Created in
His Image with Authority
We can see in the very beginning that God’s purpose and intent for
man is to have His
image and His authority. Man was created
in God’s image to exercise His authority over the earth. That is what a priest is: A priest is one who reflects the image, the
glory, and the light of God and has God’s authority.
Genesis 1:26: “And
God said, let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of
the sea, over the foul of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth,
and over every creeping thing that creeps 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, over the foul
of the air, and over every living thing that moves upon the earth.”
A lot of people are trying to have spiritual authority today. Some are trying to take authority over
diseases, over sickness, and many other things.
But unless you have the light and the glory, and you are a carrier of
the presence of God, you really don’t have any authority. Genuine spiritual authority comes out of a
person who carries the divine presence, nature and character of God within
them. Spiritual authority does not come from the natural carnal mind. Spiritual
authority comes from a higher consciousness of spirit. That is why Jesus said
“I of my own self can do nothing.”
Now
therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall
be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine: 6 And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy
nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel.
Ex 19:5-6
So we see that God’s original intention when He called His people
out of Egypt was to make every one of them, corporately, a kingdom of priests
unto Him. And again, a priest is one who
lives in God’s presence. The Old Testament
priest was a type of the New Testament priest, but in shadow. He lived in the presence of God and he worked
in the temple of God, and everything he handled was a type and a foreshadow of the reality of Christ. From the shadow of
the Old Testament we can discover that everything the priest did relates to how
we experience Christ in our daily life.
I
say again, the Old Testament priest that carried the Ark of the Covenant on
their shoulders was a type of the New Testament priest. The priest literally carried God’s testimony
on their shoulders. Well, today we carry
the Ark of the Covenant on the inside of us.
We are carriers of the divine presence of God. The most important thing
we will ever do is not work for God but spend time in
God’s presence and allow him to fill us with His spirit, then everywhere we go
His divine presence will flow from our innermost being. We will then accomplish
much more than we could by working for Him from the flesh and religious carnal
mind. It will be simply a matter of the divine Spirit of God flowing through
man to do the works of God.
Forasmuch as ye are manifestly
declared to be the epistle of Christ ministered by us, written not with ink,
but with the Spirit of the living God; not in tables of stone, but in fleshy
tables of the heart. 2 Cor 3:3 KJV
When you are regenerated you now
have a heart of flesh, your spirit is awakened and you begin to be conscious of
the Spirit. At that point you become an open book and begin to hunger for the
things of God. Your heart is brand new and you become like an open book. A
priest speaks to and ministers to your spirit and his or her words become
written on your new heart and begin to build you up and lay a foundation of
Christ in you the hope of glory. A priest does not minister to your mind but to
your spirit.
1 Cor
2:14 14 But the natural man receiveth not the things
of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know
them, because they are spiritually discerned. KJV
Your
heart is brand new. And you are just
like a blank page on a book. A minister
of God can come to you, begin to minister to your spirit, and it’s just like
writing on the pages of a book. He
literally ministers by the Spirit, and releases an anointing, and even His very
words have within them Spirit and Life to penetrate into your being and cause
you to begin to grow in spirit.
A
priest is one who speaks and dispenses God into other people. If we can’t do
that we waste our time by ministering by carnal reasoning's and doctrines of
men. If we go out and teach them all the doctrines, and even teach them that
Jesus is their Savior, and ask them to have Jesus to come into them, if it is
just an intellectual thing we do them a disservice. The intellectual gospel is
the big problem today. The intellectual gospel says
you must believe right or you cannot be saved. As long as you believe right
everything is OK, but if you believe wrong or do not believe some things you
cannot be saved.
I have talked to many
preaches and other folks about the gospel being a matter of the heart and not
the intellect. You do not have to know anything to be saved. You just need a
heart that wants to know God. All of us who really want God have been caught up
in religion one way or another. Religion and right doctrine will not save you.
You must have Christ revealed IN you to really know him and be saved from the
religious and carnal man.
A person will always go after what they
desire. If we do not have a desire for a deeper relationship with God we will
not advance in spiritual life. We may go to church, or the temple or a mosque
or a house church without really growing in the things of God.
However once you have Christ revealed in you
not just as a doctrine but in reality your life will change, and you will not
be trapped by religious doctrine. You may still attend religious services but
you will not let their teachings put you in bondage.
If someone is ministering to you, and you are
really being fed, that means that you yourself will recognize a change in your
life, and others will recognize the change in you also. You will become more
loving, forgiving and lose your resentment and bitterness. You will become
Christ like as He is being formed in you.