Made In His Likeness....
God did not create us to have a religious experience, but to rule with Him for all eternity, out of relationship with Him....Religion came as a result of sin.. If you search In Genesis 1 & 2 you will find no religion in those chapters. And yet God still says “This is very Good.”
Religion was created in Genesis chapter 4, where the first religious activity that is recorded, resulted in the building of an altar, by Cain and Able. (By the way, that’s where the first murder also occurred) There is no record of Adam and Eve singing in the garden, praying in the garden, or fasting in the garden... there was no Apostle, Bishop, prophet, evangelist, or pastor, and yet God still said “This is very Good”!
You see, Religion was not God’s first and best plan, but it was a contingency plan to.get us back to Genesis 1 & 2, where they walked and talked with God on a face to face basis, like I’m talking to you now. So Genesis 1 & 2 are God’s perfect will forman. Chapter 3 is when they exerted their will over the will of God, and gave Satan the authority that God had given to them. Satan was not a snake until after he tempted Adam and Eve, then he was cursed to crawl on the ground. Until this moment, he was gorgeous. Which of you women would be attracted by a snake!!? So then, chapter 5 up to Revelation 21, the end of the book, is God’s program to get us back to a face to facerelationship with Him, once again, forever. It has always been about that.... Genesis 1:26 Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, and after our likeness...” Image means moral and spiritual nature, and the Characteristics of God.....God had to use Himself as the material to form His moral and spiritual nature and characteristics in them..... Just dirt, and gases, and other molecules wouldn’t accomplish thatobjective.....
When God made mankind in His likeness, that didn’t mean to look like God, but to function like God....So to understand how we as human beings are supposed to function, we have to study, and really get to know GOD! He put a piece of Himself in the Humans He created. Each of us has a spark of Divinity that must be awakened. God’s DNA stands for “God’s Divine Nature and Atributes”...
Now if something does not function, the way it was designed by it’s maker to function, then we say it “malfunctions” or it is “dysfunctional”.....
So, we understand that one of the ways that God functions is by FAITH. So if you are not functioning by faith, you are malfunctioning or dysfunctional.... When a car, or a toaster, or a refrigerator, or a person, is malfunctioning, it will eventually self destruct.... When any person begins to go against their purpose, they begin to self destruct.... That’s why the world, when left to it’s own devices, always spirals down ward.... Things don’t get newer after you buy them, they rust, and creak and groan, and begin to fall apart.... Without a “God purpose”, we do the same.... So we just said, that God operates by faith.... now listen to this...
Galatians 5:6 “If you are a follower of Christ Jesus, it makes no difference whether you are religious or not (or do religious things). All that matters is that your faith operates by love”.“God faith” functions on the platform of love....
So this tells us that we can’t function in bitterness, anger, unforgiveness, resentment, jealousy, covetousness and malice and not be dysfunctional, because these are all the opposite of faith that operates by love. Will Rogers said “Everyone is my friend until they show me that they’re not!”
So, say with me, “I forgive everyone right now, so I won’t be dysfunctional anymore. Even dead people....I forgive them all!!! They may be dead, but the hurt and the bitterness, is still alive.... Forgive all those dead folks too!! So God Faith operates by love.....
Notice another way God’s faith works.... It works by speaking! Hebrews 11:1 “Now faith is the certainty of things hoped for, and the proof of things not seen”.
In Genesis 1 everything was created by God speaking His faith.... In verse 3 “And God said”.... In verse 6 “And God said”.... In verse 9 “And God said”....Verse 11, verse 14, verse 20, verse 21, verse 26, and it was all about God speaking His faith by His words and when there was nothing, it became the substance of things hoped for, and the evidence of things not seen.....God said, and spoken out into the nothingness and formed what was by faith words!
Jesus said in speaking to all who would believe on Him... Mark 11:22 “Have the faith of God”. Then in Galatians 2:20 Paul said, “The life I now live I live by the faith of the Son of God”....,
Then God, speaking the substance of His faith, said “ Let us make man in our image” ... Let us make a faith speaking human that operates by Love, like Us....God took a selfie, and it was intended to be us!
That means that what you have become now, good or bad, you ordered it and it became the substance of either your function or your disfunction!!!!
