Genesis 1:26 – “Let Us make man in Our image.”
Each and every one of us needs to have an understanding of the magnitude of this scripture.
This is who you are, this is your capacity, this is your purpose and this is your destiny.
It is THIS VERY PURPOSE of God for our lives – BEING THE IMAGE BEARER OF GOD – that was the SOLE reason for God’s plan of salvation.
As believers who have accepted what Jesus did for us and who have called Him Lord, we stand in the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ BECAUSE we have been fully justified, forever.
It has nothing to do with our own good works and everything to do with the righteousness of God being satisfied, forever. This is why there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
This is absolutely phenomenal!
YET!
The glory of what Jesus has accomplished on our behalf goes far deeper than we have ever imagined.
Rom. 5:9 – Much more then, having now been justified by His Blood we shall be saved from wrath through Him. (Why?) Because Jesus has already experienced the wrath for us!
Rom. 5:10 – For if when we were enemies we were reconciled to God (again past tense) (how?) through the death of His Son, MUCH MORE, having been reconciled, we shall be (future tense) saved (how?) by His life. (The absolute fullness of life which belongs to God).
- You and I needed to be justified and because of that we are saved from the wrath that is to come.
- You and I needed to be reconciled to God SO THAT Gen.1:26 (the image bearer) could become a reality in our lives!
Saved by His life is talking about TRANSFORMATION – the life of Christ in you… the hope of glory! – Col. 1:27.
This is speaking about the transformation that is Gen. 1:26.
The bride of Christ is the transformed one. Transformation is about birthing Christ in you by the power of the Holy Spirit. 2 Cor. 3:18 – But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.
But how does that transformation take place?
Ezek. 36:26-27 – I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.
Two things the Father is going to do:
- He will take out the hardened heart and give us a new heart, a soft heart.
- Secondly, He will put His Spirit within us to bring about the transformation to walk in His statutes.
Why a new heart? What’s the point?
Prov. 4:23 – Keep your heart with all diligence for out of it spring forth the issues of life.
The question is what sort of life do you want springing forth from you? Love, joy, peace,
righteousness? These flow forth from a soft heart.
Or would you prefer bitterness, anger, resentment, hatred to spring forth from you? How about self-centredness, greed, lust, unkindness? A critical judgmental spirit? These flow forth from a hardened heart.
If you desire to live a life filled with love, joy, peace and righteousness…you will need a new heart, a soft heart and you will need a new spirit. Remember, we are talking here about having an inward heart transformation.
Secondly, He will put His Spirit within us to bring about the transformation to walk in His statutes.
What does He say in Ezek. 36:27? I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes (what will be the result of Him doing that?) and you will keep My judgments and do them.
What are His statutes? The two commandments...
Luke 10:27 – So he answered and said, ‘You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbour as yourself.’
John 13:34 – A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another; as I have loved you, that you also love one another.
So the journey of transformation spoken of in 2 Cor. 3:18 is change that is inspired by the Holy Spirit and empowered by the Holy Spirit. “I will put My Spirit within you and cause you…”
CHOICE – Even so, even then! The choice to surrender to His Invitation remains ours!
Deut. 30:19 – I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; Therefore, choose life, that you and your descendants may live V20 that you may love the Lord your God, that you may obey His voice, and that you may cling to Him, for He is your life, and the length of your days.
The Word is clear, choose life – choose that you may love the Lord your God – choose life that you may obey His voice – choose to cling to Him…for He is your life!
We have received so much information and guidance from the Holy Spirit in the last year to help us to prepare to be the bride who is ready for His return. We must choose to sign up! To surrender! To follow His guidance for change to become a reality in our lives.
Where and how does this change, this transformation, this new heart become your life?
In the Secret Place of His Presence
Just to recap…The secret place is all about the heart and it is where the Spirit of God gives you revelation in the heart and the revelation speaks to you personally. You get the depths of salvation, of how God works and how God thinks.
The only way into the secret place is by the Holy Spirit. He takes you past the veil of the flesh that cannot be passed by the natural man and He takes you into the Holy of Holies. It is the place of divine intimacy within your heart where you fellowship with the Lord.
Here, in this place of intimacy is where you are learning to know Him and through learning to know Him, your heart has come to assume a posture of humility before Him.
It is where you will find yourself bowed down in a posture of worship and submitted to the King of kings because of who He is.
Ps. 91:1 – He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty. He who dwells…abides under the shadow. It has become a place of habitation…a residence. And if you remember from our last teaching…this is who the bride is to be…a dwelling place for the presence of God. A place of worship.
As we abide, dwell, live in the secret place to make Him the first love in our lives, the Holy Spirit will begin to reveal those areas in us that need to change and that change will manifest as fruit in a heart that longs to please the Father.
It starts and ends with abiding
To abide means to live, to dwell.
John 15:4 -10 – Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.
I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.
If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you.
V8 By this is My Father glorified, that you bear much fruit; so (in this way) will you be My disciples.
V9-10 As the Father has loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love. If you keep My commandments, you will abide in My love, just as I have kept My Father’s commandment and abide in His love.
Abiding in the vine for us is essential – and like it is in the natural, it takes time to develop a strong branch that is able to carry the fruit that will be produced on the branch. The fruit is not something that the branch wants to produce. It is what the vine wants to do. It is the fruit of the vine. It is the life of the vine coming forth in and through the branch.
Therefore, in the same way, Jesus as the vine, wants to develop His branches so that they are strong enough to carry the fruit He wants to produce in them
He says without Him we can do nothing.
In the beginning it is necessary for you and I to spend time in His Presence to establish a relationship with Him built on understanding and truly knowing His unconditional love for us. Believing His unwavering commitment and faithfulness towards us.
As we grow in this knowledge, we won’t fear correction when it comes because we know that He is either disciplining us to grow in a specific manner to give us the best chance of producing the fruit that He desires OR He may prune us to enable us to bear much more fruit but whatever He does, it will be in an atmosphere of love.
This love of God, His love for me, now begins to grow in me to the place where it begins to flow forth from me. Like that branch, I have spent time to grow in strength. I have gone through the crucifixion of self, allowing Him to kill the hurts, the inadequacies, the fears, all of those things that kept me tied to my carnal self and now I am strong and because I am strong, there is an outflow of His love from me.
Jesus, our example, the Way, the Truth and the Life, proactively spent time in the secret place with His Father in the early morning. He had such a revelation of the riches, the wonders of the Father’s love that when He stepped into the world, the glory of the Father was all over Him, clinging to Him and it just begins to flow. What was in the Father flowed forth from Jesus – the love of God displayed in a frail human vessel
John 15:9 – Just as the Father has loved Me, I also have loved you; abide in My love.
1 John 4:7 – Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God; and everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.
The minute you and I step into the secret place, we are in heavenly territory and it is the place that we should abide, live and dwell. It is here that the culture of the Kingdom of Heaven is made real to us. And everything about the culture of heaven comes forth from the One who is Love.
Love is the foundation of it all. We cannot walk in this love naturally, it is not a love that we have been taught. It is not the love of our perceptions or opinions.
It is His love. It is a higher love, a spiritual love and He wants to put it in you and I. This love, the love of the Father can now be displayed through you and I, like Jesus. The love of God displayed in a frail human vessel.
This real love IS the language, the culture of heaven
1 Cor. 13:4 – Love suffers long (endures with patience) and is kind; love does not envy, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things
‘Everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.’
The world is drawn by this love and it sees that we are His disciples, by this love.