The Day of New Beginnings
Let Us Make Man in Our Image
Gen. 1:26:
Then God said, "Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth."
This passage reads: "Let US make man in OUR image..." Who is the us? Who is our? Let’s go now to John 17:
20 ¶ Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word;
21 That they all may be one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.
22 And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one:
23 I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.
These passages in John and the passages in Genesis all speak to one thing: Oneness. There is a oneness in the Lord we are to experience together. Even as Christ is in the Father and the Father in Christ, we are to be made one in them. It’s a creative work God is doing in us. There has been revelation concerning the seven days of creation and their mystical meaning. Those seven days of creation all point to man being made one with God. The different days and relationships we enter as we walk with God are all designed to bring us into completion, which is oneness. Being made perfect is an abstract concept without an understanding of God's definition of perfection. What IS perfection? The world would probably define it as existing without flaw. But that doesn't fully embrace God's idea of perfection. Without flaw misses the big point. Verse 23 in the above passages says, “That they may be made perfect in one…” Our perfection is synonymous with coming into oneness with the Lord, for then we begin to partake of His nature. Christ’s nature is perfection! The body of Christ is experiencing those seven days of creation. They lead us into oneness with the Lord, and thus with one another. As yet we only have a glimpse of what being of one spirit means. We in the Lord, Him in us, and us in one another!
We are to be one even as the Father and Christ are one, made one IN them. It is the natural realm that exists apart from God. All the natural creation is under futility and exists in a state of separation. It is by the Spirit that oneness is manifested. This is why God deals with our spirits the way He does. All the pressures and trials and testings we go through are designed to bring us into one spirit with the Lord. God puts pressures on our spirits, which is different than the disciplines of the soul life Christians have known in the past. It’s a new day, a day of Spirit in which God perfects our spirits by bringing us into oneness with Himself.
We are living in a day like no other. It can’t be compared with any work God has done in the past. We have not passed this way before (Josh. 3:4).
Joel 2:
¶ Blow a trumpet in Zion, And sound an alarm on My holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, For the day of the LORD is coming; Surely it is near,
2 A day of darkness and gloom, A day of clouds and thick darkness. As the dawn is spread over the mountains, So there is a great and mighty people; There has never been anything like it, Nor will there be again after it To the years of many generations.
In a day of darkness and thick clouds there is a dawn spread over the mountains. The dawn is God’s people coming into oneness with Him. This oneness God is creating within a people does not just happen. It’s worked out experimentally in our lives. It hurts. “Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven (Mat. 5).” We can substitute very readily blessed are the afflicted in spirit and get the true interpretation of that passage.
It’s so hard for Christians to come off the time line interpretation of the Scriptures and see a new day. We all tend to persist in continuing in the soul realm and calling it spiritual. God help us to get our eyes open to see a new day, a new realm opening to us! It’s a day of oneness, a day of completion, a day of entering into God’s ultimate purpose of creation!