Listen to how this God faith operates.... Isaiah 58:8 “Let the sick say, I am healed”.....Joel 3:10 “Let the weak say I am strong”...You see it here, that God’s faith was a speaking faith... Let me hear you say it with me.... “I am strong, I am healed, I am whole.... now by that 3rd part, I hope you started feeling it!!!!
That’s God’s faith, that’s not disfunction, that’s God’s likeness and His image coming forth in His kids!! The power here is not just in the speaker, but in the God who comes into agreement with us when we say what He says! We come into agreement with what God says and righteousness happens, justice happens, happiness, peace, joy, harmony, and heaven come to earth, happens.
1 Corinthians 2:9 “No eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man imagined, what God has prepared for those who love Him”—verse 12 What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us.” So you can see that the God faith operates on the platform of love....
God is not walking around worried for a minute! “Oh my, what am I going to do now” Where am I going to get the money. What will ever become of me now? ... Can you see God wringing His hands, and pulling His hair out! No.... Because He doesn’t allow any disfunction in Himself...And we don’t have to either!
Look at this...Oh, I like this.....Job was afflicted from head to toe, with boils, and he’s sitting in an ash heap, scraping his boils and his friends are accusing him of doing something to deserve this, and he’s losing everything, his family, his crops, his herds, his home and his servants, all the while he’s giving glory to God. If anyone had a reason to lapse into unbelief, and get depressed it was this man..... Job 1:22 “ In all these things Job endured, he sinned not by his lips, nor spoke he any contrary thing against God” ........ Job spoke His faith, in love..... and He got 100 times more than he lost, more family, more friends, more of everything. But God allowed him to keep his nagging wife to keep him humble.....
Luke 22:25 & 26 “Most kings in this world exercise lordship over the people. But not so with you. Rather, let the great among you become as the lowest, and the leader as one who serves.”Certainly no image says it better, than the image of Jesus washing His disciples feet. Doing the task assigned to lowly servants. If a picture is worth a thousand words, this is it! Jesus operated in the God faith which functioned on a platform of love.
John Kenneth Galbraith was an economist who served under Roosevelt, Truman, Kennedy, and Johnson. He had experienced a very difficult day, and he asked Emily, the family's housekeeper to hold all telephone calls while he took a nap. Shortly after telling her this, the phone rang. President Johnson was calling from the White House. "Get me Ken, this is President Johnson, he told her." "I’m sorry, Mr. President, but He is sleeping, and he said not to disturb him." "Well, wake him up. I want to talk to him." "That won’t be possible, Mr. President. You see, I work for him, not for you”. When Galbraith called the President back, the president could scarcely contain his pleasure. Johnson said "Tell that woman I want her here in the White House."
Because she put the one she served first even above the President.... Jesus talked about that.....Matthew 6:33 “But seek first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you as well.” How’s your addition coming along, maybe if you keep at ityou’ll start multiplying!!
God told His kids, “Be fruitful, multiply, have dominion”.... Fruit is what comes from what’s inside of you”. If you are operating in His likeness, then you’ll have something in you that will come out of you as fruit. You will never see an apple, or peach or mango tree, straining to pop out fruit....It’s the natural process of receiving the right nourishment, sunshine and rain... and it fulfills it’s purpose. I thank God for every Mango tree, fulfillingit’s purpose....Hallelujah! Then God said “Have dominion”..... This is just the opposite of barely making it, just getting by, never having enough, living from hand to mouth....
Dominion”.....involves the law of attraction.....Just like a magnet attracts metal, Things are drawn to you....instead of you chasing after things... you go out for one thing and you come back with 10. The law of Divine attraction is found in Romans 8:28 “ Hemakes all things work together for those who are called according to His purpose”....
2 Corinthians 9:8 “And God is able to make all grace (what we could never earn or deserve) abound to you, so that in all things, at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work”.
That happens when we are functioning in His purpose....
God said “Have dominion”.....that means to manage, to govern, to master, and to have authority over.... Many folks have a lot of things, but their things own them... Their things own them instead of them owning their things....
Are you leading things or are things leading you.... We have too many families where the kids are leading the parents.... and the family is dysfunctional because they’re not seeking first the kingdom, so everything else is out of order...
