#283 Kingdom: Administrating the Kingdom on Earth

About all things begin with God and His sovereignty. The problems begin when we misinterpret what that means and assume that man has no say in anything and is just carried along into the scheme of things, by the hand of God, and there is nothing we can do about it.

For example; several talk shows are discussing the disaster in the far east and the thousands that have been killed by the earthquake and the tidal waves (Tsunami) that followed. Many now are trying to fix the blame upon someone or some thing. If disaster strikes the earth, who is to blame seems to be the question. Some say that God causes it. Others say the devil causes it. Others say there is no God or devil and disasters are just from natural causes and there is nothing anyone can do to prevent it. The atheists say, all residents upon earth need to have compassion upon these unfortunate countries and help them survive.

But what if this was the judgement of God upon the Muslims and Hindus and Buddhists, should we go against the judgement of God by trying to help these that God is trying to destroy?

The arguments go on and on but even theologians seem to be confused about these things and are offering silly explanations. The Archbishop of Canterbury being one with silly answers.

Since the Genesis 1 creation events are questioned by “theologians” and treated like old wives tales there seems to be no answer to these questions. Still, all kinds of theological problems arise when we ask why would God even consider giving dominion upon the earth to man. Didn’t God know that man would mess up the whole government of the earth? Some would take the responsibility of authority and become tyrants and others would totally ignore any responsibility and do nothing. This seems so ridiculous that God would even think of such an arrangement where He could breath into a pile of dirt and that dirt would take dominion and rule over the earth.

When we see how the government of man has failed on the earth, those who have understanding want to turn the whole thing back over to God and wash our hands of any responsibility. After all if He created it, He should be responsible for it. If it created itself then no one is responsible for it and we just need to cope with the disasters the best we can.

But what if the Genesis account is absolutely accurate and this whole mess is the responsibility of man and man will have to answer to God for the mess he has made in every generation? Didn’t God know that man made of dirt was destined to fail from the very beginning?

Now we come face to face with God’s sovereignty and His plan and eternal purpose! God’s purpose was not completed when He made man and gave man dominion or rulership over the earth. God’s purpose was just begun in Genesis one. It is not complete until Revelation 22. In between Genesis 1 and Revelation 22 is the unfolding of the completion of God’s eternal purpose. However, God’s eternal purpose includes man and His purpose can never be fulfilled without man. The problems become apparent when we understand that man made of dirt can never lift himself to the place of successful rulership over the earth. The first thing that man made of dirt wants to do is rule over other people. He is willing to kill anyone who offends him, as Cain killed Abel. Obedience to God’s commands seems unnecessary since man has “dominion.”.

Here again we run directly into the sovereignty of God. The common understanding concerning God’s sovereignty is that God can do whatever He likes, to whomever He likes, whenever He likes, anytime He likes, in any way He likes. God answers to no one and makes decisions for the universe by Himself. Man is totally at His mercy. His will is immutable and irreversible and no one can challenge it successfully.

While this is true over all of God’s creation, God has created the earth as the “exception to the rule” and a place where God’s sovereignty has been limited by His own design. The reason seems to be connected to God’s eternal purpose for man to rule over “All the Works of His Hands.” It should be obvious that if God is going to start out with dirt there needs to be a “laboratory” in an isolated place where this dirt can be processed, refined, developed and perfected for this high and lofty purpose for this “dirt” to rule over all the works of His hands.

Psalms 115:2 “Where, now, is their God?” [3] But our God is in the heavens; He does whatever He pleases.

PS 115:16 The heavens are the heavens of the LORD; But the earth He has given to the sons of men.

Gen 1: 27] And God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. [28] And God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

When God speaks it is nothing like when man speaks. Man can speak for hours and all his words may fall to the ground and produce nothing. When God speaks His words become an irreversible substance that rests upon the earth until they are fulfilled. God doesn’t speak empty, foolish or powerless words and He doesn’t kid around and make jokes. He speaks the “Word of God” that stands as an eternal substance upon the earth.

However, some times when God speaks His words are conditional upon man agreeing and asking or refusing to permit them to come to pass. If God can find a man to stand in the gap for the earth, He may withhold His word of judgement from coming to pass. God consulted with Abraham before destroying Sodom and Gomorrah. Abraham negotiated with God but didn’t refuse to let God destroy it. Another example is when God said He would destroy Israel but Moses fell down and interceded with God and God stood with Moses and didn’t destroy them.

David interceded with God about his sin and his child’s life but that was refused by God. God will discipline His people without their permission. He has already spoken against sin and that word is irreversible. We should see there is a principle here that needs to be understood if we are to comprehend the position that God has given to man on this earth.

When God spoke in Genesis 1 these were sovereign words that are irreversible! There was no man yet to need their permission. These words still rest upon the earth today and God has not nor will He change His mind. Whether man wants dominion and rulership over the earth or not is totally irrelevant. Still, this explains why God will wait until man asks Him before He will do something upon the earth. He wants to honor man’s sovereignty and He will as long as His eternal purpose is not subverted. God is still sovereign over man and eternity and His purpose for man.

Heb 7: 19] (for the Law made nothing perfect), and on the other hand there is a bringing in of a better hope, through which we draw near to God. [20] And inasmuch as it was not without an oath [21] (for they indeed became priests without an oath, but He with an oath through the One who said to Him, “THE LORD HAS SWORN AND WILL NOT CHANGE HIS MIND, `THOU ART A PRIEST FOREVER’”.

Exo.17: 6] and he said, “The LORD has sworn; the LORD will have war against Amalek from generation to generation.”

