We have been talking about who God is, who He has been since before time began...and way back before creation, we discover that not only is there a truth about who God is, but a truth about who we are, for we were there in God's heart before time began!

'He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love.'   Eph. 1:4

"For from him and through him and for him are all things.  To him be the glory forever! Amen."   Rom. 11:36 

From HIM are all things - we are from God!!  Our origin is eternal!  Our origin goes back before Adam...our true and original origin is in the heart and mind and thought (logos or word) of God Himself - in Christ the Word of God!  He has had us in His heart since before time began...we pre-existed in God, in His heart, in His thoughts, in Christ!  Wow, what an origin!  And I've been created in His very image, the image of love, not sin!!  God is my true source, not Satan or even Adam!  God's nature is my true nature, not sin or evil!  God chose us in Him - in Christ, the Eternal Word, God Himself! - before the foundation of the world!  As Francois du Toit says, He found us in Christ before we were 'lost' in Adam!  What does this tell me about man?  Who is Man?

I think I have struggled for a long time with my self-concept. I have ‘felt’ or believed that I was not worth much, just an inert vessel or tool God ‘used’ for His plans, that I was inherently bad, etc. Yet now I find out I am in His image and likeness – I don’t fully understand all that that means, but the biggest thing it means for me right now, the thing that has changed my whole self concept and given me such fresh hope, is that since I am in His image and likeness, I am like Him! HE is loving, good and kind, He is of infinite value, He is a Person worth knowing – so I am the same way! I think the aspect of it all that impacts me the most right now is that as He is good, I am good..I was made very good…everything God does is good and perfect..I am His very good girl! I am not inherently bad or evil at the core, but inherently good..I do not naturally long after selfishness or wrong, I naturally long after loving people and trusting my Daddy! That is who I am by nature, at the core of me – I am a good person, just like my Daddy, made that way by Him…

As I am waking up to this idea of original innocence and being created with a good nature, not a sinful one, I am suddenly finding myself more loving toward others, for I am seeing that there is no ‘good us’ and ‘bad them’ – actually, we are ALL the good guys here, we ALL want God deep down, we ALL want to love, and the bad guy is the enemy/accusation that lies to us to try to get us not to see this truth, trying to suppress the truth of our goodness with some foul lie/delusion of unrighteousness! And Jesus came and set us free from the bondage of these lies, set us free to be ourselves – the glory and expression of God on this earth, enjoying all His fullness and presence within our very being! And flowing out of our being! The earth will be filled with the goodness and glory of the Lord..I see that when people wake up to their goodness and righteousness given through original creation and reclaimed/declared triumphantly through redemption, that glory is going to just glow forth from them and cover this earth, rivers of living water coming not from outside somewhere but from inside, within us, where goodness and love and joy and LIFE has been, all along, for we are made of all that by being made of God Himself! We are made of God, how beautiful, how intimate, how tender, how delightful, how VERY GOOD! It gives me such peace to know I am good deep down and always have been…

My origin was never out of evil but out of goodness, purity, light, God Himself! I heard in a message (by Rudi Louw) a wonderful explanation of this, using the metaphor of the vine and branches. He said it is not that we the branches are foreign entities that are trying to somehow attach ourselves to the vine and work up some kind of ‘connection’ or attempt to feel we belong – NO! He said the way that we are branches of the vine is actually that we GREW OUT OF the vine! I am a branch of the vine because I grew out of Him!! Just as Jesus said He came forth from God the Father, I too came forth from Him, He is my source and the root of my being….and there is no way to tell where He ends and I begin…in fact we are so IN each other that we are ONE here in this body of mine! I am still trying to wrap my mind around these truths, for I have seen myself so separate from Him in the past – but really, I was never separated from Him, I was always connected to Him and in Him, and He in me. I have always been His child, His branch, the expression of His being, the manifestation of His thoughts! It is so wonderful to know I have never been apart from Him and never will be…there is no way anyone or anything could ever separate me from Him or His love, oh what a blessed relief…to know Him in me and me in Him is completion, it is satisfaction, it is joy, it is rest for my soul!