Introduction
When David was in the fields tending his sheep and watching over the
flock by night, he gazed up into the heavens at the moon, and the stars, and
wondered at all that God had created.
Psa 8:3-9 KJV
(3) When I consider thy heavens, the work of
thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained;
(4) What is man, that thou art mindful of him?
and the son of man, that thou visitest him?
[I’ve often wondered this myself on a personal level. Why would God
be mindful of me?]
(5) For thou hast made him a little lower than
the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour.
(6) Thou madest him to have dominion
over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things
under his feet:
This word “dominion” is used all throughout the King James
version of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation.
To have dominion one must have the power to rule or reign:
-
Often it means to have control of a country, or region
-
A dominion can also be the land that a ruler or
government controls, a domain
Dominion has two components – the physical place, the
land or country, or entity (it could be a people or nation) that is ruled over.
And secondly, there’s the power itself, the ruling
power, the authority, or sovereignty over it is dominion in the spiritual sense.
This is the dominion spoken of here. Man was given the
authority, the spiritual power, to rule and to reign over God’s creation.
On an individual basis each man has dominion over his own property
and his home. A man’s home is his castle, it is said. That is his physical
dominion and the power and authority, that is the spiritual.
The Bible is filled with stories of people and nations who
had governing power and authority and the physical places they dominated. Just
in the Book of Daniel alone, it tells of nations that rise one after another,
from Babylon, to Persia, to Greece, to Rome, and right on down to that final
world ruling superpower to come.
These are all physical entities. These are all physical
manifestations of that spiritual authority that was given to the princes and
kings of those nations to exercise dominion and great authority to lord it over
the people. (Matt 20:25)
Christ told Pilate that he had no authority except that
which was given from on high. (John 19:11) This is power that is bestowed on
someone by someone of a higher power, someone with greater power
and authority. Here and in the case of David’s psalm, that higher power is God.
This is the kind of dominion we’ll explore today, the
spiritual dominion. We will look at the authority originating with the highest
power, that is God. Who did He give it to and who did it pass to after that?
We’ll explore six preeminent spiritual dominions.
We’ll look at who has had dominion, who has it today, and who will
have it in the future.
I think you’ll be interested to learn it’s one of the great
dramatic stories of all time. It’s a story of spiritual warfare between
invisible entities of the greatest power. It’s a story of give and take as one
power takes dominion given to another through deceit and cunning. It’s a story
of how the hero of the story must pay a ransom of the highest price in what
appears at first to be defeated but yet rises to dominance and once again
restores proper order on Earth. And at the center of it all is a ragtag remnant
of people. A race of men made from the dust of the Earth, mud men whose hearts
and minds are the focus of the battle.
It all starts with the one who had the original, and first
spiritual dominion, God the Father.
1. God
God created the heavens and the earth through Jesus Christ,
the Word, the Logos who spoke it into existence (Gen 1; John 1).
The words He spoke, they had the power, the spiritual
power to create the universe from nothing, the stars, the planets, and very
life itself.
…the
words that I
speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.
(Joh 6:63)
It’s the spirit that matters. It is the spirit that governs.
It’s the spirit that gives life. God is spirit.
…
and they that worship him must worship him in
spirit and in truth. (Joh 4:24)
God created it all. God owns it all. God has dominion over
it all, the visible and the invisible, the physical and the
spiritual. He set the universe in its order and fixed it by His Law.
Col 1:16 KJV For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that
are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they
be thrones, [the visible] or dominions, [the spiritual] or principalities, [the visible] or powers: [the spiritual] all things were
created by him, and for him:
God established His Law. His Law is fixed, both physical and
spiritual. His laws of physics are universal and cannot be violated without consequence.
His spiritual laws are also universal and cannot be violated without
penalty.
God is the creator of it all. He has dominion. He rules
within the framework of His Law. And He upholds it all by the word of His
power. (Heb 1:3)
He will do all His pleasure Isaiah 46:10 tells us.
Till heaven
and earth pass away, one jot or one tittle will by no means pass from His law. (Mat 5:18)
God had a plan. God still has a plan, to build a family, to
bring many sons (and daughters) to glory in His family to be like Him. And they
are to have dominion over the Earth and eventually the entire universe.
