School of Prayer: Spiritual Authority, Pt1

In Matthew chapter four Satan questions Yeshua's identity so that he can violate his authority. In Matt 21:23-26 the religious leaders questioned Yeshua's authority because they did not know his identity. Both are related. Yeshua response was to answer their question with a question. The reason he did this was to make them understand who he was so that they could understand what he was doing. They fully understood their untenable position and refused to answer. When challenged with self-doubts, fear, or a direct challenge from the enemy to intimidate the believers, our identity and authority are constantly questioned on many sides. The covenant God gave us focuses on his love for us and our love for him. We will begin our discussion of spiritual authority by looking at God’s covenant love in the Hebrew word “chesed.”

Chesed means loving-kindness or covenantal faithfulness and can be seen in God's zeal in loving his people. It is spelled with the letters Chaf, Samekh, and Dalet. All three letters have the shape signifying one bent over, kneeling in submission. That is the proper picture of spiritual authority. It is gained by humility and not arrogance.

Spiritual Authority What is the scope of your gift? When God gives us a gifting, he gives us a territory. When he gives us a territory, he gives us authority to hold that territory. If you have not prayed about the scope of your calling and gifting, begin today. Ask God where his boundaries and place are established. How has God dealt with you? Take inventory. Where does he normally call you in prayer? Where do you feel the strongest anointing or enabling to pray? What has God given you a passion or burden for? That is your territory. It is what he has gifted you and equipped you to sustain in prayer.

The idea of spiritual authority is supported by the concept of holiness. Holiness (spiritual integrity) will be discussed more in the next section. What we want to focus on today is the part of holiness that implies separation. When God separates a person and gifts them those giftings are sufficient to accomplish any Kingdom purpose. We do not have to be concerned with praying exactly like another, being gifted like another, or mimicking another’s delivery of anything. God made us unique in our calling, giftings, and scope. Every person has an ordained place and function in the Kingdom and how one carries out his or her calling will not be like another. We must use what God put into our own hands. The effectiveness of our spiritual tools lay partly in our character and partly in understanding our own consecration.

Jael killed Sisera (Judges 4:18-23) with a tent peg and played a part in winning a larger battle against Jabin King of Canaan. Why a tent peg? Phinehas killed an Israelite leader who was involved in a forbidden relationship with a Midianite woman (Numb 25:6-9). He ran his spear through both man and woman and a plague was stayed. Why a spear? David, as a boy, killed the giant Goliath with a stone from his own sling, then cut his head off with Goliath's own sword, and won a larger battle against the Philistines (1 Sam 17). Why did he use a stone and sling? Each of these events displays people who were called into extremes and used what God had committed into their hands.

Rav Calev