Dominion Mandate
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. 27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God
created he him; male and female created he them. 28 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.
Provision
for food
29 And
God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth,
and every tree, in the which is
the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat. 30 And
to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing
that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there
is life, I have given
every green herb for meat: and it was so. 31 And God saw every thing that he
had made, and, behold, it was
very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day. Genesis 1:26-31 (KJV)
God designed mankind to take dominion of the
earth. We are to subdue it, use it, care for it, and rule over all the
creatures in it. The dominion mandate impacts every vocation from farming and
husbandry to teaching and entrepreneurship. As we go forward, it is important
to have a thorough understanding of what the Dominion Mandate in Genesis 1
means. I encourage you to pause reading at the end of this paragraph and go
back and slowly re-read Genesis 1:26-31 and seek the Holy Spirit for
understanding of what the passage means and how you are to apply it to your
life.
Land, Crops/Plants, and Animals
He that tilleth his land shall be
satisfied with bread: but he that followeth vain persons is void of understanding.
Proverbs
12:11 (KJV)
It is wise to have a little land if at all
possible and to work it. If you live in an apartment or the city there are
still many ways to grow some food—for example window boxes. However, the main
point is that God has commissioned us to be stewards of what we have. If you
have some land, produce some food on it. Gardening is not the only thing I am
referring to. Berry bushes, fruit trees, nut trees, vines, and such are great
items to research and invest in on your property. They have the potential to
produce large amounts of food for your family. Plus the return on your
investment is very great when you also grow more plants from the ones
established. These can be a source of either furthered fruition on your
property or income in your pocket for others desiring your species.
Animals are likewise a very good
investment when managed well. We see in Scripture that Abraham, Isaac, Jacob,
Job, Jesse and many others where farmers! Joseph was praised for his wisdom in
managing livestock and crops when he stored up enough food to survive the 7
year famine in Egypt and the surrounding area. Many animals reproduce quickly
as well. Rabbits can have a litter every six weeks or so I’ve heard and
chickens live will eat almost anything and give you eggs and meat.
Joel Salatin in one of his audio messages
talks about how he has taken dominion on his farm by spreading corn out on the
pasture. The cows come and eat the grass and stomp the corn down which doesn’t
interest them. A few days later after the cows have moved on, the pigs are
brought in who burrow into the ground for the corn and thus till the ground up.
After the pigs move the chickens are brought through and they pick through all
the manure left by the cows and pigs and spread it finely all over the place.
This is an example of leveraging God’s design of creation to ease the burden of
your own work and effectively taking care of your soil so that crops can be
planted and harvested.
I will not go on in detail of all the
ways that animals, land and plants are useful, but I encourage anyone preparing
for the storm to include them as much as possible for they are valuable assets
if another great depression hits, plus they can be a secondary stream of income
as they increase beyond filling your needs.
Businesses and Enterprises
A business or enterprise is simply creative resourcefulness.
Businesses are perhaps one of the most
tax beneficial and fun parts of one’s time spent preparing for the storm. Most
millionaires in this country, according to The
Millionaire Next Door, have businesses. Most millionaires are “simple” folk
who watch their money, have worked their way up from the bottom by hard work
and own their own companies. Owning a business is beneficial when it comes to
taxes because any genuine business expense is a tax write off. A company car or
truck can be written off if you own the business, likewise, internet expenses,
cell phone (business line), office supplies, postage, computer, software, and
more!
The fun part about businesses is that
they offer the ability to be creatively resourceful. Look at what you have. How
can you turn it into something to fulfill a need around you or to help others?
As Doug Phillips of Vision Forum relays the principle, he asked his family what
they could do to start generating a little extra income from something that was
common to them. Well, they got thinking and realized that they had thousands of
clam fossils in the backyard because they lived in Texas. His sons started
digging them up—all sizes!—and generating $100-150 in clam fossil sales alone
at each conference Vision Forum was at.
Work is enjoyable! While work is harder
than it was before the fall, it is still the place that man derives much of his
fulfillment for God created him to work. Enjoy work. Get creative! Seek God!
And enjoy the fruits of frugality, wisdom, and resourcefulness.
In college, I took a number of business
courses as electives. Business law I and II, Microeconomics, Marketing, and
Intro to Entrepreneurship and they pretty much taught one main thing: money
can’t be earned for nothing and you have to leverage debt to be successful.
What a lie! You can earn money for “nothing.” I have cleaned out the basement
on Ebay and look at what Doug Phillips’s sons did. The point is don’t go out
trying to spend to make money. Look at what you have. What skills do you have?
I did not have very many, or so I thought, at sixteen, but I began to use what
I did know: cutting grass, odd jobs, blowing leaves, spreading mulch, and
manual labor. In time I developed more skills such as power washing, staining,
painting and more by simply taking the opportunity to do work I wasn’t as
familiar with and learn it. Running a “business” isn’t that big of a deal. Seek
God, be honest, work hard, and have fun and may God bless your enterprises to
bless others!
I encourage you to start by finding ways to
simply make a little bit of money/resources with the things that are already in
your life. You could recycle aluminum cans, aluminum foil, various metals and
electronics or start a garden, or make niche items to sell or do services for
cash. You could clean out your attic, basement and garage through online
selling. You can resell old clothing to resell shops or donate it to charities.
You could recycle paper by the ton and get paid…or collect all your neighbors
recyclables (with their permission of course) and collect the profits. You
could haul off appliances for $5-$10 a pop and make a profit from the scap yard
when you drop them off too. You can sign up for Bing Rewards and earn gift
cards or donate to charities as you accrue points for doing what you already
do: searching the internet… There are a number of options; and you’ll have to
do some research but I believe that the Biblical Principle is to not keep “all
your eggs in one basket.” May God bless you as you diversify your income like
Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Jessie, Paul, and many more in the Scriptures
did!
