Section 01 – The Creation and Nature of Man

Introduction

The first two sections of this series were taken from an introductory teaching given some time back for ministry, rather than business. I have included them here because they lay a good foundation for what we will be learning concerning Personal Growth.

In this section I want to start by dealing with man and his make up, so let's begin by going right back to the beginning.

The Scripture says that God made man in His own image. I want to show you how God created man in the first place.

The Bible says, "In the beginning God …"

In the beginning there was nothing but God. Nothing existed except Him. The Scripture says that God is Spirit, and the Bible says:

In the beginning God created the Heavens and the earth.

Creating Matter

What exactly did God create? What He created actually was matter. He created things, or stuff if you like.

God's very first creation was to produce out of the Spirit, something that was tangible and physical. Whether it was the earth, the planets or the stars, they are all made of physical matter.

The entire Universe as we can see and know it is something tangible and physical, and the Scripture says that God made it out of nothing.

How do you make something out of nothing? Normally you begin with a material, and you mold it, shape it and make it into something. But God made the original creation out of nothing.

How did He do it? God is spirit. Spirit is God's essence and it is not physical. It is not tangible. You cannot touch it. But God through spirit, created something that was tangible and physical. In other words, God made tangible things using the material of spirit.

I don't pretend to be a great scientist, but I loved science at School and I have a very scientific mind. I remember learning all the atomic theories and what matter is made up of – the molecules, atoms, protons, neutrons and electrons.

They told me at the time I studied, "This is primitive theory. When you get higher up in your studies and become more educated, we will teach you that this stuff is nonsense; that actually matter consists of something slightly different."

Matter is Spirit

You can move up into quantum mechanics, which in the end boils down to the fact that matter consists of radio waves and energy. We all knew that.

What does matter really consist of when you break it down? It becomes energy. But what is energy, and what does it consist of? I will tell you what happens when you break it down to its smallest constituent. You get spirit. Matter is made out of spirit.

I want you to understand this very clearly, because the Scripture says that the earth was 'without form and void.' It was a shapeless mass. Darkness was over the face of the waters, and the Spirit of God brooded over the waters.

Then God spoke and said, "Let there be."

God's Spirit brooded over the waters. And when God spoke His Word, the Spirit of God moved in upon the earth, took the materials and shaped them into the earth that we see and know right now.

Why did God's Spirit do it? He was just transmuting it from one form into another. That is all He was doing.

There is a teaching out there that is heresy, and you must be careful of it. It says that God is everything, and God is in everything.

I am not saying that the Universe is an extension of God and that everything is God. Yes God is in everything, but He made matter out of Spirit.

Matter Can Contain Spiritual Influences

The reason I am emphasizing this is because people have a problem accepting the fact that physical things can contain spiritual influence. Yet we know through experience and through the Word that it is possible for an object to be contaminated with negative, demonic power. Or it can be impregnated with the power of God.

The Scripture says that aprons were taken from Paul and laid on the sick and they were healed. How did it happen? The woman touched the edge of the hem of Jesus' garment and was healed. There was spiritual power in His clothes.

How can physical matter contain spiritual power? How can I take an object that has been prayed over, carry it away and go and lay it on somebody, and the power in that object will come out and heal them? How does it work?

It can only work because this matter is made of spiritual essence. And because it is made of spiritual essence, it can contain that spiritual essence or influence. It is very important to understand this, because it means now that spirit has power over matter.

If you have been through my teaching on the Way of Blessing, you will know what I am talking about and where I am heading. The fact is that as God's Spirit moved on the creation, He brought about that creation.

In a similar way, because God made us in His image, His power in our spirits can brood over physical objects and bring change to bear upon them. And so the power of God moving through our spirits can bring change in the earth and can affect this physical world in so many ways.

Different Levels of Creation

How did God go about creating? He started by creating the materials. We see various levels of creation taking place. He started by creating inanimate materials.

Scientists have discovered that these materials consist of a certain number of elements which they call the Periodic Table. I have forgotten it a long time ago, but it still exists. They are basic substances out of which all matter is made. The Bible calls it the dust of the earth.

When God spoke He first created these materials. They don't have physical life, but yet there is a spiritual something contained in them. They are not living. They are dead, inanimate objects.

The next thing God did was to add an extra dimension to these inanimate materials. He added a life form, and He created the next highest level of life which is biological life.

These are the plants. Plants have bodies that are made from the materials of the earth, but they contain something extra. They contain additional functions which we will look at shortly. There are three main functions that are carried out in biological life, which dead objects do not have.

God then added an even higher dimension of life. He created animal life. He went one step beyond the plants and He added something that plants don't have. If you look at an animal, it has a body that is made from the materials of the earth.

An animal has biological life. It has the same functions as a plant. These functions are nourishment, defense and reproduction and they are built into physical bodies.

The animal has something extra though. It has a soul. An animal has the ability to think. It has a mind. It has the ability to be affected by its feelings and desires. It has emotions. And it also has the ability to choose for itself. It has a will.

Each level is built on the other. And so God reached this level of creation where there were now creatures on earth that had biological life, and creatures that had psychological life.

The Greek word for soul is 'psuche', from which we get our word psychology. Have you ever heard of animal psychology? It is not a myth! You can have animal psychology. Animals have souls. They have personality, because that is where the soul rests.

We will look shortly at spirit, soul and body in a lot more detail.