Believer's Authority
Notes
Transcript
Part 1
"The devil does not want Christians to learn about the authority of the believer. He wants to continue to defeat us anytime he wants. That’s why he will do everything he can to keep Christians from learning the truth about authority; he will fight us more on this subject than anything else. He knows that when we learn the truth, his heyday will be over. We will dominate him, enjoying the authority that is rightfully ours."
— Kenneth E. Hagin, The Believer’s Authority
Hosea 4:6 – My people (God’s people, not the people of the world) are destroyed [Hebrew: perish, made desolate, laid waste] for lack of knowledge.
We must learn what authority has been given to us, how to receive it, and how to use it.
PART ONE: AUTHORITY -- WHAT IT IS AND HOW TO RECEIVE IT
Authority – what it is and how to receive it
A. Authority of believer given to man by God
1. Authority defined
a. Authority is delegated power, the right to command and to enforce obedience.
b. The value of our authority rests on the power that is behind that authority.
c. The power of God in us makes our authority supremely effective.
2. God gave man dominion and authority from the beginning.
a. Man was born to rule and reign under God over the devil and his works.
1. Not to learn to live in fear, depression
2. Not born to live under circumstances
b. God made you to receive His life and to release His life on the earth.
Seven ways to have authority and reign in life:
1. Decide to reign; you are born again with a new nature, so live it!
For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.
I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.
2. Declare it
You will also declare a thing,
And it will be established for you;
So light will shine on your ways.
But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith which we preach): that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be removed and be cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says. Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you receive them, and you will have them.
3. Realize the Greater One is in you
You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.
4. Forget past failure
If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.
There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.
5. Be ready for battle
Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.
6. Forgive and get rid of strife
Therefore, putting away lying, “Let each one of you speak truth with his neighbor,” for we are members of one another. “Be angry, and do not sin”: do not let the sun go down on your wrath,
7. Praise God by faith
(as it is written, “I have made you a father of many nations”) in the presence of Him whom he believed—God, who gives life to the dead and calls those things which do not exist as though they did; who, contrary to hope, in hope believed, so that he became the father of many nations, according to what was spoken, “So shall your descendants be.” And not being weak in faith, he did not consider his own body, already dead (since he was about a hundred years old), and the deadness of Sarah’s womb. He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform. And therefore “it was accounted to him for righteousness.”
Therefore by Him let us continually offer the sacrifice of praise to God, that is, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to His name.
Stopped 1-5-21
God the Father has all authority:
1. God spoke, and it happened
a. Genesis 1:1, 1:3, 1:6, 1:20, 1:24, 1:26
He was in the beginning with God.
All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made.
2. When He speaks with His authority, circumstances change.
A. God created man to exercise authority on the earth
1. Adam was commanded to subdue the earth and bring it under control
Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
a. Subdue - to have dominion over it, to take charge
b. We are to have authority over the works of God’s hands -
What is man that You are mindful of him,
And the son of man that You visit him?
For You have made him a little lower than the angels,
And You have crowned him with glory and honor.
You have made him to have dominion over the works of Your hands;
You have put all things under his feet,
All sheep and oxen—
Even the beasts of the field,
The birds of the air,
And the fish of the sea
That pass through the paths of the seas.
c. Only thing keeping you – as a born-again believer — from having authority is allowing Satan to deceive or lie to you.
2. Man’s authority lost
a. Adam allowed Satan to rob him of his authority in the Garden of Eden
1) Genesis 2:16 -17 - Adam allowed the enemy to lie to him about eating the fruit.
2) Adam and Eve committed "high treason" against God.
3) They rebelled against God’s commandments to them and obeyed the devil’s suggestions - Genesis 3:17-19
a) Adam allowed his body and mind to take control over his spirit.
b) Adam and Eve became servants of sin
Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death, or of obedience leading to righteousness?
While they promise them liberty, they themselves are slaves of corruption; for by whom a person is overcome, by him also he is brought into bondage.
b. As a result, Adam turned the authority and dominion God had given him over to Satan. (NOTE: God did not give Satan authority and dominion to rule this world. Adam did.)
And the devil said to Him, “All this authority I will give You, and their glory; for this has been delivered to me, and I give it to whomever I wish.
c. Adam’s sin nature passed from generation to generation, robbing each generation of their authority and relationship with God
Therefore, just as through one man sin entered the world, and death through sin, and thus death spread to all men, because all sinned—
For if by the one man’s offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.)
Stopped 1-13-21
3. Jesus regained man’s authority by dying on the cross and getting the keys to the kingdom
And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.
I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of Death.
a. Jesus has given you the keys now so you can unlock heaven’s treasures
And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”
b. You can also unlock those who are bound
c. You can lock Satan’s activities out of your life
4. Man’s failure to walk in his authority is a result of Adam’s sin
a. Mankind lost God-consciousness
b. The Lord Jesus started a whole new race of people called born-again ones
For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.
c. To know who we are in Christ, we must identify with Jesus
For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous.
And as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly Man.
d. We must know by faith that we died with Him, we are buried with Him, ascended with Him, and we are seated with Him and glorified with Him.
e. Five areas we have authority over:
1. Sin
For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.
2. Sickness
who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness—by whose stripes you were healed.
3. Thought life
For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ,
4. Fear
For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.
5. Confusion
But he who prophesies speaks edification and exhortation and comfort to men.
Part 2
THE AUTHORITY OF JESUS AND HOW HE GOT IT
Adam’s sin caused mankind to lose their authority
1. God, because of great mercy and grace, could not leave us in sin
2. He desired for us to have relationship and fellowship with Him again
3. He desired for us to have authority in the world again and authority over Satan.
God sent His Son Jesus to take back our authority from Satan
For if by the one man’s offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.)
