"And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion. " Gen. 1:26

The world that the Lord Jesus was born into was a very difficult, and hard place to live. However, if we compare the religious community of His day and its relationship to everything around it, we will find many similarities with our own society today.

The Jews were very divided about what they believed and as a result there were many different sects of the same religion. Among the more powerful groups were, Pharisees. These stressed the observance of rites and ceremonies and made a pretense of superior piety. They separated themselves from all those who were different to them. They believed in the immortality of the soul, the resurrection of the body, angels and spirits. (Acts 26:6-8)

Another group was the Sadducees. These disregarded all the traditions and unwritten laws, which the Pharisees prized so highly. They professed the scriptures as the only real source and rule of the Jewish religion. They rejected the demonology of the Pharisees; denied existence of angel and spirit. Believed the soul died with the body and believed in no after life. The tenets of these freethinking philosophers were not in general; so acceptable but many high-ranking members of the Sanhedrin were Sadducees. As you can see, like us today, everybody had HIS OR HER own opinion.

There were those who were called Zealots. These were a militant kind of people looking for a leader to bring revolt against Roman government. The burden of living was difficult enough, but the ritualistic observance of the law just added to the hardship of that day. Now it was into this world Jesus was born and grew up in ...under the law to redeem them by it. (Gal. 4:4-5) As he grew older He placed His life in jeopardy by completely upsetting the traditional, religious thinking.

Jesus taught that following law as accurately as they were DID NOT REPRESENT the free expression of God in man. Jewish thought did not allow for the idea that one could walk with the conscious embodiment of God. Jesus took a unique place contrary to the thought of His day. Let's note a few verses found in the gospel of John, chapter ten.

Verse 30 "1 and my Father are one." Then the Jews took up the stones AGAIN to stone him. Jesus then asked for which good work would they stone Him for. Verse 33 The Jews answered him, saying, For a good work we stone thee not; but for blasphemy; and because that thou, being a man, MAKEST THYSELF GOD. Jesus answered them, "is it not written in your law, I said, Ye are Gods?"

The Jewish leaders felt he had no right to take this position, but here is something vitally important to understand. He was not going around telling everybody He was God to exalt Himself in any carnal way. He was teaching man and restoring the knowledge of man's true relationship to God and His purpose.

Through His life we are beginning to see the real value of every person. Human rights had much less existence then than even now. People were often treated like mere animals to be used at will and even destroyed. By teaching that God and man are really one He was showing that the value of every created person was GOD HIMSELF. It didn't matter that the truth of our real nature has been hidden, covered and buried beneath the load of sin and its consequences. What is happening in this hour is a GREAT LIGHT IS DAWNING in the awareness of people lifting their eyes beyond what they can see and discovering the reality of CHRIST WITHIN and are beginning to identify with that holy thing which is called the SON OF GOD.

This is exactly what He came to bring to us, a resurrection of life, light, and love pouring forth unto all who had need. He opens the WAY for all to follow and experience the self same thing. The expression of God in and through Jesus was more brilliant a light that had ever shined into this very darkened world that rent the entire VEIL of illusion (delusion). Jesus gave VISIBLE EXPRESSION to THE INVISIBLE GOD. His life rayed forth a combination of virtues, understanding, and power that was without precedent. He expresses a light we are just beginning to appreciate, and, He demonstrated a capacity to help all kinds of people. When truth appears, it comes to HELP not crush, or even crush our old ways.

This was THE CHRIST, the manifested nature of God in and through man. And that nature is SAVIOUR. To experience the energy of contact with Christ is to know redemption and the ministry of reconciliation. So He went from town to town and carried on His ministry preaching and teaching, reeducating people about the nature of God and His relationship to man. While never denying anyone from following, I believe the reason He bypassed the religious leaders and chose from among the common people to ordain apostles was simply because they were TEACHABLE and he never stopped teaching because His ministry was to show US THE WAY, so we could follow. (1Pet.2:21, Math. 11:29,16:24, John. 13:15)

DISCOVER YOUR LIGHT:

"IN HIM WAS LIFE; AND THE LIFE WAS THE LIGHT OF MEN." JN.1:4

His life is our light. His life is our awakening from the death of human thinking. He is our way and has forever established the pathway into LIFE.

