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 though and put in charge.
That was God’s original intent, that we reign and rule with His authority. But it didn’t take long before we handed the keys over to Satan in The Fall.
Just before Christ went to the cross, Jesus called Satan "the prince of this dark world", a position in which this fallen angel reigns and rules and has some kind of authority. The cross is much more than forgiveness. It is how Christ gets the keys of authority back.
After getting the keys back … the resurrected Redeemer of mankind and the whole story does one of the wildest things… He says, “All power and authority are now given to me …”
Where was it?
Adam and Eve gave it away, Satan entered the garden to steal, kill, and destroy, and so ... Jesus remedied all of that and got the keys of authority back.
So... the King of kings does the wildest thing. He shares his power and authority with us, again! This time with a new twist. Jesus invites us to “live loved and to go and make followers," … by loving others to Life … giving us the power and authority to do so and exercise our position over the enemy that once held power over you and me. Essentially Jesus is saying, "live free … reign and rule in my name.”
It gets better.
The chapters yet to come in our story, the ones held in the book of Revelation, tell of a time when we get even more back, 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 are ourselves. 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 once and for all 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 and around 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 currently 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 with power and authority ... are we?
Behold! I have given you authority and power to trample upon serpents and scorpions, and [physical and mental strength and ability] over all the power that the enemy [possesses]; and nothing shall in any way harm you. - Luke 10:19 (AMP)
The Daily Prayer - Paragraph 3
Heavenly Father, thank you for loving me and choosing me before you made the world[3]. You are my true Father – my Creator, my Redeemer, my Sustainer and the true end of all things, including my life. I love you, I trust you, I worship you. Thank you for proving your love for me by sending your only Son, Jesus, to be my substitute and representative.[4] I open up my life anew to all of his Life and all his work, which you ordained for me.[5] Thank you for including me in Christ,[6] for forgiving me my sins, [7]for granting me his righteousness, [8]for making me complete in him.[9] Thank you for making me alive with Christ[10], raising me with him,[11] seating me with him at your right hand,[12] granting me his authority[13] and anointing me with your Holy Spirit.[14] I receive it all with thanks and give it total claim to my life.
An excerpt from The Daily Prayer Memory Verse Cards.
