In His Image, In His Likeness

By Andrew F. Witbooi

This book lays the foundation of God's efforts to reconcile man to Himself and the wonderful new life in Christ Jesus.

Every Christian should read and study this book. It is truly a present truth presentation from the heart and mind of a ma

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookTrail Publishing
• Release date: Dec 11, 2020
• ISBN: 9781953731753

Andrew F. Witbooi

Andrew Frank Witbooi was born from late Gert and Grace Witbooi, in the town of Clan William, in the Western Cape. At the age of ten he moved with his parents to Wellington, where he is currently living with his wife, Lydia and their three daughters; Nicole Stephanie and Andrew. He gave his heart to Jesus at the age of twenty two, after a reckless life of wine and marihuana, as a youngster. Ten years ago he has been called by God into fulltime ministry. He is currently the Senior Pastor of the Beth-el Christian Centre in Wellington. Pastor Andy (as he is known) has really got a passion for ministering unto the youth. This passion is born out of the circumstances in which his own life as a youngster was, as well as the calling of God on his life.

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Copyright © 2020 by Andrew F. Witbooi

Paperback: 978-1-953731-76-0

eBook: 978-1-953731-75-3

Library of Congress Control Number: 2020923836

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

This is a work of nonfiction.

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8838 Sleepy Hollow Rd.

Kansas City, MO 64114

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

Special Thanks

Foreword

Preface

Chapter 1: The Human Being

Chapter 2: The Original Adam

Chapter 3: The Fallen Adam

Chapter 4: Jesus, the Last Adam

Chapter 5: Light Against Darkness

Chapter 6: The Tactics that the Enemy Uses

Chapter 7: How Does Satan Do His Dirty Work in Our Lives?

Chapter 8: Your Body Is a House!

Chapter 9: The Working of the Spirit

Chapter 10: Victory Through Resistance

Chapter 11: The Spirit Man

Chapter 12: Live in the Kingdom as Sons and Daughters

Special Thanks

My sincere gratitude goes to the Holy Spirit, who has given me this revelation. He also helped me to put this revelation in book form. My prayer is that He will become a greater reality in the lives of all who read this book.

Foreword

Pastor Andrew F. Witbooi has truly received divine inspiration and revelation concerning the process of restoration from a biblical perspective.

Tremendous biblical insight is given concerning the restoration of mankind that will affect your personal life, family, and the local church.

This book lays the foundation of God’s efforts to reconcile man to Himself and the wonderful new life in Christ Jesus.

Every Christian should read and study this book. It is truly a present truth presentation from the heart and mind of a man of God.

As a major promoter of Kingdom advancement, I can truly commend this book as being a vital contribution to what God is doing in the life of His people.

Reverend Benjamin Wilson

Apostle, Western Cape Christian Centre Network

Cape Town, South Africa

Preface

I am often amazed at my two elder brothers when they are relating some of their childhood tales. The level of detail they remember after all these years (both are over fifty years old) is quite amazing. Moreover, the details they remember about my childhood surprises me even more.

This sparked my own efforts of trying to remember more about my childhood. I was hoping this would help me see things about my own life in perspective. I realised soon enough though that my memory is not nearly as good as that of my two brothers and took comfort in the fact that my Maker gave each one a different share of different things.

A few of my childhood memories did, however come back. I particularly remembered myself as a young boy of about two years old, being very sick. Not all of these memories were pleasant ones, and I realised that quite a few of the things that happened to me as a small boy are still having an effect on my life as an adult. Some were downright steering my life in a very wrong direction, sometimes with serious consequences. And then I’d always end up pondering the events and consequences. And I always came to the same conclusion: That it is only by the grace of God that I’m still standing, and that we really have no right to judge others (even when they’re doing bad things) because we have the same potential in us to do equally bad things, but somehow, God’s grace keeps us from going over the edge. Therefore, we should heed God’s word that warns us in Matthew 7, verse 1 and 2: ‘Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.’

But my life and memories were not all negative and gloom. A lot of wonderful and positive things happened in my life, and those things had ripple effects, which I’m still feeling today. I still realise from time to time how many advantages I have in life, all of which were consequences of things that happened somewhere in the course of my life, whether it be good or bad things. All these things happened to me and a lot of them happened without me going out in search of them; and the good things happened without me deserving them or praying for them. They all happened, and it was up to me to choose what lessons I was willing to learn from them and which I was taking with me and which I would leave behind as excess baggage.

I was suffering from asthma for over thirty years and had quite a few asthma attacks, which are really frightening and sometimes life-threatening. The kind of questions that arose often after such attacks would be to the tune of ‘Why me?’ or ‘Why am I the unfortunate one?’ or ‘What have I sinned to deserve this!’ I also had a number of habits which I wanted to get rid of, habits that irritated me. Some of those habits were present in my life from a very early age. My inability to walk away from these habits made me wonder if I myself was not perhaps responsible for these negative things clinging to me. I wondered to what extent I was to blame for my misfortune and the negative things in my life. I was starting to believe I was the black sheep of the family. I started to descend into the pit of self-pity. Every failed attempt to get my life back on track just made things worse. Suicide started to look quite attractive . . .

