 By Dr. Kluane Spake
This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
www.spake.org
The book of Genesis contains the seedbed of Biblical truth. The garden became the birthplace of the whole shebang! All creation and all nations began in the garden. Eternal principles such as seed time and harvest began there. Civilization emerged on the sixth day when Adam (being both male and female) was made in the image and likeness of God (Gen. 1:27).
We are familiar with the commission given to Adam (being both male and female)
Be fruitful - grow, reproduce after own kind. To produce again, or bring into existence, to make offspring of its own kind.
Multiply - increase, become numerous.
Fill the earth - replenish, fill to abundance, to satisfy
Subdue it - conquer, bring under subjection, tread down.
Have dominion - to reign over, take rule over everything that lives.
* This imprint of God's image was distorted at the fall.
Jesus died to RESTORE this EDENIC condition: Redemption is what took Christianity out of the realms of religion and philosophy and made it a living reality. Redemption means "to restore" or to "buy back" or to put back the way it was before. We need the character strength and resolve to access what is our inheritance We must not ignore the total work of the cross which ultimately brings us back to the privilege of Eden (which means God's delight). Redemption enables humankind (the new creation) to return to this spiritual IMAGE and intent of God. These are not just words and thoughts, this is a way of life!
Acts 3:21 tells us that Jesus is "held in the heavenlies" until the restoration of all things. What things? We need to answer that from the vantage of men and women's potential from BEFORE THE FALL INSTEAD OF AFTER THE FALL. "All things" will be restored - and no cultural expectation, sordid contemporary pressure, religious error, nor any other temporal obstruction has the power to interrupt or counteract the restoration that will take place. The reality of God's intentions will be accomplished. Restored believers (both men and women) will execute dominion rule on this earth.
As we press into this truth, let's do so assured of the ONGOING revelation from the very beginning. The ceaseless stream of God's perpetual design flows from the dawn of humanity until our day. God clearly authorized and decreed His precise eternal plan -- that of effective kingdom ministry dynamically impacting the world. We see this truth clarified as we overlay Adam's five-fold commission over the five fold ministry in operation. In doing this, we obtain further clarity with extended definition of the five-fold ministry for today.
Fruitfulness - To bring forth others of the same kind. The ministry of the Apostle brings into existence the reproduction and replication of God's likeness and image. (The husbandman patiently waits for fruit (James 5:7) -- the produce of the Tree of Life).
Multiplication - The act of increase is predicated upon the prophetic ministry calling God's plan into being.
Filling the earth - The action of filling the earth with believers is accomplished by the Evangelists.
Subduing - The pastor leads the congregation into conquering the soul realm and bringing carnality and every evil work into subjection.
Dominion - The teacher reveals the rhema information necessary for the believer to transform the mind and accomplish dominion.
As believers, our potential inheritance is to LIVE LIKE Jesus and to be restored to our original pre-fall likeness and image. That ONGOING SALVATION should also bring our ministry into resurrection LIFE - now. We are all challenged to take up the LIFE that Christ died to give.
Truth pulls the New Creation forward until it finally emerges from the cave of revelation and focuses on bringing forth the relevant kingdom issues. God's people, originally created to fully function in five-fold ministry, now become restored to their Edenic design.
Jesus paid a high price for us to become heirs of His great and precious promises so that we could "participate in the divine nature" (1 Peter 1:4). Let's initiate His return by intimately imaging His likeness. Let's embrace and enact the absolute redemption that God intended for us to find. It's His delight.
|
