Intimacy with God – Administering His Authority (Part I)

In creation we were also gifted with God’s authority. God blessed us and gave us the authority to be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, subdue it and have dominion over all the earth. This was an operational, as well as an administrative authority. We had to be fully engaged and subject to God in exercising this authority. The five-fold function listed above constituted our responsibility.

In other words, this was a legal position, where we functioned under God, exercising His authority over all of creation. Creation was in our care. There were several powers and systems that were also in operation within creation; all of these were subject to our authority, as we functioned under God. This was a marvellous arrangement and an awesome status for man.

It was obvious that we would never be able to handle this grand authority without God. We had to be God dependent. God dependence came naturally to us as we were enjoying intimacy with God resulting in us expressing God’s nature. (Here is a glimpse of what sin really is. Sin is being independent from God.)

To exercise authority over creation, we needed to be close and intimate with God. We had to discern His plan and purposes. We needed to listen to Him and learn from Him. We were to be subject to God.

It’s like taking charge of the operation of a department from the CEO of the company. The CEO has plans and purposes. He has a larger mandate for the company, but he has delegated the authority of the department to an individual. How should this person, heading the department, relate with the CEO? Would it not be natural for the department head to have constant interaction with the CEO, listening to him, understanding his purpose for the department and how it fits with the larger purpose of the company? In other words, the head of the department would need to be subject to the CEO.

This is just a microscopic example of the larger mandate for mankind. We were given authority over all of creation under God. We were endued with all the needed potential to handle such a mammoth task. This was not beyond us since we were created by God for this purpose, to execute His authority over all of creation.

Hence, man must be subject to God in order to function rightly and exercise His authority over all of creation. The need for intimacy with God is mandatory for several reasons, but not being close to and in subjection to Him, has scary and frightening consequences. Man, on his own, is dangerous - a hazard and a disaster. Subjection to God is therefore the starting point for an intimate relationship with God.