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Plainly Speaking
with Karl J. Forehand
Going to Class
with Jesus series
The Power to
Get off Dead Center
by Karl J. Forehand
And
having summoned His twelve disciples, He gave them authority over
unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every kind of disease
and
every kind of sickness.
(Matthew 10:1)
Jesus disciples were following
Jesus. That is what He told them to
do – He told them “follow me.” They
were following Jesus around, listening to His message, and learning from
Him. The other part of Jesus command
was that He would also make them “fishers of men.” They were about to get their final instructions so that they
could actually start fishing.
In Matthew, chapter nine, Jesus
saw the multitudes that looked like “sheep without a shepherd.” He had compassion upon them. He immediately told the disciples “The
harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few. "Therefore beseech the Lord of the harvest to send out
workers into His harvest." (Matt. 9:35-38) These twelve were about to become those laborers. In chapter 10, Jesus gives them some final
instructions. Over the next few
weeks, we are going to talk about “Going to Class with Jesus.”
The Power to get off Dead
Center
There are at least three types
of power. I can’t stress it strongly
enough – We have the power!
1.
We have the authority
Authority, in this passage,
comes from the word exousia.
Before Jesus
gave the Great Commission, He said “All authority is given to
me…therefore go.” Exousia means
“It is permissible or allowed.”
When someone with the authority
gives you a task, they pass that authority to you. If your boss gives you money and permission to buy some
computers, his/her authority is passed to you. You inherit their authority.
But, you only inherit their authority if you do what they said.
If I give my son the authority
to go to the store and he goes to the woods instead, he did not properly
accept the authority. The authority
only comes into play when the one receiving puts some action behind it. It is not enough to know what to do, we
must do something with the authority.
Usually with authority comes a command. Unless we obey the command, we don’t receive the authority.
Where does authority come
from? It comes from the Father. Even Jesus only did what the Father told
Him to do. Your Christian freedom and
liberty only gives you authority when you do what the Father says.
In the Robin Hood movies, the
guys on horseback always had a scroll that said, “By authority of the King”
and then they did something because of that authority.
What do we have authority to
do? As we are going and being witnesses,
we have authority to bring all demonic powers into subjection. We should never back down from the
Devil. He does not have authority
over us – we have authority over him.
Jesus told us that we should rule over them, not them over us. When we fear demonic attacks, then we let
them win.
Physical healing is not our
greatest need. Jesus didn’t always
physically heal. He told the
paralytic, “So that you will know I have the power to forgive sins, pick up
your mat.” We will see many miracles,
but our main job is to subdue the enemy.
What an awesome privilege! We
get to say to people (like Jesus did to the paralytic) “carry the mat that
once carried you.”
We have been given authority to
overcome evil and bring people the ability to overcome their greatest need –
forgiveness of sins. In addition, we
can bring people the authority to overcome evil in their lives.
Everyone knew what needed to be
done in Afghanistan. The orders were
given by President Bush. The upper
military commanders passed that authority down. But, until the soldiers actually packed their bags and got on
the planes, the authority meant nothing.
If they would have sit at home and said, “Isn’t it great that we have
the authority?” they would have not properly accepted and activated the
authority. As silly as that sounds,
many of us “sit” on the authority we have to make disciples and subdue the
enemy.
What else do we need besides
authority?
2.
We have the ability
but you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit
has come upon you; and
you shall be My witnesses…
(Acts 1:8)
Power, here, is the Greek word dunamis. It means “to be able.” Authority comes from the Father – Ability
comes from the Spirit. John 14:16-17
tells us that the Spirit abides in each of us. Dunamis is more than permission, it is the actual
ability to do the task.
Don’t discount ability. We like to talk about exploding grandiose
things. But simple ability is huge! If someone gave you the ability to do
brain surgery, you would have many more career opportunities. We want the miraculous; but even Jesus
avoided just impressing people with miracles. The reality is that the miracle is you – You are able!
Hebrews 7:25 says, “He is able
to save forever those who draw near to God through Him.” It talk about miraculous signs and
wonders, although He can do those as well.
But, it simply says “He is able (Jesus).”
Allah is not able to save. Buddha
and Mohammad are not able. The
church, religion and rituals are not able.
But, my God is able.
Because He is able, you will be
able by His spirit.
3.
We have the anointing
But you have an anointing
from the Holy One…But as for you, the
anointing (the sacred
appointment, the unction) which you received
from Him abides (permanently)
in you; (so) then you have no need that
anyone should instruct
you. But just as His anointing
teaches you
concerning everything that is
true and is no falsehood, so you must abide
live in, never depart) from
Him (being rooted in Him, knit to Him), just as
(His anointing has taught you
to do. (1 John 2:20,27 amplified)
Jesus is the Christos (the
anointed one). He gave us the Holy
Spirit which enables us to have the chrisma ( the anointing). Why?
- We need to be able to
understand the way God understands
- We need to be able to think
the way God thinks
- We need to know like God
knows
- We can’t totally depend on a
pastor or author to teach us
Ultimately God must teach us by
His Spirit. A preacher is under
anointing when the Holy Spirit teaches him and he proclaims that
message. Believers are under
anointing when they humble themselves and listen to what God is trying to
teach them. When we subject our will
and our way to God’s will and His way, we experience the anointing that God
has poured out to us by His spirit.
Summary
We need authority to be
witnesses and God has give us that authority. We have to exercise the authority for it to be useful. We need ability to be witnesses and God
has given it to us by His Spirit. We
need the anointing of God on our ministry.
We have it if we will stop depending on human reasoning and allow the
Spirit to work in us and through us.
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