Understanding Power and Authority Part 2
Scriptures: 2 Timothy 3:1-5, 7; James 4:7; Luke 10:19; Matthew 9:35-38
Introduction
Last week I introduced this message titled “Understanding Power and Authority”. In that message I told you that power is define as “the ability to do or act” and authority is defined as “the power to determine or settle issues; the right to control.” I used the illustration of me picking up a chair and moving it utilizing my own power and then ordering Stacey to put the chair back. I did not ask Stacey to do it, I told him to do it and he immediately got up and moved the chair back. That was an illustration of the difference between power and authority. Authority is not based on your physical power, but is bestowed upon you or given to you from another who has the power. I stressed last week that we need to stop “asking” the devil stop messing with us and start commanding him based on our authority in Christ Jesus. We will get no where asking Satan anything; we must command him to back off. It is important that we understand that we do not have to wrestling with the devil with our own power.
Last week I also stress the point that we cannot play with Satan on his playground and with his toys and then attempt exercise authority over him commanding him to leave his own playground. To make this point we focused on the Scripture found in 2 Timothy 3:1-5 and verse 7 which says: "But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self, lovers of money, boastful, arrogant, revilers, disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy, unloving, irreconcilable, malicious, gossips, without self-control, brutal, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God: holding a form of godliness, although they have denied its power; and avoid such men as these…..always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth." Again, the point here is that in order to walk in the authority Christ has given us we must make some sacrifices and different decisions as to how we live our life. So let’s examine some of those things Satan will use to keep us from walking in our authority.
I. Satan’s Playground
Last week I told you about the song we used to sing many years ago titled: “Don’t Let the Devil Ride”? In the song it says “Don’t let the devil ride, if you let him ride, he’ll want to drive, don’t let him ride.” What this song points out in a very simple way is that if we open the door to Satan, he will come in and take over. If we give him an inch, he will expand it to a yard. So when he invites/entices us to come and play on his playground, we must resist. Even if we are standing on the outside of the playground’s fence, looking in at all of the others playing and having a real good time, we must resist the urge to join them. Satan may even be standing with us at the fence, offering us popcorn, ice cream and candy if we’d just come in and play for a little while, but don’t do it. He will trick you if you go.
In 2 Timothy 3, we are given an idea of what Satan’s playground has how he uses them to get us to not walk in our authority. You see, Satan has some very enticing, sinful toys and games on his playground. He has one game called “Love Me More.” The purpose of this game is to see how much attention, affection and wealth I can pile on myself in the name of Jesus. The person who wins is the one who gives himself the most while ensuring that others get little to nothing. He also has a wonderful game call “For the love of money.” This game is the spin off of “Love Me More”. If a person does well in the “Love Me More” game you get to play “For the Love of Money” which takes you to a whole new level. The focus of this game is to whatever you can for money – nothing is off limit. The more creative you are getting money without regard to others the more points you receive. He has another game he calls “The Great Complainer”. The winner of this game is chosen based on who does the best job of complaining, whining, and being ungrateful. Satan loves this game because he can really teach a person that there really are no blessings in this world – just trouble, heartache and pain. Oh, here is a good one that people tend to navigate towards. This game is called “Let’s Make a Steal.” The goal of this game is to acquire possession by lying, cheating, stealing or any other means other than getting something the right way. For example, you go to the video store and rent a movie. After you watch the movie, you download it on your computer so that you can make a copy for yourself. It sounds okay to do, but it is stealing and Satan really likes it when we steal, call it okay and then try and exercise authority over him. All of these are games on Satan’s playground and I did not even scratch the surface. But there is one more game that I must mention. This game is called “I am Holy”. Points are awarded to the one who can preach the best, shout the loudest, do the “holy” dance, pray the hardest and sing the best in public, all for attention, while also participating in and excelling in all of the other games I just mentioned. These are just some of the games that Satan has on his playground that Christians freely participate in and enjoy and I did not even scratch the surface.
All of us have stood outside the fence of Satan’s playground desiring to go in and play. All of us at some point in our lives have actually opened the gate and played with him until God told us to get off that playground. Sometimes we walked off willingly and other times we had to be convinced that it was time to leave. We have all been there, but no more. We must stop going to the fence and looking in at all those folks having a wonderful time in the world (Satan’s playground). When Satan stands at the gate and tries to invite us onto his playground, we must resist, not by wavering, but resist hard. James 4:7 says “Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” There are two points in this short verse. First, we must submit to God and when we have done that, we begin to gain the ability to resist the devil. Now here is the good part, when we resist the devil, he flees from us as in terror – as if terrified. Can’t you just imagine that? You’re walking down the street minding your own business thinking about how good God is when all of a sudden Satan appears at the gate of his playground inviting you in. Can’t you see yourself saying “No!” in no uncertain terms and Satan runs off scared? Resisting the devil and him fleeing from us will only come as we begin to actively walk in our authority. Let me use this example of the schoolyard bully in elementary school.
