I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you. - Luke 10:19
Authority exercised with humility, and obedience accepted with delight are the very lines along which our spirits live. - C.S. Lewis
Our original job description, the one handed to us by God in the garden, was to “reign and rule over creation.” We didn’t do the creating... that was done by the Trinity. We were handed the keys and put in charge.
That was God’s original intent, that we reign and rule with His authority.
It doesn’t take long before we hand the keys over to Satan in The Fall. Just before Christ goes to the cross, Jesus calls him the Prince of this Dark world, a position of reign and rule and authority. The cross is much more than forgiveness, it is how Christ goes gets the keys back.
Then… the resurrected Redeemer of the whole story says, “All power and authority are now given to me...” Where was it? Adam and Eve gave them away, Satan entered the garden to steal, kill and destroy... Jesus remedies all of that and gets the keys back.
Then, the King of kings does the wildest thing, He shares his power and authority with us again, this time to “live loved and to go and make followers… go in power over the enemy that once held power over you and live free… reign and rule in my name.”
The chapters yet to come in our story, the ones held in the book of Revelation tell of a time when we get the garden back and can freely eat of the Tree of Life again! John writes in Revelation 22:3-4,
No longer will there be any curse. The throne of God and of the Lamb will be in the city, and his servants will serve him. They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. There will be no more night. They will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, for the Lord God will give them light. And they will reign for ever and ever.
The only ones who underestimate our place in the story is us. Power and Authority rightly received and well wielded doesn’t make one prideful... on the contrary, it produces humility. True humility is having being given power and authority and position and using those things for others. It is an amazing story in which we live, in which we have our place, purpose and position and we must be given the tools, equipment and relationship in which to thrive.
Evil still exists in our story, for now. That is one of the main reasons there is a “second coming”, the final assault on Satan, the kingdom of darkness; when the enemies of God are defeated and the beginning of the Happily Ever After commences. For now, we have been given power and authority by Christ to trample our enemy... I wonder if you know truly how to wield it? What to say? How to say it? I wonder if you know what darkness is up to in your life?
If the answer is NO, then you might want to pick up The Heart of a Warrior. This story is not near as safe as many have been led to believe, why else would we need power and authority!?! We live in the in-between of Christ’s comings... in the hopeful for but not yet. We have been equipped and positioned to live full and abundant. Are we?