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 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.
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