Greetings;
The basis of authority and the basis of dominion is who you are. Your authority is not just based upon your personal gifting or abilities alone. Your authority is very connected to your divine connection with others in life. In the church it has to do with your divine connection in the body of Christ. It is very relational. If you need a heart transplant a kidney won’t do, but not just any heart will do. You need a heart with authority. It has to be a match for your DNA. It has to be able to receive life from the rest of the body and supply life to that body. Like the connection of an organ in the body, our function of authority has to match the life source of the body it is joined to. It must be relationally compatible or, like an improperly matched organ, the body will reject it. You may have a good gift, but gift alone is not enough. Divine connection and divine choosing give authority. God is the one who determines who we are and where we fit.
Authority is not merely power. Authority gives power a legal right. The star of the morning Lucifer had authority, but he relinquished it for power. He then had to contrive a scheme to acquire authority. Lucifer as Satan has to contrive a plan to legally acquire authority because his grasp for power resulted in him becoming a perversion of his original creation. He has become a profane creation because he disconnected from his God-ordained place of relationship. He still has gifting, but his gifting is focused towards a self-seeking and a self-serving agenda. He left his place of purpose in his grasp for power. He lives for power, but he cannot live for authority.
If you have authority you will have power, but you can have power without authority. Power alone will not produce life. Anointing alone is not enough. When God appoints, He always anoints. The process of authority includes a calling, an appointment, and an anointing for that appointment. The anointing for the appointment begins with the calling and increases through the process of coming to that appointment, but legitimate anointing of authority is always connected to the responsibility of a God-given appointment. Anointing does not equal appointing, but appointing will always equal anointing and will invite increased anointing.
Authority comes out of responsibility. Remember, authority brings life to others and it brings legitimate freedom and release to others. A married person has the authority to be married. A single person has an authority to be single. If a married person chooses to act as a single person the result will be a measure of death and dysfunction to the marriage. If a single person chooses to act as a married person the result will be a measure of death and dysfunction to being single. If those actions end up producing the fruit of children, those children will suffer the challenge of dysfunction. Even the fruit of relationships will be affected by an illegitimate grasping for power. Acting outside of the boundaries of covenant and God-given responsibility will create destructive forces that will affect the lives of others. When this happens a supernatural intervention by God is necessary. Only God’s mercy and grace can bring healing and a restoration of life-giving authority in such situations. Power can produce children, but authority parents them. When things are established on a foundation of power alone it takes God’s intervention to recreate a foundation of authority. When authority is sought through legitimate means and covenant measures the result will be an anointing of life for true function and purpose. When shortcuts are taken we can end up functioning in tasks, but the function will be frustrated because of the illegitimate access that was taken to operate in that function. This is when God has to take what was intentionally or unintentionally intended for evil and turn it for good. Seeking to walk in covenant and within the proper boundaries of authority would save a lot of pain in the world.
Authority comes out of responsibility. Not everyone has equal responsibility in the body of Christ. Everyone does have equal value. The value of each and everyone is that of a one and only. God established the value of each and every one by giving His only begotten Son as the price of the ransom for each and every one. Authority doesn’t equate to value, but to responsibility. More authority doesn’t make you more valuable. It simply makes you responsible for the giving of more life to others.
If you are not responsible, you have no authority. You can find yourself in a situation where you have crossed a boundary and now you have to find the path to authority. To play on the English word for responsibility; responsibility means you have the ability to respond to another. When you have authority in an area it is because it has been given to you by another source of authority. When you have authority you are responsible to respond to the source of your authority and to respond to those you serve in giving life to by means of that authority. There is a submission to continually come under the source of your authority and a submission to lean in the direction of those receiving the life and release that comes from the authority you carry.
You cannot have the responsibility unless it has been given to you. When you have the responsibility, you have all the authority to fulfill your responsibilities. In the original creation man was given an authority of bringing life to the world. To fulfill that responsibility man was to remain under the authority of God. It was a place of intimate relationship. Man was not destined to have the responsibility of a knowledge of good and evil. He was destined to connect to and remain connected to God and the Tree of life. Authority is a responsibility of being a life source, and thus it requires a connection to life. Man wasn’t born to be right. Mankind was born to be loved and thus their authority to others was to be a measure of responsibility that gives love to others. True love is the giving of life to another. Seeking the tree of knowledge of good and evil was a grasping for power and the result was death and dysfunction. Man was created to be responsible for life and the source of anointing for that responsibility was found in being loved by God. To disconnect from that life source was a disconnection from authority.
A parent has authority over his or her own children, but not someone else’s children. If a parent seeks to apply thought, strategy, or action to be the parent of someone else’s children the result will be a measure of death and dysfunction. The only available power of action will be an abuse. It will be steeped in control or manipulation because it doesn’t carry the responsibility of life. If you are a parent of children your knowledge of being a parent can get you in trouble, because it can tempt you to believe you are a “qualified parent” to other children. If you discipline someone else’s children, you would be exercising power, but not authority. To function in life-giving authority we must mind our own business!
Food For Thought,
Ted J. Hanson
