God’s Ownership vs Your Stewardship

By Elizabeth M Mbambi

Genesis chapter 1 talks about God’s ownership through the creation of the Heavens and the Earth. Just like the flowers, the mountains, the birds, the creatures on dry land and the oceans, the skies, the moon, the sun and the stars, we too (human beings) were created by God. But God created us human beings in His own image and likeness. Making us second in command, God made us stewards over the rest of His creation. Because we were created out of love, it gave God much pleasure to make us part of His beautiful plan, so that we could be in partnership with Him which would keep us close to Him. But along the way we’ve lost the true purpose of God’s plan for creation, we’ve forgotten our place as stewards and we’ve taken over God’s place as the owner. We’ve taken over and started to control everything as if it was our own. As a result, the enemy who is roaming on the planet Earth is winning against us because we’ve excluded the invisible God who sees every visible thing, the God who knows us better than we know ourselves, the one who sees the traps of the enemy and the God who knows the future. As times are getting darker and things are getting harder, God is calling us to Himself because He doesn’t want to lose any of His beautiful creation to the enemy and wants us to give Him back His ownership position so that he can direct our footsteps and Help us to be the stewards which He intended us to be. He wants us to have a sense of belonging and know that no matter where we might find ourselves today, He wants us to know that just like parents wouldn’t give up on their children, so is He also not planning on giving up on us. We were created with love and no one comes into existence without the approval of God. So that should mean something to us.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Elizabeth Mununga Mbambi is an entrepreneur and blogger. She was born in Rundu and currently resides in Windhoek (Namibia).

• Language: English
• Publisher: Elizabeth M Mbambi
• Release date: Oct 26, 2020
• ISBN: 9781005413378

Elizabeth M Mbambi

My name is Elizabeth M Mbambi, I am a blogger, YouTuber and entrepreneur. I was born in Rundu northern part of Namibia and currently resides in Windhoek (Capital City of Namibia).

Book preview

God’s

Ownership vs your

Stewardship

Elizabeth M Mbambi

Copyright © 2020 Elizabeth M. Mbambi

Published by Elizabeth M. Mbambi Publishing at Smashwords

First edition 2020

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording or any information storage or retrieval system without permission from the copyright holder.

The Author has made every effort to trace and acknowledge sources/resources/individuals. In the event that any images/information have been incorrectly attributed or credited, the Author will be pleased to rectify these omissions at the earliest opportunity.

Published by Elizabeth M. Mbambi using Reach Publishers’ services,

Edited by Andrew Pender-Smith for Reach Publishers

Cover designed by Reach Publishers

P O Box 1384, Wandsbeck, South Africa, 3631

Website: www.reachpublishers.org

E-mail: [e-mail]

Table of Contents

God’s Ownership Versus Your Stewardship

God Owns the Seasons

Relationship between the Owner and the Stewards

Heeding the Voice of the Owner

The Glory is the Owner’s

He Owns the Governments, Authorities and Powers

Let God Be God

All Things are Christ’s

Stewarding Our Children

Steward over God’s People

I went home to Rundu in December 2018 for the holiday. It’s a family tradition that we usually go and visit our parents every festive season, to spend Christmas with them. During this holiday we also talk about family matters and strategies for the next year. I am the third born, which makes me eligible for decision-making, including those affecting the lives of my younger siblings who stay with my parents. I would sit and listen to how they behaved throughout the year so I could comment and instruct where I could. That’s what I’m supposed to do, right? I need to take part in controlling and monitoring things at home and confront anyone who dares to threaten the wellbeing of my parents including my daughter, whom they have raised. In my mind, I always thought that I had got everything under control in the lives of my younger siblings and my daughter. This very specific December in 2018 was a little different for me as I was observing behaviours so that I could report to the other two older sisters, and also so that we could strategise on how to make things better in 2019. I kept hearing about the behaviour of my little brother, my sister, and of my daughter. I needed to find a way to have a conversation with everyone. I knew I needed to do it with wisdom, because they might end up being upset with me and I didn’t want that to happen since it was a festive season and it was important that we celebrated it in peace. I felt so overwhelmed I was like: God, I need to sort this out before the holiday’s end. I didn’t want to go back without having a conversation with my siblings and my daughter. I became frustrated because this is something I was used to doing; having everything under control gave me so much peace. One day, during this same festive season, I went into a room that is reserved for my meditation and started laughing to myself. I kept saying, God I can’t do this. I can’t control them. I can’t control anything. Nothing is in my hands and this is beyond me. I was surprised that something which I am used to doing all of a sudden seemed difficult. That’s when I heard God talking to me and I realised that the reason why it seemed so complicated was because God wanted to use this situation to communicate something to me. God spoke to me about what He said in Luke 10:19:

"Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you."

He started explaining to me by saying, Child I have given you power over Satan and his kingdom but I did not give you power or authority over men. He continued by saying, I created men. The power to control them is not in your hands. Wanting to control them is as good as you making yourself equal to God. This revelation blessed and changed my life as God started to go into more detail about having control over human beings. God is the creator of men, making Him the owner, and we are vessels used by God to pray and guide people using wisdom (given by the spirit of God Himself) and, thereby, making us the stewards.

