John Gray - Dominion
Let's be honest, life just, it's not easy. There are a lot of things in our lives that we would love improve upon. I would love to improve. There are places in my relationship with my wife. I wanna improve. I wanna be a better listener. I wanna be a better communicator. I wanna be a better father. I'm learning because you know, Lisa, you said, "God's on night watch". Well, I need him to be on night watch in my house, right now, because my daughter thinks that nighttime is daytime, and she wants to play at 3:08 in the morning, and Jesus ain't even woke, I mean, he's asleep on a pillow in the boat and my daughter just up and I need Jesus to come rock her to sleep 'cause I'm tired.
I love her. But, all of the issues that we carry, all of the things that we have to struggle through, the brokenness of our humanity can find it's Genesis in Genesis, and I want you to go with me because what I saw in Miami is something that I want all of us to strive to attain to in the chosen area that God has for our lives. Genesis chapter 1, verse 26. Then God said, "Let us make man in our image according to our likeness: let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth".
So God created man in his own image: in the image of God he created him: male and female he created them. Then God blessed them, and God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply: fill the earth and subdue it: have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth".
What I wanna talk about tonight for a few minutes is simply, dominion. Dominion. So for those of you who don't know me, do not be alarmed 'cause I'm gonna be loud in about 12 minutes from right now, so do not be frightened. But I'm trying to get into a Wednesday flow, which is more application and teaching, so I want you to take a couple notes because it's important that we start actualizing some of the teaching that we're getting. If you don't apply it, if you don't find ways to exercise it, you're never gonna grow, and I believe it does God a disservice if we only come and dine, but we don't exercise what we've been feeding on.
At some point, we're gonna need to mature. At some point, we're gonna need to grow up. At some point, all of this word needs to have some manifestation in the character of your life or in the fruit of your living. Something needs to change in your marriage, in your family. It's really, really not possible to be in the presence of God on a continuous basis and something internally not change. So, really what I wanna challenge you with tonight is to hear me from the heart of God's original intent when he created you, because many of us miss this principle, and many of us live beneath the privilege of our creation, because we don't understand what God intended for us from the very beginning.
This, Genesis 1:26, is not just about the creation of man. It's also about the designation of man's purpose in the earth. God creates the world. He creates the heavens and the earth. You know the story. He sees everything, it's good. Everything he makes is good. That's good, I like that, that's good, that's good, that's good. Then he says, "Well, I made everything, it's all set. Now I'm gonna need somebody to run it. I know, 'cause I've already got heaven. I got heaven on lockdown, I got this. So let me create a smaller version of myself to handle the earth the way I handle heaven". So he says, "Let us make man in our image, in our likeness".
An image is a snapshot. You take an image with your phone. It's a picture, but a likeness is a 3D representation, so God grabs some dirt, molds it, breathes into it, and we became a living being, and we are Adam, or red man, ruddy man, the man from the clay. God's original intent for man was to have dominion. Say "Dominion".
Many of us do not realize many of the struggles in our life come from the fact that we have relinquished dominion to the enemy in key areas of our life. We live in a constant state of depression and defeat, and not enough, and lack, and I guess this is my lot in life. I guess this is as good as our marriage is gonna be. I guess this is the way it's gonna be for the rest of my life. I'll always have this pain. I'll always have this sickness. This condition will always be there. Well that runs in my family. But that was not God's intent from the beginning. From the beginning of creation, God commanded Adam, "Have dominion". Rule it, subdue it.
The word dominion, to dominate. The Hebrew word means to tread upon. That means when you walk on it, it belongs to you and if it doesn't wanna act right, step on it. I'm going somewhere if you'll stay with me. The first thing you need to write down if you're taking notes is I was created for dominion. Dominion is not pride. Some people think, oh, so now you supposed to run things. You in pride. No, I'm not in pride. It's not pride to say about me what God said about me.
God said I'm allowed to have dominion. In fact, not allowed. I'm commanded to walk in dominion. But many of us relinquish dominion to the issues of our life. We relinquish dominion to our bills and now our bills have power over our emotions. We relinquish dominion to people in our family have spoken opposite of what we know God has said about us, and so we relinquish dominion to our dreams, to people who didn't create us. We look at areas of our life. If you look at your life right now.
