The Image of God – Christ (2 Corinthians 4:4)
God created mankind in the image of God, but that doesn’t mean God has a nose and a mouth. 2 Corinthians 4:4 says that Christ is the image off God, so does that mean we are Christ, or does it mean that Jesus Christ is with me, and I’m the image of God? Jesus Christ came to this earth with a physical body, just like us, as a human. When God created us as humans, in what state were we created? Jesus Christ came to this earth as a human being, and that’s how God created us to be.
Philippians 2:6-8 – Nature of God = God =/= Slave, Desires, People
Then, when Jesus Christ was living on this earth, how did He live? It says that Jesus Christ was by very nature God, meaning He is God, but even though He was the same as God, He wasn’t just a person. Even though Jesus Christ was the same as God, he acted on this earth as if He weren’t the same as God.
God’s Image = Me = With God
Rather, He made Himself nothing, He completely emptied Himself of all thoughts, desire, and will, and took on the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. What does it mean, then, that I’m created in God’s image? It means we were created to be with God, then what kind of posture must we have? We cannot be equal with God, but we live our lives as humans, with the nature of a slave, completely emptied of thoughts and a will. Just as Jesus Christ was like this, we were created to be like this as well. “I’m living with God’s will, so I don’t need my own will anymore.” Even Jesus Christ completely emptied Himself and made Himself into the nature of a servant. Even though Jesus Christ Himself is God, He completely followed God the Father. That’s the kind of human we’re created to be.
Genesis 1:28 – Rule, Subdue, Fruitful, Multiply
That’s what it means in Genesis 1:27 to be created in the image of God. It means that we don’t need our own will, desire, or power, but God guides us according to his will, desire and power, then what happens in Genesis 1:28? We will be fruitful and increase in number, ruling over and subduing the earth. This is not something that comes from the will of mankind, but these are the answers and results of our life as God takes complete control over us. We cannot subdue the world; God does it for us. We cannot be fruitful or multiply on our own, but God must give us the blessings of being fruitful and multiplying, and even though I’m a blood creation, the way I live not as a ruler but as a servant, is by completely emptying myself before God.
Then we have the result and answer where I rule over and subdue everything, not according to my power or ability, but according to God’s power and ability. That’s how we were created, and God gives us free will. We can live like this or not, that’s for you to decide, but this is why we were created with a personality. One kid is now in college, but while in Elementary school, he asked, “Why did God give us free will and eat from the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil and sinned to be separated from God?” He was in elementary school, so I asked, “If God created us as robots and controlled us remotely, would you like that?” “No.” “God gave you free will so that you can decide for yourselves. You can decide whether to obey your parents or not, but if you obey your parents, you receive blessings. It’s your decision, you can decide whether to obey God or not.” That’s the kind of people God created us to be.
If the Lord is with us, we don’t need anything of ourselves anymore. “What do you mean? I have to walk around, do you mean I don’t need my legs? Does that mean I don’t have to go to school anymore either?” That’s not what I’m saying. I’m saying, you’re in a state where God is completely your master and owner, and you do whatever He desires.
God’s servant – Freedom
If you’re God’s servant, you have freedom. If you’re enslaved to a person, there’s no freedom, but if you’re completely obedient to God, you have peace. This is the principle with which God created us in Genesis 1:27-28. Where do all problems begin? Every single problem begins as I do not want to submit to God. The thought of, “I want to make my own decisions,” that’s Genesis 3:5. “I’ll take care of it, God; You just rest. I studied a lot so I can make my decisions and live my life,” but that goes against Proverbs 3:5-6 which tells us to not lean on our own understanding.
“My knowledge and wisdom comes from years of studying,” for adults, even if they’re not studying in school, they have a lot of wisdom because they have experiences in life. Don’t rely on that, on the experiences in the world, but completely and only rely on God and Christ. Relying on only Christ means to rely on the Father God, and without a doubt, the Holy Spirit is bound to work. When does the Holy Spirit not work? When you trust in your own knowledge and live your life with your own plans. This is the beginning of all problems.
Why do your mental problems persist? It’s the same, you haven’t surrendered it to God. Why do you fear about your future? The future isn’t fearful, but you haven’t submitted to God. You must give your future entirely to God, but you hold onto it for yourself, so the result is nothing but fear. The first state that Adam and Eve fell into after disobeying God is fear.