Heb 6: 17] In the same way God, desiring even more to show to the heirs of the promise the unchangeableness of His purpose, interposed with an oath, [18] in order that by two unchangeable things, in which it is impossible for God to lie, we may have strong encouragement, we who have fled for refuge in laying hold of the hope set before us. [19] This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and one which enters within the veil, [20] where Jesus has entered as a forerunner for us, having become a high priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.

When it comes to God’s eternal purpose, He has made an oath and also a promise so it is impossible that this will not be exactly fulfilled. Therefore, we can be assured that if we set that hope before us we will not be disappointed and in the end find that God has changed His mind. This confidence and hope is an anchor of our soul.

Therefore, we must discern what is within man’s realm of dominion and what God has reserved as His own. We must be confident what subjects we can intercede with God about and what we must take responsibility for as part of our dominion. For example; There is no use asking God to not make war with Amalek or ask Him to eliminate the priesthood after the order of Melchizedek because we don’t agree with it.

There is no use asking God to do the things that He has put under man’s authority and dominion. Those are the things that effect this earth and the things that move upon it and are within our area of responsibility. For example; Jesus, as the son of man, didn’t fall down and ask God to stop the storm or they would perish. He simply rebuked the storm and it had no option but to stop. Most of the church is ignorant of this authority that God has bestowed upon man and will surrender to the storm and think that is just an act of God or nature or we must just expect it at this time of year. We make the excuse that on this lake these things happen regularly so we expect it and plan for it. We just surrender to the “whatever will be, will be” attitude!

This ignorance is manifest when we blame God for the storm or the earthquake or the drought or the flies or the mosquitoes. Even though some disasters may be sanctioned by the devil, it is man that permits it to happen in his realm of responsibility and the area that we have been commissioned to guard. We see the devil causing disaster in the time of Job but Job was not redeemed as we are! We may fault Adam for being irresponsible over his garden but then take no responsibility ourselves in “the area of our garden” to dress it and guard it.

Jesus will build His church and the gates of hell will not be able to with stand it. In other words the church will not just be in an defensive position but in an offensive position of attack. Obviously, if the church doesn’t first dominate in our defensive position we will never dominate in an offensive position. This is not a matter of learning more doctrines about the devil and man’s authority or learning more about the power of the Holy Spirit but this is about man rising up in the dominion that has been restored to the new creation of man by Jesus.

Luke 10: 19] “Behold, I have given you authority to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall injure you.

This seems straight forward and needs very little interpretation. Luke 10:17 And the seventy returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name.” [18] And He said to them, “I was watching Satan fall from heaven like lightning.

Luke 10:21 At that very time He rejoiced greatly in the Holy Spirit, and said, “I praise Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that Thou didst hide these things from the wise and intelligent and didst reveal them to babes. Yes, Father, for thus it was well-pleasing in Thy sight.

Psalms 8: 2] From the mouth of infants and nursing babes Thou hast established strength, Because of Thine adversaries, To make the enemy and the revengeful cease.

It appears that Luke 10 is a partial fulfillment of Psalm 8. If Jesus restored this authority over these unseen realms before Calvary, they must be still in effect today after Calvary because these forces are now permanently defeated.

I am speculating that God has restored dominion over all the earth and over all the creeping things upon the earth within the “new creation” or the “recreation.” Because we can’t see these unseen realms with our natural eyes we may deny they even exist. A pragmatist in the pulpit will never lead the church into this restored dominion Because of that the church may just accept anything that comes its way as the hand of God and wonder why God doesn’t take better care of the earth. The media says these disasters are “an act of God” and the church just passively acknowledges a lie. It seems the church has no idea that if it was standing in its Kingdom dominion things would be different.

Very soon the transition to the dimension of revelation in the Holy Place must be restored BY THE CHURCH. God has already restored the understanding of dominion [Kingdom] through Jesus Christ and given us authority over these seen and unseen things upon the earth. He doesn’t have to do anything else. Now the ball is in our court but in our ignorance we don’t know enough to swing at it. The time of this ignorance is past.

“ THE GATES OF HELL SHALL NOT PREVAIL AGAINST IT” or “the church will kick in the gates of hell” or “hell will not be able to withstand the church he is building” are words that are so compressed that a whole realm of power, authority and dominion is hidden within them. In other words the Kingdom contains within it everything the church needs to overcome the adversaries and to cause the enemy and the revengeful to cease.

We have heard people say “Well, I yelled at the devil and nothing happened.” The failures have to do with the church and not with the dominion given to man. Until the church gets back under the sovereignty of God and He is able to establish His Kingdom Government in their lives, we will remain powerless.

This is another “mystery” of the Kingdom that has never been hidden from us but we just haven’t seen it. The Kingdom then will deal with both the seen and the unseen realms when the Kingdom rules in both the seen and the unseen realms of man’s creation. The unseen realms of man are his spirit and soul and his seen realm is his body. Therefore, the Kingdom must come into man as leaven until all three measures are leavened by His Kingdom Government.

Trying to exercise Kingdom authority and dominion objectively when there is no Kingdom authority and dominion within the church, subjectively, has been the confusion. Now the church has devised a doctrine that when Jesus sits upon the Throne of His father David in the present Jerusalem He will once again restore authority to the church and THEN she will kick in the gates of hell.

It is my opinion that is too late because the devil will already be bound for 1000 years. It is amazing that someone is always able to come up with a doctrine that explains away the clear word of God and excuses the church from any responsibility. The “doctrine of responsibility” is canceled out by the “doctrine of works” and by the “doctrine of faith.” In other words, if I have faith that cancels out any responsibility because responsibility is just works. This is a very handy tool in the lukewarm church. However, we will never administrate the Kingdom on earth that way.