In His Image:Blogpost 2

Welcome back. This is the second part of this blog post.

We saw that God made man in His image, His image being an expression of how He appears in His ‘physical’ form, how He relates with the physical world. How the world ‘feels’ or ‘sees’ God.

We saw 2 things about how God relates with the world;

1. He reigns in dominion- In calm, confident, loving display of control and dominance.
2. He sets in motion a system for fruitfulness and multiplication- ignited by the blessing.

Now, if God relates with the world in these 2 ways and he made man in His image, then God expects man to relate with his world same way. Genesis 1:28 introduces man to the blessing and although God pronounced the curse because of Adam’s disobedience, the Lord Jesus Christ restored man’s dominion and the blessing (Galatians 3:13-14).

A blessed man has potential for limitless productivity, fruitfulness and multiplication.

To continue today, let’s look at 2 interesting scriptures…..

Genesis 3:17-19;

Then to Adam He said, “because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying; ‘you shall not eat of it’, cursed is the ground for your sake, in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you and you shall eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken, for dust you are, and to dust you shall return”. NKJV

And Genesis 1:28;

“Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it, have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth. And God said, ‘see I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it shall be for food.”

We see that with the blessing, the earth and its resources are obligated to yield multiplied increase, whereas with the curse, man can only bring out his meals through toil and sweat until he eventually dies.

Lord!!!

We find another description of the blessing and the curse in Deuteronomy 28:2-14, and 28: 16-57.

If there is one scripture I don’t like reading, it is Deuteronomy 28:16-57! It is heartbreaking! I mean Curse is bad. I don’t want anything to do with the curse.

Curse smells of lack, hopelessness and death.

You know, I used to wonder what ‘the blessing‘ really meant until I was introduced to Deuteronomy 28 in Church. You wonder why I was seeking a revelation on the Blessing? Because in pentecostal circles, the phrases ‘I am blessed’ ‘be blessed’ ‘bless you’ ‘remain blessed’ etc are very common everyday cliches 🙂 I am finding out that a lot of Christians use these phrases without really understanding the full meaning.

I have a relation (a pastor) who is always begging for help, always sending messages for assistance and then he ends the message with ‘remain blessed as you give’ !! What happened to his own blessing? 🙂 Is he not consciously trying to gain help by trading the blessing? 🙂 Truly, his messages almost come across as ‘help me, so that you’ll continue to have the blessing‘ 🙂 but obviously, he doesn’t understand the blessing himself. What is a Pastor doing begging for help? Here are the possibilities

1. He is not a Pastor, he is not a child of God.
2. He can be a child of God who is ignorant of his rights and privileges
3. He may be a child of God who does not know how to appropriate the blessing.

Now if we assume that this ‘pastor’ falls under number 3 above, we can try to provide answers to the question we raised in part 1; how can any child of God appropriate the blessing?

1. Apply Yourself: Find some work to do with your hands, because it is the works of your hands that the Lord blesses. (Deuteronomy 28 verses 8 & 12b). The blessing will flow out of your God-given works. True that we have the blessing, but truth also remains that the blessing only becomes evident when we apply ourselves in the areas, fields and places God has assigned or called us to. How do we know someone is blessed? By the increase, abundance, wealth we see around them which are usually products of their investment of time, energy and/or skill. Think about Isaac and Joseph. … It is important to stress that we have to do our work in uprightness, integrity and in the fear of the Lord. I doubt that the blessing will be operational in shady and dishonest deals.
2. Apply your faith: Expect a manifestation of the blessing and consciously pronounce the blessing on the works of your hands-….continually confess and maintain that the works of your hands are blessed. The Bible tells us how God blessed man – …..by saying it……Genesis 1:28; ………”Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “be fruitful and multiply..”. Another way to apply one’s faith is to give out of a seeming lack. Too many Christians are poor in the Church today, not because God was impartial in distributing the blessing, but because some persons have refused to learn from the experience of the widow of Zarephath who rapidly moved from lack to abundance by simply applying her faith (1 Kings 17).
3. Apply the first fruit principle: Be diligent to give a tithe of the proceeds from the works of your hands- Malachi 3:10 commands that we bring all the tight into God’s storehouse to ensure steady supply to His house and then the Lord tells us to dare Him in being faithful with the tithe, as in return He would pour out blessings “.…and try Me now in this, says the Lord of hosts, “if I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you such blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it.

Additionally, we should continually give thanks for the blessing through our praise, worship, service and offerings.

Alright, next time we continue to look at other features of the Image of God.

Stay blessed.

AboutGrace Obomanu

Grace obomanu is a Christian Blogger and Founder; 'Grace Obomanu Foundation'. Grace is an inspiring writer who intentionally projects the truth of God's word by sharing simple yet profound truths from the Bible. She writes with a revelational thrust, sharing wisdom, insights relatable to everyday living with particular emphasis on Victorious Christian Living. Her foundation, a non-profit trustee, continues to make impact, adding value to people's lives through outreaches, mentorship, bible teachings and counseling, partnerships. Grace has a diploma in Ministerial Training (with emphasis on Spiritual Leadership from Rhema Bible Training Center Nigeria. She trained as a medical doctor and has years of experience in Health Systems Management. She also holds a master's degree in Public Health from the University of Liverpool.