Programme: Writing the Vision (October Edition)
Date: Saturday, 21st October 2023
Transcript Summary
1. The image and likeness of God is a promise to the new man. This promise is not to the former creation. As such, the exact image and likeness of God were not given to the former creation. No one can bear that image and likeness without 'birth'.
2. “I am the Lord : that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another, neither my praise to graven images.” (Isa. 42:8). Whenever the Lord speaks of His name, He is referring to His nature and the things that make Him up. This name can only be sung in the midst of His brethren (Heb. 2:12). Jesus has names (Isa. 9:6), and while on earth, He continued to change form and condescend until God gave Him a name that is above every name (Phillipp. 2:9, Heb. 1:4, Rev. 3:12).
3. God intended, from the beginning, that man should partake and inherit His image and likeness. But man fell short in fellowship and could not come into that glorious estate until the last Adam came into it. Image and likeness is the real promise of God to the new man. The purpose for creating the new man is so that he can receive that image (Coloss. 3:10). This means that the new man is not yet in that image, but was created so that he can receive the image and likeness of the One who created Him.
4. Isaiah 42:9 refers to the old man as former things and also speaks of the bringing forth of a new man that would have a new heart, new spirit and heart of flesh, which is the intention of the One who made him new. The purpose of the learning of the faith of the Son of God and obeying commandments is so that a new man can rise in place of the fallen old man. It is this new man who would walk in the reality of bearing the image and likeness of God who created him.
5. God has decided before the world began that He would not give His glory to any other (Isa. 42:8). The only entity that can partake of the image and likeness of God is that which is born of God. It is God’s desire that the Church should learn and walk in the reality of the knowledge of Christ, which would enable her to engage in the issue of partaking in the likeness of God. Without the raising of the new man in us, we would not be able to bear the image and likeness of God. The desire of God is to raise people that are new (2 Corin. 5:17). It is when all things have been made new that they can thereafter be made all things of God.
6. The things that the Father committed to the Son are the things that can give birth to the Son (John 3:35). The things of another cannot give birth to the image and likeness of God. Jesus used the things that were committed to Him by the Father to be born. Ways, spirits and lines were committed to Him and these things carried out a work in His soul and mind so that He could really receive the image and the likeness of God.
7. Satan is fighting the church so that she would remain in the milk and not receive the truth in Christ. Truth is what will cause the church to change and put off the old man and begin to call for image and likeness. Satan wants the former creation, including its ways and lines, to remain in us because while they remain in us, we would not be able to receive the new and the promise of image and likeness. But as the Church, through following the leading of the Spirit and commitment to the truth, puts on the new man, we would be able to see our high calling in Christ Jesus.
8. Satan is fighting souls to keep them in his lusts, corrupt ways and beliefs, which will hinder them from the promise of God. He has packaged his lusts in a way that believers desire them so that when they see the demands of wearing the image of God, they consider them as difficult. Satan wages warfare against people who are around inheriting the promise to discourage them and make them weary. He does not want believers to put off the corrupt man. But thanks be to the Lord who is visiting people in our days and is opening things to us so that what God has in mind from the beginning of creation would still go on. God has not changed His mind.
9. It is possible to bear the image and likeness of God but we must have a strong hunger for it. Jesus was also tempted like we are being tempted but He overcame so that we can know that we also can overcome. We can overcome the things that the enemy has done within us which make us selfish, look on our own things and are responsible for the way our minds are designed. We can receive the mind of the Lord and the mind of God.
10. The essence of the mind of the Lord is so that we can be instructed. One thing we must be ready to do in this season is to be instructed. If we are not instructed, we cannot receive the image and likeness of God. Jesus was instructed all the way before He inherited the image and likeness of God. This means we must also be ready to be instructed in order to inherit the image and likeness of God. We have to love instructions and be led in the way. As we respond to instructions, things are taken from us and other things are put into us.
11. The world could not know the Lord because He was not of the present (John 1:10). The world cannot tell a spiritual man, much less of the Lord. This world is inferior to a new man who has been born of Christ. The only begotten Son is Eternal but there is an image that He first bore which is the image of the Father (John 1:14). This image is higher than the world, hence the world could not know Him. Before His death, He was no more of the world, that is, He condemned this world. This world was of no more use to him because He had been endowed with things higher than the world.
Blessings!