Understanding Spiritual Authority - Tony Evans Sermon

you see many of us the problem of us getting along with other people is our inability to get along with ourselves everything visible and physical is preceded by something invisible and spirit the consequences we are dealing with in our lives in our homes in our culture we are dealing with them because there is a gap between where God is and where we are he wants to know that you want him and not just wanted stuff see a lot of folk go to church to get God stuff but who don't want the God who gives it so if you're in distress don't let that drive you away draw you near when you get close and want to live for him want to please him want to honor him want to exalt him want to draw near to him then heaven opens up and he lets you find our series has been called it's called igniting kingdom prayer and the purpose of this series is connecting you with your authority with your spiritually endowed authority granted to you by God if you are a believer in Jesus Christ but for far too many of us we do not see clearly because we do not understand that it is our shaded view that's keeping us from experiencing what God offers God wants you and me to have Kingdom Authority Kingdom Authority may be defined as the divinely authorized right and responsibility delegated to believers to act on God's behalf in spiritually ruling over his creation under the lordship of Jesus Christ let me repeat that again Kingdom Authority is the divinely authorized right and responsibility that's been delegated to believers to act on God's vast and spiritually ruling over his creation underneath the lordship of Jesus Christ my purpose today is to clarify our sightline to clarify and hopefully help us to clean the glasses we're wearing and if necessary get new ones so that we see things clearly and therefore into prayer with spiritual authority in verses 15 to 18 Paul prays that they will apprehend what they have he says in verse 17 that God will give you a spirit of wisdom a spirit of revelation he prays in verse 18 that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened all that means is so that you start seeing things as they really are and not as you think they are he wants God to clarify so I want you to whisper in your mind or with your lips as I'm speaking to you today I simply want you to ask God to help you see that the eyes of your heart might be illuminated to see clearly what this authority that you possess I possess we possess as believers in fact he uses an interesting word in the end of verse 18 which are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the Saints so I'm here to declare to you you are rich he says I want you to understand how rich you are in the spiritual realm that you have inherited by virtue of your faith in Jesus Christ I know as a Christian your major concern is when you die you will wind up in the presence of the Lord however on your way there God wants you to know there are riches rights and privileges that you can benefit from on your way to your ultimate destination Paul says I don't want you to go to heaven to see how powerful heaven is I want you to be enlightened now about the rights and privileges that accrue to you and me and us based on our relationship with Jesus Christ what God wants you to know me to know and us to know that there is more in there to be experienced not just to be held in your hand but to a be experienced he says I pray that your eyes might be enlightened but our problem is we've got fargo in our glasses it's like pesticides being put on fruit and vegetables when you put the pesticides on the fruit and vegetables that which was designed to be organic has now become chemically induce producing another kind of problem no matter how good it tastes many of us have put pesticide on what God has for us and it's contaminated it that pesticide is called human wisdom that is man's point of view the human way to go the natural way to think and we have sprinkled pesticide on God's organic truth and wonder why we're spiritually sick even though we still chewing on the word because it's been contaminated by what the Bible calls the wisdom of man which nullifies the manifestation illumination and revelation of God he says I pray that your eyes would be open that you will become wise that you would become knowledgeable in an experiential way of what God wants to do because you already have the riches in fact he says in verse 1 chapter 1 verse 3 you've already been blessed with all spiritual blessings everything God is ever gonna do for you he's already deposited so you already have it now having established what he's praying for what you and I should be praying for clearer glasses so that we can see he goes a little bit further what does he want us to see well he says verse 19 what is their surpassing greatness of his power toward us who believe so guess what he wants you to see he wants you to see his power he wants you not to talk about it brag about it he wants you to see it he doesn't want you just saying God is omnipotent he wants you to see it he says that I'm praying that you'll see the surpassing greatness blow your mind power toward us who believe these are in accordance with the working of the strength of his might he says God wants to show you his muscles God wants to show you his potency God wants you to experience his power he wants you to see him show off his power demonstrate his power not just theologizing about his power well how big is this power well he tells you which verse 20 he brought about in Christ when he raised him from the dead and seated him at his right hand in heavenly places far above rule authority power and Dominion every name that is named not only in this age but in the age to come Wow guess what kind of power God wants you and me as believers if you are believer this applies to you to experience in your life he wants you to experience here it is resurrection power he wants you to see the power that reverses things that can take things that are dead and make them alive take things that are bad and make them good take defeat and make victory take loss and wind up with gains he wants you to see watch this that he can change the natural order of things resurrection is changing the natural order of things now that's going to happen to you and me physically like it happened to Jesus when we're given our new bodies at the resurrection but he's not talking about when believers die he's talking about why we're still alive he says I want you to see it now I want you to put on