Under Authority

Under Authority

Just say the word from where you are, and my servant will be healed. Matthew 8:8

A ROMAN CENTURION APPEALED TO JESUS to heal his paralyzed servant. We don’t know how this military captain heard about Jesus or how he came to believe in him. Perhaps he had stood guard over a large crowd and listened to Jesus in the process. Nor do we know what observers thought about someone who represented the resented Roman presence appealing to one of their own for a miracle. But the centurion asked, Jesus answered, and this officer demonstrated remarkable faith in the process. He understood the parallels between human authority and spiritual authority.

We could learn some things from this military man. He saw himself as both under the authority of his superiors and in authority over his soldiers. He acknowledged a connection between those two perspectives—that unless you are the very highest in command, you don’t exercise authority without also submitting to it. You fit somewhere in the middle, and if you don’t follow well, you can’t lead well. You don’t have the option of leading and not being led. If you are part of the hierarchy at all, you have to understand how it works in both directions.

Many Christians make every effort to exercise spiritual authority without being nearly so diligent in submitting to it. That’s a mistake, and it always results in futility. Our ability to speak words of faith like Jesus did and see people saved, healed, delivered, and profoundly moved depends quite a bit on our willingness to respond to his words and let them save, heal, deliver, and move us. Our effectiveness in ministry, prayer, and faith will usually flow from the ways we have received the ministry, prayers, and faith of others. The power of Jesus works through us to the degree that we have let it work in us. The world is blessed by those who move in the power of God because the power of God has moved in them.

God doesn’t give kingdom authority to rebels.