Watch this.....notice what’s attached to verse 8...... 2 Corinthians 9:8 “And God is able to make all grace abound to you, so that in all things, at all times, having all that you need, you will abound in every good work”. (As it is written, He has dispersed abroad; he has remembered the poor: his righteousness (doing the right things) remains for ever. 10 Now he that ministered seed to the sower, ministers bread for your food, and multiplies your seed sown, and increases the fruits of your righteousness (doing the right thing).” 11 And you are being enriched in everything to all bountifulness, which causes through us much thanksgiving to God”.
Do you see it, smack dab, in the middle of this process of provision, is the seed. You may not have what you need, but you have the seed for it.... It says “He gives bread for food and seed to sow”.. There’s seed in everything in your possession. If you don’t sow it, you’ll miss your harvest. What you sow now will be the abundance you receive later.... But right now you have it, because you have been given it in seed form..... How you sow the seed, will determine what you receive later....
There was a lady and two kids in the check out line. One was a big kid, one was a toddler. The bigger one had a pack of glow sticks and the baby was screaming for them so the Mom took some and gave him one; which stopped his crying. He started waving it, with a big smile, but then the bigger boy took it from him and the baby started screaming again. Just as the Mom was about to fuss at the older child, he bent the glow stick and handed it back to the baby. As they were finishing at the check out, the baby noticed that the stick was now glowing and his brother said "I had to break it so you could get the full enjoyment from it." Sometimes God has to let us feel the effects of our seeds of disobedience to show us His greater purpose that He created us for. We had to go through that breaking process, so we could get dissatisfied enough to then fulfill our greater purpose." That little baby was happy just swinging that "unbroken" glow stick around in the air because he didn't understand what it was created to do which was "glow" and create greater pleasure. There are some people who will be content just "being whatever”.... but we have been chosen by God for Him to shine His light through us. And if we have to at times deal with and face our dysfunctional selves, it is because He wants us to be AGLOW WITH THE KIND OF FAITH THAT WORKS BY LOVE, AND HAS LEARNED TO GOVERN AND MANAGE THE SEEDS WE HAVE BEEN GIVEN. And when it all begins to come together, then we will be able to see the reason for which we were created.. so when you see us glowing with purpose, with faith, and with love, just know that we have rediscovered our purpose, and His likeness and image are shining through us once more.....Don’t settle for whatever comes along. Select don’t settle!
OK, so God said “Have dominion”.....and this means to manage, to govern, to master, and to have authority over....and God was directing that statement at managing, governing, mastering, and having authority over the earth not each other
But what happens is the dysfunction gets in there, and we malfunction, by thinking our dominion is over one another... So, the leader, in our world view of things, is the person who dominates other people. Leaders think that they must control others, but according to God, people are off limits.... The modern world loves things and uses people, instead of loving people and using things...That’s why we don’t follow our heart, we lead our heart. God never intended for any person to dominate anyone else who was made in the image of God....There are a group of Muslim zealots, Taliban, Hamas, Hezbollah, and others... thatbelieve that women are inferior to men, and they feel that their sole purpose on earth, is to dominate other people who are not Muslim.....
Now understand that if God created you, then you have it in you,to manage, govern, master, and have authority... You just need His help in getting it out....
A bird doesn’t have to go to school to learn how to fly, flight is inside of it... A fish doesn’t have to go to class, even though they swim in schools, to learn how to swim, swimming is already inside of it... Fish were not created to be put in a bowl to be looked at.... Birds were not created to be put in a little cage for someone’s enjoyment... But people get trapped in cages of their own making and they never tap into the potential God put within them....
There are many kinds of cages.... I know many who are doves that are married to eagles, and eagles that are married to doves, and they never get along.... they fight and go at each other all the time. I’m not saying that it can’t work, but you’ve got to make it work, and understand each others strengths and weaknesses.... But no woman was made to be dominated by a man... and the other way around as well....COME ON! That gets back to using people and loving things....Amen! So don’t let marriage be a cage to your purpose....or anything else for that matter....
So, just as an oak seed doesn’t have to struggle to be a tree, the acorn has a tree in it! It just needs to find the soil, water, and light, and that tree is going to come out and grow. God put leadership in every one of us, but if we are malfunctioning, it can’t come out until we discover the truth about ourselves, andwe refuse to go back into that cage or that limiting environmentever again! Tell someone, I’m coming out! Do it again!......I’M COMING OUT!!
