03 Salvation - Believer’s Authority

Welcome back to Believer's Authority. Within this session, Jesus died for us. That's what we talked about in the previous session. And in this session, we want to talk to you about the authority that God gives you. In order to take up the power that is available in the blood of Jesus Christ.

Because God calls us to work out our salvation with fear and trembling. And so He wants us to overcome. And those that overcome will inherit eternal life. And so there is a responsibility on us to walk in the authority that God has given us.

Let's look at what this authority is and why do I have power in this world and in the spiritual world to overcome. What is our role in the story of our salvation? The Bible says that we have to work out our salvation with fear and trembling.

Overcoming by the Blood of the Lamb

In Revelation, it says that they overcame the devil by the blood of the Lamb and the power of the word of their testimony. And so the good news is that God uses us to overcome. And in order to overcome, you need authority. You need power to overcome.

So in Luke 10, it says, "Behold, I've given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy. And nothing shall hurt you. Nevertheless, do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you. But rejoice that your names are written in heaven."

So our names are written in heaven because we've accepted Jesus' sacrifice. But then God also calls us to co-labor alongside Him to bring His kingdom into this world. And this world is under a prince. Who is that prince? Prince is the devil.

Satan, his angels are on this world. And so we actually, we're in a battle. We're not here as Christians on holiday. We are here to fight and to extend God's kingdom. And in order to do that, we need authority. Now, where is our authority seated?

What gives us authority in order to take on serpents and scorpions? And I want to say it's not because we're clever. It's not because we've studied the Bible. It's not because we've got lots of knowledge. It's not because we're big and we're strong.

It's not because we find ourselves within a church and a church community. We have authority. Well, maybe some of those things will help. But we have authority because we have the blood of Jesus on our hearts, and that enables us to fight. The devil and his—and his demons need to listen to us.

A Traffic Officer Illustration of Authority

Why do they need to listen to us? Well, the illustration that I've got here is here in South Africa. If you travel on one of our highways, the speed limit is 120. And if you're traveling more than 120, maybe you're traveling 160. Sometimes you have the traffic officer standing there with his radar.

And if you're going 160, well, what are they going to do? They're going to stop you. They're going to step out in front of your car. He's going to put out his hand and you're gonna stop. But why do you stop? Because you could just go right over him.

The reason we stop is not because he's strong, not because he's clever. But because on his chest he has a badge, and on that badge it says Officer of the Republic of South Africa. And we know that if we flatten him, you won't be 10 kilometers down the road, and there'll be policemen.

And they'll take you captive, arrest you, restrain you, take you to jail, bring you before the judge, and you will face the consequence of your actions. And in a similar way, we have authority over the devil. Not because of who we are inherently, or because where we're situated.

Growing in Authority as a Christian

But we have authority because we have the blood of the Lamb. With that, it's also important to understand that we have a scope of authority that grows as Christians. We're born into the kingdom as babies. And when my children came into the world, me and my wife, we had to do everything for them. They were born, and we had to feed them. And then we had to clean them, and we had to feed them. And we did that for a period of time until they grew up and they could start feeding themselves and cleaning themselves.

And so when we come into the kingdom, we very much come into the kingdom also as newborns. As babies. And other people might feed us. And other people might clean us. And other people might help us and fight our battles for us. But as we grow up, God expects us to start fighting our battles for ourselves.

Because He wants us to become strong in His kingdom. So that we can walk into the fullness and the plan and the destiny that He has for us. And so, my children are now older, they're teenagers. If I still had to feed them and wipe their bums, there would be something wrong.

So we grow in our maturity just like we grow naturally. And so when we get saved, the first place that we start is we start with ourselves. Where is the first place that we're going to fight the battles? Well, we're going to fight the battles in our mind.

We're going to transform our mind by the renewal of the Word. And we're going to fight the devil in those areas where there's areas of identity. Maybe we don't believe that God has forgiven us. Maybe we believe that God is strict and He doesn't want to be with me.

Those concepts that we covered early on. And we have to fight them. And we fight them with the Word. We've got to believe what the Word says about us over what we think. And we've got to reprogram our minds. And as we do that, in our spirits, we grow strong in our soul, in our mind, our will and our emotions.

We grow. We grow the kingdom and then it progresses into our relationships. Maybe there are people that have hurt us or spoken things over us, have done things to us that, that have caused us harm. And it's hurt us and we've maybe got unforgiveness and resentment and then we start working through those things.

And that His Spirit will lead and guide us on this road of sanctification, making us more and more like Jesus. And we overcome, and we overcome. And then maybe later on, God sees that you're faithful with these little things as you use your authority within His kingdom.

And then maybe He trusts you and He says, "Well, I'm going to give you a dog or a goldfish." And when you're faithful looking after that, then God's going to go, "Maybe I'll give you other people to look after." And then as that carries on, God will release you into more of what He's got for you.

And so there might be some preachers and teachers and evangelists sitting here, but we don't immediately start there. We start here and the kingdom extends out from us. From our spirit, into our soul, our mind, our will and our emotion, into our body.

Maybe physical healing is needed in some of our body and into our relationships and into our society. And so the kingdom is ever extending, and that's the authority that the Lord has given us. Now the question is, how do we do that? How do we work alongside the Holy Spirit in order to extend the kingdom?

