311. Authority
One of Satan’s most invisible and successful
schemes is to convince you that you can be independent from authority.
Watchman Nee said, “Wherever
there is a person [or a church] on earth that truly obeys authority, there is
the testimony of the Kingdom, and there Satan is defeated!”
Obedience to authority is what
is taking you to Heaven. Romans
5:19 (KJV) says, “For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so
by the obedience of One shall many be made righteous.”
Have you ever felt like saying “Quit telling
me what to do”?
What does God think about this attitude?
We may have
the great assurance that your life is in the hands of your loving God during
your journey on this earth.
However, that assurance is conditioned upon making Jesus Lord, making
Him your Shepherd, making Him your “boss.” That means totally and completely
submitting to Him, to His Word and to His Spirit, as your authority, as well as
submitting to the authorities He appoints over you.
“And all these
blessings shall come upon you and overtake you, because you obey the voice of
the LORD your God” (Deuteronomy 28:2).
Blessings for obedience.
There are many Christians who are going to
Heaven, but are not living under a full protection while they are here on
earth. If we hang on to any
selfish or rebellious attitudes, we are open game for the enemy.
Jesus
warned us that in these “end times” life would be harder. Satan will attack any little bit of
rebellion. He is running an all-out
campaign to look for people who have not forsaken all to follow Jesus. In the last days, people will be lovers
of self. 2 Timothy 3:2 says, “For
men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud,
blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy.”
Even the
elect will be deceived. Mark 13:22
says, “For false christs and false prophets will rise and show signs and
wonders to deceive, if possible, even the elect.” The Bible foresees that even believers in Jesus would be
deceived and backslide and get into trouble.
“Adam,
where are you?” Why do you think God asked this question of Adam, right after
Adam’s rebellion? Is there some
significance in this that we can learn from? Do you think that Adam was in the habit of running to meet
God? Do you think that his morning
started with, “Hey Eve, lets go check out the Tree of Life (Word of God) to see
what the Boss wants?” Do you
suppose that part of Adam’s rebellion was not running to God to find out what
He needed that day?
Spiritual light is equal to your
obedience.
Perhaps you would desire to have more personal
revelation from God as you read the Word and fellowship with the Holy Spirit. “If anyone wills to do His will, he
shall know concerning the doctrine, whether it is from God or whether I speak
on My own authority” (John 7:17).
If you are having difficulty hearing from God, go back to the last
prompting of obedience He gave to you.
Obey that quickly and you will see the windows of Heaven open. Be willing to “do His will,” or in
other words, obey Him. Likewise,
you must obey your delegated earthly authorities in order to have light from
God. God alone deserves our unqualified
obedience. Submission to delegated
authority is always qualified.
If your
earthly father (provided he is godly) asks you do to something, and you quickly
obey him, his first reaction is to provide for you, to take care of your needs. It is the same with our Heavenly
Father. However, the way He
provides for your needs is different.
He provides by giving you ‘rhema,’ or revelation knowledge in His
Word. That plants the seed in your
heart that gives you all that you need in every area of life.
Jesus
often delegates people to represent Him with His authority. This can be our business leaders, employers, pastors, and
even government authorities. We
are to obey the laws of the land as long as these laws do not violate the Word
of the Lord. See Acts 5:29 for the
“Peter Principle.” “But Peter and
the other apostles answered and said: ‘We ought to obey God rather than men’”
(Acts 5:29).
There is a principle of authority in Matthew
20.
There is a false concept that to be in submission
means to be inferior.
What is
authority? It is so
misunderstood. The world says that
authority is controlling someone.
Jesus says that authority is becoming obligated to take care of
someone.
Matthew
20:25-28 says, “But Jesus called them to Himself and said, ‘You know that the
rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and those who are great exercise
authority over them. Yet it shall not be so among you; but whoever desires to
become great among you, let him be your servant. And whoever desires to be
first among you, let him be your slave – just as the Son of Man did not come to
be served, but to serve, and to give His life a ransom for many.’”