Everyday the school bully would pick on the kid that they saw as weaker than them. They would take the weaker kid’s money, their toys and anything else that they wanted. Well one day the teacher witnesses this begins to investigate the situation. After the teacher gets all of the information, she punishes the bully and makes him restore everything that he took from the weaker kid. She also lets the bully know that in the future she will be watching and if the weaker kid ever reports to her that he is being bullied again, he would be in a world of trouble. After this, the weaker kid plays on the playground without worrying about the bully. As a matter of fact, whenever the weaker kid comes into the presence of the bully, the bully runs away because he does not want to be anywhere near this kid just in case the kid called the teacher. What changed? The weaker kid was still weaker and the bully was still stronger. The only thing that changed was the authority that was given to the weaker kid by the one who had the power – the teacher – to give it. The teacher told the weaker kid to let her know if the bully ever picked on him again and she would take care of it. Although the bully had absolutely no respect or fear of the weaker kid, he did fear the position of the teacher. So the authority of the teacher was bestowed upon weaker kid and now the weaker kid, although not having physical power, had the authority to keep the bully from messing with him. That school yard bully is Satan and the teacher who has given us the authority to keep the bully at a distance is Jesus Christ. We do not have to suffer through being bullied when we recognize we have authority. So what does this authority looks like?
II. Authority of the Office
During our trustee meeting this past Thursday we were discussing how decisions are made on the board. As the Pastor and founder of this Church, I have the authority to veto any decision that the board recommends if I do not believe it is the right thing to do. When it comes to business and dealing with the public, all organizations that do business with Churches consider the Pastor as the CEO of the Church, with the authority to make certain decisions without a vote. Now understand this; that authority is given to the office, not the person. If it was not me, anyone else sitting in the office of Pastor of this congregation would carry that same authority. Now I give God the praise that since this Church was formed I have never had to veto any recommendation that was made by our board of trustees even though I know the authority to do so come with this office.
The same holds true for the office that each of you hold. You hold the office of a Christian and with that office come authority. The authority is not given to you as the person, but to you as the Christian. Do you understand the difference? This is why when the seven sons of Sceva (Acts 19:11-17), from my example last week, could not cast out the devil. They did not have the authority as a person – as that authority came through Christ – and they did not have it as a believer of Christ. Now here is the other thing you must know: remember what I said about my veto power, how although I have it I have never had to exercise it? Well just because you have the authority does not mean that you will “choose” to use it. I have not had a reason to use my veto power so in a sense I have chosen not to use it. But what would happen if I needed to use it but was too afraid to do it? Possibly the wrong decision could be made leading to other negative outcomes. So, although we have been given authority as we walk in the “office” of a Christian, it does not mean that we will walk in or exercise it – we must choose to do so. So let’s examine some examples of the authority that we have been given.
“Behold, I have given unto you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing will injure you.” (Luke 10:19) When you read this verse in some translations, the translators use the word “power” instead of authority. But when you examine how the word was used in the Greek, you find that although some translates the verse to say “…given you the power to tread on serpents…” the real translation should be authority. The Greek word for the first use of “power” in this verse is exousia which means authority. The Greek word for power as used in the second part of the verse “…..over all the power of the enemy” is actually dunamis which means power or force. So you see we have been given authority over all of the power of the enemy. Whatever Satan has the power to do, we have been given authority over it. But again I offer this warning; we cannot exercise authority over the devil if we are playing with him and his toys; there must be a separation between us and him. So, what does this authority over the “power” of the enemy include? Let’s go to the ninth chapter of the book of Matthew. “Jesus was going through all the cities and villages, teaching in their synagogues and proclaiming the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and every kind of sickness. Seeing the people, He felt compassion for them, because they were distressed and dispirited like sheep without a shepherd. Then He said to His disciples, ‘The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out workers into His harvest.” Matthew 9:35-38
In these verses we find Jesus exercising His authority over the enemy. What was He doing? Well in the earlier verses He cast out demons; gave sight to the blind; and healed all manner of diseases. But first, He taught them. You see, a person must learn something new before their expectations will change. If all you ever knew was how to be broke, busted and disgusted, that would be all you would expect to be. However, once you learned that there was more to life and you learned how to walk in it, then your expectations of life would change. So Jesus taught them and then He healed them. But look at what He said in verses 37 and 38. He said that the harvest was plentiful but the laborers were few. He made this statement after seeing all of the people who were coming to Him to have their needs met. He told His disciples that they should pray to God to send more workers into the harvest. Well folks, those workers are us. We have been sent into this great harvest and we have been given everything we need to do our job. In Matthew the tenth chapter when Jesus sent His disciples out, He told them “Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, cast out demons….” So these are the things we should be doing because we are the workers. Mark 16:17-18 says “These signs will accompany those who have believed: in My name they will cast out demons, they will speak with new tongues; they will pick up serpents, and if they drink any deadly poison, it will not hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick and they will recover.” Although there are some serious doubts as to whether these verses were actually included in the original text of Mark, it does not matter to me? It does not matter to me because when I read the rest of the books of the New Testament, you know what I found? I found that those who believe were actually casting out demons; spoke with new tongues; and healed the sick. And by the way, Acts 28 records where Paul was actually bitten by a viper and it did not hurt him. When the natives were expecting him to fall over dead and he did not they thought he was a god. So each of us has been given authority over the power of our enemy but we must choose to walk in it. If we do not make the decision to walk in it then we will be like the weaker kid on the school yard being bullied by the much stronger kid. That is not the lifestyle that God has ordained for us.
