Yes, I know both are good but if I had to choose between God’s Authority or God’s awesome Power? I’d go for the Power. Let me explain.
I have a car. It’s mine. It belongs to me. I have authority to get into the car and drive it anywhere I choose. Right? Yes. But the day I lose the key to my car, I lose the ‘power’ to get into it. I’ll need to call on someone with some gadget or master key aka ‘power’ to help me access my car. So you see how there can be times when your authority as a Christian will do you no good if it’s not backed up by God’s power. Ask the disciples. They can tell you all about it.
One time they struggled and Jesus had to come and help them. Remember? In Mark 9:28 we see them go to Jesus when he was alone in the house and they asked him, “Why couldn’t we cast that demon out?”. Authority. No Power. And the next we see them work miracles!
Luke 10:17-18 When the seventy disciples returned, they joyfully reported to him, “Even the demons obey us when we use your name.”
Authority plus Power (power that Jesus himself prayed down for them. That’s why he says in the next verse that he saw Satan falling down to the earth. Defeated.
But if I just said we need both, then why am I saying I’d choose power over authority? Here’s my thinking. And I have to thank Pastor Poju Oyemade for opening my heart to this. Do you know I could be a pastor given authority to lead a church and have less power than a member of my church? How? By virtue of the kind of relationship I’m having with God in secret; by the quality and sincerity of my prayer and Word life: by the quantity of God I carry. I might scream and yell from the pulpit and nothing happens but my church member lays hands on his son at home and fever zaps! You don’t believe me? Ask any of the Pharisees? Who did any of them heal? Was it not among them the woman with the issue of blood lived for twelve years? What did all their authority do for them? Nothing. It took Christ, the man with no earthly ‘positional’ authority at the time but mucho spiritual power to change her life forever! Praise God!
See what I mean now about choosing power over authority? But you know what? I’d rather not choose. I want both. Christ died to give me both. Authority I get the moment I accept Him as my Lord and Savior. Power too to some extent but I believe it’s now up to you and I how much more power we want to have. How do we get more power? Simple. We plug into its Source. We plug into God. We take a cue from Jesus Christ, we spend consistent time in secret with our God. In prayer in His Word and yes, we fast.
I’ll wrap this up this way:
The television has the ‘authority’ to show you pictures and play sounds but unless you plug it into a power source, it can do nothing. Its authority is useless. But the moment you plug it in, it brings forth its full potentials. You get sounds and pictures all in HD! I believe, you and I without power are sort of like unplugged televisions, all dark and silent and incapable of influencing anybody.
I don’t know about you but I don’t want to be an unplugged television in the sitting room of my world.
Salt
abimbolaen@yahoo.com
www.thesaltchronicles.com