Good afternoon everyone, my name is Gboyega Adedeji. I am so glad to welcome you to this week's edition of Leaderview. I hope your week has been great? I am so glad for that. I bless God for this opportunity given to me by God to be in this position to connect with you and to be a blessing to you. There is something that God has been cooking up for a while which I believe is the right food for our thought as leaders in this time and season and dispensation. Don't forget we began some weeks ago the series that is titled "The Leadership Trip to Genesis™" and we have been looking at a couple of things from the book of Genesis.
Listen To Podcast: MAN – A Leader In The Class of God
The Lord has been opening us up to the principles of effective leadership. So today, we want to continue in that series and we will be looking very quickly as the Lord gives us the grace into the book of Genesis chapter Nine, from verse One to verse Seven. Genesis 9:1-7. It says:
So God blessed Noah and his sons, and said to them: “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth. 2 And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be on every beast of the earth, on every bird of the air, on all that move on the earth, and on all the fish of the sea. They are given into your hand. 3 Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. I have given you all things, even as the green herbs. 4 But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. 5 Surely for your lifeblood I will demand a reckoning; from the hand of every beast I will require it, and from the hand of man. From the hand of every man’s brother I will require the life of man. 6 “Whoever sheds man’s blood, By man his blood shall be shed; For in the image of God He made man. 7 And as for you, be fruitful and multiply; Bring forth abundantly in the earth And multiply in it.
By the way, today we want to look at Man: The Leader In the Class of God. I don't want us to struggle with that title, I want us , understand what the Lord has to share with us today. In Genesis chapter nine verse one, God said to Noah and his sons; be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth. Now the question some of us could ask is: What manner of man is God expecting to fill the earth? Why did God emphasize the need for man to fill the earth? What was the need for that? Why did God gave this instruction to man and not to animals? Let's us continue reading into verse two of that Scripture above.
2 And the fear of you and the dread of you shall be on every beast of the earth, on every bird of the air, on all that move on the earth, and on all the fish of the sea. They are given into your hand.
In a nutshell, God was telling Noah that all these things that I have made, I have handed them into your hands. Now because I have given all these things to you, it is therefore important that you become fruitful and productive and yield good harvest with them. I have committed these much to you, be fruitful. Don't just be fruitful, multiply, and haven multiplied; fill the earth. That is the intention of God.
The question that is important for us to ask is: "What kind of man did God originally intended that should fill the earth?" And should there be a deviation from the originality of the man, to a situation where man is now a victim of his circumstances; where man is depressed and suppressed by other men, where the plants and animals are ruling the man that God ordained to have dominion over all things; should there have been a deviation at some time, it is important at such a time as this to know we deviated so that we can return to our original identity in God.
Now God said, Be fruitful! Multiply, Fill the earth. And He said the fear of you and the dread of you is in all the animals. All these things that I have created, they will submit to your authority. In fact, I have given all of them in your hands. Let us go to verse three to five very quickly.
3 Every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. I have given you all things, even as the green herbs. 4 But you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood. 5 Surely for your lifeblood I will demand a reckoning; from the hand of every beast I will require it, and from the hand of man. From the hand of every man’s brother I will require the life of man.
All things God said, which means the provision that man requires, God made them available for him. Now, I am sure we understand that what goes on in our society today is far from the ideal. People are maimed and killed at the will of men. People kill other people at the slightest of provocations and anger. That is the kind of society we have right now. But see the original ideal and intention of God; and what God has established. God said the life blood of man He will require from animal or man that takes it. See what verse six and seven said below.
6 “Whoever sheds man’s blood, By man his blood shall be shed; For in the image of God He made man. 7 And as for you, be fruitful and multiply; Bring forth abundantly in the earth And multiply in it."
Now, our focus is on verse six and a portion of verse seven. God said to Noah, whosoever sheds man's blood, by man; his blood shall be shed. Now the question you could have ask is: why was God so particular about man? Now that also reminds me about the question that king David, the king of ancient Israel asked. At a time he said "What is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you visits him. There was a time he said God has given man all things, and that all the works He has committed into his hands." (Psalms 8:1-9)
Now it is important we understand that God's investment on man was not an arbitrary or aimless investment. It was because of the intention of God for that investment. God had a plan, He had an original intention which we could call a strategic intent in the earth of God. There was something God intended, God did not want a earth that He will have to come to do everything. He wants a kind of earth whereby His will is enforced through man. God wanted to rule the earth through man. And so, to do that; God made man in His image. That is what Genesis 9:6 tells us. It says: " Whoever sheds man’s blood, By man his blood shall be shed; For in the image of God He made man." That is very simple and direct. We do not need too much talk for us to understand this.
The reason why if you kill a man, you will be killed by man is because the man that you have killed is made in the image of God. The question is: What is the image of God? Another way we can put that is what is the nature of God? God we know is Spirit, according to the book of John chapter 4. God is Spirit, and the Bible says those who worship Him must do that in spirit and in truth. Another way you can put it is those who seek to replicate His glory on earth, honor and reverence Him; must do it spiritually and truthfully. God is Spirit, and those who represent Him must do it in spirit and in truth.
