the sound of gunshots. They were coming from somewhere behind the
house. We jumped up out of our beds, and immediately we saw 4 people
in our room. They started hacking us with their machetes. They
swung at me and sliced my nose, and then my arm. I ran as fast as I
could. My mother and my sisters were killed.”
“We were sleeping. Suddenly we
heard gunshots. Before I knew what was happening, there was fire
coming from the kitchen. I ran outside and saw someone running
around the side of the house. The next thing I knew, the whole house
was on fire. So I ran and I hid. It was dark. I could see fire
coming from many of the houses. All I could hear was people
screaming. I remained hidden all through the night. Around the
early hours of the morning, maybe around 5am, the soldiers finally
came. I could hear them just outside the village. But they didn’t
come into the village. The police were the first to come into the
village a few hours later, followed by the soldiers. We told them
that the people who had attacked us were on foot and they couldn’t
have gone far. But they didn’t go after them. My children and
grandchildren are dead.”
We have been here a little over a week. It has been an
emotional week, to say the least. The things we have seen and the
stories we have heard have absolutely wrecked us! But God is using
this time to teach us about spiritual authority.
In Mark chapter four, Jesus was
sleeping in the middle of a life-threatening storm. The disciples
woke Him because they were afraid. Jesus exercised His authority and
released peace over the storm.
The thing for us to remember is this:
Jesus had NO supernatural powers whatsoever! He could not heal the
sick or cast out demons. If we believe otherwise, we ignore what He
said about Himself. Then we are missing the whole purpose of His
self-imposed restriction to live as a man. While Jesus is 100
percent God, He chose to live with the same limitations that man
would face once He was redeemed. He performed miracles as a man in
right relationship to God, not as God Himself. If he performed those
miracles as God, they would be unattainable for us. But since He did
them as a man, we are responsible to pursue that same lifestyle.
Jesus released peace over the storm as
a man. He was able to sleep during the storm because of his faith.
Another word for faith is rest. In the words of Bill Johnson, “you
only have authority over the storm you can sleep in.” Our
authority in Christ is found in rest. What is restful to us is
violent to the powers of darkness.
If I have anxiety over a situation, I
can’t exercise my authority to release peace. I can only give what I
already have.
After Jesus calmed the storm, he asked
his disciples about their unbelief. He expected them to exercise the
authority God had given them to quiet the storm themselves. Instead,
they asked Him to do it.
We do this very often in prayer. The
purpose of prayer is intimacy with God. When we pray, God reveals to
us the secrets of His heart. He shows us what to pray for. Because
we tend to focus on ourselves when we pray, we sometimes miss this.
Instead of asking God to do something for us, He has given us the
authority to execute His will over the situation ourselves. When we
recognize our own authority, and are in a true place of rest and
peace, we discover our role. We don’t have to ask Him to move
mountains. Instead, we can command the mountains to move in His
name.
So this month is about learning to walk
in the authority God has given us. Even though we have found
ourselves in the middle of a violent storm, we have the power to
release peace over this place. But we only have the authority to
release peace, if we are in a true place of rest. We have faith that
God is moving in Nigeria. We refuse to believe otherwise. We
refuse to be fearful, or to have anxiety. Instead, we are believing
that God has sent us to this place for a purpose. Jesus rebuked the
wind and said to the sea, “Peace, be still,” and there was a
great calm. We are here to say, “Peace, be still” to this place. Please pray for us, that we will remain in a place of true
rest. And that from this place of rest, we will be able to exercise
the authority our Father has given us to quiet the storm ourselves.
