Greetings;
There are many people who desire a measure of power, but few people really want authority. You can have power without having authority, but you cannot have authority without having power. The devil has power, but he can only have authority when someone gives their authority to him. Power alone seeks to take something from others, but true authority seeks to give live to others. Authority is not a matter of control. It is a measure of life given to someone for the sake of others. Authority always gives life! Authority is who someone is for the sake of others, but sometimes those in authority cross the line of authority into mere power. Power alone is trying to be something you are not. It involves taking something, but authority is something that is given and received. A good definition of authority is truth. It is what it is! You are who you are! This is why the ultimate authority, God, simply says; ‘I am who I am!
The ultimate authority in our lives is the manifest presence of Holy Spirit in our hearts. Holy Spirit empowers us to become changed by the life of Christ within us. That life is a testimony of God’s supernatural grace at work within us that brings about life-transforming change. God also sends individuals to us that assist us in being intimate with God from within our hearts. They do not merely tell us what to do or how to act. They assist us with our connection with God, a connection only found in the human heart. That testimony is one of intimacy with God and it is called faith. Faith comes when we hear God speak within our hearts and faith frames our world to become all that God says it should be from His life-giving throne in heaven. It works through love and it is therefore a testimony of the One we hope in at work in our lives.
Hebrews 11:1 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. 2 For by it the elders obtained a good testimony. 3 By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.
The worlds that were framed were the ages of men and women who were moved by God’s voice at work in their hearts. They heard God and they were able to believe for the things that God could see above the visible things they could see in their ages. God wants us all to walk by faith. Holy Spirit is at work in our lives with the power of grace to empower our world to be framed by all that God sees. God also sends authority to us to assist us in this process of a personal relationship with God in our hearts.
Romans 1: Through Him (Jesus) we have received grace and apostleship for obedience to the faith among all nations for His name…
Obedience to the faith is obedience to the voice of God in our hearts. God’s grace and God’s sent authority to our lives assists us in becoming who and what God says we are. Apostleship is not just about a few apostles sent thousands of years ago. The word apostle means sent one. Those sent ones are the God’s sent authority of life to assist us in becoming testimonies of God’s life in this world.
A God-sent life-giver causes you to be a life-giver to others. Authority is the source of identity, inheritance, and the power to become nobility. Power alone cannot reveal who we really are. Who we are is always connected to where we come from.
Isaiah 32: 8 But the noble man devises noble plans; and by noble plans he stands (NAS).
Isaiah 32: 8 But a generous man devises generous things, and by generosity he shall stand (NKJ).
Freedom without the essence of nobility is not a true testimony of life. Jesus said that those who drink of Him would become those who give life-giving water to others. He said rivers of life would flow from within them (Jn. 7:37-39). We are sons and daughters of the King of kings. We were born for the sake of the world. As children of God we are princes and princesses for His glory! God-sent authority in our lives helps us come to faith in who we are. A child getting to watch all of every kind of movie they want to watch, eat all the candy they want eat, wear anything they want to wear, sleep in as long as they want to sleep, stay up as late as they want to stay up, may think that is life but it doesn’t empower them to be life.
For every act of receiving there is an act of giving and for every act of giving there is an action of receiving – this is life! Power alone always creates some form of death or dysfunction, but authority always produces life.
Food For Thought,
Ted J. Hanson
