Walking in the Power and Authority
You Have Been Sent: Walking in the Power and Authority God Has Given You
There is a question worth sitting with today, one that cuts straight to the heart of what it means to follow Jesus: if there is power in His name, if there is healing in His name, if there is deliverance in His name, then who is responsible for speaking that name into the broken places of the world?
The answer is you.
Not a pastor. Not a prophet on a stage. Not someone with a theology degree or a title in front of their name. You. The believer. The disciple. The one who has received the Holy Spirit and carries His presence wherever you go.
This is not a small thing. This is the entire point.
Your Job Description Has Already Been Written
Long before you ever wondered what your purpose was, God already answered the question. In Luke 9, Jesus called His disciples together, gave them power and authority over all demons, and commissioned them to cure diseases and preach the kingdom of God. In Luke 10, He sent out seventy others, ordinary people, two by two, into every city and place He intended to go. In Matthew 10, He gave His followers authority over every kind of sickness and every kind of disease, with no exceptions listed.
The pattern is unmistakable. Jesus sends people. He equips them with His Spirit. He goes with them. And through them, He reaches the world.
This was never meant to be a ministry model reserved for the first century. Mark 16 makes it plain that signs would follow those who believe, that they would cast out demons, pray for the sick, and see them recover. Matthew 28 closes with the risen Jesus declaring that all authority in heaven and on earth belongs to Him, and immediately commissioning His followers to go and make disciples.
The commission has not expired. The authority has not been revoked. The Holy Spirit has not been recalled.
The Holy Spirit Goes With You
Acts 1:8 describes the believer receiving power when the Holy Spirit comes upon them, and then being sent as witnesses. That word, witnesses, carries the weight of legal testimony. It means to tell the truth about what you know, to bear witness to something real. And what is real is this: Jesus was born, lived without sin, died for the sins of every human being, and rose from the dead on the third day to make a completely new kind of life possible.
That truth, spoken by Spirit-filled believers in ordinary conversations, in grocery stores and neighborhoods and workplaces, is the most powerful force on the planet.
Isaiah 53 describes a Messiah who bore our griefs and carried our sorrows, words that in the original language refer to sicknesses and infirmities. Matthew 8 connects this directly to Jesus healing the sick, quoting Isaiah to show that physical healing flows from the same redemptive work as the forgiveness of sins. Salvation and healing are not separate tracks. They are woven together in the person of Jesus, and both are meant to be carried into the world by His people.
Signs and Wonders Are Not the Goal, But They Are the Advertisement
Here is an important distinction worth holding onto. Healing matters. Deliverance matters. Miracles matter. But they are not the primary objective. The primary objective, the one Jesus kept returning to, is making disciples. Growing the kingdom. Reproducing faith in other people so that they, in turn, reproduce it in others still.
The gifts of the Holy Spirit described in 1 Corinthians 12, words of wisdom and knowledge, gifts of healing, working of miracles, prophecy, discernment, tongues, and their interpretation, are given for the benefit of others. They are not trophies. They are tools. They are the means by which God gets people's attention so that the deeper invitation, come into relationship with me, come into my kingdom, can be received.
The parable of the sower in Mark 4 reminds us that the word of God is the seed, and our job is to sow it faithfully. Some seed falls on hard ground and gets taken immediately. Some takes root but withers under pressure. Some gets choked out by the worries of life and the pull of other desires. But some falls on good soil and produces a harvest far beyond what was planted. The question is not whether the harvest is possible. The question is whether we will show up and sow.
Faith Is Not Passive
The woman in Matthew 9 who had been sick for years pressed through a crowd and said to herself that if she could only touch the edge of Jesus' garment, she would be healed. That declaration was not wishful thinking. It was faith, settled conviction that produced action. Jesus told her that her faith had made her well.
Blind Bartimaeus in Mark 10 cried out to Jesus despite everyone around him telling him to be quiet. Jesus stopped, called him close, and asked what he wanted. He could see the man was blind. But He asked anyway, because faith has to arise before the miracle takes place. Bartimaeus declared what he wanted. Jesus healed him. His faith made him well.
God is not looking for perfect people. He is looking for people who will trust Him enough to open their mouths, lay down their fear, and participate.
You Are Not Doing This Alone
None of this is meant to be carried in isolation. The body of Christ exists precisely because following Jesus is not a solo endeavor. New believers need people around them who will speak truth in love, who will stand with them when things get hard, who will point them back to the word when the cares of the world start to crowd everything else out.
Disciples make disciples. That is the rhythm of the kingdom. Someone came alongside you. Now you go alongside someone else.
Wherever you go this week, the Holy Spirit goes with you. Every conversation is a potential kingdom moment. Every sick person you encounter is an opportunity to release what you have freely received. You have been given power and authority. You have been sent.
