John 1:1–3 (KJV) ~ “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.”
Before It Was Written, It Was Already Established! There are some words that you hear once and remember for a season, and then there are other words that seem to become buried somewhere deep within your spirit. Years may pass. You may not consciously think about them. You may even forget where you were when you first heard them. But then one ordinary moment comes, and suddenly God reaches into that place and brings the word back to your remembrance.
That happened to me Saturday night while I was preparing for bed. A message I had heard Juanita Bynum preach a long, long time ago suddenly came back to me. The thought that remained with me was this: The Bible has been here throughout the ages, but before it was put into pages, the Word was already in the mouths of men and women of God. God’s Word was before the foundation of the world that was laid.
And I began thinking about that. Before there was a Bible sitting on your nightstand, there was the Word. Before there was a Bible app on your phone, there was the Word. Before Scripture was divided into chapters and verses, there was the Word. Before ink ever touched parchment, before scribes copied manuscripts, before printing presses reproduced Bibles, before translations carried Scripture into nations around the world, the Word already was. The pages did not create the Word. The pages recorded and preserved what God had already spoken and revealed.
And if you travel far enough backward through Scripture, you eventually arrive at a place where there are no pages, no pens, no pulpits, no preachers, no congregations and no human beings. Yet the Word is there. John does something extraordinary when he opens his Gospel. He does not begin with Bethlehem. He does not begin with Mary. He does not begin with Joseph. He does not begin with shepherds watching their flocks. John takes us farther back than the manger. He takes us farther back than Abraham. He takes us farther back than Adam.
John takes us all the way back to the beginning and declares, “In the beginning was the Word.” That little word “was” carries enormous revelation. John did not say, “In the beginning the Word began.” He said the Word was. Before creation began, the Word was. Before the earth had shape, the Word was. Before light pierced darkness, the Word was. Before oceans were given boundaries, the Word was. Before stars filled the heavens, the Word was. Before humanity took its first breath, the Word was. The Word did not emerge from creation. Creation emerged through the Word. John 1:3 tells us, “All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.” So, before there was anything that could be called made, there was Someone who could be called the Word.
This is where this five-day journey begins. We are going back before the pages. We are going back before the printing. We are going back before the writing. We are going back to the eternal Word of God. Because Scripture reveals something powerful about everything surrounding us, it is temporary! Isaiah tells us that grass withers and flowers fade, but the Word of our God stands forever. Jesus takes it even further in Matthew 24:35 when He declares that heaven and earth will pass away, but His words will not pass away.
Think about that. Everything you can see has an expiration date. Generations come and go. Governments rise and fall. Cultures change. Trends disappear. Buildings crumble. Technology becomes obsolete. Human opinions change. People who once celebrated something may later reject it. What one generation calls important, another generation may barely remember. But God’s Word does not age. God does not need to revise His Word because another century arrived. He does not need another edition because culture changed. He does not need to reconsider truth because society developed a different opinion.
God’s Word does not become less true because people stop believing it. The Word stands because the One who spoke it is eternal. That means when everything around you is changing, you have something upon which you can stand that cannot change. And perhaps that is why this old message came back to me on an ordinary Saturday night. Maybe God was reminding me, and perhaps reminding you, that in a world where so much is shifting, go back to the Word.
When you don’t understand what is happening, go back to the Word. When people’s opinions become loud, go back to the Word. When culture becomes confusing, go back to the Word. When your emotions begin telling you something different from what God has spoken, go back to the Word. When you cannot see what God is doing, go back to the Word. Because the same Word that existed before your situation arose will still be standing after your situation has passed.
Over these five days, we are going to journey through this revelation, The Word Was. The Word Spoke. The Word Became. The Word Remains. The Word Will Stand. And by the end of this series, my prayer is that we will no longer look at our Bibles as merely books filled with pages. I pray we will open them with a renewed reverence and recognize that we are encountering the written revelation of the eternal God.
Before it was in your hands, it was in His heart. Before it was spoken through human mouths, it proceeded from God. Before it was written upon pages, the Word was. And long after everything temporary has disappeared, THE WORD WILL STILL BE!
Let’s Begin Day 1
Good Morning Sunshine! Before There Was Anything, There Was the Word!
John 1:1–3 (KJV) ~ “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.”
