Recently I've been doing a study about biblical manhood -- or the pursuit of a Spirit filled character of Christ. This study has convicted me, an shown me many areas of my life which I am failing, and where I must improve.
Genesis 1:26 -- Then God said "let us make man in our own image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, and over the livestock over all the earth and over all the creatures that move along the ground."
Though I can not say "I am a Godly man," my passion and desire should be to be a Godly man. And my passion and desire should not create in me a satisfaction, but a brokenness...especially when I look into God's word. But I should be encouraged in this...that truly longing to be a Godly man is half of the battle. The desire is not a calling. I thought about that. I don't wake up in the morning and suddenly *BOOM* I'm called to be a Godly man. This isn't something that I choose to do. This is a command of Christ Jesus. To be a Godly man should be my goal. Let me rephrase, my goal should be that goal of being conformed into the image of Christ my LORD. Everything in the Christian life is superficial, pathetic even, apart from striving after Godliness and Christ-likeness. the measure of my life *MUST* be a Spirit filled character of Christ.
In Genesis 1:26 we notice two things of a man: What a man is in his essence, and what a man is supposed to do.
In his essence he is created in the image of God. I can assure you, no matter what you achieve in this life *NONE* of it will fill you. You were made for higher things. And only a pursuit after God will you be satisfied. Only a pursuit after God, will *I* be satisfied. It may taste sweet at first, but everything will be like gravel in my gut...it will not fill me.
Man was a creature made for a specific purpose...to subdue his own life and surroundings. To bring them into harmony with the will of God. Biblical manhood says this: "If I am to be a true man, then I am a true man under God and in according to His direction and His command. His will is of the utmost importance." To pursue the will of God, for a regenerated person, is a delight.
Genesis 3:17-19 -- Because you have listened to your wife and ate from the tree I commanded you saying, "thou shalt not eat" then cursed is the ground because of you, through painful tail you will of it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food, until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken. From dust you are and to dust you will return.
Have you ever achieved some great thing only to find out it could not make you happy? Would you define your life as a struggle of toil and sweat? If you say yes, believe it or not, that is a good thing. Why? Why is it a good thing? Because it demonstrates that you are not a fool. It shows that God has illuminated your mind and heart. When Adam feel a curse came upon the world. Women would suffer great pain in childbirth, men would have to work hard and yes this was a curse, but it is more than that. Read carefully -- this was also an act of mercy from God. Every time a woman gives childbirth it is a reminder of the curse, but it is also a reminder of infinite mercy. It is God screaming to that woman, "Fallen! Fallen! Fallen! You need a savior! You need a savior! You need a savior! Come to me! Come to me! Come to me!"
We become so distracted from the will of God and some other thing starts to take over my mind and all that I can feel is uselessness. And this is the discipline of God, the discipline of God *in love*. Screaming at me, "No! This is not your way! This will not bring you life! I have made you a son, I have given you authority in the name of My own Son -- to be a child of God. You are a new creature. You are a higher order. The things of this world, all though you must use them sometimes, they are not for you. The will not feel you." I am made for God's work. I will not be anything I am supposed to be unless my focus is "OH, LORD, WHAT HAS THOU COMMANDED?"
All though man has fallen, we see a man who has the power to restore -- Jesus Christ. And in Him, we may be restored. In Christ, the reason which we were made can be restored.
One of the most pathetic things is to try and use a tool for which it was not made. Try nailing a nail with a sponge, or a rag. Try cleaning glass with a hammer. It is foolishness. At times we do not understand why we were made, and we seek to be something other than servants of the most high God. How often do these truths enter into your mind? When I get up in the morning I am a servant of God. I have no will except that which conforms to His. Do you understand why our lives seem so futile and vain? It is not at the forefront of our minds why we exist. We exist for this, and to pretend we exist for some other reason only brings harm like cleaning glass with a hammer.
There is no way apart from being born again that I can ever think of having the image of God restored in me. Man is fallen. I am fallen. I am born fallen. There is nothing about me that can ever be like God or serve God. It is only when I am regenerated by the Spirit of God that I can enter into these things.
Exzekial 37:1-10 -- The hand of the LORD was upon me, and He brought me in the middle of a valley; it was full of bones. He led me back and forth among them, and I saw a great many bones on the floor of the valley, bones that were very dry. He asked me, "Son of man, can these bones live?"
I said, "O Sovereign LORD, you alone know."
Then He said to me, "Prophesy to these bones and say to them, 'Dry bones, hear the world of the LORD!This is what the Sovereign LORD says to these bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life. I will attach tendons to you and made flesh come upon you and cover you with skin; I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the LORD.' "
So I prophesied as I was commanded. And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound, and the bones came together, bone to bone. I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them, but there was no breath in them. Then he said to me, "Prophesy to the breath; prophesy son of man, and say to it, 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe into these slain, that they may life.' " So I prophesied as he commanded me, and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet -- a vast army.
Can these bones live? But those bones coming back to life is a greater possibility of doing the will of God apart from the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit. Is there evidence in you life of this renewal? Has there been a change in the essence of who you are? Was there a time, not when you prayed, or not when I prayed in the middle of a field midnight in Oklahoma, but when your whole being changed? This is more than morality. This is the image of God being recreated in man through the Spirit.
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