By Julien Wachira

“And he saith unto them, whose is this image and superscription?”(matthew22:20).“And God said, Let us make man in our image after our likeness”(Genesis 1:26).

“Whose is this image?” It was this question that Jesus foiled His enemies when they tried to trick Him, settling the matter of responsibility in regard to paying taxes. The question and the principle it invloves are universally applicable,particularly to man himself. Bearing God’s image decides man’s destiny. He belongs to God and prayer to God is what he was created for. Prayer is part of the wondrous likeness he bears to His Divine original. It is the earthly likeness of the deep mystery of the fellowship of love in which the trinity has its blessedness.

The more we meditate on what prayer is and on the wonderful power it has with God, the more we have to ask man is so special, that such a place in God’s plan has been alloted to him. Sin has so degraded him that we can’t concieve of what he was meant to be based on what he is now. We must turn back to God’s own record of man’s creation to find what God’s purpose was, and what capacities man was given to fulfill that purpose.

Man’s destiny appears clearly in God’s language at creation. It was to fill, to subdue, and to have dominion over the earth and everything in it. These three expressions show us that man was intended, as God’s representative, to rule here on earth. As God’s deputy, he was to fill God’s place, keeping everything in subjection to Him. It was the will of God that everything done on earth was to be entirely in his hands.

In accordance with such a destiny was the position he was to occupy and the power at his disposal. When an earthly sovereign sends a representative to a distant prvince, that representative advises the sovereign as to the policy to be adopted there. The sovereign follows that advice, doing whatever is necessary to inact the policy and maintain the dignity of his empire. If the sovereign, however, doesn’t approve of the policy, he replaces the representative with someone who better understands his desires for the empire. But as long as the representative is trusted, his advice is carried out.

As God’s representative, man was to have ruled. Everything was to have been done according to his will. On his advice and at his request, heaven was to have bestowed its blessing on earth. His prayer was to have been the natural channel through which the Lord in heaven and man, as lord of this world,communicated. The destinies of the world were given into the power of the wishes, the will, and the prayers of man.

With the advent of sin, all this underwent a terrible change: Man’s fall brought all creation under the curse. Redemption brought the begining of a glorious restoration. In Abraham, God began to make Himself a people from whom kings (not to mention the Great King) would emerge. We see how Abraham’s prayer power affected the destinies of those who came into comtact with him. In Abraham we see how prayer is not only the means of obtaining blessings for ourselves. It is the exercise of a royal prerogative to influence the destinies of men and the will of God which rules them. We do not once find Abraham praying for himself. His prayers for sodom and Lot, for Abimelech, and for Ishmael prove that a man who is God’s friend has the power to control the history of those around him.

This had been man’s destiny from the first. But scripture tells more: God could entrust man with such a high calling because He created him in His own image and likeness. The external responsibility was not committed to him without the inner fitness. The root of man’s resemblance to God was in his nature to have dominion, to be lord of all. There was an inner agreement and harmony between God and man, an embryonic Godlikeness,which gave man a real fitness for being the mediator between God and His world.

Man was to be a prophet, priest, and king, to interpret God’s will, to represent nature’s needs, to recieve and dispense God’s bounty. It was in bearing God’s image that he could bear God’s rule. He was indeed so much like God-so capable of entering into God’s purposes and carrying out His plans-that God could trust him with the wonderful privilege of asking for and obtaining what the world might need.

Although sin has for a time frustrated God’s plans, prayer still remains what it would have been if man had never fallen: the proof of man’s Godlikeness, the vehicle of his communication with the Father, and the power that is allowed to hold the hand that holds the destinies of the universe. Man is of divine origin, created for and capable of possessing king like liberty. His prayer is not merely a cry for mercy. It is the greatest execution of his will.

What sin destroyed, grace has restored. What the first Adam lost, the second has won back. In Christ, man regains his original position, and the Church abiding in Christ, inherits the promise:”Ask what ye will, and it shall be done unto you.”

To begin with, such a promise does by no means refer to the grace or blessing we need for ourselves. It has reference to our position as the fruit-bearing branches of the heavenly Vine, who, like Him, only live for the work of and glory of the Father. It is for those who abide in Him, who have forsaken themselves for a life of obedience and self-sacrifice in Him,who have completely surrendered to the interests of the Father and His Kingdom. They understand how their redemption through Christ has brought them back to their original destiny, restoring God’s image and the power to have dominion.

Such men indeed have the power-each in his own area-to obtain and dispense the powers of heaven here on earth. With holy boldness they many make known what they will. They live as priests in God’s presence. They are kings possessing the powers of the world to come. They enter upon the fulfillment of the promise:” Ask whatsoever ye will, and it shall be done unto you.”

Church of the living God! Your calling is higher and holier than you know! God wants to rule the world through your members. He wants you to be His kings and priests. Your prayers can bestow and withhold the blessings of heaven. In His elect who are not content just to be saved, but who surrender themselves completely, the Father will fulfill all His glorious counsel through them just as He does through the Son. In His elect, who cry day and night to Him, God wants to prove how wonderful man’s original destiny was. Man was the image-bearer of God on earth, which was indeed given to him to rule. When he fell, everything fell with him. Now the whole creation groans and travails in pain together.

But now man is redeemed. The restoration of the original dignity has begun. It is God’s purpose that the fulfillment of His eternal purpose and the coming of His Kingdom should depend on His people. They abide in Christ and are ready to accept Him as their Head, their great Priest-King. in their prayers they boldly say what they desire God to do for them. As God’s image-bearer and representative on earth, redeemed man has the power to determine the history of this earth through his prayers. Man was created and then redeemed to pray,and by his prayer to have dominion.