Fear
This is the problem of America and the whole world, fear. Do you think successful people are unafraid? They may be successful but they are still afraid. The reason why people built the Tower of Babel was to overcome their fear. They built the Tower of Babel to escape their fear of being scattered. You’re not just living diligently for no reason, but even now, people are building their Towers of Babel, working so diligently to try to get some success and peace, but one day, they will collapse due to mental problems.
What happens when your fear becomes extreme? You’ll rely on other methods. Even after being successful, people are afraid so they do drugs, or they gamble. Some kids go into video games because they think that can solve their fear, but they can’t break free from games. What must you do, then? Even if you do those things, before you go into playing your games, have a time of concentration where you hold onto the Word and devote your life to God, then play games.
Having a time of concentrating on God means you completely lay your life down before God. I’m not saying to hold onto the Word and pray like a Pharisee, because you’re still holding onto your own thoughts. “Concentrate” means to let go of everything of yourself and concentrate only on God, but the Pharisees didn’t do that, but they were only keeping the form of worship, never letting go of their things. But they knew God’s Word so well, and they were a whitewashed tomb. Outside, they may appear clean, but on the inside, they were a rotting corpse.
If you have this kind of faith, it’s at an elementary level. Paul lived like this, living a religious life for his own benefit, but in that kind of state, Paul had no peace; he only had fear, and he had no choice but to work even harder to get rid of that fear, but the more you do that, the more you get sucked in, then later on, you can’t escape. These people are completely seized by their own fear and Satan.
Hebrews 2:14-15 – Satan
You are seized by the one who has the power over death, that is, the devil. The devil has the power over death. The power of death means Satan completely controls those whose spirits are dead. Hebrews 2:15, “The fear of death.” People who are dead have no choice but to fear, and whenever you are afraid, you’re enslaved to that for the rest of your life. What does that mean? You’re afraid, and because you must overcome your fear, you must do this and that, but you’re always afraid, but that’s actually a life where you’re enslaved, dragged around by Satan, following the ways of the world and the ruler of the kingdom of the air. Your spirit is dead, so you live your life following the cravings and desires of your flesh to rid yourself of fear, but you can’t.
This is the state of nonbelievers and those who come to church but have not received salvation. Even after receiving salvation, they don’t truly trust God, so they live their lives for themselves. They don’t trust God regarding their future, but they’re completely enslaved by their future. Some people say, “Pastor, I don’t have any problems in life right now, everything is fine,” and in my heart, I think, “You’ll suffer a lot; God will give you a lot of problems,” because you only kneel before God when you have a problem, then you’re only going to bow down to God when He gives you a lot of problems. That’s how God loves this person, then.
For you remnants, if this is the kind of faith you have, you will suffer much in the future; this is a physical faith. Only when you have a visible problem that can’t be handled by your own strength will you go to God. Then what if you don’t face any problems? You’ll live as if you have no problems. Does that mean you won’t be afraid? You’ll still fear even without problems, then you won’t have peace. If you think this is the standard of your walk of faith, may you quickly release this standard. That’s a very thin walk of faith. You can’t overcome the world and be an evangelist with this kind of faith. You must be in a state where you completely give up everything to God as a child of God, then it won’t matter if you have a problem or not.
If you’re living a walk of faith that doesn’t confirm your spiritual state, but you have a physical problem that draws you to God, then you’re manipulating God. The devil knows this and will come visit you, then you’ll come to church and be oppressed. You’ll receive God’s grace, celebrate a little bit, and then go back. This is how you live because you’ve learned incorrectly that this is faith; you’re living a religious life.
It doesn’t matter whether you go to a Buddhist temple or not; if you learn from a lot of Buddhist people, you’ll do what they do, but when God created us, God didn’t create us this way; we were created in the image of God as people who live with God. The One Who has all authority in heaven and on earth is with me, and I’m in a state where I completely give my entire life to Him; only then does the Word of God seize and control me, and from that point, the Holy Spirit fills me and leads me forward.
That’s not Him controlling me like a robot, but He comes into me with His personality, in my thoughts and heart, leading me in the right direction, to where? He takes me into a life that is fruitful, increasing in number, ruling over and subduing the world. This is the reason and blessing for which we must live our lives, and it is for this reason that God sends us out into the world.
