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Our Authority In Christ, Part Four | Nancy Dufresne | Jesus the Healer Broadcast
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Hi, I'm Nancy Dufresne. Welcome to our podcast channel. We know you'll be blessed by today's message. We're so glad you're joining us today. For Jesus the Healer, we have been having such a good time. We've been teaching on a series on the authority that belongs to us in Christ. And so we invite you go back and watch the three previous episodes to this one because it'll paint a clearer and more broad picture of you, for you to you understand what belongs to you in Christ. It's such an important truth for us to get hold of. You know, the Word tells us that my people are destroyed for the lack of knowledge. Satan is counting on our ignorance. Yes, that's the only way he can work. His plan is through our ignorance. So when we gain light of what is ours in Christ, Satan can no longer work what he used to work in our lives. And so I want us to start today with Psalms chapter 8, verse 4. This is where we have been starting in each of these episodes. Psalms chapter 8 and verse 4. It says, what is man, that thou art mindful of him, and the Son of man that thou visitest him? For thou hast made man a little lower than the angels. Well, the Old Testament was originally written in Hebrew and Hebrew. And in the Hebrew it doesn't use the word angels, it uses the word Elohim, which is God. So it would read this way. For thou has made him a little lower than God and has crowned man with glory and honor. God has made man to have dominion over the works of thy hands. Thou has put all things under his feet. I love this phrase. God made us to have dominion. Dominion is not to be a foreign flow to us. Walking in our authority is not to be foreign to us. It's connected with how we were made to function, is that we are to exercise dominion and authority. Not human, just our own natural dominion and authority only, but a divine authority. Well, what is that divine authority? The authority that belongs to us in Christ. When we go and we look through Ephesians and in the previous episodes we referred to this, that it was by the power of God that Jesus was raised from the dead. And he was raised far above all principalities, powers, might and dominion. All of these opposed his raising, but they were defeated. And he was raised far above them, seated, seated at the right hand of the Father. But then it goes on in Ephesians chapter two, and it tells that because of God's great love for us that he raised us up also, that we were Made alive, quickened, and raised with Christ. Jesus is the head. We are the body. Because we are the body to the head, we have the same shared authority that the head holds, that the head carries. So it's not a different authority than Jesus has. It's the exact same authority. Why? Because the head and the body are one. It's not a different flow. It's the same flow. And so we need to understand that we have this shared authority. And so many Christians don't understand that. And that's why the devil's pushing them around. That's why the devil's doing things in their lives that they could stand up and forbid from happening. And if they will forbid it, the power of God, God will back them up. Why? Because they're authorized. They have the authority. And so many people are waiting for God to do something about their problem. And God is waiting on people to stand up in the authority that is theirs in Christ and forbid certain things to happen. Amen. And I, Jesus, made this statement in Matthew, chapter 18, in verse 18, Whatsoever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven. We could say it this way. Whatever you forbid, whatever you bind, whatever you say, I'm not going to have that anymore. Notice this? Heaven will have movement. Heaven will back you up. But the movement begins on earth, not in heaven. Earth initiated something. Earth initiated something. That means God authorizes us to initiate some things. And when it's in line with His Word and in line with his plan, heaven will back it up. And then Jesus went on and said, whatsoever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. Or we could say it this way. Whatever you permit, whatever you invite, whatever you allow. That's what heaven allows. And people say, well, I don't know why God is allowing certain things to happen to me. Well, it's because you're allowing certain things to happen. God allows what we allow. So if. If we were to ask God, God, why are you allowing that to happen? If we could hear, and we were sensitive and to hear what he would say, he would say, well, why are you allowing it? Why? Because you had the same authority, the shared authority. Jesus is Jesus. The authority belongs to him. But he shared it with, with the body, because we are one with him. The body is in the earth. I said, the body is in the earth. The body of Christ. The church is in the earth. The head is going to carry out its desires through the body. If you were to say, I want to get up and go into the other room, your head makes that decision. But it needs your body to do it. It's the same thing with Jesus. He has a plan, he has a purpose of what's to be carried out in the earth, but he has to have the body to cooperate with him to do it. Therefore, we have to have the authority to carry out what the head desires. Amen. And we do have the authority. Now I will say this. If there are some things in your life that are out of order, if there are things in your life that just are not working right, go refresh yourself in the truths of authority and dominion. If things are out of order, it's because you allowed it to get that way. And