There are two important words Christ used in exhorting the disciples in the tenth chapter of Luke: “authority” and “power.” He gave the seventy authority over all the power of the enemy.
The seventy returned with joy, saying, Lord, even the demons are subject to us in thy name. And he said to them, I beheld Satan fallen as lightening from heaven! Behold I have given you authority to tread upon serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall in any wise hurt you. Nevertheless in this rejoice not, but rejoice that your names are written in heaven. In that same hour he rejoiced in the Holy Spirit, and said, I thank Thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that thou didst hide these things from the wise and the understanding, and didst reveal them unto babes! (notice this).
Yea, Father; for so it was well pleasing in thy sight. All things have been delivered unto me of my Father: and no one knoweth who the Son is, save the Father; and who the Father is, save the Son, and he to whomsoever the Son willeth to reveal him. And turning to the disciples, he said privately, Blessed are the eyes which see the things that ye see: for I say unto you, that many prophets and kings desire to see the things which ye see, and saw them not: and to hear the things which ye hear, and heard them not. Luke 10:17–24.
You can see very clearly in this passage that the Lord reveals His ways to babes. Not many of the wise and understanding of the world were in on what God had to say or reveal. Today God is doing this same thing over again; He is repeating Himself. He is giving us, as He has always to the Church, “authority over all the power of the enemy.”
Authority and power must be contrasted in your mind. Satan has power. However, did you notice that as the disciples went out in the name of Jesus they said, “Even the devils were subject to us in Your name”? Christ said, “I saw Satan fallen.” Did Satan have more power than the disciples? Yes, but they had the authority to use the name of Jesus effectively, and authority is what counts in the realm of spirit. Regardless of who a person is, how much more qualified they may be than I, or how many devils they may have to help them, I can do anything God sends me to do because of the authority which is behind me. When the Lord commissions me to do something, that is what’s important. When I am led by the Spirit of the Lord to do a thing, then I am under authority to do it, and I can do it. No matter who it is, what it is, or how it is, I can do it because authority is what counts.
Jesus spoke about this when He said, “Oh Bless you, you know that prophets and kings have desired to see what you see and they didn’t see it; they didn’t see it, but you see it. I have hidden this from the wise and the understanding and revealed it to babes.” And He said, “O Father, it was good in Thy sight to do this. This is the way You wanted it.” The wise of the world are groping in darkness and the babes are coming up with the understanding. This is the way the Lord said it would be. It is based upon an endowment, based upon the authority which the Lord brings.
Let’s look into this subject of authority. What do we mean by authority? What do we mean by power? Authority is what a policeman has when he stands in the middle of traffic with his white gloves and his whistle directing the cars in and out of lanes. When a big truck comes along and the policeman blows his whistle, the truck is showing its power while the policeman is using his authority to call the truck to a grinding halt. This is a good demonstration of authority and power. Satan comes in like a flood, but the Spirit of the Lord will lift up a standard against him. This is what God has called us to do—blow the whistle on the devil. “For this purpose the Son of God was manifested that He might destroy the works of the devil” (I John 3:8). We must believe this. Every time we go out Jesus says, “Go in My name.” In other words, “Here is your whistle. Go in My name to cast out devils. Go in My name to do these works.” You are going to believe that even the devils are subject to you in His name.
This isn’t the most important thing however. What you want to rejoice in is the fact that your names are written in heaven. The weakest saint can make Satan tremble, if he uses the authority he has in Christ. A 90 pound girl behind the wheel of a Cadillac can step on that peddle and go as fast as some 260 pound truck driver. It is not the size of the individual, it is the lever pushed that counts. It is the authority in the name of the Lord Jesus. Everything in the realm of spirit is based on authority, not on worthiness. Authority is what makes the difference.
Sometimes you feel as if you have failed. Regardless of all that you’ve been through, don’t be afraid. The authority you have before God in prayer can break a stubborn will in your spouse. God can break it. He has been known to break the will of a person. I don’t really believe in the free choice, the free will, of man myself. Only in Christ can a man choose to do good and actually do good. In the natural, a man can choose to do good, but most of the time he won’t be able to accomplish it. Too many forces prevent it. But when you come to believe in Christ and the name of Jesus Christ, there isn’t anything which God puts in your heart to do that you can’t perform. You can do what He sets before you to do. Your will is set free, when it is really linked and subservient to the Lord. Authority is what we have. Power lies many times with the forces of evil, but we have authority over their power. Nothing can hurt us if we hang on to this and we believe.
