authority to move obstacles

Authority to move Obstacles
4/3/06
I am beginning to see that sometimes we need bigger equipment than we expected, for the job God gives us is not always as simple as it seems. Even simple jobs become more complicated when our enemy interferes with our work, and the complicated jobs start to look impossible.

This became very apparent last Saturday when Dave hired an excavator to level our back yard for a car port. Dave had tried to level it with a “walk behind” version of the earth and rock movers we see here in Hawaii. He worked hard, all that week end, and it was not possible to accomplish the leveling of our back yard. But the excavator he hired Saturday had a huge tractor that looked like a dinosaur, and it had rulership over every rock in our yard. Each time it unearthed a piece of blue lava rock Dave praised the Lord, and so did I.

This experience became the groundwork for a lesson today. Many of us are trying to move obstacles out of the way, off of the highway of the Lord so that the righteous can travel there (Is 57:14). Our prayers are the hands and our faith is the backbone for these obstacles to move. But there seems to be more rocks, and more urgency to move them. We need some extra strength when things don’t seem to budge.

So who has rulership over our rocks? This is the point the Lord brought home to me. He wants to give authority to His people so that they can do those works He predestined for them to walk in. The scriptures He led me to are in Revelation 2:18-29; the letter to the church at Thyatira. In this letter, the Lord assessed the contents of their deeds, and the motivation of their hearts. Though they had many deeds, some of them had compromised the integrity of their hearts. The symbolism of Jezebel represents a spirit which corrupts that which is holy through lust of the eye, lust of the flesh, and the pride of life. Though the congregation in Thyatira was not misusing their authority, neither were they tackling the huge obstacle of impurity in their midst. They needed to repent. They were the ones who had rulership over their own rocks, and the Lord was urging this congregation to use their authority to move them.

Authority is expressed in the Bible in a few scriptures I want to review here;
If a man will rule over his spirit, it won’t become broken down and vulnerable to evil influences (Prov 25:28).
If a man will be patient and just, he will rule well (2 Sam 23:3 & Pr 16:32).
We are told to rule with diligence, and manage the lives of those under us well.
These are guidelines which prevent the compromise of holiness when evil presents itself.

If the church at Thyatira would overcome it’s compromise with all that Jezebel represented, and eliminate her spirit, God would give them authority over the nations. This process depended on the congregation ruling in their own backyard first. Their faithfulness in using their God-given authority would bring more authority and be effective for ruling the nations (Lk 19:17).

This brings us back to the question of “whose rocks are they?” If the rocks are in our ministry, they are ours. But if they are in another city, or nation, they probably belong under the jurisdiction of principalities. For a church to grow and expand it’s influence over cities, authority to rule over the principalities of those cities must be granted or all ministry will be ineffective. Faithful management of a little authority shows the Lord that He can safely expand our territory. We, like Thyatira may have “many” deeds and our works may be great, but to continue we need to exercise authority in our families, ministries and churches first. Then God will give us authority over the nations.

We look forward to having the nations as our inheritance, but just like the promised land, there is a war to win before we gain them. I believe the faithful will overcome and be granted authority over the nations. And in having authority, they will remove the obstacles so that the people can travel on the highway of the Lord. There may be many rocks, but God is letting us see a challenge that we can conquer, even more than conquer, in Him. Amen.