According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him ... 2 Pet. 1:3

Through the knowledge: EPIGINOSKO... among the words that describe this knowledge is RECOGNITION: to identify with what was known before. Whenever you experience Christ Jesus you are being brought face to face with an expression of LIFE that was once our experience in the bosom of the Father. This extraordinary idea is clearly expressed in Romans chapter eight and verse twenty nine, "For whom He did FOREKNOW..." PROGINOSKO This is the experiential knowledge God had of all His creation before the foundations of the world. (1Cor. 2:7, Eph.1:4, 9-11)

... but according to His own purpose and grace, which was given us IN CHRIST JESUS BEFORETHEWORLD (creation of time) BEGAN, But is now made manifest by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who ABOLISHED DEATH, AND HATH BROUGHT LIFE AND IMMORTALITYTO LIGHT through the GOSPEL (message of the good news): 2TIM. 1:9,10

The memory of our pre-existence in God and our identity as His own was lost to us as we became alive to the natural dimension. Man has fallen into a long and deep sleep that he is only beginning to awaken out of. Our contact with the Spirit of God through Christ brings a knowledge and experience that touches something deep within us, causing a response. We call this response a REVELATION. Something once covered or hidden is now made plain or clear. This is nothing other than you recognizing truth that you once knew. James states in his epistle that when we look into the word of God, it is like looking into a mirror. It reflects back your true image. He says we are beholding our NATURAL face (James 1:23)

This word, NATURAL, in the Greek text is translated from GENESIS, meaning beginnings, nature or generation. In other words as we experience the revealed logos we are seeing the nature and generation of our true beginnings. This is where the secret identity of every person is found, IN CHRIST.

At the top of this article is a scripture taken from the book of Genesis. This book not only tells us How man came into existence, but even more importantly, it tells the reason why man, was created. Humanity was MADE IN GOD'S IMAGE and likeness. While this may not come as a surprise to anybody, the essence of these words take on new meaning when you realize that man is to be the VISIBLE EXPRESSION OF THE INVISIBLE GOD. "And he is BEFORE ALL THINGS, and by him all things exist." Col. 1:17

ONENESS:

It may be difficult to imagine this but before man or ANY-THING came into being all that did exist was God, and God is Spirit (Jn.4:24). The significance of this is, that Spirit is invisible (Rom. 1:20,; 1Tim.1:17), and without FORM (Isa. 43:10). God's individual self is without limitation of any kind. He exists as omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent, life, light, and love. (lJn.1:5, Jn.14:6, 1Jn.4:8)

God conceived an IDEA, and His idea was to give His Spirit VISIBLE FORM. Christ is God's image of Himself formed into perfect expression. (Col. 1:15)

Everything that came into existence did so IN CHRIST.

"All things were made and came into existence through Him (Christ); and without Him was not even one thing made that has come into being."Jn.1:3 Amplified

God did not create anything outside of Christ. All things derive their existence in, through, and from Christ. God did not place Himself IN man, but He created Himself AS man. So that when Adam first came into being, he was simply an individual, finite expression of God's unlimited self (1Cor. 8:5-7) . In other words, the wholeness of Adam and every human being is directly related to experiencing this oneness. THE GREAT SECRET OF ALL TRUTH IS THAT GOD AND MAN ARE ONE.

This real identity of every person was lost as a result of the transgression. The soul of man died to his spirit and the influence of God within him. Instead of experiencing Christ we have all been initiated into the mystery of iniquity and have been made to taste the consequences of sin. There is no need to elaborate on this theme except to add that even the good things about life, are no more spiritual than the bad and do little or nothing to restore the real nature of our spiritual existence. The answer that God has provided is the very message of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. Everything about his life, message and ministry was designed to set you free. FREE FROM SIN, FREE FROM SICKNESS, FREE FROM THE FEAR OF MAN, FREE FROM DEATH.

Like the Apostle Paul, I realize that everyone needs the spirit of revelation (Eph. 1:17,18). 1 am not referring to that silly and foolish spirit that so often manifests among the spiritual community which is nothing more than trying to find some new thing to say, and call it a revelation. But it is the wisdom and understanding that accompanies friendship with Jesus Christ that enables our hearts to both receive and grasp the significance of God's unchangeable purpose, established from before time ever began.

To that end and purpose I offer some thoughts in this article to help enlarge the personal and intimate nature of your relationship with Christ Jesus. They are not written as creed, code or law. They are not etched in stone, nor are they the step-by-step method that you will have to continuously confess till you have convinced yourself that they are true. Hopefully and prayerfully the Holy Spirit will lift us to a place beyond ourselves. Creating thoughts that allow us to ascend into the realm of his High and Exalted state of being. It is only in these moments of revelation, when our spirit soars into the vast expanse of God's kingdom that we can experience the truth that will enable us to live and walk as the SONS OF GOD.

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