You Gave Them Authority Over All Things
”And furthermore, it is not angels who will control the future world we are talking about. For in one place the Scriptures say,
‘What are mere mortals that you should think about them, or a son of man that you should care for him? Yet for a little while you made them a little lower than the angels and crowned them with glory and honor.’ ‘You gave them authority over all things.’”
Now when it says ‘all things,’ it means nothing is left out. But we have not yet seen all things put under their authority. What we do see is Jesus, who for a little while was given a position ‘a little lower than the angels’; and because He suffered death for us, he is now ‘crowned with glory and honor.’ Yes, but God’s grace, Jesus tasked death for everyone. God, for home and through whom everything was made, chose to bring many children into glory. And it was only right that he should make Jesus, through His suffering, a perfect leader, fit to bring them into their salvation. So now Jesus and the ones He makes holy have the same Father. That is why Jesus is not ashamed to call them his brothers and sisters.” (Hebrews 2:5-10)
In Psalm 8:4-6 that is being referred to in this verse, David is speaking out about men. He is not speaking of one man, but multiple “mortals or human beings.” They are given a position lower than angels, crowned with glory and honor with authority over all things.
Eventually, we will be taken to a position higher than the angels. I had been praying to see my mom in her heavenly body for a time before she passed on. I’m not sure why this was important to me but it was on my heart. When she passed, I went to the place where I could see best spiritually to peer over in heaven and hopefully see her. I didn’t see her right away but on the way home, I had a vision. It was beautiful. She had brilliant glory streaming from her eyes and was very large. She didn’t look like her earthly self but I knew it was her. She was in charge of things in heaven with authority over a realm or area and was flying with angels, filled with joy.
It gave me such peace to have this vision of her. It also helped me to see how short this life is and miniscule compared to our future heavenly life. What we do in this life matters, not what we make or obtain, but how we live. We are not taking our things with but we do take our faith, hope, love and the honey pot of His glory with us.
From the very beginning in the garden, we were told to be fruitful and multiple, taking authority over all that existed in the world. When Adam and Eve ate of the apple, they gave their authority to Satan for the promise of promotion into gods. They lost their authority by wanting to be like God rather than with God and connected to God.
When Jesus came, He restored rightful order. He paid the price as penalty for the sin so that by being in Him and walking with Him, we would again take our position of authority over all thins. Part of the process that we go through of renewal of our minds and thinking, is understanding our authority. We have it but often don’t believe or enter into it.
There is this piece of paper that had written across the top, “Open Doors” and then had these door shaped rectangles underneath that you write what doors you hope to be open to you. Above it I had written “Confessions with the mouth.” Maybe at the time I had put it together but it so hit me as I read it together— Confessions with the mouth open doors.
When we are in Jesus, we have been set right and have authority with our words. What we say and what we do, have power over it. God wants us to walk in authority as we are in Him and trust in Him. And it is not over some things that He gave us authority, but all things.
“Now when it says ‘all things,’ it means nothing is left out. But we have not yet seen all things put under their authority” (Hebrews 2:8). It goes on to say that Jesus makes us holy and we have the same Father, being called brothers and sisters to Him.
What this means is that our full authority comes as we walk in unity. As we walk in Jesus, we walk in this authority that we were destined to have from the beginning. Unity brings a greater measure of authority with it. It took 120 disciples all praying in unity for the power of God to drop and bring forth the baptism of the Holy Spirit for the body of Christ where then 3,000 folks became believers that night.
Our faith is not meant to be walked out in a vacuum. We are meant to lean in together. As we do, we go further than we could ever hope or imagine. It is as we pray for each other, encourage each other and witness to each other that we grow further in faith and discovery of His power and authority. One person shares a testimony of a healing that open’s the eyes of someone else and encourages their heart to believe.
The church grows in strength as people of faith walk together and believe together for more. Like entering and taking the Promised Land, we take the land together, not as one individual soldier. We will enter into the fullness of the promises as each person takes their place in the body of Christ with their giftings and presses in. In this place of unity and authority, nothing can stand in our way.
Yet, this also works in the opposite way. We see this on occasion as well where the body has shrunk back and was diminished as a whole. Because most the spies gave a bad report, the whole body lost faith and could not enter into the Promised Land. They had to wait for an entire new generation to rise up under Joshua’s leadership of faith and Caleb’s faith filled encouragement to cross over.
We even see Jesus being very aware of this effect when he was in human form. He only took certain faith-filled people with Him when He was doing a powerful miracle. He commanded everyone else to leave the room. And we know that in His hometown, He could do only limited miracles due to their unbelief.
Here is a God with full authority who has placed this authority into the hands of His people, so much so, that they have the ability to stop Him from performing miracles. He gave us the ability to over-ride the miraculous that He wants to accomplish. He is a God of miracles and wants the very best for everyone but allows us to override Him in the natural and limit His power.
This is why, in His discipling of people, He spoke frequently about their faith. And this is why it is faith that pleases God. He wants to do the miraculous among us and wants to rule through us but has delegated much of this authority to us. He constantly rebuked His disciples for their lack of faith. He also highlighted people who had faith and told them, very pleased, “Your faith has made you well.”
