God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it; rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and every creature that crawls upon the earth. – Genesis 1:28
Subsequent to creating the first humans (as male and female), God puts His approval and blessings on them, being His favorite creation whom He had made in His very image and likeness. Incorporated into the blessing is the ability to rule over the earth (as small gods) and exercise full authority over all that God has created in it.
Most people don’t [yet] realize the magnitude of the blessing with which God has blessed the human race; it is a four-fold blessing [which is not given to any other creation but only mankind]:
- Be fruitful (or bear fruit, have offsprings).
- Multiply (as each new generation has more kids and they have more kids thus establishing the human race).
- Fill the earth (take over everywhere – specifically the air, land and sea).
- Subdue and have dominion (exercise lordship) over all other earthly creatures.
Now here’s the amazing thing: there was nothing mankind ever did to deserve this kind of privileges; I mean – to be lord over everything on earth is really big! It is actually bigger than being the President of the United States! As a matter of fact, this four-fold blessing is what made the devil envy Adam and plotted his downfall (and subsequently all of mankind) in Eden’s garden. (Thank God for sending Jesus His Son to redeem creation back to Him)!
You need to think on these things:
(1) Your existence as a person is only possible because of the God-given ability to bear children; no matter how old you are, you were given birth to by another human!
(2) The blessing of multiplication is the reason why the human race is so much in number and larger than any other creature on the earth; and also why there is so much diversity of race, color, and language. (God authored diversity and not racism)!
(3) The presence of humans in every part of the world and their ability to go anywhere no matter how scary or impossible it seems – whether deep oceans, wild jungles or even other planets in outer space – is made possible by the blessing that empowers us to fill the earth.
(4) Humans have been able to make amazing discoveries, overcome or minimize difficult problems that threaten their existence, tame the wildest animals and make them obey us, invent a whole lot of new things that make life better etc. because of the commanded blessing to have dominion on the earth.
This four-fold blessing is commanded upon every people group, every family and every individual; however, it plays out differently among two kinds of people: those who have been redeemed [from the fall] back to God through Christ (See Revelation 5:9,10) and those who either willfully or ignorantly remain in their sinful, fallen state. The former is able to apply and experience the commanded four-fold blessing (of Genesis 1:28) both spiritually and physically, while the latter is limited to only the physical aspect. For instance, those in Christ can apply this commanded blessing [of fruitfulness, multiplication, takeover, and dominion] to deal with the unpleasant situations of their lives and also put the devil in his rightful place – under their feet! This is a redemption-based privilege given to us so we can keep gaining victory in our walk in this life; all God’s people are destined for fruitfulness, multiplication and dominion on earth and that is exactly what we are expected to manifest!