Our Christian experience is supposed to be more than just encouraging and inspiring...it’s supposed to be powerful and victorious. A lot of christians believe their job is to just “Hold on till Jesus comes back”. But that is the mindset of a defeated people, who do not understand the power at their disposal. We are supposed to be an occupying force inside this foreign territory. Our king has already won and we serve Him from a position of victory. We
are not here to just hold on. We have been given power and authority to rule over things and actively expand His territory. The truth is this. We will continue to live defeated until we understand how to access that power. Remember: knowledge is power, when it’s applied. So first, let’s focus on acquiring the knowledge. If you don’t understand the rules of a courtroom, you are guaranteed to lose, every time you are there. The enemy wants you to remain ignorant of the rules, so you won’t understand why you are losing. That creates discouragement and eventually you will give up trying. My goal over the next several weeks is that as a church, we will discover our Kingdom authority, power and privileges as children of the King. In this series we will expose the lies of the enemy and discover the rules of how to live in victory. We are going to cover spiritual laws and how they operate, and in the process we’re going to talk about how to use the power and authority you have been given as a believer. Now, in order to do all of that, we need to go back to the very beginning and look at how God originally intended everything to operate. Genesis 1:26-27 “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.” 27 God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.”
From the very beginning, Adam had a job. And that job was the oversight of the earth and all that was on it. That was God’s charge to him when he was created. God created the heavens, the earth, the sun, stars, animals, birds, fish. All of it. And He said, “It’s good”. Then lastly, He created man and gave him dominion over all the earth. Adam was created to be a manager. God didn’t give His creation to Adam, He just gave Adam the authority to manage it. God wanted the earth to be a reflection of heaven. The physical visible earth was supposed to function like the spiritual invisible heavens. God, as a Spirit, ruled over the spiritual invisible Heavens and so He created a physical visible man in His image with His likeness, and He wanted that physical visible man to rule over the physical visible earth through delegated authority. God retained the ownership, but He gave man the rulership. A manager doesn’t just do whatever he wants. He is supposed to do what the owner wants done. His job is to understand what the goals of the owner are, and move the things under his authority in that direction. That was Adam’s job. But what happened next? Adam gave into satan who had deceived his wife Eve. When he did this, he handed the rulership of the earth over to satan. The Bible calls satan the ruler and god of this world. In John 12, Jesus calls satan the ruler of this world. John 12:31 “31 Now judgment is upon this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out.” In 2 Corinthians, Paul calls satan the god of this world. 2 Corinthians 4:3-4 “3 And even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, 4 in whose case the god
of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.” So now we have a problem. God wanted man to rule the earth, but we gave the rulership over to satan. Jesus came to earth and lived a perfect sinless life, so that He could be the sacrifice for the sins of mankind. Having man reconciled back to God through the sacrifice of Jesus, allowed us to be in the same position as Adam was originally created. God now views us as sinless. This reinstates the order that God the Father originally set up for rulership of the earth. When you accept the fact that Jesus is The Lord, and become a believer, He gives you back the original delegated authority from the Father, and you are supposed to be using it to advance His Kingdom. There is a big difference between rulership and ownership. Let’s say your manager at work allowed you to use a company car. It is within your authority to go wherever you need to, in order to do your job. It’s your responsibility to take care of the car and use it to advance the company’s goals. You are in rulership of that car, but you are not in ownership. The use of, and authority over the car has been delegated to you from the owner...through the manager. Why would they do that? To make it possible for you to do what they need done to advance the company. Now imagine this, what if every time you needed to go somewhere, you went into the owners office and asked him to take you there. Would that make any sense? I believe the owner
would say: “Did your manager not give you a company car?” You would reply “yes Sir he did.” Then He would ask: “does the car not run?” And you would say: “Yes sir it does.” And the owner continues, “Did you lose your keys?” “No sir.” “Do you not know how to drive?” “No sir, I do not.” “Ah, there it is. We have discovered the problem. You just need to be trained on how to use what I gave you.” This is exactly what God is saying to us every time we go to Him, and ask Him to do something that He has given us the tools and authority to do ourselves. Let me make this very clear. God has retained the ownership, but He has given you the rulership. God is not going to do for you, what He has already given you the delegated authority and power to do yourself. If you know someone needs help, don’t pray for God to help them...He’s already given you the ability to help them. Get off of your rear and go do it. If you know a brother is struggling financially and you have the ability to help him...Don’t pray that God will meet their need. You do it. Stop asking God to do, what you are unwilling to do...with what He’s already given you to do it with. You have to wake up to the fact that You already have a company car. You are currently driving a Kingdom company car. You already have access to an unlimited company bank account. You have a Kingdom company debit card in your wallet or purse right now. Where do you think those resources came from? Are they not from God’s hand? Do you think you have moved up from rulership into ownership? If so, what makes you think that?