you have to refresh yourself because it's so easy to slip back into a floating mode to where just whatever comes, you let it come. That's never the way Jesus operated. He always operated using, exercising his authority, his dominion. Every day he was opposed in his earthly middle ministry every single day of his earthly ministry. Once he was anointed by John the Baptist in the River Jordan and he went out ministering to the people. There was opposition everywhere and he exercised his authority. Another thing. You'll notice that when Satan showed up on the scene, maybe through someone demon possessed, Jesus never walked off until Satan was dealt with. Jesus never left Satan as the last one on the scene. He was the last one. Why? Because the last word stands. Whenever there was somebody brought to Jesus that was bound and wanted to be free, Jesus always dealt with him. Why? He walked in his authority. You have the same authority. And that authority was will bless the earth, it'll bless your life, it'll bless your home, it'll bless your business, it'll bless the earth. Jesus said, satan comes to steal, kill and destroy. But I've come that you might have life. Wouldn't we say that's part of the flow of blessing? Our authority is not given so that we can dominate people and get our own way with people. It's so we can bring blessing and drive back what the enemy wants to do in the earth. We drive back the plan of the enemy. We drive back that darkness. And you say, well, how do we ha. How come we have to do that? Because Adam originally had the authority on the earth and he turned it over to Satan. When he sinned against God in the Garden of Eden. He not only lost his fellowship with God, but when fellowship was broken, the flow of authority was broken. So when Jesus restored fellowship, now the flow of authority is also restored because it flows because of who we're connected to. Our authority works because of who we're connected to. And when Adam lost that connection, he lost his authority. So Satan took that authority and destroyed with it, caused harm with it. And Jesus said, satan's come to steal, kill and destroy. That's what he's done with the authority. Because people will say, well, why does God allow things on. On the earth? Well, because Adam allowed it. Did you get that? Because Adam allowed it. Adam handed his authority over First Corinthians, chapter 4, and verse 4 calls Satan the God of this world. Well, where'd he get that from? He didn't get that from God. He got that from Adam. But he's not the God of us. Because Jesus spoiled principalities and powers. He made a show of them openly. He defeated defeated Satan, and then he handed us that victory. What is that victory? That authority, that dominion has been restored back to us and is our privilege to be able to exercise that authority in our lives, in the earth, and to be a blessing to other people. Amen. So you're authorized to not put up with what you used to put up with, examine your life, look at it, and say, is this the way I want it to be? Because if there's something in your life or in your home that isn't as you want it to be, you're authorized to change it. Amen. Speak and exercise your dominion and your authority to bring blessing to that home. Now, I want us to go to James, chapter four, and this is such an important verse that people need to understand James, chapter four and verse seven. It says this. Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Well, notice the instruction. There's two instructions. Number one, submit to God. Number two, resist the devil. You can't get to number two unless you went to number one first. Many times people want to resist the devil, but they're not submitting to God. They're not obeying God. They're not yielding God to God. They're not responding to God, yet they want to resist the devil and have to leave. Well, there's a divine order here. That authority works when your connection with the one your authority flows from is in place. Submitting to God is to submit to his word. To submit to God is to submit to what he says to you by the Spirit of God. Amen. To submit to God means this. Obey what he's telling you to do. Yes. You know, the word of God is God's word to all of his children. But God will speak to you specifically by His Spirit. To speak specifically to what he's looking to have you do in your own life, a direction he's looking for you to take. Well, to submit to God, you have to submit to what His Word says, but also submit to what is he saying by the Spirit. And I will I say this, and it's important for you to understand. God's always dealing with us about something. Always. Why? Because he's working to bring us into the fullness of the stature of Christ, the maturity. And he's always working to bring us into spiritual maturity. So he deals with us all the time, not because he's picking at us, but because he's taking us further. He's taking us further into who we are in Christ. He's taking us further into the maturity of who we are in Christ rather. And so he's always dealing with us. Now, if we want our authority to work, we have to acknowledge what's he dealing with us about. And we have to obey those dealings, cooperate with those dealings. What's God? Some. Some people. God may be dealing with them about. You need to be faithful to your local church. Why? Because the Word says, don't forsake the assembling of yourselves together. Many times people are trying to resist the devil, but they're not obeying when God's dealing with them about. You need to have a pastor. You need to get in church. See, you have to submit to God. In what is he dealing with you about? What has the Word instructed you in that you're not doing? Because that's when