In the Image and Likeness

Genesis 1:26-28 And God said, 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. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

We are one with God and always have been. But God decided to put us into expression on a planet He called earth; and that expression of God made in God’s image and likeness He called man and gave him dominion over everything on the earth. This man was perfection just as God is perfection.

But this man began to think of himself as separated from God and in need of something to be as gods Genesis 3:5. After that, they (both male and female man) lost the knowledge that they were one with God (who is good and only good) and began to conceive of evil which led to their hiding themselves from the Presence of God v 8. They were afraid v 10 of God and didn’t think themselves worthy to be in His Presence. In other words, they lost the awareness or consciousness of God and became conscious of themselves as evil people in an evil world.

But they did not lose their dominion. Whatever they conceived themselves and this world to be (false concepts, but real to them) was what they experienced. Now this perfect man made in the image and likeness of God and given dominion used that dominion to create a world of his own imagination (what Jesus called this world which He overcame John 16:33 and delivered us from Galatians 1:4). Whatever was in man’s consciousness (awareness) was what APPEARED on the earth. Every imaginable form of evil appeared in this once perfect man and on this once perfect earth.

Genesis 6:5 And God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.

Of course these evil formations were not reality, but rather appearances. That is why Jesus instructed us to

John 7:24 Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment.

The original creation of both earth and man was very good Genesis 1:31 and God placed His blessing upon man v 28. What God has done cannot be undone; the blessing which God gives cannot be reversed.

Numbers 23:20 … he hath blessed; and I CANNOT reverse it.

In order to judge righteous judgment, I must be born again:

John 3:3 Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

This means that I must go back to the original creation to see the perfection that Jesus called the kingdom of God which is located within every man.

John 3:3-5 (MSG) Jesus said, You’re absolutely right. Take it from me: Unless a person is born from above, it’s not possible to see what I’m pointing to—to God’s kingdom. How can anyone, said Nicodemus, be born who has already been born and grown up? You can’t re-enter your mother’s womb and be born again. What are you saying with this born-from-above talk? Jesus said, You’re not listening. Let me say it again. Unless a person submits to this ORIGINAL CREATION—the wind hovering over the water creation, the invisible moving the visible, a baptism into a new life—it’s not possible to enter God’s kingdom.

Luke 17:20-21 And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.

Notice that Jesus wasn’t talking to those we would call believers, but rather to the Pharisees when He said, The kingdom of God is within you—thus indicating that every man in his true identity is, in reality, still as he was in the beginning before he lost his awareness of his being one with God, perfect and entire, wanting nothing James 1:4. When I am born again, I regain that awareness, cease judging by the appearance and begin to judge righteous judgment. That means I judge myself and everyone else as being righteous (in right relationship to God) because God has blessed man and it cannot be reversed. This will stop all my condemnation and criticism of myself and others.

As I recognize and accept the truth of who I am, I will begin making this man, Jackie, in the image and likeness of God. I will see the image and likeness of my mistaken identity begin to dissolve so that my original building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens 2Corinthians 5:1 can be brought into visibility (the invisible moving the visible, a baptism into a new life—John 3:5). And I won’t, as we have been taught to believe, have to go into the grave to have this happen.

Yes, I will have to die to my former sense of self and be raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father so that I can walk in newness of life Romans 6:4, the life of one made in God’s likeness and image, not in the image and likeness of man’s mistaken identity. Now I can invoke this blessing which God has given to man upon myself and others—this blessing that cannot be reversed. For the first time I can begin to experience the all power of God in heaven and in earth which has been given unto me Matthew 28:18-19. When I utter the words, I bless you, they will no longer be an idle, religious expression of piety, but rather an invoking of this power of God to once again bring into manifestation the image and likeness of God.