Hope, Healing & Freedom Podcast : Ep 25
TRANSCRIPT
Today’s podcast is knowing and exercising your authority here on earth.
Your authority as a child of God is something that is irrefutable to the enemy. He is afraid of you my friend. He is so afraid of you that he will do almost anything to keep you from exercising your authority here on planet earth.
Today’s Verse is Matthew 28:18-20
“And Jesus came up and spoke to them saying, “All authority has been given to Me in Heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.”
All authority has been given to me.
What is Authority? Authority is the right and the power to do something. Have you ever been in a situation where you were given a job to do but you did not really have the power to fulfill what you were asked to do? You were not given legitimate authority. You were given a responsibility without authority.
The biblical word for authority is Exousia – it means the power to act or the right to act.
In our verse from Matthew Jesus says first of all that He has been given all authority in Heaven and on earth. Let’s first look at why Jesus could claim to have all authority in heaven and on earth.
First let’s talk about where authority come from.
Romans 13:1- “Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God, and those which exist are established by God.”
All authority is God given. He is the one who establishes all authorities both in Heaven and on earth. We might not always like some of our earthly authorities but we have to realize that these earthly authorities have been established by God. For authority to be legitimate authority, it must be delegated or given authority.
All authority is delegated authority. Authority has to be given. It cannot be taken. If it is taken, then it is illegitimate authority. Governments, Employers – employees, Parents with their own children, Pastors and churches…
Satan also has legitimate authority here on earth. He tricked Adam and Eve to give over their authority to him. God gave authority to Adam and Eve to rule and reign on earth. They in turn gave their authority to the serpent. This is an important understanding with Restoring the Foundations Ministry. The enemy only has the authority or the right to oppress us that we give to him. When we take away his legal right to oppress us, he has to leave us alone as we direct.
Where did Jesus get His authority. The answer to that is in this story.
Matthew 21:23-27 “When He entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came to Him while He was teaching, and said, “By what authority are You doing these things, and who gave You this authority?” Jesus said to them, “I will also ask you one thing, which if you tell Me, I will also tell you by what authority I do these things. The baptism of John was from what source, from heaven or from men?” And they began reasoning among themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ He will say to us, ‘Then why did you not believe him?’ But if we say, ‘From men,’ we fear the people; for they all regard John as a prophet.” And answering Jesus, they said, “We do not know.” He also said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.”
By not answering this question Jesus actually gave the answer. Jesus Authority came from two places: From Earth, and From Heaven.
Jesus was the son of Man
Galatians 4:4-7 “But when the fullness of the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the adoption as sons.
His human authority came because of Jesus humanity. He was 100% human.
Adam and Eve were given authority over the earth in the garden of Eden.
What did they do with their authority? They gave it away. So the only way for our earthly authority to be returned is for a human to take it back. Jesus had to become 100% human in order to reclaim authority here on earth.
Second, Jesus was the Son of God.
Ephesians 4:8-10 “Therefore it says, “When He ascended on high, He led captive a host of captives, and He gave gifts to men.”(Now this expression, “He ascended,” what does it mean except that He also had descended into the lower parts of the earth? He who descended is Himself also He who ascended far above all the heavens, so that He might fill all things.)”
Colossians 2:9-10
9 For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form,10 and in Him you have been made complete, and He is the head over all rule and authority;
Jesus is 100% God.
In these verses we see that Jesus had all authority in the Heavenly realm. He is the head over all rule and authority.
So Jesus has authority on earth as a 100% human being, and He has all rule and authority in the heavenly realm being 100% God.
How did Jesus manifest His authority here on earth? He healed the sick, raised the dead, opened blind eyes, opened deaf ears, cast out demons, calmed storms, walked on water.
Remember that everything He did here He did as a human being.
What did Jesus do with His authority?
Matt 28:18-20 – “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 the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
Jesus gave His authority to us. He delegated His authority to us.
Where did our authority come from? Jesus delegated his authority to us. The only reason we have authority is because it was delegated to us by Jesus. An in doing so, Our authority is not based on anything we have done or could do. It was totally based on the gift given to us. That is important because our enemy wants to deceive us into believing that we are not good enough to express Heavens authority here on earth. When he does that just laugh at him and remind him that our authority was never based on our merit. It was given to us by delegation from Jesus.
