Legislators

And God blessed them.  And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it…”  Genesis 1:28  ESV

Adam was told to subdue the earth, to rule and bring it under subjection to the laws of the Creator.  He was to take the principles of heaven, the ones God revealed to Adam as He walked with him in the garden, and then put them into effect here on the earth.

As created children of God, as people who walk and talk with God intimately, our mandate is the same.  We are to have the mind of Christ, to learn the ways of heaven intimately, then to bring those spiritual laws into effect in our world.  When we encounter obstacles, we are to put on our soldier’s uniforms and engage in the battle with the spoken Word and prayer.

I was surprised several years ago to discover that when God formed the church, the Greek word for church, ‘ekklesia’, was the word the people of Greece used for a legislative body.  They understood that the church was God’s corporate agent to bring the kingdom of heaven to the earth.

I have a garden to rule, a sphere of influence to affect.  When I use my conferred authority with humility in prayer, I bring God’s ways to my environment.  My world begins to bear the imprint of how things run in heaven.

Jesus, as the last Adam, showed us how to rule.  He never moved, traveled, healed, spoke – without asking His Father what to say or do next.  Isaiah 49 says that He would be born to speak the Word and His mouth would be a sword.  Talk about affecting your environment!

Adam, through sinning, abdicated his authority.  Jesus won it back on the cross and has, through the great commission, given it back to His disciples.  Today’s agenda is set before me ~ rule and subdue the earth.

I can’t pretend to know what to do unless I get on my knees and soak in the Word.  Fill me with Your message and set my feet to rule.  In Jesus’ name, Amen