THE BELIEVER'S AUTHORITY

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          This afternoon, we will be treating a new topic titled "THE BELIEVER'S AUTHORITY",  by the end of this teaching, you should come into a better understanding of who a believer is, what our authority as a believer is and the limitations to exercising our authority, if any. So let us begin our series. 
         When this topic is mentioned or taught, one of the foremost names that comes to mind is Papa Kenneth E. Hagin of blessed memory. I particularly honour this man, not just because of his contributions to growth in the body of Christ but also because I got my teaching gift through him. He is not just a mentor, he is a father. May God bless him and his generation. So, firstly who is a believer, what does it mean to be a believer?. Follow me as we treat this:
1. Someone who believes in Jesus as Lord and Saviour :
         One of the foremost signs that someone is a believer is that he/she has come to accept Christ as Lord and saviour. Please take note, I said as Lord and saviour. Some of us accept him as saviour but not as Lord. Why am I emphasizing this point to you dearly beloved?, it's just simply because I want you to be sure of your salvation. You see, before I didn't know that they are persons who weren't sure of their salvation while there are others who know they aren't saved and do not even know how to go about it. So am not going to make any assumptions. A saviour is one who rescues people from something or someone. In those days, when a warrior single handedly rescues a city from oppressors like we see in a lot of the old testament stories or movies, they are called saviours, people even go as far as chanting songs in honour of them and their great deeds. In Matt 1:20-23, we see how that angel Gabriel announced the birth of Jesus, he said he will save his people from their SIN. It means Jesus came to save or redeem us from the sin nature. When you come to Jesus, he cleanses you from your 'sins' and disconnects you from the sin nature. I hope to one day do a series on SINS and the SIN NATURE very very soon, as the Lord gives guidance. I believe you will be truly blessed by that series. A Lord is also known as master, that is someone who you have sold your freedom, will and ambitions to. Someone who tells you, go and you go without asking questions. You see it is easy for us to say I have accepted Jesus as my Lord and saviour but does your life actually mirror that truth. It was because the disciples mirrored this truth in their lives that unbelievers in Antioch called them "Christians". I have heard people say that I am a believer and not a Christian and I have laughed. If only we come to the understanding of what that name means. 
2. Someone who believes in Jesus as the Son of God:
              I was shocked one time when I was discussing with one of my roommates two sessions ago and the person told me that he didn't even believe in Jesus as the Son of God, that if Jesus is the Son who is the wife of God?. He said that we are trying to bring confusion. If you go for evangelism, you will be shocked at some person's belief systems. That Jesus is the Son of God, one of the greatest mystery that only the Holy Spirit can give us the ability to understand or comprehend. One scripture that particularly helped me in believing is sited at the scene of Jesus' baptism. But again, I used to wonder how such a mighty dramatic display would occur right in the nose of the Jews and they would still not believe in Jesus as the son of God, it was then I realised from the gospel of John's account of the baptism that that revelation was given only to John, so he will know when his ministry was coming to an end and to identify Jesus Christ( Matt 3: 13-17, Mk 1:9-11, Luke 3:21-22, John 1:24-34). This is the first account of record stating that Jesus is the son of God. The second we see, is that stated by Peter when Christ asked in the region of phillipi, "who do people say I am". From these two accounts we see that they were able to call Christ the Son of God as a result of personal revelation they received. So you can't believe that Jesus is the son of God because someone else believes so or because your pastor says so, you have to believe it because you have caught the revelation and you are walking in the understanding of that light. So my friend, Do you know Jesus as the Son of God and have you accepted or come into the understanding of that reality??
3. Someone who believes in Jesus:
         Hmm,  now you are going to ask, how is believing in Jesus any different from believing in him as Lord and saviour or as son of God? Please, I want you to follow this explanation carefully. For instance I get married to a lady, I am marrying her because I Iove her and because I believe she is the right person(i.e accepting Jesus as Lord and saviour), it will take a while for me to get used to the fact that I am married and as such some bachelor traits has to fade (i.e coming to see Jesus as son of God). The degree to which I know my wife is the degree to which I believe there are certain characters she would never exhibit, it is also the degree to which I can trust her(i.e believing in Jesus). I hope you grasp that explanation. 
        This actually is the bedrock on which our authority hinges (Mark 16:17-18).  You remember the story in scripture when Jesus came down from the mountain of Transfiguration and a man met him, who had a sick child that his disciples couldn't cast out and they asked why?, Jesus said "this type goeth not except by fasting and prayers" after He had said, "O ye of little faith". Many have taken that to mean that you have to fast for more power but again the first question should be, why or what is the revelation behind fasting? Briefly let me quickly say, one of the reasons to fasting is to spend alone time with God. To know him more and better. He wasn't telling them to always fast so they will have power to cast out demons. Please do not get me wrong, fasting is good but if it is not in line with scriptures, sorry to say you are wasting your time. Study cases in scriptures were fasts were initiated. 
      Now, we will be looking at what the believer's authority is, what it is not and the reasons why we do not manifest this authority. So let us begin.
         Authority is delegated power. That is, the ability or bases to act or exercise power on behalf of someone else. So when we say, "I have been given the authority to do so and so", what it means is that you actually do not have the power to do so but the one who has the power has given you approval to exercise his power on his behalf. I hope you got that explanation. So,  when we say Believer's Authority, what do we really mean. It means a person who has accepted Jesus as Lord and Saviour, believes Jesus is the Son of God and believes in Jesus, has been given the legal right to operate the power Jesus has over principalities and powers in Jesus' name. We have established who a believer is and what believer's authority means. So building on these foundations that have been laid down, the next question would be does Christ truly have this authority? Remember I said I won't be making any assumptions. So let's look at some scriptures:
Ephesians 1: 19-23
19

KJV:And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power,

20

KJV:Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places,

21

KJV:Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come:

22

KJV:And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church,

23

KJV:Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.

