{"id":35714,"title":"Parallels - The BELIEVE Blog","description":"What did God create us for? To look after the world? To tell people about Him? To build families and churches?\n\nOur primary purpose is actually none of these things. God deserves our worship, yes, but even that is not why He created us.\n\nGod made us for relationship with Him; to have an intimacy of true companionship. Isn\u2019t that just amazing? The creator of the Universe made you, custom built, to be His friend?\n\nIn the beginning, it says that God walked in the garden with Adam. However, Adam was a flesh being and God a Spirit being. Adam, though he was made in the image of God (Genesis 1:27), was not like God...","content":"

\"btelhlwgwxvrw5jp1t4qnaik10honc1jekhhl2pe29bb9cxr.jpeg.jpg?w=1140&h=auto\"<\/strong>\u201cSo God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.\u201d Genesis 1:27<\/p><\/blockquote>

What did God create us for?<\/strong> To look after the world? To tell people about Him? To build families and churches?<\/p>

Our primary purpose is actually none of these things.<\/strong> God deserves our worship, yes, but even that is not why He created us.<\/p>

God made us for relationship with Him; <\/strong>to have an intimacy of true companionship. Isn\u2019t that just amazing? The creator of the Universe made you, custom built, to be His friend?<\/p>

In the beginning, it says that God walked in the garden with Adam. However, Adam was a flesh being and God a Spirit being. Adam, though he was made in the image of God<\/strong> (Genesis 1:27), was not like God. And, because God loved Adam, He made for Adam another flesh being to have as a friend within his own dimension.<\/p>

And so we have the first institution of God\u2019s creation: marriage.<\/strong> Genesis 1:28.<\/p>

God created marriage to mutually benefit the man and woman involved but to also act as a living parallel of our relationship with Him.<\/strong><\/p>

Ephesians 5:22-33 illustrates this wonderfully. The husband is God and the wife the whole church body, God\u2019s people. All husbands can take precedent from what God has already demonstrated<\/strong> as being the standard: love, cultivate, be patient, forgive, sacrifice, repeat.<\/p>

God protects, instructs, He even stays awake to watch over you like it says in Psalm 121:3. If a husband is unsure on what he should look like, he can look to the character of the Father in order that he might be a living parallel of God.<\/strong><\/p>

A wife is of course very different. A wife has the role of the Holy Spirit to take precedent from<\/strong>. \u201cThe spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets,\u201d<\/em> 1 Corinthians 14:32 for example. This verse emphasises the principle of the Holy Spirit never having the authority to override our free will. It is rather \u2018subject\u2019 to Him in the same way that Ephesians 5 encourages women to submit to their husbands care and authority.<\/p>

The Holy Spirit will never leave us. He was always be there, encouraging in gentleness. And it is in this manner that a wife can minister to her husband. Never overruling but is a faithful, soothing presence that guides him into all truth.<\/strong> John 16:13.<\/p>

If the Holy Spirit is meant to empower, give counsel, comfort, intercede and bear fruit<\/strong> in you then a wife can do all these things for her husband.<\/p>

Because man and woman together<\/em> make up God\u2019s image and nature<\/strong> (Genesis 1:27), something wonderful happens. Just as it is with God, the love that they share creates.<\/strong> And we come to the second institution that the Lord designed: family.<\/p>

In love and in line with God\u2019s nature, a husband and wife conceive life in love;<\/strong> a new, living being - a child - with free will of its own.<\/p>

There's the hope<\/strong> of this child one day saying, \"I love you, Dad,\" or \"I wanna be just like you, Mum.\" But there's also the risk<\/strong> of that same child saying, \"I hate you.\" It has free will after all.<\/p>

And so it is with us and God.<\/p>

He made us out of love. He breathed His own life into us. He sacrificed everything so that we need never want or worry again. And just like it is with raising a child, we can't force them to love us despite our attempts to win them.<\/strong><\/p>

\"Just let me love you. Let me keep you safe. You don't understand how dangerous xyz can be. Trust me.\"<\/p>

Parents, when your children look at you, do they see a parallel of God?<\/strong> Do they see the love of the Father in heaven? Can they come to you like you are meant to come to Him? Are they worried about your tone, the reception they might receive?<\/p>

We have the precious opportunity as married couples to bring a little bit of heaven to earth for our spouses by emulating the natures in the Godhead.<\/strong> All the while, learning just how loved we are by that God.<\/p>

We have the precious opportunity as parents to be a living example of the Heavenly Father<\/strong> to our children. And all the while, we learn to be a child with the Lord more and more.<\/p>

Jacob Shepherd<\/p>

CEO & Co-Founder | Revival<\/p>

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