The earth is good grooming ground for God’s children. He created it for our habitation, and in it He placed everything human beings would ever need to grow in faith. Our Heavenly Father is perfect beyond perfection. He’s magnificent beyond magnificence and intelligent beyond intelligence. He knows everything, and He is the most excellent and meticulous Planner that will ever exist. He has a plan that encompasses all of eternity as well as the entire universe, and He has made us a pivotal part of His plan. We are destined to become the very image of His beloved and only begotten Son. This means that the compassion, kindness, generosity, patience, power, love, and authority of Christ will be the signature stamp of all that we are and all that we do.
The reality is that even at this very moment, we have the capacity to be all that Christ is and to do all that he did when he walked the earth. Jesus Christ said in John 14:12(NKJV), “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father.” God roots for us to recognize our potential in Christ so that we can begin to walk in it.
Some might ask, “Well, why didn’t God create us in such a way that we would come out of the womb with all this Christ-potential? Why didn’t He create us with minds and spirits equipped to perfectly follow the example of Christ?”
To answer these questions, we need to digest the fact that billions upon billions of people have been born since the Lord Jesus Christ ascended into heaven. No two individuals in this vast number are alike. This speaks to our God’s brilliance. We each have unique qualities and characteristics. We like different things, we have different abilities, and each of us has a unique purpose within the plan and Will of God.
It should be obvious to us that God didn’t want robots or puppets. Genesis 1:26 affirms His heart’s desire. It was to create us in His own image. He did this because He wanted a family and we’re it! He has created us to be perfectly suited to carry forth His love. If we were born prepackaged in such a way that we automatically knew everything about God and did everything He wanted us to do, we wouldn’t be His children. We’d be something else because we wouldn’t have free-will choice. God lets us know in the very beginning, with Adam and Eve, that restricting and controlling our choices is not the way His love works.
God can do anything He wants, but He limits Himself by His love. He doesn’t control us; through Christ, He gives us liberty! 2Corinthians 3:17(KJV) declares, “where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.” He doesn’t force us to love Him, but He hopes that we will. Through Christ, we have the great privilege to give our lives to God completely and become His children. The more we choose to live through God’s love, the more like Him we become. This is what delights the Father, and it’s what sets us apart for His own special purpose.
We are spiritual beings with a soul, housed in a body. We are God’s spiritual children, and Jesus Christ is our Big Brother. He is everything that God created human beings to be. In John 4:34(NKJV), Jesus Christ said, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work.” Our Master Jesus came to earth on a mission, and this mission was to rescue God’s people from the bondage of death, darkness, and sin, and to give us eternal life. God did not force Christ into this mission. Jesus Christ said, “I’ll go, Father, send me.” He is the only one that could have finished this mission for God, and he gladly gave up his life to do it.
Hebrews 12:2(NKJV) states, “Looking unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.” Our Lord and Master endured the cross because he knew what it meant for us, his brothers and sisters. Despite the incredible agony and shame, he looked beyond the misery to the victory that he would win over satan through his sacrifice and resurrection. He did all this for us!
Jesus Christ always put the Will of God first, and he perfectly fulfilled God’s Will. We must put God’s Will in the number one spot as well. Philippians 2:5(NKJV) tells us, “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.” This is God’s commandment. It is to have the same dedication and allegiance to the Will of God as Christ. This is achieved by faith, by having faith that God’s Will and Word is the truth, and they will always lead us higher and forward in the things of God. We must be fully persuaded that by living in Christ, we are victorious in every respect, on every hand.
Again, just as God did not force Jesus Christ to follow His Will, He does not force anyone else to follow His Will either. He’s given us free-will choice, and very often we underestimate how critical the outcome of our choices can be. The spiritual preparation that we are hopefully engaged in today is getting us ready for what we’ll face in the future. It’s so that we will not flinch and be tricked by the devil when we are faced with a critical choice. Instead, we’ll handle business in the same manner as Christ.
Adam and Eve proved that all it takes is one bad choice, and we can change the trajectory of our lives forever. When we are not believing rightly, or we are at a point of second guessing God’s Word, we are at risk of yielding to temptation. In 1Peter 5:8-9(NLT), God warns, “Stay alert! Watch out for your great enemy, the devil. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. 9 Stand firm against him, and be strong in your faith.” Too many of us do not heed this warning. Our Heavenly Father has informed us that the devil kills, steals, and destroys, and here in 1Peter 5:8-9, He tells us to watch out for a sneak attack, one that might surprise us because we’re not prepared to resist it in faith.
The only way an enemy can maneuver this type of attack is to strike when our defenses are down. And in order to know that our defenses are down, an enemy has to have surveillance. In other words, the enemy must have been prowling around like a roaring lion, looking for just the right time to attack. This means he has been studying us, scoping out our weaknesses in order to catch us at our most vulnerable time and place.
God commands to us is to stand firm in faith. This is where the experience of walking with God and trusting His Word shines. At this very point, where the enemy is testing our faith, we have a choice, and it is the choice to stand flatfootedly on our belief that God is our Rescue, and He will not fail us.
Our Heavenly Father intended the earth to be good grooming ground for our faith. It’s where our trust in Him is continually reaffirmed through our refusal to succumb to the devil’s tricks and lies. This is the place where we prove the perfect Will of God, as Romans 12:2 says. Many believers are still locked into their own personal agendas. They want to take the reins and do things their own way. Generally, this is a way where we will not commit to the discipline of patience, endurance, and obedience to God’s Will. We’re antsy, easily bored, and we’re not waiting on God. We must recognize that we’re here on the earth to become more like Jesus Christ. This is God’s agenda for our lives, and He will not waver. It’s less of us and more of Him. Trusting this will allow us to be transformed and capture our destinies in Christ.■
Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights reserved.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
“Becoming More Like Jesus Christ” written by Reverend Fran Mack, edited by Kim Times, for Sundie Morning Sistas ©2022. All rights reserved. All done to the glory of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord!