Integrity- People of God

God created the heavens and the earth to reveal His love, His character and His glory. He created mankind in His image and gave them godlike authority over the earth and they were called the sons of God. Just as God’s glory is seen in all the heavens, God gave mankind the authority and ability to reflect and reveal His glory over all His creation on the earth. God does not have to collaborate with mankind but He chooses to do so for the betterment of mankind and all His creation. 

God is love and He created us with the capacity to love and with the need to be loved and a need to love Him. So many people live a life that seems less than fulfilling because they lack a love relationship with God, for which they were createdto receive and reflect His love on the earth. God is a Holy, Just and Righteous God but these all flow from the well-spring of His Love which is the principal character of who He is. When God made mankind He engineered us to be like Him, to be in relationship with Him and with one another in love. 

God is not a narcissist, one who is vain or looking for attention, nor is He self-centered or self-absorbed. God is not needy nor does he need our love to be complete. God is love and it is thisgreat love of God that is seen in His abundant compassion and mercy. It is the character of God’s love that is displayed as Heshares His love and goodness with His creation. 

Genesis 1:26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” NKJ

The Trinity of God operates in a relationship of love that abounds and flows through God the Father, God the Son and God the Holy Spirit. Love exists in relationship and God created us to be in a loving relationship with Himself. We were created by the Love of God and to be in a love relationship with God and to reflect and show His love to others. That is why when we are not in a relationship of love with God there is a feeling of void or we may have a feeling of a lack of accomplishment. 

Many people walk around wondering why are they living and what is the point of their existence and their being in this life. This is because they lack an understanding of their designedpurpose and who they are meant to be in Christ. God created us for Himself and there is a hollowness for those whose life donot have a love relationship with God. Love is a universal factor that all people, races and nationalities seek after and pursue, but so many people lack a true understanding of the meaning of love. 

Love is not just a feeling, though feelings may be a small or shallow part of love. Love gives of itself and love is relational, looking for interaction with and the betterment of the one they love even though it may be costly to oneself.    

1 John 4:16, 19 And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him. …We love Him because He first loved us. NKJ

John 3:16-17 For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.  For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.

Before the fall, mankind was in perfect love and harmony with God and with all His creation. God and man fellowshipped and communed in the garden, which God had created to display His love and His splendor on the earth. The creatures God createdHe brought to Adam to name, it was God and man in collaboration for the advancement and development of earth and all that reside in it. 

Genesis 2: 19-20 Out of the ground the Lord God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them. And whatever Adam called each living creature, that was its name.  So Adam gave names to all cattle, to the birds of the air, and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper comparable to him. NKJ

Satan came and deceived mankind by creating doubt as to God’s love for them and tricked mankind into giving over all their godlike authority to him. Mankind was no longer resembling or revealing God’s love on the earth nor were they walking in their created purpose to reflect His glory. They fell into fear and a satanic like character of narcissism, an extremelyself-centered behavior and cared only for self. Everyone began to think only of self and doing what was pleasing and right in their own eyes, regardless of how may affect others. 

Proverbs 16:25 There is a way that seems right to a man, Butits end is the way of death. NKJ

Mankind had little or no resemblance of their Creator-God and had lost their ability to love and have concern for others.  God marveled at how far they had fallen and that there was not a person who was concerned for justice and no one praying or interceding to God for others. Therefore, God Himself would come as the Son of Man to bring salvation to all humanity and to make intercession for the lost that they might be reborn into the kingdom of God and once again into His likeness.

Isaiah 59: 15b- 16…Then the Lord saw it, and it displeased Him That there was no justice.
He saw that there was no man, And wondered that there was no intercessor; Therefore His own arm brought salvation for Him; And His own righteousness, it sustained Him.

God created us to be in a relationship and fellowship with Himself. God collaborated with Adam in the creation and naming of the animals and with Moses when he prayed that God would turn away His wrath and forgive the people. Godstill wants to be in a loving relationship with us, to work with us and to collaborate with us that we may intercede on the behalf of those whom we love and even for those who persecute and hate us. That the earth will be filled with His glory. 

Numbers 14:17-21 And now, I pray, let the power of my Lord be great, just as You have spoken, saying, The Lord is longsuffering and abundant in mercy, forgiving iniquity and transgression; but He by no means clears the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generation.’   Pardon the iniquity of this people, I pray, according to the greatness of Your mercy, just as You have forgiven this people, from Egypt even until now.” Then the Lord said: “I have pardoned, according to your word; but truly, as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the Lord— NKJ

God is a God of Justice, and He is Holy but He is great in love,He has long patience and show abundant mercy to those who are lost.  God sent His Son to seek and to save the lost and now Jesus’ ministry is one of intercession in heaven to God for His creation and His will to be done on earth. We should work together with Christ to intercede and pray for those who are without the hope of Christ and who live in darkness without the love of God .   

Colossians 1:14-17He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins. He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation.  For by Him all things were created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things were created through Him and for Him.   And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist. 

Romans 8:34 who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, but rather, was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us. NKJ

This is the collaborative work we have with God, to reconcile others to Christ, just as God reconciled us to Himself and put us in right standing and joined us to Himself through Christ. We too must accept the calling to bring those who are hurt, those who are full of hate and anger and bring them before God in prayer. To pray that God would open their eyes to the light of the gospel of the good news of Christ and to bring them out of darkness so that they may be reunite with the Sovereign Lord and King.   

This is only done through the power of the Holy Spirit and we must forgive everyone, everything. In God’s love we are calledto intercede for others and to bring them into reconciliation,where there is no room for unforgiveness. 

2 Corinthians 5:18-19 Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, namely, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not counting their wrong doings against them, and He has committed to us the word of reconciliation.