For the past several weeks, God has been teaching me about authority. A boot camp of His making, right in the middle of life, and directly before training camp.
Here are some of the lessons I have been learning:
Earthly authority was stolen from man in Eden, but restored by Jesus’s sacrifice. We have been given authority on Earth to bring the Kingdom of God. Whatever God has bound or loosed in Heaven, we get to do the same on Earth.
It is never about our abilities. It is always God’s battle to fight and win. But He has given us authority on Earth to fight with Him, and for His glory. We do not have to strive, and we do not pick battles. He has promised that if we ask, it will be given.
I have been astounded by the timing of God. Not the trust of His timing for a season, or the hope that God will ‘work it all out’. His timing. His availability. His absolute authority over everything. That when His children call, He immediately rises and fights for them. That He shows up every time His children sit at His feet. That He does the work as we wait on Him – of deliverance and healing, of using every attack the enemy intended for evil and turning it to good.
I have been humbled that God has chosen me and directs my path to fight alongside of Him, with His authority and power. It is the right of each child of God to be a part of what God is doing, and I am blown away. What kind of God is this? Not content with only saving us from His wrath, He makes us heirs in a huge inheritance – beginning now. God shares the secrets of His Kingdom with us.
In being a part of what He is doing, my heart loves Him so much more. There is such a tender fierceness in the heart of God towards us, but especially the broken ones. We mess up, we fall down, we run away, we get tangled in our own and our enemy’s traps, our hearts easily grow cold, our minds distracted. Yet God does not become angry, but finds us right where we are and pulls us out of the dark and back into His light. Instead of shame, the Lord promises a double portion. Instead of disgrace, rejoicing in the inheritance we are given.
In the words of Isaiah, Jesus came to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom to captives, to release prisoners from darkness, to proclaim the Lord’s favor, to comfort those who mourn, provide for those who are grieving, to rebuild ruins, to restore places long devastated. How beautiful. We have all been there: the brokenhearted, the captives, the prisoners, and the devastated. We are called to the same in Christ: to bind up, to proclaim freedom, to release, to comfort, to provide, to rebuild, and to restore.
To look at sickness and pain and brokenness beyond earthly terms, and see them as the enemy’s bondage that we have authority to break is life changing. Compassionate action against the enemy’s strongholds within our influence is each of our destinies – however that looks and however God calls.
Yeah, it’s been a serious boot camp and wild ride. But this is the true life-long adventure. Not just this next year, not the travel, not the countries, or cultures. This is kingdom life. Restoring souls long devastated. Taking back ground from the enemy. Lord, your Kingdom come.