God’s Ownership Versus Your Stewardship

Stewardship is often defined as the job of supervising or taking care of something such as an organisation or property and Ownership is the act, state, or right of possessing something. In this case we are the stewards and God is the owner. If we go back to the beginning of creation in Genesis 1:26 (NLT) it says:

"Then God said, Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground.

This scripture clearly shows that God created everything but made human beings second in command. They are best seen as overseers of all God’s creation except over human beings. God therefore trusted Adam to take care of His property. He was God’s steward while God was the owner. God, even in Genesis 2:19, brought all the animals to Adam so that Adam could name them. This shows us that because of the love that God always had for us, He always wanted to make us part of His plans. All around us we see that parents, who own businesses, desire to involve their children in their businesses, calling it a family business. This gives children a sense of belonging. Our heavenly Father also operates like this, though He doesn’t really need our help to take care of things. He makes ways to need us because He loves and wants us to enjoy being part of His plans. Being involved in God’s plans makes us need God even more, and it brings us closer to Him. Adam enjoyed the benefits of being God’s steward. There were still rules in place which he had to follow, and there were limits to his stewardship. He was told which property he could make use of and of which he had no rights over (Genesis 2:16-17). God then went ahead and gave Adam a helper (a woman) and she was called Eve. Still, God did not give Adam dominion over his helper, Eve. He rather made us so that we could be in partnership with each other. Adam was to take care of God’s creation and Eve had to help Adam in doing so successfully. Both were so close to God to a point that they became comfortable because what belonged to God basically belonged to them, which lead to the temptation of them being equal to God. That’s how they ended up eating from the tree from which God ordered them not to eat. In this, they betrayed God as they both obeyed voices other than the voice of God, and it was the responsibility of both of them to do the right thing. And, because of their negligence over God’s property, God did not trust them any longer to be his stewards. He sent them out of the Garden of Eden away from His properties. Genesis 3:22-24. Though Adam was made higher than his wife, God still did not give him dominion over her. She was just to submit to him, but he still didn’t own her because she was still God’s property and not his.

As God was revealing to me the difference between Him being the owner and us being stewards, my eyes suddenly opened and I saw how I’ve been fooling myself and thought I was in control of life while in the meantime I wasn’t in control of anything. It was time for me to rather ask God to reveal my purpose to me because Adam and Eve had a purpose in the garden of Eden and that was to be stewards over God’s beautiful creation. I am sure I’m not the only person that has been in the dark about the whole ownership and stewardship thing. I’m one that has always tried to control everything: my life, my decisions, my behaviour, and anything else I had access to. But, what was interesting is the fact that after trying to play it as safe as I could, I would still find myself in the very situations which I tried to avoid. I was frustrated because I couldn’t get people to submit or listen to me. This has nothing to do with us being control freaks, by the way. It’s about us not knowing our place and limits and allowing God to take His rightful place as the one who created us. But, trying to be in control is something that most people do because of past experiences. I, for example, became a control freak because of the experiences I’ve had and the lessons I’ve learned. Every new experience gave me more reason to try and control my life, though at the same time I would also pray and tell God that my life is in His hands. Ever since I was young, I would always try so hard to be on top of things and be the best amongst everyone, but it never worked so well for me. I wanted to be the most best-behaved child, but found myself in trouble with my parents. I tried being the best at school but found myself failing or getting the lowest marks anyway. As a matter of fact, I can’t remember scoring an A or B. Once in a while I got a C but mostly a D, which was just enough to get me through to the next grade. I would always witness my fellow school- or classmates being awarded for their excellent performance in school and wonder how they got it right while I too studied hard. I tried being rebellious amongst my friends throughout my school career, but found myself in more trouble than them. I tried controlling my image as a teenager by trying to be the teenager that didn’t care about boys and ended up in a teenage pregnancy situation. My life was always about me trying to control everything around me. I tried showing to Evil that I was too evil and to Good that I was too good. I lost so many things that I tried to protect even after involving God in my life. I still didn’t give Him the opportunity to take control or to have much say in my life. These would always be my type of prayers: God, I want this and that. I need you to make it happen and while you are at it, guide and lead me to get what I want because these are what you’ve promised me in your word. It was never really about me going to enquire from God and waiting for Him to give me the go ahead. As a result, I would find myself messing up big time, and then I’d be upset with God. Trying so hard to be and do something out of character always ends us up in trouble.

God gave Adam and Eve the gift of their stewardship, but they ended up doing something that was not part of the gift which God gave them. The biggest mistake that we make is when we take the position of stewardship over everything else, but the position of stewardship does not apply in our lives. We rather take the position of ownership in our lives, which is God’s position, by the way, and leave God with the position of stewardship while forgetting that we are created beings. As a matter of fact, if we were in control of our own lives wouldn’t we all be where we are supposed to be? Wouldn’t we also choose the day we want to leave the earth? Yes, we do have a part to play in decision-making and being wise, but that’s because we are stewards, managers, but the Lord controls everything and we should give Him his position back. Why? He knows better. He has better vision and knows us better than we know ourselves. We can see this in Psalm 139:15-16(NLT):

15. "You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven