KINGDOM AUTHORITY

 

KINGDOM AUTHORITY - AUDIO

 

There is something to be said about having the attitude or the mind of someone that is royal.  Aristocrats are seen all over the world and one cannot help but see a certain air about them that speaks to their superiority, whether done in pride or humility.  What gives them this so called “edge” that they can walk as such amongst us?  We have had enough scandals brought to the light to know that the title does not make the man or woman.  Grievously disappointed in royalty, the world has lost respect and is waiting in vain for any of them to live up to the standard of the title of “Royalty”.  Whenever we want to know the true essence of something, we have to go to its inception or source.  I think you know where I am going with this.  There is only one King of kings, and so it is to Him we look, and find not only our pattern, but inspiration, as we are called and chosen to be a Royal Priesthood after the Order of Melchizedek.  Kingly Priests for such a time as this.

Staying with the theme that is upon His heart, which is Kingly authority, He says that to us keys are given. 

Matthew 16: 18 - 19

¹⁸ And I say also unto thee, That thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.

¹⁹ And I will give unto thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.

I thought about these keys and the idea came that we are too general with the keys of the Kingdom, as if we all get the same set of keys and that all are privy to these keys.  We are also too literal about them in the sense that we think we are getting these invisible keys in the spirit, grab them and start binding and loosing, opening and locking like crazy.  However, keys are symbolic of authority.  He could have said, “I give you the key of the Kingdom of God.”  After all, there is only one door.  But He said keys.  More than one.  Note, these keys are for binding and loosing, whereas our understanding of keys are for opening and locking. Once again, keys are symbolic. There are different keys given and so that in itself says to us that different keys are given at different levels.  This biding and loosing are specifically linked to authority.  Because what we bind and loose is the enemy. 

·         Binding in the Strong’s Concordance is G1210, meaning to be in bonds, or to knit or tie - think chains that bind.

·         Loosen in the Strong’s Concordance is G3089, meaning to break up, destroy and dissolve.

Those are some fighting words.  The keys in themselves are for putting our enemy in bonds and to destroy and dissolve them.  I believe there are many other keys, but these keys that Jesus are speaking of here, are specifically linked to authority.  Therefore we need to know by what means we get authority.  Do we get them because we are children of God or is there something more to it that asks of us to have a closer look?  And how many keys of this kind of authority are there?  We do not know.  But one key Father immediately pressed on my heart and confirmed, is the key of obedience.   Why of all the keys He could have given me, did He choose this key?  I cannot help but think of a quote from my mentor, Art Katz.

“Your authority is measured by whether you are total or partial in God.”

At the heart of authority lies authenticity.  Are you walking in obedience?  This is why the demons cried out to those men in Acts 19: 15 – 17, Jesus we know, and Paul we know, but who are ye?  They did not recognize their authority even when they invoked the Name above all names.  Have you asked why?  This key to obedience is crucial in authority.  We have all heard the saying, “partial obedience is disobedience.”  With obedience it is imperative that we have the ability to hear that still small voice of the Lord.  We are truly entering into the days where our dependence has to be on a moment by moment basis.  If we think we know how to do this “Christian thing” and that we have it all figured out, we are mistaken.  There is no shortage of opportunities out there to do much for the Lord, but the Spirit requires more of us.  To learn to wait on His timing and direction in all things.  In the unexpected moments to ask, “Why?”  Every moment a possible “burning bush” to turn aside like Moses to see.  If we do not know the ways of God and His characteristic way of speaking with His still small voice, knowing the Spirit, we will miss these burning bushes. 

The way of God is filled with seemingly contradictions and therefore it is important that we know His voice.  For instance, why would the Lord send a crow to feed Elijah and not a clean animal like a dove?  Why would He ask Hosea to marry an adulterous woman?  The apostles had to live in this moment by moment way, where an instruction or vision is received from the Lord to just go.  Pack up your bags and go.  They never knew when the next instructions would come, but they were living in that expectation and disposition.  

Acts 16: 7 - 14

⁶ Now when they had gone throughout Phrygia and the region of Galatia, and were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia,

⁷ After they were come to Mysia, they assayed to go into Bithynia: but the Spirit suffered them not.

⁸ And they passing by Mysia came down to Troas.

⁹ And a vision appeared to Paul in the night; There stood a man of Macedonia, and prayed him, saying, Come over into Macedonia, and help us.

¹⁰ And after he had seen the vision, immediately we endeavoured to go into Macedonia, assuredly gathering that the Lord had called us for to preach the gospel unto them.

¹¹ Therefore loosing from Troas, we came with a straight course to Samothracia, and the next day to Neapolis;

¹² And from thence to Philippi, which is the chief city of that part of Macedonia, and a colony: and we were in that city abiding certain days.