This family and their dominion began in the Garden of Eden. The
second entity to have dominion is man –
2. Adam & Eve
God created Adam & Eve and gave them dominion
over all the Earth.
Gen 1:26-28 KJV
(26) And God said, Let us [that’s God
the Father and Jesus Christ] make man in our
image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of
the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the
earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
(27) So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him;
male and female created he them.
(28) And God blessed them, and God said unto
them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it:
and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the
air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
God made the physical creation and imbued man with the
spirit of man. He gave him the authority, the spiritual power to subdue
it.
God gave man dominion over all the Earth and all that
is in it. God still owns it and has ultimate rule and will do with it as He
will. (Isa 46:10)
But He gave man dominion over the Earth to dress it
and to keep it.
Gen 2:15 KJV And the LORD God took the man, and put him into the garden of
Eden to dress it and to keep it.
Man was given dominion but his authority was limited. He was
to dress it and he was to keep it.
The word for “dress it” is the same word translated “serve”
in over 200 other locations. To “keep” it is to “put a hedge about it”, to
“guard it”, to “protect it”.
Man was given authority over the Earth and was to serve by
guarding it and protecting it. To preserve it. It was a symbiotic relationship.
As man cared for the land, the land provided sustenance for him. The fruits of
the land fed and nourished him. He was given dominion to subdue it as he willed
but not to the extent that he should destroy it. Revelation 11:18 tells us that
God will destroy them which destroy the Earth. Man is to use the Earth to his
advantage but within certain limits.
All must be governed within the bounds of God’s Law and
within what He expressly permits. Nothing can be done without God’s express
permission.
Let’s keep one thing in mind. Though dominion may pass from
one entity to another down through time, God, the Owner, remains sovereign over
all.
God still owns all of it and will do with it as He will. Man
is merely the caretaker, the steward, and was to care for it in accordance with
the Master’s plan and instruction by Law.
Man was given the best of everything. He had the preeminent
spiritual power and was master of all he surveyed. That is until he lost it
through fleshly lust; the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the
pride of life. (1John 2:16)
Enter our nemesis –
3. Satan
Along comes Satan, the bad guy in our story. Now God could
have chosen any other planet in the universe to place man, Adam and Eve, far
away from Satan and his influence. But He chose Earth to prove a point. God had
told Satan and the angels what His plan was and they rebelled. He couldn’t
abide knowing these mud men would be exalted above one so beautiful and perfect
as himself. And he was to serve them?! I don’t think so!
But God wouldn’t be deterred from carrying out His plan just
because Satan got upset about it and recruited a third of the angels to his
cause. He did it anyway. He actually uses Satan as part of His plan to test and
try the hearts of men to prove them whether they would keep God’s commandments
or not. (Deut 8:2) The story of Job is a prime example.
So, along comes Satan and through cunning and subtlety he deceives
Eve into eating of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil in direct violation
of what God had commanded. And Adam went along with it as well.
Gen 3:5-6 KJV
(5) For God doth know that in the day ye eat
thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods,
knowing good and evil.
[Satan knew God’s plan to bring many sons to glory, to be like Him in
His family. Satan offered a shortcut that he knew full well was a lie and would
lead to death.]
(6) And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, [lust of the flesh] and that it was
pleasant to the eyes, [lust of the eyes] and a tree to be desired to make one
wise, [pride of life] she took of the
fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did
eat.
Satan tricked Eve into believing she could short-circuit God’s plan to
make them as gods now, immediately and take the fast track, the shortcut.
However, Adam was NOT deceived. He knew full well
what he was doing. (1Tim 2:14)
God then cursed the Earth. The cosmic forces roiled into action, the
same spiritual forces that had created the Earth and all that’s in it, now
restructured it, changing the very nature of the Earth itself and what would be
required to bring forth food from it. He changed the nature of the beasts of
the field, and banished Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden. The Earth was
made over into a dangerous place where man could still subjugate the Earth, but
it would be only with great difficulty that he could eke out a living.
At this precise moment, the dominion over the Earth passed from
man to Satan, the god of this world, and he now has the preeminent spiritual
power. Man could still subdue the Earth but was now subject to the spiritual influence
of the prince of the power of the air, Satan the devil.
Satan stole the dominion through subtlety and deceit. He has
power and influence over men, and is working tirelessly to thwart the good news
plan of God. The vast majority of men will go along with him, ignorant of the
forces at work.
