Therefore, His chosen methods are not of necessity, but rather are saying something to us of His arbitrary and independent character. God created in seven days, instead of one instantaneous moment, because He wants us to understand something of His process. He wants us, as dear children, to emulate in our environment what He demonstrated in His when He saw the chaos of the deep. What are you doing with the chaos that you see in your life

Likewise, in the New Covenant, Jesus says in Luke 17, that the kingdom of God is not something we are mere observers to, but in fact, He intends that we cooperate with Him in His anointed process, by which He brings His graces and gifts to bear in our lives for the purpose of benefit, dividend and breakthrough.

[Luk 17:20-21 KJV] 20 And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: 21 Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.

We can see from this scripture above that whatever the kingdom is – the understanding Jesus wants us to have is more about something taking its impetus within our own hearts and lives than something that can be charted on an eschatological graph. The kingdom is not something we interact with from an independent point of observation. You cannot accurately perceive ANYTHING about the kingdom from a measurement drawn from objective observation. It is something living and vital within us spilling out in our lives through a collaborative process that demands our cooperation. Faith without works is dead because the inherent nature of the kingdom is so intrinsically collaborative that one of the primary names of God is Paraclete meaning, “one brought alongside together against”. God will do nothing without securing man’s partnership and collaboration in His anointed process. In the absence of collaboration and cooperation, the only result is to find yourself excluded from everything the kingdom is and the benefit intended to be your portion.

God’s Sense of Timing

In revealing His process over and over in scripture, we are given to understand that God works in the framework of particular days. A day, as God would have us understand it, cannot be construed to merely refer to a 24-hour period, or a series of days making up weeks, months or years. Peter, in speaking of this, broadens our understanding of God’s timing as being much more broad and flexible than we might think in our own finite perspective. God desires for us to be an integral part of His process, for He is not willing to do what He is going to do in the earth without your cooperation.

On the First Day:

[Gen 1:1-31 KJV] 1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. 2 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.

Each day of creation reveals something distinct about God’s character. Each day of creation reveals something unique, that is then extended or repeated throughout the span of what follows. What is the significance for us of this first day of creation, other than as a point of sacred history telling us where the natural world came from? As God acted at the macro-level to create the earth, so He acts at the micro-level in equal measure and means in your individual life and situation. Understanding this gives insight into the beginning, middle and end of what God is doing in your situation, regardless of the variables. In this way, you can provide the necessary collaboration that we have already shown is essential in terms of seeing what the kingdom IS, to then become what you EXPERIENCE in whatever challenge you may be facing at the time.

When I was reading Gen. 7:4, I heard the question “God, when are you going to act in my situation?” The answer came by what I read in the verse “for yet seven days…” Have you ever asked God when He was going to move in your circumstances? The answer is always the same! Gen. 7:4 tells us: “in seven days…” This is far more than seven 24-hour time frames, and then your answer miraculously appears. The day of the Lord, as a concept in scripture, implies purpose, sovereignty and Lordship on God’s part, and cooperation, humility and repentance on man’s part. This series of teachings is all about answering that one cosmic question in your life:

What time is it? 

The answer is different for everyone. This is God’s Kairos timing. The fullness of time in your life will come at a different time than the fullness of God in my life. The common need for both you and I is to know WHAT DAY IT IS, and what does that day require of us in terms of cooperation and yielding? Waiting on God can be a frustrating thing. This was the problem the laborers had in the parable Jesus gave of the householder in Matt. 20:1-16. Some were paid the same for working all day, as others were paid for working just an hour. The conclusion of this parable is in verse 16, “many are called – but few are chosen”. It is all about NOT getting offended, because GOD’S TIMING in one person’s life is different from His timing in yours.  Jesus said 4 times in scripture, “behold I come quickly” and it has been 2000 years. How are we to interpret this? What is expected of us in the light of the fact that God’s reckoning of time and man’s reckoning of time are two different things?

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