Much of the training He provided was not in getting the rules right. In fact, He was a constant threat to those who followed all the rules as He broke the ones that were man made. It is through Him, and our belief in Him, that we are made holy. His training was in faith to believe for more. He was constantly training His disciples to believe for greater. And as they witnessed more and more of the miraculous among them, they could believe for more.
Jesus tells His disciples to give the 5,000 people something to eat. They looked around in the natural and could not see, by faith, what was available. So, Jesus used a little boy’s fish and loaves to multiply them in the hands of the disciples.
Immediately after, He sent His disciples across the waters. They later saw Jesus walking to them on the water and stilling the storm right before them. It says they were amazed “For they had not understood about the loaves, because their heart was hardened” (Mark 6:52). It was not that they were hard-hearted in their compassion. Rather, their lack of belief. They saw food multiply in their hands and then still were struggling with faith to believe. [1]
Then they went in a village together and it says about Jesus, “Wherever He entered, into villages, cities, or the country, they laid the sick in the marketplaces, and begged Him that they might just touch the hem of His garment. And as many as touched Him were made well” (Mark 6:56).
After the Holy Spirit came in power, landing on them and filling them, they finally came to a place of understanding. Peter proclaims in Acts 2:15:17, “These people are not drunk, as you suppose. It’s only nine in the morning! No, this is what was spoken by the prophet Joel:
“‘In the last days, God says,
I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
your young men will see visions,
your old men will dream dreams.
We know Peter finally ‘got it’ because it says in Acts 5:12,14-15,” The apostles performed many signs and wonders among the people, and with one accord the believers gathered together in Solomon’s Colonnade….Yet more and more believers were brought to the Lord—large numbers of both men and women. As a result, people brought the sick into the streets and laid them on cots and mats, so that at least Peter’s shadow might fall on some of them as he passed by.”
People were healed in the presence of the Lord as a result of the believers being both, in faith, and in one accord as they gathered together. It was a joining of faith and uniting together that brought such an overflow in the Holy Spirit that people were instantly healed.
I have seen this for myself. I once was praying and fasting for a women’s retreat for a few days. There were others that were also praying, fasting and pressing in for this event. It was at someplace where there have been prior powerful outflows of the Spirit in the past as well. I don’t know what the right combination was but God’s Spirit was pouring out immensely.
There were signs and wonders everywhere. People were being healed instantly. I had put my hands over someone’s ears and prayed for them with a partner and they were healed and could hear in their one ear that had been totally deaf. I was just as amazed as they were for this incredible miracle and gift from God. And it wasn’t the only one, they were happening in abundance.
Hebrews 2:4 says, “And God confirmed the message by giving signs and wonders and various miracles and gifts of the Holy Spirit whenever He chose.”
Ephesians 4:4 reminds us that just as there is one body and one Spirit, we have been called to one glorious hope for the future. Here it is clearly laid out a few verses later, “”Now these are the gifts Christ gave to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do His work and build up the church, the body of Christ. This will continue until we all come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature in the Lord, measuring up to the full and complete standard of Christ.”
The standard of Christ here is becoming like Christ as we are also becoming one, united in faith and knowledge of Christ. As we become more and more like Christ as the body, with Him as our head, we step into the fullness of what God has for us.
Unity it says also comes from the Spirit of God bringing us to together in faith as one. Ephesians 4:16 says that He makes the whole body fit together perfectly. “As each part does its won special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.
So, what was Christ like when He walked the earth? He not only spoke the truth but He performed many miracles, signs and wonders. His life was flooded with the miraculous. So how can we claim to be like Christ if we do not even operate in the gifts of the Spirit?
When Jesus called His twelve disciples and sent them out, He gave them authority to do the miraculous. Matthew 10:1 says, “And calling His twelve disciples to Him, Jesus gave them authority over unclean spirits, so that they could drive them out and heal every disease and sickness.” This was the start of walking like Christ.
At the very core of Jesus was walking in love. And He demonstrated His love by going to the cross. But why did He go to the cross? We know it was for the joy set before Him but it was also the result of performing many miracles. Walking in the miraculous and setting people free, healing them, and raising them from the dead brought persecution.
Having been in a place of despair and wanting to die every day, I can’t imagine still being alive had God not intervened and set me free. Using Christians in the body of Christ to pray for me or intercede on my behalf, I was healed and set free of tremendous pain. I was set free and delivered from so much in my walk by the power of God and also by receiving truth spoken in power. From toxic shame to anger and harshness, to people pleasing, to tremendous anxiety, to depression, to eating disorders, strife, stress, to addictions, to everything else in-between. It was no small work that God did in my life.
I once had a picture that I was a cripple in a wheelchair and couldn’t get up. Then as God healed me, I stood up and folded up the wheelchair and walked away. My life has never been the same. I have deep and unexplainable gratitude. Isn’t this what love looks like? To the blind man who can see or to the man with a lame arm who can now use it, to be healed is the most incredible gift one could ever receive.
Lord Jesus, it all starts with being united with You so we can walk in your likeness. As a man leaves His father and mother and is joined with his wife and the two are united into one, this is the great mystery of how we, as the church, are one with You (Ephesians 5:30). As we are one with you, help us to also become one with each other in love, hope and expectation of the miraculous to operate among us.
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