USURPER OF AUTHORITY
By Dan Luehrs
All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on
earth. Matt 28:18 (NASU)
There is
no doubt that Jesus has all power and authority in heaven and earth, for He
received this from His Father and was given a name above all names because of
His obedience to the Fathers authority. He never one time disobeyed even to the
point of giving His life on the cross for the will of the Father. We can
clearly see that it pays for us to be under authority until the Fathers timing
to release us no matter who He places authority over us for our training.
We are
all under the authority of someone, one being God, parents, the government,
bosses, teachers, and Christian leadership. Our lives on earth are a setup for
us to be under authority, even though we do not fully understand why at times.
The Lord has shown me that our submissiveness to authority has everything to do
with our own authority as becoming fully matured manifested Sons of God. If we
do not stay under the authority ordained by the Father and His perfect timing
for us we will short circuit our lives. Then we will be no better than Satan
himself who tried to usurp the authority of God. When we disobey we do not
understand that we are just like the enemy when we do not stay under the
authority of which God has placed us under. Is this not what Adam and Eve tried
to do when they ate of the tree of good and evil and the devil told them that
they will be like God? Their disobedience was a defiance in the very face of
God’s authority over them when they were tried by the devil to see what was in
their hearts. They became presumptuous of God’s authority over them and no
longer had the fear of God protecting their hearts from the pride that brought
Satan down from his place of power over God’s kingdom. Both Adam and Satan fell
from their place of ascension in God because they got comfortable with Him and
fell away in their hearts long before the time of testing came. Our test of
being under authority only shows what has been going on in our heart all the
time, just as we can manifest the full Sonship of God we can also manifest the
workings of Satan if not dealt with by God.
BEING
UNDER AUTHORITY
Now I
say, as long as the heir is a child, he does not differ at all from a slave
although he is owner of everything, but he is under guardians and managers
until the date set by the father. So also we, while we were children, were held
in bondage under the elemental things of the world. But when the fullness of
the time came, God sent forth His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, so
that He might redeem those who were under the Law, that we might receive the
adoption as sons. Because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His
Son into our hearts, crying, " Abba! Father!" Therefore you are no
longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God. Gal 4:1-7
(NASU)
Jesus came to me when I
was taking a nap one day and began speaking to me about authority. He showed me
that my whole life was a setup of being under authority since I was a child and
that He had placed people over me whether they were men or women. At a young
age responsibilities were given to me and it seemed to me even back then that
the more responsible I was, the more authority was given to me. Like keys to
homes, cars, and businesses and until recently I had hundreds of keys to homes
and buildings in my control to do with them as needed, along with a large
spending budget. Now after almost thirteen years of working there God said that
I was done and needed to move on. Some of the people over me were women and one
being my wife and one being younger than me. The Lord has shown me that I
passed the test of not trying to usurp authority over them in my heart. Usurp
means to, (To try to take authority away). Do you see that all of life is about
the heart issue, what is going on in my heart? There was a little boy standing
on a chair next to his mom and his mom told him to sit down, but the little boy
did not want to. He finally sat down and the mom commended him for doing good
when he said to her, “I may be sitting down but I am standing up inside!” This
is what we must be delivered from, rebellion! “If ye be willing and obedient,
ye shall eat the good of the land: But if ye refuse and rebel, ye shall be
devoured with the sword: for the mouth of the Lord hath spoken it” Isa 1:19-20 (KJV).
If we are a Christian and
are a part of a local church, God has the leadership of that church over us, we
must choose to submit to their godly authority no matter if we agree with them
or not, as long as they are following the Lord and His word. If we try to usurp
their authority we fail the test and must go around the mountain until we pass
this test of authority even if we have setbacks and disappointments with their
leadership.
The Lord then went through
the Bible and showed me how the great Bible characters submitted to authority and
were exulted from their lowly position like Joseph and Moses and even Paul
submitting to the leadership of the apostles in Jerusalem when he was a great
Pharisee and they were just fishermen. This took great humility on Paul’s part
but God richly blessed him.
