Mensa Otabil - Made to Have Dominion

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We’re still looking at Psalm eight, and this is verse number six: «You have made him to have dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet.» This is the grand purpose assigned for the creation of man.

When you read the Bible in the book of Genesis, chapter 1, verses 26 and 27, God tells us why He wants to make man. He says, «Let us make man in our own image; let them have dominion.» God was creating man so that man would exercise dominion over the things He has created, and that thought is amplified here in Psalm 8, verse 6: «You have made him to have dominion over the works of your hands.» So God created man for him to exercise authority and responsibility over the things that God has made. That’s an awesome thing-that God would hand over creation to us to manage the way He would want it to be managed.

This means that we have to be in touch with Him; we have to be in tune with Him. We have to know what He wants, what He desires, and interpret His desires in His creation.

So the big question is: If God created us to have dominion, how come we don’t seem to have it? When God created man to have dominion, the first parents, Adam and Eve, started to have dominion in the Garden of Eden. We see it in the way they structured life in the garden. They had control over the animals; they were naming them, and they were in charge. Then sin entered in, and when sin entered, they cracked the image of God and lost dominion. Subsequently, human beings lost dominion.

Now, instead of having dominion, even mosquitoes give us a hard time; dogs bark at us, and a virus troubles us. So where is the dominion? Well, in Christ Jesus, we have dominion restored. Jesus Christ came to restore us to what was lost, but we don’t have everything completed now in this time because this is not the final phase of what God is doing. There was a Garden of Eden, and what was lost there is life. There will be a new heaven and a new earth, where there is a restructured system, and God puts the new man and the new woman in the new earth and the new heavens to exercise dominion fully. There is coming a time when dominion will be fully restored to mankind, but for now, we have to work in the spiritual dominion which Christ has given to us-not the physical dominion as fully as God wants it, but in spiritual dominion.

So the way to exercise dominion, therefore, is that we must surrender our lives back to God. Where Adam and Eve took their lives from God’s hands, we put our lives back into God’s hands and say, «Lord, you are our God. O Lord our God, we submit to you; we bow to you; we listen to you; we learn from you; we obey you.» The more we obey Him and live by His rules, the more dominion we exercise over our lives. Dominion now is relative to our submission to God. He made us to be like Himself, and we obey Him to be like Him. As we become more like Him, we get to exercise more and more dominion.

So if you want to get back what Satan has taken from you, then return to Christ, return to God, and put yourself under His dominion. Then you’ll start exercising dominion. That’s the purpose of God: He created us to have dominion over the earth. May the Lord give you dominion over every adversity, over every limitation in your life, over sickness and disease. May the Lord give you dominion at home, at work, and wherever you go. May you begin to walk in divine dominion and exercise the power that God has given you through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Let us pray. Say with me, «Heavenly Father, you have made me to have dominion and not to be a slave to sin. Teach me how to walk in dominion in Jesus' name. Amen and amen.» Well, I’m glad you could join. I will conclude this series tomorrow. I’m Pastor Mensa Otabil. Shalom, peace, and life to you.