The Key Spiritual Law for Christian Success
When you look around and investigate our physical universe it becomes evident that there are laws that govern the operation, stability and function of the creation. Whether we know or understand all of these laws, we are citizens and participants in the way things are designed in the universe.
Gravity is a law that when understood, respected and cooperated with, serves our purposes. If a person violates and dismisses the law of gravity, and crosses it’s known boundaries, there are consequences. Is it safe to say that taking one step over the edge of a cliff that features a 500 foot drop has a consequence for the action of taking that step?
Cooperating with gravity has a reward. There is safety, protection and preservation when we follow the rules that govern gravity.
But resisting the law without any compensating action–like using a harness and net beneath the cliff, or taking on the role of a passenger in an airplane– also has a “reward.” Dismissing the law of gravity in disrespect can cause damage, even deadly consequences.
In conjunction with the natural laws we can see and understand, there are spiritual laws that govern God’s creation. These spiritual laws may not be visible to the physical eye but serve as the parent forces to all other laws of function in the physical, seen realm. By name, the Bible speaks of faith as a law, and of the perfect law of liberty, of the royal law of love and of the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus. The virtuous woman of Proverbs 31 is noted for many good things, among which we find that “in her tongue is the law of kindness.”
These spiritual laws are like the blowing of wind through the air. With the activity of the blowing wind, we can’t “see” the wind, but we can see the effect of the wind on a leaf or a tree swaying in the wind. When these spiritual laws are in motion, we can ”see” their impact in and upon the lives of people.
By implication, the scriptures also speak of the law of seedtime and harvest, sowing and reaping, and the law, or rule, of gratitude. Expressions of gratitude change an atmosphere and increase the productivity of all affected by an environment of appreciation and thankfulness.
All of these spiritual laws were designed as ruling mechanisms,or as things by which we are to rule our lives in the earth. From a natural perspective, when we abide by the rules of society we have far less trouble than if we willfully and stubbornly refuse to live in peaceful accordance with the established laws of the land.
It’s one thing if the laws are unethical, unjust, morally destructive or in direct opposition to the scriptures. It’s at those times when committed people of conviction must rise up to present a compelling and rightful response to verifiably unsound legislation, unrighteous rule, despotism and tyranny. Taking a stand for a cause and walking out the responsibility of that cause is the due process and moral fortitude upon which our nation was founded.
But if the laws are good and sound, and proper and right, we’re bound by the dutiful obligation of citizenship and the moral responsibility of human compassion to enforce and uphold the laws that support right living and bring prosperity.
The same rewards hold true for the spiritual laws of the kingdom of God. By respecting these spiritual laws I’ve mentioned and in the keeping of them our paths are prospered through right living. But there is one other spiritual law, or ruling reality, I want to mention. It is a law that precedes all others and supports all others. It is a law which the Bible reveals early on and holds out for all to accept.
You see, there is a ruling law that God instilled in mankind from the very beginning, from the onset of creation. It can be defined as the “law of creative image.” After the salvation experience, this is the key spiritual law that best determines Christian success in life. We find it in Genesis 1:26 where God himself said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness…”
Someone might say, but what of the law of faith? Faith is of obvious and primary importance, but faith in what? Faith in whom? Without an object or purpose to target, faith can be aimlessly released. Faith combined in harmony with the original precedent of the law of creative image can change society, reshape culture and redirect history.
The human experience from the beginning of its historical origins was designed at its core to reflect the express image of God himself. Understanding, embracing and living in the context of this statement from Genesis 1 is a radical and revolutionary way to live that will change life in the earth as we know it.
Through a simple investigation of the scriptures, we understand that Adam and Eve were set in the Garden of Eden as the precedent setting first family of creation. The family structure of a man and a woman as husband and wife as established in Genesis gives clear, vivid and tangible evidence of the family unit God has always intended. And still does.
By searching these same scriptures in Genesis, we come to just as clearly understand that Adam and Eve dismissed the ruling law of God’s image when they were tempted with a knowledge of good and evil and enticed with the promise they would “be as gods.”
In other words, the enemy of their souls tempted them to violate God’s rule with a false promise. The first family was told to not partake of the fruit of the tree in the midst of the garden, described as the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The reward that the enemy used to tempt them? That they would be as gods, or they would become human vessels possessing the image of God. The thing they were blinded to in that moment is that they were already given the creative image of God by law of God’s decree.
They resisted and dismissed God’s ruling laws and suffered the consequence of rebellion, inviting the negative law of sin and death into the earth, resulting in the curses that came on humanity and the earth itself. The good news is that Jesus came to pay the awful price for sins’ imposition and through the cross and payment of His blood, Jesus has redeemed us from this curse, set us free from the laws of the curse and bought back for us the rights of the law of God’s creative image in man.
Simply stated, the law of creative image says “The human experience is dictated to by the original precedent of creation. Whoever or whatever serves as the source of creation defines the potential, function, value, purpose and possibilities of the created being or thing.”
A car manufacturer is the ”creator” of an automobile product and arranges and designs the product to the degree and in the detailed direction of their resource base and knowledge limitations. A software designer uses their technological insights and wisdom to craft and create programs that are to function in such a way as to simplify, improve and enhance the quality of our lives. But despite the advances in software development the software designer is bound by certain intellectual limitations.
God is a Creator. God is THE Creator. He created humanity in His image and in His likeness. What are God’s knowledge limitations? Where does His resource base conclude? At what point does His budget for the creation run out and where does the enormous, seemingly never-ending landscape of the universe cease? If anyone should understand how a man or woman should function and the purpose behind life, it would be God.
Given the magnitude of who God is and what is contained in Him, how should this impact the human experience, and how should this affect and impact the human soul? This law of creative image has a potential within it to unleash hidden abilities and release tremendous destinies.
The bare bones truth is that all of the ultimate ability, knowledge and success a man or woman possesses and experiences begins with the image within. That image was always meant to be and is the finite reflection and re-presentation of an infinite God. Who is man to limit God in His creation? This is a question that I think all of us would be wise to reflect upon and answer with actions that respect this spiritual law of creative image.
About The Author:
As a life coach and college basketball coach, and through nearly 20 years of developing and training athletes and leaders for success, Lance Ivey has helped thousands reach for and live the life they were always meant to live.
Lance has worked as Executive Director over a Dallas-Fort Worth area ministry training school and as a staff pastor at churches in Iowa, Oklahoma and Texas. Lance currently travels across the country as a minister and motivational speaker to churches, men’s groups, business leaders, college & career groups and in prisons. In each of his meetings, Lance speaks a dynamic and life changing message that helps people experience personal transformations that translate their visions and dreams into experienced reality.
Lance also publishes free lance articles that help unlock and unleash hidden potential stored within a person’s life. For more information about Lance, free offers or to schedule Lance to speak to your church or group go to http://www.facebook.com/l/bc08f;www.lanceivey.com or email him at lanceivey@aol.com.