Man can still follow God and worship Him as the preeminent influence
in his life but it must be a conscious decision to do so. It must be purposeful
and requires diligence on his part.
At this point in time today, Satan still has dominion over
the Earth and all that is in it.
He is called the god of this world in 2 Cor 4:4 and
three times Christ Himself calls him the prince of this world in John
12:31, John 14:30, and John 16:11.
Nevertheless, God’s plan will still be carried out but by a
sanctified remnant, a ragtag nation of misfits, that now must wrestle against the
powers that be that hold sway over all the Earth.
For we wrestle not
against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against
the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. (Eph 6:12 KJV)
Satan now has the authority, the dominion. He said as much
when he tempted Jesus in the wilderness. He told Him that it is within his
authority, that is Satan’s, to give rule or dominion to whomsoever he chooses.
(Luke 4:6)
Christ even said His kingdom is not of this world.
Yet.
Since then, various leaders rise and fall. They may have
dominated in the physical sense, in the fleshly sense, in the temporal sense
but it is the spirit world that holds the preeminent position of power, the
dominion.
Satan took that right to dominion over all the earth from
Adam. Satan supplanted man’s “birthright” much like Jacob stole Esau’s
birthright. Through cunning and deception, he stole the right to dominion from
Adam and possesses that right still today.
He rules the darkness, the prince of the power of the air,
and all come under his sway and influence through his principalities, his
powers, the rulers of the darkness of this world, spiritual wickedness in high
places.
All may appear lost. All may appear hopeless.
But enter now the Hero of our story, the Captain of our salvation –
4. Jesus Christ
He was not a reluctant hero as we so often see in the
movies. He knew the score. He knew what he must do to pay the ransom demanded to
redeem man from the grips of Satan. He knew going in, that it required His
death. The price was His very blood. He knew He was destined to save us, even from
the foundation of the world. (1Pet 1:20; Rev 13:8)
God prophesied of the chosen Seed who would come to crush
the serpent’s head and win back the dominion of this world.
Gen
3:15 KJV [the oldest prophecy in the Bible]
And I will put enmity
between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise
thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.
[See also Rom 16:20]
At the very outset of Christ’s ministry Satan tried to derail
the plan by enticing Jesus Christ to worship him. Right after His baptism by
John and anointing by God Himself, Satan tried to thwart God’s plan. He offered
Jesus dominion over this present evil world, a temporal dominion. He offered
Him the same shortcut offered to Adam and Eve. Instead of the eternal dominion God
had promised from everlasting to everlasting, he tried to get Him to accept the
temporary dominion that he had to offer.
Luk 4:5-7 KJV
(5) And the devil, taking him up into an high
mountain, shewed unto him all the kingdoms of the world in
a moment of time.
(6) And the devil said unto him, All this
power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto
me; and to whomsoever I will I give it.
(7) If thou therefore wilt worship me, all
shall be thine.
Christ, of course, rejected his pathetic offer as He had
already laid claim to it all at creation and would seal the deal by His
sacrifice written in blood.
Christ, by the power of his sacrifice has made peace through the blood
of his cross and reconciled us to him. He spoiled the principalities and powers
openly. Clearly and undeniably, He triumphed over them.
Col 1:20 KJV And, having made peace through the blood of his cross, by him to
reconcile all things unto himself; by him, I say,
whether they be things in earth, or
things in heaven.
Col 1:18 KJV And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the
beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things
he might have the preeminence.
Christ has paid the price, blotting out the penalty of the
ordinances against us for our transgressions. And Christ took back the
dominion. The dominion is now rightfully His. He holds the right to the
preeminent spiritual power.
But, are the kingdoms of this world now Jesus Christ’s? Not just
yet.
He has gone into a “far country”, that Certain Nobleman, to
receive for Himself a Kingdom and to return. (Luke 19:12)
He ascended to that far country to receive it from God the
Father.
He need now but return to lay claim to it.
Luk 19:12-13 KJV
(12) He said therefore, A
certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom, and
to return.
(13) And he called
his ten servants, and delivered them ten pounds, and said unto them, Occupy
till I come.
[a revelation and an instruction]
He now sits at the right hand of God the Father until it’s
time to go claim it.
