I. Recap & Intro.
A. Part I: Restructuring.
1. The Lord is restructuring our attitudes and lifestyles. Three primary areas:
a. Money & debt
b. Time & seasons
c. Family & community
2. He is using the Hammer of the Word- removing false supports (“…every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God.” (2 Cor 10:5)
3. It all starts in the mind, we must renew our minds. (Romans 12:2)
a. The Lord freed them from Egypt, but they still thought like slaves.
b. The could not renew their minds and as a result they died in the wilderness.
4. This is what the Lord is addressing now- the tendency to spend our Christian walk wandering in a spiritual wilderness. No longer being in the bondage of sin and death, but not experiencing the fullness of Christ either.
B. Part II: Exodus faith vs Conquering faith.
1. Our faith is meant to grow and mature as we walk with the Lord. (Rom 1:17)
2. We will always need God, but we have to take responsibility to kill some giants. We should grow from always praying for rescue and learn to pray for His strategy and His strength.
3. He has given us armor, but we have to put it on and stand against the evil one.
4. We must kill giants for future generations.
a. Even if your children are grown & flown, you still have an impact on their spiritual well being.
b. I personally know someone (not from TRC) who has recently gone through deliverance. When I asked if they noticed anything different after the session, they said that their child experienced healing from a longstanding medical condition. (Along w/personal freedom.)
c. Even if you have no children, you are setting the level of spiritual maturity for the community. You are setting the culture of the community.
C. Intro to Part III: Power & Authority.
1. Since we are talking about killing giants (getting free from bondage to debt, cycles of poverty and addiction, etc.) and taking new territory, we need to talk about the power and authority that we have.
a. What power do we have? What authority?
b. What battles are we supposed to fight? And how do we fight them?
2. If we don’t understand our power and authority, we tend to go to extremes: learned helplessness on the one hand and presumption on the other.
a. Learned helplessness: after continually facing negative outcomes you give up.
b. Ex: tried to quit drinking, smoking, getting out of debt, etc. and failed so give up.
c. Presumption: presuming to know the will of the Lord without asking Him & presuming power & authority that we don’t have.
d. Ex: not seeking the Lord for His will and strategy and jumping ahead.
3. So we have to understand the power and authority that we have been given and stay within the boundaries of scripture.
D. Important core value of TRC.
1. One of our Core Values at TRC is a dedication to become like Jesus by adopting His lifestyle as our own while giving one another the freedom to search the Word, allow the Spirit to renew our minds and integrate the Truth into our lives.
a. “In essentials unity, in non-essentials liberty, in all things charity (love).”
b. Our Vision Stmt: To become like Christ, hear & obey His voice & build His church using His design.”
c. Become, Hear, Obey, Build.
2. Jesus is the foundation of all that we believe and do. We build our theology and doctrineon what He has done.
3. TRC is meant to become an expression of the NT church that is compromised of
members from various denominational backgrounds.
4. TRC is not built on one ministry, spiritual gift or anointing. TRC is not simply a…
a. a deliverance church, a healing church, a missions church
b. a food pantry church, a speaking in tongues church, a worship church
c. a prophetic church, a teaching church, an apostolic church
5. TRC is a New Testament church that endeavors to continue the works of Jesus and the early church fathers and mothers. We are a ‘Full Gospel Church’, which means that we believe the Holy Spirit is still doing today everything we see Him doing in the NT.
6. This term “full gospel” is an adaption of Romans 15:19 “…in mighty signs and wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God, so that from Jerusalem and round about to Illyricum I have fully preached the gospel of Christ…”
7. We must remember that Jesus is “…the same yesterday, today and forever.” (Heb 13:8) The world has changed, but Jesus has not.
8. TRC is a church that takes the teachings and commands of Jesus literally and seriously. Therefore we will do all of these things as the Spirit leads, without making any of them our focus, because our focus is on Jesus and not just one or two gifts or ministries of the Spirit.
9. At TRC, we do minister in deliverance, in healing and in prophecy. We serve and support missions. We believe in tongues, in worship and in teaching that rightly divides the Word of Truth.
10. And if you personally do not agree that deliverance is for today, or that tongues are not for today, you are free to believe that without judgement or criticism. You are still welcome to worship with us and be part of the family.
11. I just ask that you do not reject a work or a gift of the Spirit out of fear, pride, a bad experience in the past, your reputation, what your friends think, etc.
12. In your belief, be careful not to commit the sin of the Pharisees in Matt 23:13
“But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in.”
