May 12
Week19
The Greatest Move of God, Part 3
Rick Joyner
If a child has not been disciplined, or held accountable for their behavior, they will likely view any exercise of authority as cruel, extreme, and dictatorial. On the other extreme, those who have been wounded by abusive authority will tend to see even the wisest, most gentle, and caring authority as brutal and threatening.
Like wounded animals, wounded people tend to fear anyone that would try to get close to them, even those seeking to help them. These two scenarios capture a large part of the human population. This makes how we relate to and exercise authority one of the most important issues in our time. This also makes it understandable why the ultimate battle between light and darkness at the end of this age is a battle over authority.
The coming kingdom of God is about God’s authority being brought to the earth. Satan’s ultimate resistance to the kingdom of God is to expand his authority over the earth, and to poison people against God’s authority. He seeks to bind the entire world with his counterfeit authority. To resist this, we must first be able to recognize the difference between God’s authority and Satan’s, resolve to only obey God’s, and exercise His authority and not the devil’s.
The most basic distinction between God’s authority and Satan’s is that God’s authority is exercised in love for those it is serving, and Satan’s authority is exercised with fear to bind and control those by whom it wants to be served.
