Wednesday, October 14, 2009

October 14, 2009

"Then Jesus came to them and said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me......And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age." Matthew 28:18 & 20
The disciples had been with Jesus 24/7 for three years. They had seen His authority over evil, over disease, and recently, over sin and death.
Then, there was that time that Jesus sent them out two by two into the region to minister in His name and with His authority. They had experienced what it was like to take authority over evil, over disease and even over death. The Bible tells us that they came back rejoicing over the victories they had been able to win with His authority.
So, it makes sense that as Jesus was preparing to leave the planet and return to His Father that they might wonder what would happen to His authority. Would His authority depart with Him? This divine mandate He had just given them would take much more that what they possessed in the way of power and authority. It was a God-sized assignment and it would take God-sized help.
What would you be doing if you were them?
Well, now you are them! Their mandate is your mandate. It is still a God-sized job!
We need to hear what Jesus told them. "ALL authority in HEAVEN and on EARTH" is His. It resides in Him! He had the authority of Heaven and when He died and rose from the dead He regained all the authority on earth! It is the authority that Adam had forfeited by his sin. But Jesus, the Second Adam, took back what Adam had lost! So when Jesus said ALL authority that is exactly what He meant!
In short, what Jesus is saying is this, "I have all spiritual authority that exists in the universe and when you have Me you also have this authority"! Think about that!
Jesus was not just giving them a mandate, He was giving them the power to become a movement! And the history of the early Church indicates that when the believers clung to Jesus and received His authority - it was an unstoppable movement! When they worshiped and ministered in Jesus' Name they also operated in all of His authority.
Does Jesus still have that authority? Has he experienced a power shortage? Do we still get ALL authority when we get Jesus or did that change somewhere in the past 2,000 years?
If you are in Christ, why aren't you in His authority? Or are you?