God created a corporate man in His image, according to His likeness, so that He may be expressed and represented by this man having dominion over all things (see Gen. 1:26-28).
We are created in God’s image and with His likeness not to focus on our little self, our problems, our petty concerns, or our needs, but to bear the reality of the image of God (Christ Himself) and to represent God on earth by dealing with His enemy, subduing him, and recovering the earth back to God.
This is what we are created for and this is when we are happy, when Psa. 8:1 and 9 is fulfilled – Oh Lord, our Lord, how excellent is Your name in all the earth!
The resurrected Christ possesses all authority in heaven and on earth (Matt. 28:19), but He needs us to represent Him in His authority and direct that authority toward the enemy and every rebellious element of the enemy on the earth.
First, we need to have God’s image – we need to behold the Lord’s glory, be transformed into the same image from glory to glory, be conformed to His image, so that He might be the Firstborn among many brothers.
As this takes place, if we are willing to go further, we will enter into the exercise of God’s dominion – representing God, removing the enemy from the earth, inflicting a fatal damage on him, and forcing him to retreat so that, at least in miniature, the Lord would have a “landing place” on earth where He would return and fill the whole earth with His kingdom!
Growing in the Reality of the Image and Dominion
Man was created for God, and our life is filled with meaning when we express God and represent Him. Our human life, our Christian life, our church life, and everything is for the fulfillment of God’s intention in His creation to express Himself through man and be represented in man with His dominion.
Day by day we need to enjoy and experience God’s dispensing, enjoying the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ (which is all-sufficient, never powerless, Christ living in us in His exhaustlessness), the love of God (the nature of God’s essence, the inner substance of God becoming the very element of our inner being), and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit (the unhindered flowing of the compound Spirit as the inner anointing, the flowing of life in the Body of Christ) – as seen in 2 Cor. 13:14.
As we enjoy God’s dispensing, our soul we functions as an organ of enjoyment, we have the Triune God becoming our all, and we grow in the reality of God’s image. As we experience God in His divine dispensing and in His central work, something within us will remind us to pray,
Father, strengthen me with power through Your Spirit into my inner man so that Christ may make His home deep down in my heart. Fill me unto all the fullness of God!
The more we experience and enjoy the dispensing, God is working Himself into our being, and we have a growth in the reality of the image and the dominion of God.
God Intends that Man would Subdue Satan, His Enemy
God’s intention in giving man dominion was to subdue Satan, God’s enemy, the one who rebelled against God. God doesn’t want us merely to defeat Satan or conquer him, but to subdue him.
A superior force may defeat an inferior force at least outwardly, but inwardly, the defeated ones are still rebellious and looking for an opportunity to counter-attack. But a subdued one is defeated and subdued both inwardly and outwardly, and he doesn’t even think about revenge or getting out of there – he’s fully subdued!
Man is created in the image of God because God wants that man, a creature, would deal with Satan, another of His creatures who rebelled against God. God wants man to deal with and subdue Satan.
Satan may lie to us though, causing us to think that we can’t do this, we are pitiful fallen sinful human beings….but we have been redeemed, we have been washed in the blood of the Lamb, our sins have been forgiven, we are regenerated by God to be a new creation in Christ, we are daily saved in His life, and we will reign in His life!
Man will subdue Satan – man will have dominion over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth (the biggest creep is Satan)!
Whoever Gains the Earth will Have the Victory!
photo credit: Be Part of the Solution – via Google
Right now there’s a spiritual warfare going on, and the fact that you don’t see it due to the lack of maturity doesn’t mean you’re not involved in it.
God has a problem, and God has a need. God’s problem is Satan. Theoretically God can simply just say something and deal with Satan, obliterating him from the universe – but God would not lower Himself to deal with a creature directly.
Man was created in God’s image to solve God’s problem, and God gave man the authority to subdue the enemy and the earth. God’s need to regain the earth back to Himself is also met by the man created by God.
