Luke 11:1–13: And it came about that while He (Jesus) was praying in a certain place, after He had finished, one of His disciples said to Him, “Lord, teach us to pray just as John also taught his disciples.” And He said to them, “When you pray, say: ‘Father, hallowed be Thy name. Thy kingdom come. Give us each day our daily bread. And forgive us our sins, for we ourselves also forgive everyone who is indebted to us. And lead us not into temptation.’ ”
And He said to them, “Suppose one of you shall have a friend, and shall go to him at midnight, and say to him, ‘Friend, lend me three loaves; for a friend of mine has come to me from a journey, and I have nothing to set before him’; and from inside he shall answer and say, ‘Do not bother me; the door has already been shut and my children and I are in bed; I cannot get up and give you anything.’ I tell you, even though he will not get up and give him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his persistence he will get up and give him as much as he needs. And I say to you, ask (keep asking), and it shall be given to you; seek (keep seeking), and you shall find; knock (keep knocking), and it shall he opened to you. For everyone who asks, receives; and he who seeks, finds; and to him who knocks, it shall be opened.
“Now suppose one of you fathers is asked by his son for a fish; he will not give him a snake instead of a fish, will he? Or if he is asked for an egg, he will not give him a scorpion, will he? If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more shall your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?”
On the surface, the Bible is basically a pessimistic book, especially when it relates to prophecy. This is the thing that bothers a lot of Christians when they read the Word. We keep talking about the day of the Lord, but read those Old Testament Prophets: the day of the Lord is something that makes you shudder because it is all relating to how God must deal with the world, or with His people who have refused to walk on a spiritual plane with Him (Isaiah 13:6–13; Zephaniah 1:14–18; Amos 5:18–27). I know this has to be explained, because we look to the Bible for all of our hope; we look to the Scriptures for our whole anchor for the future.
Even in the teaching of Jesus Christ there is a great pessimism. Hardly does He mention anything about the end time but what he conveys, true to the revelation of it, pessimism about it. He gives a parable on prayer, then says, “Nevertheless, when the Son of man cometh will He find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:8). “Few there will be that find it” (Matthew 7:14). That’s pessimistic. He is talking about principles that trip us up. The Word says, “Thou shalt not commit adultery” (Exodus 20:14), but if you look on a woman to lust after her you’ve committed adultery with her already in your heart (Matthew 5:28). It says, “Thou shalt not kill” (Exodus 20:13), but if you hate you’ll be brought into judgment (Matthew 5:22).
All of the books of the Bible have a way of nose-diving. Look at the historical books. The book of Genesis begins with beautiful promise and ends with God letting the tribes of Israel wind up in slavery (Genesis 15:1–7, 13). A lot of books are like that. Jeremiah—amazing, blazing prophecies, yet he sits beside the road crying while a few bloody victims are led off into captivity; that’s the way that book ends (Jeremiah 52:15, 24–27). The prophets in the Old Testament warned people, and repeatedly they failed and the judgments hit. You have to look a long time to find those glorious little glimpses of the future that point toward the Kingdom) Isaiah 65:17–25; Jeremiah 3:15–18; 23:3–6; 31:31–34). This is the reason that people who did not know how to read the Scriptures do not know how to draw life from them, and a general pessimism hits them. Why? Because unless they understand the way to read the Scriptures and messages behind them, they find a great pessimism.
The book of Revelation is a revelation of Jesus Christ, and blessed is the man who reads it (Revelation 1:3), but by the time those beasts with all those heads and horns and so forth have almost gored you, and all the vials are poured out and the trumpets have blown, you miss the impact of the whole book; all you get out of it is general pandemonium. Only the Holy Spirit can take the saint and direct him toward the optimism that is underneath the surface of the Word. We have to dig through the layer of dirt and rock, but we will find gold underneath.
It would be good for us to teach the books that can build optimism in those who are looking for something more than a little pick-up for the moment, but a real solution to problems. The book of Romans is such a book, because out of it could be built such a fantastic upreach and a foundation for people to change their whole lives. They know all of the things that are coming to pass on the earth. They are aware of the problems without and of the problems within. They want to find principles that would work to give a solution for them.
