Lesson 1 In His Image

     In the book of Genesis, we find some very interesting things about who we are and who our Father is.  In Genesis 1:26 (Amplified) God said, " Let us (the Father, Son and Holy Spirit) make mankind in our image, after our likeness, and let them have complete authority over the fish of the sea,the birds of the air, the (tame) beasts, and over all the earth, and over everything that creeps upon the earth."  verse 27(Amplified) "So God created man in His own image, in the image and likeness of God He created him; male and female He created them."
      We also find the "Law of Genesis" in Genesis 1:11-12(Amplified) where everything bears fruit after it's kind.  The seed is in itself.  Apples have apple seeds,oranges have orange seeds and so forth.  Apple seeds never produce anything except apples.  It is the law of Genesis, the law of creation by the Creator.
     Jesus said in John 4:24 (Amplified) "God is a spirit (a spiritual being) and those who worship Him must worship Him in spirit and truth(reality).  Also, in 1Peter 1:23 (Amplified) "You have been regenerated (born again) but from one that is immortal by the ever living and lasting Word of God."
     So, according to what the Word of God says, we act produced after kind (or just like our Father).     Jesus said in John 15:1-6(Amplified) "He is the vine and we are the branches, as we bear fruit (or get people born again) we are to reproduce 'by the Word, or the seed of God' or children of the Most High."  Each time we get someone born again, we have born fruit from the Father.  An apple tree doesn't bear fruit from the trunk, but from the branch.  It draws it's life from the roots (or it's source of life) but you never see an apple growing on the trunk of the tree.
     The fruit of the Spirit that we see in Galatians 5:22-23 (Amplified) is the part of our lives that make people want to be like us or "like Jesus."  The meat of the apple only houses the seed.  You only eat the meat of the apple; not the seed.  The meat of the apple "or fruit," is to make it attractive so that the seed is revealed and sowed anew.  The fruit of the seed is what we are to reproduce.  Galatians 5:22-23 (Amplified) says that the fruit of the Spirit is to cause people to desire what we have in our lives.
     If what the Word says is true (and you know it is), then we are the fruit that bears good seed by "preaching the Good News" that will bear more apple trees or more children of God by the seed, which is the Word.
     When we were made in His image and likeness, we were Spirit beings.  In Genesis 2:7 (Amplified) God formed a body for the spirit man to live in to meet the human elements He created.  Man needed a flesh and blood body to be able to function in this physical realm.  This flesh and blood body is like what my friend Tommy Williams calls "his earth suit."  Just as you need a space suit to wear to the moon, you need an earth suit to function here.  Have you ever noticed that when this body dies, you don't stay here?
     We find in the Word, in John 1:1-5(Amplified), that "the Word was Jesus and Jesus is the Word."  John 1:14(Amplified) says that "the Word became flesh."  When the Word was "made flesh," we named the baby (the flesh and blood baby) Jesus, but He was still the Word.  Only His body was named Jesus.  The Word has always been.
      This seed or this Word was responsible for the birth of Jesus.  It's the same word or seed that produced you.  You're not Jesus the Messiah, but you are like Him because everything produces after kind.  It's the Law of Genesis; the law of creation.  I have four children.  They're not me, but they have the same attributes that I have.  They look like me, they act like me, they have the same color hair, the same color eyes and the same amount of arms and legs.  They're not me, but were produced from the same seed.
     You are not the Father nor are you the Lord Jesus.  But, you are of the same seed.  All apples on a tree are the same kind of apple.  If you pick a bushel of them, then they will all be the same kind of apple.  In John 17:20-21(Amplified), Jesus said (prayed) that "we might be one even as He and the Father are one;" just alike; apples off the same tree.  Like the old saying goes when someone sees a child and they know the father..."that apple didn't fall far from the tree."  Well, that's what it should be like with us and our Heavenly Father.  Jesus said that "When you see me, you have see the Father, we are just alike."  That was the reason for the new birth, to be born again in His image.