Most people say, “I don’t want to, Pastor, can you stop talking about missions? Whenever I hear ‘missions,’ it makes my head hurt and I struggle.” You’re already struggling on your own; why would you struggle just because you hear “missions?” “Pastor, it’s hard enough to live and survive, how can I take on a mission?” You’re deceived by Satan, John 8:44, Satan deceives with lies and makes you greedy. Satan has his eyes lit bright with your own plans, selfishness, greed, and ambitions. But when Jesus Christ says, “I have sent you out into the world,” you say, “No, that’s for special people. Can’t I just eat and survive?”
Anyone like this has a dark face, go research this, why? Because the Lord has overcome the world and has His life and peace, but you do your own work so you don’t have life nor peace. You don’t study for yourselves, but God has prepared everything for you and now you are studying for God to save the world. “I haven’t heard anything like this before, it’s only your standard.” Just because you haven’t heard it before, is it not God’s Word? It doesn’t matter, God’s Word is your standard, but you listen to what you want to hear, so you can’t hear this. Don’t you experience this? Your parents say many things to you, but you don’t listen, and when they yell, you say, “When did you say that?” so your parents go crazy. Even though they’ve told you everything already, you’ve made up in your mind to not listen to them.
The Holy Spirit tells you and the Word of God continues to tell you that you are missionaries with a mission. “He only said that to the 12 apostles, not us.” What basis do you have to say that? “Jesus said that to the 12 apostles, not to me.” Who were the 12 apostles? The reason He chose 12 apostles, not 13, was because there represent the 12 tribes of Israel. Even in spying out Canaan, there were 12 spies, and if they had unbelief, then the entire nation had unbelief. When He chose the 12 apostles, they represented all the Israelites who would believe one day.
Nation – King, Priest, Prophet
All of these people are a holy nation, where God controls us. A nation is where I’m completely obedient to God’s will and God reigns over me. It is not here or there, but it is within you. It’s not where you do whatever you want, but when God completely reigns over you, you go into that reign and kingdom.
… We can forgive sins and proclaim the Word of God as priests and prophets. When I completely kneel before Jesus, the authority of Jesus is revealed through me, but when you’re sitting there with a stiff neck, you only do this for yourself. What does it mean to have summit time and worship? It means you lay down everything and completely submit to God to receive God’s grace, Word, and Spirit.
If the Word of God doesn’t come to you, then you’ve honestly failed in worship. If you don’t have spiritual strength after worship, you’ve failed and you’re living a life with your own strength. Why doesn’t the Word of God come into you? The Word of God can’t come into you because you’re filled with your own thoughts. The power of the Holy Spirit can’t come to you because you live upon your own strength; the Kingdom of God must come upon you. “But I’m my own king, I want to live in my kingdom the way I want,” that’s the way of Satan and the world. You can’t overcome Satan nor your sin; ultimately you’ll be enslaved by an evil spirit and by Satan. Only when you completely go into only Christ, only when you completely lay down your life before Christ and give complete obedience to Christ will you have peace.
Do you have a dog? The dog is happiest when it is in obedience to the master. If it doesn’t listen, it gets beat. It’s disciplined, based on food. If it misbehaves, you don’t feed it. It’s the same with all animals, you can train eagles with food. But all dogs care about is food, so you teach them good behaviors with food. It’s the same with birds and all animals; treat them with food. But if you don’t give them any food, even eagles will fly away. In reality, that’s not training them; you’re controlling them with food.
Honestly, whenever the dog or bird or whatever animal is obedient to the master, that’s the greatest thing for that animal. When I lay myself before God, I am asking God to give me His Word. But if you’re saying, “Okay God, give me Your Word, but if I like it, I’ll do it; if I don’t like it, I won’t do it.” That’s failure in worship and that’s why you fail in the field. You must be victorious in worship to be victorious in your homes and field, worshiping there. You and I must have the proper worship to enjoy God’s image properly.
God is so perfect that you can afford to let everything of yourself go. It’s the state of believing in God this much, then you will have peace and true freedom. Just like Simon Peter, you go to prison but the prison can’t control you because you have true freedom. He’s given his entire life completely to the Lord, and you’re in a state where the Lord is completely holding onto your life. You must have this concentration time every morning when you wake up.
Concentration time isn’t about controlling your mind like mind control. If you wanted that, just learn mind control. But it’s a state where God is controlling you, and you let go of yourself to be with God Who loves you so much. Jesus Christ finished all problems of the past, present, and future, and is with me as peace. God sent us out into the world, and when we submit to and obey God’s Word in the world, God’s peace comes upon us; that’s the way to overcome the world. Until we reach this point, there’s no other way. You underestimate and look down on the world and God. If you think you can be successful, you’re looking down on God. Quickly let go of those thoughts.
