Gen 1:1 In the beginning God created the Heavens and the Earth.
From the very first verse in the Bible we see a principle so profound that most people will read right over it and never ponder long enough to think what it really says.
God created the heavens – the spiritual world – and then He created the Earth – the physical world. Why is this so important. Heaven or the spiritual world was set as the standard and earth was created to reflect that in the natural. I was sharing this principle at a men’s meeting one morning the obvious question came up.
Do you have scriptural proof for what you are saying?
I am going to try and establish this principle because it profoundly affects us and our walk with God. It defines some of the “Why” we are here.
First, the Spirit world existed long before the natural world was created. God has existed long before He created anything we see or know as natural or physical. The Spirit world can and does exist without the need of the physical world. John 4 says that God is a Spirit. He is self-sufficient and does not need anything to sustain himself. God is the very sufficiency of his own existence.
Secondly, the natural or the physical world was created after the spiritual world. The physical does not exist without the Spiritual world. Planets and earth could be millions or even billions of years old, but it was still created after God created the spiritual world. How do I know God created the Spiritual world of Angelic beings? God was the only un-created being.
When God created the world as we know it, it was created with the purpose to be a reflection or a mirror image of what was and is in the spiritual world. Genesis shows us God’s intend. What we see is that the original world was created and then destroyed and then God recreates the Earth in six days to be in a perfect state again. As a matter of fact, after the six days God declares all or everything to be very good. What does it look like to be an mirror image of heaven? So how do I know that earth was supposed to be a mirror image of heaven?
Proof #1 – Man in His Image.
Gen 1:26 And God said: Let us make man in our image….
God recreates the earth and places a man that looks just like him in it. There is a man in His image to rule, reign and subdue it. There is a man ready to represent God but what is striking is that this man is in His Image. A mirror image of God to represent God to his creation. When God created the earth, He looked at a source to reproduce something that source could sustain. He looked at the earth and called forth the trees and the plants. Earth would reproduce plants and earth would be its source. If you remove a plant or a tree from the ground it dies. Then He looked at the oceans and had it bring forth all kinds of fish. The seas will sustain what it brought forth. If you remove it from the source that brought it forth, it withers and dies. When God wanted to find someone to represent Him, and be a mirror image of Him, He didn’t look at animals or gemstones, He looked at Himself and he became the origin and source, the sustainer of the one that would represent Him. Adam was created in His image. Adam was a mirror image of God before the fall. God was his source. When sin separated God and man, Man withered and died. Man could no longer reflect God or Heaven.
Proof #2 – Jesus is His image.
Heb 1:3 Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power
Jesus is the image of the Father. The word “image” means he was an exact replica. The first Adam failed, the Last Adam came to become the mirror of God in the earth. Jesus clearly states that if we have seen him we have seen the father – John 6:46. Jesus came to declare the Father. The word “declare” in the original means: To lead or declare from the source. Jesus did not come to make a name for himself. He did not come to do his own thing. He came to reveal the Father perfectly. He lived from the source and out of the source. “Of my own self I can do nothing” What a perfect mirror image of the father.
John 5:19 Then answered Jesus and said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, The Son can do nothing of himself, but what he sees the Father do: for what things soever he doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise.
Proof #3 – The tabernacle in heaven and earth.
Ex 25:8-9 And let them make me a sanctuary; that I may dwell among them. According to all that I shew thee, after the pattern of the tabernacle, and the pattern of all the instruments thereof, even so shall ye make it.
When God commanded Moses to build the Tabernacle in the Wilderness, God commanded that it be built as a replica of the Tabernacle in Heaven. Moses and the Priesthood would serve the earthly Tabernacle while Jesus as the Priest after the order of Melchizedek, from the tribe of Judah and not from the Tribe of Levi, would serve the Heavenly Tabernacle. While the High Priest would bring the blood of the sacrifice to the Mercy seat in the Tabernacle to make Atonement, Jesus would bring His blood to the Mercy seat that was in the Heavenly tabernacle to make Atonement for all our sins. Hebrews Chapter 7-10 deals with all of this. The point is that there was something in the earth that was a mirror image of a greater reality that was in the Heavens.
Proof #4 – His will on earth as in heaven.
Teach us to pray, the disciples asked Jesus. Jesus who knew the perfect will of the Father, and had a complete grasp of what his mission was that he would fulfill, would obvious pray in a way that would line up with Gods plan and purpose for the earth. This is what He prays:
Matt 6:10 Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done ON earth as it is IN Heaven.
Jesus is asking that everything in earth would reflect and be a mirror image of what is in Heaven. Everything in heaven does God’s will. Jesus wanted the same on earth.
In Matthew 14 when they needed bread to feed the multitude, Jesus looked UP into heaven and blessed the bread, broke the bread and shared the bread. There is no shortage in Heaven. All he did was duplicating what was in heaven, and Earth reflected that in abundance to feed five thousand people. The same thing happens when he raised Lazarus from the dead. He looks UP into Heaven and prayed. Heaven is coming to Earth and earth is reflecting heaven.
Proof #5 – We are conformed to the image of Jesus.
Rom 8:28-29 And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinated to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.
What is the purpose of God? We are called to it according to Paul. Here is the purpose. We are to be conformed to His image. We are to be a mirror of Christ in the earth. Is that too profound. He will be the firstborn among many brothers. Before His death and resurrection Jesus is the Only begotten son of God. After his death and resurrection, he is referred to as the firstborn amongst many brethren. HE will have brothers and sisters that will be like Him. God planned that the earth would be filled with sons and daughters that reflect his image.
There are many more examples like the story where God commanded Moses to take the mirrors from all the woman and make the Laver of Brass from it – Ex 38:8. That would become a mirror the priest would look at as they washed their hands after the sacrifice. The blood that they washed off would stain the water and they would no longer see themselves but they would see the blood. What used to reflect them now reflected the price that was paid for their transgressions. Not seeing themselves but seeing what God provided. A reminder of what heaven would supply in Jesus the Lamb of God. Earth reflecting heavens purpose.
Paul talks about the law that is written in our hearts and how we are an Epistle, a book for all to read – 2 Cor 3:1-3. The Spirit writes the Law on our hearts and that is life giving to people. Then he commands us to behold Christ. Only if we see Him we are changed from one degree of Gory to the next degree of Glory. Look at what he says:
2 Cor 3:17-18 Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.
Christ became the perfect mirror image of Heaven. We have no other to look at. As we behold him we are changed so that we can become a mirror of heaven in the earth.
Lastly we see the New Heaven and the New Earth. Everything restored back to its original intend. The Heavens filled with His glory but also the Earth.
- But as truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the LORD.
- For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.
Finally – the Earth is the mirror image of the Heavenly.
