Understanding Spiritual Authority

God has given every believer access to power and authority, the right to use legitimate power within the context of His will. Dr. Tony Evans talks about why the Lord offers us something that amazing. He wants you to see the power that reverses things, that can take things that are dead and make them alive, take things that are bad and make them good. This is The Alternative with Dr. Tony Evans, author, speaker, senior pastor of Oak Cliff Bible Fellowship in Dallas, Texas, and president of The Urban Alternative. Having access to God's power is one thing.

Putting it to work in our lives is another. Let's turn to Ephesians chapter 1, as Dr. Evans explains why the difference between the two comes down to understanding and then exercising our spiritual authority. Our series has been called, is called Igniting Kingdom Prayer, and the purpose of this series is connecting you with your authority, with your spiritually endowed authority granted to you by God if you are a believer in Jesus Christ. But for far too many of us, we do not see clearly because we do not understand that it is our shaded view that's keeping us from experiencing what God offers. God wants you and me to have kingdom authority.

Kingdom authority is the divinely authorized right and responsibility that's been delegated to believers to act on God's behalf in spiritually ruling over his creation underneath the lordship of Jesus Christ. In verses 15 to 18, Paul prays that they will apprehend what they have. He says in verse 17 that God will give you a spirit of wisdom, a spirit of revelation. He prays in verse 18 that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened.

All that means is so that you start seeing things as they really are and not as you think they are. He wants God to clarify, so I want you to whisper in your mind or with your lips as I'm speaking to you today, I simply want you to ask God to help you see that the eyes of your heart might be illuminated to see clearly what this authority that you possess I possess, we possess as believers. In fact, he uses an interesting word in the end of verse 18, which are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints. So I'm here to declare to you, you are rich. He says I want you to understand how rich you are in the spiritual realm that you have inherited by virtue of your faith in Jesus Christ. There is not a poor person here spiritually as far as your inheritance is concerned.

So if we are spiritually poor, we don't know how to withdraw because he says I want you to see how rich you are spiritually speaking. A college student one day called his mom and said, Mom, I'm running out of money before it's time for me to come home for the break. I'm running out of money.

Mama, please send me some money. He received a package in the mail. It was a Bible.

It was with a note. It said, Son, pray and read your Bible. He called her up. He said, Mama, I know you love the Lord and all that, but I need some money.

Before spring break, I'm a run out. She said, Son, pray and read your Bible. He got frustrated and called her back. Mama, please, let's get practical. I'm in a situation. I need you to send me some money. She said, Boy, I told you, pray and read your Bible.

A few weeks later, he came home mad at his mother. I called you because I was in a practical need. You sent me the Bible with a letter, pray and read your Bible. She said, Did you pray and read your Bible? He said, Yeah, I prayed and read my Bible, but that didn't address my real need. She said, Give me your Bible. He gave her the Bible that she sent to him. She opened up the Bible to the Psalms.

There was five $100 bills in the Psalms. Boy, you didn't pray and read your Bible because if you would have prayed and read your Bible, you would have understood there's more in there than you could ever imagine. What God wants you to know, me to know and us to know that there is more in there to be experienced, not just to be held in your hand, but to be experienced.

He says, I pray that your eyes might be enlightened. But our problem is we've got fog on our glasses. It's like pesticides being put on fruit and vegetables, producing another kind of problem, no matter how good it tastes. Many of us have put pesticide on what God has for us and it's contaminated it. That pesticide is called human wisdom.

That is man's point of view, the human way to go, the natural way to think. And we have sprinkled pesticide on God's organic truth and wonder why we're spiritually sick, even though we're still chewing on the Word. Now, having established what he's praying for, what you and I should be praying for, clear glasses so that we can see, he goes a little bit further. What does he want us to see?

Well, he says, verse 19, what is the surpassing greatness of his power toward us who bleed? So guess what he wants you to see? He wants you to see his power.

He wants you not to talk about it, brag about it. He wants you to see it. He says, God wants to show you his muscles. God wants to show you his potency. God wants you to experience his power.

Well, how big is this power? Well, he tells you, which, verse 20, he brought about in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in heavenly places, far above rule, authority, power, and dominion, every name that is named, not only in this age, but in the age to come. Wow. He wants you to experience, here it is, resurrection power. He says it's the power that raised Christ from the dead. Resurrection power demonstrates a reversal of fortune. If you're dead one day, and if you're alive two days later, that's a reversal of fortune.

That's a 180 degree turn from how things were and how things are. What kind of power does God want you to see? He wants you to see the power that reverses things, that can take things that are dead and make them alive, take things that are bad and make them good, take defeat and make victory, take loss and wind up with gain. He wants you to see, watch this, that he can change the natural order of things. Resurrection is changing the natural order of things. Now, that's going to happen to you and me physically like it happened to Jesus when we're given our new bodies at the resurrection. But he's not talking about when believers die, he's talking about why we're still alive. He says, I want you to see it now. I want you to put on glasses so that you get to see resurrection power.