Pastor Joel wrote a book, "Your Best Life Now". Don't answer, it's a rhetorical question, but I wanna ask you. Are you living it, yet? I said don't answer. She's like, "Yes"! Amen. Think about your life. Where are the areas where you know you could step it up a notch? Where are the areas where you really feel like there's opportunity for breakthrough? Opportunity for growth, opportunity for development? Opportunity to strengthen the weak areas of your life?
Life is not just about sliding through and glad you passed. Let's live the overcoming abundant life that Jesus promised in John 10:10. He already said what the devil came to do. Steal, kill, and destroy. Then he gave what he came for. "I came that you would have life, and life more abundantly". That's two different types of life. Study it. He's talking about eternal life first, and then he's talking about the quality of the life that you're currently living as well. He said, "I came to give you eternal life, and then I want you to walk in favor, and dominion, and authority in the life that you're living right now".
Somebody just say it out loud, "Dominion". You don't hear a lot about it because it's not necessarily a popular thing to teach on, and I'm gonna go and speak what the Lord has given me to speak, because I believe it's necessary for the people of God in this season. We need to understand who we are. We need to know what we carry. We need to understand our power, because the moment you recognize who you are and what you carry, everything in your life changes.
Dominion is a right of the people of God. It's not a privilege, it's not something you have to strive for. It's something you're born with. You were created with dominion in mind. That's why we like to win. That's why we like to be first. Think about it. In a group picture, who's the first person you look for? You. And if you don't look good, the whole picture's terrible. That's a terrible photo. Delete that! Ain't nothin' wrong, I said the whole thing is a mess. You took dominion over a whole photo because your portion wasn't to your liking.
How many of us wanna throw our whole life away because one portion isn't to our liking? When God is trying to establish dominion across multiple facets of your life, God says if you'll just give me the time to develop the negatives. I'm gettin' ready to tune up. Get your tambourine, mother. Hurry up, mother, get your tambourine. I know you got one. Hurry up, you're moving to slow. Shake it. Shake it! You know there's got to be one black church mother in here with a tambourine. You know Lakewood is in the house when mother got a tambourine. It's off the hook. Tonight pastor Craig got on leather pants and got on a velvet jacket. It's a party in here, tonight. I don't know what's goin' on.
Somebody say "Dominion". God said, "I want my representative to walk in so much authority that everything that they speak comes to pass". Whew. My pastor said at the beginning of this year that the shift has occurred. That means no more maybes. It's a yes, now. For every promise of God is yes and in him amen, through Christ Jesus. If I'm in line with Word of God and the will of God, then whatever I speak has to come to pass and if it ain't movin' in the direction that my words are speaking, I'm gonna keep speakin' until that thing changes because my words have creative power. My confession has creative authority and since God spoke and light showed up, then I'm gonna keep speakin' until the light shows up in the dark areas of my life.
I need somebody to give God a praise. Right there, for about four seconds. Praise break. Four, three, two, one. Genesis two and eight. Run quickly 'cause I wanna make sure that I redeem the time. This is so important. The Bible says: the Lord planted a garden eastward in Eden, and there he put the man whom he had formed. So, I just wanna get this right. God created the whole heavens and the earth. Then he creates the man, tells him to have dominion. Then he plants a garden. You need to write this down. My life is a garden. Said write it down, but you confessed it too, that's good, get it out your mouth, that's right. My life is a garden.
The Bible says: the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden. The word eastward, normally you think it's in the direction of the east, but that's not what that word means. The word eastward in Hebrew means beforehand, or aforetime, or aforementioned, which means God prophetically planted a garden with Adam in mind. Which means, while he was creating the whole earth, he already had Adam in his mind, but before he created him, he created a place for him to have dominion over, and once he created it to the perfect specifications of heaven, he then put Adam in the middle of it.
Say "I'm in the middle of it". You need to understand. Just like pastor was saying, right during the offering, that literally, everything connected to your life, God had already planned it out. He's planted a garden eastward in Eden with your name on it. You've got a patch of land in the kingdom that only you can till. It's the place that was positioned for you. It's the place of maximum growth and development and your Eden is the place that people are gonna start coming and tryin' to eat from. Your Eden is gonna be eaten for some folk. They're gonna feedin' off your Eden.