John’s Gospel opens differently from the other Gospel accounts because John is not primarily trying to show us where Jesus was born. He wants us to understand who Jesus was before He was born. Matthew begins by tracing Jesus’ genealogy. Mark moves quickly into the ministry of Jesus. Luke carefully records the events surrounding His birth. But John reaches beyond Bethlehem and takes us into eternity.
John writes, “In the beginning was the Word.” The Greek word translated as “Word” is Logos. In John’s Gospel, Logos is not simply a spoken sentence or written statement. John uses this title to reveal Jesus Christ as God’s eternal self-expression and revelation. Then John removes any possibility of misunderstanding by declaring, “the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Jesus did not begin in Bethlehem. Bethlehem was His entrance into human flesh, not the beginning of His existence. The manger held a baby whose existence did not begin in the manger. Mary carried in her womb the One through whom creation itself had come into existence. This is why John 1:3 becomes so powerful: “All things were made by him.”
Genesis 1 repeatedly declares, “And God said.” God said, “Let there be light,” and light appeared. God spoke, and creation responded. God spoke, and boundaries were established. God spoke, and what had not existed suddenly existed. Psalm 33:6 declares, “By the word of the LORD were the heavens made.” Creation had a beginning, but the Word was already present at the beginning. Genesis says, “In the beginning God created.” John says, “In the beginning was the Word.” Genesis describes what began. John reveals Who already was. And that distinction becomes the foundation for what God wants us to understand today.
Before there was anything, there was the Word. I want you to sit with that thought today because when you truly understand it, it changes the way you look at everything happening in your life. Sometimes circumstances arrive so suddenly that they make you feel as though God must now figure out what to do about them. Something unexpected happens, the phone rings, the report changes, the relationship shifts, the door closes, the plan falls apart, and because it surprised you, you can unconsciously begin behaving as though it surprised God too. But nothing that enters your life enters God’s awareness for the first time. Before you encountered it, God was already there. Before the situation developed, God was there. Before the question entered your mind, the Word was.
Your circumstances have a beginning. Your pain has a beginning. Your disappointment has a beginning. Your waiting season has a beginning. Your struggle has a beginning. Even the chapter of life you are presently walking through has a beginning, but God does not. That means the God you are asking to help you today is not arriving late to your situation. He is not entering your story halfway through and trying to catch up on what happened. He was there before the first page of this chapter of your life was ever written, and He already knows what is waiting on the pages you have not lived yet.
Think about a builder preparing to construct a house. Long before anyone walks through the front door, plans have already been drawn. Measurements have been determined. Materials have been considered. The foundation has been prepared. What eventually becomes visible existed first in the mind and plan of the builder. Now magnify that thought beyond anything our human minds can fully comprehend. Before creation became visible, God’s wisdom was already present. Before humanity existed, God’s purpose existed. Before you ever stepped into time, God was already eternal. The Word did not have to wait for the world to exist in order to become the Word. The world needed the Word in order to exist.
That is why John 1 is so powerful. John is telling us that Jesus was not God’s emergency response to a world that went wrong. The Word was there before the world. Christ was not an afterthought. Redemption was not something God had to hurriedly develop after Adam and Eve sinned. God has never had an emergency meeting in heaven. He has never been caught without wisdom, without provision, without purpose, or without an answer. Everything that has ever surprised humanity has happened under the watch of a God who has never been surprised.
That same truth applies to your life. You may be experiencing something right now that you did not see coming. Maybe you are trying to understand why a particular door closed. Maybe something you expected to happen has not happened. Maybe you thought you would be farther along by now. Maybe you are standing between what God said and what you can presently see, and the distance between the two feels uncomfortable. Yet this is where you have to remind yourself: my circumstances are new to me, but they are not new to God. Before you reached this place, God knew it was here. Before you asked the question, He possessed the wisdom. Before you discovered the need, He knew what would be required. Before you arrived at the mountain, God already knew what was on the other side. You are experiencing your life one day at a time, but God is not limited by the page you are currently reading. He sees the entire story.
This is why you have to be careful about allowing a temporary circumstance to become the loudest voice in your life. Circumstances speak. Fear speaks. Disappointment speaks. Your past speaks. People speak. Your emotions speak. Sometimes even your own reasoning becomes so loud that you can barely hear anything else. But none of those voices were present in the beginning. The Word was. And if the Word existed before everything that is speaking to you now, then the Word deserves greater authority than everything speaking to you now.
