Dear friends, greetings in the blessed Name of our Lord Jesus. I trust that the Lord has been keeping you in His loving care. As Christians we are called to imitate the humility and gentleness of our Lord Jesus Christ (Philippians 2:3-10, Ephesians 5:1). We also know that it’s virtually impossible to attain Christlikeness by merely imitating Him but can only be achieved by being born again and receiving His likeness from His Holy Spirit (John 3:3, Galatians 5:22-23). That transformation isn’t a static but a dynamic process during which Christlikeness is forged in us in the fires of trials and temptations (Matthew 4:1-11, James 1:2-4, 1 Peter 1:6-7, Romans 8:29). However, today I’d like to focus on an issue we seldom consider, i.e., God Almighty created us to dominate the world. Powerful rulers like Alexander of Greece, Genghis Khan of Mongolia, the Caesars of Rome, Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini, and others have tried to conquer the world and failed. This quest for global dominion seems to be inherent in all people, but the way to attain that is not through brute power but via stewardship in Christ.
I’d like for us to turn to Genesis 1:26 (also Genesis 1:28). This single verse in the Bible could explain the risk taking, adventuresome, and exploring spirit in humankind. It was (and still is) God’s intention that human beings should rule over all the other beings on this planet (kindly note that I’m against treating animals or even plants cruelly). The world rule shouldn’t be misinterpreted as kill and conquer (although the Lord did permit animals to be killed for food: Genesis 1:30). In Genesis 2:19-20 we see that God brought all the animals to Adam for being named. This suggests that God intended for Adam and Eve to shepherd all the other creatures on earth. If I could stretch this a little, I believe that God intended for Adam to control all the elements in God’s creation, i.e., the wind, the waves, and even the sun, moon and stars. This isn’t ludicrous if we consider how the sun stood still at the command of the Prophet Joshua (Joshua 10:12-13) or the waves calmed down at the rebuke of the Lord Jesus (Mark 4:35-41). Humankind forfeited this ability to command and control the universe due to Adam’s sin and rebellion (Genesis 3). This power and authority to control our Heavenly Father’s creation is revested in us by our Lord Jesus Christ. When Peter walked on water (Matthew 14:29), he was exercising this dominion over our Father’s universe.
While commissioning His Apostles (and all of us who followed) in the great commission the Lord Jesus revested that lost authority over the elements in His Apostles (Matthew 28:18). When the Apostle Paul raised a young man from the dead at Troas (Acts 20:9-12), he was invoking that global dominion that our Father invested in us in the beginning. The Apostle Peter was also invoking this dominion when he raised Tabitha from the dead in Joppa (Acts 9:36-41). You see saints, God Almighty commands us to invoke this global dominion to counter Satan and save humankind from a certain hell. We shouldn’t foolishly test our Heavenly Father (Matthew 4:7), but we shouldn’t succumb to false modesty and treat God’s Omnipotence with contempt and become agnostic (2 Timothy 3:5). I pray that all of us will be empowered by the Holy Spirit to take back from Satan that which he stole from us – dominion over our Father’s universe. Satan would tempt us to kill and conquer in the quest for this power. But we should resist him and instead receive this dominion from the Holy Spirit by obeying the Lord Jesus to save a lost and dying world. Amen.
Dear friends, I’m quite certain that all of you are sanctified, Holy Ghost baptized saints. Should there be any among you that don’t know the Lord yet, I pray that the Lord of the Universe will set you free from sin and disobedience into His glorious light and freedom. Amen.
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