I was like that in the past, and it’s rightful because I was an unbeliever. Because I hadn’t met God, I scoffed at worship, I needed time to recharge and rest for myself, then honestly, the more time passed, the more I was afraid. The more time passed, the older I became, the more fearful I became. This world is very hard, and in that state, if you go to church, if they proclaim the gospel, it gets easier, but if they don’t proclaim the gospel, it becomes harder. People look for blessings and breakthroughs, but that’s a sad life.
What is a true blessing? Being completely into Jesus Christ. If you go completely into Jesus Christ, you’re blessed, but trying to see if you can get something better? Remnants, you should know what faith should be like, even if you don’t have it, so you can move in the right direction. As much as you’ve heard, you can draw up an image in your head and go in the right direction, but without that, you’ll go in a different direction.
Then, that inheritance will be passed from generation to generation, and the next generation cannot escape. We’ve been created in the image of God, and the Lord is with me, I don’t need anything of myself, meaning everything comes from God, so all treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden within Christ. All we need to do in life is to give everything to God, to entrust and yield everything to Him, then we’ll have the result of being fruitful and abundant. Ruling and subduing. This is the level of God.
My level is the opposite, I’m making things dead, trying to rule and subdue things, but I’m actually a slave, and everyone in America lives a life of suffering and slavery. Why would you live like that? We should live according to the words the Bible gives us. This person is only going to be freed from the curses and sins if I relay the gospel to them, and if I don’t tell them the gospel, that person’s sin will remain. I’m not saying you have the skill to do that, but God sends you out into the field to do that.
Looking at yourself, you can’t believe in God’s Word, you think, “If I become successful enough, I can live as God,” that’s foolish. We must have God from the beginning, looking towards the fulfillment of God, not the words you like, but whatever word God gives you, you follow. No need to calculate, “If I don’t understand, I can’t follow,” then just pray to understand it. But you refuse to follow and never pray to understand. Do you only follow if you understand?
If you had to understand before believing, you have to suffer a lot. You’re not at God’s level; how could you understand? That’s why you believe. Because we believe in Him, we follow Him. Even if it doesn’t fit with me, it doesn’t matter. Because I follow Him, I let go of myself all the more. That’s what Jesus Christ did by submitting Himself completely to the Father God entirely. This Triune God works together in Oneness to fulfill the One will. That is why we keep saying that inside the church, we have to have Oneness of God to fulfill Immanuel.
The world is full of things you can’t forgive; it’s impossible to forgive others, especially in your family, then you’ll make each other fall. Let’s say I hurt someone and they were disadvantaged or hurt because of me. I’m in a collapsed state where I have no choice but to hurt other people. This person was harmed but they say, “I was hurt because of this person,” so I’m full of scars and resentment towards those people. In reality, Satan is controlling both sides, so we must forgive.
If you don’t forgive, you’ll be wrapped up in your own wrath, causing yourself to fall. How can you forgive? Can you forgive just because you want to? No, the Bible says you forgive others because Christ has forgiven you. The words make sense but it’s hard to see them be fulfilled. How do I do it? I’m a child of God, and if I’m lacking something, I can’t forgive others. But if I’m a child of God, and evangelist who will save the world as my mission, then no one can influence me.
If you win an Olympic gold medal, then all your suffering and training won’t be so bitter for you. So you must know you have something so tremendous that can erase all the harm others have caused you so that you won’t be influenced by that. Isn’t that right? Let’s say I become the CEO of Samsung. Do you think all the materialistic scars I had while I was young will continue to scar me? No, I don’t even think about it. But I feel sorry for all those who mistreated me back then, and it’s the same for us. When you have enjoyed the tremendous blessing of being a child of God, then it doesn’t matter how many people scar you. When God forgives you and saves you and raises you, you are a child of God and God pushes you into His plan, and your status and authority is one that has no choice but for God’s Word to come upon you.
But you shouldn’t look at others as enemies, you have something so great, why would you see others as enemies? “How could this person steal my money?” If someone borrowed money without repaying it. Many things will hurt in your friendships as well. No matter how much you try to understand this person and their spiritual state, you’ll have something inside of you. You have to realize how tremendous of a blessing you have for this not to matter to you.
