Authority; there are so many different thoughts and ideas about what this word means. Depending upon one’s personal experiences and/or educational or societal background the weight, the power or the rights that this word carries will vary. The principle of authority, as might be guessed, is seen and understood significantly different in God’s kingdom.
Before we look further into the issue of authority, it is important that we first understand that there is a wide separation between how matters work within God’s kingdom and how they work within the realm of this world’s structures and priorities. Scripture helps us to understand these differences by giving them different names. As we have already recognized, the realm of God’s influence is termed the Kingdom of God. The realm of this world’s systems influence is termed the dominion.
As you may recall, God did not give Adam ownership in the Garden of Eden. What He did give to Adam was dominion over the Garden and its produce and its inhabitants.
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." Genesis 1:28
It is so plainly simple, but we make it so complicated by attempting ownership with the things that were never ours to own. We will develop this thought in another chapter but for now we must return to the idea of this world was created for mankind to have dominion (subdue and rule).
This dominion, which was ordained for mankind, was surrendered when Adam chose to subject himself to another god (Satan).Then to Adam He said, "Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, 'You shall not eat from it'; cursed is the ground because of you; in toil you will eat of it all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you and you will eat the plants of the field; by the sweat of your face you will eat bread till you return to the ground because from it you were taken; for you are dust and to dust you shall return." Genesis 3:17-19
LORD God sent him out from the garden of Eden, to cultivate the ground from which he was taken. Genesis 3:23
From this time on to the present day, mankind has been a laborer within the domain that was surrendered on that day. We must understand that man could not surrender that which was not his. The ownership of everything remained with Almighty God, the Creator. All that mankind surrendered was the subduing and the ruling of Gods’ creation (domain).
Jesus addressed the clear distinction between the two positions or realms:
Jesus answered, "My kingdom is not of this world. If My kingdom were of this world, then My servants would be fighting so that I would not be handed over to the Jews; but as it is, My kingdom is not of this realm." John 18:36
Here is where things become incredibly interesting. In referring to Jesus, scripture says:
For He rescued us from the domain of darkness, and transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son, (Colossians 1:13)
There several important truths presented here that we must see before we move on in our understanding. First, this scripture talks about an event that has already happened; it is in the “past-sense” that we (the redeemed) have been transferred from one realm into the other.
The second truth is that we were “rescued” from the domain of darkness. We were entirely captive and helpless in the very realm that we was designed for us to subdue and rule. Instead, for most of our lives we have been subdued and ruled by that realm.
The third truth is that we have been transferred into God’s kingdom the very place where it all began.
Live a life of confident authority! Jesus deserves it!
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