God Created Man in His Image and Likeness

Copyright 2012 Oried E. Graves.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the written prior permission of the author.

ISBN: 978-1-4669-5805-0 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4669-5804-3 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4669-5806-7 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2012916944

Trafford rev. 04/13/2013

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Contents

Foreword

Preface

Purpose and Results

Objective of This Work

Introduction

1.   Created in God’s Image Likeness

A. Blessed

B. Spiritual Fruitful Life

C. Having Dominion

2.   The Fall from God’s Image

A. The Instructions Not Followed

B. The Law Not Obeyed

C. Man’s Way instead of God’s Will

3.   The Struggle to Be Fulfilled

A. Idol Worship

B. Believing a Lie and Turning from the Truth

C. Disobeying God’s Word That Gives Eternal Life

D. Choosing Sin and Its Side Effects Instead of Salvation and Its Benefits [Rom. 3:23; 6:23; Gal. 5:19-23; Rev. 21:7-8]

4.   God’s Living and Fulfilling Love for Man’s Dying Disobedience

A. God Seeking Man to Fulfill His Will and Man’s Created Purpose

B. God Inviting Man Back to His Image

C. God Restoring Man Back to His Image

D. God’s Eternal Choice Fulfilled in Jesus Christ

E. Jesus Remains in the Expressed Image of God [Heb. 1:3]

F. Jesus Sees Creation as His Father

G. Jesus Saves Man to Glorify God

5.   God Delights in Man While Man Rejects His Love [Jer. 9:23-24;

Hosea 4:6; John 1:10-13]

A. God’s Loving-Kindness

B. God’s Judgment

C. God’s Righteousness

D. Loving God Unconditionally All the Time

6.   God Manifests His Loving-Kindness That Is Better Than Life in the Flesh [Ps. 63:3; Jer. 9:23-24]

A. Jesus Christ Is God’s Son [John 1:14-18; 3:16-17; Heb.1:3;

I John 3:8-11]

B. The Word Made Flesh [John 1:14-18]

C. The Expressed Image of God’s Person

D. Conforming to God’s Image, His Son

E. Pleasing God [Matt. 3:15]

7.   Complete Reconciliation Back to God’s Expressed Image [John 14:20; 17:1-25; Rom. 8:29; Col. 1:15]

A. In Jesus Christ [II Cor. 5:17-21]

B. Create in Me a Clean Heart and Renew the Right Spirit within Me

C. The Old Man Destroyed, the New Man Lives by Faith in Christ Jesus

D. The Benefits of the New Nature in Christ Jesus [Rev. 21:1-7]

E. The Side Effects of the Old Man and the Sin Nature [Gal. 5:19-21; Rev. 21:8]

8.   In God’s Image and Likeness

A. Jesus Expresses His Father’s Image by His Word to Man and His Love for Man

B. Jesus Expressed His Father’s Image by the Works He Performed

C. The Image of God Is Fulfilled in Us as His Children

D. Male and Female Are Created in the Image and Likeness Of God

E. Man can Conform to the Image of God by Obeying His Word

1. The Law of Love

2. Letting God Choose Our Thoughts and Way of Life

9.   Why We Are as We Are?

A. Expressing God’s Image in What We See, Hear, Feel, Taste, and Smell

1. Seeing of the Eyes

2. The Hearing of the Ears

3. The Feeling and Touching of the Flesh

4. The Tasting

5. The Smelling

6. Love Your Neighbors as Yourself

B. We Can Love God and Our Neighbors as the Lord Requires

10.   Created in God’s Image and Likeness versus Being Born in Sin and Shaped in Iniquity [Gen. 1:26; Ps. 51:5]

A. God’s Image Identified

B. God’s Loving Kindness

C. God’s Judgment

D. God’s Righteousness

11.   Created in God’s Image and

Likeness Make Us Perfect for Him [Matt. 5:48]