Sometimes you are desperately asking God, “Lord, give me a word,” while walking past the Word He has already given you. You may be looking for another prophecy, another confirmation, another sign, another dream, another person to tell you what God is saying, when God may simply be calling you back to what He has already spoken. There are promises in Scripture you have not exhausted. There are passages you have read many times but have not yet fully believed. There are Scriptures you can quote from memory that God now wants to move from your memory into your foundation.
Sometimes you don’t need a new word. You need to return to the Word that has already been established. Go back to the Scripture that carried you through the last difficult season. Go back to the promise you wrote in your journal. Go back to the verse that gave you peace when everything around you was uncertain. Go back to what God said before fear became loud. Circumstances changing does not mean God’s Word changed.
There is something else beautiful hidden in this revelation. If the Word existed before creation, then God’s answer can exist before you recognize the need. God does not have to wait until you get into trouble before He begins preparing deliverance. He does not have to wait until you become empty before He begins preparing provision. He does not have to wait until you encounter the mountain before He determines how you will cross it. God can have provision waiting in places you have not reached yet. He can have people positioned whom you have not met yet. He can have doors prepared that you cannot see yet. He can have answers developing while you are still trying to understand the question.
Think about Abraham in Genesis 22. Abraham climbed one side of the mountain carrying the burden of obedience, while somewhere in that same mountain God had already provided a ram. Abraham could not see the provision while he was climbing, but his inability to see it did not mean it was not there. Provision was already in the environment before Abraham recognized it. And sometimes that is exactly where you are. You are climbing one side of the mountain wondering how God is going to do it, while God’s provision is already moving on the other side. That is why your present circumstance cannot be the final authority concerning your future. The problem is not eternal. The opposition is not eternal. The disappointment is not eternal. The waiting season is not eternal. Even the mountain standing in front of you is not eternal. God is. His Word is. His truth is. His faithfulness is.
The Word has survived generations. It has survived wars, persecution, kingdoms, rulers, cultural shifts, critics, rejection, unbelief, and every human attempt to silence it. Generations have come and gone, but God’s Word is still speaking. People who once declared that Scripture would become irrelevant are gone, but the Word is still here. Kingdoms that appeared unstoppable have fallen, but the Word still stands. That ought to give you confidence about whatever you are facing today. The Word that survived generations can survive your situation.
So today, before you ask God for something new, spend some time with what He has already spoken. Open your Bible slowly. Don’t rush to finish a chapter just so you can say you read it. Sit with the Word. Ask the Holy Spirit to illuminate it. Read a verse more than once. Pray it. Speak it. Write it down. Carry it with you throughout the day. Allow it to become louder than what you see and stronger than what you feel.
And when fear whispers, “What if?”, answer it with “God said.” When your circumstances tell you that nothing is changing, remember what God said. When waiting makes you wonder whether God has forgotten you, remember what God said. When the enemy tries to convince you that your story is finished, remember that he does not have the authority to write the ending. Before your beginning, the Word was. Before your trouble, the Word was. Before your tears, the Word was. Before your waiting, the Word was. Before you ever needed God to make a way, the Way already was.
So, don’t allow something that just showed up to make you question the God who has always been there. Don’t allow a temporary chapter to cause you to doubt an eternal Word. And don’t allow what you see today to make you forget what God has already spoken concerning tomorrow. The Word was before you got here. The Word is with you while you are here. And the Word will still be standing when this season is over.
