Your Authority in Christ (#3)

Welcome to part three of our series on your authority in Christ. We last took a break over the holidays, after seeing how we have divine authority to accept or reject any thought that comes through our mind… I truly hope that meditating on that truth during the holiday break has blessed you, because it’s an extraordinarily powerful truth!

And now, in this segment, we’re continuing along this line to dive deeper into how this power over thoughts manifests and can be used to achieve victory.

Let’s get started!

Your Authority in Christ (#1)

We’ve spent the previous four studies looking at our relationship with God, and how it touches every aspect of our lives. And now that we understand where we stand, we can move on to the topic of authority.

Authority is another one of those topics that are critical to a successful Christian life, but rarely gets the attention it needs. The scriptures are clear that we have a spiritual enemy, and that we are called to stand in times of attack or pressure. But the scriptures do not call us to stand without any power or recourse.

In truth, Jesus paid a very high price to redeem us, and bring us into a new and better covenant with better promises (Hebrews 8:6) — these promises are not ethereal, nor are they relegated to some unknown future time when we get to heaven. These promises are for here and now when we need them the most. Yet many believers are left completely unaware of all that they have to believe in, due to the aspect of our authority in Christ never being mentioned.

So today we are going to explore the authority Jesus has given to us, for the very purpose of defending and overcoming the spiritual enemy.

Let’s get started!

Speak to Your Mountain

When faced with a problem, the typical Christian can react in a few different ways:

With extreme passivity — “everything is God’s will; he’ll help if he wants to”
With self-abasement, doubt — “Why is this happening? Am I being punished?”
With anger and resentment — “How could God do this to me! This is bogus!”
While all of these positions look at the problem from a slightly different angle, they all produce the same result; these ideas immobilize you.

Think about it; if you believe that absolutely everything is God’s will, then you will never resist anything, because all of it is his will. So when spiritual forces attack, you’ll just roll over and accept it because, hey, it’s God’s will.

Similarly, if you believe that negative situations are God’s punishment for some wrong you’ve committed, then you still will not resist, because you deserve what is happening… it’s your punishment after all. So you’ll just suffer through the pain.

And the third idea is even more straightforward. You just directly accuse God of causing the problem.

All of these ideas keep you in a mental and spiritual box— never able to move forward, because moving forward requires the power of God. But if you see God as the source of your suffering or somehow complicit in it, then there’s no reason to even ask him for help!

Looking at things this way can seem rather hopeless; but all is not as it appears. The scriptures show us a different perspective; one not of hopeless reassignment to loss, but one of strength, power, and victory.

Did God Give You Promises or Facts?

If you’ve spent any time in the more charismatic sections of Christianity, you’ve likely heard about the promises of God. The promises are something that Christians often meditate on, recite, and think about. There are books and devotionals dedicated to the promises, and they can give a lot of comfort.

But what exactly is a promise in the biblical aspect? By asking this question, I’m aiming primarily at the time-frame in view. When we typically think of a promise, we envision something that is going to happen, but hasn’t happened yet. The time-frame may seem like a small detail, but it can have large implications.

Today we will explore what it means to have a biblical promise versus a biblical fact, and how a seemingly subtle difference can significantly influence our perspective of what we have in Christ.

Faith and the Fig Tree (How to Move Your Mountain)

Last week, we studied about faith and belief. We examined what faith and belief are, and how they work together for tangible results; the kind of results that you can see, feel, experience and enjoy now on this earth. That’s what people need and want, and that’s what Jesus gave during His ministry.

Today, we will continue along this theme, by exploring more about how faith works, by looking at the example of the fig tree, and how Jesus taught us to move our mountains.

The Kingdom is Within You

Jesus made several interesting statements regarding the Kingdom of God, and as we have studied previously, He even tells us to seek the Kingdom of God first, and all the other things would be added to us.

Yet if you ask the typical believer what the Kingdom of God is, many of them will struggle to give an answer. Simply put, most people aren’t sure what the Kingdom of God is. How can we seek for something if we don’t know what it is? How do we know when we’ve found it, if we don’t know what we are looking for?

Today we are going to answer these questions. We will begin by examining what Jesus said about the Kingdom of God; we will begin to form a picture of what the Kingdom looks like, and then we will see what it actually is, and we will see an amazing picture of what Jesus Christ accomplished for us, and what he has Given to us.

Receiving Divine Power

Divine power. Supernatural ability. Going beyond human strength, human limits. Being something more. For years we have been infatuated with the idea of having power – even from the very beginning. It’s one of the reasons we like super-heroes… because they have strength and abilities beyond regular humans.

If we are being honest, “regular” human beings are rather weak on their own. Relying on devices and machines to accomplish most of our advanced tasks… not even the strongest among the animals when compared strength for strength and speed for speed.

Yet we have access to something that these others do not have, we have access to divine power which would actually put our favorite comic book heroes to shame – the kind of power that makes evil forces run and hide in terror. It has been given to us by God Himself.

This probably sounds to good to be true, and you’re doubting it in your mind right now… but I’m going to prove it in scripture, and by the end of this study today, you’re going to realize just how strong you truly are, and how to receive divine power; not just a nice thought or a warm fuzzy feeling – but real and effectual power that makes a difference.

You Are in Christ… (No, Really!)

One of the most common phrases, both in the Bible and among believers is “in Christ” along with its variations such as “in Him” and “in the Beloved”. Nearly every believer will readily admit to being in Christ – that’s really the whole point! Yet very few understand what it really means, and the full extent of the meaning of it. Once during a Bible study, I suggested that if you want to broaden your horizon to all of what being in Christ meant, you should find all of the places in the Bible that mention being in Christ and the associated phrases, and you will end-up with a very large list of things that you have in Him. It’s actually fairly easy to do with our modern technology, but almost no-one in the study actually followed through.

The sad reality is that many people today do not have a very high opinion of what it means to be in Christ. Those whom I have spoken with typically see being in Christ as little more than a spiritual safety-net that catches them whenever their performance falls-short. However, being in Christ is so very much more than a safety net… being in Christ is literally the very Kingdom of God.