A. God’s Unilateral Covenant to Create Mankind in His Image and Likeness

B. Mankind Can Rejoice At Hearing the Lord’s Voice

C. No One Can Say Anything Bad above Our Father and Creator

D. Our Father Brings Eternal Comfort to Us

1. Created

a. God’s love for Mankind

b. Man’s love for God

2. Formed

a. Man’s Love for the Earth

b. Man’s Love for His Neighbors

3. Born

4. Deceived

5. Born Again

6. A Double Portion of God’s Spirit

12.   God Sanctifies Himself in Us

That We Will Be Sanctified through the Truth [Ezek. 36:23-38;

John 14:20; 17:17, 19]

13.   Highlights of the Bible: Every Highlight Is Managed by a Covenant

A. Created in God’s Image and Likeness Is a Covenant

B. Formed of the Dust of the Ground [Gen.2:7]: Man’s Covenant with the Earth

C. Born of the Seed of Adam the Flesh of Parents [Gen. 4:1-2]: Man’s Covenant with Man

D. Man Breaks God’s Covenant; This Leads to the Breaking of the Covenant between Man and the Earth and Man and Mankind [Gen. 3:6]

E. A New Covenant: A Virgin Shall Have a Son and Call Him Jesus and He Will Save His People from their Sins [Matt. 1:21]

F. The New Spiritual Covenant Birth [Luke 1:35]

G. The Coming of the New Covenant: He Came to His Own and His Own Received Him Not, but as Many as Received Him Gave He The Power to Become Sons of God [John 1:11-12]

H. The Fulfillment of the Old Covenant [Matt. 5; 17; 22:37-40]

I. Death to Sin That the Body of Righteousness May Live [John 10:15-18; I John 3:8-10]

J. The New Covenant Implemented

K. The New Covenant Empowers [John 20:22-23; Acts 1:8]

14.   Others Needs Give Opportunities to Fulfill God’s Purpose in Our Life

15.   God’s Needs

16.   The Work of the Holy Spirit to Conform Us to the Image and Likeness of God [John 16:7-14; Rom. 8:29; 12:2; Phil. 2:5-11; Col. 1:15-16; Heb. 1:3]

17.   The Word of Reconciliation Gives Us the Ministry of Reconciliation (II Cor. 5:17-21) Fulfilling God’s Righteousness (Matt. 3:15-17) in an Intimate Relationship