The implication of this is this: the image of God is a spiritual image, and it talks about the nature of God which also is the reason for the authority and the power of God. So, for man to demonstrate the capacity of God on the earth, God fashioned him after Himself. When God was making man, He simply looked at no other things He had made earlier, but Himself. The image of God was the prototype or the sample that was used to make man. So, man began as a being after the order of God. We should also understand that God was not just a Spirit, but a leading Spirit. He was a Spirit that led.
So, God made man a leader in His class. If you want to compare yourself with a leader, that should be God. You should see yourself in the mirror of God so that the more you see God, the more you understand yourself as a leader. God is the mirror of your leadership. You can understand yourself and your personality from the perspective of God. God is both your vision and your destiny; it is important that you understand this. That is why for most believers, the emphasis is on Christ-likeness. Because the point is this, Christ is the son of God, and Christ is God. So, the more you become like God, the more you become your original personality and the original self that was made in the order of God.
So, if you are struggling to reconcile with yourself as a leader today; I want to encourage you to begin a search, a thirst and an hunger for God. Begin to yearn for God because if you can know God, you can know yourself. Now let me help you to understand this. An aeroplane is made in the image of bird, and submarines are made in the image of fishes. If the aeroplane and the submarine are clueless about their functions, they can simply look to the animals that they look like and begin to function thus.
You and I are made in the image of God and that is why it is important that you appreciates and respect another fellow man that you see. Some men have deviated from the original plan of God for their lives; in spite of that they are still made in the image of God. Now, for so many of us that believes that Adam fell from grace to grass, and fell from glory; and began a journey in error. For most of us, we believed that God cursed Adam. But did you notice, that even though God cursed Adam; when Noah offered the sacrifices to God; immediately after the flood; God still emphasized the fact that all things (Just as He said to his forefathers Adam) has been put under him.
We did not lose it. It is our nature; God's nature. We have been made in the image of God, and therefore, we cannot function effectively well except we go back to God. You reconcile your way and leadership back to God kind of leadership so that you don't function after the order of the angel Lucifer, that has adopted you as a father; but function after the order of God that created both you and Lucifer as well. So, it is expected that your leadership is not after the principles of Lucifer, after the principles of this world; it is expected to be after the principles of the kingdom.
No wonder Jesus told the disciples that it is given unto them to know the mysteries of the kingdom but to them it is not given. The point is this: it is given to you to understand how God lives in His kingdom. The essence of that is that you might replicate the manner of God's leadership on the earth. So, the will of God is that it be done on the earth as it is in heaven, and God intends to use you and myself for that purpose. The only way for us to be back to our originality as leaders in the class of God is for us to submit to the authority of God, and we be mentored as it were by God through Christ Jesus. I hope you will understand that.
You are a leader in the class of God, and not one in the class of beast, animals or plans. You are not a leader in the class of some fallen angels that roam about the streets calling themselves demons, or the gods of iron, stones and what have you. You have been made a leader in the class of God and you are expected to function in the class of God; so that as it is done by God in heaven, you do it here on earth. Jesus said at some point when He was asked certain questions. As I hear my Father, I judge and my judgment is true. What I see my Father do, I do. I see my Father do it in the Spirit, I replicate it in the physical. The things I see God do in the Kingdom, I do it in the kingdoms that He has committed into my hands.
There is a way God leads and there is a way He conducts His business. Don't forget you have been made in His image and if you must function; you must function like Him. You can't function without Him or function like other people, you must only function after His similitude and His order. Submit yourself to Jesus, submit to His authority, He is the greatest leader that we know as men, and God sent Him to be the first born among many brethren.
I am so excited for the opportunity given to me by God to know Jesus as my Lord, and to submit to his authority over my head. And as such, I am raised up by Him as a leader on earth. So, as I see Him do, I do, I do not struggle, my leadership follows His pattern. The things I do are the things I have seen Him do. I see Him and then I replicate Him. Don't forget, you have been made in the image of God. You are God's photocopy, and so; you must see for you to replicate. You are a replica of God's nature. It is about replication and imitation. Whatever God works, you work. Whatever God says, you say. My Judgment is true!
God bless you, my name is Gboyega Adedeji. It has been a joy connecting with you today on this edition of Leaderview. It has been God, it has been good, and I believe you have been blessed. I expected to connect again with you next week Wednesday, stay blessed, stay refreshed and stay connected to Christ, stay connected to God. Function in the order that God has raised you up a leader and don't function in a lesser order. Don't forget the Bible says we are seated with Christ in heavenly places; so, where He is, we are as well. Apostle John also said that as He is, so are we in this world.
I am so glad that as He is, I am. I have been made a leader in His class, in His order, and you have been made. Walk in that reality and you will have testimony for that experience, for that life that you are choosing.
God bless you and stay blessed.
