Extreme Authority

This morning, the leader of a Bible discussion asked me if I’d seen church people who abuse the concept of a believer’s spiritual authority. The simple answer, of course, is, “Yes, I’ve seen some crazy stuff!” In fact, I’ve seen people think they have authority to stop the power of death all over the world! But just saying I’ve seen that kind of extreme would send the message that we better avoid too much focus on our authority. That would be a shame, because I think the other extreme is even more prevalent.

What is the predominant extreme when it comes to a believer’s spiritual authority? What I as a pastor have observed even more than people abusing God’s promises to give us his authority is the other extreme of complete neglect of our authority! I think the vast majority of believers in our American churches today have no clue the degree to which we could see prayers answered, lives changed, and communities transformed, if only we would use the spiritual weapons and authority God has given us.

We can be quite “spiritual,” caught up in our expressions of worship or our own spiritual experiences, or even totally focused on right doctrine, and still miss out on the power God wants to exert through us. When it was time for me to take the trip to Tulsa for my first year of seminary, I made a stop to visit my grandmother, affectionately known to most of us grandkids as “Mama Ruth.” (I wonder what she thought about that name when it was first applied!) She was one of the most spiritual prayer warriors I’ve ever known, and a Pentecostal believer from way back. During my visit I remarked to her, “You’ve really learned a lot about the Holy Spirit in your church, haven’t you?” She responded with enthusiasm, “Yes, I really have.” But then her expression changed to one of concern and she made the serious observation, “But one thing they didn’t teach us was our spiritual authority.”

This tension between an overemphasis on authority and the neglect of authority reminds me of a statement made by the leading figure of the American Great Awakening, Jonathan Edwards. Edwards recognized a tactic used by the devil to either resist or discredit revival: “He holds them back as long as he can, but when he can do it no longer, then he’ll push ‘em on, and if possible, run ’em upon their heads.”

I think the devil wants to hold us back as much as he can from using our authority against him. Why would he want us to operate in the spiritual power that would limit his work on the earth? Of course he is going to push against you as you try to advance against him. But what if the devil finds that he just can’t keep you from pursuing the full function of your spiritual weaponry? He’s going to switch positions on you. Instead of resisting you head on, he’s going to slip behind you, and push you to an extreme in the other direction—an overemphasis on your spiritual authority that will bring discredit to you and the purposes of God. People will see your spiritual silliness and say, “There’s more of that crazy hyper spirituality that good Christian people ought to avoid.” And so they justify their falling back into the opposite extreme of almost complete neglect of spiritual authority. The devil wins either way.

So what should we do? First, don’t let the devil stop you from exercising every single bit of spiritual authority that God has delegated to you. Don’t let a single arrow in your quiver go unused. Other people’s lives depend on you.

Second, you don’t avoid an extreme by neglecting to use a gift God provides. You avoid an extreme by using God’s gifts in keeping with God’s word and God’s purposes. We aren’t caught up in our own authority, as though the power we have comes from us. We only have authority as we do God’s work God’s way. We can never fall into thinking our authority is all about us, and all for us.

I’d love to hear what you have to say about this. Do you think that Christians really understand the power and authority God has entrusted to us through prayer, his word, his name, and his Spirit? What extreme, wacky stuff have you seen? Finally, are you using God’s authority to the fullest, for God’s purposes and in God’s ways? What could help you step up in your spiritual authority?

Photo by Carolyn V on Unsplash.