We want solutions, solutions to circumstances, but the Bible does not always offer solutions—on the surface it doesn’t. Paul said, “If any man comes into Christ while he is a slave, he is to go on and be a good slave” (I Corinthians 7:20–21). No revolution there! There is no answer to his circumstance; there is no solution to his problem.
Let each man remain in that condition in which he was called. Were you called while a slave? Do not worry about it; but if you are able also to become free, rather do that. For he who was called in the Lord while a slave, is the Lord’s freedman; likewise he who was called while free, is Christ’s slave. You were bought with a price; do not become slaves of men. Brethren, let each man remain with God in that condition in which he was called. I Corinthians 7:20–24.
Let every man abide in the same state wherein he is called. If he finds the Lord and his wife doesn’t find the Lord but is content to go on with the marriage, then he will be unequally yoked with the unbeliever, or vice versa (I Corinthians 7:12–13, II Corinthians 6:14, KJV). There are not any nice, pat solutions to circumstances and relationships in the Bible. And sometimes when someone wants to know how he can reach a certain destination, you feel like the old farmer who said, “You can’t get there from here.” You know the story: a stranger, looking for a certain town, stopped by a field and asked directions from a farmer. He said, “I know how you get there, you go down this way a piece; no, you better go up … No,” he said, “you just can’t get there from here.”
That’s the way you feel sometimes with people who are looking for honest solutions to problems. You almost wish that they had stayed sinners a little while and worked it out for themselves before they became Christians, because once they become Christians there are principles that hold them steadfast under certain situations. That is on the surface, but actually underneath the surface are the great principles and the leverage whereby you can move the world.
Circumstances, problems, financial needs, character traits, habits, everything can be changed. And while the Lord lays down certain principles, these are not necessarily pessimistic, because underneath, if you look for them, are the principles by which all kinds of change can be wrought.
Here is one that I’m intrigued with, and I’m going to follow it. In the parable in Luke 11, the man had a friend visiting from a journey, and he came to another friend for some food and said, “Loan me three loaves of bread.” “No,” his friend said. “Don’t bother me. I’m in bed; I’m asleep; my children are asleep. Don’t wake me.” Yet because of his persistence, he rose and gave to him. And Christ said, “That persistence is the thing that counts.” That’s why He gave this word in the Greek tense which means to keep asking, keep seeking, keep knocking. He would not do it because he was his friend, but he would do it because of his persistence.
There is a means by which change can come in our lives, and we’re going to have to use it, because our lives right now have reached a place where we have to find some answers. If we go to the Lord and say, “Please, Lord, I’m Your servant,” I don’t think it’s going to do any good. Why? Because there has to be some principle higher than my relationship to God. You say, “I thought that was the biggest relationship of all—we come and we beg the bread as children.” That’s a good place to be.
But there is a better place where things won’t budge, things won’t move. The Lord says that there is one thing that is honored by God above the relationship you have with Him, and that’s your persistence with Him. That persistence takes prior ity over relationship. And even if God won’t meet you because you’re His born-again, believing child, He will meet you because you are persistent.
I honor my relationship to the Lord. We look up and cry, “Abba Father.” We’ve been accepted in the Beloved; we’ve been brought in as dear children. We have great privileges.
For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit children of God, and if children, heirs also, heirs of Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are God and fellow-heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him in order that we may also be glorified with Him. Romans 8:15–17.
And because you are sons, God has sent forth the Spirit of His Son into our hearts, crying, “Abba! Father!” There fore you are no longer a slave, but a son; and if a son, then an heir through God. Galatians 4:6–7.
Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ: According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love: Having predestined us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. Ephesians 1:3–6, KJV.
But it is also true that you have to be persistent about the thing if you are going to make it work for you. Keep asking; keep seeking; keep knocking. There must be something that God honors in our being a nuisance; it must have something that He respects. Instead of His creatures being so prone to cry out one day, “Lord, I’m in so much trouble,” and the next day to forget all about it, He is waiting for someone who will say, “I am not going to let this thing drop. I know where I stand, I know what my privileges are in the Lord.”
