We are looking at something that I want us to be attentive to as the Lord communicates His will to us. We are considering The Birth and The Rise of a New Kingdom. And I want us to go very quickly to the book of Genesis, we will do some studies in Genesis 1, 2, 3, but we will start from Genesis 1:1-2 before we move to other verses in the chapter. The Bible says: “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.” So, the heavens and the earth are said not to be created by a thing and the two territories are not accidental. Their occurrence or emergence is not accidental, we were told who deliberately created them. So, we saw that in the beginning, God was deliberate in the creation of heavens and the earth. Verse 2: “The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters.”
In the month of revelations that we are in, the Lord has been opening our eyes to the understanding of the role of the Holy Spirit in this verse 2. We will still come to that role later in our discussion, but we understand that God started by creating the heavens and the earth. Later the earth got into a situation that requires God to intervene. So, let us jump into verse 20 now. “Then God said, “Let the waters abound with an abundance of living creatures”, and I want you to note the word “living creatures” because it is going to become recurrent in our conversation. You can call different things different names, but you must never forget the names that God assigns to them in His word; “living creatures.”
That verse continues thus: “and let birds fly above the earth across the face of the firmament of the heavens. So, God created great sea creatures”, there is still an emphasis on creatures, because by the way, when you say “in the beginning, God created”, the creator creates His creatures. There are only three entities in the entire universe: The creator, His creation and His creatures. The creator, God, what He does is that He creates. What He creates are His creatures. Do you agree with that? So, you could call the creatures of God different names, but they are His creatures. Alright! We are going somewhere, just follow me.
“So, God created great sea creatures and every living thing that moves, with which the waters abounded, according to their kind, and every winged bird according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 22 And God blessed them, saying, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” So, if you look at verse 22, you would notice the intention of God. God didn’t hate His creatures, He created them. And after creating, the Bible says “He blessed them.” He said to them: “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let birds multiply on the earth.” I am sure you are seeing the intention of God as we are going on.
Let us go on to read verse 24. It says: “Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth the living creature according to its kind: cattle and creeping thing and beast of the earth, each according to its kind”; and it was so.” The earlier verse showed us that God spoke to the waters to produce living creatures in the water. Now the same thing is happening here, but God directed it to the earth. Bible says “cattle and creeping thing and beast of the earth, each according to its kind”; and it was so.” And God made the beast of the earth according to its kind, cattle according to its kind, and everything that creeps on the earth according to its kind. And God saw that it was good.”
So, we can see for now that God has been creating creatures, living creatures in the sea. He also created living creatures in the air and He told them where they must reign: fly in the firmament of the heavens. Now, He now directed a word to the earth to bring forth living creatures and He specified them. So, there seems to be like two or three categories of them, the cattle, the creeping thing. This teaching that the Holy Spirit is starting here won’t end here, it will continue in your closets with the Holy Spirit, because the Lord is provoking thoughts in us, thoughts that would produce in us a life of dominion.
If you see verse 25, it was reiterating what had earlier been said in verse 24, and so, there is no new thing. It just shows us that God made them, emphasizing those things that were made by God. Let us go to verse 26, because it connects with many of us. It says: “Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, (every living creature in the sea, in the waters) over the birds of the air, (any creature that is considered to fly is a bird) and over the cattle, over all the earth (the entire length and breadth of the earth) and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” Do we see the repetitions again: verse 24, 25 and 26? Showing us that the living creatures were basically, the cattle, the creeping things and then the beast of the earth. And then we have the birds that flies in the air and the fishes in the sea. Those were the five categories and I believe we noticed them.
