It is the sixth day of creation.
Today it is going to happen!
On the sixth day, God makes the animals and man.
The animals He makes after their own kind, but man He makes after His own kind; after His image and likeness.
Overcoming Flesh by Living from Spirit
God blesses the animals and also man.
He says:
To the animals
Genesis 1:22 (NAS)
Be fruitful and multiply!
To man
Genesis 1:28 (NAS)
Be fruitful and multiply!
With man He adds something:
To the animals
Genesis 1:22 (NAS)
Be fruitful and multiply!
To man
Genesis 1:28 (NAS)
Be fruitful and multiply!
And fill the earth, and subdue it
and rule! …over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky
and over every living thing that moves on the earth.
As on the fifth day, this day is also about the difference between living from the flesh and living from the spirit.
For when you live from the spirit, you rule over the flesh.
Then the earth, everything earthly, is subdued to you.
I”ll explain it to you.
For Habakuk shows it very clearly in a complaint against God.
He says to God:
Habakuk 1:13-16 (NAS)
Why do You look favorably at those who deal treacherously?
Why are You silent when the wicked swallow up those more righteous than they?
Why have You made people like the fish of the sea,
like crawling things that have no ruler over them?
They bring all of them up with a hook,
drag them away with their net,
and gather them together in their fishing net.
(Habakkuk is referring here to the Chaldeans, an enemy of the people of God in the Old Testament)
Therefore they rejoice and are joyful.
Therefore they offer a sacrifice to their net and burn incense to their fishing net,
Because through these things their catch is large, and their food is plentiful.
Man, who was made in the image of God, should have ruled over everything earthly; everything that comes from the flesh.
This text from Habakkuk shows how the flesh itself wants to rule.
The Chaldeans in this story depict that, as well as the fish and animals mentioned that were not made in the image of God, but in their own kind.
The irony is that the flesh does not rule at all, although it thinks it does.
For the Chaldeans sacrifice to the earthly, and you sacrifice only to that which you place above you, to that which rules over you.
In the flesh you want to rule over each other, but in the spirit you rule in love.
These are two opposites of each other.
To rule in the flesh is to oppress others.
You imprison each other and you eat from each other. You consume each other as it were.
Read verse 16 again: Because through these things their catch is large, and their food is plentiful.
That’s why Jesus said:
John 6:35 (NKJ)
I am the bread of life.
He who comes to Me shall never hunger!
When you eat of Jesus, you will no longer be hungry.
You will no longer hunger for the earthly and you will no longer eat each other.
By eating of Jesus, you will be filled with the truth.
As a result, you no longer imprison people, but instead set them free.
You then become a fisher of men, not to eat them, but to feed them.
You feed them with the truth with which you yourself are filled, setting them free from their captivity.
Spiritual Authority and Reign in Christ
But how exactly do you rule in love?
To subdue the earth and rule over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air and over all the animals that crawl over the earth, you do so by living fully in the identity that God has declared about you: you are after My kind; My son in My image and My likeness.
Jesus lived in the fullness of that identity.
Jesus therefore showed us what reigning is, He is the King of kings.
He is also the one
Revelation 1:6 (NKJ)
who has made us kings and priests.
By looking to Jesus and learning from Him, we can come to understand exactly what reigning means.
Reigning is what a king does, and he does that from his throne.
A king’s throne is always in his own kingdom.
So is the throne from which you must rule.
That throne is the throne of God, from which Jesus also rules.
That is why Jesus says:
Revelation 3:21 (NKJ)
To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne,
as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne.
As mentioned, a king’s throne is always in his own kingdom.
So is the throne of God.
The throne of God is in the kingdom of God.
Here, too, we can learn from Jesus.
He shows us the way to the throne.
He says:
Matthew 6:33 (NKJ)
Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.
And He also tells us where the kingdom is:
Luke 17:20 (NKJ)
The kingdom of God is within you!
So ruling you do from the throne that is in the Kingdom of God.
This kingdom is within you.
So for you to rule you must search within you to learn who you really are.
Romans 14:17 (BSB)
For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking,
but of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit.
And where is the Holy Spirit?
Within you!
1 Corinthians 6:19 (NKJ)
Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit
who is in you?
Your body is the temple in which the Spirit of God dwells together with you.
Your body is the house where you are one with God.
1 Corinthians 6:17 (NKJ)
For he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him.
You serve as a priest in that holy place, your body.
And you rule as king on the throne of grace in the holy of holies.
Jesus said:
Matthew 6:33 (NKJ)
Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness.
He did not say, wait until I return, then you will find the kingdom of God.
No, God made you after His own kind, in His image and likeness.
All of God’s characteristics are also in you.
That is who you are! THAT is your identity!
And although many people derive their identity from other people and material things, you can never find your true identity outside of yourself.
God has put everything in you.
He has made you His dwelling place, His kingdom and His righteousness (2 Corinthians 5:21).
You are His son and sit with Him on His throne (Ephesians 2:6).
…Within you!
Be Fruitful: Bearing the Fruit of the Spirirt
God says to you: be fruitful!
