My Authority in God.

Where ever I go these days I get confronted with the idea of your authority in God. A concept that was completely new to me until about 9 months ago. I first read about it in books Neil T Anderson wrote. Then I saw it on TV and on DVD’s I watched and at the moment my church is busy with a series about exactly that. Hard to ignore when you are being confronted with it the whole time.

So what does it mean? In the Bible you read about His Kingdom a lot.

Daniel 2:44 And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a kingdom which shall never be destroyed.

Matthew 3:2 And saying, Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.

Luke 4:43 But He said to them, I must preach the good news (The Gospel) of the kingdom of God……., for I was sent for this purpose.

According to Tiaan Geldenhuys people have seen the word kingdom as the same as heaven. In other words when we read about the kingdom of God we assumed that He was talking about heaven.  In Greek the word kingdom translate to “basileia” which means “rule” or “reign” or “have dominion”. Kingdom of the heavens (Greek= ouranos) = basileia of the ouranos = authority of the heavens.

In other words when Jesus speaks about the kingdom He did not mean a place, but His authority in God.

Revelations 5:10 And you have made them a kingdom and priest to our God, and they shall reign over the earth. (And you have made them an authority).

What does it mean to have authority on earth?

First you have to realise who you are in Jesus Christ. The day you accept Jesus as your personal Saviour, you must realised the exact implications of that.

Ephesians 1:3 May blessings be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ Who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realm! 4Even as he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless in His sight, above reproach, before Him in love. 5 For he foreordained us to be adopted as His own children through Jesus Christ, in accordance with the purpose of His will. 7In Him we have redemption through His blood, the remission of our offences, in accordance with the riches and the generosity of His gracious favour. 11In Him we also were made heritage, we obtained an inheritance…………13 In Him you also who have heard the Word of Truth,…………….and have believed in and adhered to and relied on Him, were stamped with the seal of the long-promised Holy Spirit. 18 By having the eyes of your heart flooded with light, so that you can know and understand the hope to which He has called you, and how rich is His glorious inheritance in the saints. 19And what is the immeasurable and unlimited surpassing greatness of His power in and for us who believe, as demonstrated in the working of His Mighty strength. 20 Which He exerted in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly. 22 And He has put all things under His feet and has appointed Him the universal and supreme Head of the church.

 Isn’t this just such a powerful scripture? The whole of Ephesians tells us who we are in Christ. In all my life I have never been told who I am in Jesus Christ. Isn’t it sad that so many Christians will go to heaven never having known what power they had in Jesus Christ?
Who is the authority of God?

Jesus is the authority of God and when you accept Him as your Saviour He comes to live in you.

Galatians 2:20 ….it is no longer I who live, but Christ live in me.

1 John 4:4 …He Who lives in you is greater than he who is in the world

Luke 17:21……For behold the kingdom of God is within you [in your hearts] a {and} among you [surrounding you]

Who will have this authority of God?

John 3:5 Jesus answered, I assure you, most solemnly I tell you, unless a man is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

Every person who has accepted Jesus as their King and Saviour will have this power/authority in them. Does that mean you will be able to use this power?  Only people that have been filled with the Holy Spirit will be able to use this power. Does that mean if you don’t use the authority God has given you that you won’t go to heaven? No but it will mean that you will be a mud-ploddering-Christian for the rest of your life that will not live in victory while you are on earth. God still loves you and you will still go to heaven, but you will not have lived the life of victory God had planned for you. You have to be filled with the Holy Spirit and take that authority in Jesus Christ and make it your own.

Why?

Matthew 6:10 Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven. 13 ………..but deliver us from the evil one. (For Yours is the kingdom and the power and the glory forever).  

We need our authority in God to save us from the works of Satan. Jesus wants us to reign on earth and that is then also what he teaches us when He tells us how to pray. God also says that we have to go forth and make disciples of all the nations. Jesus has given us the instruction to go and preach the kingdom (authority/power) of God.

Matthew 28:19 Go then and make disciples of all the nations, baptising them into the name of the Father and Son and of the Holy Spirit

What must we do with this authority in God?

Matthew 10:7-8 And as you go, preach, saying, The Kingdom of heaven is at hand! 8Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, drive out demons…….

Is it possible to raise the dead, cure the sick, ectr?

John 14:12 I assure you, most solemnly I tell you, if anyone stands steadfastly in Me, he will himself be able to do the things that I do,………..

What does that mean? That everybody who have received  and have been filled with the Holy Spirit will be able to do exactly what Jesus told us to do and what He Himself have done. Yes that means we should be able to raise people from the dead, cure the sick and drive out demons. We can’t do it because we have not accepted our authority in God. God said that He will give us the power to do all these things.

How do you get this power/authority of God?

Matthew 6:33 But seek first of all His kingdom and His righteousness (His way of doing and being right), and then all these things taken together will be given you besides.  
You have to seek and obey God first and that you can only do by reading and getting to know the Bible. You have to be in an intimate relationship with God. That means you have to spend time with God and get to know His voice. You start by finding out what God’s Word says and by starting to live according to His Word. Can we do all the things God wants from us? Can we be holy? Yes by the Grace of God He will make you holy, all He need is for you to be willing to be made holy.

When you give your heart to Jesus, He comes and lives in you.

Now you have the authority of God in you, but you still need to be filled with the Holy Spirit in order to use this authority/power of God.

