DOMINION – 19 Apr 2011

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Today is Passover in Israel.  Most Jewish people around the world remember that YHVH delivered His people Israel out of slavery in Egypt to bring them liberty to serve Him in the promised Land of Canaan.

Beyond that, though, YHVH demonstrated by His great power that He alone is the one true God.  He defeated all the gods of Egypt, and showed Pharoah and the people that none of their so-called gods can compare with YEHOVAH, the Creator of the Heavens and Earth, and the Redeemer and Deliverer of His people out from the nations!  Jesus Christ has been given all authority by the Father — by virtue of His crucifixion and resurrection from among the dead — of things in Heaven, things on the Earth, things under the Earth and in the seas.  Jesus Christ is LORD!  The Lamb of God is risen indeed! 

History has a way of repeating itself, perhaps with different clothing but with the same inner essence.  There is nothing new under the sun.  As the Jewish people at the time of Yeshua’s first coming wanted the Messiah to give them dominion now over their enemies and the nations, so too do many Christians today, as the day of Christ’s return nears, want Him to grant them the kingdom now as if His coming is either delayed or irrelevant.  Even those closest to Jesus, such as Judas Ishcariot, one of the apostles, seemed to be motivated in his betrayal by the desire to rule on his own terms what he clearly undestood to be God’s promises.  Judas took a truth and misapplied it.  Yeshua/Jesus Himself will come to restore the Kingdom of God back to Israel and over Israel and the nations.

But, in the meantime, there is a kingdom which we have been given authority to rule:  The Kingdom of God is within you.

It is written in Proverbs that “one who controls his/her own spirit is stronger than one who takes a city”!  Part of the fruit of the Holy Spirit is self-control/self-government.  Why should God give us control over other people and nations when we have not yet learned to control ourselves — our appetites, our tongues, our greed, our stubbornness, our anger, our presumptuousness?!

God does not intend to give over again to sinful men dominion over the works of His hands, and Adam and Eve were not given dominion over other humans.  (Even though born-again believers are justified through faith, we still have our old man contending with the Spirit of God within us, and, sadly but true, we do find ourselves giving into it at times.)  The Son is still bringing many others into the Father’s household to give us together who are His the privilege of ruling and reigning with Him.  “Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection.  Over such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Messiah, and shall reign with Him a thousand years.”    We, by His grace, shall reign WITH JESUS, not instead of or apart from His actual return and presence, or of our own personal bodily resurrection.

There is for us a present kingdom and dominion:  control our self!  “…reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.  Therefore, do not let sin reign in your mortal body, that you should obey it in its lusts.  And do not present your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but present yourselves alive to God as being alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.    For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.

After the power and signs and wonders of the Passover; after the power and signs and wonders of the cross:  Does the Lord Jesus Christ reign in your heart and mind?

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