Understanding the Purpose and Power of Men

Understanding the Purpose and Power of Men

“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them” (Gen.

1:27). After God created man, He placed him in two physical ―hou s es‖: male and female. This means that man the spirit exists within every male and every female. All of us — males and females alike — are man. The essence of both male and female is the resident spirit

After God

created man, He

placed him in

two physical

“houses”: male

and female.

within them, called ―man.‖ Gen esis 5:1 – 2 says, “When God created man, he made him in the likeness of God. He created them male and female and blessed them. And when they were created, he called them [together] „man.‟” Why did God take man, who is spirit, and put him in two separate physical entities rather than just one? It was because He wanted man to fulfill two distinct purposes. We‘ll explore the significance of this fact in more detail in coming chapters. For now, we need to remember that the spirit-man has no gender and that, in order to fulfill His eternal purposes, God used two physical forms to express the spiritual being made in His image. Therefore, whether you are male or female, the person who lives inside you — the essential you — is the spirit-man. Although males and females have differences, they are of the same essence. Since human beings fellowship with God and worship Him through their spirits, this means that men and women both have direct spiritual access to God and are individual ly responsible to Him.

“Created” versus “Made”

Genesis 1:26 – 27 implies that the process through which God created man was different from the process through which He produced the male and female. We can think of the distinction in this way: God created man, but He made male and female. The words for “made” in verse

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