Made in the image of God

LftLD

But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them. 2 Corinthians 4:3-4  #churchleadership #faith #ImageOfGod #jesus #Messiah #salvation  https://lightforthelastdays.co.uk/articles/christians-issues/made-in-the-image-of-god/

Transcript

00:00The other day I did a talk on Genesis chapter 1 and I spoke about the fact that we are made in the image of God

00:07and said that one of the ways in which we are in the image of God is not so much that we look like God

00:13or that God looks like us, which he doesn't, but that we have this nature which is physical, the body,

00:20we have the soul which is the personality if you like, and the spirit part of us.

00:26And the spirit part of us is the part that was created to relate to God.

00:31And when God created Adam and Eve in the garden, he made them with body, soul and spirit,

00:36and through the spirit he wanted to communicate with them, and as God communicated through the spirit,

00:42so these parts, the other parts, the soul and the body would be in some kind of harmony and a good relationship with God.

00:49So it would affect the mind, the emotions, the will, and as they're under the control of the Holy Spirit,

00:56those will be functioning well and for the good of the person who is indwelt by the Holy Spirit,

01:04even affect our bodies.

01:06And so we have this diagram which speaks about the need to be filled with the Holy Spirit,

01:10have the Holy Spirit within our lives that he can guide us and make us into the people who God wants us to be.

01:14And our human spirit is to be filled with the Holy Spirit.

01:20And of course when sin came into the world, that was what broke.

01:25And instead of having the Holy Spirit within us, we had a part which was now influenced by the evil one.

01:33And the spirit part of us died, so the relationship with God died, and the rest of the body came under disorder.

01:41And we have the personality disorders which we have manifested in the world today.

01:47And we all come from the place of being in that state of disorder to coming into the order which comes through faith in Jesus.

01:54And the difference is whether we have the Holy Spirit in our spirit, Christ in you, the hope of glory,

02:01or whether he's absent, in which case that communication between God and humans is broken.

02:08And Jesus said, unless one is born of the water and the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

02:13That which is born of the flesh is flesh.

02:15That which is born of the spirit is spirit.

02:18Do not marvel that I said to you, you must be born again.

02:20So we must be born again, we must receive the Holy Spirit into our lives.

02:25No one is born a true believer in God through Jesus the Messiah.

02:32Everyone who comes into the world has this barrier between us and God,

02:35caused by the separation which comes right from the original sin down through all humans to our time

02:44because all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.

02:46Therefore we need to be born again to receive Jesus into our lives.

02:50And also to be filled with the Holy Spirit.

02:54In the book of Acts, the last word which Jesus said to the disciples was,

02:59you should be baptized or filled with the Holy Spirit not many days from now.

03:03You should receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you.

03:06Be witnesses to me in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.

03:11There's a promise of Jesus to those who are willing to receive the fullness and the power of the Holy Spirit.

03:16And he wants us to ask, to receive, to receive all that God has to give to us by the Holy Spirit.

03:23And to be filled with the Holy Spirit.

03:25Ephesians, it says, be filled with the Spirit.

03:27Chapter 5, verse 18.

03:30The word which is used for be filled is actually in what they call the continuous tense in Greek.

03:35So it means be continuously filled with the Holy Spirit.

03:38Not just a one-off experience.

03:40A continuous experience as we seek the Lord and ask him for our sanctification.

03:47And the Holy Spirit is the one who works for our sanctification.

03:51Said already in Thessalonians, it says, this is the will of God, your sanctification.

03:56That's what God wants of us.

03:572 Thessalonians, chapter 2, also says, we are bound to give thanks to God, always for you, brethren, beloved by the Lord,

04:04because from the beginning he chose you for salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and belief in the truth.

04:12So the purpose God chose you, he chose me, was in order that we might be changed from the person we were before we became a Christian

04:19to the person he wants us to be.

04:20And as we believe in Jesus, as we receive the Holy Spirit, so he wants to sanctify us and make us new people in the Lord.

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