Speak life with authority

Now the LORD God had formed out of the ground all the wild animals and all the birds in the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would name them; and whatever the man called each living creature, that was its name. 20 So the man gave names to all the livestock, the birds in the sky and all the wild animals. Genesis 2:19-20

Do we truly understand our authority over our lives? This isn’t to say that we are all-powerful, as that is reserved exclusively for God, and if we were, then we likely wouldn’t need God. Yet have we allowed various influences to convince us that we have little power? Looking at the scriptures above, we find God in the early stages of creation, and he is already teaching us lessons about our dominion. In the beginning, God created all things, and thus he owns them. Yet now we see God extending that ownership to man when he says, “I created them, but whatever you call them will be their name.” You can almost imagine a large animal with four thick legs and a long nose approaching Adam, who pauses before he says, “Elephant.” God would then look at the elephant and say, “You heard what the man said!” This would then be repeated for the giraffe, cougar, eagle, pig, and every other animal, fish, and bird.

While we could glean many meanings from these verses, we want to focus on dominion today. In Genesis 1:26, we find, Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.” God had already given man dominion and was now teaching man how to walk in it using spoken words. Every time Adam opened his mouth to speak a name, he exercised the authority God had given him. It is often not enough to think a thing, but we must put the effort into speaking it. When we think something, it is limited to our minds, but when we speak it, we release it to accomplish a task. In the beginning, as God was creating everything, he would first conceive a thought, but then he would speak to release that thought so that creation could occur.

Consider Isaiah 55:11 when it says, “… so is my word that goes out from my mouth: It will not return to me empty, but will accomplish what I desire and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.”. When God speaks, he fully expects everything to change and conform to his demands, and he does not consult with anyone or anything to see if it is okay to make this request. More specifically, when God speaks, it is not a request but a spoken command that cannot be refused and must be complied with. This is the same dominion God extended to us, and it all started with Adam naming animals.

As you read over this, can you identify areas where you have been passive about walking in authority and speaking to your circumstances? “Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them. Mark 11:2