Spiritual Authority

I recently was drawn to a book I read many years ago. It has been a time of rediscovering truths I have walked in, yet with a fresh realization of going to a new level of these same truths. Perhaps you are in a similar place of hunger for more and moving deeper with what has already been known in our spirit man.

I believe that God has been preparing His people for the days of evil and darkness. We will walk in a strength and confidence that is far beyond human effort. In fact, in some ways, we might feel less like a victor and more like a rag doll. When the enemy comes to shake up our personal world and begins to feed us his lies about who we are, we can find ourselves truly questioning personal current issues through the wrong lens.

So, as I share with you some of the truths that mean so much to me, I pray your spirit will be quickened anew, as well.

Spiritual Authority

Notes from Watchman Nee’s book on Spiritual Authority

The Importance of Authority

• God’s throne is established on authority
• The acts of God issue from His throne and His throne is established on His authority
• All things are created through God’s authority and all physical laws of the universe are maintained by His authority
• The Bible expresses it as “upholding all things by the word of His power.”
• God’s authority represents God Himself, whereas his power stands only for his act.
• Sin against power is more easily forgiven than sin against authority, because the latter is a sin against God Himself.
• God alone is authority in all things; all authorities of the earth are instituted by God.
• Authority is a tremendous thing in the universe. Nothing overshadows it.
• It is therefore, imperative for us who desire to serve God to know the authority of God.

The Origin of Satan

• The archangel turned into Satan when he overreached God’s authority, competed with God, and thus became an adversary of God.
• Rebellion was the cause of Satan’s fall.
• Isa 14:12-17, 24-27 speaks of the rise and fall of Satan
  • How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning
  • How you are cut down to the ground, you who weakened the nations
  • For you have said in your heart, I will ascent into heaven
  • I will exalt my throne above the stars of God;
  • I will also sit on the mount of the congregation in the sides of the north;
  • I will ascend above the heights of the clouds;
  • I will be like the Most High
  • Yet thou shall be brought down to hell, to the lowest depths of the Pit
  • Those who see you will look upon you, and consider you, saying, Is this the one who made the Earth to tremble, and shook the kingdoms;
  • Who made the world as a wilderness and destroyed the cities thereof;
  • Who did not open the house of his prisoners?

Ezekiel 28:12-19

• Take up a lamentation for the King of Tyre, and say to him, Thus says the Lord God…
• You were the seal of perfection. Full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.
• You were in Eden, the garden of God.
• Every precious stone was your covering
  • The sardius, topaz, diamond, beryl, onyx and jasper
  • Sapphire, turquoise, and emerald with gold
• The workmanship of your timbrels and pipes was prepared for you on the day you were created.
• You were the anointed cherub who covers.
• You were on the holy mountain of God.
• You were perfect in your ways from the day that you were created, till iniquity was found in you.
• By the abundance of your trading You became filled with violence within and you sinned.
• Therefore, I cast you as a profane thing out of the mountain of God and I destroyed you, o covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire.
• Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty,
• You corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendor;
• I cast you to the ground, I laid you before kings,
• That they might gaze at you
• You have defiled your sanctuaries by the multitude of your iniquities, by the iniquity of thy trading;
• Therefore, I brought fire from your midst, it devoured you,
• And I turned you to ashes upon the earth in the sight of all who saw you.
• All who knew you among the peoples are astonished at you;
• You have become a horror,
• And shall be no more forever.

Both Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28 speak of the rise and fall of Satan

• The first passage shows how Satan violated God’s authority.
• The second passage shows his trespassing against God’s holiness.
• To offend God’s authority is a rebellion far more serious than that of offending God’s holiness.
• Since it is a matter of conduct… sinning is more easily forgiven than rebellion.
• Satan’s intent of setting his throne above the throne of God was the thing which violated God’s authority.
• It was the principle of self-exaltation.
• The act of sinning was not the cause of Satan’s fall…
• That act was but the product of his rebellion against authority.
• It was rebellion which God condemned.
• In serving God we must not violate authorities because to do so is a principle of Satan.
• Satan is not afraid of our preaching the word of Christ
• Yet how very much he is in fear of our being subject to the authority of Christ.
• Satan is still a usurper today.
• If we would truly serve God we must be completely purified from the principle of Satan.

