A KINGDOM OF KINGS

Notice also that these verses say nothing of human beings ruling over other human beings. It was not God’s original design that any man would rule other human beings. He created all of us to rule, not to be ruled. In accordance with His own plan, God needed someone to dominate a piece of real estate called earth, so He created man. God made us to be in charge of this unique territory, to rule over the earth domain. Many of us have either lost sight of this truth or never learned it in the first place.

Understanding that we were created for dominion carries truly life-changing ramifications.

God’s purposes never change. He remains committed to His plan for man to dominate this planet on His behalf.

Trapped inside every one of us is a dominion spirit crying for release and a dominion mandate waiting to be

exercised. It is this natural spirit of dominion that causes us to naturally rebel against any attempt to dominate or control our lives or destiny. Whether the oppression comes from religion or the world systems, humans were not meant to live a life of subjugation and will always resist oppression.

You may note that in every situation where there has been an extended reign of an oppressive regime in any nation, such as apartheid in South Africa, or the

oppression of communist ideology, or the repressive government of Iran or Iraq, that when deliverance came, the people rejoiced like steam being released from a pressure cooker. The fall of Saddam Hussein’s oppressive regime in Iraq, for example, was followed by thousands of Iraqis celebrating in the streets and exercising freedoms they had not enjoyed in decades. Why were they so quick to cast off the restraints of the old government? It was because they hated their oppression. We are all the same

—we were not created to be dominated but to dominate in every area of our life.

At the same time, it is truly amazing how many kinds of things we allow to dominate us. We are supposed to have dominion over plants and yet look how we allow plants to run (and ruin) our lives: coca leaves from Colombia, tobacco leaves from Cuba, grape juice and grains used to make wine and liquor. Coffee, cigarettes, liquors—we are subject to all kind of vices that rule over our appetites.

We are supposed to rule our passions and desires—sex, greed, drugs, power, money, and possessions—but instead, they often rule us.

Many people live and work for money, thinking it will bring them freedom, when all along they slowly and seductively become the slaves of the things for which they work. People who properly understand finances

understand that they do not work for money. The money works for them. Those who are slaves of money will never truly get ahead.

If you find that you are one of those who are working for money and are poor, you will remain poor and will never be able to get out of the economic hole in which you are living. If you are middle class, that is where you will stay.

As long as you go after the money, it will elude you. As soon as you learn to make money work for you, it will come back to you multiplied many times over.

One of the first things that happened to the early Church in the Book of Acts was directly related to the entire issue of dominion.

All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of his possessions was his own, but they shared everything they had. With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and much grace was upon them all. There were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned lands or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone as he had need (Acts 4:32-35).

The main point I would like to note here is that they brought their monies and laid it at the feet of the apostles.

This established the principle that the master of money that once dominated them now had to bow and become a slave to the Kingdom of God. By the very act of sharing their possessions with one another and by selling houses and land and giving the money from the sale to be

distributed to others as needed, these early believers were exercising dominion over that which had previously dominated them. In Christ they found the freedom to rule as they had been created to do, rather than to be ruled by their own uncontrolled desires. Money did not have a hold on them. They had a hold on the money. In his first letter to the believers in Corinth, Paul expressed perfectly what our attitude should be in this regard: “‘Everything is permissible for me—but I will not be mastered by

anything” (1 Cor. 6:12b).

GOD’S “MANAGEMENT CONTRACT” WITH MAN