How would your life change if you understood your authority in Christ?
And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth (emphasis mine).
Genesis 1:28
To subdue anything means to cause it to submit. This means that whether it be an animal, plant, or anything else on earth, you have dominion over it. In Psalm 82:6 God said, “Ye are gods,” speaking of His creation. He didn’t mean God with a capital G in the sense that you are a deity. This is talking about giving mankind absolute control and rulership over the earth. Did you know that by doing so, God limited His own power over what happens on earth?
Most Christians are not being taught about their authority in Christ, much less how to use it.
But they can tell that what they’re doing in their Christian life isn’t working because they continue to be sick, poor, miserable, discouraged, and fearful.
The problem, however, isn’t with God. There is a demonic power operating in this world, and you are in a spiritual war whether you recognize it or not. Christians are the ones with authority, but that authority has to be exercised. You’ve got to become aware of what’s really going on and use your authority to rebuke the works of the enemy.
Matthew 10:8 is another Bible verse that says Jesus gave us power over all demons and all diseases:
Notice that He didn’t tell us to go pray and ask Him to heal the sick and all of these things. He gave us His authority and told us to do these things. God has promised us absolute victory over sickness 100 percent of the time—not just sometimes, for minor things, or only for some people!
But we’ve been brought up to believe that at certain times of the year, you just get sick. Or when you get older, you just start having all of these problems, and you need to accept it as normal. People will say things like, “This just runs in my family.” Whether you realize it or not, those are lies of the devil.
One of the most important parts of our authority as believers is the ability to stand against Satan.
In Ephesians, the Apostle Paul talks about the armor that Christians must wear to defeat Satan and why it’s so important:
Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. (emphasis mine)
Why do you need to put on the whole armor of God? So you can stand against the devil’s wiles. The definition of the word wiles is “a trick intended to deceive or ensnare” (American Heritage Dictionary). The only power Satan has is deception. He can’t do anything to you without your consent or cooperation. But once you realize the battle is real, you can then learn to recognize what’s going on and take the proper action to improve your situation. You can resist the devil.
The battle we’re in affects both physical and spiritual things, but we can’t approach everything as if there’s a demonic source to it. If you hit your hand with a hammer, it’s not the devil that makes it swell up. If a person dislikes you, it’s not necessarily because of a demon. It could be because of something you did. We need to operate in wisdom and discernment so we don’t fall into a ditch on either side of this road.
Genesis 1:1 clearly states that all authority comes from God: “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.” So everything and every being—whether it’s a spiritual being, an angelic being, or physical being—everything was created by God. He is the author of all things, but He delegated His authority to us.
There are those who think God just sovereignly rules and controls everything, but that is wrong theology. I realize that statement is offensive to about half of the body of Christ. There are a lot of churches that teach God is sovereign, and everything that happens is either controlled by Him or is allowed by Him. But I’m telling you that is not true.
I believe in the sovereignty of God if you define sovereign the way dictionaries do as being first in rank, order, or authority. God is absolutely sovereign by this definition. But religion has come along and put a different connotation on the word sovereign by saying it means God controls everything. But that is not what the Bible teaches. To win in this war, you must know who you are and the authority you have as a believer.
I’ve only been able to give you a brief overview of this topic here, so I encourage you to get the full teaching we’re offering, which goes into much more detail. Once you realize the power Jesus gave you, I guarantee it will change you forever.
We have The Believer’s Authority teaching in English and in Spanish as a book, CD series, or DVD series.
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