The cry of all believers is to be formed into the image of Jesus Christ. The cry of all people is to experience the greatest possible manifestation of life. The image of Jesus Christ is the greatest possible manifestation of life.

This image and likeness of God comes forth only when God works in the lives of the people as He did in the original creation of mankind. God began by creating an individual man as He breathed his Spirit into the body of dust to produce a living, breathing creature. After the individual man was placed in the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it God stated, "It is not good that man [the individual] should be alone . . ." (Gen. 2:18). With alone meaning "separation; a part of" individual man was only a part of what he should be, the expressed image of God. Alone, man could never manifest the likeness of God.

Without a second person, the first person could not experience the fullness of the manifestation of God in his life. If he was to experience the image of God, he would have to be taken down into sleep. Then, out of his own being could be taken the essence of another person. Finally, the two could come together to experience the image and likeness of God. In the union of the two, the connections of life, the glory and the power of the life of God could be experienced.

For example, the highest expression of pleasure known to mankind is the coming together of two people to experience the creation of new life. It is when the physical and the spiritual come together in an ecstasy of oneness--the total giving of the one to the other. This rapture of life occurs only when an individual is taken to the end of himself in order to be given wholly to the other.

The essence of experiencing this glory of life, being taken down in sleep to be raised so another can be formed to encounter together the greatest possible expression of life is the mystery of the created experiencing the Creator. It is when the dead in Christ are raised first and then those that remain are caught up together to experience Jesus in the heavenly realm. It is only in the relationship of the two that the rapture of life, the fullness of the image and the likeness of God, can be experienced.

Mankind experiences the glory and the power of this life of God as a seed falls to the ground and dies to enable its fruit to be brought forth in abundance. In this mystery of baptism, the flesh being taken down in order that the Spirit may be raised, the essence of life for all created beings exists. It is in death and resurrection that the good life is experienced.

Simply put, mankind always experiences the life of God in a physical setting. Once the moment of life in that physical setting occurs, however, the physical setting begins to dissipate, begins to be taken down. Nothing experienced in the physical world is ever as good as it was when it was first encountered. It is difficult, if not impossible, to achieve the same high from repeated experiences.

This fundamental truth of life is the reality of every created being. Whether man understands it or not, the daily life of man is exactly as that of a seed. The physical events of his life will continually fall to the ground and die so that he might experience the treasure that is within the earthly body again and again. The joy of the good life is always the death of the earthly realm and the resurrection of the heavenly realm. It is experiencing the glory of the moment of harvest.