If not, why do you think the Owner has trusted you to oversee them? Is it not to advance His Kingdom? When our King, the Owner, wants you to shift those resources to someone else...you do it. You don’t ask why, or worry about when...or if, He will replace them. What’s that to you? They didn’t belong to you, so don’t worry about it. That’s the difference between ownership and rulership. If you can grasp this principle and start living by it, it will change your life. OK, let’s move on and discuss authority. Authority is something that flows through you...it doesn’t originate from you. There are two types of authority models we need to understand. The first on is called Top Down authority. This is basically the kind of authority your manager uses at work. His power is delegated from the people above him and is forced on those below him through fear. Compliance to a request from the manager is forced from above. The other type is Bottom Up authority and is the kind of authority that a leader of volunteers uses. This authority is submitted to from below, voluntarily out of love, instead of being forced. Compliance to a request from the leader is submitted to from below. In the book of Luke, we read one story with an example of both kinds of authority. Luke 7:2-10 (ESV) “Now a centurion had a servant who was sick and at the point of death, who was highly valued by him. 3 When
the centurion heard about Jesus, he sent to him elders of the Jews, asking him to come and heal his servant. 4 And when they came to Jesus, they pleaded with him earnestly, saying, “He is worthy to have you do this for him, 5 for he loves our nation, and he is the one who built us our synagogue.” 6 And Jesus went with them. When he was not far from the house, the centurion sent friends, saying to him, “Lord, do not trouble yourself, for I am not worthy to have you come under my roof. 7 Therefore I did not presume to come to you. But say the word, and let my servant be healed. 8 For I too am a man set under authority, with soldiers under me: and I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes; and to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” 9 When Jesus heard these things, he marveled at him, and turning to the crowd that followed him, said, “I tell you, not even in Israel have I found such faith.” 10 And when those who had been sent returned to the house, they found the servant well.” This Roman Centurion understood authority and he recognized it when he saw it in action. As a Roman soldier, he had Top Down authority, because his authority came from Rome and was forced on the soldiers beneath him. Jesus had the right to use top down authority because He is the Lord. But instead, He chose Bottom Up authority. His authority came from God because He was willingly submitted to His task out of love. In turn, the disciples willingly submitted to Jesus as their Leader because they loved Him and they saw His example of submitting to the Father. Bottom Up authority is what we are called to have as believers. Our authority flows from our willingness to submit our lives to God voluntarily out of love. As a church we are called to function with bottom up authority. Our volunteers don’t serve because they have anything to fear. They serve because they willingly submit to God, because they love Him.
Again, authority is something that flows through you, not something that originates from you. When you speak the word of God over your situation, you are bringing heaven’s authority into the earth. You become a conduit of authority to move power from heaven to earth. Speaking God’s word over a situation ensures that you are in agreement with Heaven. This principal is the same as an electrical wire conducting electricity. Unless it’s hooked up to the power source, it’s useless. But if you connect it to a power source, it starts functioning the way it was intended. It was created to carry power from the original source, to some place that needs it...just like you. You were created to cary heaven’s power and authority into the earth, but in order to do that, you must be connected to the power source. And that power source is Jesus. That is why we pray in Jesus name. We are releasing His authority and power into the situation. In Ephesians the Apostle Paul lays a foundation as he describes the position and authority of Jesus. You see, He’s not just the Savior, He’s also the Lord and as we will see, The Father has put everything under His feet. Which means under His authority. Ephesians 1:18-23 (NASB) “18 I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, 19 and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might 20 which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, 21 far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come. 22 And He put all things in subjection under His feet, and gave Him
as head over all things to the church, 23 which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.” He wants us to “see” the greatness of His power toward us who believe. It’s described in verses 19 & 20. We see His power because it was demonstrated by the resurrection, which flipped the natural order. Up to that point, death was the natural order. When Jesus came on the scene things started to change. His power in the heavenly places began to change things on the earth. God is in the business of flipping the natural order of things here on earth. Verse 22 clearly says that Jesus is head over all things to the church. Let’s look at how He established His church. Matthew 16:18-19 (NASB) “18 I also say to you that you are Peter, and upon this rock I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it. 19 I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth shall have been bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall have been loosed in heaven.” In these verses, Jesus establishes His church and gives it the responsibility of holding the keys of the Kingdom of heaven. Why was this important? Because the one with the keys, has access to the authority. That is how the church has the spiritual legal access to heaven’s authority to bind and loose things in heaven and earth...we have the keys. We, as the church, are supposed to use heaven’s authority to bind (or restrain) the work of the enemy in the earth. I know people personally who have cast out demons, through the name of Jesus.
We are also supposed to use heaven’s authority to loose (or release) the power of God in the earth. We do all of this by using the Kingdom keys that Jesus has entrusted to us. John 14:12 “12 Truly, truly, 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 the Father. 13 Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If you ask Me anything in My name, I will do it. 15 “If you love Me, you will keep My commandments.” The power that Jesus will release into in the earth when we pray in His name according to His word, is for the glory of God. Also the last thing He said provides the condition of asking...It has to be done in love and in line with His commandments. We’ll pick this up next week and be talking about the spiritual legal system.
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