But of that
day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the
angels of heaven, but my Father only. (Mat 24:36)
Jesus Christ has overcome the world. He has won
back the dominion. He did what He came to do. He paid the price but has not yet
taken delivery.
Let’s read what took place when Christ, that
“Certain Nobleman”, ascended to heaven to receive for Himself a Kingdom.
Dan 7:13-14 KJV
(13) I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of
heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, [that’s God the Father] and they brought him near before him.
(14) And there was given him dominion,
and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve
him: his dominion is an
everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.
He has already won the victory over Satan and
proclaimed liberty to the captives held slave to sin. (Luk 4:16-21) He
has overcome the world and proclaimed the acceptable year of the LORD.
The day of vengeance is coming and the redemption
we’re all waiting for, yearning for, groaning for is imminent. (Rom 8:22)
Isa 61:1-2 KJV
(1) The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to
preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the
brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the
prison to them that are bound;
(2a) To
proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD,
All this He already proclaimed at the start of His ministry when He
stood up to read this very passage in the synagogue at Nazareth on that Sabbath
day. (Luk 4:16-21) Except He
left out the rest of the passage below, as it applies to a day in the not-too-distant
future –
(2b) and the
day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn;
(3) To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to
give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of
praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of
righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified.
That day of vengeance is rapidly approaching. And
our garments of praise await, fine linen clean and white.
Christ upset Satan’s apple cart so to speak when
He was resurrected from the dead. Satan is angry, busily trying to set things
aright according to his plan, to lay waste and to kill and to destroy because
he knows he has but a short time. (Rev 12:12)
Satan is continually upping his game trying to multiply
the wreckage and carnage before Christ returns. He continually turns up the
heat to kill and to destroy faith in God so that Christ has no one to return
to. But the gates of hell shall not prevail against the Church of God! (Matt
16:18)
Satan is currently the god of this age until
Christ comes to claim what is rightfully His at the Seventh Trumpet! Then
the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdoms of our Lord and of his
Christ; and He shall reign for ever and ever. (Rev 11:15)
So, we wait. We occupy ‘til He comes.
We are about our Father’s business employing our
talents to the best of our ability. We preach the good news of the coming
Kingdom of God for a witness unto all nations and then the end shall come.
We do the work we’ve been given. It won’t be that
much longer.
When you think about it, it’s only been two days
since Christ ascended to heaven. A day is as a thousand years and a thousand
years is as a day. (2Pet 3:8) It’s only been two days since Christ conquered
death and paid the price for the Kingdom.
It’s only been a week since man’s creation in the
Garden of Eden; almost a week. We’re coming to the end of that week.
The Sabbath is almost here! (Heb 4:9) Hang in
there! Christ is almost here to set things right.
We have a hope, an anticipation of good things to
come, the best things. Eye has not
seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man what awaits us. (1Cor 2:9)
We’re almost there.
Don’t give up!
Eph 1:17-23 KJV
–
Paul praying..
(17) That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the
Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the
knowledge of him:
(18) The eyes of your understanding being
enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the
riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,
[The hope of glory. That as He was resurrected so will we be likewise.
That He who raised Christ from
the dead will also give life to our mortal bodies. Rom 8:11]
(19) And what is
the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the
working of his mighty power,
(20) Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him
from the dead, and set him at his own
right hand in the heavenly places,
(21) Far above all principality, and power, and
might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this
world, but also in that which is to come:
(22) And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church,
(23) Which is his body, the fulness of him that
filleth all in all.
All things under His feet. As David said in the
Psalms.
But are all things put under His feet? Are
they? Let’s see.
Heb 2:6-11 KJV
(6) But one in a certain place testified,
saying, What is man, that thou art mindful of him? or the son of man,
that thou visitest him?
This is quoting David from Psalm 8.
(7) 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:
This speaks of Christ now but eventually the saints too as we shall soon
see.
(8) 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.
(9) But we see Jesus, who was made a little
lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and
honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man.
(10) For it became him, for whom are all things, and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons unto glory,
to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings.
(11) For both he that sanctifieth and they who
are sanctified are all of one: for which
cause he is not ashamed to call them brethren
The Captain of our salvation has been crowned with
glory and honor. He has been given all power in heaven and in Earth.
Jesus Christ has been given the dominion!
