God’s Intention is that Man would Reign in Life with Christ over All Things

God had a specific purpose in His creation of man. He created man in His own image and with His likeness so that man may express God and represent God (see Gen. 1:26).

This means that God has a twofold desire in His creation of man – He wants man to possess His image and express Him in full, and He desires that man would represent God with His authority to deal with His enemy and bring in His kingdom. This is the purpose we live on earth for.

We are not here for money, fame, family, society, Facebook, gadgets, music, or anything else; we are here for God’s purpose, and we are meant to be His expression and His representation on earth.

Specifically concerning the aspect of representing God with His dominion, as long as we are willing to live for God, He will grant us authority so that we may reign in life (see Eph. 1:22-23; Rom. 16:20). God wants us to reign in life over ourselves, over sin, over death, and over every negative thing. Before we can reign together with God over the nations and over the earth, we first need to reign in life today over sin and death (see Rom. 5:17, 21).

May we see God’s desire and intention in His creation of man, and may we be those who give Him our best cooperation that we may reign in life by being reigned on by Him in all things!

God’s Intention is that Man Would Reign for God

God’s intention is that man would reign over all things for God. God created man with His image that man would express Him, and He gave man dominion over everything and everyone on earth so that man would represent Him and reign. In the Old Testament we see many examples of men who reigned for God:

• Moses reigned for God when he was one with God to lift up the rod over the Red Sea to part it for the children of Israel to pass through (see Exo. 14).
• Joshua prayed to God that the sun would stand still in the sky so that the people of Israel would prevail over their enemies, and God listened to him (see Joshua 10).
• Elijah prayed to God to stop the rain and then later prayed that God would allow the rain to fall, and God listened to Him (see 1 Kings 17-18).
• Daniel was in the lions’ den for one whole night, and he was not touched by them – he “shut” the lions’ mouth (see Daniel 6).

In the New Testament, we also see many who reigned in life for God, such as:

• The Lord Jesus ruled for God by healing the sick (Matt. 8:8-9), casting out the unclean spirits (Mark 1:27), rebuking and calming the storm on the sea (Matt. 8:26-27), etc.
• The apostles reigned for God by healing the sick, casting out evil spirits, and doing many miracles in the name of the Lord Jesus (see Acts 3:6-7; 14:8-10; 19:12; 16:18).
• In the coming kingdom, the overcomers will reign with Christ and will rule over the nations (see Rev. 2:26-27).
• For eternity, all the saved ones of God will rule and reign with God forever over the whole universe (see Rev. 22:5).

The ultimate destiny of God’s creation of man is for man to express Him and represent Him, and for eternity He will gain a corporate man who expresses Him in full and represents Him to deal with His enemy. Until that day, we as the many believers in Christ are being built up as the one new man and are learning to reign in life, regaining the earth piece by piece, city by city, and country by country.

God desires to save man not only from sin, the flesh, and mistakes but to the extent that man would reign for God in the heavenly realm. The goal of God’s salvation is that we may reign in life through Christ and in Christ.

The standard of our Christian life is that we would reign in life with Christ over all things. It is not enough that we would deal with sin, sins, the world, the flesh, the self, and the natural man, and it is not even enough that we are filled with the Holy Spirit and sitting in the heavenly realm.

We need to arrive at the stage in our experience of life where we reign in life with Christ over all things and in all environments. God must gain such a people who are one with Him to execute His authority, so that His kingdom come and His will be done on earth!

What is Reigning in Life?

What does it mean to “reign in life”? Does it mean that we “rule over other people”, or that we “behave like kings” in the situations we are in? NO! Reigning in life, as seen throughout the Bible, is not merely reigning outwardly but inwardly – reigning over the self, over our being, and in all our living – versus having a position, power, and a work.

If you read the story of Joseph in the Old Testament (he represents the reigning in life aspect of a mature life, which is the life of Jacob), you will see that the Bible doesn’t say much about how Joseph ruled outwardly over people or Egypt but rather speaks of how Joseph ruled over lust (in the case of Potiphar’s wife) and over his being in dealing with his brothers.

If you read Matt. 5-7, the constitution of the kingdom of the heavens, you will realize that the Lord Jesus doesn’t want us to “subdue those who insist we walk with them an extra mile”, or “reign over those who slap us on the right cheek”. Reigning in life has much to do with reigning over ourselves, our lust, our anxiety, over criticism, over our sense of being right, over condemning others, etc.

To reign in life means that you are reigned on by Christ and you’re not looking for any outward recognition or appreciation – you rather contact God in secret to be seen by Him. We need to live such a life of being reigned on by the Lord, so that we may also reign in life with Christ.

This is the highest standard of being a Christian, and God is working tirelessly to save us in His life to the extent that we reign with Him by first allowing Him to reign in us. In all the aspects of our daily life, our family life, our work life, our Christian life and our church life, we need to let the Lord rule and reign in us.

Lord Jesus, we enthrone You in our being. Make us those who fulfill Your purpose in creating man by allowing You to rule in their being. Lord, make us Christians according to Your standard, those whom You can entrust with Your authority to deal with Your enemy. We bring You all the aspects of our daily life with all its activities and doings. Lord, reign in us. Grow in us and cause the divine life in us to grow until we can reign in Christ over the self, sin, the flesh, death, and anything of the enemy in our being and in our environment!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Inspiration (besides the Word of God and my Christian experience): bro. Andrew Yu’s speaking in this message and portions from, The Experience of Life (ch. 17, by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Entering into the Fourth Stage of the Experience of Life to Arrive at a Full-Grown Man for the Fulfillment of God’s Purpose, week 4 / msg 4, The Fourth Stage of the Experience of Life (3) – Reigning in Life.
• Hymns on this topic:
  # Reign in me; reign in me; / May Your life, Lord, reign in me, / By Your grace abundant and Your righteousness; / May Your life, Lord, reign in me.
  # How I love Your reigning life, Lord. / How I love abundant grace. / How I love to have Your presence, / As I live before Your face. / By Your life, Lord, I am reigning. / I am over, over everything. / As I’m joyfully confessing, / Jesus, as my Lord and King.
  # Jesus the kingdom has come into us, / Reigning and shining He’s all glorious, / Christ as the seed is the King who has come, / Into our spirit His kingdom He’s sown. / O let Him grow, O let Him grow; / His kingdom life be all we know. / Jesus, the kingdom is sown into us; / Jesus, the kingdom, O how glorious!