TO TEACH THAT EVEN MAN HAS TO GIVE GOD PERMISSION TO COME TO THE EARTH IS NOT AN ACCURATE CMMUNICATION
GOD DOES NOT NEED PERMISSION FROM MAN TO COME TO THE EARTH; IT IS STILL HIS DOMAIN
THERE IS NO MAN OF GOD BEGINNING FROM MYSELF THAT YOU WILL GATHER HIS ONE YEAR MESSAGE AND NOT FIND SOMETHING THERE THAT NEEDS DELETING, ADJUSTMENT, CORRECTION, OR BETTER PRESENTATION
AUTHORITY IS WHAT MAKES ADMINISTERING POWER LEGAL OR LEGITIMATE. POWER WITHOUT AUTHORITY DOES NOT HAVE BOUNDARIES AND CANNOT BE EFFICIENT
UNTIL YOU UNDERSTAND THE DYNAMICS OF POWER AND AUTHORITY YOU CAN NEVER TRULY UNDERSTAND DOMINION
YOU CAN HAVE POWER BUT IF YOU DO NOT HAVE AUTHORITY, EVEN THOUGH YOU HAVE THE FORCE THAT CREATES COMPLIANCE, BUT YOUR ACTIVITY CAN BE ILLEGAL
EVERY TIME THE BELIEVER IS BANKRUPT OF SUFFICIENT LIGHT, HIS OR HER LIFE WILL REMAIN A MISREPRESENTATION
IT IS POSSIBLE TO UNDERSTAND JESUS AND YET NOT BE ABLE TO REVEAL HIM ACCURATELY
THE REVELATION OF CHRIST TO YOU DEPENDS ON HIS LOVE, POWER AND THE ABILITY OF HIS SPIRIT
- Apostle Joshua Selman on “LET THEM HAVE DOMINION (Part One)”||Koinonia
10th July 2022 (Part A)
Lord we return thanks; forever, may your name be glorified in our lives and in this house, for in Jesus’ name we pray. Good evening everybody, God bless you.
Over the next few weeks I want you to pay attention to the teachings that would be coming, they are meant to build us, give us spiritual intelligence, and to expand our capacity in the spirit.
‘LET THEM HAVE DOMINION’ (Part One). Under part one, we will be looking at The Mysteries of Earth, The Mysteries of Territory, to help us understand God’s design and His original idea even for man. Church Gist. Every time the believer is bankrupt of sufficient light, the effect of not having sufficient light is that your life will remain a misrepresentation. Your life becomes and remains a message that does not reveal Christ correctly and accurately. So, the revelation of Christ to you depends on His love, power and the ability of His Spirit. Church Gist. But the revelation of Jesus from you to the world depends on the accuracy of your understanding Him, and then your ability to coordinate all the spiritual forces through knowledge that must help you reveal Him accurately to your world. Church Gist. It is possible to understand Jesus and yet not be able to reveal Him accurately because we are bankrupt of the requisite level of spiritual intelligence it takes and then, the spiritual resources we need to piece together to make sure that our representation of Jesus to our world is done with clarity and accuracy.
The Kingdom and even this earth are shrouded in very deep mysteries. Church Gist. Mysteries that if not unravelled by the Spirit of Grace, in partnership with the Word of God, can keep even the believer in a position and a state spiritually and physically, where you may not be able to do much as far as life and destiny are concerned. Diabolisms, witchcraft, extra-biblical practices, all depend on the strength of your understanding the mysteries of the Earth. Church Gist. Scattered all through Scripture, you will hear the Prophets and even Jesus, treat the Earth in a way and a manner that you have to be spiritual man to really understand why they accorded that kind of regard to our world and to the Earth. For instance, Jesus would want to heal a blind man, and He would spit upon the ground, and make spittle out of it and put it in the eyes, and then say go and interact with water; I have put clay but go and wash. Church Gist. He was not just to wash the dirt away; it was like a reaction – mix something and something and it will equal sight. And the man went and washed, and returned back seeing.
