God has a specific spiritual destiny for every believer. It says in Jeremiah 29:11, “I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you a future and a hope.” God has an individual plan for each of our lives; a hopeful future He treasures in His heart.

God knows both what you are to become and those things He has created for you to do. As you become what God has created you to be, you will continue to see your destiny unfold as you accomplish all the things He has prepared for you to do. Ephesians 2:10 tells us that God has created great things for us to do: “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” Before the world began, God created works for you and me to do. It is as if the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit had a holy huddle and knowing just what were our gifts and talents they decided what great and marvelous exploits they would allow us to accomplish on this earth. It is as we walk out these preordained works that we start to fulfill the specific destinies God has for us!

A People Of Purpose
While every believer has their own unique destiny, all believers share a common purpose before God. Purpose is a very important and powerful thing. Oswald Chambers once said that “the joy of anything, from a blade of grass upward, is to fulfill its created purpose.” People long to know the answer to the question, “For what purpose was I created?” It is no wonder the book The Purpose Driven Life has been such a runaway best seller.

Many people believe that we were created for the purpose of being servants of God. But God didn’t wipe His sweaty forehead one day in Heaven and say “Boy, this running the universe is tough work. I guess I’ll make some people to help Me!” Neither were you and I created primarily to worship God. While all believers will want to both serve and worship the Lord, the angels also serve and worship Him. No, the primary purpose for man is neither serving nor worship. It is something far greater; something that causes the angels to be in awe at God’s heart toward mankind.

We don’t need forty days to understand God’s purpose for mankind. We can see it clearly in the Bible. The answer to “why we were created” can be seen in “how we were created” as shown in Genesis. God spoke the animals into existence, but when He formed man from the dust of the ground, He breathed into man's nostrils the breath of life. God breathed into man His very life because we were created to be like Him. This difference in creation is extremely important — of all of creation only mankind was “God-breathed” into existence. This is because God’s threefold purpose for mankind was far greater than it was for all the animals or even the angels.

The first purpose God created mankind for was relationship. Father God wanted a family to share His life and love with! From the very beginning in the book of Genesis we see God coming to spend time with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden in the cool of the day. It was also said that both Enoch and Noah were ones who “walked with God.” What a privilege that God wants us to be both His children and His friends.

Not only were we created for the purpose of relationship with God, we were created for reproduction. Father God not only wanted us to be His children, He wanted us to reproduce and enlarge His family. In Genesis 1:28 God told Adam and Eve “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” God once again repeated this charge to be fruitful and multiply to Noah and his family as they departed the ark. Increasing God’s family physically and spiritually is part of our very purpose.

Created For Dominion
The third part of man’s threefold purpose is that we were created to take dominion. God purposed for us to not only be something (His children), but to do something (take dominion). Creator God, who has dominion over all things, wanted His children to be like Him by taking dominion of the earth. As such, we follow our heavenly Father in the “family business” of having dominion.

In Genesis 1:26 God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” Two verses later He declares to Adam and Eve, “… subdue it [the earth]; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” We were created to take dominion of the earth, to subdue it for the kingdom of God. The Psalmist declares this amazing purpose of mankind clearly in Psalm 8:4-6: “What is man that You are mindful of him. And the son of man that You visit him? For You have made him a little lower than the angels, and You have crowned him with glory and honor. You have made him to have dominion over the works of Your hands. You have put all things under his feet, all sheep and oxen — even the beasts of the field, the birds of the air, and the fish of the sea that pass through the paths of the seas.”

Subduing Our Inheritance
God has given us dominion of the earth, but possessing that dominion is a “four-letter” word called “work.” After creating Adam and Eve for dominion of the earth and declaring the calling of dominion over them, God placed them in the Garden of Eden and told them to get to work. “Then the Lord God took the man and put him in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it” (Genesis 2:15 ). Their work in the garden was not so much for provision as to take dominion!

I remember when my wife and I bought our first home. After signing the mortgage and moving in we were the legal owners of the house, but it still felt like we were living in someone else’s home. I knew we owned it legally, but it still didn’t seem like it was ours in reality. Somehow during the first few months of tearing out bushes, redoing the garden, repainting, etc. that house really became our home. Through that work we took dominion of that house and made it a home for our family.

This is what God is calling us to in this earth. We have been given dominion of this earth, but we must work to lay hold of it. It is much like when Israel was given dominion of the Promised Land. It was theirs by right and the will of God, but then it had to become theirs in possession. How did that happen? By them exercising the authority God had given. Just as with Adam and Eve they were required to “subdue it.” Dominion means utilizing your God-given authority even in the face of opposition. If you are waiting for your enemies to willingly declare your authority and walk away, you will be waiting a very long time. God has given us authority, and He expects us to exercise it regardless of if the enemy recognizes it. Most of the people in the Promised Land didn’t immediately move out and make way for Israel even though God had granted them dominion. Israel had to walk in and assert their authority. Only then did the enemy yield dominion into their hands.

