Dominion Respected: Prayer as Inviting God to Act

by Dr. Peter A. Kerr

Many Christians quietly wonder why prayer matters if God is already good, powerful, and loving. If God knows what is needed, why ask (Matt 6:8)? If God can act, why wait? If God cares, why does the world often remain so resistant to healing and justice?

Within LUMEN, these questions begin to make sense once we recover a biblical truth that is often acknowledged but rarely explored: God gave humanity real dominion over the earth (Gen 1:26–28; Ps 115:16).

When Scripture speaks of human dominion, it does not mean that humans were made miniature sovereigns who control history. Dominion is not the power to force results. It is the responsibility to steward space (Gen 2:15).

The earth was entrusted to humanity as a domain where love, justice, creativity, and relationship could grow freely. This means the world is not merely a stage on which God acts while humans observe. It is a shared arena where human freedom genuinely matters (Deut 30:19).

Because dominion is real, God does not habitually override it—even for good ends. Love that constantly bypasses freedom eventually collapses into management rather than relationship. God’s holiness honors the space He has given (Gal 5:13). Prayer, then, is not a workaround for God’s reluctance. It is how love moves within a freely governed domain.

Prayer as consent, not causation

Prayer is often misunderstood as a mechanism that causes God to act. This misunderstanding creates pressure, guilt, and anxiety—especially when prayers appear unanswered (Jas 4:2–3).

Within LUMEN, prayer is better understood as consent rather than causation. God does not lack power. He honors freedom. Prayer is the human “yes” that invites divine action into a domain God refuses to coerce. When we pray, we are not convincing God to care. We are opening space for holy love to act without violating the very freedom that makes love possible (Rev 3:20).

This helps explain why Scripture so often portrays God as waiting to be asked (Matt 7:7), responding differently in similar situations (Mark 6:5–6), and binding Himself to promises concerning prayer (John 15:7). God is not hesitant. He is faithful to the world He made.

This also clarifies why God so often answers prayer by mobilizing people rather than bypassing them. God acts through human beings because doing so preserves the purpose of the domain. Acting around human agency would hollow out responsibility and formation. Acting through human agency deepens participation, character, and love (2 Cor 5:20).

When prayer leads to action—ours or others’—it is not because God delegated His work out of necessity. It is because forming people is always more important than fixing moments (Eph 2:10). Prayer does not remove our responsibility. It awakens it (Jas 2:17).

Spiritual conflict assumes real dominion

The reality of spiritual conflict only makes sense if human dominion is genuine. Temptation, deception, and influence all operate through consent, not right (Gen 3:1–6; Eph 4:27).

Evil does not rule the world. It exploits openings. That alone tells us something important: God honors the domain He entrusted, even when it is misused. Prayer, then, often functions not as an aggressive force but as a protective one—closing doors, opening windows, and inviting light where darkness seeks entry (Matt 6:13; Eph 6:12).

This is why Jesus teaches prayer that asks for deliverance rather than domination.

The Incarnation honors dominion from within

The clearest expression of God’s respect for human dominion is the Incarnation itself. God did not reclaim the world by overriding it. He entered it as a human being (John 1:14; Phil 2:6–8). Jesus does not act as an external ruler imposing divine will. He prays (Luke 5:16), waits (John 11:6), obeys (Heb 5:8), resists temptation (Matt 4:1–11), suffers injustice (1 Pet 2:23), and trusts the Father—all as a faithful human within the domain of earth.

He does not bypass the playground. He plays upon it perfectly. This is not a secondary detail. It reveals the Father’s heart. God does not violate the structures of love He created. He fulfills them from within (Rom 8:3).

God’s patience is formation, not delay

From this perspective, God’s patience is not inactivity. It is time given for dominion to mature (2 Pet 3:9). A rushed world would produce compliant subjects, not sons and daughters. God’s long arc is not inefficiency; it is formation at scale. Justice, healing, and redemption unfold slowly because love takes time to grow without coercion (Rom 8:18–25). What looks like delay is often God’s commitment to forming people rather than forcing outcomes.

One caution must be stated clearly: dominion does not mean that suffering exists because people failed to pray enough. Within LUMEN, prayer is participation, not performance. God is always already at work (John 5:17). Divine patience never implies abandonment (Isa 49:15–16). Dominion dignifies prayer; it does not burden it. Prayer is never about earning God’s action. It is about welcoming it.

Why this changes how we pray

Seen this way, prayer is no longer an attempt to manage God or the world. It becomes an act of trust, consent, and collaboration. We pray not because God is distant, but because He is near and honors the space He gave to love (Acts 17:27–28).