Genesis 1:28 (NAS)
Be fruitful and multiply!
And fill the earth, and subdue it
and rule! …over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky
and over every living thing that moves on the earth.
That means: bear fruit!
Not the fruit of the flesh, of your own works, but the fruit of the Spirit.
And….
Galatians 5:22 (NAS)
The fruit of the Spirit is:
love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,
faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.
Genesis 1:28
So be fruitful, multiply and fill the earth!
Filling the Earth with God's Glory
We have just learned what “be fruitful” means.
So “multitply and fill the earth” does not mean to do your best to have as many children as possible.
Genesis 1:28 (NAS)
Be fruitful and multiply!
And fill the earth, and subdue it
and rule! …over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky
and over every living thing that moves on the earth.
No,
Numbers 14:21 (NKJ)
All the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord!
The glory of the Lord is the fullness of the identity that God gave you before any man had ever walked on the earth. (Genesis 1:26)
Therefore, the glory of the Lord is already present in everyone, but it is covered by the flesh.
When we listen to the flesh, our eyes are covered and we do not see that we bear the glory of the Lord.
When we, however, start listening to the Spirit who is within us, our eyes open more and more and we start seeing more and more who we really are, that is, a son/ a daughter of God, in His image and likeness.
As a result, we begin to behave in that image, because you become what you see.
So when you begin to see what the Spirit of God shows within you, you begin to bear fruit.
In this way, the whole earth will be filled with the glory of the Lord.
Now look at what it says in 2 Corinthians 3.
2 Corinthians 3:17-18 (NAS)
Now the Lord is the Spirit,
and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
But we all, (meaning everyone!) with unveiled faces,
looking as in a mirror at the glory of the Lord,
are being transformed into the (that) same image from glory to glory,
just as from the Lord, the Spirit.
Now the Lord is the Spirit!
So the glory of the Lord is the glory of the Spirit of God with whom you are completely one and dwell in your body.
So the glory of the Lord becomes visible only when you do not look with carnal eyes, for they are covered. Only an uncovered face can see the glory of the Lord in the mirror.
Only spiritual eyes can see the glory of the Lord.
The glory of the Lord becomes visible when you begin to fully see and believe who you really are, that is, after God’s kind, in His image and likeness.
The only way you can begin to see and believe that is through the Holy Spirit of the Lord, the glory Himself! (Matthew 16:17)
And when you begin to see that, you will naturally start behaving more and more accordingly.
So you then start bearing more and more fruit.
Thus the glory of the Lord also becomes visible on the outside.
Thus you become a new creation!
Then everything old has passed away and everything has become new.
2 Corinthians 5:17 (NKJ)
When anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation!
Becoming a New Creation
Hebrews 2:5-9 (HST)
For He has not put the world to come, of which we speak -the new creation- in subjection to angels.
The new creation is not subjected to angels, but to whom then?
To Christ!
The new creation is subjected to Christ alone.
When you are in Christ, the world to come, of which we speak, is subjected to you.
When you are in Christ, you have become the world to come; you have become a new creation.
You are then transformed into the same image of the glory of the Lord.
And then you realize that you have always carried the glory of the Lord, because now you look with an unveiled face; with spiritual eyes.
Then you see that you have always been Christ—the anointed one—anointed with the glory of the Lord.
Hebrews 2:5-9 (HST)
For He has not put the world to come, of which we speak, in subjection to angels.
But one testified in a certain place, saying:
“What is man that You are mindful of him,
Or the son of man that You take care of him?
You have made him (man) a little lower than the angels
You have crowned man with glory and honor.
With the glory of the Lord, which can only be seen with an unveiled face!
You have set man over the works of Your hands.
You have put all things in subjection under man’s feet.”
For in subjecting all things to man, He left nothing that is not subject to man.
But now we do not yet see all things subjected to man.
For the one who testified to this could not see it either, because he lived before Christ.
…..As many still do today.
He lived with a veiled face.
Jesus was the first to look in the mirror with an unveiled face.
Jesus was the first to be in Christ.
He was the first to live from His true identity—Christ, the glory of the Lord.
He is the firstborn of the new creation.
But we see Jesus!
And Jesus reveals to you who you are, so that you can be the next—the next born of the new creation.
We see Jesus crowned with glory and honor,
who, – like all man and sons of man – was made for a little while lower than the angels, because of His suffering death
so that by the grace of God He might taste death for everyone.
So be fruitful!
Galatians 5
The fruit of the Spirit
So be fruitful!
➡️ The fruit of the Spirit
(Galatians 5)
Multiply and fill the earth!
Numbers 14:21
With the glory of the Lord
Multiply and fill the earth!
➡️ With the glory of the Lord
(Numbers 14:21)
Subdue the earth and rule!
Hebrews 2:5-9
Over all that is earthly / carnal
Subdue the earth and rule!
➡️ Over all that is earthly / carnal
(Hebrews 2:5-9)
Because….
1 John 4:17
As Jesus is, so are we in this world.
Because….
➡️ As Jesus is, so are we in this world.
(1 John 4:17)
