I love the way the Amplified Bible reads this verse:

"As each of you has received a gift (a particular spiritual talent, a gracious divine endowment),employ it for one another as [befits] good trustees of God's many-sided grace - faithful stewards of the extremely diverse [powers and gifts granted to Christians by]unmerited favor" (1 Pet. 4:10).   The Greek word for "steward" is OIKONOMOS.  It is made up of two root words OIKOS, meaning a house, a dwelling place; somewhere that a person lives and makes his residence.  The second word is NOMOS, and it means an established law, rule, or command.  According to Hebrews chapter three, we are called the house of God (Heb. 3:6).  Over in First Corinthians chapter three, we are referred to as God's building (1 Cor. 3:9).   What Peter is actually describing here, with this word "steward," is that we are to see ourselves as a HOUSE OF RULE.  Not only are we to be subject to the rule of heaven, but we are to manage and establish the rule of heaven on earth. That's our job!  That's our mission as a Christian.  God has entrusted us with (as the Amplified Bible puts it) "extremely diverse powers and gifts!" 

       Here is what we know about the plan and purpose of God in making us stewards. According to Isaiah, the Lord said:"Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, my counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure" (Isa. 46:9-10).  

      If you look back to the beginning, when God first created man, you will find that God put him in charge over the entire earth.Psalms One Hundred Fifteen declares: "The heaven, even the heavens, are the Lords: but the earth hath he given to the children of men" (Psa. 115:16).  Man was not only assigned the duty of guardianship, but he was also made to rule the earth through the sovereign powers of eternal life.  Once sin entered the world, death took over those sovereign powers and seized control of man's rulership.

      However, God's plan never changed. He never withdrew the command for man to have dominion.  It was just simply out of his reach because he became alienated from the life of God.  In other words, he lost his divine connection, which made him ineffectual in enforcing the rule of heaven.  When Jesus came, he was the life of God personified (1 John 1:1-2; John 1:4).  And his very purpose in coming was to give us back that life (John 10:10)!

Where death entered and seized the sovereignty God sent his Son, who is life, to restore the sovereignty!The revelation of redemption is that we are now to be "employed wholly with the activities of this new life" (A.S. Way Translation of Romans 6:4).

       Stewardship is about management, and within this managerial task are two vital truths required for us to be the HOUSE OF RULE that God intends for us to be. We must first and foremost incorporate the teacher, the Holy Spirit, in everything we do because he knows the divine will of God and what heaven needs accomplishing on the earth.  He is the Spirit of life, and when we learn how to flow with him we will learn how to live as we ought to live, and do what we ought to do.  Secondly, we must understand the power of seizing faith. Not just believing faith, but a faith that knows its rights and is unswerving in taking hold of what it knows belongs to it. Together, these two truths will propel us into a life of dominion. It will enable us to get done what God said had not yet been done, and that is to have a chosen people who will rise up and be a HOUSE OF RULE through the redemption we now possess in Christ Jesus!