But irrespective of how you categorized them, something is very clear. They are all living creatures. Don’t forget that. The reason why I am telling us not to forget is that in the future, we will start to meet these words again, so that we can reconnect things together. So, a living creature is either a bird that flies, or a fish in the sea or water, or cattle, a creeping thing or a beast. It must fall within the five. Let us go to verse 27. It says: “So God created man in His own image (our goal is to see The Birth and The Rise of a New Kingdom, but we are still looking at the old kingdoms); in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” 28 “Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply.” If God has stopped there, what is the difference between this blessing and the blessing that God gave to those living creatures? Are they the same or different? So, what then is the difference between the living creatures before verse 26 and the creature?
But there is a difference there between the two categories of the earlier five creatures and this new creature, because when God got to “fill the earth” He went further to say “fill the earth and subdue it.” If you are a man or a woman, this blessing is applicable to each and everyone. So, if you can find a human being in any part of the world today, it is simply because God said it, and there is no other reason for it. Sometimes we think that what God has said is not true again. Everything that God has said back then in Genesis is still true with us. When you think very well, you will understand that. God said “fill the earth” and then subdue where you fill.
It is like a water that is spreading on a surface. Don’t just spread, when you spread, go deep, take root down. And it says: “have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” Dominion here is not different from subduing, dominion here represents your act of subduing. So, what separates the living creatures then and the living creature that was produced last, is the word “Subdue.” They don’t have that responsibility of subduing, for whatever reason best known to God. God decided to give that responsibility to man. It says “subdue it, have dominion over” because that is to show us the terms of the subduing. Don’t be subduing yourself, as a man, don’t go ahead and subdue your wife. So that things are not confusing to you, God is clear.
It is your responsibility over the other living creatures that was created earlier that is the difference. It says “have dominion over the fish of the sea.” So, when you see a fish in the sea, you have a responsibility to subdue it. It says: “have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” Usually, when we us “thing”, do we use it for animate objects? But the truth is, in this place, it is not possible for something that isn’t alive to move. So, the word “thing” there actually means “every living creature.” So, another word for that thing there is “creature.” It says: and over every living thing (creature) that moves on the earth.” So, we are clear about them.
Please I want to ask us, If God had created some creatures, and He gave territories to them, and those of us that understands territories, we know the implications of them. There can never be a kingdom without territory and the inhabitants of the territory. So, God created a territory called the sea, everywhere, you will find water on the earth. The Bible referred to them as the seas, and He did not create them empty. He created them to be populated by creatures of His. Devil did not create the inhabitants of the sea; they were not a product of Satan. God created all of them. Now, the birds you see in the air, not matter their names or bigness, some birds are so minutes and you wonder how God took time to create them. Each and everyone of them have their place, you won’t find a bird joggling your bedroom with you. The birds don’t even fancy your bedroom, it is an enclosure. They love the open air more and would rather nests on the seas. So, for the birds of the air, the trees are their accommodation. And so, for those birds, they are comfortable flying in the air. And then, the creeping thing, the cattle and then the beasts of the earth. They are also comfortable where they are, and now, God now says: “you have dominion over them.”
What does it mean? The Queen of England, does she have dominion over England? Is there any part in England that is outside her dominion? Everything within United Kingdom and perhaps, in other colonies across the world, she subdues them. She has dominion over them. And please, what is the difference? Even though some of us in Africa are blacks, and she is a White Woman, is she a human being? Are we of similar complexion? But history showed that she subdued. But notice, she subdued Africa and other places simply because she was able to connect with them in some sense. She could relate, she could issue instructions to them and they could follow. And I want us to understand this. She became the Queen of England ruling over the territories, and so, she was the Queen. A male version would be the King, ruling over those territories.
So, what do you call man overt the animals? The creatures you call animals, what do you call man over them? Isn’t man the king of them? Now you say those five things are animals, but God says man is the king of them. So, Adam was the king of the earth. All the beasts of the earth, all the fishes in the sea, Adam became the king of them. He was ruling and have dominion over them. So, when an Elephant comes, Adam saw himself as the king of the Elephants. Today, we seem to have delegated the responsibility completely to Lion. But originally, man was the king over them, to the point that when a Snake comes to man, it is not coming to attack, but coming to report to the king. That was the idea.