One time, the Prophets were eating and they said there was death in the pot. And then, it took some leaves, the Prophet now, and just sprinkled it and said, whatever it is that would kill has been cleansed. Church Gist. Listen, you see, traditional practice, we come from many regions; and tradition, especially in Africa prides in their ability to have preserved many traditional or occultic practices for many generations. Church Gist. So when you meet an old man, whether a herbalist, a spiritualist, or some kind of fetish person, he would usually lead you and tell you a long history of certain practices they may have done, alongside the benefit it seem to have created.
The point I’m trying to communicate is that, this Earth and this territory wherein we live and function is shrouded in mysteries and God does not want believers to be in ignorance. It is the job of the man of God to walk in partnership with the Spirit of God and the Word of God to help believers come into a higher and more superior dimension of spiritual intelligence. Church Gist. Do you know? As you grow spiritually, you will begin to see the predictability of life and even victory. You will see that, that which before now looked haphazard like a product of circumstances, now you can have predictability to your Christian experience.
The Bible clearly tells us a few very important things about this God that we serve, the God of Heaven, the God of the Universe. Church Gist. And I want to start by just making reference to 2 or 3 attributes about God as we begin to build our case around this teaching.
- The Bible reveals that God almighty is the creator, the owner and the ruler of everything: Genesis 1:1; Psalm 121:1-2; 1 Chronicles 29:11. Revelation 4:10-11. Church Gist. I know there are all kinds of debates, and contentions, as to the Earth, and all kinds of teachings across the globe but the Bible says it for a fact that when it has to do with creation and ownership, there are not many people who own the Earth or the Heavens.
- God is the exclusive owner of all power: 2 Chronicles 20:3-6; Psalm 62:11.
I hope you know that in ancient times, the word Heaven, was used to communicate the non-material dimension of God’s creation. Church Gist. It is not just limited to the atmosphere above man because Heaven is not up, Heaven is a spiritual location. The word, ‘Heavens’ was used to capture holistically, all the dimensions that are invisible to the seeing of man. So, when you say Heaven, you don’t mean the clouds. You mean that realm and dimension that is real and exists but is not visible to the optical eyes. Colossians 1:16, Genesis 1:26 – I hope you know man was not the first of God’s creation. Church Gist. There were other things that were created before the arrival of man. In fact according to scripture, the first element that we see revealed was water. Genesis 1:1-3. The image of God is a spiritual quality, the glory of God, the essence of God. The likeness of God is to function like Him.
The word, ‘man’ there (Genesis 1:26-28) is the Hebrew word, Adam. Adam is not the name of an individual necessarily, Adam means dark Earth, one who came from this territory. When you see the Bible said, ‘fish of the sea, fowl of the air,’ he is not limiting it to that very creature, fish and fowl. Church Gist. The essence of that communication if you study from the Hebrew rendition is, God said let them have dominion over the sea that means the realm and kingdom of the waters. Let them have dominion over the air. Those creatures were just picked as the creatures that represent that habitat.
Let them have dominion was a handover service. Here, we see God making a statement when He brought man to the Earth, this dimension of His kingdom, He made a very interesting statement, He said, ‘Let them have dominion.’ That means, I transfer certain privileges and responsibility unto them. Church Gist. Dominion is a very important word, most believers do not understand the concept of dominion. Dominion means the right to govern; sovereign control, authority. Genesis 1:26.
Let me digress a bit and explain for you the difference between power and authority. Until you understand the dynamics of power and authority you can never truly understand dominion. What does it mean to have power? Power means the capacity to influence or change; the force that compels compliance. Church Gist. Notice, God never told man at the beginning, ‘let them have power,’ he said, ‘let them have dominion meaning authority.’ Authority means the right to represent; the legitimate ground to allow power to function. You can have power but if you do not have authority, even though you have the force that creates compliance, but your activity can be illegal.
I will give you an instance: what is the difference between armed robber’s gunshot and a military man’s gunshot? Both of them have power invested in a gun. Church Gist. But why do you clap for one when he shoots and you arrest the other when he shoots? It is because one has more than power, he has authority vested to him by the government; while the other one has power but does not have authority. Number 2, the military man has jurisdiction whereas the armed robber does not have jurisdiction. Church Gist. Authority cannot be authority unless and until there is jurisdiction. You cannot be ruler without a predefined jurisdiction. It is important for us to know the frame of our dominion. We were not given dominion everywhere. God listed very specifically, the jurisdiction of our authority. Church Gist. If you have power and you do not have authority, then, you are operating it in an unauthorized way.
