HOW TO EVOLVE FROM A MERE MORTAL INTO WHAT GOD WANTS YOU TO BE!
This short story, is a preamble into the topic we are going to be examining today – WHAT A PERSONALITY ARE YOU? When God created man, he did it with some great intentions in mind. Man was not supposed to be just a passerby on earth engrossed in his daily survival and vanities of life. Man was supposed to be the crown creation. Ruling and reigning on earth, in the mode of the creator Himself.
Man has been entrusted with much greatness and glory, therefore we are not meant to be just mere human beings struggling to make a living every day. Men are supposed to be the masters of taking charge of the whole earth for the king of kings. In God’s mind at creation, He sees man as the very crown of creation itself. His picture of man is that, man would reflect His image, the very essence of God Himself.
If God is love then man would manifest that love on the earth. If God is kind, man would be an epitome of that kindness. If God is forgiving, man would be forgiving. If God is loving and caring, we would see it in man. If God is understanding, man would be both compassionate and understanding.
“Alas! Much has been done of late to promote the production of dwarfish Christians. Poor, sickly believers turn the church into a hospital, rather than an army. Oh, to have a church built up with the deep godliness of people who know the Lord in their very hearts, and will seek to follow the Lamb wherever he goes!” – Charles Spurgeon
In the story that I started this series with yesterday, these powerful individuals at the Clinton Global Initiative, are all people who have paid the price to develop themselves into strong personalities. That is the main reason why they could make a difference in the world and to a large extent, be more effective in fulfilling Gods mandate than the church people themselves.
Alas, there is a problem though, men don’t automatically become what they are meant to be. They must evolve into it. That evolving too is not automatic. The process is the same as all processes of maturity.
- Every individual person must start his process of evolvement with a decision. A decision to make of himself a personality, rather than just a mere man.
- After the decision, comes the work, the hard work. The hard work of observing the ultimate man which is God himself, manifested in his son Jesus Christ. As we observe him, we see the qualities of God. The perfection of God, the virtues of the divine.
- The next step is that we have to come to the realization that we don’t observe God or Christ simply to preach about him. Our learning and knowledge about divinity is for a purpose. It must be for the purpose of becoming like him. Our main work on ourselves is to actually be transformed into the image of God. For it is only when we are internally transformed in qualities and virtues that we could better carry his image.
- After engraving the nature of God into our spirit and soul, we now begin the next process which is learning to function like him. For we are made to be and act in his likeness. That is like him, we have to learn to manage the earth like he manages the universe. We learn to rule like he rules over creation. If we are made in his image, it means carrying the same inner qualities as him, then being in his likeness would mean to act like him.
These are some of the basic steps, in the process of a man converting himself from an ordinary mortal, into a personality, that could make a difference in his or her world.
“We are continuing God’s work of forming, filling, and subduing. Whenever we bring order out of chaos, whenever we draw out creative potential, whenever we elaborate and “unfold” creation beyond where it was when we found it, we are following God’s pattern of creative cultural development.” ― Timothy Keller.
To be continued tomorrow with the following points:
- The difference between a personality and an ordinary man
- Lining up your life with God’s understanding.
FOR THE LOVE OF GOD, CHURCH AND NATION
By Pastor Sunday Adelaja.