Now, let's go a little deeper. When he raised Jesus from the dead, it says that Jesus being raised, seated him at his right hand in heavenly places. Jesus rose on Sunday, then he ascended 40 days later through the clouds into heaven where he sat down.

Now, you sit down when you finish something. The Bible says he sat down on the right hand of the Father. The Father's right hand is his power hand.

When the Bible talks about the right hand of God, it's talking about his power. So he sat in the seat of power. Hebrews calls it the throne. So he's sitting in a powerful seat on a powerful throne because he's a powerful person. So now, the reversal of fortune from Friday to Sunday led to the ascension, which led to him being seated on a throne. Who sits on a throne? A king sits on a throne. So Jesus Christ is ruling.

Stay with me here. Jesus Christ is in a ruling position, having experienced the physical resurrection from the dead. But where exactly is this throne?

He tells you. He says this throne is located in heavenly places. Heavenly places is a euphemism for the spiritual realm. When the Bible says heavenly places, it's talking about the spiritual realm.

Paul uses this phrase a lot in Ephesians. In 1-3, he says your blessings are in the spiritual realm. He says here, Jesus is seated in the spiritual realm.

We're going to look in a moment at chapter 2 verse 6. We are in the spiritual realm. He says in chapter 3 verse 10, the angels are in the spiritual realm. And then he says in chapter 6 verse 12, the devil and his demons are in the spiritual realm. In heavenly places. He used heavenly places. So when you hear the phrase heavenly places, think about the spiritual realm.

So follow this. Jesus Christ is now seated in the spiritual realm, ruling on a throne. Jesus Christ, having risen, ascended, is seated on a ruling throne in the spiritual realm. He's not seated in the physical realm where you and I are today. He is seated very much alive in the spiritual realm called heavenly places. But what is he doing in that spiritual realm? He's ruling because he's seated on a throne. So he wants your eyes to be open that you got this wealth available to you to experience his power, and that power is demonstrated in the person of Christ, Hebrews chapter 2 verse 14, which says that in Jesus's death and resurrection, Satan was defeated.

So let's get this straight. You cannot now be defeated by Satan unless he's allowed to do it. And he does it now by deception because Jesus took away his fangs.

The Bible says he took away the power of death. So Satan now must trick us to defeat us. He can't just overpower us to defeat us if you're a believer in Jesus Christ.

He's got to dupe you. That's why he wants your eyes, my eyes, to be open, that Satan is now under Jesus's feet. We'll find out how Jesus' victory over the devil gives him the resources to assure our victory when Dr. Evans comes right back with more of this lesson from his powerful series, Igniting Kingdom Prayer. As we've been learning, kingdom prayer isn't just any prayer. It starts with understanding God's comprehensive authority over every area of life.

This series will help you get your mind around that idea and connect you with the power available when you make the Lord's agenda your first priority. We'd like to send you this two-volume collection of all 12 full-length messages on CD or digital download as our way of saying thank you when you make a donation to help us keep Tony's teaching on this station. Get a copy today when you visit tonyevans.org or call us at 1-800-800-3222. Our resource request line is open 24-7, so there's no need to wait.

Again, that's 1-800-800-3222 or online at tonyevans.org. Dr. Evans will bring us part two of today's lesson right after this. I'm standing here in Alaska, one of the most glorious places in God's great creation, and I want to invite you to join me and our Urban Alternative family for the Alaskan Cruise. We're going to have a magnificent time in God's Word and in God's creation. We're going to enjoy great fellowship, great fun, great food, and I'm looking forward to meeting and greeting you on our TUA Alaskan Cruise. Register to be there.

Can't wait to be with you. To find out more about this unforgettable Alaskan Cruise, visit tonyevans.org today. That's tonyevans.org. If you got a bank account with a lot of stuff in it, it'd be nice to know you got a deposit and that you have the power of withdrawal. God has given every believer access to power and authority, the right to use legitimate power within the context of his will. Jesus sits in heaven to authorize it, and he has now given you and me, watch this, watch this, it's coming home, and all access pass.

You know, you go to certain places, you can only sit certain places, you can't go backstage, that is unless you have an all-access pass. So what God has given you and me is an all-access pass. Look at chapter 2 verse 6.

I'm going to read verse 4 to 6. But God, being rich in mercy, because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ. By grace have you been saved, and raised us up with him, and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Did you just see what I just read? Were your eyes open?

I don't believe it, I don't believe it, I got to read it again. But God, being rich in mercy, because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ. By grace have you been saved, and raised us up with him, and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus.

So guess what? Jesus is not the only one in heaven. Somebody is with him, together with him. Not only are there folks with him, and together with him, they are seated beside him. He says you have been relocated spiritually, even though you are physically located right here, right now in church. He says because if you are saved, you died with him, were raised with him, were seated with him in the heavenly places.

So here's the problem. If you are seated with him in heavenly places, but you're operating from earthly places, then you're functioning from the wrong location. So how do you get to experience this?

