Authority That Changes Everyday Life

Ever feel like your prayers sound earnest but land powerless? We unpack why so many believers live beneath their inheritance and how Christ’s authority changes the way we pray, resist darkness, and serve people with confidence. Starting from Genesis and moving through Matthew 28, Luke 10, and Ephesians 1, we trace dominion lost, dominion restored, and authority redelegated to followers who live in relationship with Jesus, not just familiarity with His name.

We get practical about what “in my name” really means: not a phrase to recite but a credential granted through new birth and faith. You’ll hear why head knowledge isn’t enough, how the seven sons of Sceva illustrate the danger of using spiritual language without spiritual legitimacy, and why the enemy recognizes those who truly belong to Christ. We also break down the police officer analogy to show how delegated authority functions: the badge represents jurisdiction backed by a higher power, not personal muscle. The same is true when we confront fear, sickness, and spiritual opposition.

Together we identify three common short circuits—ignorance, doubt, and unrepented sin—that keep prayers weak and hearts discouraged. With clear steps for self-examination, repentance, and daily immersion in Scripture, we show how to get the word into your heart and mouth so faith speaks with steady conviction. Expect a shift from begging to enforcing God’s will with humility, clarity, and boldness, empowered by the Holy Spirit and anchored in Scripture. If you’re ready to pray with results, stand your ground, and serve others in freedom, this conversation will help you step into the believers’ authority with wisdom and courage.

If this helped you reclaim your spiritual footing, subscribe, share with a friend who needs courage today, and leave a review to spread the word.

Chapters

• 0:00 Why Authority Matters Now
• 1:46 From Dominion Lost To Dominion Restored
• 3:35 Christ Redelegates Authority To Believers
• 6:15 What “In My Name” Really Means
• 8:20 Born Again Access And Real Faith
• 10:43 The Seven Sons Of Sceva Warning
• 13:02 Knowledge, Faith, And Relationship

