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What Does The Bible Mean By The Word Reign?
According to Romans 5:17 For if by the one man’s offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ. The word “reign” used in Romans 5:17 is the Greek word basileuo ` where you get the English word “basilica”. In ancient Rome, basilicas were used in law courts. So, it refers to a kingly, judicial rule.
In other words, to reign here is to reign in life as a king, to have kingly rule, and to possess kingly dominion. and that is why God has crowned you so as to reign according to Psalm 103:4 After all we are sons and daughters of a King (2 Corinthians 6:18).
How Do I Start To Reign
You are destined to reign in life. The Lord calls you to be a success, enjoy wealth, enjoy health, and a life of victory.
The secret of reigning in life lies with receiving everything that Jesus has accomplished for us on the cross. Suppose you are living a life of defeat, of being defeated by sin, by perpetual guilt and condemnation, by sicknesses, by anxiety attacks, by financial lack and by broken relationships. In that case, you are not living the life that God intended for you. Based on the authority of God’s Word, you are destined to “reign in life” as a king, to have kingly dominion over all your challenges and circumstances
It is not the Lord’s desire that you live a life of defeat, poverty and failure. He has called you to be the head and not the tail. If you are a businessman, God wants you to have a prosperous business. If you are a homemaker, you are anointed to bring up wonderful children in the Lord. If you are a student, God wants you to excel in all your examinations. And if you are trusting the Lord for a new career, He doesn’t just want you to have a job, He wants you to have a position of influence, so that you can be a blessing and an asset to your organization!
When you reign in life, you reign over sin, you reign over the powers of darkness, and you reign over depression, over poverty, over every curse, and over every sickness and disease. You REIGN over the devil and all his devices! The power to reign does not depend on your family background, your educational qualifications, how you look or how much savings you have in your bank account. The power to reign is based entirely on Jesus and Him alone.
God created us to reign, to be the victor, not the victim. The present circumstances may look permanent, but God is saying it’s only temporary. You’re about to reign over the addiction, reign over that depression. The sickness looks like it’s the end, but you’re going to reign over it.
Examples Of People Who Reigned From Humble Beginnings
Throughout the Bible and church history, God has proven that He will exalt men and women to places of prominence & position, in order that His purposes would be accomplished. God didn’t create you to live a mediocre life! Your life has a purpose—destiny is attached.
Consider Joseph, who God destined to be the governor of Egypt and to preserve a “posterity” for Israel, or Moses as a “deliverer” for his people from the bondage of Egypt, and Esther who God elevated to a place of influence and significance for “such a time as this” to deliver Israel from annihilation.
Jesus had more in mind for you and me than mere survival. When the goal of your faith is merely to keep you safe from the devil, your faith is inferior to what God intended! He destined us to overcome and advance His Kingdom. Each conversion plunders hell and populates heaven! Every miracle destroys the works of the devil. All God encounters are an Invasion of the Almighty into our desperate situations. This is our right as sons and daughters in our Father’s Kingdom!
How Is It We Are Not Reigning As The Men Of Old Did?
You are called to be above them all and not be trampled by them. The time has come for you to stop giving away your right to reign in life!
According to Romans 5:17, Sin always brings death. Death became king. It ruled the lives of every person born from Adam. “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
As with Adam and Eve, Satan will try to get every believer to hand their authority over to him. Or Satan will deceive believers into believing they have no power or authority to reign in life. Or Satan might encourage believers to adopt a skewed or distorted view of God, His love for mankind, and the power they have been given. Sometimes, Satan may tempt believers into allowing others to rule over their lives, set their limits, and control their influence.
It’s not until believers accept their rightful place in Christ Jesus and decide to reign in life, walking with God’s wisdom, and obeying His laws and precepts can we experience all the benefits in life and make a lasting impact in the world.
1. Be careful because somebody might reign in your place willingly.
If God has given you power to reign then who can take it away from you unless you willingly give it up. Look at 1 Kings 1:21-24,30.
