You Don't Know What You have

By Festus Ndukwe

It was never in my plan to write a book like this, having published some recent- ly. Writing this book was never my conception. In His usual dealings with me, and without any prior discussion, God impressed upon me to get another book out to the church.

For days God's hand was strong. Apart from speaking in meetings, God never let me do a

• Language: English
• Publisher: Midas Touch GEMS
• Release date: Jun 20, 2023
• ISBN: 9781088178799

Book preview

CHAPTER 1

MAN AND GOD’S ORIGINAL PURPOSE

Man is very significant in the realization of God’s purpose on earth. It is for this reason that when God succeeds to lay hold on man, He will not let him go. Others may go, but God will not let this very man go. God knows what He can do with this one man who has let Him. He knows He can do great things with this man who has let Him than with thousands who have not let Him.

Significance of Man

The patriarchs did not find it easy understanding why God chooses to deal with man. So, men like Job and David confronted God with questions. In the days of his trial, Job cried out:

What is man, that thou shouldest magnify him? and that thou shouldest set thine heart upon him? And that thou shouldest visit him every morning, and try him every moment? How long will not thou depart from me, nor let me alone till I swallow down my spittle? (Ps. 7:17‒19).

In fact, somewhere in that chapter, Job screamed out . . . let me alone, for my days are vanity (v.16b). God would not let Job alone. He was in desperate need of a man.

Twice in the Psalms, David exclaimed:

What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him? For thou has made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honor. Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet: all sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field, the fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas (Ps. 8:4‒8).

That Psalm began with the words, O Lord our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! and concluded with these same words. David could not imagine how a God who is so excellent, and has set His glory above the heavens, could bend low to be mindful of man. When he considered the heavens . . . the moon and the stars which God has ordained, he wondered what there was in man to take notice—to the extent that out of the mouth of such babes and suckling He has ordained strength to still the enemy and the avenger (vs.1‒3).

It was difficult to imagine that God, who dwells in the heavens, and man, mere clay and someone less than nothing, would have something to do together. The Bible says, All nations before him are as nothing; and they are counted to him less than nothing, and vanity (Isa. 40:17).

As if that was not enough, David in another place exclaimed again:

Lord, what is man, that thou takest knowledge of him! or the son of man, that thou makest account of him! Man is like to vanity: his days are as a shadow that passeth away (Ps. 144:3‒4).

David was saying to God, Man is like vanity, and a shadow that passes away, and yet you still depend on him. Why? Job and David were asking God, Why this interest in man? Lord, why are you taking this position, knowing the weakness and frailty of man, and that man can fail? Man has even failed you before.

God seemed to respond: It is because of my original purpose in history. When Lucifer rebelled and organized the mutiny against My constituted authority, I threw him down to the earth. That mutiny was a declaration of war.

For it is written:

Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought back but they could not prevail, neither was their place found any more in heaven. That great dragon, that old serpent, called the Devil, and Satan which deceives the whole world was cast out to the earth. His angels were cast out with him (Rev. 12:7‒9).

"Since I forbade Lucifer, now transmuted into Satan, from reigning in heaven, I must also forbid him from reigning on earth. Since he and his angels were cast down to the earth, he would want to go there to establish his throne. To this end, I decided to create man and put him on earth to counter Satan and to reign for me.

"I could reign both in heaven and on earth, but I decided to put man on earth to reign for me. That was why I created man. Man was to be an extension of my reign on earth. I did this deliberately.

I wanted to prove to Lucifer that I could have a being who would give me the very loyalty he spurned; who would give me the worship that he used to give me. This man would not be an angel like him but would be lower than an angel, yet crowned with glory and honor, the kind of glory that if he is able to realize it would place him far above even angels (Ps. 8:5). I would give this man the delegated authority to rule on my behalf, the glory Satan never had.

It is to this end that God made man and put him on earth. He did not only make man but created him in His own image, in His own likeness and to have dominion (Gen. 1:26‒27). With this man became an extension of the rule of heaven on earth.

Satan Moved Against Man

When Satan saw this he felt slighted. He decided to visit the Garden of Eden, where God placed man, so as to take the glory God gave to man. Through deceit, Satan succeeded to take this from man. God allowed Satan, and so he seemed to have succeeded, and instead of man ruling over him and creation, he was now ruling over man and creation.

The fruit that man ate was no ordinary fruit. In eating this fruit, man turned into a different nature. He was corrupted. For, who a man’s image is determined by who he chooses to obey or who he takes instructions from. For Adam, he obeyed Satan and his nature became the corrupted Adamic or human nature: Self and Flesh are closely related; they are two branches of the same poisonous tree, which is the human nature.

Satan corrupted man and perverted the earth. The earth became the world, with him as the god of it (1 Jn. 4:4). This is the origin of fashion and all the vain glory of this world (1 Cor. 7:31).

It seemed God’s purpose was under arrest. But God cannot be defeated. He had a lamb slain from the foundation of the world. God still had His eyes on something which was to restore man to His original purpose, which is to rule for Him.

Not the End of Man

Satan might have been rejoicing that he had aborted God’s plan not knowing that Adam was not God’s ultimate. What God lost in Adam, He was going to restore much more. What was a loss was going to be a gain.

At creation, God gave Adam dominion but the man He was going to realize would not be like this Adam. This man would not just be given dominion, he was going to be God’s dominion, God’s dwelling. Again, God was not just going to be a God with this man, but a God in him. There is a huge difference between the God with you and the God in you. God’s ultimate purpose was to be God in man so that He can rule through him.

Over time, God began to raise men who were to demonstrate, though in a small measure, what it meant to be overcomers—men to be rulers. He raised Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Joseph, Job, Samuel, David, etc. He raised Israel as a nation. God’s plans and promises for Israel, which was a pointer to the plans He has for any man that yields himself to Him, stagger the mind.

When God redeemed Israel out of Egypt, God promised them:

I will take you to me for a people, and I will be to you a God . . . (Exod. 6:7).

In another place, God said to them:

"Now,