The Lord’s Declaration

• In the Lord’s prayer He teaches His church a divine principle.
• Bring us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one…referring directly to Satan himself.
• His significant declaration is: For THINE is the Kingdom, and the power, and the glory, forever. Amen
• What sets us totally free from Satan is the seeing of this most precious truth – that the kingdom is God’s.
• Since the whole universe is under the dominion of God, we have to subject ourselves to His authority.
• You will recall that Satan showed all the kingdoms of the earth to the Lord, but the Lord answered that the kingdom, of the heavens is God’s.
• We must see who has the authority.
• The controversy of the universe is centered on who shall have the authority…
• And our conflict with Satan is the direct result of our attributing authority to God.
• To maintain God’s authority, we must be subject to it with all our hearts.
• It is absolutely necessary for us to meet God’s authority and to possess a basic knowledge of what it is.
• Before he knew authority, Paul tried to wipe out the church.
• After he met the Lord on the Damascus road he saw that it was hard for him to kick against the goads … God’s authority.
• He immediately fell to the ground and acknowledged Jesus as Lord.
• At the moment he was saved he knew God’s authority as well as God’s salvation.
• Paul listens to the words of Ananias.
• How could Paul, a clever and capable person listen to the words of Ananias, an unknown brother mentioned only once in the Bible.
• He could…on the basis of understanding the authority of God.
• This shows us that whoever has met authority deals purely with authority and not with man.
• We are not to see the man only, but the authority vested in him.
• We do not obey man but God’s authority in that man.
• God has purposed to manifest His authority to the world through the church.
• His authority can be seen in the coordination of the various members of the Body of Christ.
• There are times when a self-righteous person will need to encounter God’s authority so that they may be broken unto submission and so begin to learn obedience to the authority of God.
• Before a man can subject himself to God’s delegated authority he must first meet God’s inherent authority.

Obedience to God’s Will – The Greatest Demand of the Bible

• The greatest of God’s demands on man is not for him to bear the cross, to serve, make offerings, or deny himself.
• The greatest demand is for him to obey!
• Samuel understood this principle when he said…obedience is better than sacrifice. I Sam 15:22
• God had ordered Saul to attack the Amalekites and destroy them utterly.
• Yet after his victory Saul spared Agag, king of the Amalekites, along with the best of the sheep and oxen and the fatted beasts and lambs and argued that these were spared to sacrifice to God.
• Why did Samuel say that obedience is better than sacrifice?
• Because even in sacrifice there can be the element of self-will.
• Obedience alone is absolutely honoring to God and an acknowledging of His absolute authority.

The Lord’s Prayer in Gethsemane

• The Lord’s prayer in Gethsemane when sweat fell like drops of blood was not due to weakness of His flesh.
• The prayer in Gethsemane is on the same principle as I Sam 15:22.
• It is the highest prayer in which the Lord expresses His obedience to God’s authority.
• Jesus obeys God’s authority first…more than sacrificing Himself on the cross.
• He prays earnestly that He may know what is the will of God.
• He does not say, I want to be crucified, I must drink the cup.
• He merely insists on obeying by saying in effect, “If it be possible for me not to go to the cross, but even here He has not His own will.
• But He prays for “Thy will be done.”
• The will of God is the absolute thing.
• The cup (crucifixion) is not absolute.
• Will represents authority.
• Therefore, to know God’s will and to obey it is to be subject to authority.
• To serve God we are not called to choose elf-denial or sacrifice, rather we are called to fulfill God’s purpose.
• To overthrow God’s authority is to overthrow God.
• That is why scripture indicates that “rebellion is as the sin of divination, and self-will is as iniquity and idolatry”. I Sam 15:23
• As God’s servants the first thing we should meet is authority.
• To touch authority is as practical as touching salvation, but it is a deeper lesson.
• Our entire relationship with God is regulated by whether or not we have met authority.
• If we have, then we shall encounter authority everywhere.
• And being thus restrained by God we can begin to be used by Him.

To See Authority Requires a Great Revelation

• There are two important matters in the universe: Trusting in God’s salvation and obeying His authority.
• The Bible defines sin as lawlessness.
• Whoever commits sin commits lawlessness and sin is lawlessness. I John 3:4
• Lawlessness is a matter of heart attitude.
• The present age is characterized by lawlessness.
• The world is full of the sin of lawlessness, and soon the son of lawlessness shall appear.
• Authority in the world is being increasingly undermined until at the end all authorities will be overthrown and lawlessness shall rule.
• There are two principles in the universe: the principle of God’s authority and the principle of Satanic rebellion.
• We cannot serve God and simultaneously go the way of rebellion by having a rebellious spirit.
• The principle of service must be authority.
• Are we going to obey God’s authority or not?
• We who serve God must have this basic understanding of authority.
• May God be gracious to us by delivering us from rebellion.
• Only after we have known God’s authority and learned obedience can we lead His children in the straight path.

Closing Statements

These key truths regarding spiritual authority are foundational to our walk with God and our testimony as God’s people.

We are the Ecclesia, God’s governing body on earth.

We are a part of His expression of authority in the earth and we are to bring the atmosphere of Heaven to Earth.

These elements of spiritual authority are elements that we need to keep before us as we are continually learning how to move forward in His delegated authority.

Aglow, you were called for such a time as this!