The Incredible Power of Kingdom Authority

Getting an Upper Hand on the Underworld

Adrian Rogers

• Publisher: B&H Books
• Year: 2002
• Print ISBN: 9780805416763
• eBook ISBN: 9781433674594
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Religion

The world is obsessed with power. But the Bible reveals the most awesome power of all: that of kingdom authority—the same power unleashed when God raised Jesus Christ from the grave. The good news is that this same power—the greatest power in the universe—is available to every believer today.But most Christians never experience this power. They live in darkness and defeat of the world and its weaknesses. Satan and his minions work to keep them from the inheritance that is theirs. But Adrian Rogers can show readers how to become a part of the awesome power of God's working in the world to build his kingdom.

PART I

Recognizing the Priority
of Kingdom Authority

CHAPTER 1

OPEN YOUR EYES
TO KINGDOM
AUTHORITY

If we let passion take the place of judgment,
and self-will reign instead of Scriptural authority,
we shall fight the Lord's battles with the devil's weapons,
and if we cut our own fingers we must not be surprised.

—CHARLES HADDON SPURGEON

God wants his children to live as children of the King with Kingdom Authority. The whole matter is this: In order to live exercising authority over the world, the flesh, and the devil, we must first submit to the authority that God has set over us.

We will learn more of this principle later, but the problem of rebellion is very much a part of today's world. People don't like the idea of authority—Kingdom Authority or any other kind.

The word authority is an ugly word for many in today's society. It resonates with restriction, regulation, and control. Just the mention of the word can cause brows to narrow and scowls to form.

Resisting authority comes naturally to us because of Adam and Eve's rebellion against God in the Garden of Eden. And it intensifies with fervor today. A swell began to rise up in the ocean of ideas and philosophies in the 1960s. The Beatles sang of a revolution, and they got one—a revolution against authority. The slogans began to fly—“Resist Authority” “Question Authority” “Do Your Own Thing,” “If It Feels Good, Do It.” It was the “Me Generation.”

The generations of the 1970s and 1980s rode the tide of the 1960s and the wave crested for the generation of the 1990s. The young people who grew up in these years will be remembered for many things—but in regard to man's rebellion, there can be no greater example than those who sought fame and recognition through killing sprees in the public school system. One of these murderous young men said, “My belief is that if I say something, it goes. I am the law. …I feel no remorse, no sense of shame.”

Churning into a bona fide tidal wave of rebellion, this revolution hit the shores of every home in America. And the shock waves are still washing over the lives of every family in America today.

The revolution of the 1960s was to liberate the traditional family. Women were supposed to be set free from their husbands, their homes, and their children. The husband was to be set free from responsibility and liberated from authority. Even the children were granted liberation from limits.

Everyone was set free from time-honored standards of morals and ethics. The alluring song of free love was heard across the land. And what did we get with all the freedom we espoused? Abandoned restraint and a loosening of family values. With the seeds we sowed in the 1960s, we now have a harvest of fatherless children, vile venereal diseases, runaway divorce rates, and a generation of jaded, unloved, and undisciplined kids.

Our high schools hand out condoms to students, and fifteen-year-old mothers wrestle with the idea of birth control implants to keep them from getting pregnant again. The sexual revolution has come full cycle. People talk about sex openly, all right. In fact, it's about all some people think about. Sex has become a sport—like an aerobic workout. Nobody, however, said there would be consequences. Consequences such as unwanted children, herpes, syphilis, gonorrhea, bacterial infections, fungus, lice, and the biggest consequence of all: AIDS.

The time has passed when young men and women save themselves for marriage as a matter of honor. Junior high virgins may even tell the lie that they are promiscuous, because to be a virgin is to be a misfit. It's a mark of shame for a fifteen-year-old to never have “gone all the way.”

Indeed, God knew all along the result of the evil that rampaged through the morals of our society. His Word tells us, “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting” (Gal. 6:7-8).

The cry for freedom of expression is really a form of rebellion that mocks beauty, truth, and culture. In the name of art, men and women are producing works that defame the deity of Christ, belittle the Christian institution of the family, and degrade the beauty of God's creation. Instead of music that is edifying and uplifting, many of today's music performers are writing lyrics saturated with violence, obscenity, vulgarity, and outright blasphemy. Much of today's music is basically pornography set to music.

The theme underlying it all is anti-authority. Instead of portraying police as the protectors of our community, they are portrayed as freeloaders at doughnut shops. Instead of fathers who lovingly care for and support their families, we have television programs that make a mockery of fatherhood, and of parenthood and healthy marital relationships as well.

What is the end result of a generation that cuts its teeth on anti-authority rhetoric? Rebels and revolutionaries at worst. “Closet rebels” at best. It's very difficult to be a part of today's society and not be affected. I am afraid there is a little rebel in each of us.

We are in a crisis of monumental proportions—it is an authority crisis. Jesus prophesied that the last days will be marked by a spirit of lawlessness (Matt. 24:1-12). Indeed, our generation has seen the fulfillment of that ominous prophecy.

Our only hope is in discovering the Kingdom Authority that Jesus offers his children. I'm not talking about mere power, but authority. Many Christians today talk about having the power to overcome evil. That's not enough. Don't confuse authority with power.

Jesus made the distinction in Luke 9:1 when he gave the disciples power and authority over the satanic forces of wickedness. As in the passage we saw earlier from Luke 10, the Greek word here for “power” is dunamis, which means ability and strength, and the Greek word for “authority” is exousia, which means the official right. Authority is conferred; power is innate.

