Authority and Impact

They went out, and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word by the signs that followed. Amen. (Mark 16:20)

What happened to miracles? Why are we not walking on what Christ promised we would walk in? Has God become powerless or are we the blocks to miracles?

I want us to briefly look at what I believe is where the link got broken.

God is not an ATM of anything. We therefore do not need, nor can we use a PIN of any sort to access His power.

He is the LORD of the universe and so is answerable to no one. He calls all the shots and so does not delegate any to even the best of us.

What do I mean?

We can only operate under His Lordship. By this I mean that the only time we can succeed is the time we are following His orders.

For I, myself, am a man under authority, having men under me; and I say to this one, Go, and he goes; and to another, Come, and he comes; and to my servant, Do this, and he does it. (Luke 7:8)

This is the principle of authority. It is only those who are under authority who can have authority. We can issue orders only if we are following orders.

Miracles are not created just by believing. They are activated by obedience. And obedience begins with total submission.

Never in the Bible do we see believers looking for miracles to perform. Miracles simply happened when their obedience collided with a need or obstruction.

Nobody in the Bible went looking for demons to cast out. They simply cast out those that sought to obstruct their obedience.

That we will trample on serpents and scorpions is a valid promise from Christ Himself. But we do not go looking for them.

Paul did not go to the bush to look for the adder. His obedience was the one that neutralized that venom. In short the serpent collided with him in his obedience. That was the reason he could shake it off harmlessly.

And it was the same with demons. We only see exorcism when the demon possessed came in the path of the believer. Then they were cast out.

And we see the same with our Lord. He was not on the lookout for miracles to perform. He taught the word and dealt with the situations that arose.

We notice that His opponents’ greatest challenge on Him was His authority. They simply wanted to know where He got His authority.

What was His response? I am about doing the will of My Father. I do what I see My Father doing.

Anything blocking that was removed, be it an illness or demons. That was how He performed miracles.

His agenda was dictated by what His Father wanted.

I hope we get the drift.

Our obedience is the key to our authority.

You want to access miracles? Seek greater obedience. Want to triumph over demons? Seek greater obedience.

The age of miracles did not cease. The problem is our obedience quotient.

We sort that out and we can be sure to start walking in miracles.

But another problem is that we love the display of the miraculous. We think that a miracle is nothing if nobody knows about it. That simply blocks the miracle as it stops being for God’s glory.

Jesus hid from publicity after performing miracles. He forbade people from broadcasting those miracles.

Do we think He will allow us to use miracles to market us and our ministries?

That, I am convinced, is the reason miracles are missing in our Christian experience.

But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth. (Acts 1:8)

Finally, miracles serve the purpose of making our witness visible. Like John called them, they are signs to point to Christ and His salvation.

I hope you see that we are nowhere in that equation.

Miracles will start flowing when we remove our persona completely from the whole thing and allow God to use them to draw people to Himself. I hope we will start hiding and disappearing from the scene once God has used us to perform a miracle.

Forget those social media shares as they will block the glory that should go to Christ alone.

But that is easy once we sort out the submission and obedience aspects of our faith.

Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen. (Matthew 28: 19, 20)

Walking in obedience to what Christ has called us to be and drawing others to that life is the key to walking in victory, not just miracles.

Will you commit to consistently reading God’s word to know better what He wants of you?