The story of the 10 virgins in Matthew 25 is an interesting parable to me. It’s interesting to note that they all had oil in their lamps to start with, but only five of them brought along extra oil. Those who didn’t bring extra oil were referred to as foolish, whilst those who did were called wise! It’s so easy to be caught napping and be ill prepared for the midnight hour; that unexpected situation that we don’t have the resources to deal with due to a lack of oil, a lack of the presence of God! We expect to be able to do on fumes what we were able to do full!
We can do more with authority than we can with power. It’s one thing to have oil but another thing to have the authority to use the oil well. There is a significant difference between authority and power, and we need to understand the difference. Dunamis is the root word for our English word dynamite. It implies power that’s explosive supernatural strength to change the visible world. Whereas, authority (exousia) is a delegated empowerment operating in a designated jurisdiction. Authority is the highest judicial control possible.
Power and authority are the right of every believer. Unfortunately, too often, we chase after the power, the signs and the wonders; the hand of God rather than the face and heart of God. I would read the Book of Acts and imagine myself doing the things that the early Christians did. I would line up my children's teddy bears and preach the gospel to them, lay hands on them, imparting the anointing and getting them saved, healed and delivered! Thankfully the girls were at school and not around to see their mother’s strange behaviour! I would go to church every Sunday thinking and hoping, could this be the day that the Holy Spirit invades our church? Would the fire fall, would the building shake?
I would get so excited when the Lord asked me to do something. I was praying about a sex shop in the area that I lived in and I felt that He was talking to me about its downfall. I remember skipping around my lounge and in my excitement, I jumped in my car, drove to the shop, parked, got out and began praying outside that store. After around five or ten minutes I got back in my car and drove home. Within a couple of weeks, the building had a fire and went out of business. ‘Way to go, Jesus!’ I thought, ‘Mission accomplished!’ Within a day or two I became really ill and everything hurt, particularly my head. I tried to read my Bible but I couldn’t concentrate. I was rarely ill so it took me by complete surprise. That week at church there was a series of healing meetings but I felt too ill to attend! This continued for the next three to four days. I felt so weak the enemy was telling me that worse things would happen to me if I kept ‘meddling’ and that I was powerless. He went on and on with his accusations. His voice was so much louder than the Lord’s! I was getting sucked into believing that what he was saying was the truth. I knew very little about the demonic or even that I really had an enemy at that time in my life! I didn’t know that he was the accuser of the brethren or the father of lies. I was green, but I loved Jesus and wanted to do mighty exploits! As I lay on my bed, struggling with my thoughts and feeling ill, I heard a small voice on the inside of me, a voice that could be heard despite the noise around me. This is what I heard, “Get up, use My name.” I could barely move, but I dragged myself up onto all fours on my bed. I was dishevelled, a real pitiful sight. It was pathetic! I was thinking, ‘What do you mean, use my name? I’m weak, I have no energy and hardly any voice!’ “Use my name; command this sickness to leave you. I have given you authority (Exousia) to use my name!” His voice wasn’t loud or booming, just very quiet but unmistakably the voice of the Holy Spirit. I thought to myself, ‘Ok Lord, here goes!’ I didn’t shout or raise my voice, I just said, “In the name of Jesus, sickness get off me now”. To my utter surprise the sickness left! I still felt weak, but all the symptoms had gone! I learnt some valuable lessons that day about the grace of God. We have a real enemy, but he’s no match for God! I learnt that you don’t have to shout or scream or yell at the demons to defeat them and there is a power (Dunamis) and authority (Exousia) in His name!
Previously I have spoken about my baptismal scripture, the one that I didn’t want! Well, back there in my lounge when the Lord spoke to me about that sex shop, I was leaning on my own understanding. I had some understanding of God’s power but little concerning the authority released in the name of Jesus, and I didn’t have the wisdom I needed. I didn’t stop to ask the Holy Spirit how He wanted me to go about it, I just assumed that he wanted me to go to the place there and then and pray. He was probably in mid-sentence when I just took off. In my excitement I failed to acknowledge Him, so He didn’t have the opportunity to give me the plan or timing of the action. However, the Holy Spirit honoured my words that were spoken. If I had taken the time to listen to his plan of action, I may not have suffered that illness. In my weakness He was strong. It is also true that we can get too caught up on believing that we need to know something and have all the details sorted out before we step out!
Faith isn’t about having all the information but it is about believing what you have been told from the Word by the Holy Spirit.
But the Comforter (Counselor, Helper, Intercessor, Advocate, Strengthener, Standby), the Holy Spirit, Whom the Father will send in My name [in My place, to represent Me and act on My behalf], He will teach you all things. John 14:26 Amp
The Holy Spirit will be our teacher if we listen!
