I saw Satan as lightning fall from heaven ~ Luke 10:18
Lest we forget in the midst of our trials and temptations ~ Satan, our enemy who seeks to destroy us, has been defeated by the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Jesus has spoiled principalities and powers.
As new creatures in Christ, we enter into a precious inheritance of the Saints. Children of a heavenly Father, living in a Kingdom of Light, life, and love, we are now free from the dominion of Satan and the power of sin.
Our ability to overcome negative circumstances hinge on our ability to rest in the work Jesus has finished. Our position in Christ is not only legal but must be vital.
Satan, evil spirits, demonic activity are constantly at work to blind the minds of those who believe not. We can’t operate from a place of victory while we live in a place of ignorance or unbelief. We must know and believe that we have the right to use the authority in the name of Jesus.
All authority has been given to us, to the church, which is the body of the Lord Jesus. Jesus is the head of the church and His body is here on earth to do His work and fulfill His purpose. It is not our power or our might. It is Jesus’ and we have been given the right to use His authority. We call this delegated authority, in other words, the right to use someone else’s authority.
Delegated authority takes all the pressure off of us to perform. Operating in it demands belief. Belief in His name and in His finished work. I use to stumble over how these unsaved twelve disciples, the other seventy, could operate with such great success in healing and deliverance until I understood it wasn’t by their own power or holiness that makes anyone free but faith in the name of Jesus. When they were unable to cast out the devil and asked Jesus why couldn’t we? He replied, because of your unbelief. It isn’t the prayer and fasting that creates power or faith. The prayer and fasting simply reveals any unbelief present in my heart.
These disciples went forth simply believing Jesus when he said Im giving you authority to operate in my name. You can do THESE things with my authority. This of course comes with boundaries and we must know what “these” things are that we have been given authority over.
Matthew 7 gives us the picture of those who consider themselves followers of Jesus, professing Lord. Lord. But Jesus saying, Depart from me I never knew you, you who work lawlessness. Verse 21 shows us the boundary here of “doing the will of the Father”. We would say deliverance and healing are the will of the Father and we would be correct; yet, there must be something to the method and timing of a matter that is important in all our doings.
Jesus showed us in John 5 the purpose for his authority was to establish righteous judgment and therefore He only did what he saw the Father do and said what He heard the Father say. These are boundaries we are to operate within. We are under authority and as such, must learn to wait for specific instructions.
The power lies in Jesus and His name and we have the right to use his name against all works of the enemy. We do not battle against flesh and blood. Our fight is not with people. It’s with the forces driving them. Influenced and hindered by the works of darkness, we can and must operate from a place of authority over the areas assigned to us and the people in our lives we steward.
His disciples embraced their work and went forth with great joy while He worked with them confirming His word with signs accompanying. These signs follow them that believe… In my name.