Bathsheba said to David “If you do not act, my son Solomon and I will be treated as criminals as soon as my lord the king has died.” While she was still speaking with the king, Nathan the prophet arrived. The king’s officials told him, “Nathan the prophet is here to see you.”
Nathan went in and bowed before the king with his face to the ground. Nathan asked, “My lord the king, have you decided that Adonijah will be the next king and that he will sit on your throne? your son Solomon will be the next king and will sit on my throne this very day, just as I vowed to you before the LORD, the God of Israel.”
When you reign what will you do with the power which comes with it. Will you kill or destroy your enemies or anyone who challenges you. Examine just like the case we read in the book of 1 Kings 16:11 Zimri immediately killed the entire royal family of Baasha, leaving him not even a single male child. He even destroyed distant relatives and friends.
2. Somebody Might Be Reigning In Your Place By Force ( Stolen Reign).
2 Chronicles 23,11-13 there’s the story of a young man named Joash. When he was a baby, his uncle, the king of Judah, was killed. One of the king’s sons should have taken the throne, but the king’s mother, Athaliah, decided she wanted to be the queen. She had all of her children and grandchildren killed. That way she wouldn’t have any opposition. Someone heard what she was doing, and they took baby Joash, Athaliah’s grandson, and hid him in the temple. He was the only member of the royal family that survived. His grandfather, Athaliah’s husband, was a descendant of King David.
If she had succeeded in getting rid of all of her husband’s relatives, then the promise God made to David that one of his descendants would always be on the throne wouldn’t have happened.
From this, you should remember that what God promised you will come to pass. People can’t stop it, bad breaks can’t keep it from happening. What God started, he’s going to finish.
“The priest in the temple was named Jihoida. He and his wife took care of little Joash year after year, keeping him hidden, knowing that he was destined to take the throne. When Joash was seven years old, Jihoida went to five different army captains. He told them what happened, and they agreed to help. They all came to the temple and saw little Joash.” Jihoida said to them, The time has come for the king’s son to reign.
Logically it didn’t seem like he was ready to reign. He was only seven years old. He didn’t have the training, the experience, the size, the wisdom. None of the circumstances look like he was going to take the throne anytime soon. Yet Jihoida showed up and said, It’s time for you to reign.
3. When You Are Young Someone Will Reign On Your Behalf Till You Grow Up.
Galatians 4:1-2 Think of it this way. If a father dies and leaves an inheritance for his young children, those children are not much better off than slaves until they grow up, even though they actually own everything their father had. They have to obey their guardians until they reach whatever age their father set.
One of the best example is of Louis XIV, known as Louis the Great, was the longest-reigning European monarch in history. He became king at only four years old, when his father, the king of France died on May 14, 1643.
On succeeding his father to the throne, the little child became the leader of 19 million French subjects. However, because he was not mature enough to rule, his godfather, Chief Minister Cardinal Jules Mazarin, took over the government and became regent.
A governor was assigned to instruct the young monarch throughout his formative years. Cardinal Jules Mazarin, his godfather, was in charge of the government and possessed the real authority in France. Louis XIV, despite being the king, saw and did not participate in the complex government that Cardinal Jules Mazarin was constructing. Furthermore, he was unable to challenge Mazarin’s authority even as an adolescent starting to mature.
It wasn’t until Mazarin died in 1661, when Louis XIV was in his 20s, that the young king finally took control. Louis XIV quickly set about reforming France according to his own vision. He was a most brilliant king who brought great prosperity to France, yet all his great potential had remained dormant during the time Cardinal Jules Mazarin ruled.
Louis XIV ruled in France until he was about 77 years old, and at his death, his 5-year-old great-grandson, Louis XV, who was the last male heir inherited the throne. Again, this young king would remain under heirs and tutors until he came of age to take control of the throne of France.
We are born to rule as kings and priests on earth because we are co-heirs with Christ. Being born again does not automatically give us access to a vast inheritance, even if it is ours by covenant. We must first develop spiritually and intellectually before we can rule. Every believer must make this decision. We have the option to develop or to moan.
