Walking in Divine Authority!
Have you noticed with some people as they walk into or leave a room that they possess something special? They carry a special presence with them that changes the entire atmosphere. That presence is nothing other than the “authority” they possess to take control over and command a situation to function as it ought to. They have extraordinary leadership skills, and it is obvious that they are endued with “power.”
There is no authority higher than God and God bestows such authority upon His children who believe in Him and follow Him.
Jesus Operated with Authority!
Jesus was not an ordinary preacher but one who spoke with authority: “And so it was, when Jesus had ended these sayings, that the people were astonished at His teaching, for He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes” (Matthew 7:28-29).
With authority, Jesus healed the sick and cast the demons out: “Then they were all amazed, so that they questioned among themselves, saying, ‘What is this? What new doctrine (with authority) is this? For with authority, (Jesus) commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey Him’” (Mark 1:27).
People of authority such as the Roman Centurion who came to Jesus for the healing of his servant recognized Jesus as the authority in heaven and on earth” “The centurion answered and said, ‘Lord, I am not worthy that You should come under my roof. But only speak a word, and my servant will be healed. For I also am a man under authority, having soldiers under me. And I say to this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes; and to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it’” (Matthew 8:8-9).
A Believer’s Power is With Authority!
God bestows authority upon His children: “But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right (authority) to become children of God, to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” (John 1:12-13).
It is in Jesus, a disciple of Jesus has the authority to heal the sick and drive out demons: “And when (Jesus) had called His twelve disciples to Him, He gave them power (authority) over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease” (Matthew 10:1).
How Do Walk in Authority?
When we look at the Biblical examples and how some of them came into operating with authority, we find that there was a shift in their posture from being an ordinary person into possessing the authority granted by God!
· Authority Comes with An Experience with God! Moses was a prince in Egypt but was separated by divine plan to leave Egypt and become a shepherd for 40 years in a desert land. A decisive moment came when Moses had an experience with God in a burning bush, and everything changed! Here was what happened when Moses encountered God: “So the Lord said to him, ‘What is that in your hand?’ (Moses) said, ‘A rod.’ And He said, ‘Cast it on the ground.’ So he cast it on the ground, and it became a serpent; and Moses fled from it. Then the Lord said to Moses, ‘Reach out your hand and take it by the tail’ (and he reached out his hand and caught it, and it became a rod in his hand), ‘that they may believe that the Lord God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you’… And you shall take this rod in your hand, with which you shall do the signs…Then Moses took his wife and his sons and set them on a donkey, and he returned to the land of Egypt. And Moses took the rod of God in his hand” (Exodus 4:2-5, 17, 20). When Moses took the “rod of God” in his hand, he returned to Egypt possessing the authority over Pharaoh of Egypt to deliver the Jews from Egypt!
· Authority is Given by Following God Fully! Joshua did not have a “burning bush” experience but possessed the authority by faithfully following God, while many others around him did not. Joshua was a shadow of Moses to follow him as his servant wherever Moses went: “So the Lord spoke to Moses face to face, as a man speaks to his friend. And he would return to the camp, but his servant Joshua the son of Nun, a young man, did not depart from the tabernacle” (Exodus 33:11). Here is the indictment of God upon the whole nation of Israel while Joshua and Caleb were singled out: “Surely none of the men who came up from Egypt, from twenty years old and above, shall see the land of which I swore to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, because they have not wholly followed Me, except Caleb the son of Jephunneh, the Kenizzite, and Joshua the son of Nun, for they have wholly followed the Lord” (Numbers 33:11-12). The decisive moment when Joshua was bestowed with authority came after Moses was dead. God spoke to Joshusa: “Moses My servant is dead. Now therefore, arise, go over this Jordan, you and all this people, to the land which I am giving to them—the children of Israel. Every place that the sole of your foot will tread upon I have given you, as I said to Moses…No man shall be able to stand before you all the days of your life; as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you nor forsake you” (Joshua 1:2-3, 5). Joshua went forward as God’s authority to divide the land of Israel to the tribes of Israel!
· Authority By Meeting a Challenge! There comes a decisive moment in a leader’s life when they go from just meeting a challenge and coming into the authority that God places upon them! Othniel met such a challenge proposed by Caleb to take a city as a warrior: “Then Caleb said, ‘Whoever attacks Kirjath Sepher and takes it, to him I will give my daughter Achsah as wife.’ And Othniel the son of Kenaz, Caleb’s younger brother, took it; so, he gave him his daughter Achsah as wife” (Judges 1:12-13). God groomed Caleb as the first Judge over Israel and under his authority and leadership, there was peace for over 40 years: “The Spirit of the Lord came upon him, and he judged Israel. He went out to war, and the Lord delivered Cushan-Rishathaim king of Mesopotamia into his hand; and his hand prevailed over Cushan-Rishathaim. So, the land had rest for forty years” (Judges 3:10-11). Gideon was another example. Gideon was already operating with courage and wisdom to overcome his enemies, the Medianites to produce a harvest and kept it from their eyes. It was during such a daring act against his enemies that Gideon encountered the call of God: “Now the Angel of the Lord came and sat under the terebinth tree, which was in Ophrah, which belonged to Joash the Abiezrite, while his son Gideon threshed wheat in the winepress, in order to hide it from the Midianites. And the Angel of the Lord appeared to him, and said to him, ‘The Lord is with you, you mighty man of valor’” (Judges 6:11-12)! The Spirit of God came down upon Gideon when God placed him as His authority to gather the city as one man: “But the Spirit of the Lord came upon Gideon; then he blew the trumpet, and the Abiezrites gathered behind him” (Judges 6:34). The third example is David! David was a faithful keeper of the sheep until Samuel anointed him to be second king of Israel. Here is the conversation Samuel had with Jesse before that special moment: “And Samuel said to Jesse, ‘Are all the young men here?’ Then he said, ‘There remains yet the youngest, and there he is, keeping the sheep.’ And Samuel said to Jesse, ‘Send and bring him. For we will not sit down till he comes here.’ So he sent and brought him in. Now he was ruddy, with bright (beautiful) eyes, and good-looking. And the Lord said, ‘Arise, anoint him; for this is the one!’ Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers; and the Spirit of the Lord came upon David from that day forward. So, Samuel arose and went to Ramah” (I Samuel 16:11-13). David acted as the divine authority by killing Goliath, when his whole nation and King Saul were paralyzed with fear: “So, David prevailed over the Philistine with a sling and a stone and struck the Philistine and killed him. But there was no sword in the hand of David. Therefore, David ran and stood over the Philistine, took his sword, and drew it out of its sheath and killed him, and cut off his head with it” (I Samuel 17:50-51).
