Genesis chapter 1, shows what the plan of God has always been. God created the earth, and He put Adam in charge. He created the earth for His children to enjoy and be in charge of and take care of everything Father God created. The earth still belongs to God, but Adam was the caretaker. In fact, Adam was given God's dominion over the earth.

In Genesis 1:26-28 it says,

"And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth."

The Hebrew word for dominion is râdâh, and it's pronounced raw-daw’. The definition is: to tread down, that is, subjugate; have dominion -- prevail against, reign, rule, take charge of.

Notice what He kept saying: “Have dominion.” Dominion means literally to tread down. It can mean to put under your foot, or to hold in place under your foot, so it means to have an absolute authority.

Does anybody have a problem with Adam having absolute authority? No, they shouldn’t, but some people do. If you’re religious at all (I’m using that term in a negative sense), you could say, “Well, it couldn’t be absolute dominion because God has absolute dominion.”

God does have absolute dominion but He gave Adam an area over which He would have dominion. That’s what you have to realize. If you understand that, then you also understand what the Bible means when it speaks about the truth of the true sovereignty of God.

True sovereignty does not mean fickle. It doesn’t mean God will do whatever He wants to do, anytime He wants to do it. Sovereignty means that God is all supreme -- no one is even close to being as high as God. But at the same time He has relegated Himself to operate within 'His own commands' and within the laws that He Himself has set.

in other words, no one is above God and no one can tell God what to do. But God Himself has established spiritual and physical laws that He will abide by. If we know what's good for us, we will abide by His laws too!

Notice He gave man dominion. He gave man absolute authority over this earth. It's mentioned several times in the Psalms.

In Psalm 115:16 it says,

"The heaven, even the heavens, are the LORD’S: but the earth hath he given to the children of men. The heavens belong to God, but the earth He has given to the children of men; the sons of men."

God owns the heavens, but He put the earth under man’s dominion. We know, according to Jesus, that Satan tried to tempt Him. It tells us this in Luke 4:6-7,

"And the devil said unto him, All this power will I give thee, and the glory of them: for that is delivered unto me; and to whomsoever I will I give it. If thou therefore wilt worship me, all shall be thine."

The devil was saying to him, “I will give you all of this power and the glory of all of these kingdoms if You will just bow Your knee.” In effect he said, “They were delivered to me and I can give them to whomever I want.”

When was power and dominion given to Satan? They were given to him when Adam accepted the temptation in the garden. It was then that he handed the power and the dominion over to the devil.

Notice the power that Satan has been working under is the dominion that God had given to man. Notice that all of that was offered back to Jesus, but Jesus didn’t take it because He knew that it was a shortcut. He knew He was going to get it anyway. Dominion is absolute authority.

Jesus was going to take back this dominion -- the hard way. The spiritually legal way!