Our Authority Is Real

Good evening. Bless the Lord, oh my soul and all that is within me. Bless His holy name. I want to say up front. You see me here on a Sunday night with 30 minutes to deliver a message. I want to say up front, loudly and clearly, we have a pastor of great faith! (Laughter)

Turn with me to First John chapter four. I am going to read a couple of verses and then I’m going to jump into tonight’s message.

First John, chapter four, verse four says “Ye are of God … Ye are of God …” That means that God is now our Father. We are birthed of God. little children.

“Ye are of God little children and have overcome them …” How have we overcome them? “Greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world.”

When it talks about the world, it’s not talking about the literal world that we see. It’s talking about the world system that Satan is in charge of. So everything in this world’s system – the thoughts, the influences, the demon spirits involved – the Bible says we are of God and that we have already overcome them.

First John, chapter five, verse four: “For whatsoever is born of God, overcometh the world …” Do you see that? The world is the same word in 1 John 4:4. “For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world, and this is the victory that overcometh the world ,,,”

Now I want you to notice what it’s saying. Whoever is born of God overcomes the world. But now the Bible tells us the victory that is going to allow us to overcome the world. “… and this is the victory that overcometh the world (And what is the next three words?), even our faith.”

Do you see that ladies and gentlemen? We can be born of God. We can have God’s life and nature but if we’re not walking in faith, we are not going to be overcomers even though that Is who we are born to be. Are you following me? Okay.

When I was in college, Doris and I led a home fellowship. And we part of a group that focused on home fellowships. We had about six to 10 people who would attend each week, and for all practical purposes, this was church for them. They weren’t going anywhere else.

We had this couple who attended – John and Alicia. Alicia was a nurse and John was probably a builder. And the reason I say John was a builder is because, after they had gotten married, he designed and built a log home for them. Beautiful place that included a man-made pond.

From time to time, Alicia would come to the fellowship without him. And every time she would come, she wouldn’t say a whole bunch. She would say that there were some issues that they were working through. And that was about all she would say.

One time she came to a fellowship meeting and she talked about how John had bursts of anger and at times, for no reason at all, he’d get up and just run out of the house. We would pray with her. Stand with her. Confess the word with her. All the things we would typically do.

One night after fellowship, Alicia had gone home and John had not attended with her. Now John was a big guy. About six one or six two and a solid two hundred twenty or two hundred and thirty pounds, broad shoulders. A big guy but the sweetest person you’d ever want to meet.

Well this particular night, maybe 30 minutes after Alicia had gone home, we heard this loud bam, bam, bam against our apartment door. And I looked at Doris and asked who in the world is banging on our door?

At that time we didn’t have peep holes. We were living in married student housing at the university. So I opened up the door and I looked.

Let me back up for a few minutes. About two or three weeks earlier, Doris and I had a sat through a class, a seminar, that was called “Dealing with the Adversary.” It dealt with Satan’s kingdom and spiritual warfare. Being a Baptist boy, I had never heard anything about demons at all. Nothing.

So imagine my surprise: bam, bam, bam and John is standing there in front of me. His eyes were wide open and you could tell something was not right. His hair was all over his head. John was eating a piece of wood, a 2 by 4.

When I open the door, he looks at me and steps back against the wall opposite our apartment. As I thought about that, the John that I saw was possessed by a devil. You cannot eat a 2 by 4 on your own. Trust me.