Embrace Your Authority
Embrace Your Authority
As a Christian, you are united with Jesus and possess spiritual authority. What does that mean?
We as Christians must begin to recognize what God has given us. The truth is, we are often asking Him to do something that He has empowered us to do. We just haven’t learned to use what we’ve been given.
When Jesus came into this world, He did a remarkable work for us. He united with our human nature and, in doing so, made it possible for our human nature to be united to His Holy Spirit. Now, through the Spirit, we are in Christ!
In the book of Ephesians, Paul expresses a desire for believers to understand who they are in Christ, their position in Him, and what they’ve been given.
Consider Ephesians 1:22-23: And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all. NKJV
If you understand what Paul is saying here, there should be a mental explosion inside your mind, even if you have read this many times. He explains that Jesus is in a position of incredible authority. He is the head, and we are His body. Where the head goes, the body also goes.
Something else that’s important to think about is that because we are His body, we are “the fullness of Him who fills all in all.” Everything that’s true of Jesus is also true of us in Him! So, because all things are under the feet of Jesus, as we just read, that means they are under us too. That includes the principalities, the power of Satan, and anything that exalts itself against the knowledge of God (2 Cor. 10:5).
So many of us live our lives like we’re trying reach up toward heaven and claw our way in. But we actually have been elevated with Christ in heaven. That should change our perspective.
When we come up against the power of the Enemy in our lives or the power of sin or the power of sickness or any of the things that can leave us feeling so drained, we need to remember to come against these things from a place of victory.
If you will claim your victory today, it will change the way you see yourself. It will change the way you see the church. It’s not this broken-down community of people oppressed by the world and worrying about the government taking away its rights. Blah, blah, blah! No, you are seated with Christ in God. You have His authority. You are in Him. All that is His is also yours.
It’s time for us to recognize who we are and what we’ve been given. We don’t have to wait for the day when Jesus returns and claims authority over the devil. He’s already done it. As believers in Jesus Christ, we now have the authority in His name.
There’s a difference between understanding a concept and really knowing it. So, Paul prayed for the believers at the church of Ephesus—
That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe. Ephesians 1:17-19a, NKJV
The word for “revelation” is apokalupsis. It has the idea of an unveiling. What Paul indicates for us is that to really grasp the authority and place we have in Jesus, it’s not going to come easily to our natural minds. It’s going to take an unveiling by the Holy Spirit.
Many Christians can go through life dominated by their senses and by their feelings, which is easy to do. I don’t know about you, but when I get up in the morning and am getting ready in front of the mirror, it doesn’t look like someone who’s reigning with Christ in God.
Paul wrote that there needs to be a shift in the minds of believers. It only comes by revelation. It’s not enough to have a mental awareness of it. Your mind and emotions are meant to be in line with your spirit so that they are realigned with the truth of who you are in Christ.
Another passage I want to look at further reveals our position in Christ:
But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace. Ephesians 2:4-7a, NKJV
As believers in Jesus, we have been raised up and made to sit in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Why? That He might show us the exceeding riches of His grace. That means it’s more than we might think.
We can take all of our knowledge and understanding about grace, and they would only fill a thimble compared to the Pacific Ocean that is His grace. We can’t even begin to understand just how much God has for us!
Maybe you’ve been drifting away and you feel like you’re far from God right now. Do you want to know what you’re going to find if you turn to Him in faith? Not anger and wrath and judgment. No, He’s just waiting for you because He loves you. He wants you to come to Him. Listen, if Jesus loved you enough to die for you when you were dead in your sins and trespasses, He loves you enough to restore you and bring you back into His presence again. That’s His heart for you.
Paul made it really clear that everything God has to offer comes to us not by what we’ve done. Many Christians are so hung up on their performance. They live in a relationship with God that’s based on reciprocity. In other words, “If I do this for you, then you do this for me.” But what God wants you to know is that there’s never enough you can do that would earn you His love, His favor, or His blessings.
He’s done everything so that you can have it for free. That is what the Bible calls grace. It’s been conferred on you so that your status in Jesus Christ cannot be threatened by the things of this world. The only thing that can affect your status is if you turn your back on what God has made available and say, “I don’t need it.”
But if you can receive what I’ve been saying, you’re going to see your position of being seated with Christ in God, far above every principality and power. You’re going to see that you’ve been given spiritual authority and that it’s yours by grace.
I want to encourage you to pray, “Lord, open the eyes of my heart. Help my mindset shift to the truth that I am seated with You. According to Your Word, the principalities and powers of the Enemy are under my feet. According to Your Word, I have authority. I pray that You would unveil these things to my heart and to my mind. Thank You, Father. Amen!”
God wants to bring you to a place where this revelation is a controlling force in your life. When you understand and receive your position of authority, you’re ready for the responsibility of exercising it in the world around you.