Authority was Given to You!
The heaven, even the heavens, are the Lord’s; But the earth He has given to the children of men. Psalm 115:16
Scripture says in Psalm 115:16 that the Lord has given the earth to man. If you read Genesis 1:26 where God created Adam, you will see that God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to our likeness and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” God made us in the image and likeness of our Father and Savior. He also gave us dominion or control over the earth. If you read down to Genesis 1:28 God tells Adam to fill the earth and subdue it. Subdue means to control or to conquer and bring into subjection. God gave man control of the earth! We are in control of what happens in our life.
If you are having trouble with this concept, imagine you own an apartment or a house and you lease it out to John Smith. Do you dictate or control what John hangs on the walls, who he invites over, or what he does while he is in this home? No! John is in control over it. You own the place, but have given it to John to control. Now let us relate this back to the earth. We are the tenants, the earth is the house or apartment, and God is the landlord. God created the earth, but He gave it to us. Say you gave friend a laptop for her birthday. Would she be justified to come back to you a year later and say, “I was running by my desk and hit the laptop you gave me. It fell off my desk and broke. Will you fix it or get me a new one?” This seems absurd. However, this is how we treat God. God gave us the earth, our bodies, etc. Then when we don’t take care of what God gave us, we expect Him to fix it. God can extend mercy towards us, but we need to learn that we have been given the great responsibility to subdue this earth. Exercise your God-given authority and bring the world into subjection to God’s plan in your life.
