YOUR DOMINION MANDATE

RISE UP AND BE ALL THAT GOD HAS CALLED YOU TO BE

SUBDUE THE EARTH!

                                                                  Sunday 23^rd January 2011

Foundation Scriptures: Genesis 1: 26-28

Today, we will examine the fourth aspect of our dominion mandate. But by way of recap, last week we considered God’s mandate to us to fill the earth, which we understood as an instruction to occupy available space. We introduced the concept of container and content and agreed that we were mandated to fill geographical, cultural and spiritual spaces with our content and further, we understood that in order for anything to fill the earth it must be important, invasive and influential as well as possessing the qualities of mobility, viability, adaptability and superiority. We also understood the territories that we must take as being modelled on Jesus’ instruction in Acts 1:8, namely Jerusalem (local platform or favourable territory), Judea (regional platform or familiar territory), Samaria (national platform or fierce territory) and the Ends of the Earth (global platform or foreign territory) and finally, that we must become all things to all people, thinking globally and acting local.

SUBDUE THE EARTH!

The mandate in Genesis 1:28 to subdue the earth is further reflected in God’s promise to Abraham in Genesis 22:17 that his “descendents shall possess the gates of their enemies”. In essence, God is saying that after we have been fruitful, multiplied and filled the earth, He wants us to retain control over what we have accomplished and maintain our success. This imperative is God’s way of keeping us in charge. It is quite easy to achieve greatness and then to lose it all. Why? Because it is easier to obtain than to maintain, as we have seen in the lives of people, churches , corporations and commodities that have risen to great heights only to come crashing down to nothing.

The word ‘subdue’ has three key meanings each of which are relevant to the mandate to subdue the earth. It means to ‘overcome and bring under control’, to ‘tame or reduce the intensity of a thing’ and to ‘hold in check or repress’. The definition that we will apply to the word ‘earth’, for the purpose of this message goes beyond the planet that we live on. Earth comprises the ‘sociological earth’, the people of the world and their ways, the ‘structural earth’, the earth that we step on, the geographical planet, resources and climate and the ‘spiritual earth’, the earth that we wear every day in the form of our flesh, its appetites and desires. Therefore, in the imperative “subdue the earth” God is instructing us to overcome the sociological earth and bring it under our control, to tame the structural earth, reduce its wildness and manage its resources and to repress the spiritual earth and hold its appetites and tendencies in check. Lets’ look at each of these in more detail:

Subdue the Sociological Earth

 As we attempt to fill the earth with our fruit, we will come against formidable barriers intended to stop us. These may come as cultural, socio-economic, racial, gender or spiritual barriers. As children of God, barriers are not supposed to stop us but should provoke us to exercise our dominion and unleash our ability to overcome. A teacher tests his students because he wants them to pass and be promoted and accordingly, sets the test based on what he has already taught them. In the same vein, as I Corinthians 10:13 makes clear, if God permits challenges to come our way, it is because He knows that we can overcome them. I am quite clear that the answers to the tests that many of us are currently facing are written in the notebooks we bring to church and the solutions to our problems are undoubtedly contained the pages of our bibles. We will be confronted by forces that want to contain us. Some will be competitors and some will be forces that do not like us. Remember, they are supposed to come against us but we are supposed to subdue them.

Acts 19: 11-20 illustrates Paul’s ministry as a model for subduing the sociological earth. He managed to penetrate Ephesus which, steeped in Greek culture with its own established spiritual climate, was not open to the message of the gospel. Not only had idol worship laid claim to the lives and devotion of the Ephesians, it also controlled the economy. Paul however managed to subdue the earth in Ephesus. He did so in three distinct ways: (i) He established a commanding presence: In being used by God in the working of unusual miracles, news of which spread throughout the region, Paul was instrumental to the spread of Christianity which although had started as nothing more than a sub-culture among the Jews, 30 years later the gospel became a supreme force in the midst of a strong Greek pagan culture. As we move into the earth with our fruit, we must not allow ourselves to be intimidated by the prevailing practice or culture in which we find ourselves but like Paul, we must go in with a determination to take over.

(ii) He distinguished himself from imitations: As Acts 19: 15 makes clear, even the demons knew the difference between the fake and the genuine article which leads to the question: ‘Can people tell our product apart from others?’ We must distinguish ourselves!

(iii) He changed prevailing practices: The Ephesians switched allegiances, making a public declaration for Christ, burning their books and idols as they switched their brand.

Subdue the Structural earth

When God told Adam to subdue the earth, it was a wild and untamed planet and he had to learn how to tame it and make it suitable for use. As we fulfil God’s purpose for our lives, we must be careful not to confine ourselves to only looking for finished products and ready-made materials. Sometimes, the resources and opportunities that God will bring will be wild and unfriendly; some things have to be subdued before they can be used – we must learn to tame them, just as Adam did.

One of the ways that Adam tamed the animals and domesticated them was by naming them. We too can subdue hostile environments that we face by our confession.

Another dimension to subduing the earth is in the fact that we must be good stewards of the earth and rather than depleting or abusing it, we must be responsible and ensure that the earth’s resources are kept in proper condition for future generations.

Subdue the Spiritual Earth

In Genesis 2:7 the Hebrew word for man is ‘adam’ which means ‘red earth’ and the word for ground is ‘adamah’, which also means ‘red earth’, meaning that God formed Adam from ‘adamah’. In applying this to the mandate to subdue the earth it is clear that God gives us the power to subdue whatever He brings us out of; whatever He delivers us from, He gives us the power to subdue. In 1 Peter 2: 9 we see that God has called us out of darkness into His marvellous light. We therefore have the power to subdue darkness. God has given us the power to exercise dominion over our background, over our past and over our environments. The background that produced us has no control over our destiny!

The play on words in Genesis 2:7  reveals a second dimension to this aspect of subduing the earth, making clear that we cannot truly subdue the earth if we have not first learned to control our flesh. The first earth that we must subdue is the earth that we are wearing: our flesh. Wherever we go in life, our flesh goes with us. No matter how high we rise in life or how far we go in life, our flesh is there. We cannot get rid of our flesh and therefore we must learn to subdue it – otherwise, it will bring us down. Whatever else we manage to conquer in life, if we have not conquered the flesh, we are losers.

In I Corinthians 9: 27 we see that Paul saw it as a real and present possibility that he could achieve so much and still lose everything if he did not learn to subdue his flesh. We too must consciously discipline our bodies and its appetites if we want to subdue the earth. Discipline is an active process, namely we must do something about it with the understanding that it is on-going and not a one-time event. There are two keys steps that Paul took to subdue his flesh: (i) He walked in the power of the Holy Spirit (Galatians 5: 16). Our spirits require spiritual resources to survive because they came from heaven, unlike our bodies which coming from the earth, survive on physical resources. Developing our spiritual appetites for the word of God, prayer and worship will kill our physical appetites. The more that we say ‘yes’ to God, the more we are empowered to say ‘no’ to the flesh. (ii) He embraced the heart of a servant (I Corinthians 3: 6-9). Paul never allowed himself to take credit for the things that God did through him. He shared the credit with others, making reference to Apollos’ input and gave ultimate credit to God, calling himself God’s fellow-worker or co-labourer.

As we go about fulfilling our dominion mandate, we must remember that we must subdue the sociological, structural and spiritual earth, overcoming everything that seeks to come against us. Having been fruitful, having multiplied, and having filled the earth we must keep control. Only then can we enjoy the fullness of our dominion mandate and be all that God has called us to be. 

Pastor Tayo Adeyemi