He has delivered us from the dominion of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son. Colossians 1:13
Lately I have had a few conversations that revolve around boundaries and what is healthy and what is not healthy. Of course, this kind of language is secular and psychological sounding. I am not a psychologist, but I see something in all this that is really, at it’s root, spiritual.
You may remember awhile back that I wrote about what is in your circle of authority. For me as a wife and mother, I have authority in my household, over my minor children, and in my work space and area of work. This is where I have dominion.
There is something I see, particularly among Catholics, where the waters of authority can seem to get muddled. We often over empathize or feel guilty about something and can be manipulated into situations that end up being harmful, emotionally draining, and honestly sinful. We also sometimes feel bad or like we are being mean if we stand up for our dominion. Conversely, sometimes we have so many walls that we have no relationship and can become isolated. We let no one into our dominion. And while the secular world has lots of terms for these things, I like to view things through the lens of the Gospel and what I see is spiritually happening.
Scripture tells us that Satan came to, “steal, kill and destroy (John 10:10)”. One of the things he comes to steal is our dominion. If he can steal our dominion, he can kill our charisms and destroy our identity. How does he steal our dominion? By convincing us to sin. When we sin, we hand our dominion to Satan. Therefore, it is always helpful, in all our relationships to examine where sin is taking place. By doing this we maintain the dominion God gave us and thereby we are kept in the will of God – something the secular world would call “healthy”.
Other people will often, with the help of the enemy who throws fiery darts of suggestion, try to steal your dominion. Additionally, they will often try to hand you their dominion as well. When you examine the situations for where the sin is taking place and ask the Lord to help keep you from sin, it keeps you in God’s grace and helps you to know how best to navigate the situation. Knowing where the sin is taking place is not meant for you to use as judgement against another person but is meant to keep you in the grace of God, which you also want for others as well.
I want to try to give you a concrete example of what I am speaking about. When I was in high school, I tried to sneak behind my mom’s back to take a party bus that another parent had rented to a high school dance. There’s really only one reason we wanted to rent a party bus and not drive ourselves, and that was our desire to drink underage. There are multiple sins happening here which means these are areas of dominion stealing. First was my sin of lying to my mom. I was trying to assert authority over my life at an age where it was not yet mine to fully do, grasping at the fruit that God would have given me as gift later in my life. My mom and dad still had authority over me. They had been tasked by God Himself with my care and protection. Having been convinced by the enemy that my parents, and not Satan, were my enemy, I fell into the sin trap of dominion stealing, thinking I was my own master, not knowing I was actually handing my dominion to Satan himself. Second, the other parents who rented the bus and did not speak to my mom about it were also stepping into dominion that wasn’t theirs and therefore was sinful. My mom, who had radar detection for when I lied, caught me and man did she assert her dominion. And she did not feel bad about it one single lick, even as she called the other parent and let them have it. Order was restored and I believe I was protected even though I suffered consequences of being made fun of for having the overprotective parents. Who knows what pain and suffering we avoided when mom walked in the authority God gave her.
Many today would find this difficult to do. We don’t want to hurt another’s feelings by setting a boundary (walking in dominion) of what our child can and cannot do. People mistake hurting another’s feelings as the sin, rather than the stealing of dominion as the sin. It is important to understand that, when we assert our authority the intent is not to hurt feelings, the intent is to avoid sin. There are many diplomatic ways to assert the authority you were given to walk in. But we should always walk in the authority God gave us rather than sinning and losing our dominion just to spare someone’s feelings. Love is the way to do this. Love stands for what is true, good, and beautiful.
People will also try to hand you their authority. This is another probably more sinister form of dominion stealing because it comes in the form of being “helpful.” I want to distinguish here between helping through intercession, and “helping” by taking on what is another’s to do. Because in the past I have sometimes had the courage to fight what is evil, I have often had people call me and want me to fight their fight for them. If I do this, I am sinning by taking on what does not belong to me and they are sinning by being derelict with the gift that was given to them. If I fight their fight, I will take on their demons because I am walking in a space that does not belongs to me. This doesn’t mean we never fight alongside someone. It means we don’t take over.
For example, when we think of those who are poor and marginalized, we are absolutely supposed to help, but that help should not involve usurping their dominion but rather helping to restore them to their own dominion. We are not to take over another’s life decisions, but we can help, through intercession steer them in the right direction. This looks like a building up of community, a growth of charisms and a cooperation with one another. It doesn’t judge the souls of the people who need help but instead sees each person as a child of God and intercedes for a time with the goal of their full restoration. It looks like working together. When we totally take over, we see division, discord and strife.
As a society, I think we have no idea of dominion, or even sin. Sin is a breaking of the relationship with God. It squanders what God gives and steals what God has not yet given. There are multiple examples I am seeing in the news every single day.