Authority is what makes administering power legal or legitimate. Power without authority does not have boundaries; cannot be efficient.
God gave man authority without conditions but He will never give man power without conditions. Man did not need to do or be anything to be given authority by God. Church Gist. Even before man realized himself, that verdict came: let them have sovereign authority; but when it has to do with accessing power, there are conditions. If you have authority and you do not have power, you cannot be effective because it will take power to make what you have said or your representation efficient.
Psalm 115:16. Do you see here immediately that the dominion of the Earth was given to men? I’m soon going to give to you what conditions you must satisfy to be called a man. You know, in our world when we say you are a man, it means you are weak. Church Gist. I am going to teach you that when they say you are a man, it’s a special honour given to you. There are many spirit entities that cannot be men. In Luke 10:19, man as the zenith of God’s creation was given a gift and a blessing by God; that gift is dominion and authority. The ability to stand instead of the maker and manage this realm of His kingdom.
So, what makes you a man? For you to be a man, there are 2 things that you must have.
1) You must first be a spirit
2) The place of residence of that spirit must be a material or a physical body
In addition, that spirit in that body must have what we call the mind: the interface between the spirit and the body. The mind containing the will, emotions, intellect. You have to see that the design of man was a very intricate design. Church Gist. No other entity had that kind of design. I hope you know that all other physical creatures on Earth have bodies? But it does not qualify them to be called men. You will never call a goat, a man. As much as science talks about chimpanzees and evolution, you will never call a monkey a man. What then is the difference? Church Gist. That co-existence – A spirit living in a material body connected by these soulical faculties of the mind.
That means, to know who is legal and who is illegal upon the Earth, the Bible never restricted other entities from roaming about the Earth provided they are willing to submit to the authority of man. Church Gist. That means any other spirit that is not trapped in a human body that tries to exercise dominion and does not satisfy the condition to be called man is doing it illegally – any spirit at all. Church Gist. For the dominion and the exertion of authority from any spirit entity to be legal on Earth, it must be trapped in a physical body and it must have a mind.
Let them have dominion means the following:
1) That man from the time God made that statement is the legal steward and the ruler in the Earth: Psalm 8:2-8. Hebrews 2:5-8. He is saying, based on what we see, in experience, there are some entities that have refused in spite of this verdict, that we will not come under the feet of this man. Church Gist. Remember, if you are not a man and you are on earth, the only way you can be allowed to function is that you must acknowledge the authority of the one God gave dominion to. And there are spirits who are saying, ‘we will be here and yet we will not acknowledge that man.’ And Paul was saying there is something wrong here.
2) Nothing legal can and should happen in the Earth without man’s cooperation and participation: I want to make a very interesting statement: I think there is a statement that has been used for many years by wonderful and well meaning men and women of God, and I can tell you by the authority of scripture, that that statement needs to be lovingly adjusted and corrected because it can be misleading. Church Gist. That is the word, ‘permission.’ You notice I did not use that expression. There have been many thoughts by well intentioned men and women of God in discussing the subject of dominion, you will hear statements like, ‘even man has to permit God to come to the Earth.’ It is a very sincere statement but it is not scriptural.
For the sake of our discussion here, I would say, ‘God has authority.’ But by the definition of authority, God has absolute power; God cannot have authority because authority demands that someone higher than you must give it to you. Church Gist. Even if you say God has authority, it’s safe that means He gave it to Himself. You cannot say that God has authority classically speaking because authority will demand that someone higher than you will give you access and define the geography of your function and supervise you. Church Gist. If you say God has authority classically speaking, it is not a very accurate statement because it then means there is someone somewhere, higher than Him who gave Him a predefined region.
Every time you hear the word authority, you must see jurisdiction connected to it. In the secular, say they make you an Executive Director, you are not an executive director everywhere. Church Gist. There is an office and there is a job description. You cannot get up and enter any office and say I am an executive director.