Notice when God created the animals, He created the plants, then he created animals, He has stopped. But later on, after He brought all the animals to be named by Adam, Bible says “there was no one found that was a comparable helper for him.” And so, He decided to create. Why did God stop initially? So, it means a man could even choose, and it is going on in the world today. Some people are finding companionship in animals today, some people will choose not to marry, they go everywhere with their cats, dogs and what have you. Some old women will choose not to remarry, they choose to pour their emotions on the dog. So, perhaps Adam and the animals were playing to the point where God still realized there is a need. Let us distinguished things, king should not be relating too much with animals. Let us give him the one that was closely related to him and so, you were created.
Alright! So, do we remember the original state? There was a kingdom, there was nothing like “animal kingdom, plant kingdom, man kingdom.” There was a kingdom and the king of that kingdom was Adam, man. Except you say God was wrong when God said to man “have dominion.” Once you have been made to have dominion, you are made a king over the territory you are given dominion. And God was specific; over the birds and the fishes here and then the creeping things. Whether they are beasts in the filed or cattle, you have dominion over them, according to what happened.
Now, there is a question that has been raised and we will find answers in certain books of the Bible. But the question is this: What is the difference between those living creatures and Adam and his wife, Eve? Let us go to Genesis 3, there is something for us to see. Now we want to read Bible in a different manner now. Many of us have read this chapter several times, we want to see from verse 1 with a different eye. The Bible says: “Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?” The Bible says at this point, the serpent; was the serpent a spirit? No! He was actually a creeping thing. Maybe then, they weren’t creeping thing, maybe they belong to the category of the beast. Do you understand? Because the Bible says “now the serpent was more cunning”, showing us that the Bible has given us the category, the beast category back then, but now it is in the category of the creeping things.
“Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’? 2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; 3 but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’ ” 4 Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
Let’s pause there for a moment. Before we continue, I want us to still go back to verse 1, it says now “the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God has made.” Now, for those of us that understand English, if the Bible says “a creature of God is more cunning than”, it shows that other creatures are cunning, but the serpent is more cunning than. Do we see that? It’s important for us to note that. Again, the Bible says the serpent spoke to the woman and said to the woman, “has God indeed said you shall not eat?” And then the woman replied, and then the serpent replied again. The question is: By what language? How are the communicating? Did they speak English? Now, let us assume they communicated in plain language. The language may be non-existent now, but it existed such that was enough for the living creatures that were created then, to communicate with the creature that was created after them.
So, Adam and Eve could communicate with the things you call “animals” today, the creatures, Adam and his wife could communicate with them. Because how can you reign over a creature you cannot speak to? When was the last time you went to meet a goat and you were talking to the goat and the goat replied you? Something has happened. Those creatures, the beast they, were cunning, but the serpent was more cunning, be noting the adjective we will soon find another word. And so, Adam and his wife yielded, they did what God didn’t ask them to do and God came. So, let’s see what God conversed with them, by reading further from verse 12.
“Then the man said woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree and I ate, and the Lord God said to the woman, what is this you have done? The woman said “the serpent deceived me and I ate.” So, the Lord God said to the serpent (and I want you to note the word), because (you the serpent) have done this, you are cursed more than all cattle.”
Please again, “you are cursed more than all cattle.” What does that tell us? Ok, if you are cursed more than all, it means the others are cursed. It says “you are cursed more than all cattle and more than every beast of the field.” So, every beast without exemption of any is cursed. But because you are the one that spearheaded it, you receive the weightier punishment. Perhaps, the curse is what has produced the experience we have on the earth today. The creatures that you call animals, they may just be the cursed creatures of God. You are meeting them at their cursed state. I don’t know anybody that has done research to ask “why Is it that we kill animals to eat?” Somebody will say “what’s their offence.”