According to 1 Peter 2:2 says “As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby” Spiritual maturity comes through feeding on the right spiritual food. While spiritual babes feed on the milk of the Word, spiritual sons feed on the strong meat of the Word. When we are newly born again, we can feed on the milk of the Word, but as we grow older, we ought to begin to feed on strong meat.
According to Hebrews 5:14 says ‘But strong meat belongeth to them that are of full age, even those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil.’
We shall develop into sons who can take the throne and rule over the world if we are fed in the depths of the Word. It will be possible for these sons of the Kingdom to have triumphant faith.
Today, there is really a need for us as believers to grow up and take our place of dominion on earth. The world is waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God. Christ is coming for a reigning Church, ruling in the midst of her enemies. Therefore, we can no longer afford to remain spiritual babes, being treated as servants. It is indeed time to correct the error of slaves riding on horses, while the princes of the kingdom walk like slaves on the earth (Ecclesiastes 10:7).
We should be the leader and not the follower, always above and never below, in all that we do. Therefore, let us assume the spiritual duty of studying God’s Word diligently in order to develop into sons and mature. We will take our throne and genuinely rule as kings on earth by exercising our faith.
4.You Might Not Be Reigning Because Of Ignorance.
Today, instead of seeing ourselves reigning in life, we see more evidence of death reigning in the world. The Bible tells us that it was because of “one man’s offense” — Adam’s sin in the garden of Eden — that death began to reign. It is important that you realize that our lives are wrapped up in those of our ancestors. You wouldn’t exist if there hadn’t been your grandpa. So we are sinners not because we sin, but because of Adam’s sin.
Many believers still think that they became sinners by committing sin, but that is not what the Word of God says. What it says is that we are sinners because of Adam’s sin. By the same token, we are made righteous in the new covenant not because we do righteous deeds, but because of one Man’s (Jesus) obedience on the cross. The secret of reigning in life lies therefore with receiving everything that Jesus has accomplished for us on the cross.
We have been taught to focus on achieving, on doing and on relying on our self-efforts. We are driven to “do, do, do”, forgetting that Christianity is actually “done, done, done”. The world tells you that the more you do, the harder you work, and the more hours you put in, the more success you will achieve.
The world’s way is to nag you to work harder, to forget about attending church on Sundays, to spend less time with your wife and kids, and to spend more time in the office working through the nights, weekends and holidays. I’m sure that you’ve heard that you need to “pay the price”, after all, “no pain, no gain”, right?
What believers do is that they take the system of the world and apply it to their Christian life. Instead of depending on God’s grace for His favor and blessings to flow, they depend on their self-efforts to try to deserve God’s favor and blessings.
However, God does not want us to succeed on our own. God’s blessings cannot be earned via your actions. The only foundation for God’s rewards is His grace. His favors must be unmerited, unearned, and undeserved throughout your life. To put it another way, you cannot earn His blessings since they are wholly dependent on accepting Jesus and the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness that He accomplished.
God wants us to stop trying to achieve, and to begin receiving the favor, blessings and healing that Jesus accomplished on the cross. When He hung on the cross some 2,000 years ago, According to John 19:30 Jesus cried out with a loud voice, “It is finished!”
Everything that you and I require to reign in life was accomplished at Calvary on our behalf. That’s why we call what Jesus did on the cross His “finished work”! He finished it. He completed it. It is DONE! The only thing that works is the finished work! Stop doing what’s already DONE! Stop doing and start receiving what Jesus has DONE!
Hebrews 10:12–14 But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God… For by one offering He has perfected forever those who are being sanctified.
