Adam Failed to Exercise Dominion

Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” (Genesis 1:28)

Then the Lord God took the ma and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it. (Genesis 2:15)

Adam was given dominion over everything on the earth. That is, he had authority to rule and reign over the earth on behalf of God, in whose image he was created.

But somehow, Adam failed to fully exercise this dominion. For there cropped up in the garden a death-dealing tree — the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. It did not come from God but from the enemy. Like the enemy in one of Jesus’ parables, who sowed tares among the wheat (Matthew 13:24-30).

Just as the tares looked very much like wheat — until they both came into fruition — so the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil looks so much like the Tree of Life. But the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge actually leads to death. God said, “but of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die” (Genesis 2:17).

As soon as Adam heard that, he should have immediately exercised his authority to tend and keep the garden. He should have gone and ripped that tree out of the ground and cast it out of the garden.

And perhaps he would have done that, except that the idea somehow crept in that the evil Tree could not even be touched. That is what Eve thought. She (mis)quoted God as saying, “You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die” (Genesis 3:3). A seed of doubt was sown because someone added to the Word of God, saying what He did not say.

Adam missed another opportunity to exercise dominion when he failed to cast the serpent out of the garden. For God gave him authority over “every thing that moves on the earth.”

The rest is history.

The Lord Jesus Christ has given every believer the authority to call forth the kingdom of God and command the will of God to be done on earth as it is in heaven. Learn how to walk in this authority to release rivers of living water and the knowledge of God’s glory over all the earth.