your authority will flow uninterrupted. What is God dealing with you about? Maybe he's dealing with you about. That you need to be faithful with your tithes and offerings. Well, I give with. You know, I give when I can. That's not what the Word says. The Word says that the. The first part, the first tenth of all, your increase belongs to God. It's already His. Amen. It's already His. So when we obey him in that, then our authority works, you see? And I'm just using that as examples of things where people may need to pay attention to sometimes. Maybe somebody's not walking in love with their spouse. Maybe it's the way they're treating each other in their marriage and they want to resist the devil off their finances. Well, then you have to submit to God. What is he dealing with you about? And I know this. When God's dealing with us about it, it's because we're able to make those changes. He enables us by his spirit and his power to make those changes. It's not just done by natural human effort. If he's dealing with us about something, he's showing us what he's empowering us to deal with. That's good. So we have to submit to God, then we resist the devil and he will flee. Our authority will work for us, but we can't resist the devil effectively while we're standing on the ground of disobedience. We have to be standing on the ground of obedience and what you would call submitting to God. Amen. If the devil is not fleeing when you resist him, then and the situation isn't changing, check and see if you're first of all submitting to God and what he's dealing with you about. Don't just keep resisting, resisting, resisting and getting no results. Then there's something being missed. Go back and say, father, what is there that I need to submit to you about? What is it that I'm missing? What are you dealing with me about? What have you been putting on my heart? Well, God hadn't spoken to me. Well, it doesn't have to be an. It doesn't have to be audible words. It's just something on an impression on the inside of you. You have a sense this isn't right. I need to address this. This isn't right. I need to change that. That's the dealings of God. It's not always audible words that you can identify. It's a sense and a knowing that something needs to be addressed. And it's important that we live at that place of obedience because we're going to need our authority to work for us every day. There's never a day we won't need our authority to work. Let me ask you this. As a parent and you had children, is there ever a day that you don't need your authority as a parent, you need your authority to work. Right. Even so, as a child of God, because we're dealing with an enemy who hates God and hates us, we have to have our authority that it's in good working order. Well, how's that going to be? We have to be submitted to God. Amen. What's he dealing with us about? And what a pleasure to cooperate with God. It's a joy to do that. Amen. Now know this, that heaven is a perfect society. But even in heaven, in the perfect society, things tried to get out of order. One day Satan rose up and he said, I will put my throne will be exalted above God's throne. Well, love rose up. God, who is love, rose up and said, not here, and exercised authority and kicked him out. And Jesus said, I was there. I beheld Satan fall like lightning. Why? Because even though authority was God's, it didn't operate till he exercised it. Even though authority is yours, it won't operate until you exercise it. Even heaven has to exercise authority. Then you're going to have to exercise authority and not sit back and wait for somebody to exercise it for you. Amen. Hallelujah. People wonder, why, if Satan is defeated, do I have to deal with him? Because you have to exercise your authority. And I will say this, God had to maintain order. He has to maintain there's an order of heaven. He maintains that. How does he maintain it? With authority. Authority is what helps him to maintain order, the exercise and the use of authority. Amen. Hallelujah. So we had the same thing. Jesus said, behold, I give you power. I give you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy. And nothing shall by any means hurt you when you're exercising your authority. Now, if you're not going to exercise your authority, those things can hurt you. But when you're exercising your authority, you're treading over, you're stepping over. You're not letting them stop you or hinder you in your progress. Those things can't hurt you when you walk in your authority and exercise your authority. But if you're going to lay down to things and not deal with things, those things will try to intrude and take a place in your life and then they can injure your life. Amen. Then we know this. People will wonder, well, if Satan is defeated because Jesus strips Satan of his authority over us, defeated him, reduced him to nothing, is what one translation says. People say, then why do I have to deal with him? He has been defeated, but he's not yet been imprisoned. One day he will be imprisoned and he will lose all contact with mankind. But until that time, he is out. Thief among men, Jesus called him. He's a thief. He comes to steal, kill and destroy. And because he's not yet imprisoned, we have to deal with him with our authority. Amen. And what a privilege to be able to do that, if I could say it this way. You are the police officer of your own life. You are the law enforcement enforcement officer of your own life. A policeman does not make the law. All he does is he carries out the law that's on the books. That's all he does. We don't make the laws. God made the laws. We carry out the Laws that's in his book and it's our job to enforce it. And you can have certain laws on