Now He was telling them a parable to show that at all times they ought to pray and not to lose heart, saying, “There was in a certain city a judge who did not fear God, and did not respect man. And there was a widow in that city, and she kept coming to him, saying, ‘Give me legal protection from my opponent.’ And for a while he was un willing; but afterward he said to himself, ‘Even though I do not fear God nor respect man, yet because this widow bothers me, I will give her legal protection, lest by continually coming she wear me out.’ ”
And the Lord said, “Hear what the unrighteous judge said, now shall not God bring about justice for His elect, who cry to Him day and night, and will He delay long over them? I tell you that He will bring about justice for them speedily. However, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?” Luke 18:1–8.
And Jesus went away from there, and withdrew into the district of Tire and Simon. And behold, a Canaanite woman came out from that region, and began to cry out, saying, “Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David; my daughter is cruelly demon-possessed.”
But He did not answer her a word. And His disciples came to Him and kept asking Him, saying, “Send her away, for she is shouting out after us.” But He answered and said, “I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.”
But she came and began to bow down before Him, saying, “Lord, help me!” And He answered and said, “It is not good to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs.” But she said, “Yes, Lord; but even the dogs feed on the crumbs which fall from their master’s table.” Then Jesus answered and said to her, “O woman, your faith is great: be it done for you as you wish.” And her daughter was healed at once. Matthew 15:21–28.
In order to convince you that the first parable—the parable about the man who went to his friend for food (Luke 11:5–10)—was a valid principle, Christ gave another parable that seals it. He said, “Now if any of you fathers had a son who asked for a fish, would you give him a snake? Or if he asked for an egg, would you give him a scorpion? How much more will your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask?” (Luke 11:11–13.)
He loves you; He is going to honor you. You are His child. When you ask for something, He is not going to give you the wrong thing. Christ laid the groundwork by that first parable, which says that your persistence is going to get the answer. Then when you get the answer, it will be the right one; He will not give you a false thing.
If persistence is above relationship, then God forgive us for our prayerlessness, for the instability of our devotional life. God forgive us of it and bring us to the place where we have that consistency. When the house of God comes together for services, we should have beautiful worship to the Lord; we should have something that challenges us in the Word and feeds us, something that incites us.
And we should have a mild state of riot going on all the time, something of violence seething up in our heart, “God has something better for me than this!” There should be something within our hearts that does not settle down and accept this state we are in as being all we are going to get or all that we can have. There is something better. And if we have to dynamite a door or a wall down, we’re going to go on; we are going to be persistent.
I believe this happens, over and over again, even on a natural plane. I have seen men who had beautiful minds, men who could make wonderful inventions, men who could write beautiful books, etc.; but the ones who finally make it are those who are persistent. A man may have a hundred rejection slips before he gets somebody to print his manuscript, but in time he makes it because he is persistent. God honors the man who keeps on trying.
God knows that you are going to take a fall if you don’t keep in motion, so He lays down a principle of persistence. And while you’re being persistent and going after it, you’re also continuing to grow and make progress; and you will not take the spills or sense the expression of deep failures in your life that you would if you just “watch and wait”—that’s a dangerous place to be. In the Kingdom of God it’s a paradox that the man who is moving is the man who is safest. On the highways, the man who is in motion is the man who is in more danger; the man who is parked is considered to be in a safer position than the man who is in the car going down the road. That’s not true in the Lord.
The man who is parked is the man who is in trouble; the man who is moving is the man who is safest when it comes to the things of God. Be persistent—move out; try. Knock on a door—if it doesn’t open, yell and wake them up. Do something about it!
This changes the complexion of almost everything that you could read that would be basically pessimistic. Even in one of the most pessimistic books—Jeremiah and its sister book Lamentations—God gives us the assurance, “In the day you seek for Me with your whole heart, you will find Me (Jeremiah 29:13).
“For I know the plans that I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart.” Jeremiah 29:11–13.
We can have a persistence that is a joyful laying hold, claiming an answer. That is why a study on the book of Romans would be outstanding to turn our hearts away from the pessimistic attitude we could face at the end of an age, and to turn us right to something positive.
Get a hold of this message and realize that no matter what we feel, we are the remnant of God, and it is still going to be our persistence that gets the thing done. I want to inspire you to get into a flow of worship and praise, but above all, into that persistent, violent prayer. It breaks things loose and they start moving.
