Today I am going to begin addressing the subject of regaining the dominion of authority. I have addressed the fact that man lost the ability to subdue and have dominion in the earth when they grasped for the power of the knowledge of good and evil. The end result was a world bound to control and manipulation as a mode of operation in the absence of the ability to subdue and have dominion as God intended men to. Our most common understanding of authority is a non-covenant authority as used in the world. People seek power, but the don’t seek true authority. They see to control, but they avoid the responsibility of giving life to others. Just as Lucifer lost his authority in a grasp for power, people are pulled out from their true destiny of authority into a quest for power. We can settle for power and not have authority. Power alone is a taking attribute, but only authority has the power to give life to others. Power satisfies self, but authority empowers others to truly live. True authority is the ability to bring life to others. Mankind was created to be agents of God’s life to the world. This is true dominion. Dominion comes when truth crumbles every lie. When we become real in the substance of who we really are we crumble every pretense and life flows from us to the world. How do we regain dominion? Dominion is the manifestation of true authority in our lives.
Isaiah 53:6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned, every one, to his own way; and the LORD has laid on Him the iniquity of us all.
The sin of doing something that we were not created to do or trying to be someone we were not born to be is that of going our own way. It could be doing something we were created to do, before we become who we were created to be. We can only be who we are at any given moment. There is a process to authority. The authority of who we are today will lead to the authority of who we are meant to be tomorrow, but there is a process in authority. Who we are going to be tomorrow is not better than who we are today! Who we are today is not less valuable than who we are called to be tomorrow. The secret is to be under life and a giver of life to others in whatever stage of life we find ourselves. We must be under authority at every step of our journey in life in order to have authority in every step of our destiny. Authority is received and manifested. When we go our own way, we have no authority to receive and therefore we cannot manifest what we were created to be. To have authority we must be under authority.
The sin of our own way is doing something we weren’t created to do or something out of timing. It is the sin of not being true to who we really are at any given time in life. When we go your own way we are not in the place to receive the authority to be who we are meant to be now. As I presented in the testimony of Lucifer, he left his place of being able to receive the authority for who he was. The result was that he became profane. He became something he was not created to be. Adam did the same thing. He moved out from the spout of life. He became the administrator of good and evil, rather than receive the good that came from the One who is good. It is like a pitcher of water and an empty glass. As long as the glass is positioned under the pitcher, water from the pitcher can be poured into the glass. But if the class places itself at an equal level as the pitcher it is impossible for the glass to receive the water that is in the pitcher. The glass is still a glass, but it cannot be a glass of water. If it was meant to be a glass of water, being a glass of nothing is not what it was meant to be. It has become profane and is not a source of water to the thirsty. To have water the glass must be under water. To have life we must be under life. To have authority we must be under authority. If we remove ourselves from the proper positioning of receiving authority we lose our ability to have authority.
How can we have authority in our lives? People are living in destruction because of a failure to fulfill the mandate given by God. Man lost the authority to fulfill it. He removed himself from the position of authority in a quest for power. He then became something different that what he was created to be. He became irresponsible with his birthright by seeking to be someone he was not born to be. Remember, we only have authority as who we are. We need the birthright. Who were we created to be?
Let’s look at God’s call to Abram. Abram was called to be “Abraham”, but he was born an “Abram”. Abram’s name meant “father of a nation”, but he was married to Sarai and she was barren (Gen. 11:27-32). He was destined to be the “father of many nations” (Abraham), but he was not even naturally able to be the father of a nation (Abram). His calling didn’t look like it matched his identity. Abram needed a “birthright” to be a father. He needed a “birthright” to be the father of many nations.
Genesis 12:1-3 Now the LORD had said to Abram: “Get out of your country, from your kindred and from your father’s house, to a land that I will show you. I will make you a great nation; I will bless you and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you; and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
In this call, did Abram have the destiny to birth Isaac? Yes, it was in the promise. Did he have the authority to birth Isaac? No, he was still an Abram. Isaac was the seed of Abraham, not Abram. Abram had to become Abraham before he could have the authority to birth Isaac. Abram had to embrace the process of authority in his life. What was Abram’s authority when he was in Ur of the Chaldees? His authority was to respond to God to make a change in his life. He had to position himself to be able to believe and receive God’s promise. He had to begin a journey of going where he had not gone before. As we look at these verses in Genesis Chapter 12, we see that Abram had begun a journey of following God. God had spoken to him in some way while he was in Hebron (Neh. 9:7). His responsibility at this stage of his journey was to respond to God. He had to leave his old country and follow God. He didn’t have the authority to birth Isaac at this stage of his life; he simply had the authority to be in the process of the journey.
It didn’t matter what Abram was called to be, authority is not what we are called to be. Authority is who we are. Gift or ability doesn’t equal authority. Responsibility is not just the gift to respond, it is also the proper relationship of responding. Abram had to be in a right relationship with God, the one who would empower him to birth Isaac. Authority is received and manifested; it is not merely something we do.