If you have a chicken that you daily feed, are you doing that because you love the chicken? No! You are doing that with an intention, not for the good of the chicken. Because the truth is when you old a knife and you try to kill a goat, they run, they don’t want to die, but God has made them your food. So, if God says you are cursed more than them, it shows the gravity of what you have done. What is it that you have done that makes you to have a higher curse than them? The Bible says “strike the shepherd and the sheep will scatter.” But if all the sheep are cursed but the shepherd is cursed more than them, the simple meaning is that it is the shepherd that has led the sheep into the thing that made the sheep to be cursed.
See, if the Lord permits us, we may begin to suspect our spirit or presume that, for many of us that have read Jude, the book of Enoch, read different books, we could conclude that Satan, the Lucifer that fell, whom the Bible refer to in Revelations chapter 12; in the latter verses that he drew a third of heaven. So, I am giving you that instance. So, while the stars, the angels and all the creatures that fell with Lucifer be punished, he has more punishment. Are we not seeing something similar? Because the things in the word of God, even though they are written in black and white they are not open. If the Holy Spirit doesn’t show you, you may find it hard to believe.
So, if the creatures are cursed more than the others, it means the others too, they have their own curse. And they cannot be cursed if they did not partake. None of us have seen or imagined that when the serpent was talking with Eve, none of us imagine where the other animals were. It seems no one has probed it yet. Where were the lions and the other animals, the goats, the dogs and the other animals, the dragon, the sharks and the big fishes, where were they? Was the action of the serpent taken unilaterally or was it a joint action that came with a curse?
It says “you are cursed more than all the cattle, more than every beast of the field on your belly you shall go and you shall eat dust all the days of your life.” Do you find serpent eating something else today? Are they walking now on their legs? So, we believe, we read so therefore, we believe. What we see as the circumstance of the snakes now, it’s not what was originally. This is the aftermath, of the action, do we understand that? Now let’s see where we are going now, verse 15, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed” and I want us to note that. “I will put enmity between you and the woman, between your seed, the seed of the serpent and her seed. He shall bruise your head and you shall bruise his heel.” Clear declaration of war. How many humans have been destroyed by the beast of the earth, countless? So, the war was declared!
So, see what the Bible says concerning the serpent. It says “your seed will continue to bruise the heel”, as if I didn’t know the English before, I had to go and check the dictionary to be sure. So, it means the seed of the serpent or the seed of the beast of the earth, the seed of them will perpetually bruise the heel of the seed of the woman and the seed of the woman will continue to bruise the head of the serpent. So, it means you, the head, talks about leadership. It talks about many things; coordination, structure, strategy, et cetera. The Bible says “they will gather but surely their gathering shall be a vain. He makes the diviners mad; He frustrates the tokens.” So, they will gather, but you as a seed, you have a responsibility to bruise their head, you are not killing them. That’s why some people have said, those who say “Satan should fall down and die”, he can’t die, he can only be bruised sir!
When you injure to a point where you destabilize their functionality, that’s the responsibility. When Jesus gave up the ghost, and he went straight to hell, the Bible says “He stripped the Devil naked”, the Bible didn’t say “He killed the devil.” So, these are important facts in the word of God that we should never forget. He strips the devil naked and made public show and He collected what is relevant for the children of men. He retrieved what was relevant. So henceforth, the keys of death, the keys of everything now lies in His hands, something that men lost.
So, if Christ the seed of the woman, which we would soon find, has a responsibility to bruise the head of the seed of the serpent, if you are a Christian, if you are a follower of Christ, you have that responsibility to do the works of Christ. The Bible says about Him in 1st John “for this purpose the Son of God was manifested that He might destroy the works of darkness.” But the war was declared, the seed will now fight against the seed and you know you can’t stand without the heel. One of the things that the devil does is to affect the stability of the church.
