And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”

Matthew 28:18-20

The question that comes around today in churches a lot is, How much authority does the believer have?  As much as Jesus can trust you with.

All authority comes from God.  God created government, stewardship, and the one authority structure that pertains to us everyone on the Earth today, the family.  God delegates His authority, that is, He gives individuals the responsibility to manage certain things, and so much as they faithfully execute their duties, they are permitted to continue.

Problems come in when a person does not maintain their authority, or otherwise undermines their position.  In the book of 1 Kings, the story of Ahab and Elijah is well known.  Ahab married a controlling, manipulating, and murdering woman named Jezebel.  Ahab was filled with fear, and because he refused to fully fill his role of authority as king of Israel, his wife usurped his authority.  While Ahab only sat and cried when someone refused to give up his family tract of land, Jezebel schemed and had the man killed under false pretenses.  Ahab allowed it, abdicating his responsibility.

In the Garden in Genesis, a man also lost his authority.  Here, the woman was overcome by deception, and the man, who was with her, went along with her.  Man had been given authority by God with the command to fill the earth and subdue it.  Man lost his position because of the fall, and destruction was let into the Earth.

When Jesus was tempted in the wilderness, satan offered him all the kingdoms of the world if He would bow down in worship to him.  Jesus didn’t deny that he could, but rather rebuked the adversary with scripture, “It is written…”.  In all likelihood, the kingdoms were in the enemies right to give, but Jesus’ eyes were not primarily on the people and the stuff.  His eyes were on the heavenly Kingdom, on the higher thing, and He knew that if He gave a foothold to the enemy for an easy advancement, it would be no advancement at all, but an easy defeat whenever the enemy wanted to pull the trigger.

At the end of his ministry, when the prince of this world, satan, was condemned, Jesus stood with all authority.  He sent the disciples out with authority over all demons, and the power to cure diseases.

There are no shortcuts to authority, just as there are no other ways to it.  It is only by Jesus.  Just as Jesus would have not had the same end result if He had bypassed God’s avenue for approval, if we get promoted by anyone but God, we will not have satisfactory results either.

There is only one genuine source of authority, and that is God Himself.  Jesus defeated the adversary and redeemed us through the cross.  What the first Adam failed at, the last Adam succeeded in.

When Jesus encountered a certain Roman centurion, that man recognized the authority on Jesus.  When he saw Jesus, he said, “I also am a man under authority, with soldiers under me; and I say to this one, ‘Go!’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come!’ and he comes, and to my slave, ‘Do this!’ and he does it.” (Matthew 8:9).  This man, although he was not a Jew, recognized the realm of authority on Jesus.  Although authority is invisible, it is Eternal, because it is of God, and He never changes.  Although it was invisible, this man recognized it, and responded to Jesus to describe exactly who Jesus was.  From His own mouth, Jesus had said that He never did anything without seeing the Father do it.  Had it been the Father’s will, He needed only to speak, and twelve legions of angels would have been dispensed at the cross.  This centurion, although he could see none of that with his natural eyes, perceived with his heart the authority on this Man and related to Jesus as a man of Authority.

Some people ask how much authority we have.  Some people ask whether we have authority over principalities, thrones, and powers.  According to Luke 10, we are told that we will trample over ALL the power of the enemy, and that NOTHING will by any means will harm us.  Jesus said in Matthew 28 that ALL authority was given unto Him.  The only limit I see on that is how much we are under His authority.  If we are rightly aligned under Him, in every part, then all of His authority is our Authority.  This means the farthest thing from getting everything we want.  On the contrary, we get ONLY what HE wants.  It turns out that this is the best for us, if we could have the faith for it.  Jesus said of the Father, that all of His commands lead to life.  He said He was never alone, because He always did what pleased the Father.

The key to Authority is Obedience.  Jesus obeyed the Father, and received the Father’s authorization.  In the same way, to pray “in Jesus’ Name”, while it does involve His name and the authority involved in His name, it is also not a specialized formula.  To pray “in the name of Jesus” is to pray in His Authority, His Office, and His Kingship.  Similarly, if a Roman centurion demanded you to walk a mile, he could strengthen his statement by adding “in the name of Caesar”,  but simply dressing up in uniform, standing and giving orders, makes what he is doing “in the name of Caesar” already.  If he were disobedient in his handling of his authority, and word got back to the one he was subject to, he would be reprimanded, and his position could be removed.  Authority necessitates responsibility.

In the book of Jude, the writer talks about how Michael the archangel used the admonishment, “The Lord rebuke you!” against the adversary (Jude 1:9).  Many people pray with this, and I still do, for it is not wrong to thus pray.  Yet, in right relationship with Jesus, fully submitted to His authority, we stand in a position that angels do not.  Michael the archangel could not stand and say that day, “I rebuke you in the name of Jesus”.  He could not rebuke as a son of the Kingdom, because he has never been born of water.  The sons of men, through the blood of Jesus and through the finished work of His cross, receive the unmerited favor of His authority to stand and, in the strength of our faith and His Spirit within us, to rebuke and command.  As Paul himself says, we will judge the angels.

The purpose of Authority is to function in it, and is the right object of our ruling is His Kingdom and His Righteousness.  We must not be afraid to stand, fight, and execute the judgments of the Lord.

Psalm 149

Praise the LORD. Sing to the LORD a new song, his praise in the assembly of the saints.

Let Israel rejoice in their Maker; let the people of Zion be glad in their King.

Let them praise his name with dancing and make music to him with tambourine and harp.

For the LORD takes delight in his people; he crowns the humble with salvation.

Let the saints rejoice in this honor and sing for joy on their beds.

May the praise of God be in their mouths and a double-edged sword in their hands,

to inflict vengeance on the nations and punishment on the peoples,

to bind their kings with fetters, their nobles with shackles of iron,

to carry out the sentence written against them. This is the glory of all his saints. Praise the LORD