God made us in His image.
Understanding whom God made us to be
Imagine that you are the only person left in the city after a bad nuclear disaster. After the heat dissipates, you slowly venture out of your hiding place only to find everything that was familiar to you is gone. The family, you sometimes were close to, are no longer alive. The friends and enemies, you had, are no longer alive. One thing that we know for sure is that after the joy of being alive subsides, you will definitely be lonely. For Adam, loneliness was quite different because he had never known the company of another human being.
It was both an honor and a favor that man was made last of all the creatures. Man was made the same day that the animals were made. His body was made of the same earth as theirs. While he is in the body, he inhabits the same earth with them. Nevertheless, man was to be a creature totally different from all that had been made. God said, “Let us make man.”
Man was created to glorify the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. The soul of man resembles the image of God. Man was made upright, Ecclesiastes 7:29 states “Behold, this only have I found: that God made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions.” Man can understand the divine things of God. Man has the capacity to increase his knowledge and understanding. He has free will that can and sometimes does run contradictory to the will of God. Man has affection. He has appetites and passions. Man can think and reason. Our first parents were happy in having the image of God upon them. However, sin soon defaced this image.
God made us to be in control over the things that He has made for us.
The next thing that God did, after He decided how man was to look, was to assign man a job. God said,’ … and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the heavens, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that crept upon the earth.’ Hebrews 2:5-8 states, “For not unto angels did God subject the world to come, whereof we speak. But one hath somewhere testified, saying, ‘ what is man, that thou art mindful of him? Or the son of man, that thou visits him?’ Thou made him a little lower than God. Thou crowned him with glory and honor and did set him over the works of thy hands. Thou did put all things in subjection under his feet. For in that God subjected all things unto him, God left nothing that is not subject to him. But now we see not yet all things subjected to him.”
God gave human beings tremendous authority. He put us in charge of everything on earth. Every child of God needs to understand this marvelous truth. Man is too godlike in his origin, too glorious in his destiny, to waste himself in a life of sin. If we were animals, we might live as they live on the low plain of animal intellect. If we were no more than a machine, our fate would be of no concern. However, we are the children of God. We are made in the image of God, with a glorious destiny made possible to us. We are crowned with glory and honor!
When God created Adam, He gave him complete authority and rule over everything. Adam was the one that named the animals. He was the one to tend the garden. He was made after everything else and specifically crafted for the job. God said ‘Let us make man in our image.’ God was capable to create everything. Therefore, he made his image capable to take care of it.
Not only was Adam given control of all the animals and plants, he was given control over Lucifer. Lucifer had been dismissed from the celestial paradise to roam the earth along with a third of the angels. God did not forget that Lucifer was here. God equipped man to be able to resist Lucifer. God equipped Adam with the knowledge of the right thing and wrong thing to do and the ability to be able to choose to do it. This is what we call free will. God enables us with the knowledge of the Scriptures and free will to be able to do what the Scriptures instruct.
Then, Jesus picks up us poor ruined cast-a-ways of Lucifer. He saves us, sanctifies us, and then is “not ashamed to call us brethren.” We are sentient beings, capable of joy or suffering. We are capable of endless development, either in God’s likeness or in the opposite. Nevertheless, none of us can ever speculate what an eternity of development will make us become. However, we do know that when we accept the suffering and sacrifices of our lord and savior Jesus, we again regain the authority over all things that Adam forfeited to Lucifer through his sin.
The children of God live in complete dependence upon the promise of the Scriptures that God will be for us. (Romans 8:31) The Scriptures are our swords and our faith in God is our shield to fend off the attacks of Lucifer. God has many ways of providing for his people, and they can be depended upon at all times.
God created us with authority.
Prayer is the appointed means for the children of God to obtaining what we need to assist us in our fight against Lucifer. The Scriptures instruct us to pray and to pray often. We should make it our business to pray, and be serious and earnest about it. We are to ask, not as a beggar asks for help, rather as a child of God. We are to ask, as a traveler asks for help when lost. We are told to seek as if we are looking for something of value that we have lost. Because of our sins, we have lost our fellowship with God. We are to knock, because we desire to enter the presence of God. Our sin has shut and barred the door to the power and presence of God. However, by prayer, we knock on that door. Whatever we pray for, according to the promise of the Scriptures, it shall be given us, as long as it is within the will of God. This truth applies to every child of God. Every one that asks receives. Whether they are Jewish or Gentile, young or old, rich, or poor, educated or illiterate, they will receive. All people are welcomed to come to the throne of God, if they come in faith. God is intelligent; he knows what we need, what we desire, and what is best us.
