God’s Need is for Man to Subdue God’s Enemy and Recover the Earth for God’s Kingdom

God needs man to recover the earth for God; He gave man to have dominion over the earth to subdue it, conquer it, and deal with God’s enemy so that He may recover the earth for the kingdom of God. This is God’s need.

This is God’s intention from the very beginning.

He created man in His image and according to His likeness and gave man His dominion to recover the earth for God. Man, however, has failed God; Adam fell, being deceived by Satan, and all of his descendants are born in sin and rebellion toward God.

However, God’s need is still to recover the earth and make it His kingdom; God’s purpose is related to man and the earth.

So He needs to gain a group of people who would cooperate with Him and meet His need.

He chose Abraham, one man out of many on the earth, and He multiplied his seed to gain a people, the people of Israel, so that He would have a kingdom on earth. Abraham and his descendants, however, have also failed God, for they forsook God and did not fulfill His purpose.

So God Himself became a man to be the real seed of Abraham for the blessing of all the nations and the real seed of the woman to destroy the head of the serpent.

Christ in Himself has fulfilled the purpose of God, for He both expressed God with His image and represented Him with His dominion, casting out Satan and releasing people from his oppression.

This One, the One who has overcome Satan in every way and has destroyed him on the cross, He is in us to make us His reproduction and continuation.

The church is on earth to fulfill the work of God and meet God’s need, which is to recover the earth for God to bring in His kingdom.

And Eph. 4:13 tells us, Until we all arrive at the oneness of the faith and of the full knowledge of the Son of God.

We all will arrive – Hallelujah! – but not all of us will arrive at the same time. Some will arrive a little earlier, some a little later, but we all will arrive!

Those who arrive a little earlier are the overcomers, those who cooperate with the Lord today to allow Him to work in their being, subdue the enemy in them, and transform them to be part of His corporate expression on earth.

We should not think, however, that we are not qualified to be overcomers; we can absolutely be and will definitely be an overcomer, for the New Jerusalem is composed of the overcomers.

There is no single person in the New Jerusalem who is not an overcomer. We all will overcome!

But the question is when; some will overcome earlier, for they give the Lord their cooperation in this age, but others – even the majority of believers – will overcome later, and they will arrive at the goal in the next age.

May we be those who cooperate with the Lord in this age for Him to carry out His purpose through us and recover the earth through the church for His kingdom to come in.

God’s Need is to Recover the Earth through Man, so Man needs to Subdue God’s Enemy and the Earth

God’s original intention in creating man was that man would express Him in His image and represent Him with His dominion; today God’s need is that man would recover the earth (Gen. 1:26, 28; Matt. 6:10; Rev. 5:10).

When God created the earth, it was perfect; everything that God does and makes is perfect.

However, Satan rebelled against God; he lifted up his hand against God and became God’s opposer and enemy in the universe.

He not only rebelled against God but also usurped the earth, becoming the illegal ruler of the earth.

Because God wants to gain the earth, Satan came in to make the earth the sphere of his operation. So God created man to deal with the enemy and recover the earth.

God is great and almighty, but He would not lower Himself to deal with one of His creatures; He wants man to recover the earth from the corruption to which it is enslaved (see Rom. 8).

The whole creation is groaning and eagerly awaiting the manifestation of the sons of God.

Man was created by God to have dominion over the earth, to subdue it, conquer it, and thereby recover the earth for God.

God’s intention in giving man dominion is that he would subdue God’s enemy, Satan, who rebelled against God.

Because of Satan’s rebellion, the earth became desolate and destroyed, and death and corruption operate on earth among all living things.

The fact that man has to subdue the earth (Gen. 1:28) implies that there’s a war raging on earth between God and His enemy, Satan; this war is not seen with human eyes but it goes on in the spiritual realm. Whoever gains the earth will have the victory.

This is quite mysterious because the war is invisible. When we are young in the Lord we may not be aware of this spiritual warfare going on, but the more we grow in the Lord and become more mature in the divine life, the more we are aware of the warfare going on behind the physical realm.

God has a problem: Satan, the archangel who rebelled against God and became His enemy in the universe, and especially on earth (Isa. 14:12-14; Ezek. 28:12-18).

The real problem is Satan, not man. We may look at the situation in the world today and wonder, Where is God?

But as believers in Christ, we need to realize that, even though there’s a pandemic on earth, there are wars, there is social unrest, and there are so many racial tensions and financial issues, God is behind all these things, and Satan is working to usurp the earth and man.

All the things happening today, including the pandemic, have to do with God’s purpose, for Satan is resisting God, his resistance is intensified, but God in Christ as the Spirit is also intensified sevenfold.

And the way this story ends is that God will gain the victory through and with His overcomers! In order for man to subdue God’s enemy and recover the earth, thus solving God’s problem and meeting God’s need, God gave man authority to rule over all things created by God.

Man is the highest creation of God; it is not the angels that the Lord entrusts His authority nor is it any powerful archangel – it is man who has God’s authority to subdue the enemy and recover the earth.

Man is not a mammal – man is in the image of God to become the reproduction of God, to rule over all creation, and to subdue God’s enemy.

Man especially must rule over the earth and even subdue the earth because the earth has been usurped by God’s rebellious enemy.

May we be those who see God’s need to recover the earth and stand one with God to subdue His enemy by exercising His dominion in prayer.

