The School of Dominion

I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before Him. 

And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: and his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed” (Dan. 7:13-14).

Daniel saw one like unto the Son of man. He also saw the cloud of witnesses with Him as He came to the Ancient of Days. There was given unto Him dominion, glory, and a kingdom. What Daniel’s vision revealed to us is that the dominion and the kingdom are given to the Son of man the Head, and His body. Christ and His body of overcomers, the clouds of heaven came before the Ancient of Days. And the dominion, glory, and the kingdom were given Him so that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him. His dominion is described as an enduring and invincible dominion that shall not pass away, and a kingdom that cannot be overthrown.

The kingdoms of men crumble very quickly.  All the vaunted empires of history lie in ruin in the dust of the ages. The rise of any earthly empire is but an early proclamation of its fall. The Roman empire, considered invincible, exists today only in the crumbling ruins of buildings, roads, and aqueducts. All of man’s systems are doomed to fall. The twentieth century alone saw the decline of the British empire, the emergence and collapse of Russian communism, meteoric rise and fall of the German Third Reich. And if there’s any western nation that considers herself as a modern empire today, nothing is more certain than the fact that she, too, shall pass away. 

The kings of the earth have dominion one day and lose it the next. But when you connect with God’s Kingdom, you are in an enduring dominion, and in His Kingdom that will not only last forever but can never be defeated.

We have received a kingdom that cannot be moved

You, my fellow child of God, have omnipotent potential in Christ.  What we are walking in, as citizens of the Kingdom of Heaven is an everlasting, continual, indestructible, unshakable, and immovable Kingdom. 

“And this word, Yet once more, signifieth the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made, that those things which cannot be shaken may remain.

Wherefore we receiving a kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace, whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear:” (Heb 12:27-28).

For those who have been redeemed and translated into the Kingdom, the Devil is no longer the intimidator. In the mind of God the devil has been defeated, and you and I are the overcomers.  In the mind of God, anyone who is born again in Christ Jesus has the dominion, stolen by the devil, restored back to him or her.

This has been part of God’s grand design all along. You remember win the discussion of the Blood Covenant above, and God pronounced blessings on His blood covenant friend, this dominion over the gates of the enemy is part of the Abrahamic covenant blessings, which as we traced it down, belongs to the Church. Let’s read the pronouncement of this specific blessing again:

“And said, By myself have I sworn, saith the LORD, for because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son: 

That in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies” (Gen 22:16,17).

This blessing of being the conqueror over the enemy is part of the original covenant blessing that God made for the seed of Abraham. And, as we meditated upon in the earlier chapter, this seed refers to Christ the Head and His body. And in the Matthew passage that we’re discussing above, the Lord Jesus essentially transferred this blessing to His body the Church.

It is in the same manner that the Lord transferred the power and authority acquired by Him through the victory of the cross and over the grave unto us, the Church. After He overcame and became Lord of all, that is Lord in heaven, Lord over the earth, and lord over all things underneath the earth, He came to His disciples and said:

“All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: 

Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen” (Mat 28:18-20). 

 The word used by our Lord in the 18^th verse of Scripture above translated in the King James as “power’ is actually the Greek word “exousia” (ἐξουσία), and not “dunamis” (δύναμις). This word, “exousia”,  specifically more accurately means authority rather than power.  The Amplified Bible translates this verse as saying “All authority (all power of rule) in heaven and on earth has been given to Me” The American Standard Version renders the verse as saying, “All authority hath been given unto Me”, and the New English Bible (NEB) also renders it correctly as saying, “Full authority ….has been committed to Me” 

After the Lord has made this statement, He then turned to His disciples and said, “Go therefore….” In essence He’s turning the “absolute authority” that has been given unto Him over to His Body, His Ambassadors, to go and use to accomplish the task He’s giving them to do. And the task is, “teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you:”

He has given us all the authority that has been given to Him, to use in the ministry for which He has called us. We are His delegates, His messengers, His servants, sent to accomplish a task, and given the necessary authority to get that job done. He has given us the power, delegated power, to get the job done.

Power and Authority

Before we continue, let’s include another passage of Scripture in this meditation. In the gospel of Luke, the tenth chapter and nineteenth verse, the Lord Jesus said:

“I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven.  Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you” (Luk 10:18,19).

The word “power” is used twice in the nineteenth verse of Luke, the tenth chapter quoted above. The first is the “power” that the Lord Jesus gave to us, and the second is all the other form of “power” that belong to the enemy. However, the translator of the King James version mixed things up here again for us, for the words used here are different.

