Anointed Authority
Pastor Charles Cooley

Moses had great authority in his generation but Scripture declares him to be the 'meekest' of persons. There seems to be a missing ingredient among today's proclaimers of prophetic and apostolic ministries - humility. Jesus had an interesting exchange with the '70' when they returned from ministering -

Then the seventy returned with joy, saying, "Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name." And He said to them, "I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. Behold, I give you authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you. Nevertheless do not rejoice in this, that the spirits are subject to you, but rather rejoice because your names are written in heaven." - Luke 10:17-20

It was natural for them to be excited about finally having victory over their spiritual enemies. I remember how excited and almost shocked I was the first time I prayed for a demon to be cast out - and he was! But, here is where the greatest spiritual danger pops up its ugly head - pride. Jesus addressed this problem quickly and put it in correct perspective. Our rejoicing should be about being seated in heavenly places in Him (Ephesians 1:20,21 ; 2:6), not about casting out demons, healing the sick, having visions or any other spiritual gifting. It is too easy for the enemy of our souls to snare us with pride when we think we did something so great. We have no reason for pride, because we can only act because of the authority we have been given, not earned, and only because of our position in heaven, which we did not earn but received by grace alone. Am I glad for Spiritual giftings? Yes, because they are given for my benefit, but, there is no room or reason for pride.

When I hear such songs as "The devil's under our feet" so let's stomp on him, I think, "They have not learned the lesson of the seventy!" It would be wise to remember that even Michael, the archangel, dared not bring a reviling accusation against Satan, but said rather, "The Lord rebuke you!" (Jude 1:9). We also need to remember the seven sons of Sceva (Acts 19:13-16) who took it upon themselves to exorcise evil spirits saying, "We exorcise you by the Jesus Christ whom Paul preaches." They ended up bloody and fleeing from the demon controlled man.

Do we have authority over our enemy, and his demons? Yes, most assuredly, but, we are Christ's ambassadors and like all ambassadors we only have authority to do what the Lord tells us to do. You might say we are heaven sent to do heaven's work - not our own. Jesus said He only did what He saw His Father doing and only spoke what He heard His Father saying. His ministry was heavenly initiated and so should ours be. I hear so many today saying things like, "Look what so-and-so is doing, look at the healings or the miracles", but mostly they build up some man or woman and not the Lord, without whom they could do nothing of lasting value. We should glory in what the Holy Spirit is doing, not in what some human is doing.

I do not want to be under some blown-up ministry head such as C. Peter Wagner, Pat Robertson, James Dobson, Tod Bentley, or Chuck Pierce, or any other. There is only one head of all ministry - Jesus Christ, and we all are a part of his body and no part is any more important than any other part. Each member of the body of Christ has the authority to do whatever our head, Jesus Christ, asks us to do, no more and no less. All that is really important is that we be obedient to do what we have been told to do by our head.