Thank You, Lord, for creating us in Your image and according to Your likeness so that we may express You and represent You with Your dominion. Thank You for giving us Your authority to rule over the earth and subdue it. Amen, Lord, we come to You to be one with You and meet Your need, that we would recover the earth and subdue Your enemy. Cause us to realize that there’s a spiritual warfare going on behind the scenes. We stand one with You, Lord, to exercise Your authority as the church to rule over the enemy and subdue him. Amen, Lord, gain a group of people on earth who stand with You to meet Your need, those who subdue the enemy and recover the earth for God!

Doing the Work of God to Subdue God’s Enemy and Recover the Earth for God’s Kingdom

It is quite amazing to realize that God would not deal with Satan by Himself; He would not lower Himself to deal with a creature, Satan, but He has entrusted His authority to man to do it.

God needs man to exercise His authority over all the creeping things and to subdue and conquer the rebellious earth so that God may recover the earth for His kingdom (Matt. 6:9-10; Rev. 5:10).

Satan is a creep and a creeping thing; we were given authority to subdue him and recover the earth for God and His kingdom.

This is God’s need, and this is the work of God that the church has to do. Preaching the gospel is not merely for saving souls but to subdue the enemy and recover the earth for God.

Many times, however, we focus on saving souls; saving men from eternal perdition meets man’s need, but exercising God’s authority over the enemy meets God’s need.

We are not here only to be holy, victorious, and loving, neither are we here merely to live a good Christian life and an enjoyable church life.

We are here to do the work of God, not merely meeting man’s need but even more, meeting God’s need and doing the work of God, which is to subdue God’s enemy and recover the earth for God’s kingdom.

May the Lord have mercy on us and enlighten us that we would see God’s need.

We have not only the ministry of reconciliation to bring man close to God and reconcile them to God; we also have been entrusted with the work of God so that we may subdue God’s enemy and recover the earth for God.

In order for us to rule for God, however, we need to pay a price.

The enemy knows who we are and what we are, and he is not afraid of us when we are not dealt with and are not fully one with God.

If we are to be men whom God will use to overthrow Satan’s work and authority, we must obey the Lord completely and absolutely.

In Acts 19:15 the demons once said, Jesus I know, and with Paul, I am acquainted, but who are you?

Satan knows whether we obey God and are one with Him, and he is not afraid of those who don’t pay the price to be dealt with by the Lord.

The way we deal with the enemy and his schemes is not by making a sign and going to march on the street; joining a protest has little meaning in God’s eyes.

We shouldn’t waste our time trying to solve the problems in society, nor should we try to run for office so that, as a Christian, we would fix the issues in society today.

The problems today have only one solution: the coming kingdom.

Only in the coming kingdom, there will be righteousness, for in this kingdom Christ is the King; in this kingdom, there’s no social unrest, inequality, racism, or any of the problems that we see today.

If politicians can solve these problems, they would have been solved a long time ago; these problems in society today can only be solved by the coming of the kingdom of God.

This is why we are here today, to deal with God’s enemy and recover the earth for God and His kingdom so that He would bring in His kingdom on the earth.

The way we can deal with the problems today is not by making a poster and marching in a parade but by living an overcoming life.

If we do not restore the earth from the hand of Satan, we have not yet achieved God’s purpose in creating man to subdue the earth and have dominion. Oh, Lord!

We need to deal with Satan and recover the earth for the benefit of God, to satisfy His need, and to do the work of God.

This is not merely a message or teaching; this requires our practice, and the price to be paid is very great. We cannot be double-minded; we cannot compromise.

When we study the Scriptures or preach the gospel, when we serve in the church or help the saints, we may hold something of ourselves, but when we deal with Satan, the self must be utterly abandoned.

We can never deal with Satan if the self is preserved.

May we give ourselves to the Lord wholly and absolutely so that He may deal with us, perfect us, train us, equip us, and make us one with Him to subdue God’s enemy and recover the earth for God and His kingdom.

Lord Jesus, we give ourselves to You wholly and absolutely for Your purpose. We are not here for ourselves; we are here for You. We abandon ourselves and we want to obey You completely and absolutely so that we may do the work of God today. Amen, Lord, we abandon the self and we take You as our life and person so that we may deal with God’s enemy and recover the earth for God. We do not want to hold anything of ourselves or be attached to anything of this world – we simply join ourselves to You for the fulfillment of Your purpose. Amen, Lord, may we be those used by God to overthrow all of Satan’s work and authority, and may we be part of the dispensational instrument used by God to end this age and bring in the age of the kingdom!

References and Hymns on this Topic

• Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, a message by bro. Mark Raabe on this topic, and portions from, Collected Works of Watchman Nee, vol. 34, “The Glorious Church“, pp. 10-12, as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Meeting God’s Need and Present needs in the Lord’s Recovery, week 1, God’s Need in the Present Age.
• Hymns on this topic:
  – In the Word of old, we are clearly told, / In His image God created man. / To express His worth, to subdue the earth, / Have dominion and fulfill His plan. / Image, image, / In His image He created man. / Image, image, / For dominion, to fulfill His Plan. (Hymns #1144)
  – O praise the Lord, God has a plan— / That’s why He formed a man; / To exercise authority, / Subdue the earth entirely. / O what a joy to be / In His recovery, / O praise God He made me a V.I.P. (Hymns #1231)
  – Lo, the conflict of the ages / Is upon us today, / And the forces of rebellion / Are in total array. / The humanity of Jesus / Now the saints must possess, / His true image and dominion / On the earth to express. / Let us stand up in Jesus / In His full human life, / Human virtues prevailing / ’Gainst corruption so rife; / In this wickedness concerted, / In this age perverse, perverted, / The humanity of Jesus / Must the church now display. (Hymns #1172)