And don’t think that this is irreconcilable to what Jesus said about the man who thought he would be heard for his much speaking in prayer (Matthew 6:7). There is a difference between repetition and persistence. Repetition can exist in a man who will pray the same prayer over every day of his life. Because he never once touched God he keeps praying it; he never feels like he really has made a prayer so he has to keep on. But persistence can come in a man who prays the same prayer every day, knowing that he is heard, and believing that he is going to have an answer. This is not repetition, it is persistence; and there is a difference.
AUTHORITY
And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations.” Matthew 28:18–19a.
Nothing was said about the difficulty of the job or about the disciples’ own resources or abilities to do it. Nothing was said about any of the insurmountable problems that awaited them or about the difficulties of transportation at that time—the lack of steamship lines or airlines or other transportation to get them where they were to go. They were just told, “Go.” But that command was based upon an authority—all authority: “All authority is given unto Me in heaven and on earth.”
In the spirit world the only thing that counts is authority. Nothing else matters. You never measure a devil or an angel by the size of his muscle. The important thing isn’t something physical; it’s authority.
Satan, therefore, becomes the great usurper, and is interested in evil things because of what he can possess through demon power. But there is no authority except it be from God (Romans 13:1). Whether or not you understand how or where it came, everything that you see, and even the world you don’t see, the spirit world, had its origin in God. Satan was one of God’s creations too. The enemy is concerned about trying to usurp a ministry or a place where God has planted some of that authority, and to open up the secrets of these things to people. But enough of the devil world.
We don’t seem to understand as well as the devils do that all authority in heaven and on earth belongs to the Lord Jesus Christ.
I believe with all my heart that the things which come against me may be some perverted form of power, but all the authority belongs to the Lord whom I serve. And I find here a commission: “Go; make disciples of all nations.” That means bringing down devil power and prevailing over all darkness; it means opening the door for people to walk with God.
I’ve seen people who knew nothing of the occult or the spirit world, but they did know one thing: they knew that Jesus Christ is the Lord and that His is the authority. And they would use that name of Jesus effectively. There’s an old saying that Satan fears the weakest saint on his knees. That is true. When the weakest saint is on his knees praying, Satan trembles.
I don’t care how many problems I have, how many weaknesses, or how many circumstances are standing against me, I know in my spirit that all authority resides in the Lord whom I serve. I can’t read the New Testament, especially the gospel of John, without having the witness over and over again that I am commissioned to use His name. Whatever I ask in that name I am going to receive.
“And in that day you will ask Me no question. Truly, truly, I say to you, if you shall ask the Father for anything, He will give it to you in my name. Until now you have asked for nothing in MY name; ask, and you will receive, that your joy may be made full.” John 16:23–24.
He has given me authority; He has given me the privilege, prerogative, commission, delegation, whichever word you want, to use His name. He has given me the proxy to act as His representative upon this earth; He has given me the power of attorney to execute the business of the Kingdom for Him. And if I know that I’ve been commissioned, and it has been confirmed to my heart, then I must set about with all diligence and faith to do it, because the authority is behind me; it’s thrusting me into it.
This is the factor that is going to be the most important to turn the course of our whole walk with God. We have been following the scriptural pattern, but we could move into such an understanding of it that the ministries will flow like an army that does not break ranks; they will move in the power of God. We have to understand our authority. We have to understand the authority that resides in the apostolic company; it is Christ’s authority. We have to understand the authority that rests upon the elders of the local church; it is Christ’s authority. We have to understand the authority that we have to change the course of this age and to cause it to flow into God, because we are commissioned to do it, to prophesy it. We must stand without any personal prejudice, in complete objectivity, and prophesy whatever God tells us to prophesy. We are absolutely to be agents in the hands of the Lord who are completely honest, unprejudiced in any sense. Prejudice is always a thing we think is in the other fellow—we don’t see it in ourselves. But we’re not going to have it in ourselves either, only complete, objectivity.
“All authority,” Jesus said, “is given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go ye therefore.” If he has the authority to commission and to delegate, then He has the authority to enable and sustain me in the performance of it. Abraham believed that, and he said, “What He has promised, He is able also to perform.” In the words of the Scriptures, he didn’t stagger at the promise of God through unbelief (Romans 4:20–21). There wasn’t any staggering in his heart because of unbelief; he knew, “What God promised me, He is able to perform.”
God has established persistence as a high-ranking principle, ranking even above relationship (Luke 11:8).