Jesus was born of a virgin by the Spirit of God
And I will put enmity
Between you and the woman,
And between your seed and her Seed;
He shall bruise your head,
And you shall bruise His heel.”
1. This fulfilled the seed of woman will bruise Satan’s head
2. The birth of Jesus
a. Gabriel came to Mary, a virgin, and stated she would conceive a child
Now in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a city of Galilee named Nazareth, to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. And having come in, the angel said to her, “Rejoice, highly favored one, the Lord is with you; blessed are you among women!”
But when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and considered what manner of greeting this was. Then the angel said to her, “Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favor with God. And behold, you will conceive in your womb and bring forth a Son, and shall call His name Jesus. He will be great, and will be called the Son of the Highest; and the Lord God will give Him the throne of His father David. And He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of His kingdom there will be no end.”
1) The child was to be named Jesus.
2) He was to be called the Son of God and would be great.
3) He would reign over house of Jacob.
4) There would be no end to His kingdom.
b. Mary went to visit her cousin Elizabeth
Luke 1:34-41
1) Elizabeth had a revelation by the Holy Spirit that the baby Mary carried was the Lord Jesus.
c. When Jesus was born, angels appeared to shepherds and proclaimed to them a Savior had been born which was Christ the Lord -
Then the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid, for behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy which will be to all people.
Jesus begins His ministry -
When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and alighting upon Him. And suddenly a voice came from heaven, saying, “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”
And John bore witness, saying, “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and He remained upon Him. I did not know Him, but He who sent me to baptize with water said to me, ‘Upon whom you see the Spirit descending, and remaining on Him, this is He who baptizes with the Holy Spirit.’ And I have seen and testified that this is the Son of God.”
1. At age 30 when He was baptized, the Spirit of God descended from heaven like a dove and landed and remained on Jesus.
2. A voice thundered from heaven saying, "This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased."
3. Only after being baptized with the Holy Spirit did Jesus fully operate in His authority
Luke 4:18,19
(quoted from Isaiah 61:1,2).
The temptation of Jesus - Luke 4:1-14 and Matthew 4:1-11
1. The Holy Spirit led Jesus into the wilderness where He stayed for 40 days with nothing to eat.
2. Satan tempted Jesus while He was weak in the flesh at the end of His 40-day fast.
3. Jesus was not weak in spirit – He took authority over Satan all three times He was tempted and defeated Satan.
a. Satan will try to attack you at your weakest times.
b. He will try to find a place in your life where you are not standing strong.
4. When Satan attacked Jesus in the wilderness, the devil spoke the Word of God.
a. Satan can quote Scripture.
b. He comes as an angel of light to deceive -
As the truth of Christ is in me, no one shall stop me from this boasting in the regions of Achaia. Why? Because I do not love you? God knows!
But what I do, I will also continue to do, that I may cut off the opportunity from those who desire an opportunity to be regarded just as we are in the things of which they boast. For such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into apostles of Christ. And no wonder! For Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also transform themselves into ministers of righteousness, whose end will be according to their works.
1. He used His authority to teach.
for He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.
b. Whenever Jesus taught the people, He taught as one having authority.
2. With His authority, He cast out demons -
Then they were all amazed, so that they questioned among themselves, saying, “What is this? What new doctrine is this? For with authority He commands even the unclean spirits, and they obey Him.”
3. He used His authority to raise Lazarus from the dead
And I know that You always hear Me, but because of the people who are standing by I said this, that they may believe that You sent Me.” Now when He had said these things, He cried with a loud voice, “Lazarus, come forth!”
b. He spoke with authority, knowing God had a plan to raise Lazarus so that many would believe.
4. He used His authority to heal the nobleman's son
John 4:46-53
b. The boy was healed at the same time Jesus spoke with authority
5. Jesus spoke with authority to the spirit of infirmity
And behold, there was a woman who had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bent over and could in no way raise herself up. But when Jesus saw her, He called her to Him and said to her, “Woman, you are loosed from your infirmity.” And He laid His hands on her, and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God.
b. The woman bowed over with a spirit of infirmity was instantly set free as Jesus commanded the evil spirit to leave and laid hands on her.
Jesus maintained His authority by staying in prayer and constant fellowship with the Father
1. Jesus did not allow sin in His life -
For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.
“Who committed no sin,
Nor was deceit found in His mouth”;
And you know that He was manifested to take away our sins, and in Him there is no sin.
a. Light has no fellowship with darkness - Ephesians 5:8-13
b. Jesus is light, sin is darkness
c. Jesus has no fellowship with Satan - 1 John 1:5-7
2. He went apart to pray -
And when He had sent the multitudes away, He went up on the mountain by Himself to pray. Now when evening came, He was alone there.
3. He did only what He saw the Father do-John 5:19,30; 6:38; 8:28;12:49;14:10
Jesus knew it was God's will to heal the sick, loose those bound by sin, and bring peace to people.
1. He knew His authority and never hesitated to minister to someone if He was led by the Spirit to do so.
2. We must stay in constant fellowship with God and not doubt God's ability.
II. Contrast: Jesus’ submission in Gethsemane
He went a little farther and fell on His face, and prayed, saying, “O My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from Me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as You will.”
A. The “cup” and the “will”
1. Jesus started the prayer seeking to do God’s will, but also seeking a way not to have to drink of the “cup.”
2. Once He understood that the “will” and the “cup” were one and the same, He accepted.
3. The Cross is the highest expression of obedience in the Bible.
a. Note: You do not choose to suffer persecution for God; you choose rather to do His will. Regardless!
Belief Believe and Unbelieve Unbelieve
Belief Believe and Unbelieve Unbelieve