Expressing God’s Authority
There are many views among Christians as to how much authority over Satan we have and how to express that authority. To possess authority one must be authorized by a higher authority to operate according to the authority passed on to us. So, the question is how much authority has Christ granted us and empowered us to exercise?
Before God created the first humans His plan was to grant them all of His authority over planet earth:
God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” Then God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree which has fruit yielding seed; it shall be food for you” (Gen 1:28, 29).
This was God’s original plan for the human race and it is the way it will eventually play out in the saga of earth presented in scripture. He created human beings to be the guardians of planet earth. When the final climax comes we will hear this proclamation:
You were slain, and purchased for God with Your blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God; and they will reign upon the earth (Rev 5:9 10).
God’s word ends with the fulfillment of His purpose for His people — reigning and ruling with Him over the affairs of planet earth.
God’s enemy was not happy with the original arrangement because he selfishly wanted to reign over this planet. He duped the first human inhabitants into believing that they could go it on their own without God. Their sinful rebellion put a hold on God’s plan. He gave free will to His children and they exercised it to do their own thing instead of understanding God’s will and submitting to it.
God restored this lost authority to His church after the redemption secured by the cross but it was a partial authority because of the effects of sin. In this age of the church, spiritual expressions are partial because sin has brought humans to a different level of effectiveness. Keep in mind that Paul said the gifts of the Spirit are partial until this age is complete: “For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away” (1 Cor 13:9, 10). Prophecy, words of knowledge and wisdom and the other gifts are all partial in this age so we must seek God’s will in the expression of them.
Anticipating this, Jesus said to His disciples
“I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven” (Matt 16:18, 19).
Some Christian groups and preachers have taken this passage as permission to bind and loose at will regardless of God. But the tenses of this passage present another picture. The promise of the Lord that “whatever you bind” or “whatever you loose” is only fulfilled in the will of God. Verse 19 according to the Greek should read “whatever you bind on the earth shall have been being bound on earth and whatever you loose on earth shall have been being loosed in heaven” (my translation).
This makes it very clear that God is not our Santa Claus who gives us whatever we demand. Instead, He expects us, with our sinful nature in mind, to first seek His will about a matter before we start telling Him what to do. The words “shall have been being bound” clearly indicate that the believer who is binding something must seek God’s will and cooperate with Him in what He has already done. If it is not God’s will He will not join with us.
According to Romans 12:2 the believer who has matured through the process of transformation will have learned to sense “the perfect will of God.” He warned the Ephesians to “not be foolish, but understanding what the will of the Lord is” (Eph 5:17). Much of our problem as believers today stems from our failure to grow in Christ to the point where we discern His will and live in its power. We take action on the basis of someone’s doctrine about the God of the universe. Doing so we remain children trying to act like adults.
Jesus, though He was the Son of God, God in the flesh, acted completely in the will of His Father. He once told certain Jews “Truly, truly I say to you, the Son has no power to do anything of Himself, but only what He sees the Father do. For whatever He does, these things the Son also does in the same manner” (John 5:19). Jesus was showing how to conduct ourselves in union with the will of His Father. He wasn’t just going around doing what He wanted but submitted to His Father in all things.
Jesus was living for His Father’s will. We are asked to do the same. Unfortunately, there is so much presumptive behavior in some of today’s churches that we are moving ahead of God doing our own thing. We are moved by man-originated gimmickry instead of by the Holy Spirit who has been sent to lead us in this life (John 14:16). He told us to pray for His Father’s will to be done on earth as it is in heaven and gave us the Holy Spirit to lead us in understanding His will.
The Lord’s prayer teaches us amazing things about expressing God’s authority. All of the petitions Jesus asks us to pray about are in the imperative mood. Such words in the imperative are usually commands but in this passage they are teaching us to enter into agreement with God concerning things that we pray for.
Jesus began with “Our Father” showing that we come to God as members of His family, the body of Christ (Matt 6:9). He is our Father and wants to operate in our lives as we function in faith and not presumption. There is not a single “ask” in this prayer. Jesus did not ask for the kingdom to come but entered into agreement with the Father in declaring it. Jesus didn’t beg the Father for daily bread but declared it to be so because He knew the Father wants to provide. Each of the declarations of this prayer are in the imperative mood and tell us that we need to find the will of God and begin to agree with it in our prayers.
Jesus has “all” authority (Matt 28: 18). He has granted His authority to those of us who believe Him and desire to walk with Him (Matt 28: 19, 20). But we need to stop listening to those who preach unbalanced authority at the expense of aligning ourselves with God for the accomplishment of His will.
I do not mean by this to settle for second best when it comes to God’s will for our lives. I have witnessed undeniable miracles at the hand of God — incurable diseases healed, massive injuries healed, back injuries and much more healed by God’s hand. I have witnessed a miracle-working God at work. I don’t write these words to discourage the exercise of God’s authority but rather to help us see it as He sees it and live accordingly.
Our first challenge is to hear God and that means listening in our spirit for His voice. Prophecy is speaking forth what He puts in our hearts but we have to be listening. “He who has and ear to hear let Him hear what the Spirit says to the churches” (Rev. 2:7 f).
I have heard that many believers were in prayer for Donald Trump before and during his rally in Butler, Pennsylvania where there was an attempt on his life. The bullet nicked his ear and had Trump not moved his head to the right at just the right moment it would most definitely have killed him. Could this have been the result of believers exorcising God’s authority? Accidents do happen but I believe that was a miracle.
Knowing these things we must learn to exercise His authority as authorized by Him.
