International House of Prayer : Reflecting in the Mirror

We have to understand something very important. The Bible begins with a wedding in a garden and it ends with a wedding in a garden (New Jerusalem). The Bible opens and closes with this truth. The abandoned heart of God’s love will never be understood unless you understand what God’s looking for. When you have a book end to a story, the same truth at the front and the back of a section – it is the interpretive key for the whole story. Let's look at the book of Genesis, the first few chapters specifically lay out foundational truths that give us insight into the Gospel, the nature of God, the purpose of humanity, and how God will bring redemption to His creation.

Chapter one is focusing on the brooding presence of the Holy Spirit. God speaks forth all of creation. Now, we know in Genesis that we have the Spirit brooding over the deep. But we also know from Colossians and other Scriptures, that Jesus was the very vehicle through which creation came forth. For all things were created by Him and through Him and for Him. So we have the Father speaking through the Son by the power of the Holy Spirit to bring forth creation. The very first thing that is spoken is this – Let there be light. Now the planets – the sun and the moon – aren’t created for a few more days.

What is the light in the darkness? God sends forth revelation light as the most important reality in the human experience. When revelation strikes our hearts, when light enters our frame, when the knowledge of God touches us – we’re able to then have relationship with God. The knowledge of God is the foundational reality for the human experience. In Genesis 1, we’re introduced to the primary character – God. He displays His awesome power. He speaks and it’s done.

In verse 26, He now creates the image-bearers, “Let us make man in Our image, male and female He created them.” He calls it very good. In chapter 2, God is going to reveal the prize of all of creation. In chapter 1, He displayed His power - in chapter 2, He’s going to display His passion. He’s going to introduce us to the darling of all of creation. His most prized creation. We find out in Genesis 2:7, “And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground. And breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and man became a living being.” God spoke the rest of creation into existence, but with us He wanted to get His hands in on it. He wanted to touch this creation. We are intimately connected with God. So much that He uses His hands to form us. The intricacy of the human frame, the complexity, the design of one of our eyes baffles us. It’s not just the complexity of the design – it’s the intimate acquaintance of God with our design.

Do you know there’s a reason that God had to rest on the seventh day – He poured His whole self into creating us. We live like beggars before His Throne, when in actuality, He formed us with His very own hands. God forms us with His hands and then the next thing that He does, something unprecedented. The angels must have been aghast at this next event. God stooped down and breathed into his nostrils, breathed the breath of life into his nostrils. You see the breath and the life force of God fashioned and formed the heart of man. God left His indelible mark upon Adam – His holy breath filling a treasured soul.

Proverbs 8 gives us a glimpse and insight into what happened that day. It tells us that Jesus as the personification of the wisdom of God was at the right hand of His Father as a Master Craftsman. The Son of God Himself was rejoicing in His Father as He was creating us. God was rejoicing and it says that Jesus’ delight was in the sons of men. It says that the angels sang and the morning star shouted for joy. Beloved, all of creation was made as a trinket of love for us. That’s why when we fell, creation was subjected to futility. Romans 8 tells us that creation groans and waits for the unveiling of the sons of God.

When we receive our resurrected bodies, and all things are made new – you will hear the symphony of God through all of creation as it rejoices. The rocks will cry out, the trees will clap their hands. We have lived in unbelief so long that we don’t realize what this world is going to be like. It is going to be far beyond anything we ever imagined.

We have got to believe again. Jesus rejoices at His Father’s side and the connecting point of heaven and earth is found in humanity. The place where God chose for heaven and earth to come together is humanity, made in His image and filled with His Spirit. In humanity, God’s nature is reflected and God’s government is implemented to the rest of the earth. Creation witnesses the character and the power of God through humanity and in humanity, God receives the highest praises and glory from the created order.

Father, thank you that you saw me from the beginning and formed me in my mother’s womb. Teach me, your prized possession, what it means that You chose me to be called ‘one made in God’s image’, created in Christ Jesus and set apart for the glorious good works of God. Fashion in me the hope of Your destiny for me, that I might walk in the fullness of it.

Allen Hood, 11/6/2007