What is dominion anyway?

There are seven major blind spots in the body of Christ. One of them is personal dominion and because it is a blind spot, dealing with it tends to bring up many opinions and in some cases, great offence.

The word "dominion" is a noun and it means "sovereignty" or "control over".  A secondary definition is used when defining a territory of government. from Genesis 1 to Revelation 1, the word dominion is used over 50 times in the bible and each time it is used it sends a clear message of absolute power and authority.

Some of the most powerful verses in the Bible using dominion are in Romans when Paul says sin shall not have dominion over you for you are not under law but under grace.  He also adds that sin has dominion over a man while he (the man) is alive.  Of course in Jesus we are all crucified with Christ and baptized into His death. This means that the sin that once dominated us cannot do that anymore unless we come into agreement with it.  How do we do that? We make a choice to.

To better understand this concept, you have to first see that modern believers hate to publicly admit they enjoy sin. They have shame over their sin and instead of letting God remove that shame, they usually try to hide it and in effect end up protecting it by putting on a happy face and pretending they have no problems. That behavior is proof that sin is reigning in you and has dominion over you.

All throughout the Old Testament the word Dominion is used to reference when then the Philistines had dominion over Israel or when David was given dominion forever over Israel. In Genesis, mankind as a whole is given dominion in the entire earth including the seas, lands and all of the animals. In Revelation, Jesus has all authority, power and dominion. So dominion is a big deal. Its no small thing. It's a state of controlled rule or governing that leaves no doubt whatsoever as to who is in charge and who is not.

Now, with dominion defined, what is that supposed to look like in the life of the modern Christian?  To understand that you first need to see our complete and utter helpless state we begin in. When we are a "slave to sin" or "born into sin" as the bible says, it means the dominion in our lives is predetermined by sin, otherwise known as your fallen nature or "flesh". You are not born with the ability to overcome sin. You can resist it with human effort and you can be trained to shun certain aspects or behaviors, but you are still genetically hard wired to be a sinner. The idea of being free from sin's pull on your life is hopeless without Jesus' intervention.

One of the many amazing things about the Holy Spirit is His ability to separate your soul from your spirit within your own understanding. When you believe in Jesus with your whole heart and surrender your life to Him, the Holy Spirit starts a work in your life called "sanctification" and that work over time reveals to you the real person God created you to be, free from the stain of the sinful nature. 

God created you on purpose for Him to be a perfect Father to you and you to be a perfect son or daughter to Him. That means He is in dominion of the Fathering side of the relationship and you are in dominion if the "sonship" side of the relationship. He has absolute authority and governmental control as a Father, you have the same authority back the other way as a son or daughter.

When you think about it, you getting saved to begin with is your very first step of personal dominion. You recognize that you are under the dominion of sin and you further recognize that nothing you ever do will ever change that. You then recognize that Jesus died in your place paying for the sins you are guilty of and you accept that His death takes the place of your own removing the wall of sin that separated you from God. This is the very first step in personal dominion as you take personal responsibility for your own condition of being born under the water of sin. 

With that first step in place, the Holy Spirit then begins His beautiful transforming work in our lives as He slowly reveals area after area that He alone can touch, heal and ultimately change. he does this by revealing to us that a given area is actually dead when we felt like in our fallen state that it was alive.  The problem is many believers simply enjoy that death so much that they will actually resist the Holy Spirit's working. God reveals where he wants to work next and when it gets too close to what our flesh likes, we begin to protect that death from Jesus' life giving touch.  We literally rebel and say "No Jesus, don't raise that death up and make it life in me, my flesh likes that death too much and I don't want to be resurrected away from it".  Of course, most believers would never publicly say that, but that is exactly what they are quietly telling the Holy Spirit with their actions. 

Personal Dominion puts us back in charge of ourselves because it allows us to move with the authority of Jesus to overcome sin and death.... but since most folks are far too in love with their sin, and far too prideful to just admit that they like it, they instead try to introduce a third party or a distraction into the equation.  For example, this is what Adam did when God confronted him about the tree.  Adam could have and should have said "I am guilty, forgive me.." that would have been personal dominion. Instead he blamed Eve trying to protect his own sin.  Eve then turns around and does the exact same thing.  She could have also admitted her sin but instead she blamed the serpent. 

In our personal ministry, God uses us all the time to challenge and to convict others. People are brought to a place of choice and decision as we minister. Those who move in personal dominion by admitting their sin receive incredible and intense healing and are changed from their former death into beautiful life... but many instead choose to protect their sin by using us as their distraction. "Your ministry didn't do this or that right".. or "your delivery was a bit harsh for me".. or any other number of false accusations, all designed to try and take the convicting power of the Holy Spirit off of themselves.

Victimization is really an evil spirit manifesting. Its a Spirit of Self Pity, which is a close cousin to Self Hatred. Do you hate yourself? Well, first define your true self. Your real, true self is the person Jesus created you to be. This person is free from all sin and death. Do you hate this person Jesus created? Even if you say no, consider that if you protect your sin by your choices, you are acting out in hatred of your true self. By blaming a third party, you are really asking for and moving in self pity which is manipulation and ultimately a snub to a loving God trying to help you come into your true self. 

Consider the little girl who we will call "Pam".  Pam gets abused at the age of 5 by an uncle. Pam is now in her mid 40s. Was it Pam's fault she got abused? Of course not. However, was it Pam's choice to hold onto the decades of bitterness, mistrust of men and frustration instead of receiving healing? Absolutely it is. It wasn't Eve's fault that the serpent came to her and deceived her, that's on the serpent.. but it WAS Eve's fault that she allowed the behavior of the serpent to dictate her actions.  Remember, we're not assigning blame to Pam, we are giving Pam back her dignity and self respect.. but the price Pam will pay to receive self love and self respect is her self hatred and self pity. To pay that price, Pam will need to take ownership of the fact that she received the bitterness and let it fester for years. That festering was her choice and had absolutely nothing to do with the original abuser.

In our lives today, we all have many choices that we make every hour of every day. The idea that Jesus died to give us back our ability to make these choices more clearly and even under an anointing is what the concept of Personal Dominion is all about.  It disallows Self Pity, victimization, Self hatred and other sinful and fleshly activities and instead paints a clear path to life in the Holy Spirit where each person takes personal responsibility before God for themselves. 

Satan's attack is almost always to use your fallen mind to create a distraction to help you justify disobedience to what the Lord is asking of you. If you are supposed to give money to a ministry, Satan will try to introduce the thought of a different ministry that abused money in your past.  If Jesus leads you to forgive a past abuser, Satan will refresh your memory with the pain of the original attack.  If God leads you to start a ministry of your own, Satan will parade out a list of your own insecurities and try to "distract" you from the truth... what is the truth? The truth is that you and you alone have the personal authority and dominion in your life to make whatever changes and choices you wish to make.. and if you allow the Holy Spirit to lead you in those choices, all of the health, wealth, provision and prosperity of the Kingdom of God will be yours.

More soon,

Mark

---