What do we have authority over?
Matthew 10:7-8 “And as you go, preach, saying, ‘The kingdom of heaven is at hand.’ Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons. Freely you received, freely give.
We have authority over the same things Jesus had authority over.
Listen to this next sentence carefully.
God has chosen not to exercise His authority here on earth. It is not that He is unable to do so, it was by His choice to not exercise authority here on earth.
John Wesley – “God does nothing except in response to believing prayer.”
Why does God choose to not exercise His authority here on earth? Because He gave that authority to us for us to co-labor with Him to bring heaven to earth.
Examples of the authority Jesus gave us.
Mark 4:37-40 – “And there arose a fierce gale of wind, and the waves were breaking over the boat so much that the boat was already filling up. Jesus Himself was in the stern, asleep on the cushion; and they woke Him and said to Him, “Teacher, do You not care that we are perishing?” And He got up and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Hush, be still.” And the wind died down and it became perfectly calm. And He said to them, “Why are you [l]afraid? Do you still have no faith?”
Matthew 14:15-18 – “When it was evening, the disciples came to Him and said, “This place is desolate and the hour is already late; so send the crowds away, that they may go into the villages and buy food for themselves.” But Jesus said to them, “They do not need to go away; you give them something to eat!” They said to Him, “We have here only five loaves and two fish.” And He said, “Bring them here to Me.”
Authority does not come by the volume of your voice. I’m sure this has never happened to you, but you know when you get pulled over by the police for exceeding the speed limit, and the officer comes up to your car window and smiles and says in a very calm tone of voice “May I see your driver’s license and registration”. They are exercising their God given, State of Tennessee delegated authority to enforce the laws of the state. They do not need to yell or be insulting in order to express their authority. Their authority was delegated to them.
The same is true for us as children of God. Some have been taught that you need to yell or even be insulting to the demonic in order to get their attention. They already know who you are. Do you know who you are and the power and authority you carry? Sometimes in our ministry sessions we have people who try to convince the demons to leave. They will try to persuade the demons using logic and reason and scripture to get the demon to leave. I don’t believe we have to do that. The demons know who you are and know your authority. All we need to do is command them to leave, and they don’t have a choice. They have to do what we tell them to do.
Be careful not to give your authority away. How do we give our authority away?
By believing lies. The biggest attack of these lies is on our identity. When we do not know who we are, we can’t walk in the authority that we have been given.
When we buy into the lies of the enemy, we give our authority away.
“You are not good enough”
“you have made too many mistakes”
“who do you think you are”
“You need to get someone more powerful than you to do this for you”
Your authority is absolute! It is irrefutable to the enemy!
Matthew 28:18-20
And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 [e]Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit,20 teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you [f]always, even to the end of the age.”
What if we would practice 2 Corinthians 2:14
“But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place.”
When you go to the grocery store, you carry “all authority”. Begin exercising it right there in the store. Begin binding the spirits that are blinding the minds of unbelievers and releasing the Holy Spirit right there in the store. You will be manifesting the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in that store.
Cindi and I were traveling back from Phoenix when we were learning about our authority. Due to the way we purchased our tickets, Cindi flew from Phoenix to Charlotte, and I flew through Chicago. So I am sitting in my gate in Chicago having just flown all night on a Red-Eye flight, and this tired mother and a two year old little kid were having a very hard time. The child was being totally rebellious and the Mom was not being too much better. Since I was learning about taking authority over the demonic realm, I decided to practice right there in O’hare airport. I began binding the demons that were at work stirring up Mom and child. It was amazing because almost immediately the fussing stopped and Mom and child settled down and were peaceful. Notice I did not try to exercise authority over the behavior of the two involved, but rather took authority over the demonic at work stirring up the behavior. It was a great learning situation and a lesson we have used on many other occasions.
You are more powerful than you think and God wants to exercise through you His purposes and plans here on this earth.
Remember: God has chosen not to exercise His authority here on earth. John Wesley – “God does nothing except in response to believing prayer.”