glasses so that you get to see resurrection power now let's go a little deeper when he raised Jesus from the dead it says that Jesus being raised seated him at his right hand in heavenly places Jesus rose on Sunday then he ascended 40 days later through the clouds into heaven where he sat down now you said you sit down when you finish something okay the Bible says he sat down on the right hand of the Father the father's right hand is his power hand okay when the Bible talks about the right hand of God it's talking about his power so he sat in the seat of power Hebrews calls it the throne so he's sitting in a powerful seat on a powerful throne because he's a powerful person so now the reversal of fortune from Friday to Sunday led to be Ascension which led to him being seated on a throne who sits on a throne a king sits on a throne so Jesus Christ is ruling stay with me here Jesus Christ is in a ruling position having experienced the physical resurrection from the dead but where exactly is this throne he tells you he says this throne is located in heavenly places heavenly places is a euphemism for the spiritual realm and he sits high above it says all rule and all authority don't miss that high above all rule and all authority well wait a minute that means he cannot be overruled because everything he rules over is underneath him because he sits high above ruling authority that's angels and every name that is named that's humans Jesus Christ is now ruling from heaven for the benefit of history and he cannot be overruled but he possesses veto power because why he can't be overruled any attempt to overrule him he can veto because he sits above them just like courts can veto other courts because they sit above them so he wants your eyes to be open that you got this wealth available to you to experience his power and that power is demonstrated in the person of Christ Hebrews chapter 2 verse 14 which says that ng his death and resurrection Satan was defeated so let's get this straight you cannot now be defeated by Satan unless he's allowed to do it and he does it now by deception because Jesus took away his fangs ok Bible says he took away the power of death so Satan L must trick us to defeat us he can't just overpowers to defeat us if you're a believer in Jesus Christ he's got to dupe you that's why he wants your eyes my eyes to be open that Satan is now under Jesus's feet I studied the Bible in college for four years and studied the Bible for four years better than his master's degree another 40 inevitable doctoral degree then I've been preaching all of these years and I'm still learning new things from this awesome inexhaustibility a little game that's why I'm so excited about the 2018 Study Bible and its accompanying works but Tony Evans Bible commentary it will take all of this training and this teaching and make it available to you to understand utilize and apply God's most powerful [Music] look at chapter two verse six I'm a reverse for six but God being Richard mercy because of his great love with which he loved us even when we were dead in our transgressions made us alive together with Christ by grace have you been saved and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus and did you just see what I just read were your eyes open I don't believe it I don't believe it I got to read it again but God being rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us even when we were dead in our transgressions made us alive together with Christ by grace you have been saved and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus so guess what Jesus is not the only one in heaven somebody's with him together with him not only are there folks with him and together with him they are seated beside him it says seated with him and they are together with him seated with him in the same location as him heavenly places heavenly places is the spiritual realm so guess what Paul is praying that you and I and we understand you here but you're not here he says you have been relocated spiritually even though you are physically located right here right now in church he says because if you are saved you die with him were raised with him were seated with him in the heavenly places so here's the problem if you are seeing it with him in heavenly places but you're operating from earthly places then you're functioning from the wrong location so the reason many of us are not seeing the power is we're operating from the wrong location we're seated in heaven because that's where the power is but we're operating on earth and there's no power there he says but if you learn to operate from where you are truly seated which is in heavenly places you're looking at things totally different because you're looking at it from God's perspective not from man's perspective he says you are seated with him authority works where Jesus Christ rules where his jurisdiction exists and we do it all the time don't they call it zoom teleconferencing see you can be in Dallas and be in a meeting in Chicago without ever leaving Dallas because technology has set it up that you can really be in Chicago and never leave Dallas because the way technology has happened is that connections are made between a place you aren't to put you there while you still aren't there so yeah it's a great Dallas but you're in the meeting in Chicago because technology has put you in two places at one time now before man ever created all this techy stuff God had a spiritual system in place to connect us from Earth to heaven without leaving your location and that spiritual connection point has every believer in heaven while they never leave the premises on earth the problem is we get so used to earth that we never connect the spiritual technology to heaven and wind up with the limitations of Earth and therefore don't see the authority and the power that God has granted believers to experience so why don't you get to experience this okay here it is notice verse 22 and he put all things in subjection under his feet and gave him his head of all things to the church which is his body the fullness of him who fills all in all here it is you will not see the connection open up in the screen come on up there in heavenly places where you are down here on earthly places where you sit unless you are under Jesus's feet you have to be under its feet God has placed all things under his Jesus's feet that means under his authority under his control under his rule and the one issue that must be settled is the lordship of Jesus Christ over every area of life that that