“What is man, that thou art mindful of him? or the son of man, that thou visitest him? Thou madest him a little lower than the angels; thou crownedst him with glory and honour, and didst set him over the works of thy hands: Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet. For in that he put all in subjection under him, he left nothing [that is] not put under him. But now we see not yet all things put under him” (Hebrews 2:6-8, KJV, quoted from Psalms 8:5-9).
We will not be able to have a full and happy life without a personal mission or purpose. The most successful and fulfilled of us have at some point in their lives discovered the reason for their existence on earth. However, this begs the question, is purpose something that is bestowed on us individually, so that each of us have a specific mission to complete during the course of our lives, or is purpose more general to a species? The answer is yes, and no.
We do have specific missions that we were created to fulfil. These will be indicated by our special talents and skills. Like the angels who have special skill sets we also have special skill sets. Not all of us were created to be lawyers, doctors or special education teachers, but we were all created to be teachers, motivators, and managers. We were created for a special general mission in the Kingdom of Heaven, but at the same we also have specific ways of completing this mission. In this teaching we will explore the reason God created us in the beginning, how our purpose changed after sin and what we are meant to be doing now and in the New Earth.
“So God created man in His own image…then God blessed them, and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth’” (Genesis 1:27-28, NKJV). Over and over we hear Christians and ministers teach that we were created to worship God and that it is unnatural to worship anything or anyone else. While it is true that it is unnatural to worship anyone or anything but God, it does not hold true to say that we were created for the sole purpose of worshipping Him or for giving praise to Him. I have not found a single text in the Scriptures that supports this ideology, and yet this teaching is so rampant among most Christians that to contradict it is blasphemy. I have not been able to find one text in the Scriptures that portrays God as selfish and needing praise from us because He created us; nowhere in the Scriptures. Every time there is a reference to the creation of something to be worshipped, it was always in relation to Israel’s tendency toward idolatry; nothing about being created to worship God. On the other hand, over and over God’s sacrifice for mankind is mentioned. It would be more logical to say that He created us so that He can save us!
So, if we were not created solely to fill the needs of a narcissistic Creator, then why did He create us in the first place? It is all in one text, Genesis 1:28. We were created to rule. I know, it sounds radical. However, I am overturning the grounds of the more popular and more conservative belief with one that is actually validated by the Scriptures.
Our Purpose Before the Fall: What It Means to be Fruitful and to “Subdue the Earth”
The Genesis 1:28 text commanded us to “be fruitful and multiply”. Whenever I hear someone quote this text, it is only in reference to having plenty of children. Is that what being fruitful means? Upon careful examination of the text, however, the word fruitful seems to mean only one thing, “to be productive”, and of course the word multiply is in relation to having children. Our basic instinct is to reproduce; however, our basic need is for control. To break an animal, starve it; to break a human being, take all control from him. We were created to be productive by creating, maintaining, developing, improving and managing the earth and everything that moves within it. The earth was created to be our domain, and we were created to manage and maintain it. It is our domain, to have dominion over, or in other words, to rule it in love.
Whenever we read this text we can see that these were instructions telling us what to do with our lives. We were not made to sit around being idle, we had duties: a duty to the earth and the animals, to live productively and purposefully, as well as to reproduce in order to share in the responsibilities as rulers of this world. Moreover, we were to dutifully do these things in the omnipotence and omniscience of God. The first thing on man’s “To Do” list was to name the animals and the plants. This was not done arbitrarily by Adam who at this time had so little knowledge of the world and of himself, but it was done with the mind of God. Adam worked with God, he was in God and God was in him, in shared purpose as Yeshua (Jesus) is in the Father in shared purpose – to save mankind (John 14:11). In other words, they were of one mind. Adam was one with God in purpose. While God created the world, Adam (this means 'man' or 'humankind' in Hebrew) was to manage all of it.
After the Fall: Our Purpose Today
When man fell from grace, an insurgent, Lucifer, stole man’s right to rule the earth. Through trickery he succeeded and now He rules the world as we know it, while mankind is reduced to a status a little above the animals. We no longer have dominion, and it seemed we never would have had the chance again if God Himself did not come to undo the consequences of our defiance to Him. When we fell, we lost our true purpose, which led to our inability to do the work God had given us to do. With the reduction of our status, we now feel incomplete, broken and fearful, and have a serious inferiority complex. We now learned to fear the beasts, plants, the wilderness, the sun, the stars, and each other. Now we feel pain, hunger, sorrow, grief, and separation from God. Now, we cannot see far enough into the future to know how to live our lives. We have become purposeless, weak and anxious about the unknown.
