Heart Tracks - Speaking With Authority

"But I know this; I was blind and now I see." John 9:25....."Silver and gold have I none. But what I have I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise and walk." Acts 3:6...."The creative power of Redemption comes through the preaching of the Gospel." Oswald Chambers

In a court of law, the most powerful testimony is given by the one who was an eyewitness to event being litigated. No other words carry so much strength. If this is true in secular matters, how much more is it so in the realm of the Spirit?

One of the things that astounded His hearers was that Jesus spoke as "One who had authority." This was in marked difference to their rabbi teachers who could tell them much about God on an information level. They knew Scriptures and they knew facts about God the Father. Jesus Christ told them not only the Truth about God the Father, but spoke as One who was one with Him. When He spoke, He spoke with the voice and words of God the Father. He told them that He and the Father were One. He could be rejected, but He could not be ignored. His listeners said that no man ever spoke as this one did. He spoke with the authority of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Dare we believe that we who are His can do, indeed are called to do the same?

Peter and the rest of the disciples freely spoke of being eyewitnesses of the life, words, ministry, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. With the outpouring of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, that witness was empowered with the Life of Christ. When people heard their words, they knew they were hearing words anointed by the Holy Spirit. They also knew that they were hearing a testimony and witness that had the same authority of the truth as did the words of their Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.

You and I may say that this is all well and good. Peter and the rest literally walked with Jesus. They were all in the upper room at Pentecost. We weren't. How can we give such a witness and testimony? How can we have such authority? We can because the witness and power of the Church lies in the lives and experience of all who have followed them. There is no record of the apostle Paul having ever encountered Christ before his Damascus Road experience. Yet once he did, he was never the same. The man who previously hated Christ and His followers was now one of them, and what he saw and experienced on that road was burned into the core of his being. When he spoke of it, and all he had learned since at the leading of His Spirit, he did so with authority. He too was an eyewitness. So too have been countless, nameless others who have since joined him. Are you and I among them?

The need of this day is not for more "rabbis and teachers" sharing facts about God. The need is for those who are His eyewitnesses, who because of deep, personal encounters with His reality, can and do speak with His authority. Nowhere must this be so more than from the pulpits of the church. That's where it begins, with God breathed words. These words, spoken with authority, lay hold of the hearts of the hearers, who then experience Him for themselves, and they too become His eyewitnesses. They take their testimony to their communities, workplaces, and everywhere they walk. They speak with His authority, His anointing. They speak Truth not revealed to them by men, by flesh and blood, but by His Holy Spirit. That Truth may be rejected, denied, but like the words of the King Himself, it cannot be ignored.

In these days, may the Lord raise up His witnesses. May we have preachers and teachers who preach and teach Holy Spirit anointed and empowered words with Holy Spirit authority. Believers who not only hear about what these ones have seen and heard, but now have seen and heard as well. A Church with a witness, a testimony, with authority. Eyewitnesses of the life, words, ministry, and resurrection of Jesus Christ. Such a people turned the world upside down in the Book of Acts. Isn't it past time for it to happen again?

Blessings,
Pastor O