Let’s Pray,
Father, in the Name of Jesus, thank You for reminding me that before there was anything, You were. Before creation took shape, You were. Before the heavens were stretched out, before the earth found its form, before humanity breathed its first breath, You were already God. Before my life began, You were. Before my family existed, You were. Before my purpose was revealed, You were. And before any circumstance I am facing today ever appeared, You were already present, already sovereign, already knowing, and already faithful. Lord, forgive me for the moments when I have allowed temporary circumstances to become greater in my mind than Your eternal Word. Forgive me for the times I have allowed what I see to speak louder than what You have said. Forgive me for allowing fear, frustration, disappointment, delay, uncertainty, and the opinions of people to challenge what You have already established. Forgive me for searching everywhere for answers while neglecting the Word You have already placed within my reach. Create in me a fresh hunger for Your Word. Give me a desire that goes beyond simply reading Scripture as a daily task. Cause me to long for Your Word because I know that Your Word carries life, truth, direction, correction, strength, wisdom, and peace. When I open my Bible, remind me that I am not merely turning pages. I am encountering truth that existed before me and will remain after me. I am encountering the testimony of a God who has never changed and whose promises have never lost their power. Father, bring back to my remembrance the promises I have forgotten. Remind me of the Scriptures that once carried me through hard seasons. Remind me of the Word that strengthened me when I was weak, comforted me when I was hurting, and guided me when I could not see my way. Do not let me abandon what You said simply because my circumstances look different today. When fear speaks, let Your Word speak louder. When disappointment speaks, let Your Word speak louder. When uncertainty speaks, let Your Word speak louder. When my past tries to define me, let Your Word remind me of who You say I am. When my feelings contradict Your truth, anchor me in what You have already declared. When the enemy whispers that nothing is changing, remind me that Your Word is still working even when I cannot see the evidence. Father, teach me how to stand on Your Word when everything around me is moving. Teach me how to trust You when I do not understand. Teach me how to wait without allowing waiting to turn into unbelief. Teach me how to remain faithful when I cannot yet see the fulfillment. Give me the kind of faith that does not require constant signs in order to believe that You are still God. Lord, help me remember that You are not trying to figure out my tomorrow because You are already there. You know what I need before I ask. You know the road before I walk it. You know every turn, every delay, every closed door, every open door, every valley, every mountain, and every place of provision along the way. You know the ending while I am still living through the middle. And Father, when I become anxious about what I cannot see, remind me that unseen does not mean unprepared. Just as You prepared a ram before Abraham saw it, prepare my heart to trust that provision can already be in place even when I do not yet recognize it. Help me believe that You can have people positioned whom I have not met, doors prepared that I have not seen, answers forming that I have not heard, and strength available for battles I have not yet faced. Give me discernment to know when I need to stop asking for something new and return to what You have already spoken. Help me not to chase voices when Your Word has already made the matter clear. Let Scripture become my foundation, my filter, and my measuring line. Teach me to test what I hear by what You have already said. Guard my heart from becoming impressed by what is loud while overlooking what is eternal. The world is loud. Culture is loud. Fear can be loud. Pain can be loud. But teach my spirit to recognize that Your Word carries greater authority than every competing voice. Father, let Your Word get down into the hidden places of my heart. Let it uproot fear, unbelief, insecurity, bitterness, confusion, and doubt. Let it correct my thinking where my thinking has drifted away from truth. Let it heal the places where pain has shaped my expectations. Let it restore confidence where disappointment has weakened my faith. Give me the courage to speak Your Word over my life even when I do not feel strong. Give me the discipline to meditate on Your Word when my mind wants to rehearse the problem. Give me the wisdom to pray Your Word when I do not know what else to say. Let Your Word become so rooted in me that when pressure comes, truth comes out of me. And Lord, do not only let me know Your Word intellectually. Let me live it. Let my choices reflect it. Let my responses reflect it. Let my relationships reflect it. Let my character reflect it. Let the way I handle pressure, disappointment, success, waiting, and uncertainty show that I have built my life on something greater than circumstances. Today I choose to trust the eternal God and stand upon Your eternal Word. I may not understand everything, but I trust You. I may not see everything, but I trust You. I may not know how the story will unfold, but I trust You because You were there before the story began. You were before my beginning. You are present in my now. You are already in my tomorrow. You were, You are, and You will always be. Let Your Word become louder than my fear, deeper than my disappointment, stronger than my circumstances, and more permanent than anything temporary around me. I declare today that I will not allow something that just showed up to make me question the God who has always been there. I will not allow a temporary season to make me abandon an eternal promise. I will not let what I see today erase what You have already spoken concerning my tomorrow. Father, settle me in Your Word. Root me in Your Word. Build me through Your Word. Correct me through Your Word. Strengthen me through Your Word. Lead me through Your Word. And when everything around me is shifting, keep me standing on what You have said. Because heaven and earth may pass away, but Your Word will never pass away. In the mighty, matchless, and eternal Name of Jesus Christ, the Living Word, Amen.
Nugget ~ Your situation may have just begun, but the Word was already there. Never allow something temporary to make you doubt what God established eternally.
Blessings…
Love, Dr. Jean…
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