A. Reconciled in the Image of Christ [II Corinthians 5:17-21]

B. God Is Married to His Image and Likeness

18.   Adorning Ourselves with Charity God’s Character

19.   Fleshly Feeling versus Spiritual Truth

20.   We Have Born the Earthy Image, Now We Must Bear the Heavenly Image

21.   Enduring Changes to Stay in the Truth That Will Not Change

22.   How God Puts His Image and Likeness in Man?

A. How We Bear Witness to Our Creator?

B. Where Is Man’s True Comfort Zone?

C. Oh You of Little Faith, to Believe That You Are in the Image and Likeness of God

D. Great Faith Conforms Us to the Image and Likeness of God [Mat. 8:10; 9:2, 22, 29; 15:28; 17:20]

23.   Freedom of Choice

A. The Purpose of Pain in the Life of Man

B. Faith and Fear

24.   Worshiping God in Love

A. The Image and Likeness of God Are Expressed in Love and Submission [Eph. 5:21-31; Col.3:18, 19]

25.   Invisible and Visible Purpose

26.   God’s Progression from Beginning to the End

A. The Authority and Power of God’s Love

B. Holding Oneself Responsible for Being in the Image and Likeness of God

C. In the Beginning, God Created the Heaven and the Earth [Gen. 1:1]

27.   God Allowed Lucifer to Be in Heaven as an Angel [Isa. 14:12-14]

A. Lucifer Is Casted Out of Heaven to the Earth [Isa. 14:15]

B. Lucifer Becomes Satan as the Serpent [Gen. 3:1]

C. Satan Is the Serpent in the Garden [Gen. 3:1-24]

D. Serpent on a Pole in the Wilderness [Numbers 21:6-9]

28.   Jesus on the Cross at Jerusalem [John 3:14-15; 19:15-37]

A. Mankind in Jesus [John 14:20]

B. Jesus in God the Father [John 14:20]

C. In the End, God Is Mankind’s Father and Mankind Is God’s Children [Rev. 21:7]

29.   Flesh Makes the Law Weak but Grace Abound [Rom. 5¨:19-21; 8:2-4]

30.   Fulfilling God’s Righteousness

31.   Married to God in the Spirit

A. Married in the Flesh

B. Restored as Children of God

32.   Perfection

A. Perfect Love

B. Perfect Peace

C. Perfect Oneness

D. Perfect Friendship

E. Perfect Gifts

F. Perfect Thoughts

G. Perfect Deliverance

H. Perfect Comfort

I. Perfect Marriage

J. Perfect Purpose

33.   Married without God Our Creator and Bridegroom

34.   You Must Be Born Again (The New Spiritual Birth) [John 3:3-5]

35.   Blessing and Loving the Lord

Is Giving Him What He Needs

A. What God Gives Is What He Wants to Receive

B. Spiritual Sensitivity

36.   Casting down Imagination

37.   Declaring the Highest God Our Heavenly Father

38.   God’s Infinite Love

39.   Why Rob God When He Wants to Give Us His Kingdom [Luke 12:32]?

40.   God’s Image and Likeness Follows Jesus His Son

41.   Offence

42.   Jesus’ Model Teaching Method to Get God’s Children into His Kingdom

A. The Identity of Jesus, the Teacher

B. The Eternally One with the Father

C. Expressing His Father’s Eternal Will

D. The Authority and Power of the Teacher

E. Ownership of Children by Their Creator

F. Respect with Freedom of Choice

G. The Acknowledgement of the Teacher

H. Good Positive Character of the Churches

I. Bad Negative Character of the Churches

J. Instructions On How to Rid Ourselves from Negative Behavior

K. Repentance

L. Hearing and Obeying the Holy Spirit’s Voice Is Essential

M. Overcoming the World System to Enter God’s Kingdom

N. The Promise to Them That Follow Christ’s Teaching to Overcome the World System

O. In the Presence of God in Christ Jesus Forever

P. Jesus Makes Us Kings and Priests [Rev. 1:6; 5:10]

43.   Jesus Fulfills All Righteousness

[Matt. 3 15-17; 5:6; 6:33; John 16:7-13; Jer. 9:22-23; Rom. 14:17; II Cor.5:17-21]

44.   The Strongest and Weakest

Form of Life

45.   We Are in Christ Jesus [John 14:20]

46.   The Four Wills of Life Affecting Our Image and Likeness in God [John 1:11-13]

47.   What Man has to look forward to in being in God’s image and likeness

48.   Conclusion

49.   Summary

Appendix

1. The Spirit of Luke warmness

2. God’s Image and Likeness Equip Us to Fulfill All Righteousness

3. Affirmation, Sealing, and Consolation of Our Image and Likeness in Christ

Few Expressions of Being in God’s Divine Image and likeness

4. Led by God’s Spirit to Follow His Son

5. We are not controlled by the world we live in but by God who created the world and lives in us.

Foreword

By Edna H. Graves

This Book, God Created Man in His Image and Likeness is a book that all citizens of the United States and other countries of the world need to read to know their origin and destiny. The Author has devoted himself to know what Jesus was really saying to us when He said: You shall know the truth and the truth will make you free. That truth is we as human beings are created in the image and likeness of God and that is the best life anyone can live in earth and in heaven. God is our loving Creator and He wants us to live and perform just like Him as His children. Who else could have created you the way you are?

When we let temptations separate us from His image and likeness, He sent Jesus His Son to redeem us back to being in a perfect relationship with Him that we had before the foundation of the world.