Phil 2:9-11

9

KJV:Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name:

10

KJV:That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;

11

KJV:And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

         Scriptures says in the mouth of two or three witnesses let a thing be established. So we have seen two scriptures amongst others that prove to us that Christ truly has the power over every single principality, powers, demons, spirits etc that there is. So do you believe that?, if yes, you are one step closer. So now let's look at scriptures which show us that Christ has given us the right to exercise this power in his name.

Mk 16:17-18

7

KJV:And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues;

18

KJV:They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.

 Eph 2: 4-6

4

KJV:But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,

5

KJV:Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)

6

KJV:And hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus

   

            We see from Mk 16:17-18, that Jesus expressly tells his disciples that "whosoever believes" which means no matter how many years later after his death, as long as you believe, the signs will follow. No matter your race, tribe, skin colour or country as long as you believe, these signs will follow. Do you believe that? In Eph 1:19-23, we see apostle Paul unveil the position of Christ in the spirit realm. Then in Eph 2:4-6, we see the apostle explaining our own position in the realm of the spirit. We are seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus who is seated far above principalities and powers. Which means that by virtue of our believing and accepting Him, we are seated in heavenly places in Him and He in turn is seated far above all powers and principalities. Which gives us the legal right to exercise His power on the earth. The acts of apostles is filled with different manifestations or rather proof that Jesus' decree made in the gospel of Mark over them worked and will too in our time. In the same way, if you also believe, it should work for you.

       Steps to exercising our authority :

1. Knowing and believing:

            The first step to exercising our authority is for us to know what authority we have and believe that it is true. It is one thing to know and it is another to believe it. I read a story one time of how Papa Benson Idahosa was told that he had authority to heal the sick, raise the dead etc and so he started moving round Benin City on his bicycle looking for a dead person to bring back to life. He got to a compound where a sick boy was, he said that wasn't what he was looking for, so he continued moving until he found one and he prayed for the person and life was restored. Our major hindrances as believers is the level of ignorance and/or unbelief we possess. If we can go through scriptures with childish faith, we will work wonders for God. Have you ever notice that if you tell a kid to ask God for something that God will answer him, that that kid will take your instruction very seriously and carry it out. But we adults, we try to reason out God, the spiritual principles etc i.e we want to first find if the instructions are logical.

2. Feeding your faith with actions:

              Okay, this one is another mighty issue. We claim we believe but we are afraid to put it into action. Scriptures says faith without work is dead. That means, if you claim to have faith and you don't begin to demonstrate the faith, it will come to a  point where your faith will die out. Do you believe you can heal the sick, do you believe that certain signs will follow, then step out in faith and begin to work. 

    Hindrances to exercising authority:

1. Fear:

      Sometimes we believe we can do something but we are afraid to actually do it. This is largely due to the fact that we don't want people to laugh at us that we are claiming to be what we are not or we are afraid of the shame if the manifestation do not come into reality. Firstly even thinking like that will prevent the manifestation, secondly you should realise that it isn't your reputation or name that is at stake, it is Jesus' name. So can you step out with childish faith without doubt in your heart.

       Other hindrances to this is, for instance we try it the first time and it doesn't work, we will give up and say, "this thing doesn't work self, all these men of God like to deceive us". No, that shouldn't be your mentality, rather you should go back and re-study to findout what you missed out, then go back and put your faith to work.

   What the authority is not:

 Believers' authority does not involve our emotions. That is, if you are addicted to masturbating, you have authority over the spirit behind that act but you don't have authority to command your flesh, you can train yourself not to do those things again. All through scriptures not a single place was it said that we should cast, bind or loose our flesh but rather we were encouraged to either put it off or put to death through the renewing of our minds and the work of the Spirit. Many a times, believers begin to command their emotions or their soulish being like it is a spirit or a demon. They begin to command their mind, emotions, intellect etc. You can only train the soul not command which in turn manifests the godly character in your flesh. You command the demonic forces behind this act, now your soul becomes clean, it has to learn the thinking pattern of God's kingdom or system until it matures into the mind of Christ. You have authority over demons, spirits, sickness, finances but not the flesh like I have explained above.

       

        I hope you have bee blessed by this write-up. If you have then I would love you to do two simple and easy things for me. Firstly, drop a comment on the comment box on how this post has blessed you naming one or two things you learnt or ways you think how blog can be better and reach more people faster. Secondly share the blog post link to as many persons as possible on social media. If you realise that men need to hear the gospel more than any other thing in the world then assist us in increasing our world audience by being a constant visitor to the blog and see sharing of the blog as an opportunity to evangelise the gospel to the ends of the earth that you may never get to but internet has made possible. God bless you as you do so in Jesus name. Amen. Remember the world is in dire need of the word of God, so join us spread this word. God bless you richly and do have a wonderful weekend. Shalom