John 20:22 And having said this, He breathed on them and said to them, Receive the Holy spirit!

Acts 19:1-2 While Apollos was in Corinth, Paul went through the upper inland districts and came down to Ephesus. There he found some disciples. 2And asked them, did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed [on Jesus as the Christ]? And they said no we have not even heard that there is a Holy Spirit.

Luke 24:49 And behold, I will send forth upon you what My Father has promised, but remain in Jerusalem the city until you are clothed with power from on high.

The disciples only started doing miracles after they were filled with the power of The Holy Spirit.

Acts 1:8 But you shall receive power (ability, efficiency and might) when the Holy Spirit, has come upon you, and you shall be my witnesses in Jerusalem and all Judea………..

How do you know you have been filled with The Holy Spirit?

Luke 11:13 ………how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy spirit to those who ask and continue to ask Him.

If you ask God, He will fill you with the Holy Spirit. Also once you have been filled with the Holy Spirit it will pour out of you. You won’t be able to stop yourself from talking about God. I know, because I have experienced it. You overflow with God. The day I was filled with the Holy Spirit was the best day of my life. I have never felt better. So often Satan comes and with a lie, takes our authority in Jesus Christ away from us. So many Christians have received that power, but because of a lie that Satan has told them, never used it to bind the works of Satan in their lives. I almost walked that same path, because I didn’t fully understood what power I had in Jesus. The more intimate my relationship with God becomes the more God reveals His secrets to me and the more I understand what the authority of God in me, means.

Ephesian 1:9 Making known to us the mystery (secret) of His will (of His plan, of His purpose).

I have decided I want to use the authority of God in my life to bind the works of Satan, so I tried it. I used it to get rid of evil spirits in my life and my children’s lives and it worked. Twice already I used it to heal myself. I am still a mustard seed, but the more I walked in the authority of God, the stronger I will get in God. I want to become a huge tree under which people and animals alike can find refuse from the evil in this world. I want to use the authority of God to make my life and my children’s lives more victorious and to help other people get to know the mighty God I serve. Won’t you also consider using the authority of God in your life, to bind the works of Satan and make earth a place of victory instead of a place of misery? If all the Christians stand together and use their authority in God, imagine what life on earth will be like. People all over the world will have to acknowledge the power of our God. How many people do you think will give their hearts to God when they see what it really means to be a Christian with authority?

NOTE: I was ready to publish this blog today, but then a miracle happened during the night that I have to share with you. On Tuesday I took the kids to kick the ball around a bit. After that I got them to play netball with me. A week ago I got the opportunity to start playing netball again and I was so excited that I just wanted to throw the ball around a bit. However I forgot that I am not a youngster anymore and with the first ball I had to defend I put my back out. After a while the pain was gone so we continued. That evening it came back with a vengeance.

 My hip was so sore that I literally did not sleep that night. I could not bend or straighten my leg without experiencing a sharp totally debilitating pain, I could not sit or stand for long and walking I could only do in a bend forward position whiles limping along. It was so bad that I decided to stay at home the next day.

Now I am a physiotherapist. I knew exactly what joint was out and how to fix it, but my muscles were in such a spasm that I could not get into the position I needed, to manipulate the joint. I tried medicine, heat, bed rest, massaging, but nothing worked. So eventually at round about 1h00 last night I got up to go warm the beanbag. Limping along I felt like crying. I spent the whole day yesterday writing this blog and while I was resting on a kitchen chair, I thought about what I wrote. I don’t really have the confidence yet to heal the sick, but I did heal my shoulder the other day, so I decided to try again. You see I tried the previous night but it didn’t work and as I was sitting there contemplating why it didn’t work I realised two things.

1. I have spent a lot of time with Jesus preparing for this blog and
2. The previous time my faith wasn’t there (as I was praying I was on my way to heat the beanbag and get another voltaren).

This time I decided to put my faith in God despite the fact that I could hardly move. So I prayed, got up and walked back to my bedroom. By the time I got to my bed, my limping was almost gone. I was sleeping with two pillows between my legs and on my left side because I just couldn’t lie on my right side, which is the side I prefer. I threw the pillows off and went to lie on my right side. The pain was gone. I sat up and tested it by straightening and bending my leg, which I could not do before and once again there were no pain. I sat there praising God and afterwards I went to sleep until the alarm clock woke me.

Some people will say that it was luck or the meds kicking in, but I know I did nothing to fix my back. Before I sat down on that chair, that joint was still out and my muscles were still in a spasm. From a medical point of view it was impossible for my back to go back in, in the time it took me to pray and get up. Sometimes you might twist accidentally in a way that would force the joint back in, but I could not move, so no twisting for me. Normally a patient would need at least 2 treatment sessions and then while using his/her medication.

It was all God through me! Praise God, for in His wisdom, faithfulness and patience with me, He allowed me to do a small miracle on myself which, will hopefully lead to bigger things for others.

Last night I trusted God’s Word for my healing and I realised once again that I can trust God for everything in my life. God was faithful in such a small thing, how much more faithful will He not be in the bigger stuff in my life. The God I serve is ALIVE AND MIGHTY and He has given me and you the tools to live in victory but we do not use those tools and we end up being mud-plottering-christians. All because Satan has told the lie that you have to see in order to believe.