Power and Authority in Prayer

Power and Authority in Prayer

There is a grand display of the power of the Word in the world God created.  

Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule (have dominion) over the fish in the sea and the birds of the air, over the livestock, over all the earth, and over all the creatures that move along the ground." God blessed them and said to them, "Be fruitful and increase in number; fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over (have dominion over) the fish in the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground". (Genesis 1:26,28, emphasis added)

Without being created in God's image and likeness, there was no ruling (having dominion) over God's creation. God put Adam in charge of His creation. When the animals saw Adam, they also saw God. Similarly, when people later saw Adam's children, they knew they were his sons.

When Adam lived 130 years, he had a son in his own likeness, in his own image; he named him Seth. (Genesis 5:3)

The Hebrew words for “image” and “likeness” in Genesis 5:3 and Genesis 1:26-27 express the same meaning, describing distinctive ancestral characteristics passed on from God to Adam and from Adam to his sons. Since then, the image of God has been passed on from generation to generation to this day. After the Fall, though, the fullness of this image was shattered; the likeness of God in humanity was marred. 

In the Garden of Eden, God gave one commandment to Adam and Eve with dire consequences if not obeyed: Not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil (Genesis 2:17).

The serpent planted deception when questioning the truthfulness of God's warning: "You will not certainly die" (Genesis 3:4). Indeed, when Adam and Eve took the forbidden fruit, they saw that they didn't die. Didn't they? Being created after the image of God presupposes that, just like Him, humans are also three-in-one: Body, soul, and spirit. While it took Adam 930 years to die physically, his spirit died immediately at the time of the trespass. This condition of spiritual and physical decay is passed on to the entire human race as our ancestral heritage (Romans 5:12-19). Jesus, God Himself, came into human history to correct the course of human decay. He defeated Death on the cross.

Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death—that is, the Devil—and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. (Hebrews 2:14-15)

Adam and Eve were created immortals. They had access to the Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden and permission to freely eat its fruit. However, God took that privilege away upon their expulsion from the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve were no longer immortals.

 And the Lord God said, “The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever.” So the Lord God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life. (Genesis 3:21-24)

Reference to the Tree of Life in the Scripture only appears at the beginning in the book of Genesis and at the end in the book of Revelation. In Genesis, it provided immortality to Adam and Eve (Genesis 3:21). We can speculate that the gradual decrease in humanity’s lifespan, recorded in the Bible, might have resulted from the banishment from accessing The Tree of Life. God later decreed:  

​​My Spirit will not contend with humans forever, for they are mortal; their days will be a hundred and twenty years. (Genesis 6:3)

"Living forever" (Genesis 3:23) without the corruption of sin is the divine design after which humanity was created in Eden. "Living forever" under the fallen condition was not allowed. Sin and immortality are not an option in the eternal divine design. This is the state of the Devil and the fallen angels. Restauration of humanity to the initial design had to satisfy the very spiritual laws God Himself spoke into existence. First, God had to redeem us from the curse of Death—this is Salvation. Second, God had to bring us into conformity with Himself—this is Sanctification. Only through these transformative conditions can humanity enhabit the New Jerusalem, where under the new order of things, access to The Tree of Life is restored (Revelation 22:2). 

There will be no more death, mourning, crying, or pain, for the old order of things has passed away (Revelation 21:4). 

The glory and the honor of the nations will be brought into to the New Jerusalem. Nothing unclean, and no one who does shameful things or tells lies will ever go into it. Only those whose names are written in the Lamb's book of life will enter the city (Revelation 21:26,27). 

Only those who wash their robes will have the right to the Tree of Life and will go through the gates into the New Jerusalem (Revelation 22:14). 

The New Jerusalem is the old Garden of Eden where immortal humanity is EHAD with God. 

Believers, born again by the Spirit of God, have regained the fullness of the "likeness" and the "image" of God. They were spiritually dead, but through faith in Jesus the Messiah, their immortality is restored because Jesus is not the God of the dead but the living (Mark 12:27). When people look at a believer, they should see Jesus. We represent Jesus. Jesus represented God. When the disciples saw Jesus, they saw the face of God. One day,  the Apostle Philip asked Jesus, 

"Lord, show us the Father, and that will be enough for us." Jesus answered: "Don't you know me, Philip, even after I have been among you such a long time? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, 'Show us the Father'? Don't you believe that I am in the Father and that the Father is in me? The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or at least believe on the evidence of the works themselves." (John 14:8-11)

The imprint of God's image on the believer is not only physical but also spiritual. As the Father was living in Jesus, so is now the Spirit of God residing in the believers. This is the spiritual resemblance to our heavenly Father passed onto humankind since the beginning of creation.  Further, because we represent God, He charged us with the duty to participate with Him in the care of His creation. The Scripture tells us that, 

The Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work on it and care for it. (Genesis 2:15)

Two Hebrew words describe Adam's duties: (לְעָבְדָ֖ה ) (root word: avoda) "to work it" or "care for it" and (וּלְשָׁמְרָֽהּ) (root word: shomer) "to guard it" or "to protect it." Adam's duties were not only relegated to tending the garden and keeping it in good condition but also to guard it and protect it. One of God's names in the Scripture is Shomer Israel (שומר ישראל)—the Guardian of Israel (Psalms 121:4; Psalm 145:20) and comes from the same word root. In Psalm 91, God is called Elohim Shmri (שמרי אלהים)—"God is my protector." As the Lord guards and protects His creation, so is Adam and the rest of humanity. Adam represented God in governing His creation. God gave him the authority to rule over it and protect it. This duty is passed on to us as well. Thus, the Humanity should be called the Guardian and Protector of God’s Creation. We not only carry the physical and spiritual resemblances as children of God but are also assigned functions to participate in God's reign over His creation. We are His stewards and representatives, participating with Him in His work on earth. The psalmist declares this commission clearly, 

The highest heavens belong to the Lord, but the earth he has given to man. (Psalm 115:16)