In the book of Luke, when Jesus was teaching in Galilee, the people were amazed at his teaching as someone with authority (Exousia) and power (Dunamis), and it was with power (Dunamis) and authority (Exousia) that he cast out demons. The kings of old ruled through authority but they conquered through power. Authority rules the kingdom, but power expands it. The kingdom of God is meant to cover the whole earth, “Your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” Believers are the stewards of the Kingdom; now we can either be a good steward or a bad one! The Bible tells us to imitate God, in other words to talk, walk and act like Him. How do we know what that looks like? We look at the life of Jesus, who said to Philip, “Have I been with you all this time, Philip, and yet you still don’t know who I am? Anyone who has seen me has seen the Father! So why are you asking me to show him to you?”
Jesus came in the flesh so that man could experience God through Him, and through Jesus God could experience man. Jesus was the express image of the Father.
Outside the Kingdom we have no authority, but the word tells us that the Kingdom of God is within us! If our policemen go to another country they have no authority, they are powerless, but within their jurisdiction they are the authority. It’s the power and authority behind the uniform that gives the person wearing it their authority. When we understand our identity in Jesus and know that we have His authority and power we will have the boldness and confidence to address our own mountains and the mountains that stand in the way of others. You could be a general but if you act like a corporal the world will respond to you as a corporal.
When I stood outside that sex shop I stood in the authority of Jesus. When those demons looked at me and heard my words, they weren’t seeing Chris the new believer, they were seeing and hearing Jesus within me! It’s the same with you, the secret is staying close to the source. The full weight of the law backs up our police force and it’s the full weight of the Godhead that backs up you and I. It requires a full commitment on our part to the One with absolute power and authority.
Power is a gift that comes upon us through the Holy Spirit. (Acts 1:8). We can use that gift whether we serve God or not as gifts and callings are irrevocable. It’s like speaking in tongues; once you receive that gift you will always have the ability to use it even if you walk away from God. The gifts that we get from God are meant to bring glory to Him. In Acts 16 there is the story of the slave girl from whom Paul cast out a demon. She followed Paul for several days proclaiming they were servants of God but she was using that truth not to bring glory to God but to attract the crowd and deceive them.
She was operating her gift to deceive; the glory was going to the girl and her owners - it was for personal gain. We can be open to deception if we are on the wrong side of the gift! I think it took a day or two before Paul worked out what was going on and he then exercised his exousia by using the name of Jesus and he cast the demon from her, and it left immediately. Power is a gift. Authority on the other hand is bestowed, so it can be lost or gained. The closer to the source you get, the increase of authority; the further you move away from the source, authority lessens.
Lucifer started close to God; he used to be a radiant being full of light. Remember the time Moses went up the mountain and he was so radiant with the light of God that when he came down the people asked him to cover his face because the light that was coming from his face was hurting their eyes. We have the Holy Spirit living on the inside of us! The Bible tells us that there is darkness, deep darkness, gross darkness, and outer darkness. Each of these is describing what being further away from God looks like. Satan didn’t just leave God, he is continually moving further away. If an astronaut becomes detached from his ship, he will continually move further and further away into the darkness. The closer we get to God the light increases, we move away it decreases! Obedience gets us closer to God as disobedience moves us further away. Obedience is directly connected to the level of authority that we can walk in.
In the Garden of Eden there was that one tree that they were told not to eat from. The snake, satan, deceived them into believing a lie and deceived them in the same three ways he tried to deceive Jesus, through the lusts of the flesh, the lust of eyes and pride. Adam gave away his authority that day, the authority given to him by God to have rule and dominion over the earth and of every living creature. For thousands of years satan had authority over the earth.
The cost to get back that authority, that exousia, for mankind meant that Jesus had to so empty himself of His deity that no one recognised Him when He came to earth. It took His disciples eighteen months to recognise Him and even then, that was through divine revelation given to Peter by the Father. The very nature of Jesus is the fabric of obedience. Jesus wasn’t born obedient, He had to learn it. He came fully as a baby to manhood to redeem man and show mankind what we are capable of doing and being, through obedience. Jesus was perfected as a human because He had to be blameless before satan. Jesus defeated satan because He was blameless and without sin. He took back the keys and authority which satan had taken from Adam because Jesus had a higher level of obedience!
Have you ever been obedient to God but had a bad attitude? Like an offering, God tells you to give £20 and you argue, ‘But that’s all I’ve got ’ and eventually you throw it into the offering with a, ‘Here, have it!’ That higher level of obedience is called submission. We can be obedient on the outside but angry on the inside!
We need to prioritise the Kingdom over self-interest. It’s a journey, but it starts with a choice. For some, Jesus is Lord over this area but not over areas of their life.
Our authority comes from being submissive. Submission is where authority (exousia) comes from. You know how much authority (exousia) you have the nearer you get to darkness. Darkness recognises light and light dispels darkness. In the book of James, he tells us to submit to God then resist the devil. We often major on the resist part, but first we are to submit. Submit to what? I would suggest that we are to submit to asking the Holy Spirit for the strategy to use to defeat whatever the devil is trying to take from us. We will then have the appropriate power and authority to overcome.
No matter how often you are defeated, you are born for victory.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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