The Author, Oried Graves sought the Holy Spirit to lead him in declaring this truth to God’s people once again to help us in the many experiences of life that our flesh falls short of performing at the level of fulfillment and enjoyment God’s Word says we should realize. We have hope that cannot be fulfilled in the flesh. God knows we can only do what He does by being in His image and likeness. If you have read the Bible, you know that you cannot perform in your flesh what the Word of God says we should be doing as His children. God wants us to worship and serve Him in Spirit and in truth and in the beauty of Holiness. Flesh cannot do that. However, the Spirit of God does it all the time. He created us to do what He wants. The objective of this book is to give our Creator what He wants from us His image and likeness at all times. When we fulfill our Creator, we are fulfilled.

Preface

Every person that ever lived and are living should know that he is created in the image and likeness of God in order to fulfill his purpose and justify living forever with God. Every child should be taught at a very early age (at conception) that he is in the image and likeness of God. The Bible is written to make mankind know the image and likeness God wants him to express in this life. The image of God is now revealed in Jesus Christ. God’s Image is fulfilled in His unconditional love expressed in Jesus Christ’s life, death, and resurrection. God’s Image creates an atmosphere in our heart that makes us desire to hear, see, feel, taste, and smell Him above the natural things of this fleshly life. We try to satisfy these fleshly desires with earthy things just to find that we have miserably failed God and ourselves. Jesus showed us how to be fulfilled in God when the devil came to Him in the wilderness and said to Him if you be the Son of God command these stones to be bread. Jesus refused and said man must not live by bread alone but by every word that comes out of the mouth of God [Matt. 4:4]. Our heavenly Father wants us to be just like His Son Jesus destroying the works of the devil [Rom. 8:29; Heb. 1:3; I John 3:8] by obeying His word.

His image and likeness creates in us a will to obey and love God our Father with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength and to love our neighbors as ourselves. This desire will drive us to seek His face, hear His voice, feel after His Holy presence, and reverence His presence in our hearts while we live. The only way we can do this is to conform to the image of Jesus Christ. That is because Christ is in God, we in Christ, and Christ in us making us a part of God’s Trinity. We are made perfectly one in the Father in Jesus Christ [John 14:20; 17:22-23]. This perfection in the Father and Jesus is equivalent to new life (new birth) in Jesus Christ that conforms us to His divine image [Matt. 5:48] making us a part of His Holy Trinity. To perfect our image in God will enable us to be like Him and bear His kind to the world that we live in. This will help us to be reconciled to and conform to the image of Christ and bear witness of God’s kind in the earth. It fulfills the great commission Jesus commanded us to carry out in our lifetime [Matt. 28:19-20].

God the Father, Jesus Christ His Son, and the Holy Spirit are one and compose the Trinity [I John 5:7]. It appears that God the Father functions primarily as Head of creation, Jesus Christ His Son functions as Savior and Lord of creation, and the Holy Spirit functions as Comforter and Teacher of creation [1 Corinthians 12:3-7]. In reading God’s eternal Word, it appears that God created mankind to be a part of His Holy Trinity in the earth being God’s children. We see this perfect order of operation within the divine Trinity [I John 5:7-8] and God wants it in us. It is with great love that the last ten verses of the Bible state and declare God’s concern about the salvation of mankind. For example, in verse 17, He gives the threefold invitation to man to come to the Lord: The Spirit and the bride say, ‘Come.’ Him that hears say, ‘Come.’ Let him that is athirst come. Come take of the water of life freely. The Lord wants man to come to Him by his own free volition. But if man does not come to the Lord, the Lord will come to man to give him his reward. The Lord’s Word says in verse 20, He which testifies these things says, ‘Surely I come quickly.’ Amen. Even so, come Lord Jesus. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ is with you all. Amen! Our Heavenly Father’s unconditional and continual love for us His children is forever expressed in His Son of whom He is well pleased [Matt. 3:15-17; 17:5] to bring us back into a perfect relationship with Him. This work is dedicated to the family of our Heavenly Father residing on earth called by Jesus Christ and conforming to His image and likeness by confessing Him as Savior and Lord. It is to all who will come to the Truth that Jesus brings to mankind to know that he is created in God’s image and likeness of God and be in agreement with God’ spirit [I John 5:8]. This is the greatest life anyone can live on earth and in heaven. It is also dedicated to Edna, my wife; Dionne, my first daughter; Oried Jr., my first son; Derek, my second son; Sharonda, my fourth child; all my grandchildren; and the children to come. It is to declare to all the people of God to come to know the only true God and Jesus Christ whom God has sent into the world to return mankind back to conforming to His image and likeness as His children. I personally want to dedicate this work to my generation and to the generations to come that they will choose freely to be reconciled to the image of God our heavenly Father through Jesus Christ His Son.