We don’t get our authority from the jobs we do. We do the jobs that we do, because we have the authority to do them. Gift or ability doesn’t equate to authority. Responsibility is not just the gifting to respond. It is also the proper relationship to respond. Authority is received and manifested. If we find ourselves out of order we must simply position ourselves to receive what is supernaturally needed. We must first get out of our country spiritually. Our country is OUR WAY. We have to get out of our way and get into His way to receive the birthright that God intends for us.
The things that we do, do not give us authority. Producing children doesn’t give the authority to produce children. There are many people who grasp for the power of living with the benefits and responsibilities of marriage without paying the price of entering into the covenant of marriage. In their grasp for power children are born. The result is some form of death or dysfunction in their lives and in the innocent lives of their children. God can intervene and give His supernatural grace to make up for any deficiency, but the true authority for being a parent is in the birthright to be a parent. That birthright is found in the covenant of marriage. This is not the civil right of union, but the covenant of marriage that comes by the authority of God who has authored the testimony of a man and a woman made one flesh (Gen. 2:23,24). Without the covenant of marriage there is no birthright to parent children. The power of a sperm and egg in conception can birth a child, but it takes the authority of life to be the father or mother a child needs. Birthing a baby does not give you the birthright to be a parent. It simply demands you get the birthright. The birthright for birthing babies is the covenant of marriage. That covenant of marriage gives access to the masculine and feminine nature of God to be a father or a mother of a child. When someone grasps for the power of having children without the birthright to have them, they must find a redeemed birthright in God to be a parent to that child. I believe that God can give a single mom the ability to have the authority of a father and a mother when she finds a supernatural access to God as the source of being a father and a mother. God can take what the enemy intended for evil and He can turn it for good, but it takes an intervention and redemption of authority is some way.
Stealing money doesn’t give you the authority to have money. An unlocked car with the keys in it doesn’t give you the authority to take the car. Paying the price for the deed of the car gives one the authority to possess the car. The ability to drive and money to put gas in the tank doesn’t give you the authority to possess the car. You might have a driver’s license, but without the deed you are a thief. You don’t want me to perform brain surgery on you! I can hold a scalpel and I have cut things before. I am educated and gifted in ministry, but my unsteady hand, ignorance of medicine, and all around lack of surgical ability disqualifies me from physically touching your brain! I do not possess a legal document that authorizes any ability or confirms any process of training to undertake the task of operating on your head!
We must do the things that we do, because of our authority. We must continually move on. We must get out of our country, our old way. Like Abram, we have a journey to make before we can birth our Isaac. We have to embrace the stages of responsibility in our lives to be found able to fulfill our full destinies. Each stage our life has a different measure of authority.
John 1:12, 13 But as many as received Him (Jesus), to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name: who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
A manifested son is different than a child or the right to become a child with the potential of becoming a manifested son of God. Believing in Jesus doesn’t give us the authority of a manifested son of God. We have the authority of having the right to become a son of God. We have been born of God to become, we are becoming, and we will fully become who we are in Christ. This was true in the life of Jesus. At the age of 12 His authority was that of being 12. He was found in the Temple as a young man who desired to learn about His Father’s house. At the age of 20 His authority was that of a 20-year-old man working in His stepfather’s carpenter shop. At the age of 30 He had the authority of being a 30-year-old Jewish man asking His true Father for His portion of the family business. He was found at the river Jordon receiving the mantle of His heavenly Father for the ministry of Christ to the world. It is the same in our lives. There is an authority of every age and every stage of our lives. The authority of 12 is 12, 20 is 20, 30 is 30, 60 is 60 and so forth. We can’t go back to a previous time nor can we leap forward to a time that has not yet arrived. We would never give a chain saw to a 5-year-old and think he or she would be safe, the forest would be safe, or other people would be safe. A 5-year-old doesn’t have the authority to handle a chain saw!
We can’t have the blessing of God without first having the birthright. Calling doesn’t give us the blessing, birthright does. We are called to have dominion in life, but in order to regain dominion in our lives we must have the birthright. The first step is to get out of our old condition.
At the time you come to Jesus you are not appointed to good works, but you are called to them. At the time you come to Jesus, you are appointed to come to Jesus. Your calling might be to transform the nations, but you must first be faithful to every appointment in your journey. You are appointed to some good works, but the appointments increase and therefore good works will be the result. When Abram left Hebron his appointment was to walk through the right land. It reads like an exciting story of destiny in Scripture, but the truth is it was filled with a lot of everyday moments. In Genesis, Chapter 12 we see that it begins with Abram leaving Hebron and beginning his journey. As we see the account begin he is 75 years old. In Verse 7 of that same chapter God appears to Abram and tells him that he will give the land that he is walking in to his descendants. What land was he walking in? He had been walking for 365 days in a lot of desert sand behind a lot of camel’s buts! He had been experiencing a lot of the mundane, everyday realities of life. God was confirming to Abram that he was in the right land. It is the same in our lives. Most days look like desert sand and camel buts! Sometimes our place of authority is simply discovered by God simply confirming that we are in the right place. It is part of the testimony of our birthright in life!
Food For Thought,
Ted J. Hanson
