Genesis 1:26 - Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

What does this dominion mean? Do we still have it? What are we supposed to do with it, if we do? And how does it affect our relationship with God?

And His desire is to make us perfect. That’s also pretty simple.

The problems come in when our ideas about perfection do not align with God’s. 

We are not ever going to become the completely self-sufficient, absolute master of our domain, and never in need of outside help. That has nothing to do with the perfection God is talking about.

Everything He has created is interdependent. There is nothing in this universe that stands completely on its own; and we, as part of this good Creation, find our perfection by entering into the harmony which God has created and becoming a part of His story, which interweaves past, future and present into one seamless, beautiful whole.

I may well be the least likely one that God could choose to perform His will. But by the mere act of recognizing that, I draw one step closer to the perfection He has planned for me. And I become the most likely to give God the glory He deserves for His wonderful works, since I recognize the true source of all that is good in me.

And you know what? They're right. You are.

And at the same time, there is One who makes you absolutely worthy, by choosing to complete all that is incomplete with His grace. And this is the most that anyone could ask for—that what God does through us be through His anointing and by His grace.

In truth, a better question might be, Why does God always choose these people to work through? Because the Bible is full of these examples for us.

It always comes down to this: God is after the heart, rather than the appearance.

What God has done, what he is doing, what he will do with you—it’s not just for you, but also for everyone you come into contact with. God has your past, present and future in mind as he heals and restores you with purpose for maximum impact.

Some things will be instant miracles. Others will be a long walk with God. But in every case, as we rehearse and treasure that testimony, it has a chance to impact those around us.

And my job is to treasure, to rehearse, to keep that story He writes ever before me. I am the keeper, the treasurer, the only recipient of the divine story that God is writing in my life. If I shut it up in the dark forgotten dungeons of my mind, it will be wiped away from this earth. But if I declare it and share it with those around me, it becomes a living testimony of the Lord’s grace and power still alive and active on this earth.

https://youtu.be/6vZEAWMk7So

What is His plan? It's a mystery, and God keeps giving us small clues. It's an adventure without a map, though He fills in a few key locations in advance. It requires trust and faith, as we learn to walk through life in relationship with God Most High.

In other words… It all sounds completely bassackwards to us.

So God says, “Come, let us reason together.”

I’ll state my point. I’ll show you the truth. I’ll reveal your lie. And when I convince you of how wrong you are, and you surrender to my superior intelligence, then maybe you will finally allow me to guide you into the fullness of the beautiful vision I have for you.

But God isn't interested in my reform programs. He's not here for negotiations, but to accept my complete surrender. Having established that all my righteousness is nothing more than toilet water, he's here to flush it all down and start over the right way: that I would become completely dependent on revelation from his Spirit so that I could act in unity with him, embracing this relationship which is the reason for my existence.

All the righteousness we possess is still contaminated, like toilet water, with the open sewer of sin which spoils the landscape of our heart.

When we confess Jesus, our savior who died on the cross, we confess our complete inability to please God—otherwise, Jesus would never have needed to be the perfect sacrifice for us. And as we place our trust in God and act out that faith, we find ourselves in the beginning of a relationship which is supposed to grow throughout our life. And through that relationship, God will do the impossible: he will cover that sewer, he will purify the water, and he will show us the beauty of true righteousness.

Yet we can never escape the fundamental truth that relationship with God is our only foundation, upon which all else must be built.

It’s wonderful to live in the blessing of God. But if we are at the same time rejecting him as a good, loving father who wants to teach us his ways so we can walk in unity with Creation, the Creator, and each other… then we are preparing a bleak future for ourselves.

This choice will change us. We are formed into what God had first imagined, as he scrubs away the mess that we've made of ourselves in the meantime. And his goal is not simply to make us part of his plans for this kingdom; his goal is to raise us up to our first calling—to enter into creative unity with God, working out his will on the earth as Christ did.

In reality, every accusation leveled against God is a confession of ignorance. Because you can’t truly believe in a God so powerful and intelligent and also expect to understand him. Every bargain with God is an insult to his majesty. Because the only terms under discussion are complete surrender.

We need this because we’ve assembled ourselves incorrectly. We’ve been warped by allowing sin into our lives. So God has to break us apart (fall on the rock) in order to put us back together correctly.

God has been speaking since the beginning. Much of what he says, we have not yet come to understand. And one of the things he speaks is exactly who each one of us is, beyond the misguided attempts at establishing our own identity. We have the power to change—most of all, because he wants to reveal the truth of our identity to us, by removing the heavy burden which has been smothering us this whole time.

Logic meets its limits as it approaches the human person, whose emotional and spiritual aspects refuse to be negated by the rules of simple logic. In fact, humanity and God don't make any sense at all until we bring Jesus into the equation as the 2 in E = mc²

It is only when we come into agreement with the Word spoken since Creation, reverberating throughout all time, that we find the divine creation alive in us—the Temple which God envisioned as the vessel in which His Spirit could abide on this earth and the chosen method of enacting His will, through those whom He has made ambassadors/slaves/sons/brides/fishers of men. 

The greatest thing I could ever be is a fool for Christ. The fakest thing I could ever be is a Christian conformed to my own ideas about what holiness looks like. So…do we have the courage to be real with God, even if it might make us look foolish sometimes?

We must extend the Kingdom of God in the same grace of adoption which we encountered when we once stood outside looking in. Freely you have received; now freely give.

The darkness cannot comprehend it. The darkness cannot overcome it. The darkness is undone by the unstoppable, unconquerable, inescapable light of God.

We have a gracious and patient God, but there comes a time when our next choice might be final: to embrace the light, or to disappear into the great darkness.