However, there’s still work yet to be done in the
millennial Kingdom. And we’ll be there, brethren! There’s work to be done as
Christ builds His Kingdom and sets up a godly government. By the time He is
done, at the end of the Millennium, ALL things will have been placed in
subjection under His feet.
Once the Kingdom is restored what does our Lord
Jesus do then?
He presents it to God the Father.
5. God the Father
Christ will rule and reign over all the earth
until God the Father has put all things under His feet. At the end of Jesus
Christ’s Millennial rule on earth that last enemy shall be destroyed! At last,
all things shall have been put under His feet and His Kingdom shall be firmly
established.
Then Jesus Christ, the Son of God, will deliver up
the Kingdom returning it to God the Father. Dominion will have been restored to
its rightful Owner.
1Co 15:24-28 KJV
(24) Then cometh
the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father;
when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power.
(25) For he must reign, till he hath put all
enemies under his feet.
(26) The last enemy that
shall be destroyed is death.
(27) For he hath put all things under his
feet. But when he saith all things are put under him, it is manifest that he is excepted, which did put
all things under him. [meaning God]
(28) And when all things shall be subdued
unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put
all things under him, that God may be all in all.
Christ turns dominion back over to God the Father,
the Creator and rightful Owner of all.
What does God do with it then? What does our
loving Father do with the Kingdom once it’s restored?
6. The Saints
What does God then do with it?
Our loving Father gives it to the saints. He gives
it to us!
In His magnanimous unbounded mercy and grace, He
gives it back to man as He did at the beginning! Originally it was in the
physical sense, but now in the spiritual.
God has chosen to give it to the saints. It is the
Father’s good pleasure to give you the Kingdom. (Luke 12:32)
God has chosen to give dominion of the Kingdom to
you and to me.
To read about that day let’s turn back to the Book
of Daniel.
Dan 7:18, 21-27 KJV
(18) But the saints of the most High shall take
the kingdom, and possess the kingdom for ever, even for ever and ever.
We may have some difficulties ahead of us that we have to get through
but if we can just hang in there, weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh
in the morning! (Psa 30:8)
(21) I beheld, and the same horn [the end time
beast power, the final one Satan deceived into taking his deal] made war with the saints, and prevailed against
them;
(22) Until the Ancient of days came, and
judgment was given to the saints of the most High; and the time came that the saints
possessed the kingdom.
(25) And he [this son of perdition] shall speak great
words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most
High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his
hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.
(26) But the judgment shall sit, and they
shall take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy it unto the end.
(27) And the kingdom and dominion,
and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be
given to the people of the saints of the most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions
shall serve and obey him.
The Kingdom, the Earth and the whole heaven, shall be given
to the saints and dominion, the spiritual power to rule as kings and priests.
He will have made us kings and
priests unto God the Father and we shall
serve and obey Him into Eternity.
Crowned with glory and honor!
What a beautiful,
wonderful story of love and compassion
and triumphant victory of good over evil!
This is the end that was revealed to David even as he
shepherded his sheep when he wrote Psalm 8. Man would have dominion not only over
the things on Earth but that he would be given dominion over ALL the works of His
hands and would rule over ALL creation! The heavens and the
earth!
We may not see this clearly now but through faith, we know
it to be true.
Because we don’t look at the things which are seen, but at the
things which are not seen: the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal. (2Co 4:18 KJV)
We walk by faith and not by sight. (2Cor 5:7)
Heb 12:1-2 KJV
(1) Wherefore seeing we also are compassed
about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and
the sin which doth so easily beset us, and
let us run with patience the race that is set before us,
(2) Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher
of our faith; who for the joy that was
set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the
right hand of the throne of God.
Our Hero, the Captain of our
salvation, our Deliverer is coming!
He will lay claim to His rightful
dominion. He will rule and reign until ALL kingdoms, ALL powers, ALL
principalities have been brought under subjection and put under His feet.
He will then present it, in its
perfect state, to God the Father, and bow in submission to His rule.
Our loving Father will then turn
dominion over to us as was His intention all along from the foundation of the
world. And we will possess the Kingdom forever, even for ever and ever.
May He hasten the day.
He which testifieth these things saith, Surely
I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus. The grace of our Lord
Jesus Christ be with you all. Amen. (Rev 22:20-21)
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