I believe that there are more people in this same situation that I have described above. There are definitely people out there with the same kind of questions on their mind as I had. It is my prayer that, through this book, God will provide some answers and clarity to you in the areas in which you may need it and that you will embrace and build on the positive and godly things in your own life and that you may be successful in eliminating the bad and negative from your life.

Chapter 1

The Human Being

To understand the working of any product, it is necessary to know certain things about it, like the composition of the product or its purpose. This sort of information one can usually get from the supplier or maker of the product. If we for instance look at the telephone, we can go back and find out what things motivated the inventor of the telephone to come up with this product he created.

We would also be able to find out exactly what material was used in the production of the telephone, what negative results would be caused by misusing the product, etc. All of this information one would normally be able to get from the creator of the product.

I, therefore, also believe that in order to understand ourselves as humans, we need to first understand the composition of the human: our building blocks, the purpose for our creation, the original motive of our Maker, and also the consequences of abuse as well as the effect of influences of thousands of years of living on this earth.

The Creation of Man

When we look at man as a creature, then surely there is no one who can say without a shadow of a doubt that we were created according to this or that process, as all of us only saw the end product. Only our Maker knows by which process we were made, how long it took, what building blocks were used, and the original plan and motivation behind our creation.

We do however get a lot of scepticism about the amount of information the Creator made known about our creation. It is my personal opinion that the Creator gave us enough information for our needs at any given moment and that it should be sufficient for us and the current state we are in. I like to compare this to a situation where a toddler asks his parents questions about stuff that he could not possibly understand if given the true and full answer. The apostle Paul explained it beautifully in his first letter to the Corinthians.

For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways behind me. Now we see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love. (1 Cor. 13: 9)

Another example from scripture is where Jesus explains to his disciples that there are lots of things He would like to share with them but that they will not be able to understand and process this information.

I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now. (John 16: 12)

Now because we believe that the Word of God is true and reliable in terms of all that is in and around us, this very Word of God will be used as the basis, especially around the Creation, to shed light on things in our lives which to a great extent shape our lives. Let us read the scripture where God spoke about our creation.

And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul. (Gen. 2: 7)

God explains in his Word that he formed man out of the dust of the earth and breathed life into his nostrils and man became a living soul. What I understand by this is that the material that man is made of came from the earth, but that the life breathed into man came from God. When life, which originated from God, and building materials (dust or clay) that came from the he earth came together, it resulted in man becoming a living soul. I have seen that this even happened to all the animals, resulting in them have living souls within them. Man, however, was the only creature made in the image and likeness of God.

Furthermore, I understand that God gave man a mandate and command to rule over His Creation. Further on in scripture, we see that Satan came in the body of a serpent (the spirit of the Devil entered the body of the serpent because that was the only way in which he could communicate with man) and tricked man into disobedience to God—to ignore the clear and direct instruction of God and as a result thereof, Satan got access to the body of man. Scripture does not tell us that the Devil entered and lived inside man but rather that man was so badly damaged by his act of disobedience that God had no other option but to banish man from the Garden of Eden.

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. (Gen. 3: 23–24)

As we progress, I will explain the Devil’s residing in man more clearly. Many people have mouthfuls to say about the Devil, his origins, and existence, but I will not elaborate too much on the Devil as a topic. This is partly due to not having enough information about the Devil, but mostly because I believe that it is enough to know that God want us to realise that we have a lifelong enemy in the Devil as long as we are living in this earthly tabernacle.

Spirit, Soul, and Body

In that part of the Bible that talks about the creation of man, we notice that there are three parts being referred to: God created a body in his image; then He breathed His breath or spirit into us, which then resulted in the living soul. It is thus clear that right from the creation of man, we consisted of body, spirit, and soul.

As I had previously stated, the soul came into being when the Spirit of God, which is life originating from God, entered the body, which is from the earth. What I actually wish to point out is that the soul is really the result of the interaction between body and spirit. I thus also believe that the soul is the means of communication between body and spirit, since it is able to communicate with both directly. I would almost go as far as saying the soul is made up of two parts; the one part communicates with the spirit and the other part communicates with the body (or rather the flesh).

Many people believe that the soul and the spirit are one and the same thing, but then I argue, ‘Why then do they have different names?’ The body is of the earth; the earthly part that communicates with the earth and feeds off the earth. The spirit, on the other hand, is of God and communicates with God and feeds off God. At least, that is the way it should be, and the soul is the medium between these two. The presence of body, spirit, and soul are also mentioned in other parts of the Bible. Let us find more proof of this.

May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Thess. 5: 23)

For the Word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. (Heb. 4: 12)

In Paul’s letter to the Hebrew church, he does not mention the body but rather joints and marrow. We all know that these things he mentions are in fact part of the body, and therefore, representative of the body. By now, I trust that you’re convinced of the existence of man as being body, spirit, and soul.

Three Separable Parts

In Thessalonians 5: 23, Paul taught the Church that we are to be sanctified in every individual part of the body. From this, we can derive that it is possible that the sanctification process could be incomplete if some parts of our bodies are not sanctified. This leads me to believe that every part can, and is supposed to be, sanctified individually. This furthermore leads me to believe that every individual part has a type of identity of its own.