Because Adam and Eve let Satan in the garden, everything around them began to push them out of their rightful place, the place of leadership and image....Culture, race, position, social status, the work place, education, appearance, and so many other things, were working against them... BUT THEY ALWAYS HAD THE SEEDS OF GREATNESS WITHIN THEM... Jesus came, to restore mankind back into the likeness, and image which God intended all along. To restore what was within each of us, and redeem it and let it out...and set it free.
There is only one voice you need to believe, and that’s the one who made you... You can do what He says you can do....
Philippians 4:13 “You can do all things through Christ who gives youstrength”.
Romans 8:37 “In all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. 38 For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, 39 neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord”.
One more.... John 14:20 “in that day you shall know that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I in you. 21 He that has my instructions, and follows them, he it is that truly loves me, and he that loves me, is loved of My Father, and I will show myself unto him.....22 and Judas said unto him, (not Judas Iscariot), Lord, how is it that You will show Yourself unto us, and not unto the world? 23 And Jesus answered and said to him, If a man loves me, he will follow My words: and My Father will love him, and We will come unto him, and live Our life through him”.
Wow, what could be possible in your life, if you lived, and believed, and loved, as though God was living through you!!! LISTEN, HE IS... There is greatness on the inside of every one of us.....It’s waiting to get out.....Stop praying for something you already have... The seeds of your future are in you now... WOW!Anything less is a lie....
Men and women were designed for greatness, to manage, to govern, to master, and to have authority over....the earth. The big problem we have is self doubt.... We doubt that we truly are who God said we already are. Satan played on that when He told them “God didn’t really mean what He said”.... So, their self doubt agreed with that and they lost their dominion, their likeness and their image... But faith that works by love, can get it back, by the indwelling of the one who made us in the first place, and knows what our capacity is....
Psychologist call it Identity crises. Another word for self doubt...doubt of our own ability, our own purpose, our own giftedness, so we look to be like some other person.... but they’re already taken! Get your own seat at the table.... It’s waiting for you, it was designed for you, not as a copy of someone else!
Look at this.....John 1:14 “And the Word of God became flesh and took up residence among us. And we observed His glory(His image), the glory as the One and Only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth”.
Jesus came to show us the image of the Father, so we could once again know what that looked like. He was the proto type, the original, the pattern which the Father designed us to be like....
That’s what it means in Romans 8:29 “For whom He did foreknow, He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren”. THE FIRSTBORN AMONG MANY... When Jesus sent out the 70, they came back rejoicing that demons and sickness and disease were subject to them, and Jesus said, Don’t rejoice that these things are subject to you, but rejoice that you have reconnected to your God given image.... Jesus was saying “This should be natural” Didn’t He say in Luke 10:9 "heal the sick who are there and tell them, 'The kingdom of God has come you" In other words, you’re seeing what kingdom people, redeemed in God’s image, can do.....He’s saying, “This is how they operate”....
We are attracted to what we see in Jesus Christ, because it looks like what we were designed to be.... conformed to His image.....Loving, compassionate, full of faith, and dominion. Take a moment and standwith me right now.....lift your hand and see the mountains that stand in front of you, that represent all that is trying to keep you from the image God created you to be....self doubt, intimidation, fear of failure, unbelief, poor self esteem, fear of authority, fear of the future.... Come on, that’s all Satan’s strategy to keep you from stepping into your purpose, and your destiny... .Jesus told you to speak to the mountain and command it to move and be cast into the sea.... Now tell it to go....(say it, “GO”....) It’s not going to stop your God given image any longer. You are not subject to it, it is subject to you.... Now say it every morning.....say it until you get your dominion back, your finances back, your family or relationship back on track, your purpose back, and your image back....Hallelujah!
I want everyone to speak the closing blessing over someone, so find someone to speak the blessing to now.....
Here’s a blessing that you can speak over your family and friends.....I put this together as a result of my Sunday message, titled “In His Likeness” “The blessing of the Lord be upon you, may good news be yours. God is with you, and His reward is with Him. May He lead you in the paths of understanding, wisdom, knowledge and enlightenment. May your strength be renewed, and your health be established. May you soar in your purpose and walk in His image. May all things come together for your good, and may you receive all things that God has planned for you to enjoy. The Lord blessyou and keep you, the Lord make His face to shine upon you and be gracious unto you. May the Lord place His grace and mercy on you and give you peace. In Jesus Name”, Amen