The
Law of Authority. Like the law of gravity or lift are
natural laws, or like the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus is a
spiritual law, there is a spiritual law that has to do with authority. Briefly if goes like this: The one who
submits to an authority figure will receive his blessings and curses. That includes care, support, or lack of
it, depending upon the personality of the one submitted to. The flip side of this is that the
authority figure cannot care for a person if they are not submitted to
him. If one tries to care for
another without that other person being submitted, the authority figure will
ultimately be destroyed. I have
personal experience with both sides and I can testify that this law works!
In Matthew 8, the Centurion was under
authority.
Why did Jesus get so excited with the Centurion
in Matthew chapter 8 when he said, “Just say the Word and my servant shall be
healed? I am a man under authority
and I have authority over others” (Matthew 8:8-10). The Word says that Jesus marveled and said to His disciples
that He had never seen so great faith, not even in the covenant people of
Israel. His servant was healed in
the same hour. What do faith and
authority have in common; are they connected? Faith cannot exist without authority. Faith without works is dead.
These
people were blessed by obeying authority.
2 Kings 5:1
- The Syrian General’s healing.
The Syrian General tried to use his authority over Elisha to get his needs
met (2 Kings 4). He wanted to be
the boss and call the shots. But
when he submitted to authority he got healed from a fatal disease, leprosy.
In 1 Kings
17:9, the widow submitted to Elijah, and instead of starving they were both fed
supernaturally for a year. Later,
when her son died, he was raised back to life. She got blessings for obedience.
I have
personally been blessed beyond measure in the business world by “graduating
God’s school of authority” after eight long years. I had not been raised as a child with clear authority
ideas. Therefore, after I met
Jesus, He saw fit to enroll me in His own “authority school.” I can tell you that prompt and
dedicated obedience to delegated authority will bring blessings that no human
can reproduce!
When we obey God, we receive authority.
In the parable of the minas (pounds) in Luke 19,
the master came back to see if they had been obedient. He gave the obedient servants
more authority.
There is bad authority.
Satan dominates and exercises his own will. In Isaiah 14, it describes Satan as
saying, “I will ascend to heaven.
I will exalt myself and my throne.
I will make myself like God” (Isaiah 14:13-14).
You will
automatically come under bad or evil authority if you do not submit to godly
authority. This is a fact and part
of the law. I have experienced
this myself prior to meeting the Lord, and I have seen multitudes of people
reap this bad fruit. I have seen
so many young men who did not submit to God and godly authorities and have
gotten totally under the control of a controlling and manipulative woman. I have seen the same with rebellious
women.
The
opposite of good authority is witchcraft.
Exercising
your own will leads to dominating others.
Where people take control over other people, or where demons take
control of people, is considered witchcraft and it leads to demonic control.
Rebellion
is witchcraft. God, through
Samuel, told King Saul to completely wipe out the enemy. He did not. Instead he allowed his people to take some of the good
things, the oxen and sheep. Read
the story in I Samuel 15:3, 8-23.
God became
angry. “So Samuel said: ‘Has the LORD as great delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying
the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word
of the LORD, He also has rejected you from being king’” (1 Samuel 15:22-23).
Saul had
not been a “bad guy.” David was a
“bad guy.” He had been in real
trouble with adultery and murder.
But David knew about authority and obedience. When David repented, he was quick to obey. Before David became king, Saul was
still king, but David had already been chosen by God to succeed him. Saul was jealous and tried to kill
David. Not one time did David try
to exercise his authority, but instead he recognized Saul as his authority, his
king. He kept this position until
God was ready to raise him to be a king.
There was a King who completely obeyed the
voice of God.
If anybody had the right to be His own boss it
was Jesus, yet He dared not make a move independent of His Father.
Jesus
– our King. Hebrews 5:8 says, “…though He was a
Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered.” Hebrews 2:18 says, “For in that He
Himself has suffered, being tempted, He is able to aid those who are tempted.”
John 5:19 says, “Then Jesus answered and said to them, ‘Most assuredly, I say
to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father do; for
whatever He does, the Son also does in like manner.”
