Spiritual AuthoritySample

Spiritual authority can be diminished by the presence of sin in the life of the believer.

Jesus ended His response to Peter by warning the disciples that their spiritual authority in prayer would be compromised by a lack of forgiveness in their lives: 

“Whenever you stand praying, forgive, if you have anything against anyone, so that your Father who is in heaven will also forgive you your transgressions” (Mark 11:25). 

The presence of sin not confessed is often the root cause of a lack of power and spiritual authority in the life of the believer.  In this situation, Jesus challenges us to remember that the particular sin of begrudging forgiveness to those who have sinned against us will block the flow of forgiveness for our own sins: 

“But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father who is in heaven forgive your transgressions” (Mark 11:26). 

Jesus’s words to the disciples to understand that their prayers could have the spiritual authority to move mountains should not be understood as a step toward the excesses of a “name it and claim it” theology. 

Our spiritual authority in prayer is derived from the authority that God grants; we should neither ask nor expect to receive things that God has not explicitly authorized. We must remember that even as Jesus gave the disciples the promise of authority to move mountains, He was living out His final days in obedience to the Father under the shadow of His soon coming death on a cross. Jesus’s promise should likewise challenge us in the opposite extreme of going through life without experiencing the supernatural intervention of God in our lives. As we grow deeper in our knowledge of God, who He is and what He has done, we will be emboldened in our faith as we receive spiritual authority to scale our seemingly impassable mountains. 

Are you seeking His will for your needs or, in your prayer life, are you treating God as a genie in a bottle? 

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