From the piece of scripture in Hebrews, we have seen that the Word of God is able to separate these three persons of the human trinity. Another piece of scripture that confirms this is Matthew 10: 28: ‘Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.’

In Acts 2: 31, we read that God did not allow for Jesus’s body to perish in the grave nor for his soul to be deserted in death (the King James translation refers to death as hell). From these scriptures, we can derive that body and soul can be separated. Let’s see what the scripture says about the spirit of man and whether there is any evidence of the working of man’s spirit in him. In one part of the Bible, we read of Paul speaking about someone who had been transported to the third heaven. Paul explains that he does not know whether this was only in spirit or also in body. He goes further and says that this person has heard things that he could not speak of or could not utter afterwards (2 Cor. 12: 2). To me, this shows quite clearly that it is possible to function only in spirit. In the next piece of scripture, we see that the spirit of man is the bearer of information pertaining to oneself and that no one else (except God) knows what is going on, on the inside of man.

For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man’s spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. (1 Cor. 2: 11)

We find a better confirmation of this a little further on in the same letter.

For if I pray in a tongue, my spirit prays, but my mind is unfruitful. (1 Cor. 14: 14)

In the first piece of scripture, we see that it is possible for the spirit, separate from body or soul, to function in the real world. In the second piece, we see that the spirit of man can do things with the body of which the mind has no awareness; also that the mind or understanding is not aware of things prayed for by the spirit. It is such a pity that we have to admit that this wonderful ability of man is so seldom used and that the majority of self-proclaimed Christians are not even aware of this ability. In fact, many are downright not interested in the spiritual aspect of life.

The Purpose of Each Part

Because we now understand and acknowledge that man is like God, three parts, we can investigate what the purpose of each part is and how each part functions. A simple way of trying to explain this would be to compare man to a radio-controlled little car, a set-up comprising of the car itself, the control mechanism, the battery pack that powers the car, and the person controlling the car. The car could then be seen as the body, the control unit as the soul, and the battery and child together as the spirit.

Because the child owns the car, he would then probably be the one responsible for putting the batteries in the car. Once this is done, he would then control the car with the remote control unit. We can then say that the owner, because he is the ‘source of life’ of the car, earned the mandate to control the car.

Because God is Spirit and we are made in the likeness of God, we can say about ourselves that we are spirit, having a soul and living in a body. We, as spiritual beings, then really are in charge of our bodies. The spirit is also the life of the body, and therefore we as spirits are then also the dominating person in the body. Let us now look at the working of the rest of our human ‘parts’.

The body is really only the ‘shell’ in which the spirit lives, or as Peter names it: the earthly tabernacle.

Knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath showed me. (2 Pet. 1: 14)

Peter is referring to his body (flesh) as a tabernacle. A tabernacle is a temporary residence. To prevent confusion, because of the fact that the body could also mean the combination of spirit, soul, and body, we will from now on refer to this part as the flesh as also it is spoken of by the Word of God.

God first made the earth. Everything on the earth is concrete and tangible (well, almost everything); man had to have an earthly body in order to be able to carry out his God-given mandate. Because of the fact that the body is taken from the earth, there exists a connection between man’s body and the earth. Thus, when God pronounced a curse on the earth, the ‘earth part’ of man was subjected to the same curse.

And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life. (Gen. 3: 17)

For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope. (Rom. 8: 20)

Our bodies do have limitations, and there are certain things we sometimes allow to stand in the way of God through the things we allow in our bodies as well as the stuff we allow ourselves to get used to. I think we all know that it is much easier to get used to things than get rid of it! What I want to point out is this body is the bearer of the spirit and soul of man, and man uses his body to carry out this God-given mandate. If we allow our flesh to stand in the way through things we allow ourselves to get used to, this results in disobedience to God concerning our mandate from Him.

In order for us to understand how we are not designed to operate, we have to see what the right way of operation is. For this purpose, we will look at a scripture where Paul gives an explanation regarding the functioning of the man who is born again.

There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. (Rom. 8: 1)

According to this then, we see that people who have been born again walk after the spirit and not after the flesh. One normally walks after someone that is guiding you. It is obvious that the guide is the person that is higher in authority. This would then imply that both the flesh or the spirit can be in control of man. This is the case with man in his fallen state; the flesh is the guide. If we go back to our comparison of man to the remote-controlled car, we see that in this case the car (flesh) is in control of itself and goes wherever it wants, whenever it wants. In the case of man, there is just one snag; the enemy, namely Satan and his band of goons, is ready at all times to take the controls and start controlling the car. To make it even clearer, I will explain this by comparing man with an automobile.

An automobile is being built to be controlled by man, more specifically, it’s owner. If by accident through an electrical short circuit, it is switched on and accidentally it is engaged in gear, it will start running on its own! This series of happenings will leave the vehicle open to be driven by anyone that is capable of driving a car. In fact, anyone nearby will jump in and drive it, unless of course the owner prevents this by jumping in himself! This is exactly what happened in the Garden of Eden; Satan jumped into man!

This is then