¹³ And on the sabbath we went out of the city by a river side, where prayer was wont to be made; and we sat down, and spake unto the women which resorted thither.

¹⁴ And a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple, of the city of Thyatira, which worshipped God, heard us: whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul.

Not every occasion promised to be a major event as Paul was sent to go to Macedonia, but ended up with women praying at a river, specifically Lydia, the woman selling purple.  Surely staying in Macedonia held the promise of a greater harvest of souls, and yet, God directed Paul to go to the river.  What would have been the consequences if he did not cultivate the ability to hear that still small voice of the Lord and decided on the basis of his calculations what would have been more profitable? 

The Bible Gateway Site has the following to say about this remarkable seller of purple: 

Lydia’s transformation of life was evidenced by her eagerness to give missionaries the hospitality of her fine home. Truth in her heart was manifested in kindness to each other—as they ought to be! “Be ye kind one to another.” First came Lydia’s faith, then the winning of her servants to Christ, then her love in gracious hospitality, and finally her reception of Paul and Silas into her home after their discharge from prison, bruised and battered though they were. She was not ashamed of the Lord’s prisoners (see 1 Timothy 5:10; Hebrews 13:2; 1 Peter 4:9). While benefiting from Lydia’s generous hospitality Paul warned all present of the terrible trials before them, and then parting from godly Lydia, praised God for all she had meant to him and his companions.

Father knew what was lying ahead for Paul and Silas and have made a way well in advance by the converting of this woman.  What about Jesus on His way to Samaria also with a great opportunity, but ending up only speaking to the woman at the well?  Is it possible that Father knew that the message of salvation coming from an adulterous woman rejected by society would have a greater impact on that city, than just one of the many “saviors” that have come to Jerusalem?  Also the fact that Jesus was Jewish and that Samaria was not to be entered by Jews?  Our ability to discern His voice is vital in this particular key of obedience. 

I want to add to this devotional a beautiful quote made by someone, unfortunately the author is unknown, but it sums up in poetic beauty my point.

In all the manifold single events, He never loses His outlook over the whole.

In all the great events, He never forgets the small matters.

In the universal history, never the personal life story.

In the course of centuries, never the happening of the seconds.

What to us seems insignificant and often earthbound is of great significance to the Lord from a heavenly and eternal perspective.  Every interaction, every move, every assignment of great eternal value.  To this we are called to be sons and daughters of obedience.  Because obedience, being different from discipline is that which is very characteristic of sonship.  We read in Hebrews 5: 8 the following.

Hebrews 5: 8

Although He was a Son, He learned obedience by what He suffered.

Discipline is for the teaching of obedience through suffering.  Obedience is taught, not caught.  In Hebrews 12 we read that if He does not discipline us then we are in fact illegitimate children.  So all our discipline form the foundation upon which obedience is built.  It is in discipline that the ear to hear is developed.  It is in discipline that discernment is cultivated.  It is in discipline that the disposition grows to trust and it is in discipline that His ways are taught to us.  There are no short cuts to this key of obedience.  Therefore, those who have come to this sonship, that is to say to maturity, obey for they have the ear that hears, they know His ways and they are trained by discipline.  And this obedience will not necessarily guarantee understanding.  Sometimes it will just not make sense and may contradict what you know or your current understanding.  But the ability to discern this, whether it is from God, yourself or the enemy comes from a life of discipline during which you have come under His Lordship.  Others may look on this and query your plans.  “Why did God change now?” or “why did it not happen as you said it would?”  Your obedience will cause others to question your ability to hear from the Lord, and it will often not be understood and be seen as contradictory to the Word.  The issue is not what people think, but what He thinks.  But do you know His still small voice in correlation to His ways?  Have you been disciplined in this kind of hearing and knowing?  Do you have an expectancy for Him to work in your life daily and moment by moment in this way?  The Spirit is looking for those who after they have received instructions or a word, to go.  Not only do they have the ability to receive such a word, but they have the disposition of a soldier, who obeys orders immediately.  He is seeking those workers with a disposition of subjection, obedience and a willing heart to go.  Are you living in such a way that your every occasion, your every interaction is God ordained?  From the parking lot, to your child, to your client?  From your vacation or your mundane job?  Whom do you serve and if you say God, are you listening with intent and are you obeying?  Moment by moment.  Are you still in ambivalence about whether something is from the Lord, yourself or the enemy?  Are you still questioning and walking as one uncertain, being double-minded?  Or are you sure footed, not allowing a moan to slip from your lips, whether it is cleaning the toilet or serving the beggar?  Are you placing great value on the more spiritual things in life than the secular and mundane?  Are you seeing the casual conversation with someone of no report as trivial compared to giving a prophetic word?  Are you still dividing your life between secular and sacred when in fact God is calling us to be a people of worship?  All is to be worship unto Him.  Unless we see and know that God places great significance in the great and small and not just the great, we stand the chance of missing His instruction about something that has eternal value.  What we are about is the Kingdom of God.  Unless you are trained up in this discipline, how will you recognize the moment of utmost importance when it comes to obey.  Why should it come unless you have been disciplined?   If you look down on the day of small beginnings, the mundane, the tedious and laborious, the healing process, the teaching process, long and painful, desiring for the end of it, how will you be sufficiently trained in His ways, being taught the wisdom of God to discern that moment when it comes?  It is in this discipline that you learn to recognize HIs voice and ways so that you move from the ambivalence of double-mindedness of whether something is from God or not.  You will walk in the knowing that you are one. 