The Pharisees of Jesus' day boasted of their position in the kingdom of God and questioned what Jesus meant by the freedom we have as believers: “They answered him, We be Abraham's seed, and were never in bondage to any man: how sayest thou, Ye shall be made free? Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin. And the servant abideth not in the house for ever: but the Son abideth ever. If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed” (John 8:33-36).

With Kingdom Authority comes freedom, not bondage. These Pharisees who were vassals of Rome and slaves to sin were boasting about freedom. They were not free but slaves. The rebel is free to do what he wants within limits, but he is never free to do what he ought without Kingdom Authority operating in him. He is free to choose as he wishes, but he is not free to choose the consequences of that choice. He may show his freedom to choose by stepping out of a window of a skyscraper. At that point, however, he is not free to choose the consequences of that choice. The choice then chooses for him.

The paradoxical truth is that the freedom and authority we have in Jesus is because we are under authority. Let me illustrate. The train that runs with incredible speed on ribbons of steel is far freer to be what it was made to be than a so-called free train that may choose an excursion through the meadow. It is only free to wreck. A train is made to run on tracks, not in the green glades along the tracks.

When we wrap our arms around this truth, we will be set free and filled with joy as the psalmist who said, “Thy statutes have been my songs in the house of my pilgrimage” (Ps. 119:54). The law of God is a song in our life. The late, great Dr. Vance Havner had this to say:

One does not ordinarily associate law books with songbooks, mandates with music. But here's a man to whom the law of the Lord is no burdensome thing, a pattern of hard lines. Here's a radiant believer to whom law is liberty and service like unto a happy song.

One may be good in such a bad way. Some of us have punctiliously kept the statutes but have failed to sing the songs. We have whiteness but no light. The Christian life does have its stern, unyielding requirements; but every law has a song written on the back and between the requirements runs the refrain. Duty turns to delight and mandates become melodies.

There must be a law if there is to be liberty. Try to play a piano and you will run into laws as fixed as the decrees of the Medes and Persians. But through those statutes you reach the songs, drudgery leads to delight. The law of Christ brings the liberty of Christ. Keep His statutes, and they become songs. The other side of commandment is conquest. What seems restraint to the outsider means release to you.

“Ye shall know the truth”—there are the statutes. “The truth shall make you free”—there is the song. But to know the truth is to know Him, otherwise it is legalism. If the Son shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed. His law book becomes a song book!

THE MISSING MIRACLE

Ours is a supernatural faith built around three personal miracles. Our faith commences with a miracle. We come into the kingdom by a miraculous new birth (John 3:3). Our salvation concludes with a miracle. At our Lord's coming we will be made like him (1 John 3:2). What a transformation! But there is the continuing middle miracle that many seem to miss. This miracle is that we can reign in life right now with Kingdom Authority.

Christians are not just nice people. They are new creatures with spiritual royalty. They are not like a tadpole graduating into a frog but are more like a frog transformed by the kiss of grace to become a prince. “For if by one man's offence death reigned by one; much more they which receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness shall reign in life by one, Jesus Christ” (Rom. 5:17).

But what kind of a king can reign without authority? None! In the same way we cannot reign in the grace and power of our Lord without Kingdom Authority.

The life that God desires for us is to be one of divine Kingdom Authority. While the Bible admits the possibility of defeat for a Christian, it never assumes the necessity of it. We are already kings and priests meant to live in perpetual victory—not necessarily in ease, wealth, or health but victory. Kingdom Authority is not only for the “sweet by and by” but for the believer today. It is your birthright and legacy.

Satan will marshal all the forces of hell and the demons of darkness to keep you in ignorance about your Kingdom Authority. Satan wants to deceive you into thinking that victory is impossible—even if you are swimming in an ocean of potential blessing!

A friend told about an experiment he had seen in a film. A large walleye pike was taken alive and placed in a huge aquarium. The water temperature and surroundings were adjusted to match the lake he was taken from. Then, buckets of live minnows were dumped in. Mr. Pike thought he was in heaven. He began rapidly swallowing these minnows.

A short while later, the researchers played a trick on the fish. They placed a large glass cylinder of water into the tank, then filled it with minnows. Mr. Pike started for the minnows again, only to bump his snout against the invisible barrier. He tried again and again and again. Finally he gave up and settled on the bottom of his “heaven” that had gone awry.

The researchers then removed the cylinder, and the minnows swam freely in the tank. But Mr. Pike never made a move for one of them. They would swim right past his face, but he never moved. He was convinced that he would never have another minnow. He finally starved, surrounded by minnows.

Have you ever thought that you may be asking God for what you already have? It is time for you to open your eyes and possess your possessions. Are you saved? Have you repented of your sin, believed upon Jesus Christ to save you, and made him Lord of your life? Then you are a member of the royal family of God with Kingdom Authority!

Simon Peter tells us, “According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue: Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust” (2 Pet. 1:3-4). One of these days, we're going to wake up and understand what God has already given his children and stop asking him for what we already have. Living victoriously isn't your responsibility; it is rather your response to God's ability.

We are conquerors through Christ. Romans 8:35-37 says: “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.” The key in this passage is the word “through.” How do we have Kingdom Authority? Through Christ. Behind every promise is a person. And his name is Jesus.

As believers, we should walk on conquered ground. Stake your claim of faith on the promises of God. And do as Winston Churchill once s...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Preface
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• Part I
• Part II
• Part III
• Part IV
• Epilogue
• Notes