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:00

I want to thank you for joining me for this week's podcast titled The Believers Authority. This podcast should equip you to understand the authority and power Christ has given to his followers. After listening to this podcast, you will know how to live as more than commerce and begin to enforce God's will on this earth. A transformation will occur as you move from doing begging type prayers filled with please please God to command and control prayers, the kind of prayers that produce results. Have you noticed some people seem to have many prayers answered and others are able to operate within their spiritual gifts? This will be you after you understand how to operate with the authority Christ has delegated to you as a believer. The entire concept of delegated authority really starts with God giving humanity dominion or authority over the earth, which is found in Genesis chapter 1, verse 26. Shortly thereafter, humanity lost that authority with the fall of Adam and Eve. Now Satan, being the deceiver and liar that he is, manipulated the fall of Adam and Eve to position himself as an authoritarian over the earth. In 2 Corinthians 4, verse 4, it tells us Satan is a God of this world or the systems of this world. During the great temptation of Christ, Satan tells one of his biggest lies, declaring in Matthew chapter 4, verses 8 through 9, where he promises to give Jesus something he doesn't even own, which is all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. If only Christ will bow down to worship him. Christ did not fall for the deception, and we do not have to fall for it either. We're going to discuss the believers' authority. The next move was Jesus taking back all authority in heaven and in earth, which he declared in Matthew chapter 28, verse 18. Now this is where it gets amazing. Christ then redelegates that authority or dominion to his followers. Keep in mind, not all of humanity, but exclusively to those who believe in him as Lord and Savior. We see this transference of authority in Luke chapter 10, verse 19, where we find Jesus sending 70 of his followers out ahead of him to every town and place where he was about to go. Now I'm going to pick this story up in verse 17, where we find them reporting back to Jesus. It says, The seventy return with joy and said, Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name. In verse 19, we see Christ confirming this as he tells his followers, I have given you authority. I need to stop right there. Did you did you hear that? It starts right there. This is the try, this is Christ transferring his authority to his followers. That's you and I. Wow. Wow. Wow. Praise God for his love, power, and mercy. Okay, back to verse 17. Christ says, I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy. This is unbelievable. And he goes further and says, Nothing will harm you. We need to know that snakes and scorpions represent evil spirits, demonic forces, or dangerous situations, and not literal poisonous snakes for you and I to run and grab a hold of like we have some mystical power. When it comes to transference of power and authority, we need to know you cannot give authority unless you have authority. Remember Matthew 28, verse 18, where Christ declared, All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Wow, this is powerful. So the person who has ultimate authority with decision-making ability is Christ. So when Christ says he gives us as believers authority to overcome all the power of the enemy, he meant it. I need you to fully understand the extent of Christ's authority. We should look at Ephesians chapter 1, verse 20 through 22. It reads as follows God raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this present age, but also in the one to come. And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be the head over everything for the church. This is maximum authority. It doesn't go any higher than Christ. Even more remarkable in verse 22, and I don't know if you got that, but God says he placed everything under the feet of Jesus for the church, for the body of Christ. This is you and I and all those who are members of the body of Christ. The body of Christ, remember, is not a church. It consists of believers whose allegiance is to Christ and Him alone. It is not a pledge to your local church, pastor, priest, denomination, mosque, or some other religious institution or organization. God has demonstrated an amazing level of love for all of humanity by sending his holy son to be a sacrifice for our sins. But he did not stop there. As he allowed Christ to transfer his authority over the powers of darkness to those who that have been born again. This is love so great that it cannot be measured. Before we move on, I want to go back to Luke chapter 10, verse 17. I want to make sure we do not skip over the part where the disciples stated, The demons are subject to us in your name. This is a major element in exercising our delegated authority over the powers of darkness. Some of you might be wondering, how do we get this delegated authority? It starts and ends with Christ, but you must be first born again. This is a spiritual transformation or new birth when someone accepts Christ as their Lord, Savior, and deliverer. You can read more about that in John chapter 3, verse 1 through 21. Okay, okay, so now you're born again. So you have access to the kingdom of God and all the privileges and rights that come with that. I have to pose a question to you. If you don't know about an inheritance you received, how would it benefit you? It wouldn't. This reminds me of the Lord sadly declaring in Hosea chapter 4, verse 6 that my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Way too many followers of Christ do not know they have literally been given authority over the powers of darkness, sickness, and disease. Then you have those that do have a head knowledge of this authority, but they don't know how to use it in any real way. It comes down to one word and that's faith. I believe Hebrews chapter 11, verse 6 captures this idea when saying, without faith, it is impossible to please God. Faith is when we take God's word at face value and begin to operate it as though it's already true in our lives. Here is a biblical example of religious people who are not followers of Christ nor have faith in his name. And I believe this represents a lot of what we can see happening in the majority of religious organizations or churches today. This example is found in Acts chapter 19, verses 13 through 16. In this text, you will find seven men going around trying to use the name