Do you realize that the stakes are as high for you as it was for the disciples?  Do you see yourself as just another fish in a very big pond of Christians?  Or do you know that God majors in using the foolish, the insignificant and unapproved of man?  This is God’s ways to confound the wise.  I am a good example myself.  By the world’s standards just a homeschool mom with no qualifications to her name.  A nobody.  But, I am God’s nobody.  I am His and so are you.  Are you the world’s somebody?  Do you still crave their esteem?  Is it any wonder He is crushing you?

The Spirit of God is given to those given to this way of being, who are willing to go when sent, who listens.  The Spirit is given to those who obey.  He sends those whom He knows will obey.  And once they go, He pours out His Spirit. 

Acts 5: 32

³² And we are his witnesses of these things; and so is also the Holy Ghost, whom God hath given to them that obey him.

So that when they go as “Sent Ones” and address the forces of darkness, what is said of them will not be as was the case in Acts 19, which was Jesus we know and Paul we know, but who are you?  Rather, being the authentic thing in itself, they walk as Jesus, or as Paul says, “follow me as I follow Jesus”.  They can say, “satan has nothing in me and therefore he must flee!”  Our obedience is not just a means to an end in making us into the image of Christ, but to also stand in the authority of Christ.  We make a mistake to think that obedience was not crucial in the decision to go to the cross.  The cross was the sum of all His obediences.  Even so, we are called to walk in obedience now for we are called to walk as He walked, which is in obedience to the Father.  If we fail to see our discipline, our need for obedience now in the light of eternity, why do we think we will obey ultimately?  And why do we think that these keys of authority would be given to someone that is untrustworthy?  This is paramount to a child who has a father that is a high ranking officer in the army and says that by virtue of their family ties, he has the same authority.  It does not work that way in the natural, why do we think it will be so in the spiritual?  We have to remember that even though this is a spiritual conflict, it is fought on the ground rules based on our own walk of authenticity in obedience as our only credentials. This authority comes only by the means of the work of the cross in you.  The cross is where the enemy was defeated, and will also be the means by which we will defeat him.  It will not be because we say we have the keys.  These keys are spiritual and has to be discerned spiritually.

My daughter asked me yesterday what my devotional is about. 

“Kingdom Authority”, I said.   

“Oh, does everybody have it?”

“Yes, we all have, but we do not just get it.”

“How do we get it?” She asked

“Obedience”, I said.  To which she replied…

Darn it!