Here it is. Notice verse 22. And he put all things in subjection under his feet, and gave him his head of all things to the church, which is his body, the fullness of him who fills all in all.

You will not see the connection open up and the screen come on, up there in heavenly places where you are, down here on earthly places where you sit, unless you are under Jesus' feet. That means under his authority. You and I must settle one issue, and the one issue that must be settled is the lordship of Jesus Christ over every area of life.

That issue must get settled. When you trust Christ for the forgiveness of sins, you're now on your way to heaven. But when you submit to the lordship or the rulership of Jesus Christ over every area of your life, that's when heaven can visit you.

And heaven will not visit you if you're not under his feet until he is master, ruler, final decision maker, dictator, meaning you're under his foot, unless you are willing to say yes, Lord, to his authority, unless you and I are willing to say I am not my own, I've been bought with a price. We will not see his authority being manifested in our experience. We won't see his power.

We won't see change. See, because that, look, the way you know that this Christian thing is working is God demonstrates his power. See, when Jesus was on earth, how did they know he was the Messiah? Because of his powerful demonstrations. So if you really want to know how real he is, plug into his power. But you can't plug into his power unless you're under his foot. You've got to be under his authority. In other words, he must have the right to veto you.

He must have the right to overrule you. He must have the right to consume you because he died and rose to be Lord, not just to be Savior. He died and rose to take you to heaven, but also rule you on earth. And if you want to see his rule on earth, then he must be Lord over all of life. Now, if I am Lord, that means final say-so, veto power, and then when it comes time for me to do something, I don't have to go far since you're sitting next to me.

I can just turn. Because you're already sitting next to me in the spiritual realm. But if you're not operating from that realm, you don't even hear him talking. You don't see the riches. You don't experience the power. And Jesus just becomes a religious experience that encourages you, that inspires you, but you never see the authority.

But I will tell you this, there's nothing like seeing it. Because when he shows up and you get to see it, and you get to say, whoa, I just saw God do a switch on me. I just saw God take something dead and raise it from the grave.

I just saw that. I was dying in this situation, dying with this problem, dying with the resources, and I just saw God flip the natural order of things. See, then you won't have to lean on somebody else's testimony because you'll be able to say, I've seen it with my own eyes. Dr. Evans will come back in a moment with a closing thought about why we might want to reconsider a word Christians use pretty often. First, though, today's message is called Understanding Spiritual Authority, and it's available as a part of Tony's current series, Igniting Kingdom Prayer. There are 12 messages in this two-volume collection, packed with material we won't have time to bring you on the air, and that yours is our thank-you gift when you make a contribution to help support this ministry. There's no way we can continue this broadcast without the faithfulness of listeners like you, and we truly appreciate your partnership in what we do. Just visit tonyevans.org to get the details and make the arrangements, or call us at 1-800-800-3222, and one of our helpful team members will assist in getting this special package headed your way.

Again, that's tonyevans.org, or by phone at 1-800-800-3222. The Bible tells us one of the attributes of God's Holy Spirit living and operating inside of us is kindness, and that's something we can never have too much of. Share a kind word or gesture with someone today as you seek to carry God's light to a world in need of His love. Tomorrow, it's one of those things Christians do but don't always understand. I'm talking about wrapping up a prayer with the words in Jesus' name. Join Dr. Evans as he talks about connecting with the power in that name when we use it the way God intended.

To wrap up today's message, though, he's back with this final thought. So right now, in closing, I want to switch a word. I want to switch a word. I want to change out a word. Now, the word I want to change out is a great word.

It's a good word, but it's a problem word, but it's a natural word. The word I want to switch out is the word commitment. See, we call on people to make a commitment.

There's a problem with a good word. The problem with the word commitment is you're still in control. See, when you make a commitment, you're in control, like we committed to lose the weight we gained over Christmas. We committed. We committed.

I'm going on a diet, and I'm going to lose that weight. We committed to start working out. We just committed. We committed. We committed to read our Bible every day or to pray more, and we were so sincere when we made those commitments. I'm telling you, we were so sincere, but then life happened and distractions happened, and our commitment began to wane, not because we weren't sincere, but we were in control. And when the control got weak, the commitment got weak.

So what do we do? We walk the aisle and commit, then we recommit. Then we recommit the recommitment we made when we committed because commitment is tied to our control.

So I want to switch the word out. I want to switch the word out from commitment to surrender. See, because when you surrender, somebody else is in control. Somebody else is calling the shots.

So commitment is a great word, but we get shaky with commitment. So let's go to surrender so that it's not up to us. It's whatever you say, boss.

You the boss, man, whatever you say. Yes, sir, I surrender. I hold up my hands because you're the authority because now it doesn't depend on my commitment. It depends on my obedience to the authority who's telling me what to do. So I surrender. And once you surrender, Heaven wakes up and say, we got one, we got one who's ready to see my power and my authority. The Alternative with Dr. Tony Evans is brought to you by the Urban Alternative and is made possible by the generous contributions of listeners like you.