The earth is the battleground between good and evil. It is occurring in the hearts and minds of people. Even if we think we are inside the church, God and the devil are pursuing us with diametrically opposed purposes and intentions; the two most powerful beings in the universe are both trying to kill us! Just as God desired to walk with man in the garden in close and intimate fellowship; He has not changed His plan. Even when all the universe and the myriad of creations were singing and praising the Lord, He still sought to create man. God was not at all lonely, the fellowship of the triune God simply debunks that logic, but He sought to make man because He desires to walk and talk with him whom He loves.

Out of God’s abundance, He made man in His image, He made us just like Him. One that walks, talks, and listens and does things through his hand. Man is the ultimate creation of God because in him He desired to inhabit man more than any part or territory in this universe. He has created this deep need in man to be a God shaped vacuum that either could be filled with a substitute or Him only. In almost every society in the world today, man has found his own religion. He worships stones, woods, trees, caves, and images of creatures from heaven above and earth below. A mere snapshot that if man is not introduced to God, he will find a substitute for Him.

Today, that has not changed, though the reformation destroyed the image worshipping stereotypes, today man still worships the same materials made of heaven and earth. There is a more subtle form of idolatry that has enveloped not just the Catholics but even those who claim to be Christians. They are controlled by their ungodly desires for material wealth, substance and territory. They impose their dominions and products on other people to such an extent that they become slaves also of their material substance. John warns to flee from idolatry but man has become an idol worshipper of his fellow creature falling down before sports, drugs, women, vices and mammon. Rightly did Matthew spoke about this, “where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.”

Our heart problems cannot be remedied by any president on earth, even if we vote for the most righteous King or president to reign on us, if we do not seek the One who is from above, to call Him and to have Him change us, we will not be reformed to become a community of believers who proclaim and walk in the principles of His Kingdom. God made man as an extension of His authority to proclaim freedom to the captives on earth, healing to the sick, light to those who grope in darkness and redemption for those who have fallen. Is this not what He mentioned when He said, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed, to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord” (Luke 4:18-19).

God’s goal in creating man

Apart from fellowship with man, God’s goal is to extend His influence on earth through us. All of us can really do nothing apart from the Lord. “You can do nothing, apart from me,” Jesus mentioned to His disciples, this may seem contradictory since almost all things on earth have been done by the sheer power of the flesh. But what Jesus means is for every man to do all things with Him and through Him because only those things built with Him can last to eternity. Everything on earth only lasts for a while, they are but a vapor of smoke that can be seen today but tomorrow it is gone. But whenever man walked with God, the things that were made because of Him had existed to this day. James tells us,

“Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit.”  Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away.  Instead, you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we will live and also do this or that.”  But as it is, you boast in your arrogance; all such boasting is evil.  Therefore, to one who knows the right thing to do and does not do it, to him it is sin.” James 4:13-17

Everything on earth would collapse without Him because in Him was life and this life is the life of men, “He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through Him, and apart from Him nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life, and the life was the Light of men” (John 1:2-4). True life therefore cannot be attained without Him and if we walk in our purposes without Him, we will still fail in the end because we have not the light to remove the darkness in our paths. It is by being united with Him in one mind and purpose that we can attain to the purposes of the Lord. It is expensive to spend your life on things that do not matter, things that are in the end would only be burned. These are worthless and vanity that causes us to be sidetracked into the path of evil, it is a way that seems to right to us but the end of it is death.

There is no higher purpose for man than to be with God, walk with Him all his life and fulfill his purposes for Him. Solomon who walked in wisdom and vanity saw the whole conclusion of the matter, and said, foolish man that I am, why have I astrayed into this evil path, “Honor and enjoy your Creator while you’re still young, Before the years take their toll and your vigor wanes, Before your vision dims and the world blurs And the winter years keep you close to the fire” (Ecclesiastes 12:1-2 The message). And in the book of Wisdom it says, “Love justice, you that are the judges of the earth. Think of the Lord in goodness, and seek him in simplicity of heart:For he is found by them that tempt him not: and he sheweth himself to them that have faith in him. For perverse thoughts separate from God: and his power, when it is tried, reproveth the unwise: For wisdom will not enter into a malicious soul,nor dwell in a body subject to sins.” Wisdom of Solomon 1:1-4 (DRB)

When the Lord created man, He not only has the idea of man walking with God but God walking in man. As wonderful as Moses had experienced the glory of God coming to him every morning, the New Covenant is even more of glory because God lives in man! This cannot be fathomed by mere mortals nor have we understood this could be possible. The immortal, the unfathomable, and the omnipotent  one has actually chosen to dwell with man and in man! But how is this possible? As I have mentioned above, God’s ultimate desire is to walk with men on earth and to dwell in man’s heart and rule the world together. This is why we have been called to freedom first, that is, where the Spirit is Lord in our lives, there is freedom! Because God frees us to do His will and to walk with Him unentangled from bondages. Solomon spoke about this saying, “seek him in simplicity of heart: for he is found by them that tempt him not: and he sheweth himself to them that have faith in him” and Jesus repeated this desire by saying, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our abode with him” (John 14:23).

As unthinkable as it is, God has really chosen us to be His dwelling place forever, not temples made with bricks but a body made of flesh and blood redeemed by the cross. To be more practical, how is this possible then? We start by having our relationship with God restored first and then with others. No one can really be born again who has not first asked the Lord to forgive and heal him of his blindness. God must be the father of all, because He keeps no grandchildren. We cannot say we abide in Him because someone does in our family; or because we go to church every Sunday. Nor can someone claim to be a Christian because his parents are or his friends are. Faith has to be personal to be real, otherwise it is impossible to please Him and His wrath still abides with you.

“But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart”—that is, the word of faith which we are preaching,  that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved;  for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.  For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes in Him will not be disappointed.”  Romans 10:8-11

And to whom did He promise to be united or one? Isn’t it to those who love Him, to those who believe and calls on Him in sincerity and purity of heart?  He therefore says, “However, you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.  If Christ is in you, though the body is dead because of sin, yet the spirit is alive because of righteousness. But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ Jesus from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you” (Romans 8:9-11).