God's Badge of Authority

You cannot separate responsibility with authority. You cannot give someone responsibility without giving him authority to carry out that responsibilty. Jesus has given us the responsibility of bearing witness to Himself throughout the length and breadth of this world. He also had given us the authority to carry out this task.


God sent Jesus here for a purpose. He gave him a responsibility, and He gave Him the authority. Jesus came here for a purpose, not just to die on the cross, no just to shed His blood. That was the sublime, supreme purpose, but He came here for another reason. He came here to engage Satan in spiritual battle.


John said: "For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil" (1 John 3:8, NKJV).


Jesus came as the representative of God to work God's works against the kingdom of Satan and to take from the Devil the keys of the kingdom that he robbed from Adam and Eve.


Jesus came with God's authority. He spoke the Word and He worked the works of God. After the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, He took that authority vested in Him by God Almighty. He did not take that authority away from the earth.


Jesus gave His authority to His disciples


Jesus gave His authority to the disciples who followed Him while He was still here on earth, and He gives it to us as His disciples now:


Jesus said to His disciples: "As the Father has sent Me, I also send you" (John 20:21).


"Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you" (Luke 10:19).


The writer of Hebrews said: "For He Himself has said, 'I will never leave you nor forsake you.' So we may boldly say: 'The Lord is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me'" (Heb. 13:5, 6)?


The disciples followed the method and example of Jesus and used the authority He transmitted to them as they went out. They literally turned the world upside down for God.


"These who have turned the world upside down have come here too" (Acts 17:6).


The Lord working with them


"And they went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word through the accompanying signs" (Mark 16:20, emphasis added).


This is the beginning of the key to unlock the door which holds the answer to our question:


"The Lord working with them ...."


We have always thought of our working with God, not stopping to realize the depths of spiritual reality that the Lord longs to work with us. An unusual phenomenon took place. God, Who created the heavens and the earth, this great God, began to work with men.


Why would God work with them? What was the key?


These disciples were changed from fearful, unbelieving, doubting men, to men of authority. When you are changed to a man or woman of authority, you have the basis of doing the works of God.


God worked with them because they were now men of authority. How to you become a person of authority? By whose authority do you stand to do the works of God?


All authority begins and ends in Jehovah God! All power, all authority is in God!


Jesus was sent with authority


When Jesus came to this earth, He came as the Son of God, with power and authority. He received it from His Father - God. God would not send His son into this worl to face the Devil without power and authority. God knew the strength of the Devil and He gave his son the necessary tools or weapons to do battle and to defeat and to destroy the enemy's power.


Jesus said: "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth" (Matt. 28:18).


He recognized that the Father had given Him the authority. He gave His own testimony in the synagogue when He opened the book of the prophet Isaiah and read:


"The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed" (Luke 4:18).


He closed the book and gave it to the attendant in the synagogue, sat down and said:


"Today this Scripture is fulfilled in your hearing" (Luke 4:21).


We are sent with authority


When Jesus sent out His disciples, he told them that as His Father had sent Him, with all authority, even now was He sending them:


"And when He had called His twelve disciples to Him, He gave them power over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease" (Matt. 10:1).


He not only commissioned them to preach that the kingdom of heaven was at hand, but He gave them this further instruction:


"Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons. Freely you have received, freely give" (Matt. 10:8)


In Matthew 18, Jesus put powerful weapons into the hands of the believers with these words:


"Assuredly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaen, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven. Again I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven" (Matt. 18:18, 19).


Jesus demonstrated the power He was giving His disciples in the miracles of the withered fig tree (Matt. 21:19, 20) and then gave them this great promise:


"Assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what was done to the fig tree, but also if you say to this mountain, 'Be removed and be cast into the sea,' it will be done. And whatever things you ask in prayer, believing, you will receive" (Matt. 21:21, 22).


He delegated His authority. We have the tools. I am not advocating that we all go out and promiscuously begin to heal the sick, I am saying that through fear, doubt, spiritual inhibitions, we have failed to recognize our position in God's Kingdom as disciples and ministers of Christ.


Could it be that we have used that excuse to people, "I don't have any power to heal," when confronted with sickness, the brokenhearted, the captives, because in reality we are not in touch spiritually with the divine flow?