And
finally, in the Garden of Gethsemane just before Jesus’ crucifixion Matthew
26:42 says, “Again, a second time, He went away and prayed, saying, “O My
Father, if this cup cannot pass away from Me unless I drink it, Your will be
done.”
Delegated authorities.
God appoints authorities to take His place in
our lives from time to time.
Failure to recognize God’s authority in another person is one of man’s
biggest failures and one of Satan’s best weapons. You should not expect to enjoy God’s blessings if you have
not done all you can do to submit to Him and His delegated authorities.
Your job is
not to sit back and wait for Him to grab you, but your job is to pursue Him as
hard as you can to find out what you can do. This is the only safe way to live.
This is a
principal of authority and submission to God, to His Word, to the Lordship of
Jesus. We must pursue Him. The centurion pursued, the general
pursued. James 4:7 tells us to “Therefore
submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.”
If you send
an older son down to the neighbor’s house after the younger son, you would say
to him, “Go tell your younger
brother that I said for him to come home right now.” You have made the older son a delegated authority. You have sent him in your name. He carries all the authority that is
yours, in your name. For the
younger son to not obey would be rebellion against you, not his older brother.
In the same
way, God appoints delegated authorities in our lives, and when we do not
recognize and obey them, we are not rebelling against them but against
God! This is a serious matter, as
rebellion is the most serious sin!
We need to develop a fear of God in this issue.
Some
examples of delegated authorities are parents (for children), husbands (if they
are submitted to God), pastors, teachers, police, civil authorities, employers,
and others.
For
churches it is their denomination. If a church
speaks against its denomination, it is under a curse. It should either get lined up with its authority or leave
it.
Some
examples.
Miriam
and Aaron.
One of the
Old Testament examples is a story described in Numbers 12, when Miriam and
Aaron spoke against Moses. Numbers
12:1-3 says, “Then Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Ethiopian
(Cushitic) woman whom he had married; for he had married an Ethiopian
woman. So they said, ‘Has the LORD
indeed spoken only through Moses? Has He not spoken through us also?’ And the LORD heard it. (Now the man Moses was very humble,
more than all men who were on the face of the earth).”
Notice,
they spoke words of rebellion against God’s appointed leader. Moses did not
defend his authority but allowed God to deal with it.
“Then the
LORD came down in the pillar of cloud and stood in the door of the tabernacle,
and called Aaron and Miriam. And they both went forward. Then He said, ‘Hear now
My words: If there is a prophet among you, I, the LORD, make Myself known to
him in a vision; I speak to him in a dream. Not so with My servant Moses; he is
faithful in all My house. I speak with him face to face, even plainly, and not
in dark sayings; and he sees the form of the LORD. Why then were you not afraid
to speak against My servant Moses?’ So the anger of the LORD was aroused
against them, and He departed” (Numbers 12:5-9).
The
statement to be observed is, “‘Why then were you not afraid to speak against My
servant Moses?’ So the anger of the LORD was aroused against them, and He
departed. And when the cloud departed from above the tabernacle, suddenly
Miriam became leprous, as white as snow. Then Aaron turned toward Miriam, and
there she was, a leper” (Numbers 12:8b-10). The penalty was serious!
Korah,
Dathan, and Abiram.
Again, in
Numbers 16, we read the story about the rebellion of Korah with Dathan and Abiram
and the 250 leaders (well known men of distinction) against Moses. The earth opened up and swallowed them
alive, them and their households.
Numbers
16:30-33 says, “‘But if the LORD creates a new thing, and the earth opens its mouth
and swallows them up with all that belongs to them, and they go down alive into
the pit, then you will understand that these men have rejected the LORD.’ Now it came to pass, as he finished speaking
all these words, that the ground split apart under them, and the earth opened its
mouth and swallowed them up, with their households and all the men with Korah, with
all their goods. So they and all those
with them went down alive into the pit; the earth closed over them, and they
perished from among the assembly.”
Rebellion
against delegated authority is a serious matter with God. On the other hand, we should make sure
that the person is indeed a God appointed authority and not simply a self-appointed
authority who is trying to manipulate us.
