Spiritual Growth Manual Sessions 1 Lesson 1

Understanding how to grow up spiritually

Session 1 Lesson 1

Introduction: Everything living is proven by its growth. We were raised from death to life, therefore we must grow. We entered this new life as seeds or children and once admitted into this new life, what is required next is growth. [John 5:24; Col.1:13; 1Pet.1:23 and 1Pet.2:2]

God’s vision for Creating and Recreating man

A vision is the foreknowledge of the intention in the mind of a manufacturer before making a product. In our case, it is the purpose God had in mind for making us in the first place and his purpose for having to recreate us after the fall through the sin of Adam.

In Genesis 1:26-28, we see the Lord making the statement of the purpose of man. He said let us make man in our image and after our likeness and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, the fowls of the air, and over every creeping thing that moveth on the earth. The purpose of man therefore was to be a companion to the Godhead. As a companion of God, He was equipped with:

1.     The image of God: man was the only creation of God that was made in the image of God. So the physical appearance of man is what God would look like when you see Him.

2.     The likeness of God: Man is the only creation of God that can reason just like God. Man before the fall, was able to see things from God’s perspective to a huge extent to the point that he was able to name all the other creatures of God.

3.     The leadership seed of God: Every man is created to have dominion. To enable him to do this, God put His leadership seed in man and until his fall, he actually exercised dominion to God’s satisfaction. This explains why whatever Adam named any creature became its name and God sanctioned it. He ruled on behalf of God on the earth.

4.     He defined the ambit of man’s influence: The ambit of man’s influence included the birds of the air, the fish of the sea, the beasts and everything that creeps on the earth. Another man was not included in the ambit of man’s influence.

5.     He made man into two species of man namely; male and female and blessed them: They were to jointly exercise dominion without one ruling over the other until sin was introduced and they corrupted themselves and came under the curse of God which was enforced until Christ redeemed us from it. See Gen.3:16; Gal.3:13-14; Col.2:10-15 and Heb.2:14-15.