of Jesus to exercise authority over demonic spirits without even knowing Christ for themselves. They would say, In the name of Jesus, who Paul preaches, I command you to come out. Now these seven men were sons of the chief priest named Skeva. You can believe they were very religious men, but they were not followers of Christ, and they did not have his delegated authority. Now let's pick up this story from verse 15, which tells us that one day the evil spirit answered them, Jesus I know, and Paul I know, but who are you? I'm telling you now, when you are in relationship with Christ, the powers of darkness will know you by name. Let's find out how this played out in verse 16. The man who had the evil spirit jumped on them and overpowered them all. He gave them such a beating that they ran out of the house naked and bleeding. You see, it takes more than head knowledge when it comes to Christ and exercising the believer's authority. This biblical narrative makes a clear distinction between those who know Christ and those who do not. You just can't run around trying to exercise authority because some religious leader or so-called prophet told you you can do it. These men were beaten down by demonic powers, and they were the sons of one of the most powerful religious leaders of that day. Yet when they faced the power of darkness, they were no match. Now I hope this point is clear that just saying the great name of Jesus Christ will not get it done. We have to operate with faith in his name and have the right to use the authority given to us through him. Now, the seven sons of Sceba knew about Jesus, but they were not born again, like Paul. They did not know Christ or have faith in who he was, like Paul. Therefore, they did not operate with delegated authority. Those demonic forces knew Jesus, and they knew Paul because he was in relationship with Jesus. You and I must be in a living relationship with Christ and operate in faith in his great name in order to experience our God-given authority. I want to reiterate a point I made earlier, and I'm gonna give one of the reasons why so many believers do not experience their God-given authority, and that is that they just don't know. This is part of why I'm doing this podcast topic. This can be life-changing when a person begins to live within the authority of Christ. Remember, Hosea chapter 4, verse 6, where the Lord declares, My people, not the world or the unsaved or the unbeliever, but my people, the followers, are being destroyed for lack of knowledge simply by not knowing you are being destroyed. We are going to end that today. Let me walk you through how to embed a working knowledge of your delegated authority that can help you rise above the powers of darkness and the troubles of this life. Now, this goes way past head knowledge. And Romans chapter 10, 8 explains that the word needs to be in our heart and in our mouths so we can speak the word of faith. Remember what Matthew said in chapter 12, verse 24. Out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. When we fill our hearts with the word of God, our faith will continue to expand until we begin to walk in the authority Christ has given us. Now I want to use an analogy of a police officer to give you an example how delegated authority works. Remember, authority means right or privilege given to someone by another person or organization who has it to give. This refers to position, not power. A police officer cannot say, I have the power or physical strength to stop traffic. They would need to have an unbelievable level of strength to even stop the smallest car. In reality, the police officer does not have physical or personal power to stop traffic. They have what they have been given authority under the law to commandeer or stop traffic. In the same way, we do not have inherent or physical power over Satan and the powers of darkness. Our inherent efforts or energy will never be enough to stop them. Yet we have been given authority or exusia over him and the powers of darkness in the name of Jesus Christ. Glory to God, hallelujah. Every born-again believer has been given delegated authority in Christ. But there are things we have to be very mindful of. These three things will short circuit your authority. You can quote scripture, you can declare the name of Jesus Christ, you can pray for days, and you can still remain powerless. And here they are. One, the lack of knowledge, which I've already discussed. Two, doubt and unbelief. And I think James chapter 1, verse 6 tells us when you ask, you must believe and not doubt. Because the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed by the wind. Verse 7 tells, this person should not expect to receive anything from the Lord. And three, a lifestyle of sin. Psalm 66, verse 18 explains that if you have unconfessed sin in your heart, or sin that you do nothing about, the Lord will not hear your prayers. Isaiah chapter 59, verse 2 explains it this way Your iniquities have come between you and God, and he will not hear you. Now I feel the need to share this factor that only applies to married men. It instructs husbands to honor their wives so that your prayers are not hindered. I want to encourage everyone to do what 2 Corinthians chapter 13, verse 5 instructs us to do. Here it says to examine yourself, to see that you are in the faith. This requires a level of introspection. Use God's word as a mirror and as a standard of examination. Check for hypocrisies, confession of sins, and live honestly and righteously among others. When you start walking in your authority, empowered by the Holy Spirit, you will move from crawling on your hands and knees, begging for a miracle, to using your God-given authority and the power of the Holy Spirit to set yourself free and to set others free as well. We as believers in Christ are not to be passively asking God to intervene. It's about using authority, exusia, that has been given to us as born-again followers of Christ. To live in the freedom Christ promised means you and I need to spend time in the presence of God and his word on a regular basis. The Holy Spirit will come upon us and help us do what God has called us to do, just like Jesus promised he would do. This is both transformative and revolutionary. Regardless of where you are right now, I want you to declare I have been given position and right to exercise and use supernatural authority to defeat spiritual enemies, proclaim the gospel, heal the sick, and overcome all the weapons formed against. I want to thank you for joining me for this week's podcast. Until next time, may the Lord bless you richly in all you do. Amen and amen.