Purpose and Results

The purpose of this work is not to take the place of the Bible, the eternal Word of God in the life of a person but to offer a another reason to read, hear, and obey God his Creator as early in life as possible. It is to declare to all mankind that he is created in God image and likeness to be a part of God’s Holy visible Trinity on earth as it is in heaven. It is to inspire a great interest in my generation and in the generations to come to have a hunger and thirst after God’s righteousness that makes us God’s children by conforming to the image and likeness of Jesus Christ. God gave us His Son to make us His children. The paramount purpose is to know that God created us to be His children conforming to the image of Jesus Christ His Son in order to be and do the righteousness that is of God [Matt. 3:15-17]. God’s righteousness is revealed in His truth. His truth is declared in His Word. His Word is expressed in His Son who is full of grace and truth [John 1:14]. His truth enables us to choose freely to fulfill His righteousness that is in Jesus Christ our Savior. When we fulfill God’s righteousness, we please Him that He has created us in His image [Matt. 3:15-17]. God created us in His righteousness; therefore, when we fulfill His righteousness, we please Him by fulfilling His created purpose for us. It is our spiritual responsibility to encourage everyone to be God’s children. As God’s children, we are born of the spiritual new birth in Christ and will fulfill all righteousness that makes us pleasing in His sight. This work is designed to inform us that God created us in His image to imagine Him to be greater [John 14:28] and above all things that we have seen, heard, felt, tasted, or smelled with the natural senses. The greatest thing that we can do with the senses that God gives to us is to seek unconditionally the seven Spirits of God our Father that are manifested in Jesus Christ His Son [Rev. 5:6].

We will know when we are conforming to God’s image and likeness because we will want what He wants and has declared to us through His Son, Jesus Christ. We will want to glorify God in our bodies and in our spirit that are his [I Cor. 6:20]. We will want more than anything else to love the God with all our heart, all our soul, and all our mind, and to love our neighbors as ourselves. On these two commandments hang the law and the prophets designed to fulfill God’s righteousness [Matt. 22:37-40; 3; 15-17; 5:17]. We will want to worship the Lord in spirit and in truth and in the beauty of holiness [John 4:23-24; I Chron. 16:29]. Last but not least, we will want above all things to abide in His Word and that His Word abide in us all the time [John 14:20; 15:4-7]. Yes, as children in God’s Holy image, Jesus has reconciled us to glorify Him. We have returned to God our first love with all our heart, soul, and mind, loving our neighbors as ourselves, abiding only in His Word and worshiping Him in Spirit and Truth that pleases Him. The person who has returned to God through Jesus Christ will repent from sin, confess Jesus Christ, and believe in his heart that God has raised Jesus from the dead will do these things with unconditional love and for the kingdom of God and righteousness sake. This may seem impossible to the flesh, but it is possible when we commit to being God’s children loving Him and obeying His Word that is true and makes us free to choose Him freely every time a decision is made. The Spirit of God enables us to choose freely every time to love, obey, and glorify God our Father with unconditional love. This pleases the Father, His Son our Savior and Lord, and the Holy Spirit our Comforter, Teacher, Sealer, Guide, and Reminder who makes our bodies His temple.

