What is Man 4-2-23 Session 4-M

The speaker discusses the topic of what it means to be "in the image of God." They emphasize the importance of understanding God's instructions and the role of the written word as a witness to his expectations. They highlight the need for humans to yield to the creator's desires and to live a godly life. The speaker also emphasizes the importance of filling the earth and multiplying as a reflection of God's desire for life. They mention that originally, humans and animals were intended to be vegetarian and that the earth was never intended for bloodshed. The speaker concludes by mentioning that in the next session, they will continue studying Genesis 2 and explore the creation of the human body. Hello, this is Philip Black and once again, I'm grateful to be with you all. This is Voice to Humanity and we will continue our discussion on the topic of what is man? Is man in the image of God? That is an important topic because we are trying to understand what is it that our creator expects of us and how would we be able to know what he expects unless he has given us his instructions. And for that I am grateful and I learn to appreciate every day why we have the written word because without it we would have no direction of what we as humans should be doing. And the simple reason is because not only is the written word something that is precious and needed by our instruction but it also is a witness, it also is a mirror. And what do I mean by a mirror and witness? What it means is that it reflects what his will is, not ours. We didn't write the word nor did we inspire it. And as a witness, it bears witness to the things that he expected. And that is one of the things as humans that I have found fascinating about what the Lord said that man would be judged by every idol of good that comes from his mouth. And that made me have pause and think about what I just said that the word of God is a witness against us just as our words will be a witness against us in that final day of judgment. Because of the fact humans believe, and rightfully so, that God has given them dominion and control over the earth humans believe that they have a free will to be able to create whatever laws that they deem fit. That is false. Man did not create anything. Man is a creation. So therefore, without a yielding or submission to the creator and understanding what the design and the desire of the creator is we make a fatal mistake in not understanding that the law we make will be a witness against us in the final days. With that understanding, we should learn to yield to the spirit of the living God so he can instruct us on what is the right way and the proper way to be able to live this life. What we call a godly life. As we talk about the different fruits of the spirit, which Paul references in Galatians only those examples of the fruit of the spirit show us what is in the mind of God when he looks from heaven, as it says in Psalms 53-2 where he looks down to see the corruption that is now in the hearts of men in the earth and that his desire has always been to see his image in the earth, not the corruption and the image of man. So with all of this understanding as we move forward, I would like to continue reading from Genesis 1 and I'm going to read verse 28, Genesis 1, 28-31 And God blessed them and God said to them, Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and conquer it and hold sway over the fish of the sea and the fowl of the heavens and every beast that crawls upon the earth. And God said, Look, I have given you every seed-bearing plant on the face of the earth and every tree that has fruit-bearing seeds, yours they will be for food and to all of the beasts of the earth and to all of the fowl of the heavens and to all that creeps on the earth, which was, which has the breath of life within it, the green plants for food and so it was, and God saw all that he had done and looked, it was very good and it was the evening and the morning, six days. The reason I'm reading the end of Genesis 1 is to bring about a couple of things that we need to understand and emphasize, as I said earlier, man is still in spirit form, a body is not yet in form for man. So here he gives us instructions, first he says to not only man but also to animals and I would like to say man is a generic term and sometimes because of tradition we get used to using a certain term and we think this is clear that what we're saying is understood but I'm using the word man as a general term for mankind so if you hear me use that term it is not in reference to gender of male or female. So here he says to them, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and conquer it. As we read in the earlier scripture where it says that God has given dominion to mankind to rule over the earth and the animals. It's clear here he re-emphasizes the fact that he wants to conquer the earth but the other part that is added here now is to be fruitful and multiply. As we saw and as we understand this is one of the likenesses of God that we need to understand. When God first looked on an empty and void world there was no life in it and because God has a desire to create life he also puts this desire in human beings and in animals. If this desire is not put in human beings and animals the earth would never be filled. So in many senses a lot of the things about when we talk about intimacy between a man and a woman those are desires that is put in us from our creator to fill the earth because he is a God that loves living things. He's not the God of death, he does not enjoy death, he enjoys life. So this is one of the things that we as humans now will be part of our DNA in the spirit so that we too will desire to bring forth life. This desire is also in animals. Now when we talk about the likeness of God it talks about the fruits of the spirit and the fruits of the spirit as we see in Galatians and I'm not going to read the scriptures because I want to stay on a specific point. The specific point is that God has emotions. Our heavenly father has emotions just as we have emotions. So these things should not be strange to us. The desire in us to have a creative life, the desire in us to love and all the many spectrums that we experience is because it first came from our creator. One of the good examples of that would be as the scripture says God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever shall believe in him shall have eternal life. There it is, that phrase again, life. He's all about life. He enjoys life. The things that we experience now because of the choice of Adam, the human, is because of the fact that he decided, he would decide to be what is good and what is evil. This was never the desire of the father who received his son Jesus too that man would choose between the two. That is the purpose for the tree of life. The tree of life is there because he desired for all to desire life. That's the choice man made. Just because of the fact that it's his desire that we create life. So here, once we understand why he says to the human in spirit words, Be fruitful in multiple ways. Also he says this to the creation of the animals, to the plants. All of them have in them, in their DNA from their creator to have a desire to create life. So this is not something that humans should be ashamed of. It's just something that he wants us to understand how to control that desire for life. And here he also makes and gives another final instruction. And that is, this earth was never intended for bloodshed. As we read here plainly in the scriptures, he says in Genesis 1 verse 29, Look, I have given you every seed bearing plant on the face of the earth and every tree that has fruit bearing seed, yours they will be for food. And to all the beasts of the earth and to all of the fowl of the heavens and to all that crawls on the earth which has breath of life, within it the green plants for food. And so it was. And God saw all that he had done. And look, it was very good. And it was the evening and the morning, the sixth day. So it's plain from what we just read that man and animals food should have been from fruit of the tree of vegetarian. And I know that's not something popular because God knows we love a nice steak or a nice juicy meal. But we'll talk about where that came in later. But what I'm addressing now is what was before God made an allowance. And that's why the earth was never intended to have bloodshed. This was God's desire from the beginning. That no animal would crave the flesh of another animal. And that humans would not crave the flesh of animals. So I want to make this point clear before we move on into Genesis 2. I'm going to read this in Genesis 2 because it ties into the ending of Genesis 1. And this is Genesis 2. And this is verse 1 through 2. Then the heavens and the earth were completed in all their array. And God completed on the seventh day the task he had done. And he ceased on the seventh day from all the tasks he had done. So the question is, in my mind, why would God stop his creation? And the thing that comes to my mind is, it's just like as he said that it was completed. Completed means it needs nothing added. You don't need to add anything to this. So that's why God said, my work is very good. There is nothing that needs to be added. I have provided for it all that it needs to function the way that I desire. So with that, I'm going to leave this session. And in the next session, we will continue to study Genesis 2. And begin to continue to understand what unfolds with the human being as God prepares a body for him. So until then, the next session, we will continue the discussion on the image of God as man in his image. So signing off for this session, once again, my name is Phillip Black. And I hope that through these studies and these sessions, we will continue to seek and understand our purpose in the earth. Thank you. God bless you. Until the next time. God bless you.