I'm gonna say it again. People are about to start feedin' on your Eden. You are about to begin to produce fruit at a supernaturally fast level. I don't know who I'm talking to, but the days of acceleration are at hand. The days of sooner than right now and quicker than at once, and how in the world did that happen so fast, and how did I get a phone call back that quick, and that didn't make any sense, and how did I get a yes on that, and they answered my email in 10 minutes and I can't believe it. This is that season when you get into the place of dominion and authority, the original intent of God. What you plant will grow immediately.
See, people are saying, "But there are seasons. You gotta have rainy season". You should read the original intent. It hadn't even rained yet, but everything in the garden grew 'cause God's presence was there. Boy, you 'bout to run through this church. Do you understand even though there's drought in the world, it's raining in your life, because of who's reigning over your life? Since the Lord reigns in your life, it's about to rain in your life. Take about 16 seconds and catch that. R-E-I-G-N, he reigns. That's why it's about to rain.
So let other companies fold. Let other people struggle. You need to be the contrast. It's time for you to be the thermostat, not the thermometer. You don't respond to the temperature in the land, you set the temperature in the land. I'm talkin' to some dominion-minded people in here. When you walk in, things change. When you go to H-E-B and start saying, "And Jesus loves me," the devil has to back up because you took dominion in the grocery store.
About 12 seconds, right there. Uninterrupted praise. Praise break. Praise break at your house. Right there, at the kitchen table, praise him. Praise him if you're drivin' and listenin', one hand on the wheel, other hand out the window, praise him. Praise him if you're listenin' to it by cd or podcast, praise him.
I need you to understand that praise establishes dominion. I don't just clap to impress you. I don't just shout to impress you. I'm letting God know I know what my original purpose was, and that's to give you glory, and when I worship, that establishes dominion! Says: the Lord planted the garden. Somebody say it: "The Lord did it".
Stop apologizing for your Eden. The Lord did it. Stop apologizing for all of the bounty that God has placed in your life. The Lord did it. It was the Lord's choosing. He gave you those gifts. He gave you those talents. He gave you that beauty. He gave you that sense of humor. He gave you all of the things that you have. Stop shrinking back and hiding, and being afraid and they're gonna think I'm tryin' too hard. Who cares what they think! They don't have anything to give you anyway. So you might as well be great. You might as well walk around your garden. You might as well walk in dominion in the place of authority that God has planted you in. Stay faithful in your Eden, and people will keep feedin'.
It says: the Lord planted a garden, which means everything Adam needed was inside those boundaries. Say "Boundaries". One of the great tragedies of dominion is people become insecure when they see other people succeeding. How come they doin' so good? I serve the Lord. How come, I'm gonna do what they do. Here's the problem. You don't know what they're sowing, because you don't know their destiny. That's their garden. Stop tryin' to measure your growth and success based on someone else's garden. That's where God planted them. Let God deal with them. If you try to be them, who's tending to your garden? Did you hear what I said?
The Lord planted a garden with you in mind, which means everything is there for your maximum benefit, blessing, and development. Every area of your life has been thought about. Watch this. This is gonna bless you. I believe it will. So in the 15th verse: the Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to tend it, and keep it. And the Lord God commanded the man saying, "Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat: but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you will die".
So, then the Lord said, "It's not good that man should be alone. I'm gonna make a helper for him". There it is, there must be somebody single. She's like, "Hey"! Watch this next verse: out of the ground the Lord formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them. And whatever Adam called each living creature, that was its name. It didn't say God told him what the name of it was. He created it and said, "You got so much authority, whatever you speak, that's what it's gonna be".
If you catch this, we don't got enough carpet in here to run around on. Do you understand when you walk in the authority of God that was the original intent, you can speak to stuff and just call it what it is, and God will back you up? Hopes, dreams, aspirations, issues. God says, "Call that what you want, "That's what it's gonna be". Whatever he named it, that's what its name was. Now, I don't know about you but I believe the Bible is the inherent Word of God. I believe it happened just as he said, which means Adam had creative power in his garden.