The Bible says, concerning persistence, “Will not God avenge those who cry unto Him day and night, though He bear long with them?” (Luke 18:7). Even though He has to put up with some faults in them, He will avenge them. Christ said, “I tell you He will avenge them speedily” (verse 8). A man who is persistent in seeking after God may have failed, be unworthy, and have many problems in his life, but God will answer him quicker than He will answer a man who seems to be quite worthy in his life but who is not persistent. You say, “But that’s not fair.” It’s just the pharisaic opinion that we don’t think it is fair.
I remember one all-night prayer meeting when a young man came in half drunk and was saved, filled with the Holy Spirit, and called to preach all in the same night. An old widow was there who had been seeking to be filled with the Holy Spirit for ten years and oh, she got so angry. She tried not to think that she was angry at God; but she went up to the pastor and said, “I don’t understand this. I’ve walked with God; I’ve tried my best all these years. And that ‘thing’ comes in here and in one night—one night!—is saved, filled with the Holy Spirit and called to preach!” The only answer was, “Go read the story of the prodigal son, and remember that older brother. Carefully think about him.” He had an emotional spell—he was angry over the fact that the younger brother came back and was received (Luke 15:11–30). What kind of grace is that? What kind of righteousness is that? It is none at all.
I’m not saying that you have to be unworthy; I’m trying to emphasize the point of persistence. You have to be persistent. You have to insist, “Lord, I come to call to Your mind the fact that this is what You promised me.” You have to have that insistence upon an answer. Does that sound irreverent? If it were irreverent God would not have established it as the highest principle of prayer: “Keep asking, keep seeking, keep knocking” (Luke 11:9).
We still think that faith is a mystical thing, that we must pump it up first and then we can believe. Have you ever tried to do that? “I’m going to believe, I’m going to believe, I’m going to believe.” It doesn’t quite work that way, does it? You’re not trying to pump up something in your mind.
Sometimes the mind is like a dog out for a walk at night. It runs here and there to think about this and that; and when it thinks about something, it’s not with any dignity! The carnal mind is wicked; it isn’t even subject to the law of God (Romans 8:7). You set yourself—“I’m going to think; I’m going to concentrate; I’m going to believe”—and off it goes. But God has another way: the heart that is set upon the Lord. The mind can wander and waver, but it must be that you say, “Okay mind, run, go after every fireplug, I don’t care. I’m going to set my heart upon the Lord.”
Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension (understanding), shall guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:6–7.
I am very much concerned about seeing all the principles that God has revealed to us work. There is a horror that builds up in my heart from the study of people in the past who had glorious doctrines that were not practical, inasmuch as they did not know how to make them work.
I thank God for the Reformation. When it came, John Calvin, at the age of twelve, was making his defense for his Doctor of Theology degree at the University of Paris. He had to be able to converse in Hebrew, Latin, and Greek and be examined by the learned doctors. A frequent thesis then was that of trying to relate the spirit world to the natural world. One of the great themes at that time was, “How Many Angels Could Dance Upon The Head Of A Pin?” Their doctrines were completely unrelated to reality, you see. It is no wonder the Church was in the condition it was in! They were busy thinking about the assumption of Mary when they needed to assume a little bit for themselves of something from the Lord; they were completely refusing to relate anything to themselves.
Down through the years we have gained ground on that, but there has been a tendency still for us to get a little lofty with our doctrines instead of constantly making them work. If I’m going to believe anything, I’m going to have a gnosis althea. The New Testament often taught that. The Christian Gnostic grew out of the Greek Gnostic, who said, “I want to know.” An agnostic is one who says he doesn’t know; a Gnostic says, “I’ll believe it when I can know it.” And the Gnostics did something to the early Church which was a good thing. You see a lot of this in John’s writings: “If any man says that he knows Him …” (I John 2:4); “By this we know that we have come to know Him …” (I John 2:3); “And we have come to know and have believed …” (I John 4:16).
John was constantly dealing with the mind and thinking of Asia Minor, and so he understood this business of saying, “I must know it. I cannot say,’ God is love; that’s my doctrine.’ I have to know that love myself (I John 3:10, 14–19). I can’t say that I’m righteous and do evil; it must be, that I know. If I say that I know Him, I must walk even as He walked (I John 2:6). I must have that knowledge in my heart. If I know it experientially, personally, then it’s real.”