Prayer matters because the world matters. Freedom matters. Persons matter.

God does not act in the world because He lacks power. He acts because He honors the domain He gave to love. Prayer is how human freedom invites divine action without coercion (1 Cor 3:9).

This is not a technique. It is a relationship. And it is an invitation.

Supporting Scripture (in NASB)

Here are the scripture references from the text, quoted from the New American Standard Bible (NASB) 1995, in the order they first appear (with subsequent mentions of the same reference noted but quoted only once for brevity):

Matthew 6:8 “So do not be like them; for your Father knows what you need before you ask Him.”

Genesis 1:26–28 “Then God said, ‘Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.’ God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. God blessed them; and God said to them, ‘Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.’”

Psalm 115:16 “The heavens are the heavens of the Lord, But the earth He has given to the sons of men.”

Genesis 2:15 “Then the Lord God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it.”

Deuteronomy 30:19 “I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants”

Galatians 5:13 “For you were called to freedom, brethren; only do not turn your freedom into an opportunity for the flesh, but through love serve one another.”

James 4:2–3 “You lust and do not have; so you commit murder. You are envious and cannot obtain; so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures.”

Revelation 3:20 “Behold, I stand at the door and knock; if anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and will dine with him, and he with Me.”

Matthew 7:7 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.”

Mark 6:5–6 “And He could do no miracle there except that He laid His hands on a few sick people and healed them. And He wondered at their unbelief. And He was going around the villages teaching.”

John 15:7 “If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.”

2 Corinthians 5:20 “Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.”

Ephesians 2:10 “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.”

James 2:17 “Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself.”

Genesis 3:1–6 “Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, ‘Indeed, has God said, “You shall not eat from any tree of the garden”?’ The woman said to the serpent, ‘From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God said, “You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.”’ The serpent said to the woman, ‘You surely will not die! For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.’ When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate.”

Ephesians 4:27 “and do not give the devil an opportunity.”

Matthew 6:13 “And do not lead us into temptation, but deliver us from evil. [For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever. Amen.]”

Ephesians 6:12 “For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.”

John 1:14 “And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.”

Philippians 2:6–8 “who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.”

Luke 5:16 “But Jesus Himself would often slip away to the wilderness and pray.”

John 11:6 “So when He heard that he was sick, He then stayed two days longer in the place where He was.”

Hebrews 5:8 “Although He was a Son, He learned obedience from the things which He suffered.”

Matthew 4:1–11 “Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. And after He had fasted forty days and forty nights, He then became hungry. And the tempter came and said to Him, ‘If You are the Son of God, command that these stones become bread.’ But He answered and said, ‘It is written, “Man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.”’ Then the devil took Him into the holy city and had Him stand on the pinnacle of the temple, and said to Him, ‘If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down; for it is written, “He will command His angels concerning You”; and “On their hands they will bear You up, So that You will not strike Your foot against a stone.”’ Jesus said to him, ‘On the other hand, it is written, “You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.”’ Again, the devil took Him to a very high mountain and showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and their glory; and he said to Him, ‘All these things I will give You, if You fall down and worship me.’ Then Jesus said to him, ‘Go, Satan! For it is written, “You shall worship the Lord your God, and serve Him only.”’ Then the devil left Him; and behold, angels came and began to minister to Him.”

1 Peter 2:23 “and while being reviled, He did not revile in return; while suffering, He uttered no threats, but kept entrusting Himself to Him who judges righteously”

Romans 8:3 “For what the Law could not do, weak as it was through the flesh, God did: sending His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and as an offering for sin, He condemned sin in the flesh”

2 Peter 3:9 “The Lord is not slow about His promise, as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.”

Romans 8:18–25 “For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that is to be revealed to us. For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. For the creation was subjected to futility, not willingly, but because of Him who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans and suffers the pains of childbirth together until now. And not only this, but also we ourselves, having the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our body. For in hope we were saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he already sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, with perseverance we wait for it.”

John 5:17 “But He answered them, ‘My Father is working until now, and I Myself am working.’”

Isaiah 49:15–16 “Can a woman forget her nursing child And have no compassion on the son of her womb? Even these may forget, but I will not forget you. Behold, I have inscribed you on the palms of My hands; Your walls are continually before Me.”

Acts 17:27–28 “that they would seek God, if perhaps they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and exist, as even some of your own poets have said, ‘For we also are His children.’”

1 Corinthians 3:9 “For we are God’s fellow workers; you are God’s field, God’s building.”