Greetings,
Authority comes from Submission. Authority inhabits a body and therefore, there must be an abiding in the body in order to have authority. Authority is very relational. If we don’t learn submission we won’t have authority. All authority is connected to people. Authority in Christ is connected to other members of the Body of Christ. If I want to point my index finger in a certain direction, there are many members in my body that are involved. I make the decision to point in my mind. I focus the direction of my pointing with my eye. From my mind to the tip of my finger there are many connected members. This includes many unseen sensory members in the cellular make up of my arm. Even my elbow has to be involved in the pointing of my finger, but if my elbow should decide to point in the process of the signal being sent to my finger the results will be disastrous. My elbow will throw my finger in a ridiculous direction and the result will be a body lacking control of direction. The end result will be a potentially embarrassing movement, but there will be no signal of pointing in a clear direction. This is how it works in the life flow of authority. There is a process of submission that must be connected in the very task of pointing.
Freedom comes from submission. Without submission there is no freedom. Without delegation there is no authority. Authority is delegated power. Power without delegation is merely a force of destruction or a force of distraction. Authority is always received and fulfilled. Authority isn’t chosen. It is always received from a source of authority and fulfilled as a source of life-giving authority to others. It is connected to the purpose and direction of others.
Jesus had to walk a life of submission to the Father’s will and in submission in His service of mankind in order to establish the authority of heaven in the earthly seed of man. His relational passion and endurance in life granted Him the authority of heaven and earth. Jesus didn’t grasp for that authority, it was given to Him. He had to stand in the place of relationship to receive that authority as a man.
Matthew 28:18 Then Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.”
Daniel 7:13, 14 “I was watching in the night visions, and behold, One like the Son of Man, coming with the clouds of heaven! He came to the Ancient of Days, and they brought Him near before Him. Then to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and His kingdom the one which shall not be destroyed.
Authority isn’t based upon who you say you are, but upon receiving and fulfilling who you are meant to be in God’s purpose and manifestation of life. Jesus lived His life under the authority of His heavenly Father. This was the source of the power of life to the world. He didn’t act on His own. He walked as a man under the authority of heaven.
Matthew 21:23-31 Now when He came into the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people confronted Him as He was teaching, and said, “By what authority are You doing these things? And who gave You this authority?” But Jesus answered and said to them, “I also will ask you one thing, which if you tell Me, I likewise will tell you by what authority I do these things: “The baptism of John, where was it from? From heaven or from men?” And they reasoned among themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ He will say to us, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’ “But if we say, ‘From men,’ we fear the multitude, for all count John as a prophet.” So they answered Jesus and said, “We do not know.” And He said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things. “But what do you think? A man had two sons, and he came to the first and said, ‘Son, go, work today in my vineyard.’ “He answered and said, ‘I will not,’ but afterward he regretted it and went. “Then he came to the second and said likewise. And he answered and said, ‘I go, sir,’ but he did not go. “Which of the two did the will of his father?” They said to Him, “The first.” Jesus said to them, “Assuredly, I say to you that tax collectors and harlots enter the kingdom of God before you.”
Jesus revealed that the source of His authority was the authority He was under. The religious leaders of His day were not under the authority of God, but sought to control the lives of others through a grasping for power. They sought to take control, but Jesus stood in authority. You can only have what you receive. True authority is the ability to be and to do the will of God. You can only fulfill what you are. You can only give what you have. You can only have what you have received. It is dependant upon your relationship with God and your relationship with others in life.
Authority is found in the place of being awake to God. It found in the place of being awake to authority. It is a place of being under authority. It is a place of watching someone else. It is found in the place of watching the authority of God in the earth. Watching is being who you are now! Watching involves doing what you are supposed to be doing today. You must fulfill who you are today or you will not be able to do so tomorrow. Your authority tomorrow is not better than your authority today. Both are dependant upon your being awake to God and awake to others. You can only do that through relationship with those in authority. Jesus fulfilled who He was on the earth so that we might fulfill who we are. It was with authority that Jesus manifested who He was.
Mt. 7:29 …for He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.
Jn. 12:49 “For I have not spoken on My own authority; but the Father who sent Me gave Me a command, what I should say and what I should speak.“
There is no authority where authority has not been given. Are you watching? How are you standing in the authority of today? It is connected to God and to other members of His kingdom. We can only bring life to the world through the authority of life we carry.
Food For Thought,
Ted J. Hanson