I have in my spirit that demand which says, “We’re going to see reality.” We’ve preached some far-out things, but the struggle we face is to make those things, not visionary and off in the heavens, but real and practical in this realm.
We may be seated in heavenly places with Christ (Ephesians 2:6), but we’re going to have our, feet on: the ground, walking in this in the name of the Lord. God is insisting that the theory and doctrines are not going to be way out of touch, but are going to be living expressions in our very lives of the faith and the authority of Jesus (II Corinthians 3:2–3).
Sometimes this takes an almost violent rejection of your limitations. You have to break through barriers that people have accepted for centuries. You’ve got to believe, “I can; I can; I can!” You’ve got to believe that this generation can see more prophets in the next decade than the Scriptures record in the whole course of God’s revelation to mankind. You’ve got to believe that that company can come forth, that mighty army of the Lord, that remnant which speaks the Word of the Lord. You’ve got to believe that all these things can happen—but not theoretically.
The Latter Rain movement preached the manifestation of the sons of God, but the people were walking along in a carnal way and making no effort to change. They put every thing in the sweet by-and-by and said, “One day maybe something will happen”—they didn’t know what. They abandoned the fundamentalists’ and Pentecostals’ teach ing of an instant rapture that would change everything; and I don’t know what they thought would change things, but they expected suddenly to be going down the road per forming miracles, doing signs and wonders.
We’ve learned better. We’ve learned that every time God gives us a Word, He deals with our hearts to get at the thing which prevents us from walking in that Word. We’re going to get our feet on the ground to walk into something. We’re not going to just talk about it and feel sorry for ourselves; we’re going to break through in the name of the Lord! And every time we make a step we’ll say, “Thank You, Lord, but that’s not enough”; and we’re going to go for more and more and more. It’s the easiest thing in the world for a congregation to sit under glorious, lofty teaching and become self-satisfied, to be satisfied with only a measure of under standing of the teaching instead of believing God to appropriate it and walk in it. I want to stir you up until we’re walking in it. Until we’re walking in it, we haven’t arrived.
Hypocrisy and this walk are so close that it’s frightening. What is hypocrisy? It is a man saying one thing and living another way. This walk is very much like that too. We’re saying, “Glorious things are set before us and we’re not walking in them. What is the difference between us and the hypocrites? The hypocrite has no intention of walking in anything; he’s just mouthing big things. But we’re speak ing big things while we’re running after them with faith in our hearts, with all of our mind and all of our strength; and we’re not creating any illusion that we’ve arrived. We’re not creating any hypocrisy about it. With all honesty of soul we say, “This is our goal and we’re going to have it”; and we press on.
How do we differ from many other good religious people? Many of them have no goals; consequently, they’re not hypocrites however they walk, because they’re not professing anything either. You say, “Wouldn’t God honor them more than He would honor someone who looks to great things, is pressing in, but hasn’t arrived? Here are some people who aren’t looking for great things, but thank God at least they’re walking along maybe in the best that they can.” They’re not walking along in the best because they’ve shut off any vision, any dream. They’re the lukewarm ones whom God will reject; they will miss everything (Revelation 3:14–16).
When the Lord says, “All authority is given to Me in heaven and on earth, now go therefore” (that “therefore” puts all of His authority behind you) “and make disciples of all nations.” He is speaking of something that you need to get hold of. There are several factors in this authority that Jesus talks about. One of them is obedience, to obey God and do what He tells us. We’ve heard this preached to us a lot. But the second factor is faith. There are people who are obeying, but not with faith. Don’t just go through the motions of obedience; but everything you do, do with faith and expectation. When you take the Communion, do you say, “Well, I’m doing this because He commanded it. He said, ‘This do in remembrance of Me until I come’ (Luke 22:19; I Corinthians 11:24–25), so I’m obeying Him.” That’s not enough. It should be done with faith, too—obedience with faith. And then there is a third factor in this author ity, and that is submission.
Let me point out the areas that I’m applying this sub mission to. First of all, it is a submission to the authority of His commission; we submit to the authority of the com mission He has given us. The Lord has commissioned us to make disciples of all nations. He has given us the gospel of the Kingdom. Now we have to submit to that commission: “Yes, Lord.” It is like a general saying, “Who’s going to volunteer for this impossible task? I’d like to have you submit. You volunteer.” And we submit to it. We say, “Yes Sir, I volunteer. I submit to that commission.”
