During this last season we, as a local church, have been looking at spiritual authority.
This mini series focused on the authority of Jesus, as our Lord and our King, as the head of the church and as the One who possesses all authority in the Spiritual realm.
“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me (Jesus).” (Mt 28:18)
Then we saw that Jesus delegated His authority to spiritual leaders and to us as believers: “He called His twelve disciples to Him and gave them authority to drive out evil spirits and to heal every disease and sickness.” (Mt.10:1)
Basson Nel – what happens if I get it wrong?
He did not only give us the authority to drive out evil spirits and to heal every disease and sickness, but He also commanded us to do this: “ Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received, freely give.” (Mt.10:8)
So once the foundation of spiritual authority was in place, we could look more closely at some how to’s, which Mike Hanchett was very helpful with during last weekend – what a privilege the church has to partner with five fold ministry gifts!
Therefore all of us are excited about stepping out and sharing words of knowledge or scriptures, or prophetic words with friends and family and even strangers.
Or ready to pounce on any opportunity to pray for healing, or release – especially as we hear the wonderful testimonies of what takes place not only during the hospital visits, but daily as many of us step over our own “fear factors” into the area of faith in the God of the impossible!
We listen for the whispering of the Holy Spirit while we walk through the isles of Pick and Pay, we see if we can “hear” the name of the lady at the check-out before we read it on her lapel, we fall asleep asking God for dreams and we wake up asking for a pre-view of what encounters the day ahead holds for us.
As a people, we have never been more aware of just how ready God is to co-labour with us through the Holy Spirit.
We are on a journey with the Spirit, on assignment with Him, everywhere we go – ready to “see”, ready to “hear”, ready to pray, and most of all, ready to experience heaven invading earth through our obedience!
Ready to see the Kingdom of Jesus Christ advance, as people have life changing encounters with the God of the universe – right before our eyes.
But as exciting as words from God, healings and miracles are – they are not “it”!
All of these simply point us towards It – Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world!
Every door that the Spirit opens through a word, or healing, or prophecy, is simply another opportunity to point towards the Word, the Healer, the Miracle Worker, the Saviour – Jesus Christ.
We are called to make His name great, to lift Him up and to extend His Kingdom.
But what if – what if I get it wrong?
What if I pray and nothing happens, what if I get the wrong name, or nobody has a pain in their left big toe?
Well, it doesn’t mean that you’re a devil worshiper, or a con-artist, it just means that you’re a Christian who is learning to hear the voice of the Spirit more and more clearly with each passing day.
And you will be very pleased to hear that you share this journey – and the possibility of getting it wrong – with a number of the original 12 disciples, with both great apostles Peter and Paul, and with a few of the early believers mentioned in the book of Acts, to name only a few!
Let’s look at some of the incidents where they “got it wrong” to see if we can learn from these.
The different instances of missing the mark can basically be put into three categories:
Lack of faith, having the wrong heart attitude and not understanding our spiritual authority:
Lack of faith:
Mt.17:14-21(read)
“Why couldn’t we drive it out?” Jesus replied, “Because you have so little faith…”
Christianity is by faith: it is by faith that we are saved, it is by faith that we believe the word of God, it is by faith that we hear the Holy Spirit and it is by faith that we step out!
*We are a people of faith, yet we are on a journey, a journey on which our faith will grow and be strengthened.
Ironically our faith is being built up only as and when we exercise faith, when we step out – faith is spelled r-i-s-k, there are no guarantees; that is why it is called faith.
Faith is all about believing that which is not seen, that which often cannot be explained.
The spiritual realm is accessed by faith – heaven is moved by faith, the invisible is brought into the visible by faith and God is pleased by faith! (Heb.11:6)
But the good news is that God does not only give us the mandate and the authority to step out, He will even give us the faith!
When this same incident is described in the gospel of Mark, he records the following conversation between Jesus and the boy’s father:
“Jesus asked the boy’s father, “How long has he been like this?” “From childhood,” he answered. “It has often thrown him into fire or water to kill him. But if You can do anything, take pity on us and help us.” ‘If you can’?” said Jesus. “Everything is possible for him who believes.” Immediately the boy’s father exclaimed, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!” (Mk.9:21-24)
“I do believe, I do have faith, please help me in my unbelief, please increase my measure of faith” – and Jesus, by grace, meets him where he is at and heals the boy!
Faith is a muscle that grows with exercise – stepping out in the safe waters of a hospital visit where you are surrounded by faith warriors, who will lead, guide and support you, is exactly what we need to build our faith muscles.
How will you ever know if you have enough faith?
There is no Bible quiz that you can take, no blood test, no biorhythm reading to test your faith level – there are no guarantees – we will have to step out, in faith, by faith!
Wrong heart attitude:
Fortunately, we at Liberty never have shadows passing over our hearts, but for the visitor’s sake we will briefly cover this point:
Lk.9:51-55 (read)
Here’s some Christianity 101 advice: If your question to God is: “Lord, do you want me to call down fire from heaven to destroy them?”
Then the answer will more often than not be: “NO!” Or at best: “Not today!”
James and John stepped out and got it wrong!
The point this morning is not to focus on the negative; it is not to list those who have missed the mark, it is to learn from the mistakes of great men who have gone before us.