Go.
There is a question worth sitting with today, one that cuts straight to the heart of what it means to follow Jesus: if there is power in His name, if there is healing in His name, if there is deliverance in His name, then who is responsible for speaking that name into the broken places of the world?
The answer is you.
Not a pastor. Not a prophet on a stage. Not someone with a theology degree or a title in front of their name. You. The believer. The disciple. The one who has received the Holy Spirit and carries His presence wherever you go.
This is not a small thing. This is the entire point.
Your Job Description Has Already Been Written
Long before you ever wondered what your purpose was, God already answered the question. In Luke 9, Jesus called His disciples together, gave them power and authority over all demons, and commissioned them to cure diseases and preach the kingdom of God. In Luke 10, He sent out seventy others, ordinary people, two by two, into every city and place He intended to go. In Matthew 10, He gave His followers authority over every kind of sickness and every kind of disease, with no exceptions listed.
The pattern is unmistakable. Jesus sends people. He equips them with His Spirit. He goes with them. And through them, He reaches the world.
This was never meant to be a ministry model reserved for the first century. Mark 16 makes it plain that signs would follow those who believe, that they would cast out demons, pray for the sick, and see them recover. Matthew 28 closes with the risen Jesus declaring that all authority in heaven and on earth belongs to Him, and immediately commissioning His followers to go and make disciples.
The commission has not expired. The authority has not been revoked. The Holy Spirit has not been recalled.
The Holy Spirit Goes With You
Acts 1:8 describes the believer receiving power when the Holy Spirit comes upon them, and then being sent as witnesses. That word, witnesses, carries the weight of legal testimony. It means to tell the truth about what you know, to bear witness to something real. And what is real is this: Jesus was born, lived without sin, died for the sins of every human being, and rose from the dead on the third day to make a completely new kind of life possible.
That truth, spoken by Spirit-filled believers in ordinary conversations, in grocery stores and neighborhoods and workplaces, is the most powerful force on the planet.
Isaiah 53 describes a Messiah who bore our griefs and carried our sorrows, words that in the original language refer to sicknesses and infirmities. Matthew 8 connects this directly to Jesus healing the sick, quoting Isaiah to show that physical healing flows from the same redemptive work as the forgiveness of sins. Salvation and healing are not separate tracks. They are woven together in the person of Jesus, and both are meant to be carried into the world by His people.
Signs and Wonders Are Not the Goal, But They Are the Advertisement
Here is an important distinction worth holding onto. Healing matters. Deliverance matters. Miracles matter. But they are not the primary objective. The primary objective, the one Jesus kept returning to, is making disciples. Growing the kingdom. Reproducing faith in other people so that they, in turn, reproduce it in others still.
The gifts of the Holy Spirit described in 1 Corinthians 12, words of wisdom and knowledge, gifts of healing, working of miracles, prophecy, discernment, tongues, and their interpretation, are given for the benefit of others. They are not trophies. They are tools. They are the means by which God gets people's attention so that the deeper invitation, come into relationship with me, come into my kingdom, can be received.
The parable of the sower in Mark 4 reminds us that the word of God is the seed, and our job is to sow it faithfully. Some seed falls on hard ground and gets taken immediately. Some takes root but withers under pressure. Some gets choked out by the worries of life and the pull of other desires. But some falls on good soil and produces a harvest far beyond what was planted. The question is not whether the harvest is possible. The question is whether we will show up and sow.
Faith Is Not Passive
The woman in Matthew 9 who had been sick for years pressed through a crowd and said to herself that if she could only touch the edge of Jesus' garment, she would be healed. That declaration was not wishful thinking. It was faith, settled conviction that produced action. Jesus told her that her faith had made her well.
Blind Bartimaeus in Mark 10 cried out to Jesus despite everyone around him telling him to be quiet. Jesus stopped, called him close, and asked what he wanted. He could see the man was blind. But He asked anyway, because faith has to arise before the miracle takes place. Bartimaeus declared what he wanted. Jesus healed him. His faith made him well.
God is not looking for perfect people. He is looking for people who will trust Him enough to open their mouths, lay down their fear, and participate.
You Are Not Doing This Alone
None of this is meant to be carried in isolation. The body of Christ exists precisely because following Jesus is not a solo endeavor. New believers need people around them who will speak truth in love, who will stand with them when things get hard, who will point them back to the word when the cares of the world start to crowd everything else out.
Disciples make disciples. That is the rhythm of the kingdom. Someone came alongside you. Now you go alongside someone else.
Wherever you go this week, the Holy Spirit goes with you. Every conversation is a potential kingdom moment. Every sick person you encounter is an opportunity to release what you have freely received. You have been given power and authority. You have been sent.
Go.
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