The devil doesn’t want us to stand on our feet, because if we can’t stand, we can’t run. If we need our heel to be okay for us to stand together in unity, then we need the heel. All the things that were written in Ephesians chapter 4, verse 13, verse 14, this is it. “Till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, and to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ” , that’s the heel issue because as the serpent, because as the seed of the serpent is trying to break our heels or injure our heels, it is targeting our unity, our faith, our knowledge, our maturity unto the fulness of Christ.
But if you are an Apostle, a Prophet, you are an Evangelist, you are a Pastor, you are a teacher, you have the responsibility to continue to deal with the issue. So, while the serpent is trying to bruise the heel, and you are also bruising the head, you must also have a means of treating those heels that have been bruised. So, let’s go to Daniel, and we will conclude there. Daniel 4:4-8.
“I, Nebuchadnezzar, was at rest in my house, and flourishing in my palace.” A palace is the place of rest of a king. If you are not a king, you cannot have a palace, so we must understand this. This was a man in dominion, he had dominion and so, he subdued. “I saw a dream which made me afraid, and the thoughts on my bed and the visions of my head troubled me.” Now let us jump from there to verse 8. It says: “But at last Daniel came before me (his name is Belteshazzar, according to the name of my god (see an error, he will make a judgement against himself now, he named Daniel according to the name of his god. Don’t forget God is the one that stands in the congregation of the gods) in him is the Spirit of the Holy God), and I told the dream before him, saying”
Now let us jump to verse 17. It says:
‘This decision is by the decree of the watchers,
And the sentence by the word of the holy ones,
In order that the living (creatures) may know
That the Most High rules in the kingdom of men,
Gives it to whomever He will,
And sets over it the lowest of men.’
18 “This dream I, King Nebuchadnezzar, have seen. Now you, Belteshazzar, declare its interpretation, since all the wise men of my kingdom are not able to make known to me the interpretation; but you are able, for the Spirit of the Holy God is in you.”
They are not able, they are also living creatures, and I want those who are matured in the spirit to receive this. They are wise men, you are wise man, you all are living creatures, but they are not able to interpret. They couldn’t tell me what I dreamt; they couldn’t interpret. But you are able because the Spirit of the Holy God is in you. So, what is the difference between the living creatures of then, and the living creatures called Adam and Eve that God created? Two things I noted: Number one; THE BREADTH OF THE ALMIGHTY GOD and number two; THE DOMINION FROM THE ALMIGHTY GOD.
Not any other thing. The truth is, you as a human being, you have blood running through your veins, the same goes for other living creatures, you have bone, they do, you have head, they have head, you have legs, they also have. You have hand they have; you have meat in your body, they have, water they have, kidney they have. There is no animal that you will think is an animal that will not have heart, kidney; they have, they have lungs, there is nothing you see in them that is not in you. What’s your difference? It is not in your physical frame. The difference is in what has been deposited in you.
Genesis 2:7, the Bible says “and God formed man from the dust of the earth”, just like other living creatures and the Bible says and He breath into the body of man His breath, the Bible calls it, “the breath of life.” Job 32:8, it says “there is a spirit in man and the breath of the Almighty which makes him intelligent.” Another version says “which gives him understanding.” When an Animal, I’m calling them animals because of us, but I love to call them living creatures. When the living creatures on our street are hit by cars and they start bleeding, just like any human being, after sometimes, they will stop breathing, and then they die.
Like somebody said “what is the difference, we all die”, but there is a difference. The dominion that comes from God came to man. So, the moment you lack that dominion that came from God, you lack your edge, your advantage or your difference from animals. Some women have complained why their husbands are behaving like the living creatures. They lament: “haaa why is my husband behaving like a beast, why is my wife behaving like a beast.” You should check the matter of the meaning. If the matter of dominion is not resolved about that man, that woman, then he will continue to behave like a living creature. And one thing is important, what makes that dominion to really rest on man is because man had the breath of the Almighty God.