The 2 brothers got it wrong, because their judgment was clouded – it was clouded by racism and personality.
They grew up believing that God loved the Jews and hated the Samaritans, and these Samaritans just confirmed why God hated them and why they deserved nothing but fire and brimstone!
Most of us have to revisit our own upbringing to ensure that we deal with the bias within our own hearts: whether you grew up believing that God loved whites and hates blacks, or that whites were privileged racists who deserved the wrath of God; makes no difference.
The Kingdom of Jesus Christ knows only the colour of the blood – His blood shed for us all.
Ensure that your mindset towards other nationalities, races, even other faiths will not cloud your view or block your hearing – the Holy Spirit might very well want to use you in that exact area.
It just may be that God wants to use you to bring a word or a supernatural healing to the Muslim lady from Somalia selling fake Nike tekkies in Hibernia street this week.
Their nickname as “Sons of Thunder” also tells us something about the personalities of these 2 sons of Zebedee, and their ability to be rational, calm and collected, acting with wisdom and meekness!
What character trait are you best known for – does it lend itself to advancing the Kingdom?
Mt.16:21-23 (read)
More Christianity 101 advice: Whenever you think you should rebuke Jesus – don’t!
Sometimes we can get it horribly wrong by not being on the same page as our Lord!
“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways My ways,” declares the LORD. (Isa 55:8)
Peter had good intentions, sadly his good intentions would have cost all of humanity our salvation, by trying to keep Jesus from the Cross!
*We are not always called to understand, but we are always called to obedience!
I want to hear the voice of God clearly and I want to boldly act on what I hear, even when I do not perfectly understand it.
Why is it anyway that we want to understand the word which the Lord wants us to bring to someone else?
Our role is to hear what God wants us to do or say, and not necessarily to interpret or even to understand it.
Acts 15:36-39a (read)
So who says that Paul was wrong here?
Well, the fact that Paul himself later wrote the following:
“My fellow prisoner Aristarchus sends you his greetings, as does Mark, the cousin of Barnabas. (You have received instructions about him; if he comes to you, welcome him.)” (Col 4:10)
“Only Luke is with me. Get Mark and bring him with you, because he is helpful to me in my ministry.” (2Ti 4:11 see also Phm.24)
This, together with the fact that this Mark is one of the four authors of the gospels, could possibly indicate that he was not such a dud after all!
Paul picked up an offense which clouded his vision and dulled his hearing regarding John Mark, but by the grace of God, he had both the opportunity and the character to set it right.
Offense can cause us not to hear from someone; or for someone – we need to ensure that we are free from offense.
These are a few examples of those who got it slightly wrong, but how about a real, genuine, mess up of cataclysmic proportions:
We find seven brothers who did not understand their Spiritual Authority and therefore messed up pretty badly in Acts 19:11-16 (read).
Who would want to be one of these guys?
But wait, this is not all, fortunately, there is more: Acts 19:17-20 (read)
I am comforted by the knowledge that I will not get it right every time either – sometimes I will miss the mark, but God can still come through!
The grace of God is so incredible, that even when we step out and miss it – He can still come through and save the day!
The account of the seven sons of Sceva is quite encouraging to me – it is one of the best examples of God fulfilling Rom.8:28: “And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him, who have been called according to His purpose.”
Only the sovereign God whom we serve can turn around a situation like that!
Ask yourself: “How was the revival in Ephesus started?”
Was it by the powerful preaching of the word of God?
Was it because the Spirit of God moved powerfully to do miraculous signs and wonders, were many healed of long term illness, were someone brought back from the dead?
No, actually some new believers got badly beaten up when they tried to cast out a demon!
Wow, I hope no-one got to hear of that!
No, actually the word got out immediately because they ran away screaming with terror, bleeding and naked!
Well, that must have been the end of the gospel in Ephesus!
No, actually this is how the revival broke out in that city.
This is how God broke into the lives of those dabbling with the occult and brought many to salvation.
This is what sparked many to destroy their books and scrolls of sorcery – even to the value of R4 mil. (a drachma was the wage of a labourer for one day – in today’s terms about R80 if you can still find someone next to the road willing to work for that.)
This is what caused the word of God to spread widely and to grow in power!
This is encouraging!
If God can use the seven sons of Sceva, then God can use me!
If God can turn around this situation for the glory and the fame of His name, then surely I can step out when I feel the stirring of the Holy Spirit.
If God is able to turn this situation into revival, then surely the Kingdom will not come to a grinding halt in George and in the entire Garden Route if I miss the mark: if I pray and nothing happens, if I get the wrong name, or if nobody has a pain in their left big toe!
And what’s more, is that the seven sons of Sceva never had the benefit of a mini-series on Spiritual authority before they stepped out!
So what happens if I get it wrong?
The grace of God carries me – that’s what happens!
I have the opportunity to build my faith, by listening to the testimonies of others, also by reading the Word of God which is full of His promises and by stepping out in the authority that I have in Him.
I have a responsibility to keep my heart close to God and free from offense and clouds.
And I have the knowledge that even if I do get it wrong, even really, really wrong, my God still has the ability to step in and to save the day!
“My grace is sufficient for you, for My power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me… For when I am weak, then I am strong.” (2 Cor.12:9-10)
Go ahead, step out – go and cause a revival in George!