It is a submission to the authority of His com mission. And regarding that authority, listen: there has to be a faith in the delegation of that authority. You’ve got to believe that it is going to rest on your shoulders. God is delegating this authority to you to do it. He doesn’t tell you to do something and then leave you to work it out by your own devices. You must believe that He has commissioned you to do it in His authority, and believe that He has delegated His authority to you to do it.
There is another thing about this authority. If I believe in the authority of’ Jesus Christ, which is all authority in heaven and earth, and He commissions me, then I have to assume that authority. How do I assume it? I have been thinking about this, dreaming about it, trying to use my imagination about it, because there isn’t anything as elusive as the concept of authority. Every time we try to think of authority we get confused and make it a physical thing on a natural plane. When we think of authority, we think of some big man with muscles coming along. But that is power, not authority.
What concept of authority can we have? Every time you see a miracle, the human mind twists it around from authority and starts thinking of power: “Did Jesus ever stop that fellow at Galarza! ‘Legion,’ he said his name was. (There were 6,000 men in a Roman legion, and there were many unclean spirits living in the man, so the people had named the man ‘Legion.’) They couldn’t chain him down or hold him. Think of that power.”
But Jesus spoke a Word, and all the legion of demons went into a herd of swine. Those good believers in Moses were raising pork for the Gentiles to eat; but into the pigs went the devils, and the pigs went over the precipice into the sea. The people of Galarza entreated Him, “Please leave us; we can’t afford this revival! Oh, our pigs, our pigs! Please leave us!” (Mark 5:1–17.)
In your mind do you picture Jesus with muscles chasing out all those demons? That wasn’t it at all. He was sub missive to the Father; the Father commissioned Him. He said, “It’s My Father. My Father doeth the works, and I do only those things which please the Father. I am under His direct commission.”
Jesus therefore answered and was saying to them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Him self, unless it is something He sees the Father doing; for whatever the Father does, these things the Son also does in like manner. John 5:19.
“And He who sent Me is with Me; He has not left Me alone, for I always do the things that are pleasing to Him.” John 8:29.
Did it work? You bet it worked! He said just one Word and those demons had to go.
James 4:7, KJV: Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
Here we have it again, that submission to His authority, bowing under His Lordship. Christ said, Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me … Matthew 11:29, KJV. You bow to it: you become submissive. And if some devil comes and starts jumping on you while you’re being submissive, you can say, “Oh, to the abyss with you”; and on you go. Where does he go? To the abyss. Why? Because authority rests in the believer who knows true submission to authority. This is a concept we don’t have in our minds, but we’re going to have it. We are going to learn what it is to be submissive to the Lord in all things, and to have those simple prayers.
The evidence of struggle is the evidence that something is wrong, because we are to have perfect victory in the Lord Jesus Christ (I Corinthians 15:57). Where the struggle issues forth it is because something is not right. That may not be our fault, but if it is we had better find out what is wrong. As I look back to the prayers I’ve made and the situations I’ve rebelled against and chafed under, I’ve found myself doing one of two things. First I would think “I had better re pent before God and see what’s wrong with me,” so I would repent and repent, not realizing that it was only half the picture. I would go along until finally I would think, “Well, down with all this repenting; it’s not getting me anyplace. Let’s go the other route.” So I would stand up and go at it tooth and nail. After about round eighteen: “Oh, this isn’t working either. I had better go back and repent some more!”
We fail to grasp that authority in our life is based upon two things: the simultaneous submission both to His authority and to His commission, submitting to what He tells us to do. And in that spirit we go forth boldly, with real faith, to bind the enemy, be cause we are so commissioned by divine authority and so submissive that we do it.
We ought to have learned that somewhere. We should have learned it in the nineteenth chapter of Acts, for instance, where the sons of Sieve tried to imitate Paul: “If he can do it, we can too!” They found a devil-possessed person and said, “Watch this now. We adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preaches that you come out!” The demon replied, Jesus we know; Paul we know. Who are you?“ Then the man in whom was the evil spirit leaped on them and they ran screaming out of the house, beaten, bleeding, and with their clothes torn (Acts 19:13–16). End of the sons of Scuba’s experiment! You ask, “But doesn’t the name of Jesus have all authority?” Yes; but you must understand that it is to disciples that He is saying this.
