STUDY 3: IN WHOSE IMAGE AND LIKENESS?

A lot of times I have been a part of a creation process; it could be planning an event and making sure the moments are colourful, building a product to meet a need or taking on a project that will solve a particular problem, whatever the task is, one common thing about the creation process is that they are a lot of behind the scene decisions and actions that are all together informed by the result that is desired. 

The engineers understand this, that is why they most times work with a plan, whether it's a building plan, a product design, model or mock-up. This is because they desire that at the end of the day, the finished product will be what they actually hoped to achieve.

Even God did not bother creating man without first establishing the model for which man would be created, certain ‘behind the scene actions’ took place before man as a being came to be. From planning to moulding to the breathing of His life into man, these were intentional processes.

So, I’ll love us to take a close look at what I refer to as God’s creation statement of Man recorded in Genesis 1: 26 – “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.”

It is pathetic how unreal, the reality seems sometimes, we have a lot of questions; if it true that God created the earth, then why is this happening, and why is that happening? Or if it true that God created man then why is this like that, and why is that like this?

We have sincere meaningful questions to ask especially if you are not comfortable with a part of your creation or if you feel like God would have taken more time to make a part of you 'look more gorgeous’. We have disparities but really, it is important to get to know about the "Us" in Genesis 1:26? The "Us" whose image we now bear, the "Us" in whose likeness we were created, God! in His tripartite nature - The Father, Son and Spirit.

God created man after His Kind, in His nature; to be like Him, talk like, act like He would, respond to circumstances just as He would respond, see life the way He See's life.  You now see why He told man after creation to subdue (gain control over) the earth?

God knew exactly what stuff He made man of, that is why He gave man such audacity; Man was made like Him, so man could reign like Him...But what suddenly happened?

Why does it look like the Man that is created to rule the earth is another victim of creation?

The equation is not balance because if God created man to be like Himself, to act and think like He would and in our world today it doesn't seem to be completely what we see or experience, it certainly means there is a fault that we need to identify and correct, so the equation can be balanced again. I will take you back to Genesis 3 where the fault all started.

Can you remember the story of Eve and the devil in the Garden of Eden, our focus story in the last study? The devil had played a trick that man became a victim of, once they (Adam and Eve) ate of the fruit in disobedience their nature became corrupt.  They exposed themselves to a ‘virus’ that infected their ‘operating system’ and  definitely they began to functions otherwise.

See man who was cloth with Glory, splendour, dignity, power, honour; Man who was given authority to reign, subdue and dominate all of the earth, that same man was now hidden under leaves seeking coverage from His master, for the first time he felt like a victim needing help because something had tampered with his DNA. There was a need for a rebirth.

All of us were born after that  corrupted seed, Yes! Man was created in the image and likeness of God, but something happened along the way, something we can fix today to regain that place of authority, dominion and begin to function as proposed from the beginning - In God's Image, after God's likeness-  Our real identity.

HOW DO WE BEGIN TO FUNCTION IN HIS IMAGE AND LIKENESS?

Software developers know  a lot about debugging; it is what they do when trying to resolve the defects that prevent correct operation of their  program or software. So while debugging, they are trying to see exactly where the fault is from and also how to best fix that fault.

For our creator to best handle the defects that had happened in MAN, he recommended a rebirth, since man's nature had been altered and corrupted MAN had to be born again by God so he could regain the same nature of flawless dominion he had from the beginning. And that's the first step to getting back our real identity -Being born again.

The next is to begin to walk in the consciousness of our new nature and this is done as we get back to the manual of creation -The Bible- and begin understand how it is we should live in this new nature, trust me this is achievable as we are daily helped by the Holy Spirit, to live and walk like we should.

If God is light, Truth, Life, if God rules and reigns and we are created in His nature, what should we doing on the earth?

If God is victorious should we be defeated? If He is love, should we live in hatred?

It is time to Identify your creator and be fashioned after His Kind!