Authority

When I first moved to the Bay Area I lived on a street where they would have street sweepers who made their rounds once a month. I began to dread every second Friday from 9a.m.-12p.m. I remember one particular day waking up abruptly and remembering it was Friday. I made my best attempt to pry open my eye lids just enough to run out of my house. I failed to care that I was in full pajamas running out my door and down the street yelling loudly at the parking enforcement officer. I begged them not to write me the fifty dollar ticket that I deserved but knew I didn’t have the money to pay. That day was my lucky day, but sad to say not all second Friday’s for me were so lucky. There were other one’s where I came out only to find the ticket smashed between my window and the windshield wiper. I was often upset and felt like I had been targeted, but in reality the parking enforcement officer was really only doing their job and I had been in the wrong. They were using the authority given to them by the city and their boss to issue the tickets. I clearly did not like their particular usage of authority, but in the grand scheme of things if they didn’t do this we may end up with really dirty streets. I’m not an expert at street management but I’m pretty sure there is a greater reason why streets should stay clean consistently. As I did some research I found out that it also protects water resources, prevents floods and removes pollutants that could affect the greater community. In the parking enforcement officer exercising their authority, I realized that it was actually doing a greater good, beyond just giving me a bad day.

God has given you and I authority much like this, not to just give people bad days, but to actually release God’s kingdom into people’s lives. Jesus gave his disciples in the gospels authority to pray, declare healing, release freedom and rebuke demons.  The key word is that He gave it to them. If you are anything like me you may struggle with knowing you have authority and using it. I think the hardest thing at times is to not think that it comes somehow from us. If we continue to be reminded that God has already given us His authority to do the same things He gave to his disciples then we should see these same things happening in our lives, if we are truly exercising our God given authority. Authority isn’t something we access when we feel it or we don’t, it’s more of knowing who we are and what we have been given. Often in the Bible Jesus combined the words “power” and “authority” together in the same sentence. Power by definition refers to the ability to do something; whereas authority is the power to make decisions and give orders. One is ability the other is knowing you have the ability and doing it. Putting the two together results in what we see when the disciples were sent out with power and authority.

I recently heard a message on intimacy with Jesus and the thing that I realized was that close relationship (intimacy) and authority go hand in hand. Jesus went up on mountains to be with the father, to pray and to spend time with Him. It was in these moments, hours, entire nights that Jesus could walk out of those times and know the authority that he was given to him by his father. The thing that I believe we often get wrong is that we try to walk in authority without the close relationship with God. I’m not saying it can’t be done. I’m simply saying that without that closeness with the father being reminded of who we are and what we have been given, I believe it is easy to forget. We may then mistakenly begin to operate in our own strength and power or greater yet think it comes from us and allow pride to fill our hearts, limiting God and ourselves all at the same time.

Think of what might happen if you and I actually knew and operated in the power and authority given to us by God. Would people actually be healed and set free or would we only hope for a time when that did happen or when it will happen someday? Maybe we would have the faith to believe that we can say a word and it will happen, because we know without doubting to whom has given us this authority. We know it in the quiet moments when he whispers to us and reminds us who we are as sons and daughters. We know our position in him doesn’t change by our lack. We know that we can say the words, “come” and “go” and “be healed”. Not out of pride, but out of the confident security that comes from knowing whose we are and what we have been given.