Please understand this is
the very thing that many people stumble over and never rise again from the ash
heap of rebellion. The Bible is full of these stories from Cain and Abel to the
tower of Babel and Moses' sister to the Kohathites that tried Moses’ authority
over him. Then we could go through the years of the Israelites trying God in
the Promised Land and would not listen to their leadership of good kings and
prophets but were stubborn headed and millions were destroyed by their enemies
and were disbursed among the nations until the holocaust when they were finally
placed in their own land again after two thousand years. Rebellion will cost us
the throne of God, but the fear of God will be wisdom for us to ascend to the
throne.
I am not sure about you,
but I am not willing to give up one inch to the devil in my mind, spirit, or
body and want all the rebellion removed from me so that I may be as close to
Jesus as He allows me to be. Whatever fiery tests may await me are all for my
good, they are not to be feared because they are all a setup of God so that He
may trust us with the authority of Jesus Christ and to become like Him in all
measure.
The owner
of all starts out just as a slave so that he may be tested. “Now I say, as long
as the heir is a child, he does not differ at all from a slave although he is
owner of everything, but he is under guardians and managers until the date set
by the father.” The Father has the perfect time to entrust us with His
authority, we just must trust Him. When I think of Joseph and all that he had
to go through to be second in control of all of Egypt I just shudder because
there are no shortcuts for any of us! We are called to something much bigger
than what Joseph had in Egypt. Are we willing to pay the price of following
Jesus just to be closer to Him even if He offers us nothing but His presence?
Yes, a thousand times yes! It took Abraham one hundred years to be prepared to
be the father of Isaac. Think about it, he could have been much younger but God
waited until His perfect time to bring forth the Promised Child just as He said
because that was His timing and not mans! How about Moses, he was eighty years
old when he matured enough for God to release authority through him, which was
the Fathers perfect timing to bring him forth as the leader of all the tribes
of Israel. We cannot be in a hurry when we have a calling upon our life from
God, it may take much longer and far harder than we could even imagine, but it
will be worth it all, I promise!
MANY ARE
CALLED, FEW ARE CHOSEN
"For
many are called, but few are chosen." Matt 22:14 (NASU)
I do not
believe that Abraham was God’s first choice, but that there were others before
him that God called, but they would not submit to the authority of God’s
leading in the wilderness and God moved on to look for another. Does not 2
Chronicles 16:9 say, "For the eyes of the Lord move to and fro throughout
the earth that He may strongly support those whose heart is completely His.”
All of God’s people that He calls goes through their time in the wilderness to
knock off all the rough edges that we have in our lives by just us being human.
We will not stay under the authority of God if we will not stay under the
authority of a person. Just as if we do not love people we see, how can we love
a God that we do not see? This life is a setup and we must use all these
experiences of life to cause us to mature by knowing that God is watching over
us to see how we are handling situations of life faithfully or not.
I think
of the story of the apostle John when he wrote about Diotrephes in 3 John 9, “I
wrote unto the church: but Diotrephes, who loveth to have the preeminence among
them, receiveth us not.” This is how arrogant we can become! John being a
disciple of the Lord when He walked the earth should have been respected by all
and yet this man named Diotrephes did not even receive John because he wanted
the authority in the church and wanted to be first even before a direct
disciple of Jesus. Power hungry people will not submit to the true spiritual
authority of the Lord over them because they are by human nature usurpers
of authority and they will not submit to anyone over them, but this must die in
all of us or God will never give us a placement in Him as a mature Son of God.
It just will not happen! We could take a look at King Saul versus King David
who submitted to the authority that God had placed over him, but Saul would not
obey the leadership of God through the Prophet Samuel because he thought he
knew better and was impatient with God’s timing and decided to act on his own.
