Hi how are you all today? Hope your week was good. Mine was. My husband and I went up into the mountains near us and had a great couple of days. It was cold but doesn’t snow near me.
This week I want to look at the statement who gave you authority. In our Christian walk, people sometimes ask us how come God let coronavirus in or how come all those people died in that natural disaster? How come God didn’t intervene?
To find out the answers to all that, let’s go back to the book of Genesis. We know from chapter one, that God created everything and at the end of every day He saw what He had made and said it was good. On the sixth day He created man. In verse 28 of chapter 1, God blessed man and told him to subdue the earth and have dominion over every living thing on the earth (except other mankind). What did God give Adam- authority over the earth itself and all that lived on the earth. This means Adam could command the camels to come and they would have to obey.
But then something happened. To find out what it was, we need to go to chapter 3. Verse 1 starts the story of the fall and temptation of man. Adam was told not to eat of the fruit of only one tree in the whole garden. There must have been thousands of trees. He obviously had told this to Eve as she knew the commandment. She just added bits that God had never said when responding to Satan. In the end they both ate of the fruit of the forbidden tree. Then their eyes were opened to know both good and evil. They had only known good before. Now they knew evil.
God came looking for them even though He knew what they had done. God cursed the serpent, then He cursed Eve and then He spoke to Adam. God said that cursed was the ground in verse 17. Hang on, Adam was given dominion over the earth in chapter 1 and now it had been taken from him. The one who tempted now had the dominion over the earth. Satan stole it from Adam by deception. He now has dominion over the earth.
So is this the end of the story. No! This is why Jesus came. But let’s backtrack a little first. When Jesus was being tempted by the devil in Matthew chapter 4, one of the temptations dealt with authority. In verses 8 and 9, Satan took Jesus up a high mountain where they looked at all the kingdoms of the world and their glory. Satan told Jesus I will give you these if you bow down and worship me. Of course Jesus didn’t. But Satan could not give away what he didn’t have.
Let’s go to Matthew 28 verse 18. Jesus said all authority has been given to Him in heaven and earth. Then in Mark 16:17, Jesus said we can do things in His name. This means that the authority Jesus was given is given to us if we use His name. This is exciting. Healing comes when we use the Name of Jesus, protection comes when we use the Name of Jesus and demons will flee when we use the Name of Jesus.
Does Satan still have authority? Yes but only over those ones who haven’t given their lives to Jesus. This is the good new of the gospel. When we give our lives to Jesus, not only are we promised eternal life but we are given the name of Jesus to defeat the enemy here on earth.
So, who gave you the authority? Jesus did and that makes my heart sing. I hope it makes your heart sing too.
Have a great week and keep living the life God intended for you.
Bless you heaps
Karen
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