“I already have something I have to do, I know how greatly I’ve been blessed,” so why would someone’s actions scar me? The fact that someone did something to you is evidence that someone else must be suffering. … the world is the same. If you don’t actually succeed in the world and you say, “I understand this and that person,” you actually don’t, but you have scars in your heart, then the blessing of being a child of God is huge. Who am I? I’m someone who lives as a child of God, and there is no longer any “me,” I don’t need my own thoughts or IQ anymore. Now, I go into the perfect plan of God which is the plan to save the world.
I’m not living a petty life to accomplish something on earth, but I live and study for God’s will to save the world, and I overcome the world as Christ overcame the world. Nothing else can overcome the world, but Jesus Christ promises to give us peace. He has given you everything, so what are you lacking? You think you’re lacking so you try to earn some favor. If someone says something to you, just don’t think about it. The blessing of being a child of God won’t change, someone else can’t change your life, but if you hold onto what you have, you keep going forward irrespective of what’s happening on the side.
If you’re in the park staring at a plane, you can yell all you want at the plane, but the plane won’t turn around. But if you yell so loudly that the plane turns around and the pilot lands and speaks to you, that’s a strange plane with a mental pilot. The plane is heading for Korea and has everything it needs to go to Korea, then it just needs to go, ignoring everyone on the ground. But if you take off without knowing where to go, then someone yells at you to pick a fight, so you go down and fight?
You’re a child of God, so you’re already on a plane and God has programmed the destination. You don’t have to worry about doing this or that, or worry about the coronavirus; even if you get the coronavirus, it doesn’t matter, because God holds onto my life until my mission is complete. Be careful about the coronavirus, of course. After I got coronavirus, I did all my ministries on zoom and another pastor found out so all the pastors starting talking about it, and he asked, “How are you feeling?” I said, “Pastors really are pastors.” You should be careful to wear your masks, but whenever I saw this person’s spiritual state, the caution in my brain completely left; all I could see was the person I was ministering to, and I was physically influenced because of that. A few people died in that apartment complex because of the coronavirus.
Living and dying is in God’s hands. A few days later, a pastor called me, “A young adult came for counseling and I remembered what you said,” but when you see something urgent and critical, you forget about other things, focusing on what’s important, like a mother who would go into a dangerous situation, like rushing into a fire, to rescue their children. I was a bit arrogant about this, but that’s not it, because through everything, I spiritually become deeper with God, but my situation doesn’t change. It doesn’t matter what I hear people say about me. It doesn’t discourage me, but I keep going, because on the way of fulfilling God’s plan, there will be some who understand, so I keep going forward.
But without that, you will be influenced by people and the environment, and that starts to disappear. Even Temple Construction, God will fulfill this with the people God has prepared. If He doesn’t, it doesn’t matter. If God has given us His Word, He will do it. So, if you’re living in a state where your spiritual state is completely filled with the Triune God, that’s the filling of the Holy Spirit that will cast out fear. But because we’re human beings, maybe we can’t maintain our spiritual state, so we’re full of fear.
That’s why someone who has scheduled worship every day, they can overcome even when problems come. If someone who can’t do this every day will have a blue face one day, but when the problem disappears, they disappear. That’s the state of a slave, enslaved by their environment. They’re always in constant fear, but when something actually arises, they come back. That’s not a walk of faith; that’s a religious life, and that cannot make you happy. Even if you have a family, that won’t be solved and the future will still be difficult because fundamentally they have departed from God.
These are people who move according to what they desire, because they’re trying to live a friendly life with God, “God, you do 50% and I’ll do 50%,” God is actually missing from their lives entirely. Remnants should know in your mind that you shouldn’t live a walk of faith like that. You must put the correct Word of God into your brain. That’s how you walk that path as a remnant.
Look at all the remnants. Daniel was facing death; how could he face towards Jerusalem and pray while giving thanks? How could Joseph not be angry with his brothers? For those with the mission of God, none of this matters. It’s not that they did something wrong, but we have something bigger and greater; the problem isn’t a problem. … King Saul made David’s life difficult and uncomfortable, but David did not consider this to be a problem. Looking at Psalm 23, he knows he will be the future king, so he goes. He was not afraid of King Saul; King Saul freaked out because of his mental problems. … but for you, you’ll have a lot of big problems until you realize that none of this is a problem.
I hope you will know you have such a great blessing that problems aren’t problems, but enjoy that.
Prayer
Father God, we thank You. Thank You for a blessed life where we can rule over and subdue with the grace of God. Allow us to live lives as evangelists to save others with the peace that God has given us.