“Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion…” Genesis 1:26 NKJV
I’ve realised that it is impossible to walk in the empowerment we have received from the Spirit of God without knowing and understanding our identity.
It’s tempting to think that being empowered is an extra—a bonus that makes us better than others. But it is not.
It’s not an additional superpower that we can do without. No. It’s part of who we are. It’s like saying your nose is a bonus. No, it’s not; it’s what completes your face. Without your nose, you’ll look like you lack something.
This is the same thing as being empowered by God’s spirit. Without it, we’ve lost something and would need to go through spiritual surgery to get restored.
So, being filled with God’s spirit to do the work He has sent us to do is a restoration back to the original order of things. It’s part of our identity and spiritual anatomy. With this, we are complete.
Knowing this identity, how does it help us work differently?
Three keywords are used in Genesis 1:26: image, likeness, and dominion.
When we look into the mirror, what do we see? An image of ourselves. We can see this because of the reflection of light.
That image is a replica of our features. It shows our nature. The right amount of light gives us a more precise reflection of that image. The only way to see our image is to study the word of God, because that’s the light we need.
When a boy acts like his father, we say, “Like father, like son.” We say this because the boy acts in similar ways to his dad. From birth, he watches how his father acts and reacts, then does the same until he becomes older and decides to make changes intentionally.
Likeness is about function and how we operate. Do we act like God or not?
When we run a business or ascend to a position within an organisation where we can influence the flow of resources, we dominate. At our command, resources either flow or halt.
Dominion defines what we have access to. It’s about possession.
When we have God’s nature, which is love, function with God’s wisdom, and possess all He has given us in Christ, we work God’s way and produce results that surpass human standards.
Some of our work may not make sense to others, but we’ll keep at it because it makes sense to God. To work differently, we must be ready to live differently, God’s way.
“I stay aligned with God’s will.”
We fall in and out of alignment because we’re constantly battling our desires and what we think is essential, born again or not.
God is ready to do great work through us. We must only seek and stay focused on what truly matters—His will, not ours.
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