God's Commands For Man

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Hey guys, welcome to raising the standard leadership mindset and development for the kingdom, man. I am your host, Josh K. And today we are going to be talking about specifically the way the Lord spoke to Adam in the garden. We can see by how he spoke and interacted with Adam as the first man. The first created man created in the image and likeness of God, we can glean quite a bit by the commands that Adam receives from the Lord that reveal our destiny, that reveal our design and the way God created us to function as men in the earth.

So if I take you to Genesis one 26, I'm going to make the statement right here, where the Lord said. Let us make man in our image and likeness and what that's a revelation of the Trinity there, we see the father, the son, and the Holy spirit, and they're making man in. The image of God. And listen to me, that original intent was for man to first carry the image.

It was to be image bearers of the one, true God of the creator we're made in his image and his likeness. And there's a lot to be said about that right there. But what I'm going to do is I want to take you to five specific commands and this is. The first chapter of Genesis, when God creates man, he gives him five distinct commands.

I'm going to reveal those to you right now. We're going to go through them. And I want to focus on four specifically. What they mean how Adam would have understood them and also what they mean and what they carry for us today in our lives. Okay. So these five commands, let me just lay them out for you right here.

Number one. Yeah. Be fruitful. The Lord commands, Adam, to be fruitful. Number two, multiply number three, replenish the earth or another translation may say, fill the earth. Number four, subdue it. Conquer it subdue it, take dominion. Another word for that could be subjugated, exercise dominion, and do not give it to another.

And the fifth commandment is, do not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And we're not going to touch that one right now. We know what happened in the Genesis account and where we are today.

I want to talk about. The first three commands right now, which is be fruitful, multiply and replenish.

So let's look at the first command to be fruitful and keep in mind. This is not just a command to procreate or repopulate the earth.

This is a mindset. And when you see this, everything can shift for you because the Lord's commanding Adam and commanding all of us. He's commanding the human race. He's commanding man here to be fruitful. And when you think about fruit, fruit within itself carries a seed. And we even see in Genesis one that every fruit bearing plant carries a seed and fruit carries a seed because it can augment and it can duplicate and it can start to replicate itself and grow within itself.

It's this picture of personal growth. It's this picture of expanding and enlarging within yourself and as a new creation being we believe. And we know the reality for us as Christian men, as men in the kingdom that we carry the seed of God that we carry this DNA from heaven. We carry a unique, specific call and gift that's connected to our call. And that purpose is not just for us, it's for us to develop so we can bear fruit.

When I think about bearing fruit, I also think another word that we could sub in here would be results. It's, you know, there's this one passage in the new Testament where Jesus walks up to the fig tree and he's looking for fruit.

There was an expectation that this tree should be replicating after its own kind. It should be producing figs and it was not. And we know that story. He curses the tree because it was not bearing any fruit. And similarly in our lives, we are to be bearing fruit. We are to be producing results. And when I think about fruit, and if you think about it for a moment, it carries the DNA.

It carries the seed to grow on the vine. It carries this seed to expand and enlarge, as the fruit develops, as it grows to full maturity. And it's a picture of personal growth and our lives as men and the pursuit and the fulfillment of our call. And we must be. In this command to be fruitful, it requires us to be very intentional, to really focus and be intentional and purposeful in the pursuit of growth in all areas of our life.

Okay guys. So as we go to the second commandment that the Lord gave Adam in the garden, and this is a commandment for man. So you can apply this to yourself right now. And let's look at this commandment. This commandment is the command to multiply. And we can see that when we think about multiplication, it is an increase.

It's an addition, it's a duplication and it's really a picture of an accelerated increase. And we can see where we talked about the fruit, having seed within itself and growing and coming to a place of maturity where it's self-sustaining it augments within itself. It grows this picture of a personal journey of growth with the command to multiply.

