"We are created in God's image and are to rule and reign with Him (Gen. 1:26-28)." -- Mark Virkler
Sigh. No Mark. God does not need co-Gods. I challenge you beloved to go read Genesis 1:26-28 and see if you can find where it says we are to rule and reign with God. This is just the same old sin that Lucifer was cast down from heaven for. Ironically, it is the same sin that Eve would fall victim to just two chapters later. Here however, God is merely saying that Adam and Eve are given dominion over plants and animals. That is never good enough however for the crowd that wants to ascend to the throne of the Most High.
"Having God's Spirit/breath allows us intimate daily communion with God. This was God's original intent and has never changed (Gen. 2:7; 3:8; John 20:22).
Sin breaks our intimacy with God, causing us to live under law (Gal. 5:18; Rom. 8).
Jesus modeled God's original intent, living in intimacy with God, doing nothing of His own initiative, but only what He heard and saw His Father doing (John 5:19, 20, 30; 8:26-38)." -- Mark Virkler
While the explicit message here is correct, the implicit call for "intimacy" is problematic. Words have meaning in our world beloved. Intimacy is routinely used to denote some form of sensual closeness. What happens within Charismatic circles is intimacy morphs into this carnal closeness with God. We see people thinking they are "lovers" with Christ or soaking in prayer. Intimacy without a proper understanding of His lordship is dangerous ground to build upon.
"Jesus' death released many provisions to mankind, including becoming a "partaker of the divine nature" (2 Pet. 1:1-6), freedom from sin's power (Rom. 8), new life in Christ (Gal. 2:20), restored intimacy with God (Jn. 10:27; Rom. 8:14), restored capacity to rule and reign (Eph. 2:6), and commission and power to overthrow the kingdom of darkness through healing and deliverance just as Jesus did (1 John 3:8; Matt. 12:27; Luke 11:20)." -- Mark Virkler
The partaker of the divine nature is only related to overcoming sin through Christ but I want to come back to his reassertion of the restored capacity to rule and reign. There never was this capacity to begin with. God did not create man to rule with Him as an equal. Only the wickedly deceitful heart of man can think so. Ephesians 2:6 refers to a future time when we will sit with Christ in heavenly places; not today. Do you see how easy it is to twist scripture beloved? Look at the last statement of doctrine here from Mark Virkler -- that we have a commission and power to overthrow the kingdom of darkness through healing and deliverance just as Jesus did. He even lists three verses hoping you are too lazy to actually look them up. Here they are:
