Scripture Reading: Romans 8: 37 and Romans 5: 17 (NKJV)
...Yet in all these things, we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. and For if by the one man’s offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.
God’s plan for our salvation includes living victorious lives. The Bible specifically addresses believers as being more than conquerors! Our first Scripture reading shows that regardless of the serious circumstances we may face, God’s love for us is constant, and it is because of this everlasting love He has for us that we are more than victorious in the face of any kind of challenge- terrorism, global warming, cultural evolution, or whatever it is. In difficult situations, the challenge we have is to remind ourselves to depend solely on God’s everlasting love, which He expressed to us when He gave us Jesus to take our punishment and death. When we depend on the depths of this love, it makes us confident and bold in a way that cannot be otherwise explained.
From our second Scripture reading, we see that God’s design in redeeming us, is for us to reign as kings in this life through Jesus Christ. A king rules over a kingdom or a domain. As Christians, Jesus has given us the right to exercise His authority on earth. We also have the right to exercise Jesus’ authority over Satan and his demons, over sickness, and over challenging circumstances of life.
Authority can be defined as the right to command, delegate power or enforce order. The believer’s authority is an empowerment from heaven, to enforce the will of God here on earth. With the authority given to us by God, we can break through every barrier and any limitations that oppose the purpose of God.
The authority that we exercise as believers is actually God’s, and is part of the awesome parcel of His unmerited favour. It wasn’t given to us because we worked for it, deserved or earned it; it was simply bestowed on us by grace when we received Jesus Christ as our Lord and Saviour.
Jesus made it clear in Luke 10:17-19 that Satan is a defeated foe-
‘The seventy-two returned with joy and said, “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.” He replied, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you’.
This implies that as Christians, we are not waging war to defeat the enemy; rather, we are simply enforcing the defeat of the enemy through the victory that Jesus won for us. Just like the disciples of Jesus, we also have the authority given to us by God. It is time to begin to exercise our God-given authority!