Yeshua did not only die to save us from sin and its consequence (death), He came to bring back purpose to our lives. For now our purpose has been redefined and reordered. Before the fall, our purpose was ordered in this way: being in His likeness we were to first be productive; second, have plenty of children; third, fill the earth and then have dominion over it (to subdue it). After the fall, our duties are now first to worship God in Spirit and in truth and store up treasures in heaven by being obedient to Him; secondly, to help Him in His work of salvation for humanity; then maybe have children, and wait for Yeshua to subdue the kingdoms of the world for us (see Ecclesiastes 12:13). We have moved from being proactive to being receptive, the reverse of what our purpose was at creation when we were first receptive to God and then told to be proactive. Now, we need to work on becoming receptive to God again. We cannot fulfil our purpose and duty to creation unless we become one with the Creator; and God is working incessantly to bring back unity between us and Him, and giving us back our purpose.
God did not create us to worship Him, that would have come as naturally to us as love, the desire to find a partner and to start a family comes naturally to us. Certainly, worship is the icing on the cake but it is not the cake. God created us to share in His duties and to manage His creations. He created us to be partners with Him. He created us to be one with Him; in purpose, duty, and in mind. We were to be in Him, with Him working through us. He did not make us to feel inferior to Him, but to feel equality with Him (Hebrews 2:11). Feelings of inferiority to God came after sin (Genesis 3:10).
Today, our purpose is to be witnesses of God. We are to worship, preach and teach of His love and His plans for the future of mankind, to be a servant to the unsaved, the weak and unfortunate among us, and to love one another as Yeshua loves the Church (His people). “Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear (know) God, and keep His commandments: for this is the whole duty of man” (Ecclesiastes 12:13, KJV).
Our Purpose in the Kingdom of Heaven
When Yeshua returns to rule the kingdoms of the world, our purpose will be slightly modified. We will become proactive in our purpose of helping to bring about the salvation of all mankind. When Yeshua returns, we will not only be priests of God, but Royal Priests of the Kingdom of God – Kings. The Scriptures state that we will be wearing crowns (Revelation 20:4). Many Christians who read this text, only think of the act of wearing a crown, few think of what wearing a crown really signify. The word “crown” has a connotation of leadership. A person who wears a crown is usually a ruler over a certain country or territory, like the Queen of England, or domain, like Elvis was the King of Rock and Roll. The person wearing a crown is a ruler, and in the Scriptures, the word is used in its literal sense. The saints will be rewarded for their loyalty, by becoming rulers in the Kingdom of God – our purpose is restored. “And the people of the supreme God will receive royal power and keep it forever and ever” (Daniel 7:18, GNT; see also Matthew 20:22-23).
When Yeshua returns and takes back dominion over the earth, man’s original purpose will be rewarded to His good and faithful servants (Revelation 20:4-6). By this time the saints of God would have not only learned how to live within His will, but also how to be receptive to His omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence. It will be as if we had never sinned. We will be at one in Him and with Him. We will be godlike again, having the fullness of His Spirit and constant communion with Him. No more separation. No more purposeless living. No more feelings of inferiority. We will be once again rulers in our own right. While God was to rule Heaven, we were to rule the earth (the domain of the natural) with only God as our head.
Our Purpose in Paradise after Heaven and Earth are Passed Away
“And the seventy returned again with joy, saying, Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through thy name” (Luke 10:17, KJV). These seventy disciples were commissioned by Yeshua haMashiach (Jesus Christ) to preach the gospel of the coming Kingdom of Heaven in the cities He would later visit (Luke 10:1). They returned rejoicing in the power that they discovered God gave to them in order to complete their mission. Indeed, as the psalmist wrote, “what is man that You are mindful of him...You have crowned him with glory and honour. You have put all things under his feet...” (Psalms 8:5-6, NKJV, emphasis mine). We were created to be rulers and managers of creation. The Kingdom of God is a kingdom ruled by love and shared responsibility. The Father envisioned everything created (John 1:1-18), and after His Word created everything, man was to manage it. Initially, mankind would be made of the dust of the earth, a little lower than the angels, however, when the appointed time came, after man had been trained in the art of management, he would be elevated to a position even above the angels (Hebrews 2:7-8). The Garden of Eden was a training ground, where we would have learned how to manage the earth. Eden was not to be the end, but only the beginning. So too the millennium immediately after Yeshua’s return will only be the beginning and not the end. The story continues, but to understand where the story leads, we must go back to the beginning – to the time before sin entered the earth... to the time when Lucifer became Satan.
For more on this topic see our teaching Becoming Satan - coming soon.
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