Hi!
In this season, the main topic I’ll be writing about is the authority that we have in Christ through God’s Son Jesus. I want to encourage you to understand how much authority we’ve been given, how to believe it, and how to make use of it. Let’s start with this first post and a relatively simple point about the marks of our authority.
We know that the kingdoms of the world belong to Satan, because he offered them to Jesus when tempting Him. Luke 4:5:
And the devil took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, and said to him, “To you I will give all this authority and their glory, for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will. If you, then, will worship me, it will all be yours.”
It’s not like Satan is lying to him, he actually does own all of this natural stuff around us; else it wouldn’t have been any temptation at all. In Genesis, Adam “delivered” it to him. He’s the prince and power of the air… I think you guys know this already. I’m just trying to give context to “the teams on the playing field,” if you will.
So then we have the Kingdom of Heaven, which, when demonstrated, messes with everything in the kingdoms of the world. This is when the things we have come to accept as facts or laws of nature are broken before our eyes, and we call that “a miracle”. Jesus demonstrated the authority of the Kingdom of Heaven by healing the sick, raising the dead, casting out demons… calming storms and killing fig trees lol… and then teaching his disciples to do the same. When the twelve and seventy-two are sent out with instructions from him (Mat 10:8, Luk 9, 10) he tells them to basically teach people, “When they see all these miraculous things happening and ask what the crap is going on, tell them ‘The Kingdom of Heaven is among you.’” That is, “This is what it looks like when the authority of heaven overrides the stuff you’ve come to accept as Life. Now go show ‘em.”
Now it’s so important that we understand that this was not just an experience for the disciples to have and make a cool story to hand down through the ages. He wouldn't have bothered teaching his followers how to do what he was doing, and he wouldn't have been so adamant that he needed to ascend to the Father so the Holy Spirit could come to us and help us do those things, if there wasn't a purpose for us to continue. Take a look at three of the things the Holy Spirit equips us with for this work:
2 Corinthians 5:20 exhorts us, “Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us.” An ambassador is the guy who, for example, is sent to Egypt from the US, and the embassy where he stays enforces the laws of the country who sent him (in this case, the US). The ambassador can protect or arrest with the full weight of the US government behind him. Egyptian laws stop at the gates of the US embassy. The ambassador carries the authority of the United States and everything that happens in there is how it would happen in the US.
We really are that person for the Kingdom of Heaven versus the kingdoms of the earth. God’s appeal is “let there be…” <insert something that needs to be changed> and His choice is to do that through us. Through our mouths; this is our job, this is the work.
Ephesians 1:13 teaches us that “In him you also, when you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, and believed in him, were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit.” The seal here isn’t like “a hermetically sealed vault that locks you up in a protective barrier.” It’s the kind of seal that’s applied to a scroll or letter back in the day. And the seal wouldn’t keep people from opening the scroll; its purpose was to let everyone know who sent it. It was pressed with a ring or signet that only the owner had, proving authenticity that it really was sent by Little Lord Fauntleroy or whomever. So in the spirit we have this seal on us that all of the angels on both sides can clearly see. They know who sent us; who we represent.
Put simply, you have a seal that demons can see that says “This one is from the KoH,” and you’re an ambassador of that kingdom, so around you the laws of this world don’t apply.
Then we get another wonderful tool in this work of ours: the name Jesus. Jesus tells us to do our job as an ambassador of our Kingdom “in my name”. People outside of the disciples’ circle were casting out demons in Jesus’ name and the twelve were annoyed and asked if they should tell ‘em to stop. They were asking this because there was something tangible to be seen happening, because it works.
In fact, Jesus says this explicitly to his Father in John 17:6, “I have manifested your name to the people whom you gave me out of the world,” and in 17:11, “Holy Father, keep them in your name, which you have given me,” and 17:12, “I kept them in your name, which you have given me.” What does it mean that this divine human Jesus manifested the name of Jesus? That’s like saying, “I showed them this name and how to use it.” Oxford defines the verb manifest, “display or show (a quality or feeling) by one's acts or appearance; demonstrate.” Jesus showed us how to use the Father’s name… which is apparently “Jesus”.
So I tell youth group kids it works like this: Imagine a policeman sees like five armed robbers taking down a bank. He shouts, “Stop! Police! Put down your weapons!” and these five guys, who could easily beat the crap out of the one policeman, obey him. They stop and put it all down. They’re not obeying the one man. This man wears a badge, and that badge says that the full weight of the United States government is behind his words. They know that if they run, the might and reach of the government will take them down; so they stop and put down their weapons.
The name of Jesus is our police badge. You have a word that all the demons must submit to because of the authority of Jesus, seated at the right hand of the Father, who was given all authority from his Father. Whether they like it or not, the demons do what you tell them to because you’re speaking with all the authority of the Father you represent. The physical things of the earth submit to it, too. You heal sick people with your words, telling body parts what to be, and saying the name that they all perk up to when they hear it.
Everything in heaven and earth knows the name Jesus, and knows that they must obey the words of a sealed ambassador who manifests it.
Satan’s laws don’t govern us or our surroundings; our Father’s do. Satan’s authority can only be exercised over us to the extent that we believe it can. My sincere hope is that we’ll start to believe that none of his authority can have any effect on us or the people we encounter. Let us start expecting that healing the sick, raising the dead, and casting out demons in Jesus name is supposed to be the norm. Along with a whole lot more, which we’ll get into: “Why have this authority?”, “How did we get it?”, “How do we use it?”, and “What is it good for?”
Thanks for your time! Talk soon,
Garrison
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