Because the difference between Daniel and the other wise men in the land was not the height, it wasn’t the physique, it was the Spirit of the Holy God that was in Daniel. So, if Daniel had lost the Spirit of the Holy God, he would have lost his place in the authority in the kingdom. So, by the Spirit of God in him, he assumed the position of dominion, even though he was not the King of the land, by the Spirit of the Lord. And I want us to see something in the same chapter 4, lets go to verse 28. Now there was a judgement that was decreed on king Nebuchadnezzar, he didn’t do anything about it. Let’s see verse 28, Daniel 4:28. You know I said we are stopping in this Daniel, right!
“All this came upon King Nebuchadnezzar. 29 At the end of the twelve months he was walking about the royal palace of Babylon. 30 The king spoke, saying, “Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for a royal dwelling by my mighty power and for the honor of my majesty?” 31 While the word was still in the king’s mouth, a voice fell from heaven: “King Nebuchadnezzar, to you it is spoken: the kingdom has departed from you!
When the kingdom was taken from him, did they take the land? No! What did they take? The breath of the Almighty God. The Spirit of the Lord. You call him an unbeliever but he had a spirit, he had a measure. When you read about Cyrus, Cyrus was not a Jew. When God was declaring in Isaiah that he was holding is hands to subdue.
Alright! let us continue. And as soon as that happened, in verse 32 the Bible says:
“And they shall drive you from men, and your dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field. They shall make you eat grass like oxen; and seven times shall pass over you, until you know that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men, and gives it to whomever He chooses.”
Was Nebuchadnezzar not a man? He was a man, he was a king, yet the Bible says the men will drive him away from them, why? Because he does not have what connects him with them again, he was still a human being physically, but that breath of the Almighty. The Bible says “there is a spirit in man”, that’s is personal property “and the breath of the Almighty” so that makes the difference. All men have Spirit, but do all men have the breath? Alright! It says “your dwelling shall be with the beast of the field, they shall make you eat grass like oxen, and seven times shall pass over you until you know that the Most High rules in the kingdom of men and gives it to whomever He chooses. 33 That very hour the word was fulfilled concerning Nebuchadnezzar; he was driven from men and ate grass like oxen; his body was wet with the dew of heaven till his hair had grown like eagles’ feathers and his nails like birds’ claws.”
So, what is the difference? Do we understand? And so, don’t pride in your beauty, don’t take pride in your handsomeness or your beauty, your difference is not in your beauty. Beauty without the breath of Almighty God, leads to being a beast. There is beautiful beast, there are ugly beast, there are handsome beast. These things we are saying now, it is easy to hear it, but if we must understand it, just look at what people are talking about, the experiences of people. Some people were killed by their husbands, some people were killed by their wives, and then you will ask, “what caused the matter.” The same thing that caused the matter has happened to those who had been married for years, they didn’t kill their own, so what is the difference? If you don’t have the breath of the Almighty you function like the beast of the earth.
The Bible says “a man who is in honor yet does not know he shall perish like the beast.” God says “you are gods, children of the Most High, but because you did not want to regard yourself has a god”, He says “you will die like men.” But what is that thing you mustn’t forget in this part one of our teaching? You know we are looking at The Birth and The Rise of A New Kingdom, we have not even entered it. We will continue from this Daniel next week by the grace of God. We saw that the man, Adam, was the king over the kingdom of the earth, there were no kingdoms at the beginning it was the kingdom of man on the earth, man was ruling over all.
But by the fall of man the kingdom was split. I’m sure we still remember what happened to Solomon and Rehoboam, do we still remember? There was a time Solomon was the only king of Israel, he handed over the rulership, the dominion, he gave his son the dominion. Haven collected the dominion; he couldn’t manage it. He was left with one or two tribes. The other ten tribes went away, and they formed their own kingdom. Kingdoms could start as one, but later on, kingdoms could split.
So, at the beginning it was a kingdom, but when the kingdom God slitted into pieces, now God has not forgotten, God has not abandoned His original plan and that plan is what we are going to start with next week.
I believe you have learnt something…..Continued in Part 2.