The first word translated “power” in the verse above is from the Greek word “exousia” which we discussed above which was used in Matt 28:18. This first word should be translated, authority. The second word in Luke:10:19 above came from the Greek word “dunamis” (δύναμις) and this means ability, power or strength. This one is correctly rendered. So what the Lord Jesus Christ was saying is this: That He has given unto us authority(exousia) to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and over all the power(dunamis) of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt us”. Strong’s dictionary of the original Greek words used in these passages, and a couple of other translations including the Amplified Bible confirms this.

But why does it matter if these words are rendered power or authority?  What is authority? And what is power?

Let’s begin the meditation on the answer to this question this way. Let’s conduct a thought experiment. Consider two individuals in your mind, the first one being a physical specimen like a body builder, or wrestler of the caliber of Hulk Hogan in his prime. And the second individual a United States President, say James Madison.  The first one possesses an amazing physical ability. He’s got some incredible force and ability in his being, to fight and do things. That is power. 

The second individual we chose for this illustration is the fourth President of the United States, James Madison, who was only 5-feet 4inches tall and weighed around 100 pounds. In comparison with Hulk Hogan, Madison does not have any power. But if Madison were President of the United States today, and were to get up and speak or do anything, the whole world would keep quiet and listen. A word of command from him, 5-feet and all, could wipe out an entire nation of belligerent terrorists, and could achieve feats greater than what a thousand Hulk Hogans can. That is authority.

When the President of the United States speaks or performs an action, it is not the inherent power in his being that he’s exercising, but he’s using the authority vested in him as the Head of State, or the Prince, or the Commander In Chief of the United States.

 Authority is delegated power. And the value of an authority a person has is determined by the sum total of the powers of the kingdom that is backing or behind him or her. The value of the authority that the President of United States has, is the sum total of the United States’ military resources, plus the sum total of her human resources, plus the sum total of her economic resources, plus the sum total of her natural resources, plus the sum total of her wealth, plus the sum total of her political resources and influence around the world, etc. This is what is back of the word of a United State President when he open his mouth to speaks or perform an action as President. 

Power is great. Samson had some super-power. But there is a limit to the amount of power that can reside in a mortal man. However, authority can be almost iunlimited Authority is power. But it is delegated power. It is that power that the Traffic officer uses to stop moving traffic. Heavy buses, 18-wheeler trucks, heavy equipment trailers, all heading towards her at with a significant momentum enough to crush her as a car would crush a fly; But what happens when this traffic officer steps into the middle of the intersection and raises up his or her hand?  They all STOP.

That’s not power. This traffic police doesn’t even have as much power to stop a little old lady riding a tricycle if she were to decide to run her over. Yet they all stop. That’s authority. The traffic police has “delegated power” vested in her by the nation’s Department of Transportation. The power of the government is behind her when she raises her hands. He or she may be smaller than Madison, and the truck could be loaded with lead and mercury and moving at 40mph, when the ones controlling those huge automobiles see the hand ordering them to STOP, they all must obey. The traffic police is the master, and they all must swiftly obey her command, and only go when he or she says so. That is authority.

Now you are beginning to see the implication of accurately identifying the specific word that the Lord used in the passage above. The Lord said all authority in heaven and on earth has been given unto Him. Think of it this way. God Almighty has gathered all powers, including all the ones that the Devil stole from man and whatever he had in his kingdom in hell, and all the powers on earth, and all the powers in heaven, and bundled all these up as a package and given the package to Christ our Lord.  And made Him LORD over All. Then the Lord Jesus turned around and gave the package to us, the Church, His body. He delegated these powers to the Church.

We understand from above that the value of the authority one has, is determined by the force or the resources possessed by the kingdom that’s behind the one. What is the value of the authority that the Church has?  All powers in heaven, on earth, and underneath the earth, and that the Name of Jesus contains is vested in the authority given to the Church. So the power available to the Church is far beyond what she can contain or comprehend. The power available to the Church is therefore without limit, because the Almighty God, and His unlimited resources is the force behind her authority. 

In the passage above, the Lord Jesus gave us authority over all the power or supernatural ability of the enemy. Notice that on the enemy’s side, they only have powers, limited powers. If the Devil sends out a demon, the demon can only exercise power to the limit of what the devil gives it and the powers that the kingdom of darkness has is limited and is also waning and declining. The power of his kingdom is akin to that of the house of Saul, which the Scriptures tells us about in second Book of Samuel:

“Now there was long war between the house of Saul and the house of David: but David waxed stronger and stronger, and the house of Saul waxed weaker and weaker” (2 Sam 3:1).

The kingdom of Satan is waxing weaker and weaker while the Kingdom of Christ the Anointed One is growing stronger and stronger; and the paths of the righteous is growing brighter and brighter unto the perfect day.