This month, I am in Northern Ireland, serving with Causeway Coast Vineyard Church. I love the vision of this church, and the teaching I’ve received so far, has played a huge role in connecting a lot of the dots from my head to my heart.
The last several months, Jesus has been revealing to me more of who he is, and who I am. Who else can better tell you about a thing, than the one who thought it, created it, and formed it? He’s been singing it over me, and I am beginning to grasp his words. I know no one will ever ‘figure out’ God, and that’s not what I mean; but, the last couple months, I’ve begun to understand who I am in him. I am his daughter, one of his children, and co-heirs with Christ. Because I am his creation, how I am, is exactly how he desired me to be. Because I am his daughter, he would do, and did everything for me when he died for me. His love for me is unfathomable. I’ve grown up hearing the same message my whole life, and have come to realize there are multiple levels of understanding of it. I’ve known all of that all along in my head, and it has sunk in a few levels deep over the years. But now, I feel like it is finally made it all the way to my heart. It’s not just that I am his daughter, but what that means, and what is possible because of it.
God has given his children authority in his kingdom. Kingdom authority comes when you have legitimacy and power. Because I believe in him and am his child, I have a birthright to his inheritance. He has also given us his great power. In Eph 1:18-21 it says “I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious INHERITANCE in the saints, and his incomparably GREAT POWER FOR US who believe. That power is like the working of his mighty strength, which he exerted in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every title that can be given, not only in the present age but also in the one to come.”
The same power that raised Jesus from death to life is inside of us! (Rom 8:11) God tells us that “you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.” (Acts 1:8) I’ve learned from teaching this month that it is for the purpose of mission, that authority and power is given to us. In Matt 10:1 it says “He called the disciples to him and he gave them AUTHORITY to drive out evil spirits and to heal every disease and sickness.” God has given his children that same authority to heal the sick. We just have to recognize that it has been given to us, and begin to operate in it. The devil will try everything to stop that revelation.
There have been moments where the enemy has tried to trip me up, and smear dirt on my mirror that has been lovingly cleared away. But, as creative as we think Satan is, he never can think of new material. He uses the same lie, over and over. It may just appear in a different form, but it’s nothing new. To put it another way, once you know the taste of the truth, it becomes easier and easier to smell the lie as it tries to enter you; and you can take it from him and throw it back in his face! “He who is in me, is greater than he who is in the world!” (1 Jn 4:4)