This fruitful kingdom of the Lord into the world? And that's what we'll be answering in our next session. Just having talked about believer's authority, we have a wonderful testimony of Kim on how he overcame a spiritual wound that he had from a harsh father and the way that his father treated him.

Kim's Testimony on Submission to Authority

And the impact of that was that he wouldn't submit to authority. And in order to exercise authority, we have to submit to authority. We have to learn how to operate within the household of God. And the testimony that Kim shared. So let's listen to his testimony.

So I had this attitude that I carried around for most of my life. And it was that against authority. I could never accept authority in my life. I used to challenge authority. And I used to think it's because of my stature, being quite a short guy, that I had to defend myself and stand up for myself.

And whenever I went into any meetings, I was quite forceful and and quite arrogant, to try and get a point across. Because I never wanted to be suppressed. I felt that I had to prove who I was and that I had something significant to say.

So I I tended to rub up people the wrong way because I came across quite aggressive in most meetings. When I got saved back in 2003, you know, God remarkably took away three things from me. The first one was drinking. The second one was swearing.

And the third one was lust. I've never had an appetite to drink any alcohol since then. I thought, well, that's it. You know, I'm sorted. But many years later, I was leading a congregation near in Edgemead. And I asked the Lord, you know, "Lord, why aren't we growing?"

And I felt Him say to me, there's two things that are a problem in this congregation. One was that you don't have sufficient leaders. And the second one was there was an issue of purity amongst men. So I did some research and I found this course, it's called Conquer.

The Father Wound and the Holy Spirit’s Presence

And I had about 60 guys who were struggling with pornography issues in this course. And in the one episode, it was called The Father Wound. And as we were watching this video, we felt the tangible presence of the Holy Spirit enter into this room.

And I was absolutely amazed. You could almost touch and feel the presence of the Holy Spirit. And as I looked around from side to side, everybody's eyes were hiding the sources because they could feel the presence of the Holy Spirit. I remember saying to myself, "Wow, what's going on here?"

A Childhood Wound of Rejection

And the Holy Spirit said to me, "I need to speak to you." And He took me back to a situation when I was a young boy. Probably about the age of eight, and I was playing with some family members at one of my aunt's homes.

And we were playing soccer. One of my older cousins, he must've been about 18, he was getting frustrated with me and he picked me up and he threw me over his shoulder. He twisted my arm behind my back and it felt like I dislocated my shoulder.

And it was so painful. Being an eight-year-old, I ran to my dad in pain, crying to him. And my dad stepped forward and he hit me. And he virtually chased me out of the yard. And he said, "Don't you embarrass me in front of family. You be a man and not a boy." And I was only eight years old, but in that very moment, a spirit of rejection filled my heart. And the Holy Spirit highlighted this to me in that meeting. He said, "You know, you're carrying this wound, this crack or this rejection, the spirit of rejection in your heart."

And I suddenly felt an overwhelming peace and healing coming over my life. And I got up after the video and I said to the guys, "Guys, I don't know about you, but I need to confess. I need to repent. I've been very aggressive towards leadership. I could never accept leadership, although I'm a leader inside this church. My attitude towards leadership has been that of hardness. He has now healed me and softened me." And, you know, I was in tears and I was crying and the guys got around me and prayed for me.

I got home that night, I phoned Andrew, I set up a meeting with Andrew Selley. I went to his house the next day and explained what happened. And he said to me, "It's amazing, I always knew that there was something holding you back." He prayed for me as well, and there was repentance and forgiveness. And he asked me if I'd share it to all the elders. And we met, and there was about 120 elders, and I shared this experience of the Holy Spirit coming into my life and bringing about a healing of rejection.

From Rejected to Accepted in Christ

And ever since then, my whole heart attitude towards leadership has changed dramatically. You know, I accept leadership. I work alongside leaders. I submit to leaders and God has done a remarkable work in my heart. And the interesting thing is in Revelation 2:17, it talks about, you will be given a new name and your name will be written on a white stone.

And I think at one stage I thought that my name was called Rejected. And the new name is Accepted. Only possible through the Holy Spirit and what the Holy Spirit has done through me. I no longer walk around with a heart feeling rejected. I know that I am accepted by the King of Kings, the Lord of Lords, and Jesus Christ as a son in His house. And I just love the fact that I am known, that I can look up to my Father and He calls me son.

And that's what Jesus Christ did through His Holy Spirit. He gave me a Helper. I could never have acknowledged or seen that crack inside of me. But He brought about a healing. He identified it and He said, "Kim, this is the wound that you've been carrying all your life." From the age of eight until the age of, I think I was 58 at that stage. For 50 years I was carrying that wound of rejection. And in that moment, just like that, He brought about a healing. And I'm so grateful to God because He says in your own power, you will not do these things. He said, "But by My Spirit, you will be healed." And that's exactly what He did to me.

Using Jesus’ Authority to Heal Life Wounds

We've just listened to Kim's testimony. And it's a wonderful example of how we can use the authority that Jesus has given us to overcome some of the wounds that we have in our life. And so let's discuss this in our small groups and pray for one another.