We see an accelerated increase of that fruitfulness for the purpose of giving something away. So when we see the command to multiplication, it's really important for us to understand that what we carry, that what we have as men, that what we have to offer is not just for us. So let's settle on this.

number one, multiplication is part of your design. It's part of your design as a man to multiply the things that you touch to multiply the things that you put your hand to as a steward as a servant, as someone who's managing and storing over resources, whether spiritual or natural, We have the ability to multiply, and it's not only an ability, it's a command where the Lord commands man to multiply.

It's not just for you. And we think about multiplication of resources and just this command to multiply. It can't be just connected to us. The whole point of accelerated growth is that we would have more to give away. . As we look at our purpose as men, our purpose as men within the kingdom of God, it is not only and not ever just about us. Our purpose is always connected to a people and a place. Your purpose is connected to a man it's connected to a person, to a people, and it's also connected to a place and.

When I say place, I mean a specific sphere, it could be a geographical location. It could just be where you find yourself in life right now.

So maybe your question right now is okay, Josh. So tell me my purpose. Who is it and where is it? And this is what I can tell you. Your purpose is connected to where you are right now, because where you are right now, you're commanded to multiply. So if you find yourself, maybe it's a job that you don't really like right now.

Maybe it's a station of life where you've been waiting to get out of it, or you want that promotion. You're waiting for that promotion into the next season. To the next level of your life? Well, I can tell you this, we have a command here to be fruitful and we have a command to multiply, and that's a picture of stewardship. Of stewarding really well, where you are.

So let's pause for a minute. You know what I like to do regularly. And guys, I'm going to give you this image as well. it's time that we look in the mirror. Let's just look in the mirror for a moment and think about where am I right now? And am I doing everything I'm called to do and everything I can do as a steward where I'm placed.

So if that's on your job, ask yourself, are you doing those things that's required of you and not just required, but how about going above and beyond? How about doing more than just the requirements are doing more than just the minimum. If you want to be an excellent steward and you're looking for promotion, and that is a picture of multiplication multiply what's in your hand, multiply where you are.

This is not a suggestion. This is a command. This is the command to Adam. It's the command to us. Number one, be fruitful. Number two, multiply. And the whole purpose of multiplication is because it's connected to someone else it's connected to a purpose.

That God has for you. So multiply right now where you're planted in this season of your life.

So we see this commandment to be fruitful, this commandment to multiply. And then I want to touch on this, this commandment to replenish some translations may say A commandment to fill. And I looked up the Hebrew origin of the word. And when you look it up in Hebrew, what I found was it speaks to ordain or consecrate for service to God. So there's something Holy about this replenishment. There's something about it. That's connected to a larger purpose and service.

It's an act of service to God when he commands Adam to replenish. So think about this for a moment, we have to recognize that there is an abundant supply of all things available to us. So this is a mindset. This is an abundance mindset. We have a new mindset when we're born from above and we're men in the kingdom serving God that we have access to abundance.

So, if you think about fruitfulness as growing within yourself, that journey of growth in all areas of your life, if you think about the next commandment, the next stage, multiply, duplicate what you're carrying. So you have for yourself, but you also have to give away and then.

Lastly, we have this picture of replenishment, this actual command to replenish. So it's a continual cycle of filling. It's a continual abundance mindset that never runs out. I have enough for myself. I have enough to give away and that sphere of influence that I'm called to. And I also have this ability and this access to replenish.

And I'm going to take you to a Fijian chapter five verse 18, where the apostle Paul tells the church at Ephesus to be filled with the Holy spirit. And if you look at the verb there, it's an actual verb. It is a continuing infilling. It's not a one-time filling. It's something that we are to continually do.

It's a replenishment, it's an abundance, it's an overflow that is available to us. So. As we look at these first three commands, let's just talk about application for a moment. Number one, pursue personal growth, pursue growth in every area of your life and pursue it within you. So you can grow and you can mature.