When this starts to happen on a Global scale, I think it looks much where we are as a society now. When we have people and systems that take over what isn’t theirs, Choas ensues. There are two results when improper view of dominion and sin happen. One is hyper-individualism where we are walled off and think we don’t need anyone or anything and we don’t want to help others. The other is Communism, an authoritarian government that usurps the dominion of the people. It is an abject evil and plays right into the hands of Satan.
Jesus came for us to have life and life abundantly. In order to receive this gift, we must have a proper view of our dominion and of what sin actually is. I believe the time is coming when God will make very transparent His dominion over everything. I just hope and pray that to the best of my ability, I have stayed in the Will of God and stewarded well the dominion I have been given.
Keep my steps steady according to your promise,
and never let iniquity have dominion over me. Psalm 119:133
Veil of Veronica 
We have no idea of dominion because we have lost the truth of our identity. The Church, priesthood, and laity have lost their identity and therefore have perverted their purpose. Chaos has certainly been the fruit of it. In families especially it is obvious.
Fulfilling, or living out your vocation IS doing the will of God. It is our safety. If we know who we are, our place or “dominion” so to speak, and fulfill the duties appropriate to our place, there’s peace and order and God’s will is accomplished. If we have a confused or adopted an identity that isn’t proper, you get the strife, division, and misery.
Pondering all this for many years as I watch everything come unglued, including my own life. The common thing that I see in all of this disarray is “abuse”. So much abuse! Years and years of abuse has culminated in the current condition many of us find ourselves in. When people say “Catholic Church”, isn’t that the word that is most often associated with it in recent times? ABUSE.
In families, what is the most common cause of spiritual and emotional collapse? Emotional abuse, sexual abuse, physical abuse? Shame being the top negative influence in people’s lives.
In society, our government has been VERY abusive. We have all just become accustomed, groomed really, to living with, and accepting a spirit of abuse and it has damaged and destroyed our identity. You just can’t function and be fruitful when living in the darkness and confusion that abuse creates. You can’t set boundaries, speak the truth confidently, have healthy relationships. It’s difficult to have a healthy relationship with God, if possible at all, due to the state of fatherhood in the last forty years. The identity and vocation of fatherhood has been destroyed, also.
As for taking on others dominions, the Lord impressed upon me that it’s taking the Cross from people. When you’re raised in an abusive home, you generally become a “co-dependent” to use a psychology term. You are a caretaker, a people pleaser, a fixer so that, hopefully, all hell doesn’t cut loose. You are prone to take on the emotional, physical, spiritual burdens of those you love, even if they are abusive. It’s how so many have been “trained up”. You tend to confuse true love with pity. You “pity” everyone and want to relieve their suffering, mainly, if honest, for your own sake. We hate to see people suffer and think we’re better at carrying it. That’s where the Lord said “you’re taking the Cross from them. The Cross is My love, and you are taking that from them”. The Lord made clear that my heart was in the right place…a desire to help, but my motive was not for Him, it was for me. It relieved my anguish and fed my false identity. Healing in many areas was necessary in order to bring my desires to relieve suffering under His direction.
I see this everywhere now. So much abuse has led to so much confusion and really the living and preaching of a false gospel, and false Mercy.
Im sorry this was so long! It’s been the focus of much reflection and prayer and suffering for many years. I feel Jesus is grieved over the state of souls; the corruption of our hearts, minds and emotions due to “abuse” in all its forms. It’s so difficult for God’s will to be accomplished when so many souls are swimming in a swamp of darkness and confusion. It’s leading so many souls astray.
The Deliverance ministries manifesting are a welcome resource for restoring proper identity. This whole diabolical scheme to destroy us has been somewhat successful and Truth is the only way out of the ditch we find ourselves in.
Abuse is another word for sin. Abuse is a particular kind of sin and yes it can definitely steal dominion just as any sin gives dominion to Satan. And in these situations deliverance is needed, which comes through forgiveness. But it’s often very difficult to forgive when one has been abused, though forgiveness is still the pathway to freedom.
This is why I talked about looking for where the sin is because if you can’t see the sin you won’t walk in your dominion.
And knowing where the sin is helps you to see, but it also gets misused for judgment. Judgement actually steals a lot too and makes it even more difficult to forgive. I am of course talking about judgement of souls, not of specific actions.
Forgiveness is not a feeling or pretending you weren’t hurt or condoning behavior. Forgiveness isn’t reconciliation or trusting the offender again, nor does forgiveness relieve the person of responsibility. Forgiveness is releasing the person and even the institution and entrusting them to God for Him to deal with. It leaves the judgment to God.
Freedom and joy can be found again. I have learned all this working in discipleship deliverance. And we help form people so that when they forgive the mean it and can stay free.
I should have added that the spirit driving this abuse is Belial. The name means worthless, without profit, lawless, rebellious. It’s exactly the fruit of abuse. When you are made to feel worthless, you’re going to violate others domain, take their Cross, in order to bring some sense of worth to your life and faith. Others feeling worthless may do the same to you…they may be in the grips of envy and want what the Lord has done in you. It all leads to sin and dysfunction.
So much healing is needed today.