II. Power & Authority.
A. Fighting in your own identity.
1. In MMA there is a concept called fighting in your own identity. A fighter can only win if they are fighting in their own identity. This means a fighter must first know their natural strengths and style. If they a striker, a grappler or a submission specialist, etc. they must lean into that.
a. Once a fighter knows their fighting identity, they fight from a place of rest.
b. They don’t overthink it, they don’t change and try something different, etc.
c. They trust their instinct and training and fight in their identity.
2. The other fighter knows this, so their strategy is to try to get them to fight outside of their identity. They will try to make them stop fighting like themself, try to get them out of rest and stop trusting in their instinct and training.
3. To do this they try to make them angry or afraid. If they can make them angry or afraid, they opponent will fight out of emotion and not identity.
a. If they get angry, they just start swinging away, wasting energy.
b. If they get afraid, they start defending themselves and praying for the bell.
4. Our enemy is using the same strategy against us. Except most of us are fighting from a deficit because we don’t know our fighting identity, so we’re stepping into the ring untrained against an adversary who has been fighting us since the Garden. And even if we do know our identity, too often we let the enemy makes us angry or afraid and after a while we stop fighting from our identity.
5. This is why it’s crucial to understand our power & authority. Are you tired of getting beat up by the enemy? Are you tired of being defensive or wasting energy and not knowing where to strike?
6. The scriptures that I share with you today are meant to reveal your spiritual fighting identity.
B. Definitions.
1. Luke 9:1&2 (Please turn here.)
1 Then He called His twelve disciples together and gave them power and authority over all demons, and to cure diseases. 2 He sent them to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick.
a. Power: Gr. dunamis, ability
b. Authority: Gr exousia, authority, the power of rule or government, the right to use our power or ability
c. “I have the authority to use my ability.”
2. NOTE: In our day, power & authority has been separated from preaching the gospel and yet biblically, they are connected.
a. Barna: 52% of American Protestants say they have a duty to share the faith.
b. Around 2-3% actually do.
c. I personally believe that one of the reasons we don’t see much power & authority is because we have failed to preach the gospel.
d. We still have power and authority- they are not contingent on preaching the gospel- but we have practiced them in the hardest the way the Lord intended us to.
C. Power.
1. Most of us understand authority, but we don’t know our spiritual power or ability. What power do we have? Power is the ability to do anything the Spirit leads you to do. Which as Jesus said, includes casting out demons, healing the sick, sharing the gospel. It also includes persevering through trials, subjugating the flesh, taking thoughts captive, etc.
a. Phil 4:13 “I can do all things through Christ Who strengthens me.”
b. “I can do” = ischyo, ‘weird power, overcome’; ‘strengthens me’= endunamo, ‘gives the ability’ (endunamo comes from dunamis)
2. If you are born again, you already have this power. It makes no difference whether you feel powerful or not. It makes no difference if you are angry or afraid. You have this power because Jesus gave it to you so that you could fight and overcome your enemy.
3. Whenever you feel powerless, remember that Jesus is the source of your power and ability and His power is without limit. We keep going to Him for strength and are filled with His power. True spiritual power does not come from education, influence or money. It only comes from Jesus.
a. Eph 6:10 “…be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.”
b. 2 Cor 4:7 “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us.”
c. 2 Cor 12:9 His power is made perfect in our weakness
4. We need to understand that Western Culture has deceived us into powerlessness. We have rejected the supernatural since the Enlightenment, we have an abundance of medicine and hospitals for our ailments and plethora of counselors and therapists to throw at demonic torment.
5. We have explained everything away and invented substitutes for the power and authority the Lord gave us. We’re playing it safe because we have these other things, but this is rebellion.
D. Key scriptures on power.
1. Acts 1:8 “But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
a. Was this just for those in the Upper Room? For the early church?
b. Acts 2:38&39
38 Then Peter said to them, “Repent, and let every one of you be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins; and you shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. 39 For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the Lord our God will call.”
2. 2 Tim 1:7 “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” (Power: dunamis) (fear: Gr. deilea, cowardice) When anxious thoughts come, phobias, fearful thoughts, this is what I say…
“Second Timothy 1:7 tells me that fear is a spirit, and I reject that spirit. God has given me power in the Name of Jesus through His Holy Spirit and I will focus my thoughts on the love of my Father and keep a sound mind.”
