Thought of the week: Authority and the battle for intimacy
June 19, 2006 by John Baw
God is doing a deep work within the hearts of His children. His power and strength operates through vessels that have had deep workings and dealings of the Holy Spirit. In 2 Cor 12:9 the bible reads:
“My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.”
The weakness that I believe God is working in us is a transparency such as has not been seen in the world before. Transparency is a condition of heart that chooses a place of vulnerability in order to manifest life.
I believe that is what the apostle Paul was getting at when he said in 2 Tim. 3:10,11 :
But you have carefully followed my doctrine, manner of life, purpose, faith, longsuffering, love, perseverance, persecutions, afflictions, which happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium, at Lystra—what persecutions I endured. And out of them all the Lord delivered me.
A vessel that is completely transparent, like clear glass for example, will not draw attention to itself, it will only draw attention to whatever is placed within it. I believe that is where God wants to take us in order to be effective ambassadors for him on the earth.
Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ’s behalf, be reconciled to God - (2 Cor. 5:20)
An ambassador is someone who goes to transact the King’s business, in a time and place where the King cannot go. He also goes with the complete authority of the King - he goes in his place, just as if the King himself were going there. That is marvelous in itself except that in our case it only gets better. The fact that He now lives in us, means that whenever we go to transact His business, he just comes along with us! Mat. 28:20:
and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.
This is a present reality, not a distant nostalgic nicety! It is one of the most empowering scriptures in the good book itself! Do we realise that when we read in Phil 2:10:
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
it is now referring to the name of the Christ that indwells you? It is speaking of the authority that you carry within in the person of the resurrected Christ! When you go in His name, you go in the authority of a name that causes the forces of hell to go weak in the knees and confess that there is something in you far greater than them:
He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world (1 John 4:4)
The battle right now is for intimacy. Those that walk with the authority are those who walk in transparency. We often seek the Lord from a position of lacking, or not feeling His presence. That is altogether unbiblical. When he said " I am with you always" He meant that you will never be closer to the Lord than right now. Patricia King says that we often seek the Lord with Hope rather than Faith.
Hope is all about expectation, but faith is the actual substance of the expectation - in other words, faith is about believing into the present what you expect in the future. That is the difference between seeking intimacy based on truth, and seeking intimacy based on feelings. The cool thing is that we seek His presence, and we just rest in Him, knowing that He is there whether we feel Him or not. The really cool thing is, that when we embrace the Lord, and hug Him, and abide in that place long enough, we come away smelling like him! Like a person who is wearing too much perfume leaves a mark on whoever is unfortunate enough to receive an overbearing embrace, we walk away with the aroma of Christ that causes life to burst forth, and demons to flee wherever we go.
Tags: Spiritual Authority, Faith, Teaching, Sermon, Resurrected Christ, Intimacy, Abiding
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