III. Limitations of the Authority
I know that you are chomping at the bit ready to go out and walk in your authority, but I need to share with you two limitations of our authority. The first one I have talked with you previously about, and that is we cannot exercise authority over the devil if he is one of our best friends. If we find ourselves spending a lot of time in his company and we are enjoying ourselves, then we will not have much authority over him. Again, as I said last week, we cannot play with the devil on his playground and on his toys and then command him to get out. We must not entertain him or his devices.
The second limitation is a little more complicated to grasp because we will not always be able to tell when we are in this situation. Our authority is limited when it comes to the will of the person we are interacting with. Again I reference my interaction with Stacey last week. When I told Stacey to move the chair back to it original place, he could have said no. If he had said no, I would not have been able to force him to do it. I will let that sink in for a moment. If Stacey had refused to acknowledge my authority, I would not have been able to do anything about it. (Now what I am speaking to applies to our interaction with other people, not with Satan. Satan will always recognize the authority of Christ that dwells within us, if we are truly walking with Christ.) But back to my point, if someone we are dealing with refuses to recognize the authority in which we are walking, there is nothing we can do about it. If you go to the hospital to pray for someone to be healed and the person you are praying for only sees you as a person just like them and they refuse to believe that your prayer will lead to their healing, they will not be healed. Turn to Mark the sixth chapter. In verses one through three we find Jesus visiting the place where He grew up. The people there knew Him and therefore questioned His authority to teach them anything or to perform any miracle. Now remember, we are talking about Jesus here. Jesus walked in complete authority, but He was not able to override the will of those people who knew Him as the son of Joseph and Mary. Look at what verse 5 says: “And He could do no miracle there except that He laid His hands on a few sick people and healed them.” Although Jesus was willing, the people were not. Jesus could not override the person’s own authority as it pertains to their unbelief.
It is important to understand that as you walk in your faith walk and you begin to understand your authority, there will always be Christians around you who will not understand. They will not understand what God has given them nor will they understand why you think you are able to do something that Jesus and His disciples did. Even if you prayed for them to be healed it would not happen unless they believed that you were walking in the authority of Christ and that you were just the vessel that Christ was using to heal them. That being said, we need to understand that our ability to walk in our authority is not dependent upon other’s approval of us but on what we do with our relationship with Christ.
Conclusion
So, what are you waiting for? Are you waiting for Christ to come back and tell you personally get up and start walking? Are you waiting for an invitation with your name engraved on it? You have received the invitation when you accepted Christ in your heart. So you already have the personal invitation – now it is time for you and me to do our parts. To walk in the authority requires knowledge. We must know for ourselves what Christ has placed within us. We must know for ourselves our job description and the authority we have. This will only come as we are spending time with Christ in a personal way - just the two of us. We cannot use cheat sheets or cliff notes to pass this test, we must know it. Do not try and bluff the devil as he will certainly call your bluff.
We must also believe. Not only must we have the knowledge, we must believe it and be willing to act on it. What our minds accept, the will obeys. Likewise what the mind does not accept, the will will not obey. You must come to believe that you are more than a conqueror through Jesus Christ and that what He has empowered you with is yours; not based on your abilities, but on Christ’s authority alone. With that understanding comes humility. When we accept the knowledge and begin to believe that it truly is Christ working within us, it brings on a humility that few understand. When we think about how God chose us; how He wishes to use us for His glory; and how we are just a vessel, it will make you humble. The God of the universe knows me personally. WOW! Then the boldness comes. You now understand what you are supposed to be doing and you understand that God has your back. So you can walk by Satan’s playground, look in and see all those who do not understand what they are doing and boldly go up to the gate to tell those on the playground that God has something better for them. You won’t be worried about what Satan will do because he must respect the authority that you will be walking in. When you come to this point, you know it is not about you – but Christ.
Finally, as with all things, there comes awareness. We must have a realization as a Christian that we are in a battle. Because we have accepted Christ, we must be aware of the target that is on our backs because if Satan can get us to fall, he removes our ability for a time to be able to help others. I was talking with a friend of mine who is putting up a fence in his back yard. One of his neighbors, who are Christians by the way, is very upset with them. They have been out threatening them and the workers who are putting the fence up. They have also been making faces at them because they do not want the fence. Now these are the same people are quick to hand out a track with a Scripture on it in an effort to bring more people to the kingdom of God. Can you see the disparity here? On one hand you’re fussing and complaining and making faces at your neighbor then you want to give them a Scriptural track sharing how good God it.
God wants you to walk in authority. Jesus has empowered us but the choice is ours. What have you decided to do? May God bless and keep you.
