EXCERPT TWO.
Genesis 1:26 says that we are made in God’s image. It is really important that we understand that everything that we are coming into as individuals, as a company of people together, is because we are made in the image of God. We have a close resemblance to someone majestic. That is, we have the same character, the same attributes and personality of that person. We are made in God’s image. God is making us like Him, and in regard to the whole area of faith, that is our journey, that we learn to believe as God believes. The work of the Holy Spirit is to make us like Christ. That is why God has supplied key ministries in the body of Christ to help us with that process. We are all familiar with Ephesians 4:11 that says He gave some as apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers for the equipping of the saints, for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature, which belongs to the fullness of Christ. As a result, we are no longer to be children tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness and deceitful scheming. But speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ.
So we are learning in these days how to have knowledge, and remember when the Bible talks about knowledge, it talks about knowledge-with-experience; it is talking about having an experience of what you get to know. Knowledge without experience isn’t actually worth anything. We are to have a knowledge with experience of the Son of God so that we can come to maturity, so that we begin to understand and walk in the measure of the stature of Christ’s fullness, that we get an idea of what does that fullness look like for me. It is a question that all of us have got to ask at some point, whether you are in ministry or not, it is a lifestyle question. What does the fullness of Christ mean to me in my life, in my circumstances?
If we are going to cooperate with the Holy Spirit, we have to learn to think in line with that fullness. We are no longer to be children, that is, with no discernment, no wisdom, no authority. We are able to handle truth properly. We are learning to grow up in all aspects into Jesus. We are made in God’s image. That means as He believes, so do we. As He sees things, so do we. As He speaks, so do we. As He thinks, so do we. As He acts, so do we. We are made in the image of God, and that is our journey.