The name of Jesus on your lips, in authority, will mean no more than the submission in your heart to it. And the more you honor His name and bow down to it, to the name which is above every other name (Philippians 2:9–10), the more you submit to Him, the more you’re in a position to resist the devil and see him flee from you.
Do you want the name of Jesus to work until whatsoever you ask in that name, He is going to do it? (John 16:23.) Then submit to Him. It is not a crushing submission; it’s a recognition that His is all the authority—all of it—in heaven and in earth, and you submit to Him as the Lord over your life completely and absolutely. Put an end to rebellion; come right down into complete submission. Out of it comes the wielding of that authority, so that His is all the praise and all the glory. You’re but instruments in the hand of the Lord.
I want this to work! There are too many things yet to be done, too many goals to be taken, too many things God has prophesied for us not to move into this. This will either be the period in which God brought forth a remnant who were dreamers, or it will be the period in which he brings forth that remnant who will exalt His name to the ends of the earth. By the grace of God I want to be in that latter group.
We have to learn this concept of submission. We have to get hold of this idea of authority. It’s a combination of all of our repentance, all of our violent prayer, and all of our glorifying of the Lord all rolled into one thing.
Are you encouraged in your heart for this? I almost feel as if we just got hold of a new truth; but what actually happened is that we have taken concepts of truth that God has given us, and He has fitted them into place, so that we have a bigger piece of the picture of what this authority really means. The day has passed when we can allow our hearts to judge things after the old order of judgment. We tend to look at the man who has an imposing manner and looks important (I Samuel 16:6–7), and we forget that the Lord didn’t talk about that at all. He said, “The man who would be the greatest has to be the servant of all” (Matthew 23:11); and He kept trying to convey other concepts of the real picture that the human heart does not have.
This picture of authority is one of the most difficult things to ever get hold of in the Scriptures, because we constantly confuse it with power; yet it is not to be related to the natural concept of power in the world. If you consider the powers that exist, for instance, you should fear and tremble because there are demonic powers turned loose. But Jesus said, “Behold, I give you authority over all of the power of the enemy” (Luke 10:19). That’s it—authority over the power. I don’t care how big a rumble those devils make, the authority of the name of Jesus and one submissive, commissioned saint can stop them all.
I still believe that one man could change the course of this nation. Really, we have more authority than all of our Congress put together, but we don’t realize it. We’re still acting as though we were second-rate citizens, as if some how we have to find an excuse to be on God’s earth. That apologetic demeanor of a Christian is absolutely wrong. We’re not to be arrogant; but the other extreme is wrong too, saying, “Oh, I’m so humble, so humble.” What people really mean by that is that they’re afraid to stand up to anything.
Paul was humble, and yet he would get right up and speak before governors (Acts 24–26). But you see, it was not a presumptuous thing; it was a complete submission. Why was he doing that? Because the Lord gave him a Word: “Paul, I have yet to send you before governors and kings” (Acts 9:15). “All right, thank You, Lord, I’ll go.” And he went to do it, submissive to the Lord, submissive and ready to wield the authority the Lord commissioned him to wield. This is another concept entirely than what we have today.
I believe that if the Lord speaks to this remnant in the last days to start prophesying against Russia, God could bring down that whole empire of slave nations and set those people free. I don’t think there is anything beyond the power of prayer. And instead of applying it to a few little circumstances in your life, forget yourself and become lost in God. It is Satan’s trick to distract people with little tedious details of their lives so that they miss the great commission that God lays upon them and the purpose for which He raised them up. Oh, how we prostitute the commission of God and the authority of God to take care of little menial needs! Why think about these things? All these things the Gentiles seek after. Your Father knows that you have need of these things, so seek first the Kingdom (Matthew 6:31–33).
Read the Sermon on the Mount again (Matthew 5–7). We’re trusting in His authority, trusting in His power. But we are not to be distracted to apply all of it to our own needs. I have certain things in my life that I want God to do, but for only one basic reason: I want the perfect will of the Lord to come forth in the ministry that He wants to flow through me.