When you say God or the Holy Spirit or any other spirit that is not man is an illegal occupant in the Earth, it is a sincere statement but it is not scripturally and doctrinally correct because there is nowhere in scripture where other non-human inhabitants were prohibited from being around the Earth. Church Gist. Their prohibition was that they cannot act outside of their participation with man. To teach that even man has to give God permission (we’ve all made that mistake and there is nothing to be embarrassed about it) but it is not an accurate communication. I say this with profound respect and honour to all who have taught on the subject of dominion because every time it has to do with making adjustments and correcting, sometimes, when we find truth, we can communicate it with such arrogance to mean, look at the nonsense that all these people are saying. (No!) I have taught you, if your truth is not communicated in love, what you are saying, whether you are right or wrong, you are wrong.
Let me digress and teach you: there is no man of God beginning from myself that you will gather his one year message and not find something there that needs deleting, adjustment, correction, or better presentation – no man in the world, nobody! Church Gist. So, it is not news if you find out that you listened to a man of God, may be a father of faith, or someone, and you see something that needs adjustment, it should not shock you. Every time you listen to the message of any man of God, think two things: man and God. You are not hearing God alone, in as much as you want to admit it is only God speaking, you are hearing two people. Church Gist. You are hearing God, but the thoughts are being communicated in an earthen vessel. So, you will expect the imperfections of the earthen vessel. Every time you discover that the thoughts of a man of God are either doctrinally wrong or wrong in presentation, the first thing to look at is the purity of the heart of the communicator. If and when you discover that it is an intentional camouflage to deceive, then that becomes a problem. Church Gist. But where you find out that it is just a limitation in knowledge or limitation in communication, you must sustain the intelligence to be able to wave it away and thank God for showing you. And then you continue getting blessed from other aspects. Everything cannot be wrong.
You can listen to anybody you choose to listen to, and you can decipher whether the error or imperfections or inaccurate presentations, if you do not understand the message because of that error, you, yourself, are not growing. Are you learning now?
I have taught you here that while we have the privilege in love, and by the reason of greater revelation, we can look from hind sight and be able to make adjustments over some of the things that our fathers have brought, we too, our own children we are raising, as impressed as we are with all these our revelations, our own children too will check and say, ‘Joshua Selman said this. Church Gist. Great man, but I think he may not have…, by now, they would have seen a greater light.
Therefore, in approaching anything that has to do with adjustments and corrections, there must be love and honour; these two things must never be traded even when you see the truth. But I can tell you this, God does not need permission from man to come to the Earth; it is still His domain. Under a condition He can create out of His sovereignty, He can still invade the Earth – That is true! Church Gist. What God needs, and that is not because He is limited, it is because He chose it as His predeterminate counsel, is man’s cooperation and man’s participation. We are talking of partnership not authorization. Man does not have what it takes to authorize God. He has what it takes to partner with God as given by the Spirit.
Psalm 135:6.
But it is true that nothing legal can, and should happen in the Earth without man’s cooperation and participation. Church Gist. That is the implication of that statement, ‘Let them have dominion.’ It also means that God Himself as an act of His will said, ‘anytime I want to do something in the Earth, I will need a man to work with me. Not ‘allow me.’’
3) That by reason of that statement, man became the most valuable asset in the Earth needed by both God and satan. Man, not gold, oil, platinum and all of these things, is the most valuable asset on Earth. Church Gist. As much as we prize them, the most expensive asset in the Earth today is man. Every other thing finds its relevance because of the presence of man. Kill all the men on Earth and open the banks, it will not profit you. Isaiah 6:8; Ezekiel 22:30; Luke 22:3
I have heard people say, ‘satan is not powerful’; No! There is no mention of God withdrawing the power satan had but he could not function on earth even though he was powerful. Church Gist. What satan cries for in man is not power, what he cries for is authority. Jesus Himself said, I give you authority over all the powers of the enemy. He acknowledged the fact that there is power.
Can you see why merciless killings and all these wickedness is an insult? It is more than just dehumanization. Church Gist. This is the greatest asset that man put on Earth; man. No matter what is in the Earth, if man is not there, the Earth cannot rise to its fullness and the prophetic potential that God invested in it.
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