Morning Dew
Key Text: “The heavens are the Lord’s heavens, but the earth he has given to the children of man.”
Taking responsibility for one’s life is a not as easy as it sounds. Man has always had a problem with accepting responsibility. Adam blamed Eve for disobeying God and Eve blamed the serpent for falling to the temptation. If we are to believe Adam, he really did not want to eat the fruit but his wife was very persuasive. And if we are to believe the woman, she really never desired the fruit. But the truth is all the way to Adam mankind has struggled with accepting responsibility.
There is a great misconception among believers that because God is sovereign, therefore we have no responsibility. This is actually a great error; God’s sovereignty does not absolve man of responsibility. Even more important is the fact that God expects us to maintain dominion on earth and not abdicate our God given role as His regents on the earth.
I have often heard believers say that they are waiting for God to do some of the most basic things for them. They forget that God has given them the ability to deal with those issues and He would not take over a role He has already given us to do. Let me look a really absurd one; Mr Farmer has a lot of seeds and believes God for a great harvest, but Mr Farmer refuses to go and plough his land and sow his seeds, yet he fully expects to see a harvest on an untilled, unploughed and ‘unsowed’ land. God will make the seeds grow, but it is our role to plant the seeds. This is really what a lot of Christians do with what God has given to them.
The truth is, we all need to understand what God has given us to do and what He would do for us. If you leave you garden untended, it will be overgrown with weeds and there is no amount of prayer and confession that will remove the weeds. You just have to roll up your sleeves get on your knees and do some weeding and tending and your garden will look good.
Today’s scripture tells us that the heavens belong to God, but the earth He has given to the son’s on men. This means God expects man to take control of the earth and yes we are to do this with His grace and strength, but certainly He is not going to come and take over our role on earth. So whatever you see on earth here that is anti God is here because someone refused to accept the responsibility. The devil cannot do anything here, unless the church allows him. Evil cannot prospers and persist if the body of Christ rises up and stops it. I know this may sound simplistic and even fatalistic. But the word of God is absolutely clear about who has the authority on this earth. It is not the devil from what I have read. Jesus said in Matthew 28:18-20 – “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.”
So I see from this scripture that the Church been given the delegated authority on earth by Jesus Christ, so the devil has zero authority. So by deduction, whatever territory he still controls, he does so because the church is yet to exercise the authority we have in those areas.
Let’s pray: Father God thank you that you have given us the dominion on earth and you expect us to exercise this authority. Help me not to abdicate my position and responsibility. Help me to accept responsibility and do what you have empowered me to do and understand clearly the things you would do. I ask this in Jesus name. Amen.