You see, even a child knows that it does not come cheaply.  None of this I am saying in order to put anyone down.  We need to understand that the enemy works according to a hierarchy and so does God.  He has set this purposely in order for us to function under our callings, gifts and offices under one Head, Jesus Christ.  When you show yourself faithful, obedient and true to Him, He will show Himself faithful and true to you.  You can expect instructions to go, for it is for this purpose that He has prepared you for.  And, as He promised, He will provide that which is needed when you are sent, especially His Spirit that He gives to those who obey.  It is easy for us at times to obey Him, but just to disillusion us, He will subject us to the authority of those we dislike and disapprove of, whether our husband, boss or pastor.  We are all willing to obey Him, after all, He is God and He is good and has loving motives, but man?  If we cannot be subject to one another, we fail to see how this subjection is the discipline that is key to the Body of Christ that is to work in unity during the end times.  He commands his blessing there where brothers dwell together in unity.  Each part in the Body forms an important function and part of the whole.  So that we do not have the attitude of “who do you think you are to tell me what to do?  Do you think you are the prophet or apostle of the hour?”  But rather submission that has not come cheaply, but through discipline, having the ear to hear, and the disposition to obey in the bond of love.  The Kingdom of God is at stake here and it is not about our own personal ministries or agendas.  It is about the Kingdom.  The Lord commands His blessing where brothers dwell in unity.  This unity is in love, but have you read 1 Corinthians 13 lately?  The Body will function corporately in the end days, because we will need each other desperately.  If you still pull up your nose when your husband asks you to do this smallest thing, you know the husband who does not give you the time of day?  Or your boss that seemingly does not know what he is talking about and treats you like garbage, then you fail to see the eternal value of what all your interactions are, the discipline He is teaching you and the consequent role you will have as Kings and Priests of the Most High.  Jesus said when His disciples asked Him who will be the greatest in heaven that He comes to them as one who serves.  You cannot rule and reign if you do not serve, especially those who least deserve it.  Might I add with a humble attitude as well?  This is not easy. How quick we are to grab those keys of authority to bind and loose without the corresponding reality in us.  Have we in our own lives bound and loosed that which He has told us by a life of obedience?  For our key of obedience to work is directly related to whether we are walking in obedience.  Authority is not given loosely in the Kingdom of God.  Authority is delegated and to those who have proven themselves faithful and trustworthy.  Authority is related directly to our obedience to the Ultimate Authority.  All authority is given, but not to all, and we would be foolish to think otherwise.   Kingdom authority is more than just the ability to bind and loose.  It is a subjection unto the Theocratic rule of God firstly in your own life and in all things, to be manifested as authority in the spirit.  Indeed, to obey is better than sacrifice.  Just like I spoke about Bootcamp and how once a Marine leaves the army, he remains a Marine, because what he has endured made him a new man, in the same way we as Kings and Priests of the Most High, having endured and been subject to suffering, persecution, labor, rejection and hardship as a mode of life, so we cannot see ourselves as mere men.  We are royalty, not by birth alone, but being sons and daughters we have learned obedience by what we suffered.  Not all can be Kings and Priests, simply because the word says in Revelation we are made into Kings and Priests.  Many are called, but few are chosen comes to mind.

We will one day lay down our crowns before Him who alone are worthy.  However the whole of creation is waiting and is in travail for the manifestation of the sons and daughters of God.  The world looks upon these Kings and Priests of God as useless, insignificant, a virus, and of no earthly value.  They look down on us and think we have the IQ of a bean and have nothing to add to this society except our foolish ideas of some “god” that apparently will come down and save us.  We are pathetic in their eyes?  Let me ask you…how do you see yourself?  Are you just a child of God?  Are you just a sinner saved by grace?  Are you just human and doing the best you can under your circumstances?  Are you just trying to be humble and serve where you can with the hope that you make it?  Do you see yourself as consecrated and holy?  Those who have endured the grueling hardship of God’s discipline, know that they are a new creation, made into the image of Christ Jesus, because they endured, they suffered and they died a million deaths for this very cause.  They are the manifested sons and daughters of God to whom the keys have been given to bind and loose the enemy.  They know who they are, not in pride and arrogance, but by virtue they bare within their bodies the markings of sharing in His suffering.  They are the called out ones, chosen and prepared for such a time as this.  And never have they been more ready to be sent out and display His glory and power, to establish His Kingdom and rule and reign as Kings and Priests of the Most High God!  They have just like Him worn the crown of thorns of suffering, before they could wear the crown of glory and authority. 

1 Corinthians 2: 15 - 16

¹⁵ But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself is judged of no man.

¹⁶ For who hath known the mind of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind of Christ.

 

I received a word from Father.

KNOW WHOSE YOU ARE

You are priests unto Me.  You are consecrated and set apart to come before Me, to behold Me.  To come as one invited by the King, to hear, to listen, to speak what I give you.  My messengers.  You are My Child.  The Sons and Daughters of the Most High God.  Mine.

Do not forget whose you are.  For I have chosen you and called you by name.  I have set you apart.  A chosen generation.  Chosen for My purposes, prepared by Me for this time.  So do not look at your worth from the basis of what you do, but Whose you are. 

Soon it will begin and I will manifest My Sons and Daughters for all to see.  Mighty in their Father.  A royal priesthood called out by Me, for Me and unto Me.  Look to Me and know that I will soon display My power through My vessels.  Vessels forged by fire and therefore, expect fire!  For I will purge this earth with fire, yea even the fire from out of your mouths.  Eye have not seen, nor ear heard what I have prepared for My chosen ones.

Therefore they are consecrated, sanctified and holy.  Do not walk as mere men, but know to Whom you belong.  In humility and weakness I am your strength, and because I am your strength, do not fear what man or beast can do.

I AM is in the midst of you.  As Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, I AM is in your midst and the fire will not burn you.  Have I not said that I will send out My fiery ones?  Therefore, know that I stand ready to send you out My fiery ones to go forth in judgment and to subdue.  No weapon formed against you will prosper. Be bold, be courageous, for I have given you every place you set your feet upon. 

Know Whose you are and take courage. 

I AM in your midst.