Blog In Audio:
Greetings,
What determines the future of our world? Our world consists of everything within the environment and influence of our personal lives. Authority is based upon our responsibility, not our anointing. Our anointing serves our authority, but it does not define our authority. Authority is a measure of responsibility given to each of us that authorizes us to give life to others in our world. When we know who we are, we can find the grace of God to give life to our world. Grace comes on truth and only grace reveals the salvation of God to the circumstances and situations of our lives. Grace cannot empower us when we live a lie. Grace comes when we acknowledge what we are responsible for in life. As leaders, we have been given the authority to lead those within our sphere of influence to embrace the authority of their lives. This means we are called to help them embrace who they really are.
Matthew 28:18 And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19 Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.
The commission to our lives is to make disciples of the nations. We do that by influencing those in our own world for the sake of God’s salvation to the world. To make disciples is to be an influence of grace in the lives of others. Grace is the manifest presence of God that changes our lives. We are called to influence others in a way that inspires, and even empowers, them to embrace a life in Christ. In embracing their identity in Christ, they also embrace the manifest presence of Christ in their life.
Authority is being who we are for the sake of giving life to our world. It is being responsible. In the English language I can define responsibility as the ability to respond to the source of life to be able to give life to others in our world. We are not to take people by the hand and lead them. We are to lead them to take responsibility for their own lives. This involves a partnership with God in all things. It involves becoming strong in God’s word and strong in His Spirit. To be strong in His word is not being strong in Scripture memory. It is being strong in the character, nature, way, power, and authority of His word. What is God saying? To know what God is saying, one must first know the kind of things God would say. This is knowing the person God. If we don’t know the person God, we will take what He says and misinterpret it. We won’t understand Him in His written word if we don’t know Him in His personal presence. We must be strong in His Spirit. This is to be strong in His manifest presence in our lives.
We lead people to know who they are and then to overcome everything in their lives that seeks to destroy who they really are.
1 John 2:12-14 I write to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for His name’s sake. I write to you, fathers, because you have known Him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you have overcome the wicked one. I write to you, little children, because you have known the Father. I have written to you, fathers, because you have known Him who is from the beginning. I have written to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the wicked one.
There are many forms and expressions of the wicked one in our lives. The wicked one comes to destroy our true identity, so we won’t become fathers and mothers for the sake of our world. Fathers and mothers don’t just take responsibility for their own lives. They take responsibility for the care and training of children. They know how to be overcomers. They know how to overcome the wicked one and they empower their children to be able to do the same. To overcome the wicked one, we must be strong and allow the word of God to abide in us. That word that abides in us is not just the freshly spoken rhema word of God in our hearts. It is the logos word, the words that God has spoken.
An overcomer knows how to stand on what God has said even if they don’t feel the freshness of His word within them. They know how to constantly hear God and how to stand fast on what He has said. This includes doing due diligence to study God’s written word and to know the kind of things God says so they will not fall for covenant breaking, character compromising thoughts and words that come from other sources. The cares of the world, offenses of the flesh, plans of the devil, and many other things want to keep them as mere children who know that God loves them, forgives them, and is present in their lives.
God comes into our lives to reveal that He loves us, but that doesn’t mean that He approves of everything we are doing or even the present character of our being. We were born naturally in societies of compromise, but we have been born again to become who we were meant to be as the people of God in Christ. God wants us to move into His world and become like Him. To do this we must understand that empowerment is more valuable than entitlements. Giving life to others is greater than simply receiving the life that God gives to us. It is not about what God can do for us; it is about becoming like Him in all things! We can only be empowered to give life to our world if we take responsibility for our part in our world. Leaders, lead others to take responsibility in their own lives by embracing a partnership with God and an ability to live in the overcoming power of God’s grace.
Food For Thought,
Ted J. Hanson
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