Saul was man’s choice for King, David was God’s choice even though he did not
look much like a king, but God knew what was in his heart. We must ask the Lord
to root out of us anything that is not of His authority and nature because if
we try to go into a position of authority before our time it will crush us and
this is not God’s will for us. “Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty
hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time” 1 Peter 5:6 (NASU). This
verse is the key to true spiritual authority, it first starts with us being
humble before God and man and by letting Him alone exult us at the proper time.
If we look for a position of authority before our time it will only take longer
for us to come into the true authority of Christ. We may have great charismatic
giftings from God, but if we allow people to put us in places of power before
our time it will only hinder our true calling. To be a fully matured Son of God
we must follow the Lamb wherever He goes, which is for us to follow the leading
of the Holy Spirit in our lives on a daily basis or WE too will be
usurpers of His authority in our lives.
GIVEN
AUTHORITY OVER THE NATIONS
He who
overcomes, and he who keeps My deeds until the end, TO HIM I WILL GIVE AUTHORITY
OVER THE NATIONS; AND HE SHALL RULE THEM WITH A ROD OF IRON, AS THE VESSELS OF
THE POTTER ARE BROKEN TO PIECES, as I also have received authority from My
Father Rev 2:26-27 (NASU)
Man’s
authority over the earth started way back in the book of Genesis when God told
Adam to rule over all the earth, but quickly lost it to Satan’s deceptions.
However, Jesus got it all back and more, praise to His name! One man's
disobedience brought the fall, but one man's obedience purchased it all back
for all eternity and He wants to share His authority with us if we will just
pay the price of our obedience. In Luke 10:19 Jesus gave authority to the
apostles over the enemy when He was with them. It reads, "Behold, I have
given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power
of the enemy, and nothing will injure you.” This authority that Jesus gave was
over the enemy, but was not over the nations. Before the Lord gives us true
authority over the nations He wants us to practice our authority over the enemy
in our own lives! If we cannot overcome the enemy in our day to day lives why
in the world would He give us authority to rule the nations with Him I ask you?
This is why authority is only given to the overcomers because they have paid
the price in the battle of the mind and have learned it in the fires of
hardship.
Authority
is about control, the enemy wants to control our minds and thought life through
the power of the air. He wants us to think his thoughts and not the thoughts of
God which are clean and of good report, but if the enemy can interject into our
minds that we are nothing and that God does not really love us and causing us
to walk in fear and not faith he now has authority of deception because it is all
based in a lie and not on the truth of the word of God. But I tell you,
according to the word of God there is an overcoming people that have the enemy
under their feet and not the other way around and the enemy fears them!
And the
great dragon was thrown down, the serpent of old who is called the devil and
Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was thrown down to the earth, and his
angels were thrown down with him. Then I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying,
Now the
salvation, and the power, and the kingdom of our God and the authority of His
Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren has been thrown down, he who
accuses them before our God day and night. Rev 12:9-10 (NASU)
These are
the overcomers with authority that will overcome all that the enemy throws at
them, they will put him on the run and cast him out of their lives. The problem
with these verses is that most Christians think that this is for some place or
time in the future, but in reality it is NOW that we are to be ruling over the
enemy in every area of our lives. If we are still walking in fear and worry, we
are still under the enemy's control. If we are living in addictions of any kind
the enemy still has the upper hand in our life, but fret not because
deliverance is coming if we do not give up and become stronger through the
battle.
Through
all of life’s journey God is wanting us to establish His kingdom in the earth,
starting with our own heart. Think about it, we are the eternal dwelling place
of God in the earth, there is not another people, we are the body of Christ
that God will dwell in and reveal Himself through, just as Jesus demonstrated
for us to follow after His steps. Up to now things have only been a rehearsal,
but very soon Jesus is coming to appear in and through us, His church and all
the world will stand up to see who are His chosen ones to bring forth the
kingdom of God in power and authority. Let us not miss our chance at this
calling of eternity for a few crumbs of this world when the whole kingdom of
God has already been given to us and all we need to do is walk it out by
following Him each day.
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