Authority

And they were astonished at his doctrine: for he taught them as one that had authority, and not as the scribes.

                              Mark 1:22

   There is a place of shared authority available for every follower of Jesus Christ, to speak in his name with astounding results.  But this book does not expound upon the tenets of mainstream religion's predominant, world-conciliatory, prosperity gospel, which has attenuated and compromised the gospel of Jesus Christ for worldly affluence and affirmation.  Rather, this book is about the believer winning a place of authority in Christ by the self-denial which the LORD Jesus himself taught, by taking up our cross daily, and following him faith to faith.  And since he went to Calvary before he ascended to glory, this is about we as Christians losing our lives for his sake, and the gospel's sake, in order to find them. This is the undiluted, comprehensive gospel  of Jesus Christ, and him crucified.  Here I contend earnestly that to speak effectively in the name of Jesus Christ we have to first die to our own self-interests, we have to come out of our insatiable covetousness and love for the world, and the things of the world, to live and to move and to have our beings assimilated into the life and person, and power of Jesus Christ.  When we live as the LORD Jesus Christ taught us to live, then the world will see and hear the indisputable evidence of him.

   Yes, this is sanctification and holiness preaching.  In general, we as Christians have sold our testimony of the resurrection power of Jesus Christ for worldly acceptance and shiny things; we have no viable Witness of the healing, and delivering, and redemptive power of God in his Christ.  Christians talk about everything but Christ.  We will not renounce our worldly love and self-indulgence, and take up our cross to have the credibility.  The world looks at the contemporary Church and sees the reflection of themselves.  We lust for what they have, and we have allowed them to back us into a corner and command our silence so we could have it.

   We straddle the fence and emasculate our own testimony; God cannot trust us, and neither can the world.  Again, we brag about everything but Jesus.  Because to talk about Jesus in the concourse and in the market-place, and confess him before men as I am commanded, I am first going to have to know him intimately, and be living a life of virtue and rectitude to substantiate the truth of my testimony.  If I am going to positively impact my sphere of influence in the world for the kingdom of God, I will first have to be known throughout that same domain as a man of God.  I must live the same life to which I bear Witness, or I will be summarily dismissed.  The world has heard it all before.

   Church, we can by progressive Grace and Truth take up our cross, and by denying or abnegating our own agenda, we can follow on to know the LORD Jesus Christ in the power of his resurrection, and in his own authority, occupy our proscribed orbit for the kingdom of God.  It is as we live the life of Christ, that we may speak out of the person of Christ as his appointed emissary; when our eye is single for the LORD and Saviour of our soul, and when he can trust us to faithfully represent his interests.  Correlative to our living and abiding in Christ, separated from the love of the world, owning and esteeming the reproach of Christ as greater riches than all the treasures of this world, that we may speak with power in the name of Jesus Christ.

   There is an appointed place of authority for every believer in Jesus Christ who will give their life to have it, and he will accept nothing less than all; as it should be, for this is what he first gave.  Let us enter into the sovereign potential of his resurrection authority, and join the LORD Jesus Christ in his intercessions, where all things are possible.