Lord, as I give thanks to Him for paying the full price on the cross for all my sins, sicknesses and poverty, my heart overflows with gratitude and I worship Him:
Most worship songs are songs which try to plead for what Jesus has already accomplished for us on the cross. We should be thanking in our worship for what he did and then receive it. I love worship songs that are full of the person of Jesus and His finished work
you may be surprised to find out that there are many believers today who do not believe that they have been perfected forever by the finished work of Jesus Christ. They are still depending on their self efforts to qualify themselves
Notice that after Jesus offered His life as a sacrifice and payment for all our sins, He “sat down”! He sat down at the Father’s right hand. Do you realize that under the old covenant according to , Hebrews 10:11 “every priest stands ministering daily and offering repeatedly the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins”? But the Bible goes on to say that Jesus, “after He had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down”.
Jesus sat down to demonstrate to us that the work is indeed finished. Under the old covenant, the priest who served in the tabernacle of Moses never sat down, but “stands ministering daily” because his work could never be finished.
The blood of bulls and goats could “never take away sins”. In fact, have you noticed that in the holy place of the tabernacle of Moses, there is not a single piece of furniture prepared for the priest to sit on? You will not find a single chair in the holy place. You will find the altar of incense, the menorah and even a table of showbread, but interestingly, there are no chairs. This is because the work of the priest was never finished.
Only Jesus’ work is a finished work. And not only did He sit down at the Father’s right hand, He made us SIT WITH HIM! Ephesians 2:4–6 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ… and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.
Maybe you are wondering, “What is all this business about ‘chairs’ and ‘sitting down’?” Well, my friend, “sitting down” in the Bible is a picture of the believer resting in the finished and completed work of Jesus. He has finished all the work on the cross on your behalf and is now seated at the right hand of God. As it has all been accomplished on your behalf, this means that you can stop depending on your self-efforts to earn and qualify for God’s blessings in your life.
esus invites you to take a seat at the right hand of the Father! Give up relying on yourself to merit and be eligible for God’s blessings in your life. Now pay close attention to what I have to say. I’m not promoting a sedentary, passive lifestyle. You can read books, take classes, work hard at your job, and so forth, but you shouldn’t put your trust in these things. It must be in what you have received from Jesus.
So if you are a student, for example, by all means, study hard. Score straight As for the glory of God! But don’t trust in your intelligence or qualifications to bring you the blessings of God. God’s grace does not make you lazy and unproductive.
Instead, it encourages you to work more for His honor. According to the apostle Paul, who preached about God’s grace and Jesus’ finished work, he “labored more abundantly than they all.” God will reward you first in the new covenant, and knowing that you have His blessing will enable you to work harder and more abundantly. Put another way, we have the ability to work because we are already blessed, not because we work to be blessed. Do you see how the new covenant has a different premise for laboring?
Many believers are defeated today because they are struggling to qualify themselves for God’s blessings by their own works. Self-effort will rob you of reigning in life by His grace. You cannot earn your salvation, your healing or your financial breakthrough by your own efforts. If the greatest miracle — being saved from hell — comes by grace through faith, and not by your works, how much more the lesser miracles, such as healing, prosperity and restored marriages.
On the cross, Jesus accomplished everything. It is our responsibility to put our faith in His flawless work, welcome the fullness of grace and the gift of righteousness, and start living as kings through Jesus Christ. Let your prayer today be to give up attempting to merit God’s righteousness and grace. Allow the Holy Spirit to instruct you to begin receiving by the grace of Jesus and to begin relying on His completed work. This is God’s simple path to prosperity, completeness, and successful living.
“For if by one man’s offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ.” Romans 5:17 (KJV)
You cannot reign in life without Christ. You cannot experience the fullness of what God has done for you in Christ if you are still hung up on sin. The grace to reign in life depends on your receiving what has been done, and not on your own works. Until you receive, you cannot reign in life. Until you receive the unearned and unmerited grace of God, you cannot reign in life. Your assignment is to receive the abundance of grace and the gift of righteousness. It is not to be earned but received.
PRAYER:
Lord, I thank You for the glorious throne You have ordained for me this year. Please enable me to meditate constantly on your Word so that my heart can be filled with the faith I need to live in dominion and reign on the earth in Jesus Name. Lord, thank You for Your call on my life. Empower me by Your Spirit to be faithful, humble, and dedicated to living it out. Amen.
Pastor Nathaniel