3. Col 2:10 “…you are complete in Him, who is the head of all principality and power.”
E. Analogy: The Company Card.
1. The Company Card.
a. Your boss calls you into his office & gives you an assignment.
b. Along with the assignment, He gives you a credit card and authorizes you to buy whatever you need to get it done.
c. You get started and realize that you need this and you need that to get it done.
d. But instead of using the company card and buying the things yourself, you repeatedly go back to your boss and ask him to buy them for you.
e. You waste time working up the nerve to ask, you waste time worrying that he will say no, or ask if you can find those things cheaper, etc.
f. Meanwhile your boss is thinking “Why don’t they just use the card to get that they need and get the job done?”
g. If you were to keep doing this, how long do you think your boss would keep you on that assignment?
2. Jesus is the boss and He has given us the assignment along with the ability and the authority to get the job done. Yet we keep asking Him to do the job for us.
7. Mark 16:15-18
15 And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. (the assignment) 16 He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned. 17 And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; 18 they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”
8. We have the power.
IV. Authority. (Exousia, the right to use our power.)
A. Chain of authority vs chain of command.
1. Chain of Command is a rigid structural accountability from leaders to staff in a top down manner. It is the structural map of an organization from the top down.
2. Chain of Authority is the flow of power in an organization. It determines what actions an individual is authorized to take. It is the actual power that is transferred by delegation from the top down.
3. I want to show the Chain of Authority from Father to Jesus and from Jesus to us.
B. Jesus received His authority from the Father.
1. Matt 11:27 “All things have been delivered to Me by My Father…”
2. John 3:35 “The Father loves the Son and has given all things into His hand…”
3. John 5:26&7
26 For as the Father has life in Himself, so He has granted the Son to have life in Himself, 27 and has given Him authority to execute judgment also, because He is the Son of Man.
4. John 17:1&2
“Jesus spoke these words, lifted up His eyes to heaven, and said: “Father, the hour has come. Glorify Your Son, that Your Son also may glorify You, 2 as You have given Him authority over all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as You have given Him.”
5. Ephesians 1:19-23 Paul prayed for the church that they would know…
19 …the exceeding greatness of His power (dunamis) toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power (the power of His dominion) 20 which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places, 21 far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come. 22 And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church, 23 which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.
C. We have received our authority from Jesus.
1. Luke 9:1&2 (To the 12)
1 Then He called His twelve disciples together and gave them power and authority over all demons, and to cure diseases. 2 He sent them to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick.
2. Luke 10:1 sent the 70 out to vs 9 they healed the sick, vs 17 “…even the demons are subject to us in Your name.”
a. Luke 10:19&20 (To the 70)
19 Behold, I give you the authority (exousia- the right) to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power (dunamis- ability) of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you. 20 Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven.”
3. Mark 16:15-18 (To all who believe in His name.)
15 And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature. 16 He who believes and is baptized will be saved; but he who does not believe will be condemned. 17 And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; 18 they will take up serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.”
a. Remember the connection between preaching the gospel & the exercise of power and authority.
b. Testimony of Eric LeBlanc in Quebec.
V. Closing.
A. This is your fighting identity.
1. “Jesus has given me power and authority to obey the Spirit and to stand against the evil one.”
2. The source of our power and authority comes from the Lord Jesus Christ Himself.
B. Putting it into practice.
1. Start exercising your power and authority in your mind.
a. Fears, anxieties, phobias, etc., even burdens, depression, overwhelm
b. Unforgiveness, bitterness, etc.
c. Here’s a tip to identify them: what thoughts immediately come into your mind when you sit down to pray? When you first wake up or try to sleep?
2. Follow the Lord’s example in Matthew 4 and counter the evil thoughts with the Word. (You may have to research the scriptures.)
a. Fear & anxiety, use 2 Tim 1:7
3. When you sit down to pray & read the Word, use your authority to forbid evil spirits from distracting you.
4. Extra credit: share the gospel with someone this week. (Not, “Can I pray for you?” which is a good lead in, but actually share the gospel.)
a. Gospel in two sentences: “Jesus, the innocent, was sacrificed for us, the guilty, so that we could have peace with God for eternity. Anyone who turns from their sin to follow Jesus will be given eternal life.”
C. Next week.
1. We can talk about our weapons and spheres of authority. (Dad’s and mom’s, etc.)
2. Start exerting power and authority over your mind because everything starts with how we think and perceive and what we believe to be true.
3. Don’t let the evil one make you stop fighting from your identity by making you angry or afraid.