Created to Have Dominion
In Genesis chapter one, we find the account of creation. Some of the most profound truths in the Bible are in the Book of Genesis, especially the first three chapters. If you miss these, you won’t be able to understand many things in the Bible.
“And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.” (Genesis 1:11)
Notice the fruit tree yields fruit “after his kind.” It didn’t say, “its kind,” but “his kind.” What we have here is the law of double reference, referring to two different things.
It is referring to the natural tree producing after its kind. But because it states after his kind, whose seed is in itself; He is also putting forth a principle here that follows in the line of the Bible from Genesis to Revelation – That God creates after His kind.
Everything produces after its or their kind – whether trees, animals, or mankind. This is what I call the law of Genesis. Words do the same thing. Speak fear-filled words, and they will produce fear. Speak faith-filled words, and they will produce faith. If you talk trouble and sorrow long enough, it will produce that image in you. It won’t happen just because you said it once, but what you speak continually is what will be produced, either faith or fear. What you continue to confess produces that image in you. Words develop images in you more clearly.
If you hear the word “airplane,” you immediately would visualize an airplane. You might get an image of an airplane at an airport near you. But if you hear the words “white and gray twin-engine airplane,” then the image would be changed.
Every word spoken to describe details, builds a clearer image inside you. If I described my car in detail, you could go to the parking lot and find it. You would recognize it even though you’ve never physically seen it. You could recognize it because I transferred an image of that car to you with words.
This is what God has done with His Words. He describes believers in such detail that it transfers an image of the believer. When it all comes together in us, even satan can recognize us as having the Greater One within.
"God's Words Describe & Define You"
John said of the born-again believer, “Beloved now are we the sons of God...” (I John 3:2) We are sons of God now, not when we get to heaven. I John 4:4 says, “You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.”
God created mankind in His likeness to have dominion over the other things He created. God produced after His kind. Even when He created trees, they produced after His kind. God’s kind is good and perfect and He saw that it was good.
The trees He made to grow out of the ground in the Garden of Eden would have produced flawless and perfect fruit – nothing would deform the fruit – forever. It would have produced perfect fruit continually without a flaw if sin had never entered.
The seed from that fruit would have produced another tree that would have produced perfect fruit forever. That’s God’s kind. Every good and perfect gift comes from the Father of lights (James 1:17). We need to get an image of the good and perfect for that is God’s kind of creation.
Aligning Your Image
With God’s Image of You
“And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.” (Genesis 1:26-28)
These verses are two of the most astounding passages of Scripture in the Bible. But sometimes we read them and say, “Yes, I knew God said that.” But did we really get the impact of what He said? After God said, “Everything produces after his kind,” God created mankind in His own image and likeness.
Notice the statement, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion.” Being created in the image of God is the basis for mankind’s dominion over the earth. We see it portrayed in the Old Testament. But as we get into the New Testament, it brings that image into better focus.
“Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea.” Some will say, “You don’t really believe you have dominion over fish, or do you really think God means that?” Yes, absolutely! God was not just filling the pages of the Bible when He made that statement.
Several years ago the Lord said to me, “Forget everything religious you’ve ever heard about the Bible and read it like you never heard it before.”
"Forget everything religious you've ever heard about the Bible"
So I started in Genesis, chapter one and when I read verse 26 I said, “Thank God, I have dominion over the fish of the sea. If I have dominion over the fish of the sea, I have dominion over the bass of the lake and I will catch more fish now.”
I took that Scripture; along with Psalm 1:3 – Whatsoever he doeth shall prosper – and I caught more bass than ever before.
Someone asked one day, “What did you use to catch that string of bass?” I said, “ Genesis 1:28 and Psalm 1:3. ” I have dominion over fish and whatever I do will prosper. The first chapter of Genesis establishes mankind’s dominion.
I was fishing several years ago with a minister friend of mine and the first bass that he caught broke his line. My friend said to me, “that was my favorite lure; what am I going to do?” I said, “I don’t know about you, but I would command him to spit it up in the name of Jesus, you have dominion over the fish of the sea and the bass of this lake.” He looked at me and kind of raised his eyebrows and said, “well, ok.” And he turned around and said, “fish I command you to spit that lure up in the name of Jesus.”
Well the Scripture says, “through faith and patience you possess the promises.” So he tied on another lure, and we fished about 50 yards down the lake to where the shore line turned to the right and I heard a splash behind me. I turned around and looked and there was his bait floating on top of the water. I realize that a fish will try to shake a lure out, but this one followed us for some 50 yards and spit it out within 20 feet of the boat. It seems as though God just shows out when people decide they are going to do what the Word says and let the dominion factor take over.
You can develop an image of dominion if you will take the time to confess the Word concerning dominion until it gets in your spirit. That image will become more perfected as you continue to speak and hear God’s image of you, then the time span from when you speak until the manifestation comes gets shorter. The more developed you get in either fear or faith, the quicker the manifestation will come.
That’s why some things happen quickly to people when they just say a few negative things. They say, “I don’t understand why bad things happen so quickly when I say something negative. But when I confess positive things it seems to take weeks or months before it ever comes to pass.” It’s probably because they are more developed in the negative than in the positive.
Your imagination creates pictures inside you. The apostle Paul told us to cast down imaginations that are not in line with God’s Word. When you imagine things, you begin to talk that way. As you talk that way, that image in you is perfected, whether it’s on the positive or the negative side of life. Paul explained it this way, “For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds; Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.” (II Corinthians 10:4-5)
Dominion Over Dirt?
When God said mankind has dominion over all the earth, I believe He meant what He said. All the earth. In the past several years, I’ve talked to pieces of property I wanted to sell. I picked up handfuls of dirt and said, “I have dominion over you. I’m telling you that somebody is impressed with you. They like you and you will be a blessing to them. I call you sold in the name of Jesus.”
Some may think I am an absolute nut. I might be in their eyes, but the houses and the property obeyed the words I spoke in faith. Some would say, “Do you really believe a house would obey you?” We find it in two different scriptures. Jesus reveals that inanimate objects would obey words spoken in faith. Jesus said trees would obey your faith filled words and He proved it.
“If ye had faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye might say unto this sycamine tree, Be thou plucked up by the root, and be thou planted in the sea; and it should obey you.” (Luke 17:6) “And in the morning, as they passed by, they saw the fig tree dried up from the roots. And Peter calling to remembrance saith unto Him, Master, behold, the fig tree which thou cursedst is withered away...” (Mark 11:20-21)
The bottom line is that God gave mankind dominion over all the earth and everything that creepeth on it. So whether your problem is with fish, creeps, trees, houses, or property, you have dominion over them through the authority of God’s Word. I challenge you to make a decision to do what Jesus said to do and let your faith in God’s Word be manifest in your life daily.