So get that picture of, you know, let's think about fruit on a vine. You know, we think about fruitfulness, it's this maturing, it's this enlarging, it's this expanding where the fruit. Is bearing the seed within it, and it's expanding, it's enlarging, it's growing. And that happens within itself. It's a picture of personal growth.

It's your journey of being intentional about your development? And I'm not just talking about personal development or professional development, although it can encompass that I'm also talking about your spiritual development. Next we multiply. That is when we have enough to give away. And then lastly, we have this picture and this command of replenishing this continual cycle and access to abundance.

So change your mind and level up your mindset right now, these are not just three commands. These are three mindsets. These are three patterns of thinking that we can take on as men to affect our life and those around us.

And guys, the fourth command was subdue the earth. And if we look at that word subdue, that word really means dominion. The Lord commanded Adam to take dominion over the earth. Adam was appointed to this sphere, this physical and spiritual sphere called the garden of Eden.

And he was to subdue the land. He was to take dominion over it, to subjugate it and rule over it as a ruler in the earth as King of the earth. Under the headship of God and Adam, of course we know the story. He falls. He chooses to disobeyed God. And as a result, he's expelled from the garden and he loses his dominion.

He loses that place of influence that he was called to inhabit and walk in. So he's no longer the ruler of the world anymore. He's no longer the ruler of the earth and he lost this place of influence.

That is the Adamic nature that we all inherit. It's the natural man. And if we look at the natural man and what man, apart from God, Not in alignment with the will of God does with this issue of dominion, we can just see such a perversion.

We go from dominion to domination, man, no longer wants to just take dominion. He now wants to dominate. He wants to dominate people.

we move from expanding the kingdom of God as a steward as a ruler under the headship of the Lord. And we now move into building our own empire.

So think about it, guys. Why do you want it? Why do you want to expand? Why do you want to grow? Why are so many of us obsessed with conquering something? And this is a trait in the human race. This is a trait that's left over from our DNA, where we have this charge to take dominion. And when it's out of alignment and when it's a part of our fallen nature, apart from Christ, for those that do not know the Lord, and they're not walking with the Lord or in alignment with his will.

We can see this manifest with these perverse desires to expand, to rule over people and to always conquer and always chase and never obtain no matter what you're chasing right now, if you're out of the will of God for your life, you will never have enough. If you are pursuing money, you're never going to have enough.

I've never met someone. Um, and I know some people with quite a bit of money, they never gotten enough. There's always more, there's another Hill to conquer. There's another mountain to climb. And I am not against ambition, but what I am speaking to here is for the man that does not know God for the man that is not aligned with the will of God for his life, that quest for dominion is going to show up in different ways.

And that is a residue leftover from our fallen nature. So. Let's land on this. When we talk about dominion and what that means for us as modern kingdom, men, as modern Christian men in today's world, I want to bring it home with this. Dominion is your sphere of influence. You guys may have heard me say this before.

We're all called to be leaders. And the first thing we have to lead is ourself. So if you want to talk about expanding and taking dominion, the first thing you must do is take dominion over yourself. After that we can start to look at that sphere and that atmosphere that we are placed within, where we can expand, we can grow and we can take dominion and grow where we're planted and expand that by being good stewards and good rulers in the place where we are today.

So guys. I hope this episode helped you. I wanted to showcase these four commands being fruitful, multiplication, replenishment, and also this command to take dominion and what we can do today to take dominion. Let me know what you think about this show, guys. I don't have time to answer every single email.

I work a full-time job and I'm just like you I'm in the real world. One of the best ways to get me. If you want to tell me what you think about the show. If there's a topic you want me to cover in the future, just leave a review below. It helps the show get found, but it also helps me see.

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Hey guys, my name's Josh Kay. I wrote a book called the standard, discovering Jesus as the standard for masculinity, you can find the book on Amazon or you can visit our site@standardfiftyninedotcomthatstandardfivenine.com. We'll see you on the next show.