Thank you for joining me on the second part of this article series, it is a continuation of the journey the Holy Spirit began with me and I see it necessary that the body of Christ should also be a partaker of this. And this is coming as a challenge and also as an encouragement to leaders spread across the body of Christ. I would like to go straight into the Scriptures, beginning from the book of Genesis 1:26, the Bible says “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.”
I would also like us to read the book of Isaiah 40:31, it says; “But those who wait on the Lord Shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.” Remember that we are unveiling the secret of dominion in leadership and we began by looking at the vision statement God made in Genesis 1:26 how that man should be made and how that man should have dominion. So, we would still look at the latter part of that verse. It says; “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion” this was the first time the word dominion was to be mentioned in the Bible, and it was a word that came out of the mouth of God. This verse points to the fact that until man is made i.e. created and formed, he cannot have dominion.
See what He said “in our image, according to our likeness” two things stand out here, number one; the formation of man can never be done outside of God, talking about patterns. Before any construction can begin there is a paper work or a blue print, God just gave the blue print, and the design must be in comparison and in conformity with His own image. Most times you will always hear God say be holy as I am holy, whatever God is and whatever God represents, man is required to be like Him.
Secondly, this statement talks about followership. The strategy to handing dominion to man is firstly to build the man according to the pattern that has been instituted and secondly, haven formed the man, the man is required to follow after God in order to retain the dominion. God said until that is accomplished, man can never have dominion. Let me put it this way. We came to realize from the first episode that man was created and formed. The created man must follow after God in order for him to experience dominion. Perhaps you may be asking why is the created man and not the formed man? The reason is because, the formed man is weak and it has the tendency to follow which ever direction it is being steered to. The formed man is designed for conformity. If the Spirit is willing, even though the formed man is weak he has no option but to move towards that direction.
That is why the concept of the mind is so important to this discussion. The Scripture says do not conform to this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. The mind is where the battle takes place, if the mind is completely yielded to the spirit the formed man will walk according to the Spirit but if the mind is yielded to flesh the formed man follows according to its own pattern. Which leads to corruption. Until you take total control of your mind, the dominion experience by the created man will not be handed down to the formed man.
I believe we are understanding what is going on here. So, we have been able to establish that in order to form a man it is important to put the mind into consideration, because the formed man is designed to follow which ever direction because it is weak. So, the pattern is Jesus, and there is no other pattern to follow to become God but only Jesus. And until you meet that requirement you can’t have dominion.
This was the reason why God instructed the man in Genesis 2 verse 16 and 17, “And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, “Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat; 17 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[f] shall surely die.” So, at this point God gave man the secret, the pattern and the blue print. Until made is made according to His image and likeness, man cannot have dominion. And here we are seeing that dominion truly lies in the mind, if that dominion will be withdrawn or corrupted it is premised on what the man is feeding on. God used the word “shall surely die”, the literal meaning of this is that any man who is not in dominion is a man who is not alive, because dominion is expressed through the kind of life that you live.
So, what is your mind feeding on, it is directly proportional to the degree and the scope of your dominion. Look at that verse closely you would soon realize that as soon as God talked about dominion, He began to mention territories. What does dominion truly mean? I came across a definition which talks about the fact that dominion means sovereignty or control. So, man had control over domains and territories.
God was simply saying if the mind would fly it is because he is not limited by his mind, if the man would have total control over things it is because the scope of his mind has already covered those terrains. God was simply telling man here that you rule with your mind, and the degree to which you rule with your mind is to the degree of how much information you feed your mind. True leaders maximize the power of their mind, that is why when God was done forming the man he engaged his mind not his nose. You may not agree with me, look at that Genesis chapter 2 verse 7 the Bible says God breathed into His nostrils the breath of life and man became a living being, some translations say a living soul. Is there any connection between the nostrils and the soul of man? The Spirit of God simply activated the soul of man. and the soul came alive. This what the Lord is saying to me and to you; life actual begins from the mind, if the mind is dead the man is dead.
You may be alive but if your mind is not conditioned to the patterns of God’s word it is no longer alive but dead. Please understand what the Holy Spirit is saying here, dominion is not determined by breath in the nostrils neither is it determined by power or by physical muscles, dominion is a reflection of the strength of the mind and its emotional stability. God said “have dominion over.” You can’t take over territories if your mind has not captured those territories. Dominion is a function of your thinking power, it means that you can have control over which ever territory your mind decides to explore. Now see what that Isaiah 40:31 says “But those who wait on the Lord Shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk and not faint.”
It says those who wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength, the question is; is there a kind of strength required by the formed man to fly physically like the birds of the sky? The answer is no! what kind of strength is prophet Isaiah talking about? Because this Scripture is similar to what God said in Genesis 1:26, it says they shall mount up on wings like eagles, God said have dominion over the birds of the sky, the eagles is not one but many, so also God was saying birds of the sky, and it says over all the creeping things that creep on the earth.
The eagles may beat the man in the air but the eagle may not beat the mind of the man in the air. Has man not devised technology that maneuver, fly higher and faster than the eagle? Has the mind of man not been able to device vessels that carry out deep sea exploration? What about the land? Is there a horse that is faster than any of our modern day cars? It is the power of the mind. The Scripture says God has not given us the Spirit of fear, of power, of love and of a sound mind. so, the breath God breathed into the nostrils of the man was actually a Spirit, and that Spirit was to produce in us power, love and sound mind.
Does this also show that the first impartation man received from God was the Holy Spirit? Does this also mean that the three dimensions of man’s dominion is encapsulated and wrapped within love, power and sound mind? this is a matter the body of Christ must meditate upon. Let me say this categorically that the dominion of man is not outside the Holy Spirit, when Jesus had formed His disciples to a certain extent He simply breathed on them and said to them; receive the Holy Spirit (John 20:22.) so, by the virtue the workings of this Spirit in the man, it produces love, sound mind and power. This is what dominion truly mean.
If you lack love as a leader you will fail to a certain degree, your leadership will lack a basis for reward, if lack power as a leader will also fail in your leadership, if you lack sound mind then you can never be productive, you will never attain new heights, you will not grow. Scripture says let this mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus. You wonder why Jesus was able to do so much? There was a mind in Him. That mind is the Spirit of dominion. So, we must seek to follow and yield to the Holy Spirit in order to possess a mind that will help us maximize our leadership scope.
Apostle Paul said in Philippians 3:17, “Brethren, join in following my example, and note those who so walk, as you have us for a pattern.” He also said 1 Corinthians 11:1 “imitate me as I imitate Christ” the pattern has been shown to us, we must therefore follow through diligence and patience in order to have dominion. God does not have problem with giving man dominion, man must follow, yield to the Holy Spirit, have the mind of Christ and pattern His life after God.
Thanks for the gift of your time, I am Apeh Francis Abah!
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