When the Lord Jesus was on the earth and He was tempted by Satan in the wilderness, the evil one tried to lure him away from His standing as a Man. The Son of God can deal with Satan, but Christ as the Son of Man has also defeated him!
May we be one with Christ as the solution to God’s problem and not one with Satan as part of God’s problem. May our life contribute to the meeting of God’s need and the solving of God’s problem!
We as believers are part of the corporate one new man who has the authority of Christ to deal with the enemy and execute His victory over the enemy and recover the earth back to God (Isa. 14:12-14; Ezek. 28:12-18).
Many believers and unbelievers alike may want to “go to heaven” and be there in “the city of gold with gates of pearls”….but God’s desire has always been with the earth. God wants to recover the earth and bring in His kingdom on earth, and for this, He created man in His image.
Satan rebelled against God and throughout the ages has hindered God to a great extent from gaining a corporate man who will recover the earth. Satan usurps and destroys man and the earth, while God desires to regain the earth and rule on earth. Whoever gains the earth will have the victory!
Who Will Pay the Price to Do the Work of God of Recovering the Earth?
Brother Watchman Nee opens up this matter in his book on, The Glorious Church (see chapter 1 especially). We may do many necessary works for God like saving souls, taking care of people, studying the truth, helping the church, serving the church, etc – and yet still preserve something for ourselves.
We may preach the gospel, migrate to a remote location for the Lord’s move, labor in the truth, serve extensively in the church, and still reserve something for the self. But we need to have a God-centered view of what He desires to accomplish today. What God ultimately desires is to recover the earth from the usurping hand of Satan, and in dealing with Satan no ground can be left for the self!
We need to calculate the cost and be sober and clear before the Lord concerning this, and have a personal dealing with Him in this respect, telling Him,
Lord, I place myself into Your hands for THIS. Lord, whatever the cost, whatever it takes, do this in me. I want to be one with You in Your central work of recovering the earth. Lord, I was made for this, I have Your image for this, I am in the church for this, and I live and breathe for this, for Your purpose to be accomplished and Your enemy to be defeated!
We need to see what is God’s purpose in creating us, what does He need today, and what His problem is. God is “short of men” who are willing to be dealt with by Him, filled by Him, and used by Him to deal with His enemy so that the earth would be regained by God for His kingdom.
The price is high – it will cost us our self. But there’s no fear here – we fear rather saving our soul-life unto the end than losing our soul-life today for the Lord’s sake so that we may regain it later.
Satan fears only one kind of person – someone who does not love his soul life. But who will pay the price? Who will do the central work of God as part of the corporate one new man to defeat Satan and subdue him, and recover the earth back for God?
Lord Jesus, shine in us and enlighten us that we may be clear concerning what You are doing today and what Your need is. Lord, may we really see what we are here on earth for. You have a need. Lord, You have a problem. Save us from being part of Your problem anymore. We join ourselves to the resurrected and ascended Christ as the Head of the Body to be one with Him in His subduing and defeating Satan and recovering the earth. May the whole earth be the Lord! Lord, do whatever it takes in many believers on earth that they would pray in this way and give You the best cooperation for You to regain the earth!
References and Further Reading
- Inspiration: bro. Ron Kangas’ sharing in the message and portions in, The Glorious Church (by Watchman Nee, see ch. 1), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on the Crystallization Study of Genesis (1), week/msg 5, Dominion—Subduing the Enemy, Recovering the Earth, and Exercising God’s Authority over the Earth.
- Hymns on this topic:
# Hallelujah! Christ is Victor, / Soon His voice shall ring, / “Come ye conquerors, come up hither, / Join thy conquering King.”
# ’Tis the local church proclaiming, / Jesus is Lord! / All the saints with joy are naming / Jesus as Lord. / All His work He has completed, / Satan and his hosts defeated; / On the throne of glory seated, / Jesus is Lord!
# O hallelujah, one new man, / The building of God’s plan! / God’s plan throughout eternity— / Not man, but men built corporately. / This man cannot be beat, / All things beneath his feet, / Christ and the church one man complete.
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