As a student of finance and economics, I used to be enthralled with corporate raiders. People like Carl Ichan and T. Boone Pickens would scour the corporate landscape, looking for companies to devour and extract value from. I would realize later that they were largely vultures, feeding off the carcasses of near-dead companies.

Now, this isn’t the testimony of all corporate raiders — there are some who actually come in and revitalize their targets.

Today, I want to tell the story of two hostile takeovers — one that ended in the corruption of creation and another that ends in redemption from corruption.

I have two passages of Scripture I want to work with:

Luke 19:10 (KJV) For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.

Galatians 4:5 (KJV) To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons.

In the beginning, God created an atmosphere for His children and then created them in His image and His likeness. Because they were to look and act like Him, He gave them his Royal Nature — Dominion. The angels beheld this creation and said:

Psalms 8:4-6 (AMPC) 4 What is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of [earthborn] man that You care for him? 5 Yet You have made him but a little lower than God [or heavenly beings], and You have crowned him with glory and honor. 6 You made him to have dominion over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet:

I humbly submit that the angels were at least a little envious of this lump of clay that God lavishes so much attention and affection upon.

One of these angels was so enraged that he misappropriated the form of a serpent to seduce man into surrendering the franchise of earthly dominion. Now, contrary to popular belief, man did not give up his dominion when he ate the fruit, he gave it up when he failed to act according to his dominion mandate and accept responsibility for his actions and, instead, played the “blame game:”

“The serpent beguiled…”

“This woman you gave me…”

Can you believe that, man actually tried to blame God. In case you’re wondering, this helped set the paradigm for religion — blaming God for things man should have authority over.

But I digress…

This was the first hostile takeover. Man was made to believe that he had surrendered the title deed to authority in the earth to satan. The devil, then crowns himself “god of this world,” and proceeds to wreak havoc for centuries.

But, then, along comes Jesus! Jesus begins His earthly ministry telling people to “Repent and believe the Gospel!” Now, we know full well that repent doesn’t mean “confess your sins” as religion holds but “change your mind.” In other words, here comes some good news that darkness no longer has authority over you so change your mind and turn to and embrace the light!

So Jesus comes and says, “For the son of man is come to seek and to save THAT which was lost.” Notice the pronoun, THAT. It is an impersonal pronoun speaking of an impersonal subject. What is the THAT. The THAT, my friends, is the Royal Authority bestowed upon man but thought to be surrendered in the garden!

Kings are first concerned with the integrity of their Kingdoms. It is only by demonstrating power and authority that they may bless their subjects. Jesus came to show that, through Him, we have been restored to our position of authority in the earth. This is why Jesus chided His disciples for “little faith” on the boat (Mark 4:37-41) and with the boy afflicted by the spirit of seizure (Mark 9:17-29) — because they had the power and authority to fix the situation but, instead, they waited for Jesus!

See, religion tells you to wait for a move of God — but Jesus came to empower the move of man by redeeming Him!