issue must get settled when you trust Christ for the forgiveness of sins you're now on your way to heaven but when you submit to the lordship or the rulership of Jesus Christ over every area of your life that's when heaven can visit you and heaven will not visit you if you're not under his feet let me read to you right now Romans 14 about the lordship of Jesus Christ here's what it says in verses 7 through 9 for not one of us lives for himself and that one dies for himself for if we live we live for the Lord and if we die we die for the Lord therefore whether we live or die we are the Lord's for to this in Christ died and lived again that he might be Lord both of the Dead and of the living until he is Lord he uses the word Lord four times in those verses until he is master ruler final decision-maker dictator meaning you're under foot you know when somebody puts their foot on somebody they want to hold him down okay unless God can hold you down unless you are willing to say yes Lord to his authority unless you and I are willing to say I am NOT my own I've been bought with a price and that buying with a price covers all of my life my personal life my financial life my attitudinal life my relational life it covers all of my life cuz I am NOT my own he says I want to be Lord while you're living and when you did I don't want to just be Lord when it comes time to go to heaven I want to be Lord on your way there until he we are under his feet we will not see his authority being manifested in our experience we won't see his power we won't see change see cuz that look the way you know that this Christian thing is working is God demonstrates his power said when Jesus was on earth how did they know he was the Messiah because of his powerful demonstrations okay so if you really want to know how real he is plug in to his power but you can't plug into his power lets you under his foot you've got to be under his authority in other words he must have the right to veto you he must have the right to overrule you he must have the right to dictate to you he must have the right to consume you because he died and rose to be Lord not just to be Savior he died and rose to take you to heaven but also rule you on earth and if you want to see his rule on earth then he must be lord over all of life the problem the day is we have am/fm Christians they switch frequencies you see they heavenly on Sunday then they go secular on Monday you see they they keep switching frequencies back and forth and wonder why they don't get to hear the whole two because they keep switching frequencies and God says I ain't gonna let you to time in now you have to decide if I am Lord or if I am NOT now if I am Lord that means final say-so veto power and then when it comes time me to do something I don't have to go far said you sit next to me I can just turn because you already sit next to me in the spiritual realm but if you're not operating from that realm you don't even hear him talking you don't see the riches you don't experience the power and Jesus just becomes a religious experience that encourages you that inspires you but you never see the authority the overruling but I will tell you this there's nothing like seeing it because when it when he when he shows up and you get to see it and you get to say whoa I just saw God doing I just saw God you'll switch on me I just saw God take something dead and raise it from the green eyes I just saw that I was dying in this situation dying with this problem dying with the resources down it and I just saw God flip the natural order of things see then you all have to lean on somebody else's testimony cuz you'll be able to say I've seen it with my own eyes so right now in closing I want to switch a word I want to switch a word I want to change out a word okay now the word I want to change out is a great word it's a good word but it's a problem word but it's a natural word the word I want to switch out is the word commitment see we call them people to make a commitment there's a problem with a good word the problem with the word commitment is you still in control see when you make a commitment you're in control like like we committed to lose the weight we gained over Christmas we committed we committed I'm going on a diet and I'm gonna lose that way we committed to start working out and our commitment began to wane not because we weren't sincere but we were in control and when the control got weak the commitment got weak so I want to switch the word up I want to switch the word out from commitment to surrender see see if a man holds the gun up and says put your hands up he just dropped commitment I don't need commitment I'm surrendering I'm throwing my hands up ain't thinking about it I ain't going in to do I really want to commit do I really want to do this I you know why cuz somebody else is in control somebody else got the gun said sit down you don't have to tell me twice I'm gonna sit down why cuz I'm not in control you know what you do when you surrender what you told you see cuz when you surrender somebody else is in control somebody else is calling the shots so commitment is a great word but we've we get shaky with commitment so let's go to surrender so that it's not up to us is whatever you say boss you're the boss man whatever you say yes sir I surrender I hold up my hands cuz you're the authority cuz now it doesn't depend on my commitment it depends on my obedience to the authority who's telling me what to do so I surrender and once you surrender helping wakes up and say we got one we got one who's ready to see my power and my authority [Music] as Christians we've been seated with Jesus Christ in heavenly places Jesus died on Friday he rose on Sunday with all authority that authority for history has been designated to Christ by his father but we are seated with him so we get to share in the authority that's been given to Christ that he delegates to us when we're operating in the will of God boy there that that ought to reins up excitement in your soul that Jesus wants to share his authority with you getting to know Jesus piggybacking off of his authority for your benefit in history in time and space and not have to wait to heaven to see it ah that's an exciting exciting thought let's make it more than a thought let's make it a reality Jesus is Authority he shares with his disciples make sure you want [Music] [Applause] you you

Channel: Tony Evans

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Id: JqRTghk_f2Q

Length: 28min 42sec (1722 seconds)

Published: Sun Sep 29 2019