When we ask God in Jesus’ name, we are acknowledging our unworthiness to approach the throne of God. We are acknowledging that we are sinners. When we ask in the name of Jesus, we are showing our full dependence upon Christ as our Lord and our Savior. God will hear and answer our prayers. God will go to great lengths to help His children. Furthermore, when we talk to God, the Father in the name of Jesus, the Christ, we are calling on the One that made everything. He is capable to do more than we can ever ask or think.
When we are dedicated to God, through the baptism of water, of the Spirit of God, and our faith in Jesus, we can ask anything of God. We will receive it, as long as it is within the will of God. When we approach the throne room of God, we are to go boldly. When we petition God for anything, we must ask for the right reasons. If our motives are wrong, we will not get an answer. James 4:3 reveal the reason that some of our prayers is not answered. The Scriptures say, “You ask, and receive not, because you ask amiss, that you may consume it upon your lusts.” God is not stupid. He knows our every secret thought. If we ask God for something selfish then God will not reply. However, if we ask not so that our will can be done rather so that God’s will can be done, then God will answer our requests.
God gives us power to change through His Spirit.
The union between Christ and the children of God is bound together by the Spirit of God. We believe that God is good, gracious and capable. However, when our faith rest in the promises in the Scriptures, the Spirit of God starts to work in us. This Spirit of God creates a change in every born again child of God. The Spirit of God changes us from an instrument under the control of Lucifer to a righteous heir to the kingdom of God.
The Spirit of God changes our heart, Ezekiel 36: 25-27.
Every born again child of God is given a new heart and a new spirit in order to help them in their new life as a Christian. God will give us a soft and tender heart of flesh that will comply with His holy will. The Scriptures works as a catalyst to transform the dead sinner into a usable instrument of God. The Spirit of God will make us fit for the task God has for us. These promises are to be believed because they will be fulfilled in every born again child of God.
The Spirit of God allows us to do God’s will, Ezekiel 37: 9-11.
No power on earth or in the heavens can bring a person back to life like God. Doctors have figured out a way to shock the heart back to life and revive a person. Nevertheless, if too much time pass, there is nothing that even the doctors can do. However, our God is not limit by the laws of our science. God can not only bring the dead back to life, as Jesus did with Lazarus, but God said that He will bring those long dead and forgotten back to life.
Not only will God resurrect us in the last days; God constantly is resurrecting us from the death of our sins. Remember the Scriptures states that the wages of sin is death. This death is not something that has to catch up with us some time in the future. This death is immediate, because it kills our fellowship to God. Without fellowship with God our spirit dies. However, when we are in fellowship with God, the Scriptures says that we can do all things through Christ who strengthens us.
The Spirit of God teaches us how to pray. (Romans 8: 26-27)
Though the sins of the children of God are to numerous to count, the Spirit of God still helps us. The Spirit of God teaches us what to pray. The Spirit of God works and stirs up prayers when we are in no condition to pray. The Spirit of God silences our fears, and helps us overcome the temptations of Lucifer. The Spirit of God is the focus of all desires toward God, because that who’s spirit it is. The Spirit of God is the power behind the statement of Paul: I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. The Spirit of God enables the child of God to do the will of God. The Spirit of God that Paul is talking about is the very same Spirit of God from Genesis 1. The Spirit of God makes intercessions for us to God so that the enemy does not prevail.
God makes us new creations
The renewed child of God acts upon new principles, by new rules, with new ends, and keeps new company. The renewed child of God is created one more time. His heart is not merely changed, but a new heart is given him. (Ezekiel 36:26) The renewed child of God is the workmanship of God, created in Christ Jesus to do good works. The renewed child of God is changed in his character and conduct. This change is more than the change of the outward appearance. The child of God is changed from within first and the transformation continues to the outside.
. God has reconciled us by the blood of Jesus Christ. By the inspirations of the Spirit of God, the Scriptures were written, which are the Word of God concerning our reunion with God. The Scriptures show us that peace has been made by Jesus’ death on the cross. The Scriptures tell us of the power Jesus’ death and resurrection has provided for us. The Scriptures tell us how to use this power in our fight against Lucifer. The result of our being renewed is to make us righteous before God. Once we regain our righteousness before God, we also regain all the power and authority that God gave Adam and Lucifer stole.
