Greetings;
God is the source of all authority. He is the source of the authority in our lives. In the journey of Abraham’s life, God was the source of his authority. Before Abraham could be revealed for who he was as Abraham, he had to be faithful for who he was as Abram. God in Abram’s life would cause him to manifestly become Abraham. God in your life today is what will make you become who you are meant to be tomorrow.
Genesis 15:1-8 After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision, saying, “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.” But Abram said, “Lord God, what will You give me, seeing I go childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?” Then Abram said, “Look, You have given me no offspring; indeed one born in my house is my heir!” And behold, the word of the LORD came to him, saying, “This one shall not be your heir, but one who will come from your own body shall be your heir.” Then He brought him outside and said, “Look now toward heaven, and count the stars if you are able to number them.” And He said to him, “So shall your descendants be.” And he believed in the LORD, and He accounted it to him for righteousness. Then He said to him, “I am the LORD, who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to inherit it.” And he said, “Lord God, how shall I know that I will inherit it?”
God had told Abram to move forward in his journey and to see the land of his journey as the land of his inheritance. Following the promise, God showed up Himself and cut the covenant. There was a sacrifice of life. There was a death of something of flesh. In the same way there has to be a death of our own fleshly wills as we demonstrate our trust in the will of the Sprit of God in our lives. God walked among the pieces of the flesh in His covenant with Abram. God has to also be seen walking in the midst of our sacrifices of self. Only God walking in the midst of the promise can fulfill the word of God’s authority in our lives. In every place that we are strong in the flesh we must become weak and find the strength of God in our lives. God in the midst of our destiny is what empowers the inheritance of our destiny. God is the one who fulfills every promise of authority, not our human strength or will.
Producing something in the flesh will result with a work of the flesh. The works of the flesh are the testimony of grasping for power. They always produce some measure of death and dysfunction. In Genesis, Chapter 16, we find that Abram grew impatient with the promise of God. His wife Sarai convinced him to have a child by here handmaiden Hagar. A relationship with a servant mentality will always produce works of bondage. A works mentality will never produce the fruit of true inheritance. Authority is an inheritance and servants cannot be inheritors. Only spiritual sons can inherit the spiritual promises of God. Ishmael was the result of Abram’s work of the flesh; he was not the fruit of inheritance. Authority is not a work; it is the fruit of God-given responsibility. Abram got impatient and produced Ishmael. He tried to make authority happen. Producing something in the flesh will always produce an Ishmael. That which is strength of the flesh must die in our lives in order for us to become inheritors of the authority that God has for us to walk in. To receive the inheritance of authority that God has for us in our lives we must be transformed to being sons and daughters of God in our mentality and practice.
Before Abram’s error of producing Ishmael, God had shown him the stars of heaven (Gen. 15:5). He had already shown him the sand beneath his feet and thus Abram had to be faithful in the natural path of his journey, but God had also shown him the stars of heaven, revealing that the true fulfillment of his authority would come from God who is in heaven. The basis of Authority is not only who you are, but it is also by His Spirit. God is the one who makes it manifest. God is always the one who makes you who you are. Authority is who you are, not who you want to be or who you will be some day. God won’t give you a word to deliver to others that He doesn’t make you become in an increasing measure first. In order to be a word of life to others you must first be a testimony of the life of the word you are commissioned to carry. The basis of authority is who you are, but not who you are in the flesh. Flesh could be defined as being your own strength or source of power.
Who you are in the natural is not who you are in the flesh. You are spirit manifested in the natural. That is what makes you spiritual. The source is the Spirit, but it manifests in the natural. The flesh is not the natural; it is you being your own source of strength. This is power without authority. We can only speak from who we are; therefore our increasing authority in life requires the sound of God in our name. It requires His increasing testimony in our character, nature, way, power, and authority. God has to be the testimony of the transformation of destiny in our lives.
The spirit of authority came to Abram when God made him an Abraham. Abram without children is better than Abram with a child. Having a child while still being Abram was a grasp for power. Abram was yet to become what he needed to be. He couldn’t be someone who merely saw desert and sky. He had to see nothing as everything. He had to become a Hebrew. When that happened, God transformed him into an “Abraham”. We must see the God of the promise as greater than the promise. God in our lives is what will give us the authority of life. There has to be a cutting away of the things of the flesh and an embodiment of the mark of God’s Spirit in our lives. The circumcision of Abraham’s flesh was merely a testimony of the circumcision of his heart. He had come to the place of seeing God as the fulfillment of the promise, not his own strength for the destiny of his life. The substance of inheritance had entered his life and he had become a man with the sound of his heavenly Father in his name.
The authority of our lives is our word of life to the world. We have to become what God sees us to be in order to release the authority that God wants us to give. When I was a kid I used to be very intrigued by the Corn Flake box at the grocery store. On the box there was a picture of golden flakes with fresh plump strawberries on them. Sadly, when you opened the box, there weren’t any fresh plump strawberries. There were only dismal flakes. The picture on the box didn’t present a true statement as to what was in the box. It was simply a marketing ploy! If you buy a box of Raisin Bran, the picture on the outside of the box needs to match the content of the cereal in the box. If it gives the details of the vitamins, calories, and other information of nutritional value it needs to be the same in the content of the box. Authority is not just a marketing ploy to get others to receive us. It is the power of the substance in the box. The authority of our lives is only true to the content of our lives. We must have a spirit of authority that matches the responsibility of our authority.
Food For Thought,
Ted J. Hanson
