DAY 6: Dominion vs. Domination
Week 1: Seeking God: The Creator of Relationship
DAY 6: Dominion vs. Domination
We hear a lot in the church that God is in control. This is not entirely true! Before you couch me as some heretic, hear me out. In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. He designed every animal and plant to be what they are and recreate their kind accordingly. None of these created things has the ability to do or be anything beyond what He created, except one, human beings. If you look at the history of human beings, we see a lot of divergence from what He created us to be and do! He created us to worship Him and yet many of us don’t. He created us to procreate through the male/female union. A lot of humans have chosen “alternative lifestyles”. He created us to be in relationship with Him and yet billions of us are not. Why? Because He also created us to have a free will unlike any other aspect of creation. He is so good and so true to Himself that He is not going to override and control this aspect of what He put in us. What He will do is honor His promises. He made us with free will and He gave us dominion over the earth. He is waiting for us to turn to Him and partner with Him for the good things that He promised. He establishes His perfect will and way and waits for us to choose it!
Because we are made in His likeness, we should take this same approach in our relationships. We need to remember that He created each person to have dominion over his or her own life, therefore, we should relate to each other in a manner that acknowledges the choices each person has. To override a spouse’s right to choose, for instance, creates a problem that either ends in a power struggle or of him or her abdicating their God-given role in their own lives which ends in compromised or unfulfilled destiny. Overriding this dominion in our children’s lives shortchanges them in that we then do not afford them the 18 years of practicing dominion in a safe training environment before they are turned loose to the intense choices the world provides. Honoring dominion versus dominating those around us actually sets a person up for responsible use of their freedom. What greater power is there than that? Not only is there powerful use of personal freedom but there is more freedom to move within each relationship because it is free from much of the conflict we see in marriages and parenting today.
Declare, “I choose to allow Holy Spirit to directly influence and empower me because He will not override my power to choose. I am a person that frees others to their personal choices as well. I will seek wisdom from God on how to blend with those in my life balancing what is important to them and what is important to me. On a good day, I am in control of me no matter what poor choices are occurring around me.”
Author of this post: Melanie Connell