Objective of This Work

The objective of this work is to get from the Word of God reliable evidence that we can fulfill the righteousness of God that is revealed in Jesus Christ as His children created in His image and likeness. The truth that Jesus said we shall know and it will make us free is we are created in the image and likeness of God. When man failed from God’s image and likeness, He sent Jesus to redeem us back to His image and likeness. This is the mean theme of this work and it appears to be the only reasonable objective to do it. Please remember it as you read on. Therefore, the imaginary outline is reasonable as follows.

I.   God our Father and Christ His Son created mankind in their invisible image and likeness.

II.   God formed man from the dust of the ground and breathed in his nostrils the breath of life, and he became a visible living soul.

III.   God called man to be born of the flesh of their parents, multiplying His image and likeness in the earth.

IV.   Man disobeyed God and God sent His Son to earth to redeem mankind from sin and back to God.

The phrase Created in the image and likeness of God is the dominating theme of this work. It is intentionally used many times through this work to make sure the person the Holy Spirit inspires to read it will know without a doubt that he is created in the image and likeness of God and Jesus His Son for the specific reason to fulfill all of God’s righteousness that is in His Son as His child. This is true forever. Nothing that happens in life will change this objective that God has for us His children. This work is also designed to build a brain network in God’s children that their thoughts will be God’s thoughts [Isa. 55:7,8] and their way will be Jesus’ way, truth, and life [John 14:6] to fulfill the righteous life of God in Jesus Christ.

Introduction

Every child needs to know as soon as possible that he is created in the image and likeness of God. His image and likeness is the fundamental spiritual being for the visible natural life. Without the spiritual enablement from the image and likeness of God, the flesh could not do anything [John15:5]. One possible reason for God creating us in His image and likeness is to make Himself visible to His creation on earth [Col.1:14-18]. For us to be a visible part of His divine Trinity to perform like He would do Himself [Mat.6: 10; John 14:12, 20; 15:5] to fulfill His divine will in righteousness. God’s image and likeness is our destiny from beginning to end of time. He wants all of mankind (male and female) to know that He is their Creator [Gen. 1:26, 27; Isa. 1:3] at their conception, formation, birth or manifestation, redemption and into salvation and without Him man cannot do anything [John 15:5]. God wants us in a perfect married relationship with Him [Jer. 3:14] considering Him in all that we say and do [Prov. 3:5, 6; Col. 3:17]. It is God’s will that mankind be successful in all his relationship in heaven and on earth. His marriage in the flesh should reflect his marriage to God in the spirit. His occupation and career should seek to fulfill God will. His social and economical statue should demonstrate that Jesus is King of kings and Lord of lords and we are his kings and priests [Rev. 1:6; 5:10; 20:6]. If we don’t make God visible in our lives, we make His enemy visible in us. When we constantly failed to make God visible in us, He sent Jesus Christ, His Son, to make Himself visible to us and all His creatures [John 14:6; 17:26]. Knowing what Jesus has given us from His Father who is our Father, each person should hold himself accountable to God, Each person should seek God to know how he should be living in God’s image and likeness? How he should be performing being formed from the dust of the ground and has received the breath of God in his nostrils and made to be a living soul? How he should be responding to life being born of the flesh and made visible to God’s creatures representing God every second of his life on earth? God has sent His Son Jesus to die for us redeeming us back to Him. Jesus has declared the Father to us to make us return to Him as His children. That we can know the only true God and Jesus Christ His Son. Jesus has sent the Holy Spirit from our Father in His name to teach us all things and bring all things to our remembrance that Jesus has said and to guide us into all truth as God’s children created in His image and likeness. There is great power in holding self responsible for being created in the image and likeness of God. Only a person can make a true image and likeness of himself. Only God can make us a true image and likeness of Himself. Therefore, if we try to make an image of God when we have refused to be His true image ourselves, we violate His true person and all that He is, was, and will be [Rev. 1:8]. God has made us His image (male and female), and He does not want us to make another thing and esteem it as our god. If a person does not know God who created him, how can he make an image (idol) and call it his god? This shows how far man has fallen and lets a creature deceive him to go from his origin, which is the image and likeness of his Creator. Being in the image and likeness of God is the best reputation to life in heaven and on earth. Therefore, the words image and likeness of God will be used extensively throughout this document to get our mind thinking that we are created in His image and likeness because it is true. The repetition is to form a brain network in us to have the mind of Christ in us to be God’s children created in His image and likeness.