Only close fellowship with God and an honest heart can keep us safe on
this issue.
An Authority Check-up.
Making
a promise, or giving your word to someone. When you promise something, you are giving authority to that
person. They have a right to
expect you do what you said.
People who do not live up to their word usually cannot believe God’s
Word.
Telling
someone else all about yourself. In John 2:24
it says that Jesus did not commit himself to them because he knew all men. When we tell someone all about
ourselves, we give them a form of authority over us. That is why Jesus desires us to pour our hearts out to
Him. Who are you pouring your
heart out to? We need to be
careful. We need to pour our
hearts out to our proper authority and hold back from improper authority. When you pour your heart out, you are
giving authority to someone.
Many people
who are rebellious and do not want God as their authority end up pouring their
heart out to people of the world, or even worse, people who are influenced by
demons, and they become slaves and captives.
Going
out of your way to find out what is expected of you. This can be at home or work. With God it means picking up the Word and pressing into His
presence; going to church and staying around Christian fellowship.
Do
you respect other’s rights and freedom? Trying to control others is a misuse of authority. How about misusing other people’s
property?
Do
you obey the civil laws? How about rules at school, work and
home, even when no one is looking?
What about cheating?
What
about avoiding responsibilities at home or work?
How
about performing the vows to your spouse, and respecting their authority?
Do
you properly use the authority that God has entrusted to you?
Do you take
care of your possessions, your children, and your wife/husband? Do you bully them around, waste things,
or do you care for that which God has given to you?
What
about the people God has used in your life as providers for you? Like parents, employers,
teachers, relatives, husbands? Do
you honor and respect them? If
they have provided for you in some way, chances are they are or have been God
appointed authorities. The
greatest thing an authority figure can do for you is to provide for you.
Do you want God to be real to you?
He promised to be real if you obey Him.
John
14:21-24 (Amplified Bible) says, “The person who has My commands and keeps them
is the one who [really] loves Me, and whoever [really] loves Me will be loved
by My Father, and I [too] will love him and will show (reveal, manifest) Myself
to him. [I will let Myself be clearly seen by him and make Myself real to
him]. Judas, not Iscariot, asked
Him, ‘Lord, how is it that You
will reveal Yourself [make Yourself real] to us and not to the world?’ Jesus answered, ‘If a person [really]
loves Me, he will keep My word [obey My teaching]; and My Father will love him,
and We will come to him and make Our home (abode, special dwelling place) with
him. Anyone who does not [really]
love Me does not observe and obey My teaching. And the teaching which you hear and heed is not Mine, but
[comes] from the Father Who sent Me.’”
And
finally, Matthew 7:21 says, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall
enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven.”
Some New Testament Scriptures to study.
Romans 1:5 says,
“Through
Him we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all
nations for His name.”
Romans 5:19 says,
“For as by
one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience
many will be made righteous.”
Romans 6:16 says,
“Do you not
know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s
slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading
to righteousness?”
Romans 16:19 says,
“For your
obedience has become known to all. Therefore I am glad on your behalf; but I
want you to be wise in what is good, and simple concerning evil.”
Romans 16:26 says,
“but now
made manifest, and by the prophetic Scriptures made known to all nations,
according to the commandment of the everlasting God, for obedience to the
faith.”
2 Corinthians 7:15 says,
“And his
affections are greater for you as he remembers the obedience of you all, how
with fear and trembling you received him.”
2 Corinthians 9:13 says,
“while,
through the proof of this ministry, they glorify God for the obedience of your
confession to the gospel of Christ, and for your liberal sharing with them and
all men.”
2 Corinthians 10:5 says,
“casting
down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of
God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.”
2 Corinthians 10:6 says,
“and being
ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled.”
Philemon 1:21 says,
“Having
confidence in your obedience, I write to you, knowing that you will do even
more than I say.”
Hebrews 5:8 says,
“though He
was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered.”
1 Peter 1:2 says,
“elect
according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in sanctification of the
Spirit, for obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace to you
and peace be multiplied.”
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