Responsibility For Authority
God has created us for the purpose of taking dominion, and so He desires for us to have the authority to walk in this dominion. How do we grow in authority in the kingdom of God? By being faithful stewards or caretakers of what God has placed within our hands — by using the authority we have to take care of that which has been entrusted to us. The key to authority in the kingdom of God is having the character to accept responsibility even when you are merely a servant. Some have said that a believer's measure of spiritual authority determines their domain of responsibility; but in the kingdom of God the truth is quite the opposite. A willingness to accept and follow through with increased responsibility will cause the Lord to enlarge the mantle of authority you carry.

We can see this clearly in the Parable of the Minas found in Luke 19:12-24. In this parable a certain nobleman (which represents God) entrusted each of his servants with a mina (we are all given opportunities to serve God). A mina was a large sum of money, approximately three months wages. “A certain nobleman went into a far country to receive for himself a kingdom and to return. So he called ten of his servants, delivered to them ten minas, and said to them, ‘Do business till I come.’ … And so it was that when he returned, having received the kingdom, he then commanded these servants, to whom he had given the money, to be called to him, that he might know how much every man had gained by trading. Then came the first, saying, ‘Master, your mina has earned ten minas.’ And he said to him, ‘Well done, good servant; because you were faithful in a very little, have authority over ten cities.’ And the second came, saying, ‘Master, your mina has earned five minas.' Likewise he said to him, ‘You also be over five cities.’

“Then another came, saying, ‘Master, here is your mina, which I have kept put away in a handkerchief. For I feared you, because you are an austere man. You collect what you did not deposit, and reap what you did not sow.’ And he said to him, ‘Out of your own mouth I will judge you, you wicked servant. You knew that I was an austere man, collecting what I did not deposit and reaping what I did not sow. Why then did you not put my money in the bank, that at my coming I might have collected it with interest?’ And he said to those who stood by, ‘Take the mina from him, and give it to him who has ten minas.’”

Every true believer wants to hear the Lord say “Well done, good servant.” And we all want to come into increased authority in the kingdom of God. But how many are willing to take responsibility for what God has placed in their hands. The message of this parable is clear: God is looking for those with servant’s hearts who will exercise responsibility over the things He has entrusted to them. To these the Lord will give increased authority in His kingdom. In the parable it was the ones who accepted the responsibility they were given with a heart of servanthood who were granted great authority. This is because God is looking for character — especially a willing, servant's heart — in those who have authority in the kingdom of God.

Humble, Faithful Servants
Jesus said, “But he who is greatest among you shall be your servant. And whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted” (Matthew 23:11-12). The character of heart the Lord is looking for is not just being lowly, it is one who willingly takes responsibility and humbly serves. To these He will grant great authority on the earth. What God is looking for in our lives is Christlike character that accepts responsibility as it humbly serves. Jesus’ work upon the Cross is the ultimate expression of this. He willingly went to the Cross as the humble Lamb of God and there took responsibility for every sin of all mankind. Because of this, He now has all authority in heaven and on the earth.

How about you and me? Have we been faithful servants willingly taking responsibility for what the Lord has asked us to do? Until we demonstrate this character, we will never walk in the authority Jesus died to give to us. This is so difficult in the culture in which we live; in a day where everyone wants authority but no one is willing to accept responsibility. It seems as if everyone is afraid of being blamed for things not working out, and so they run from responsibility as if it were the plague. What believers haven’t realized is that every time they have gone with the flow of our society and ducked the responsibility God wanted them to accept, they have also missed out on receiving an increased measure of God's authority.

God is longing and looking for a people who will pick up the mantle of authority He died to give them and start to walk in the dominion He created for them to have. The very purpose for which God created man cannot be fulfilled on the earth until we begin to walk in this authority and once again subdue the earth — bringing it completely under the control of God’s kingdom. This will only happen as we exercise the authority we have to change what needs to change and maintain what needs to be maintained. We do this as we proclaim prophetically the things of the kingdom of God. We do this as we take responsibility by interceding for things to come into alignment with God's will.

Many of us have been living upon the earth like it still belonged to someone else — Satan. But it is high time we begin to take dominion of the earth. Now is the time for a people to arise who have such godly character that they are not afraid to humbly take the responsibility God has given them and come into the authority God has for them. All of creation groans for these sons and daughters of God to rise up and take dominion of the earth. It is time we answer this call and fulfill the very purpose for which we were created.