Sermon Central
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Authority Of The Believer ( See The Spiritual)
Contributed by Larry Elder on Jul 12, 2003 (message contributor)
Summary: We often see the world only through the eyes of the physical and miss all that God is doing through the spiritual
Authority of the Believer
(See the Spiritual)
The only authority Jesus had was through the Father instructions and the Holy Spirits Power:
Text:
John 5:19-20…Jesus gave them this answer: "I tell you the truth, the Son can do nothing by himself; he can do only what he sees his Father doing, because whatever the Father does the Son also does. For the Father loves the Son and shows him all he does. Yes, to your amazement he will show him even greater things than these.
By myself, I can do nothing; I judge only as I hear, and my judgment is just, for I seek not to please myself but him who sent me.
Jesus then passed this authority on to us:
John 14:20… On that day, you will realize that I am in my Father, and you are in me, and I am in you.
Paul wrote about this in:
Eph 1:17-19
I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.
I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints, and his incomparably great power for us who believe.
Illustration: Liza
• Mid teens
• Raised in a Christian home
• Fascinated by a heavy metal rock group
• Invited to go back stage for the wild party of sex and drugs
• Rebelling against God and parents she decide to go
• An older woman who identified herself as a witch, who said, “No Christians are allowed back stage after a concert”, stopped her at the back stage entrance.
• Liza asked how do you know I am a Christian
• The witch said, “I can feel and see your power:
When Jesus had called the Twelve together, he gave them power and authority to drive out all demons and to cure diseases, and he sent them out to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick.
Before Jesus gave the authority, the disciples could not deal in the spiritual world with power. After Jesus issued this command, the unseen spiritual world came under their authority.
1. CHRISTIANS MUST USE IT OR LOSE IT:
Jesus was committed to the fathers will. He was fully aware of the importance of being in full obedience to the father.
John 4:34…"My food," said Jesus "is to do the will of him who sent me and to finish his work.
Jesus was born of the father in Heaven through the miracle of a virgin birth. Still he laid all of his godly power aside and was fully man.
All he did he accomplished through the father and the Holy Spirit.
Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be unto you: as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you
We have the same supernatural power the Jesus used. The supernatural power intrigues us so we study the feeding of the thousands, walking on the water, the healing of the blind.
We long to have such dynamic effects on the world.
Bold statement…When we are prepared to be to Jesus what Jesus was to the father than Jesus is willing to be toward us what the father was to Him.
The power is already available and given, we lack the disciplines to use it.
Jesus received the power from the father, we receive it from Him
I can of mine own self do nothing:
2. Two worlds = Spiritual and physical/natural
• Jesus saw both worlds through faith
• We see one world through knowledge
• We live in defeat and accept it a normal
• Jesus lived in victory and accepted it as normal
Example… Feeding of the 5,000
Jesus seeing both worlds:
When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward him, he said to Philip, "Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?"
He asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do.
Philip failed the test
John 6:7 …Philip answered him, "Eight months’ wages would not buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!
Philip saw only one world, one way, one path the natural physical world, then Jesus stepped into the spiritual world and fed a multitude of people from a boy’s lunch
We fail the test also when we base our activity on what we have heard or know in the natural body. We are often too busy to hear from the Lord and see the spiritual world all around us.
