JULY 2010

“KNOWING YOUR AUTHORITY IN CHRIST JESUS”

As we get into this devotional, let’s look at the acronyms ADP which will stand for Authority, Dominion and Power and not the poplar payroll company that many of us are familiar with.  I want to encourage you this month to know that Jesus paid the price on the cross of Calvary for us as His body to walk in these areas the way He intended for us in the Garden of Eden. 

Some of us as believers in the Lord Jesus Christ are living beneath our privileges as a blood brought child of God.  We are living defeated lives in the earth when we don’t have to.  In the book of Genesis when God created mankind He gave them Dominion and Authority in the earth.  However, once man sinned that interrupted that authority that man had (the original way God intended man to live).  But thanks be to God, He had a plan not only to redeem us after the fall but to give us back the authority that He originally gave us in the Garden.

We will start by looking in the New Testament then reverting back to the Old as we look at the acronyms ADP. 

·         AUTHORITY - Luke 9:1-2 (Amplified Bible)

1 Then Jesus called together the Twelve [apostles] and gave them power and authority over all demons, and to cure diseases.  ²And He sent them out to announce and preach the kingdom of God and to bring healing.

·         DOMINION - Genesis 1:26-28 (Amplified Bible)

²⁶God said, Let Us [Father, Son, and Holy Spirit] make mankind in Our image, after Our likeness, and let them have complete authority over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, the [tame] beasts, and over all of the earth, and over everything that creeps upon the earth.^(A)

²⁷So God created man in His own image, in the image and likeness of God He created him;   male and female He created them.       

²⁸And God blessed them and said to them, Be fruitful, multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it  [using all its vast resources in the service of God and man]; and have dominion over the fish of the sea, the birds of the air, and over every living creature that moves upon the earth. 

Psalm 8:4-8 (Amplified Bible)

⁴What is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of [earthborn] man that You care for him?

⁵Yet You have made him but a little lower than God [or heavenly beings], and You have crowned him with glory and honor.

⁶You made him to have dominion over the works of Your hands; You have put all things under his feet:^(A)

            ⁷All sheep and oxen, yes, and the beasts of the field,

 ⁸The birds of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatever passes along the paths of the   seas

·         POWER – Luke 10:19 (Amplified Bible)

¹⁹Behold! 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.

⁷For God did not give us a spirit of timidity (of cowardice, of craven and cringing and fawning fear), but [He has given us a spirit] of power and of love and of calm and well-balanced mind and discipline and self-control.               

                Acts 1:8 (Amplified Bible)

⁸But you shall receive power (ability, efficiency, and might) when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you shall be My witnesses in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria and to the ends (the very bounds) of the earth.

In closing, I would like to encourage us to get into the Word of God which is part of our Armor of God (Sword of the Spirit – Ephesians 6:17 and Hebrews 4:12) and know who we are and what God has graciously purchased for us on the cross of Calvary.  In order to exercise our Authority in Christ, we have to first know that we have His Authority.  Once we know that we have it we must allow God’s Spirit (The Holy Spirit) to be strong in us and teach us how to walk in the Authority of Jesus

Don’t be defeated any longer, Know your Authority in Christ Jesus!