Expressing God’s Authority
There are many views among Christians as to how much authority over Satan we have and how to express that authority. To possess authority one must be authorized by a higher authority to operate according to the authority passed on to us. So, the question is how much authority has Christ granted us and empowered us to exercise?
Before God created the first humans His plan was to grant them all of His authority over planet earth:
God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” Then God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the surface of all the earth, and every tree which has fruit yielding seed; it shall be food for you” (Gen 1:28, 29).
This was God’s original plan for the human race and it is the way it will eventually play out in the saga of earth presented in scripture. He created human beings to be the guardians of planet earth. When the final climax comes we will hear this proclamation:
You were slain, and purchased for God with Your blood men from every tribe and tongue and people and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to our God; and they will reign upon the earth (Rev 5:9 10).
God’s word ends with the fulfillment of His purpose for His people — reigning and ruling with Him over the affairs of planet earth.
God’s enemy was not happy with the original arrangement because he selfishly wanted to reign over this planet. He duped the first human inhabitants into believing that they could go it on their own without God. Their sinful rebellion put a hold on God’s plan. He gave free will to His children and they exercised it to do their own thing instead of understanding God’s will and submitting to it.
God restored this lost authority to His church after the redemption secured by the cross but it was a partial authority because of the effects of sin. In this age of the church, spiritual expressions are partial because sin has brought humans to a different level of effectiveness. Keep in mind that Paul said the gifts of the Spirit are partial until this age is complete: “For we know in part and we prophesy in part, but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away” (1 Cor 13:9, 10). Prophecy, words of knowledge and wisdom and the other gifts are all partial in this age so we must seek God’s will in the expression of them.
Anticipating this, Jesus said to His disciples
“I will build My church; and the gates of Hades will not overpower it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven” (Matt 16:18, 19).
Some Christian groups and preachers have taken this passage as permission to bind and loose at will regardless of God. But the tenses of this passage present another picture. The promise of the Lord that “whatever you bind” or “whatever you loose” is only fulfilled in the will of God. Verse 19 according to the Greek should read “whatever you bind on the earth shall have been being bound on earth and whatever you loose on earth shall have been being loosed in heaven” (my translation).
This makes it very clear that God is not our Santa Claus who gives us whatever we demand. Instead, He expects us, with our sinful nature in mind, to first seek His will about a matter before we start telling Him what to do. The words “shall have been being bound” clearly indicate that the believer who is binding something must seek God’s will and cooperate with Him in what He has already done. If it is not God’s will He will not join with us.
According to Romans 12:2 the believer who has matured through the process of transformation will have learned to sense “the perfect will of God.” He warned the Ephesians to “not be foolish, but understanding what the will of the Lord is” (Eph 5:17). Much of our problem as believers today stems from our failure to grow in Christ to the point where we discern His will and live in its power. We take action on the basis of someone’s doctrine about the God of the universe. Doing so we remain children trying to act like adults.
Jesus, though He was the Son of God, God in the flesh, acted completely in the will of His Father. He once told certain Jews “Truly, truly I say to you, the Son has no power to do anything of Himself, but only what He sees the Father do. For whatever He does, these things the Son also does in the same manner” (John 5:19). Jesus was showing how to conduct ourselves in union with the will of His Father. He wasn’t just going around doing what He wanted but submitted to His Father in all things.
Jesus was living for His Father’s will. We are asked to do the same. Unfortunately, there is so much presumptive behavior in some of today’s churches that we are moving ahead of God doing our own thing. We are moved by man-originated gimmickry instead of by the Holy Spirit who has been sent to lead us in this life (John 14:16). He told us to pray for His Father’s will to be done on earth as it is in heaven and gave us the Holy Spirit to lead us in understanding His will.
The Lord’s prayer teaches us amazing things about expressing God’s authority. All of the petitions Jesus asks us to pray about are in the imperative mood. Such words in the imperative are usually commands but in this passage they are teaching us to enter into agreement with God concerning things that we pray for.
Jesus began with “Our Father” showing that we come to God as members of His family, the body of Christ (Matt 6:9). He is our Father and wants to operate in our lives as we function in faith and not presumption. There is not a single “ask” in this prayer. Jesus did not ask for the kingdom to come but entered into agreement with the Father in declaring it. Jesus didn’t beg the Father for daily bread but declared it to be so because He knew the Father wants to provide. Each of the declarations of this prayer are in the imperative mood and tell us that we need to find the will of God and begin to agree with it in our prayers.
Jesus has “all” authority (Matt 28: 18). He has granted His authority to those of us who believe Him and desire to walk with Him (Matt 28: 19, 20). But we need to stop listening to those who preach unbalanced authority at the expense of aligning ourselves with God for the accomplishment of His will.
I do not mean by this to settle for second best when it comes to God’s will for our lives. I have witnessed undeniable miracles at the hand of God — incurable diseases healed, massive injuries healed, back injuries and much more healed by God’s hand. I have witnessed a miracle-working God at work. I don’t write these words to discourage the exercise of God’s authority but rather to help us see it as He sees it and live accordingly.
Our first challenge is to hear God and that means listening in our spirit for His voice. Prophecy is speaking forth what He puts in our hearts but we have to be listening. “He who has and ear to hear let Him hear what the Spirit says to the churches” (Rev. 2:7 f).
I have heard that many believers were in prayer for Donald Trump before and during his rally in Butler, Pennsylvania where there was an attempt on his life. The bullet nicked his ear and had Trump not moved his head to the right at just the right moment it would most definitely would have killed him. Could this have been the result of believers exorcising God’s authority? Accidents do happen but I believe that was a miracle.
Knowing these things we must learn to exercise His authority as authorized by Him.
