I have three questions for you. Have you ever asked yourself: “Who am I?” or “What is life all about?” or “What is my life all about?”

Today, I trust that you will come into a greater understanding of the real you and that you are “fearfully and wonderfully made” and that God has given you a spirit of power, love and sound mind.

You have often heard it said that you are made “in the image and likeness” of God, but in our search for meaning, let us take a closer look at this wonderful truth and see what it is all about.

You were created as “God’s masterpiece” and to have fellowship with Him through Christ. And the Scriptures tell that “you were created for God’s glory.”

You have the ability to reason, plot, plan and communicate with God and other humans intelligently and even the most primitive people on this earth today have that same capacity. You are God’s highest creation on planet earth. You have not descended from monkeys or apes, but have been deliberately created.

The Scriptures reveal that you were created “in the image and likeness of God.” This is not by chance, but by the definite desire and will of God for He said: “Let us make man in our image and likeness…” (Genesis 1:26). Also, you have been “fearfully and wonderfully made…” (Psalm 139:14), and were created by God to have dominion over all the earth.

Whatever differences lie between you and whom you were created to be, are what you, in spiritual ignorance, pride, rebellion and disobedience have made of yourself, but that “image and likeness” exists at the very core of our being. And though that sense of your “divine image” fell from grace with God, yet, in His mercy and wisdom, God has provided, even before the foundation of the world, a way by which you may be reconciled to Him and that is by sending Christ to be your Redeemer.

Maybe you are addicted to prohibited drugs, alcohol, or maybe your problem is violence to other people; maybe you are an atheist, a backslider, a gambler, or maybe you are a sadist. However, whatever you are, God, in His mercy and wisdom has already provided for your restoration and reconciliation with Him through Christ, His Son.

“The Real You”
When God created you, He placed in you a capacity “to know Him, love Him, serve him, worship Him, and to communicate with Him to receive His goodness, grace and mercy.

Even those who say there is no God, for example, the atheist, the scoffer, the scorner, the ungodly in behaviour – all have that God-given capacity outlined above. That power is within you, even if you, in spiritual ignorance and rebellion, have built up a sense of separation from God.

You are a threefold being. You are spirit; you are soul, which is your mind, will and emotions, and you function in this world in a body. You are not mere flesh, bones and muscle. You are more than that. You are a spiritual being in a spiritual world or universe, on a spiritual journey, functioning in this life through in a body.

In the book “All the Doctrines of the Bible”, Dr. Herbert Lockyer describes the threefold nature of mankind this way. He said: “The ancients had a fitting way of illustrating the threefold possession of man. They likened the body to the material framework of a chariot – the soul, with all its powers, to the horses driving the chariot along – the spirit, to be the charioteer, whose firm hands held the reins and whose keen eyes determined the course.”

You can live so as not to be conformed to this world, but become transformed by “the renewing of your mind.” You have the capacity to choose to live either in hellish or in a harmonious consciousness.

All that you are, and can ever become, spiritually and in the natural world, are within the potential of your soul. Take a seed in your hand, any seed that will produce a large tree; examine it, and picture all that is within it. Think of its branches, its trunk, its leaves, its fruitage and parallel that concept to the life, growth and fruitage of your soul.

And like a seed in the natural with all its potentiality, if placed into the right soil and circumstances for natural growth, so your soul is destined “to be conformed to the image of Christ.” Just as an oak tree with all its fruitage is unfolded from a tiny seed, so the life of Christ within you will unfold fruitage of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22). His life will be rooted and take growth in you; you will be established in Him and gain strength over life’s challenges.

You were created to surmount obstacles, in other words – to be triumphant.

In times of fear, doubt, confusion, stress and insecurity, have you ever asked yourself, “Where have I gone wrong?” or “How can I correct my mistakes of the past?” or have you ever said: “If only I could do it all over again, it would be different?”

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Breaking Through the Barriers
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Monica Hernandez, Ph.D. is author of the workbook “Breaking Through the Barriers.” This book can be a helpful resource to you in overcoming fear, instability, worry, anxiety, guilt, emotional hurts, depressive moods and other hurdles in your life. For more info, send email to: info@newvisionministry.org

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