· Authority with Separation to God! Daniel was a different kind of captive in Babylon, in that he was decisive with learning skills and with his determination to not defile himself with the lifestyle of the palace: “(Daniel was among) young men in whom there was no blemish, but good-looking, gifted in all wisdom, possessing knowledge and quick to understand, who had ability to serve in the king’s palace, and whom they might teach the language and literature of the Chaldeans…Daniel purposed in his heart that he would not defile himself with the portion of the king’s delicacies, nor with the wine which he drank; therefore he requested of the chief of the eunuchs that he might not defile himself” (Daniel 1:4, 8). Daniel came into authority when he saw in wisdom and revelation what his King Nebuchadnezzar saw in his dream and forgot: “So, Daniel went in and asked the king to give him time, that he might tell the king the interpretation. Then Daniel went to his house, and made the decision known to Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, his companions, that they might seek mercies from the God of heaven concerning this secret, so that Daniel and his companions might not perish with the rest of the wise men of Babylon. Then the secret was revealed to Daniel in a night vision. So, Daniel blessed the God of heaven” (Daniel 2:16-19).
· Authority by Submission to God’s Word and Overcoming the Enemy! Here is the “Before” and “After” picture of Jesus when He entered the wilderness to fast and when He came out after 40 days: “Then Jesus, being filled with the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led by the Spirit into the wilderness, being tempted for forty days by the devil…Then Jesus returned in the power of the Spirit to Galilee, and news of Him went out through all the surrounding region” (Luke 4:1-2, 14). Jesus is our perfect example of how we can possess power and authority – Every time we overcome Satan’s temptation by yielding to God and His Word, we increase in power to deny the works of the devil upon our lives!
· Authority by Being a Servant of Jesus! Joshua inherited Moses’ mantle of authority but we, the disciples of Jesus inherit the anointing of Jesus to represent God in God-given authority. Jesus told the disciples: “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” (Luke 10:19). Jesus’ commission at the end of His life on earth before His ascension to His Father: “And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, ‘All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age’ Amen” (Matthew 28:18-20). There is no question that a believer sold out to God will operate in the power and authority to do the works of God as Jesus promised us: “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father” (John 14:12).
Satan’s Power Has No Authority Over a Believer!
The authority God grants a believer comes from the Greek word, “exsoosia,” which simply means, “right to exercise power.” It is also “power over” something or someone, and “power to deny” the power of the opposition. Our main opposition comes from the enemy, Satan. Satan does not have authority, but he may try to use his limited power to seduce, corrupt, and destroy an individual. We must recognize his cunning nature but have the authority to deny his tactics against us.
Never forget that Jesus’ very purpose was to destroy the works of the devil: “He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose, the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil” (I John 3:8).
Through Jesus, we overcome the devil: “You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world” (I John 4:4). Always remember that God is dwelling within you empowering you with authority to deny the works of the devil!
The most powerful weapon against the devil is the blood of Jesus shed on the cross of Calvary and the words of our testimony: “Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, ‘Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death’” (Revelation 12:10-11).
Two most important things we must be aware of are “self-control” and “watchfulness.” Satan always will try to cause slumber among the believers and take away their discipline to stay the course. Apostle Peter warns us to stay alert and be disciplined: “Be sober (self-controlled), be vigilant (watchful); because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour” (I Peter 5:8). The single most important thing that brings us to stay focused, disciplined and be watchful is the CROSS of Christ! When we are mindful of the cross of Christ, we will be aware of the tactics of the devil and defeat them by the power of the cross.
Jesus surrendered Himself to the Father and gave complete ownership to Him from whom came all that He had and all that He was. That was the reason why Jesus made this statement that He owed NOTHING to the devil: “I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming, and he has nothing in Me” (John 14:30). We too must surrender our lives completely to God and operate in His authority and power to be who and what God called us to be and complete our course in victory. Satan has no power upon the lives of those who have totally yielded to God and placed all that they have in God’s hands!
Prayer
“Heavenly Father, I love You and adore You and bow down before You. I thank You, Lord, for the privilege of knowing You and experiencing You in my heart and in my life. I will stay under Your mighty hands to operate in the power of Your anointing and to finish my course victoriously by Your grace. In the Most Precious and Wonderful Name of Jesus, I pray. Amen! Amen!!”
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John Jeyaseelan
Global Prayer Center | prayer | 701 Bill France Boulevard, Daytona Beach, FL, USA
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