We thank you heavenly Father for creating us in your image and likeness. We gladly bear your kind to the world that you created for us to live in and make you visible to one another and all your creatures. We let ourselves freely praise you forever for who you are and how you have made us to be in your image, in your likeness, and of your kind [Gen. 1:24-28].

We let ourselves freely thank you always for making us free agents and giving us freedom of choice to freely choose and giving us your truth that we will know how to choose to stay free in you. We thank you Father for creating us to love you more than your creatures. You created us to always love everyone but not as great as we love you.

Love is God’s image. God tells us to love Him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength and to love our neighbors as ourselves. Jesus did not stop at telling us to love Him more than ourselves, but to love our neighbors as ourselves. The way we love expresses God’s image. Therefore, to be in God’s image, we must let ourselves love those He loves. If we don’t love our neighbors as ourselves, we are not in God’s expressed image. We are not in God’s expressed image because we refuse to love those that are in His image. When we refuse to love God and those in His image, we refuse to love ourselves also because we are created in His image and likeness. (No one will agree to this verbally, but it is expressed in fleshly actions almost daily.)

God knows that we can choose Him freely because of two reasons. First, He created us to choose freely. Second, He gives us His truth to choose to be free to choose. When God created us, whatever He wants us to be and do, He puts Himself in us to let us be and do that. That is part of being in His image, likeness, and being of His kind as a part of His kingdom. For example, God gives us His glory to glorify Him in body and spirit, which is His [John 17:1-5, 24: I Cor. 6:20]. God gives us His Spirit and Truth to worship and serve Him in spirit and in truth [John 4:23-24]. God first gave us His love [John 3:16-17; I John 4:19] to love Him unconditionally with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength [Matt. 22:37-40]. When we love the Lord the way He commands us, we can love our neighbors as he instructs us. Obeying God is the true measure of our love for Him and one another [John 15:12, 13]. With unconditional love, we obey God and keep a perfect relationship with Him as His children. We are children born of God because we love one another [James 2:8; I John 4:7]. Therefore, we are reconciled to God by conforming to His image in Christ Jesus [Rom. 8:29], and the old nature of sin is passed away. The new nature of Jesus Christ is now in complete control of us [II Cor. 5:17-21]. He gives us many blessings to bless Him and others as recorded in Matthew. 5:3-18. these blessings express our faith to make us complete in God’s image. The blessing of faith comes by God giving us His Word. We cannot have faith in God without Him giving us His eternal Word. His Word is Jesus Christ [John 1:1, 14; 3:16]. Faith comes by hearing and hearing comes by God’s Word [Rom. 10:17]. We go from faith to faith [Rom. 1:17]. Faith from what we hear in the world to faith of that we hear from God’s eternal Word. Yes, faith comes by hearing. But the faith that saves must come from hearing the Word of God who is Jesus Christ who declares God to us [John 17:26].

The majority of the information in this book was revealed to me during meditation and fellowship with the Holy Spirit and supported by God’s Word. The intent of this work as God revealed it to His image and likeness is to know the following:

ῼ   God is our Creator. He created us in His image and likeness as His children forever.

†   Jesus is God’s Son and our Savior. He was sent