The Believer's Authority - Delegated Authority (Daily Devotional)

Greetings and thank you for joining us today to spend time together in the word and prayer. This week, we will be talking about the believer's authority. This is a familiar topic for some of us who've been at All People's Church. We've spoken about this very often, but it is important for us to remind ourselves of some of the essential teaching of scripture so that we are continually inspired to keep walking in it day to-day and applying it in life situations that we keep facing. This week, we are going to focus on talking about the believer's authority. I want to start with the scripture text in Matthew chapter 10, verses 1 and 2, it says, ‘when He called His 12 disciples to him, He gave them power over unclean spirits to cast them out and to heal all kinds of sicknesses and all kinds of diseases.’ And then it lists the names of these apostles. Now what is interesting is this that when the Lord Jesus was walking on the earth, He demonstrated authority over situations: over the winds, the waves and the things that people did. He also demonstrated authority over demonic spirits and what the devil did: sicknesses, diseases and oppressing people and all those kinds of things. Jesus walked in that authority, but what we notice in scripture in the gospels is that Jesus called His 12 disciples and He gave them authority. So, we call this delegated authority, the authority that He had, He said, "I'm giving it to you now, you go and do the same things." He gave them authority to cast out all unclean spirits and to heal all kinds of sickness and all kinds of disease. Now, He didn't just do this for the 12. In the 10th chapter of the gospel of Luke, we find that Jesus calls another 70. We don't know who these other 70 people are, that's a big number and He gives them authority the same way He did to the 12. So, this delegated authority was not exclusive to the twelve apostles, it was extended to the 70. And what is interesting is in the gospels we see somebody who was not part of the 12, was not part of the 70, but the gospel writer Mark, he records this in Mark chapter 9. There's one unnamed disciple or a person who believed in Jesus, who followed Jesus, who also was exercising that kind of authority in healing the sick and casting out devils and so on. Before Jesus ascended into heaven, what did He commission the 12 to do or the early disciples to do? He said, "I want you to go make disciples of all nations and teach them to do the things that I have taught you." One of the things very clearly that Jesus taught His disciples was to walk in authority and that was to be handed on to all the generations of disciples that would come and that includes you and me. So, if we believe in the great commission which is the extension of what Jesus gave to the apostles on to us, then we must believe in delegated authority that you and I today can walk in that same authority that Jesus walked in which He delegated to the 12, then to the 70 and then on to us. You and I have been given delegated authority over the things we face and we must learn how to exercise it over the circumstances of life and over what the devil and his demons do. We have authority and that's what we're going to cover this week. Let's pray, Father, we ask that we will be inspired, that faith will arise in our hearts to walk in the authority that's been delegated to us, that's been given to us, over the situations of life that we face, over everything that the devil might come against us with, that we will exercise authority and command the devil to leave, command the devil to seize and desist in his works against us. We will walk in authority as believers, thank you, in Jesus’ name, Amen.
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Daily devotions to strengthen your faith each day. Daily Devotional for Spirit filled living. Each daily devotion is about five minutes in duration. These daily devotionals are centered around a weekly theme. So there are seven daily devotions that focus on the theme and bring you insight, understanding and revelation from the Bible. Each week's theme is listed as a series. So you can listen to the current week's devotions or go to any previous theme/series that speaks to your present need (https://apcwo.org/resources/daily-devotions ). Also available free sermons (https://apcwo.org/sermons), and free Christian books (https://apcwo.org/books) to nourish and strengthen your faith.