You may feel that a person is so set and so hard that you do not know how to overcome it, but God can bring other forces to bear upon such a situation. Jonah was a good example. At no time did God force Jonah to do one single thing. But if you recall, Jonah became very willing to do what God wanted him to do. He was persuaded: he got the water treatment. Yet Jonah still didn’t have to do one thing he didn’t want to do. God convinced him that he really wanted to do it all the time. Many circumstances, many forces come against you, but if you keep praying, God can change it. Even when you feel a person could never change, he will. Little by little, he will change.
Pray for your enemy; bless him. Take the authority; use the name of the Lord Jesus. You might think that it doesn’t seem quite fair; yet why shouldn’t it be fair? Do you have a right spirit before the Lord? Are you unselfish in what you pray for? Do you really want God’s will done above everything else? If you believe you are praying in the will of the Lord, then don’t hesitate. Remember, even if your prayer seems to get mined up, even if it wasn’t worded quite right, it has several filters to go through before it reaches the heart of God. It goes by way of the Holy Spirit; the Holy Spirit then takes it to the intercession of Christ who lives to make intercession for us. Then it goes to the Father and the Father hears it. You wouldn’t even recognize your eloquent prayers when they reach the Father. You might say, “Well Lord, you didn’t read the fine print in my prayer, but mainly you gave me exactly what I wanted, but thank You, because the biggest part of it was better than I expected.
I don’t believe God turns people down. Anytime I pray and something doesn’t happen, I’m filled with a strange sense of wonder. I used to get discouraged but I don’t anymore. When I pray a prayer that is right on, it is answered so fast. And if I pray a prayer that I think is in the will of the Lord, and I have a real burden for it, and nothing happens at that moment, then I begin to think. “I asked for a Ford and it must be He’s going to give me a Cadillac.” I know God deals with us “more abundantly than we ask or think” (Ephesians 3:20). And I am always anticipating something greater than, in my awareness, I have known how to ask for. This is a faith that has anticipation in it; that is what I believe in: faith that anticipates.
I like the way David sang psalms, such as his Twenty-third Psalm. “The Lord prepares a table before me in the presence of my enemies.” The enemies are completely immobilized as you sit there banqueting away. He says, “My cup runneth over.” I believe in the too-much God. He always makes the cup run over; He always deals exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think. That’s the kind of a God I believe in, and because I believe, He does just that; He blesses.
Some friends brought a poor, old, sick man to Jesus. He looked at him as they brought him through the ceiling, and He said, “Your sins be forgiven you; arise …” The friends were hoping he would be healed a little bit, but Jesus forgave his sins and healed him too. God always gives a little more than we are aware is needed, or more than we thought we could have. God wants us to believe. If you are giving up and saying, “My prayer hasn’t been answered,” believe that it is because God has a better thing for you. Start seeking the Lord more for your prayers to be right on in the perfect will of God, for your desires to be perfectly motivated in the will of God. Then you will get answers which are unbelievable.
But remember, they come not on a basis of our worthiness, but on a basis of authority. In the name of Jesus we open the doors. It is just as if God has given us the power of attorney. He has said, “Here is the power of authority; when you come together in My name, you will cast out devils and heal the sick and do many other things.” It is like a business meeting where we have been given a proxy by the Lord; He is running the show, of course, but we have a good strong vote. He says, “Here, you can use My name in the business meeting. Whenever you come up against the devil use My name, you have the legal authority to do it, and the power of attorney to do it.”
Use the name of Jesus, clear out your devils; clear out your problems; believe for something. And when you are believing, believe that you will receive more than you believe for. People have so much faith in their unbelief. “Oh, oh, my doubts, my doubts!” They believe in their unbelief. They believe in their sicknesses. “How do you feel?” “Oh I’m terrible; I’m terrible!” I believe in health. I believe in faith. I believe in the miracle faith God has put within me. I believe in the wisdom God has given me. I would not let you criticize the wisdom God has given me no matter how small it might seem or how vast your unbelief about it might be. I won’t let you put aside my faith in the wisdom, the faith, and all things which God has given.
Some people say, “Well, I’m just going down the road waiting for something to happen—something terrible. There will be an accident, some terrible thing.”
I believe we will be better off tomorrow than we are today. “The path of the just shineth more and more unto the perfect day.” Tomorrow we will be tackling bigger devils, bigger problems; there will be more expansion, more missionary fields, and greater money needs. More prophets will be coming on the scene; we will be wondering where to put more people. More churches will be coming up and all of them will be struggling like newborn babes trying to get on their feet. This is what we are going to have, the problems of growth. What will happen? What do we do? We will just be driven to draw more of the Lord to meet these problems. We will draw more from the Lord, and that is what will bring more flies around honey. More people will come because there is more from the Lord. Then you will have to decide what to do with them.
Don’t put yourself down, build yourself up. Have faith in your faith. Keep exercising it. We are going to make it; God will help us.