Stop
Whining and Take Dominion!
GrassTopsUSA Guest Commentary
By Janet Folger
05-03-08If I
didn't know it before, the primary election has taught me that what the
pundits say means absolutely nothing. I have grown weary of the puffed
up pontificating by the self-appointed experts and the arguments of
agenda and the spin cycle of what passes for news. Doesn't matter how
"well-informed" we think we're becoming by watching them; none of it
really matters.
At a time when people are so desperate for truth that that they're
turning to the likes of Oprah by the millions, I'm here to proclaim just
where to find it ... and it's not in her online class or the network
programming. It's in that book you pushed aside to read all that other
stuff. Yeah, the Bible. Psalm 119:160 says, "The entirety of your
word is truth." The entirety. Every single word. Despite the
commentaries to the contrary, it is what is real.
But it's not only truth; it's power for real Christians. But who is
that?
I quit asking people if they are "Christian" because there are so
many with that label that they no longer know what it means. Charles
Spurgeon said, "If righteousness has not changed your behavior, it
has not changed your eternal destiny." A frightening thought for
millions, to be sure. Perhaps a better question when you want to know
the relationship someone has with their Creator is: "Are you in love
with God?"
If you are one of the ones who love God with your whole heart, soul,
mind and strength, this column is for you. If you are not, seek Him and
He will be found. And when you trust Him and His every word more than
the "experts," more than circumstances and more than every emotion to
the contrary, you are moving to the place I'm talking about.
Now, if every word God says is true, and I'm convinced it is, then
listen to what is in store for the Christian who trusts in it and loves
God enough to actually do what He says.
In Matthew 9:29, when healing the blind, Jesus said, "According to
your faith" it will "be done to you." Take a look at how the
Amplified Bible defines faith:
Now faith is the assurance
(the confirmation, the title deed) of the things [we] hope for,
being the proof of things [we] do not see and the conviction of
their reality [faith perceiving as real fact what is not revealed to
the senses]. – Hebrews 11:1
Need assurance? Proof? Confirmation?
How about the "title deed"? That's what faith is. A done deal.
This isn't for the outsider who's praying to become a rock star. This
verse is for the people who are in a friendship relationship with God,
the ones who spend so much time with Him that they know God's heart,
what He loves, what He hates, what He wants. That's how you know the
kind of prayers to pray. And when we pray according to His will, we know
two things according to 1 John 5:14-15: First, He hears us, and second,
we "have" it (even before we happen to see it):
Now this is the confidence that we have in Him, that if we ask anything
according to His will, He hears us. And if we know that He hears us,
whatever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we have asked
of Him. – 1 John 5:14, 15
So, if you're praying in God's will,
in faith, you have the "title deed," but there's something else
you have when facing a huge dead-bolted door: the key.
In Matthew 4, the devil, whom the Bible called "the ruler of this
world," tempted Jesus with the planet, saying, "All these things
I will give you if you will fall down and worship me."
Of course, Jesus said (essentially), "No deal." Satan was running
the place, but when Jesus took the punishment our sins deserved on the
cross and rose again, Jesus "got the keys back." He reconciled us
to himself and handed them over to us as he said in Matthew 16:19:
And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you
bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth
will be loosed in heaven.
With the keys Jesus gave us, we have
authority, responsibility, access and ownership. Which brings us back to
"Plan A" in the first chapter of Genesis where God told us to
"have dominion over … every living thing that moves on the earth."
With the title deed and the keys we've been given, we now can take
dominion as was the original plan and see God's will be done "on
earth as it is in Heaven," just like we've been praying in the
Lord's prayer all this time.
So, here's my question. Just what do you have faith for? Psalm 2:8 says:
"Ask of me, and I will give you the nations for your inheritance, and
the ends of the earth for your possessions." That sounds pretty good
to me. I'd like to start with taking my country back. To "occupy"
until He comes.
I've turned off the pundits to tap into the power. I want to know God's
heart enough to come into alignment with Him and start turning some keys
and opening some doors. It's time we take ownership and occupy the
centers of influence and the areas of our culture Christians have
vacated. It's time we stop whining about how big the giants are and
start coming back to "Plan A": dominion. You have the keys. You
have the title deed. What are you waiting for? Even the heaviest iron
door doesn't stand a chance.
