The Pharisees once tried to trap Jesus by asking him whether it is right to pay tax to Caesar. If Jesus would have answered yes, he would have found himself on the wrong side of the Jewish law which says you do not give to any pagan. And if he had said no, then he would be a defaulter in Roman law and would be arrested.

Jesus said, “Show me a coin used for paying the tax.”

They brought him a denarius, and He asked them, “Whose image is this? And whose inscription?”

“Caesar’s,” they replied.

Then Jesus said to them, “So give back to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”

They should have asked a follow-up question, “What belongs to God?”
The answer would have been, whose image is on you?

Whose image is on you? Whose inscription?
You are made Imago Dei, created in the image of God.

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.” Genesis 1:26

On the face of Jesus we see what value God places on you and me.
There is a reflective splendour. His splendour is reflected in you the way He has uniquely fashioned you.

We don’t like many things about us and try to do patch work.
How do you decide whether a group photograph is good or bad? By looking at how you look in that picture. We judge it by our individual valuation of ourselves.
Don’t try to become someone else.

Once a farmer found an abandoned eagle’s nest and in it was an egg still warm. He took the egg back to his farm and laid it in the nest of one of his hens. The egg hatched and the baby eagle grew up along with the other chickens. It pecked about the farmyard, scrabbling for grain. It spent its life within the yard and rarely looked up. When it was very old, one day it lifted up its head and saw above it a wonderful sight – an eagle soaring high above in the sky. Looking at it, the old creature sighed and said to itself, “If only I’d been born an eagle”.

God created Adam and put him in the garden and said work. The word work in Greek is ergon, abad in Hebrew which means to be, to become. It doesn’t mean to do something. He told Adam to become Adam. Become you.
You are uniquely born. There is no duplicate.

Jesus came to reveal our intrinsic worth and intrinsic value.
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. John 3:16

Personalise it : For God so loved me that He gave His only begotten Son, that if I believe in Him, I should not perish but will have everlasting life.

Say this aloud:
I am special. God created me for himself and I thank him for the spirit, soul and body that He gave me. I acknowledge that I am unique. No one else has the same personality and gifting that He has given me. I accept them as a gift from God and I repent over all wrong attitudes that I have had towards them.

There is an intrinsic worth given to you, there is a reflective splendour given to you by God. The day you receive it with gratitude, God can use you for the purpose He created you.

Then there is the privilege of communion with God.

We have three things which are unique about mankind that separates us from the rest of the creation.

1. We are Revelation Receivers. As a human, I need revelation of truth outside of myself in order to make sense out of life or I need God, the Wonderful Counsellor explaining life, it’s meaning and purpose to me.

2. We are Interpreters. We don’t live life based on the facts, but based on the interpretation of facts.
For example, if I say, “It is a sunny day.” That is just a statement of fact. But one may think in his heart that it is a nice and a bright day while another may think it is terrible because it is going to be hot. So, each of us are interpreting the fact and living based on our interpretation of the fact.

3. We are Worshippers. We are created to worship. We are always worshipping. If we are not worshipping God, the eternal, unchanging, uncaused, absolute, living God, we are worshipping something else. We become what we worship. As we worship God, we receive the knowledge and the revelation of who He is, and in the process, we become like Him.

We are called to become like Jesus and conform to His image. And to have dominion.

God, in Genesis 1:26, after creating man said, “Have dominion … over all the earth and over all the creatures.” In other words, have Kingdom. And then in Genesis 2:15 “The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.” God said mange it and replicate it. Multiply.

God’s plan was that man would see the order and governance of heaven in Eden and replicate it everywhere. That is man will dominate and administrate earth exactly like heaven.

Our purpose is to conform to the image and likeness of God through worship and communion with Him to have dominion on earth.

Are you ready to walk in your purpose and your destiny?

Attend Discover Your True Identity and Know Your Divine Purpose Workshops.