the books, but people don't abide by laws just because they're on the books. You have to have a watchful person in the community making sure that people are abiding by the laws that are in the books, right? That they're not running the red lights, that they're, you know, that they're not breaking into people's houses and stealing. That they're not stealing the cars out of someone else's driveway. A police officer is there to make sure that the laws are enforced. That's what your authority is for. You are there to make sure that the laws that are on the books of heaven are enforced. Amen. And if you're not going to enforce it, lawlessness will run rampant in your life. And you can't blame God if you didn't show up to be the law enforcement officer that day. Now a police officer is given the authority to carry out and enforce the laws. You have the same thing. That's what Jesus did for you. He gave us all the same authority that he carries to enforce in our own lives what God enforces in heaven. Amen. Now when a law enforcement officer, he's given weapons, he's given all the kinds of things he's going to need to deal with those who are going to oppose him. And he may have some kind of a club, a gun, he may have some kind of a taser or some kind of a spray something. He's got all of these different things that he can use to make sure. And they're given to him by a higher power, right? The power of that city, the power of that state authorizes them. Well, God's given you the equipment too. The authority and the. And the higher authority backs you up because it didn't flow from you. It originated with heaven. Amen. Now if a police officer wakes up one day and he's invested with full authority to carry out his job, he may wake up one day and really feel physically really bad, have all kinds of symptoms, have pain in his body. Even when he leaves the house and he goes out and he has on his uniform, he has on his badge to show he is a police officer recognized by that city or state. Even if he feels bad, authority still works. It doesn't matter if he's, if he's sneezing, it doesn't matter if his stomach is upset, it doesn't matter how he feels. Authority is with the position you are positioned, raised and seated with Christ, you and him. The body sits in the same seat as the head. You don't have Jesus in one seat and the body lined up all down the road. The body occupies the same seat as the head. The seat we've been raised to for in heaven is a seat of authority. Amen. And it doesn't matter whether you feel good that day. It doesn't matter whether you feel faith that day or not. It doesn't matter whether you feel anointing or the presence of God. That authority is still yours. It's with the position. It will still work for you. Just like it works for the police officer who does not feel good that himself that day. Amen. It does not matter. Now the thing is that there are three hindrances to the use of our authority. And let me just say them real quickly so that we can at least state these. Number one is ignorance. When you don't know what belongs to you in Christ and you're in ignorance about what the Word says, the devil will take advantage of you. The devil will fight you, agreeing with and understanding and having light on who you are in Christ and the authority that belongs to you in Christ. Because through ignorance is how the devil can work his plan. So he is going to endeavor to hold you in a place of ignorance. So get rid of ignorance. How do you get rid of it? Study the Word. Meditate on some of these scriptures that we've brought out, especially in these past few episodes. Don't just read them, meditate on them. Speak them to yourself. Amen. Study on books that teach you your authority. Listen to sermons on teaching it. Why? This is something that really probably needs to be a daily diet or an ongoing diet of your authority in Christ. Why? Because you need it every day. And it's so easy to drift away from these truths. So the first hindrance to your authority in Christ, number one is ignorance. Number the second thing is unbelief. To not believe that that authority is yours. Remember, God delivered his people out of Egypt and he worked all kinds of miracles to bring about their deliverance. And when he was trying to bring them into the fullness of the blessing, into their own promised land that flowed with milk and honey to a land of abundance. And they wouldn't go. Why? They didn't believe him. They didn't believe him even though it belonged to them, even though it already provided they didn't believe Him. And I will say this. When a person doesn't trust God, they don't trust the One. Their authority stems from, then it's impossible to operate in true dominion when you don't trust the one the dominion flows from. And I would say this how do you say to someone, I love you, but I don't believe a word you say. That well, praise the Lord. That is called unbelief and that's an enemy to your exercise of authority. The third thing that's an that is a hindrance to your exercise of dominion and authority is sin. As we said, submit to God, don't submit to sin. Yield to God. Don't yield to sin. Don't yield to wrongdoing because sin will interrupt the flow of the success of your exercise of dominion and authority. Live Clean to exercise dominion, we have to meet. We have to live clean. Thank God for the blood of Jesus that cleanses us. Why? Because it positions us to exercise and occupy our seat of authority. Hallelujah. We trust you've enjoyed this message. Visit us@DefrainMinistries.org to learn of our upcoming meetings. Share your testimony, become a partner or visit our online store. This program has been made possible by the friends and partners of Dufresne Ministries.