Look at Peter in Acts 3. He said, "Such as I have!" (Acts 3:6, KJV). No matter how you spell; no matte how you interpret in using various translations of the Bible, it comes out the same - "Such as I have!" Peter had the authority, and he used it just as Jesus did. He spoke the Word!


"In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk" (Acts 3:6, NKJV).


Illustrtion of the power of delegated authority


Let me use a story, told to me by someone, to illustrate the power of delegated authority.


In the United States there are many small towns with just a small all-purpose store, where truckers stop for their needs - gas pumps, groceries and a post office.


This particular small all-purpose store is situated at the bottom of a small hill. One sunny day, a big 32-foot truck come down the hill at about 60 mph, violating the speed limit of 25 mph.


A man sitting in front of the all-purpose store, dressed in a blue uniform, saw this truck speeding down the hill. Without a moment's hesitation he stepped out into the middle of the street, held up his hand and brought the truck to a screeching halt.


The peculiar thing about this was that the man who stepped out into the street was an elderly gentleman. He was the town's only police officer, a retired coal miner. He was over 70 years of age, he was about five feet eight inches in stature and weighed about 150 pounds - well below that of an average American man. He had been given the position of watching the town and keeping peace at the general store.


That elderly man slowly walked over by the cab of that truck and spoke with a voice that echoed down the street: "Get out of that truck, mister!"


When the truck cab opened, a burly man of over six feet and about 250 pounds crawled out. The short, elderly "fill-in" policeman shook his old bony finger at this giant of a truck driver and shouted: "Where do you think you're going? What are you trying to do, kill somebody?"


"No, sir!" the truck driver replied: "I'm sorry, sir, I didn't mean to violate the speed limit. The town seemed to come upon me so fast. I'm sorry, sir. I didn't mean it."


"Follow me," the policeman order. He took him into the general store which was also the police station, wrote him a ticket and fined him right on the spot. The driver meekly paid the fine and went off silently.


My question is this: Do you think the truck driver, over six feet tall, 250 pounds, middle aged, strong, was afraid of the old retired coal miner in his position as police officer of this small town?


No. It is absurd to think so. The truck driver could have made a pretzel out of that man, but he did not because on that man's chest was a badge. It was a badge of authority which said: "This man represents the state of Pennsylvania and behind him is all the power of that state. If that is not enough, behind him rests the power of all the United States."


If you are a true Christian you should not be afraid of the Devil at all. You stand as the blood-bought, redeemed child of the living God. You stand will all power and all authority over all the power of the enemy. Jesus said: "As the Father has sent Me, I also send you" (John 20:21). You are sent with power and authority!


God's badge of authority


I am a man of authority. God's badge of authority gives me authority which the Devil cannot violate. Satan and evil must obey this authority for it comes from God Who is all powerful, Who has all authority.


No, the Devil is not afraid of us, but he is afraid of Jesus. He is afraid of the badge of authority that we wear because we do not stand alone. Behind us stands Jesus. Behind Jesus stand God the Father. With Jesus and God the Father are all the angels and a host of heavenly beings, ready to do the bidding of God Almight.


When we catch sight of those facts, we have keys in our hand.


Jesus spoke the word and it was accomplished. Peter and the other disciples spoke the word and it was done. That was their method of performing their God-given task.


We may speak the word with that same authority, with the same invincible forces behind us. We not only have the badge of God's authority upon us, we have His authority in us!


The word "authority" in Greek is "exousia" which literally mens "to be out." "Ex" means "out of" and "ousia" means "being." Therefore, "exousia" means "the ability to go beyond oneself."


It is used of that authority which a person has which is deleated to him from someone else. The Greek word also denotes complete mastery, superhuman power and complete jurisdiction.


The person delivering the authority is, in a sense, out of himself, and acting in and through the person to whom he has delegated that authority. This is truly wonderful!


Jesus had delegated His authority to us. In this sense, He is "out of Himself" and He is in us, acting in us and through us.


Also in this sense, we are out of ourselves; we go beyond ourselves and we are in Him - the Lord working with us (and through us) with signs following.


That is why the methods of the disciples were so powerful, so decisive, so dynamically effective. They had grasped the keys. They spoke the word. They acted in the power and authority of God Himself. Such a method can never fail. It works the works of God. You and I can do the same today - because as we speak and God works with us, confirming the Word with signs following.