Jesus became an earthly seed. He paid that price for us to have authority as sons of men. God created the earth, but its rule and dominion were given to the hands of men (Ps. 8). That rule and dominion is not merely an exercise of the flesh. It is an implementation of the power of heaven to the things that are both visible and invisible in this world. I believe a good definition of subduing is that of destroying any testimony of death with the testimony of heaven’s life. It is revealed through testimonies such as light to darkness, healing to sickness, order to disorder, fullness to emptiness, freedom to bondage, and so forth. I believe dominion is made known by truth, whereas every manifestation of truth crumbles every manifestation of lie. The exercise of subduing and dominion is not merely a natural authority, but is the authority of the Spirit made manifest in the natural. It is the testimony of the kingdom of God. It is part of the inheritance of God and it is not an attribute of flesh and blood, but is in fact natural and spirit. The power of the kingdom of God within us enables us to bring the influence of the kingdom of God to the natural things of our lives. The kingdom within us is one that makes us dependant upon Him in the Spirit, a testimony of Him in the Spirit, and one with Him in our purpose. He is the reality of Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles within our hearts. He is the testimony of righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit within our hearts (Rom. 14:17). These inward realities will affect everything we do in life. These things within us determine how we think and how we do things in life. The things we do will manifest our dependence upon God, our testimony in Christ, and our face-to-face with God in life.
Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God even when it comes to the earth. Our authority is as sons of men (male and female). Our identity as men and women is to be both born naturally, and born of the Spirit. The substance of man originated from the substance of God. God spoke to Himself in the creation of man and from Himself came the substance of man, male and female (Gen. 1:26). He also formed man from the dust of the earth; therefore man is also natural to reveal the testimony of God’s Spirit to the natural world around him (Gen. 2:7). Jesus came to restore the authority of mankind in their natural and spirit realities. These two things together make mankind spiritual (spirit-natural) beings.
Jesus was both born of Mary and born of the house of Joseph (Mt. 1:16). Jesus was born of the flesh and of the Spirit (Mt. 1:22). God became a man seed. God didn’t start in the city of Bethlehem, but He was born as Jesus in Bethlehem. Before He was flesh He was the eternal word; He was God and the expression of God – the Word. The Word didn’t start in Bethlehem, God in the flesh started in Bethlehem. The Word became a man seed in Bethlehem. He did it for us! He became a flesh and blood spirit man, because you and I must be born of the water and the spirit to enter the kingdom of God. His destiny was to become a flesh and bone man of the Spirit (Eph. 5:30), but He had to live a selfless life in the natural, bringing the influence of the kingdom of God to the world He lived in. He didn’t seek the life of the flesh, but rather the life of the Spirit in all things. It was both evident in the way He thought and in His actions in the world.
God became a firstborn for us to enter the kingdom of God on the earth. He was the first man who was fully natural and fully of the Spirit. He was a firstborn eternal man who exercised the life of heaven in the habitation of the earth. He was the first seed of a spiritual race and He was the first harvest of that seed for everyone! God loved people so much He made a way to put His Spirit within us so that we could inherit the kingdom of God. That inheritance is both in this life and in the life to come. That inheritance is ours in the increasing transitions of life. Our spirit had to become one with God’s Spirit in order to be children of God and see His inheritance increase.
God’s plan includes the natural and the spirit. Redeemed mankind has been given the right to be birthed by God’s Spirit and formed by Christ’s presence in their lives. In the natural God formed us in our mother’s womb, but we must also be formed in a womb of the Spirit to inherit the kingdom of heaven in this life and in the life that is yet to come. In truth, we were created in God before we were formed in our mother’s womb. We had to be born of God to receive what we were created to be in Christ. Being born of water and of the Spirit allows us to enter the kingdom of God. We must embrace all that is ours in the natural and we must embrace the process of increasing glory that comes through Christ’s Spirit in our lives.
God wants each of us to be who we were born to be. This includes all of the attributes that define who we are, both in the natural and in the spirit. We are each an expression of the extravagance of God and that extravagance is seen in the natural and in the spirit realities of our lives. This is what makes us unique and glorious spiritual beings of life.
Inheritance is given to the firstborn. Jesus was the firstborn of a kingdom ruling race of humanity. He was the inheritor of all that is found in the family estate. He was an inheritor of His Father’s glory. Through Jesus we can receive the benefits of the firstborn. Those in Him inherit the kingdom of God. In Christ we have been given the destiny of the firstborn. All of the inheritance of God is ours in Christ. We are all of His inheritance in the body of redeemed humanity.
Jesus followed the rules of the earthly seed in order to establish the authority of the heavenly seed in the earth. Everything He did in the natural was connected to His divine connection in the Spirit. He did only that which He saw His heavenly Father doing. He was joined to God in the Spirit and fully engaged in His natural responsibilities in life. He instructed us to have that same type of relationship with God in life. We are to pray to ‘our Father’, not merely to a Mighty God. We are to expect His kingdom to come and His will to be done ‘on earth’ exactly as it is ‘in heaven’. This is the kind of walk that Jesus walked in life. Do you suppose that Jesus as a baby needed a diaper change? As a boy, did He fall down and scrape His knee? In the carpenter shop of His stepfather Joseph, did He make the first project perfect? As a baby He lived in the authority of a baby. As a boy He lived in the authority of a boy. As a young man He lived in the authority of a young man. As a man of the age of inheritance, He lived as a man of the age of inheritance. He didn’t seek His heavenly Father’s glory until He was thirty and He didn’t embrace the cross until He was thirty-three. He was faithful to His natural responsibilities in every step of His journey as a man and He didn’t see the first thirty years of His life as nothing. He exercised heavenly authority in every stage of His life. He was real to every moment and real to every step of His journey in life. Authority is the result of a process. Jesus walked out His heavenly call in an earthly body.
Jesus started His walk on earth from a birthright that was both heavenly and earthly. We are supposed to believe that heaven is to come on earth. Jesus was born of God and born of man so that all men would know the confession of God as their Father, the testimony of His anointing, and the glory of living with Him in every step of their journey in life. We have a birthright that is both heavenly and earthly. We have been born, and we have been born again. We are born of the water and of the Spirit. In Christ we know the reality of being born natural and born spirit. We must life a selfless life in the natural, bringing the influence of the kingdom of God to the world in which we live. We must seek the life of God’s Spirit in all things, but we must manifest our dependence upon Him, our testimony in Him, and our face-to-face living with Him. These things will be seen though the way we think and the way we do things in life. We will be empowered to live for God the Father and the wellbeing of others. The kingdom of God is within us, but His righteousness, peace, and joy will be made known His Spirit in us. It will be seen in and through our natural lives in this world.
Food For Thought,
Ted J. Hanson
