Lack of Authority

"Come one, come all! Jesus Christ, God in the flesh, the Creator of everything in the universe offers you the ability to be like Him. Are you tired of the weather? Change it! Are you struggling with evil spirits in your life? Banish them! Is your health compromised by sickness and disease? Cure yourself! Have you lost a loved one to death? Resurrect them! Yes, you can have all this and more if you just accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior!"

Ridiculous right? Well, unfortunately, there are those within the Body of Christ that believe powers like this are now at our disposal because of our faith in Jesus Christ. I give you the following statement made by a popular, charismatic preacher regarding Matthew 28:18-19: "By His death on the cross, Jesus righteously restored all that man had lost. That is why, just before He went back to heaven, He said, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore…” Those words tell us that He has transferred His authority to us. The same authority that He had over the storm, evil spirits, sicknesses, diseases and even death is now ours to use." This is plain and simply false. If I read this correctly, this pastor is basically saying that all Christians are now gods! After all, Jesus is God and He is the only one who has the power to control death, the elements and to heal. Now don't get me wrong, miraculous events, including unexplainable healing, has happened in many areas over the past two millenia. Many of these events are recorded within the pages of the Bible. But, we do not wield this power as if we can whip it out and use it whenever we please. God has not given us His authority to command healing, the elements or even death.

The passage that was used by this pastor not only doesn't tell us that God has given us His authority to do all these things, it had nothing to do with any of that. If you notice, the pastor only quotes the part of the passage that he wanted to use to underscore his erroneous conclusion. Let us look at the entire passage. "Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age (Matthew 28:16-20).”" This is clearly Jesus commanding the disciples to go out into the world and be spread the Gospel! Jesus is saying He has the authority to command them in this way because He is God. Remember, this all took place after the resurrection. Therefore, Jesus' claim to deity had been clearly revealed, even though some still doubted.

Again, to be fair, the disciples did go on to perform miracles during their missionary journeys. However, these were done to advance the Gospel and they were not done all the time and they weren't seen healing themselves. The clearest example that we don't have the "authority" to use the powers of God is seen in the lives of the disciples. The most famous example is Paul's "thorn in the flesh." "I was given a thorn in my flesh, a messenger of Satan, to torment me. Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness (2 Corinthians 12:7-9).” Here is Paul begging God to remove the thorn in his flesh, but God did not. When I asked a person, who believes like the pastor I quoted earlier, why Paul couldn't remove his thorn, their reply was "I don't know." I am sorry, that is not a good answer. If we are going to say we have the authority to heal the sick, raise the dead and even control the elements, there should never be a time when we cannot exercise this "power."

Most everybody that believes like this pastor has some anecdotal story of someone being miraculously healed or raised from the dead. However true those stories may be, the error in their belief comes in the countless examples of Christians who suffer mightily, up to and including death. No amount of praying or "begging" relieved them of their agony. How many countless Christians struggle with and die of things like cancer, stroke and various infirmities? We deal with them because we live in fallen bodies in a sin-cursed world. And just like Paul said, they keep us humble and focused on God's sufficient grace. Besides, where is the focus on when we believe we have these special abilities? The focus is on us and our flesh. Furthermore, how do you relate to people struggling with illness and the lost of loved ones? You can't if you believe that you can remove all this with a a prayer or by laying hands on yourself or someone else. It shows favoritism of a God who doesn't play favorites. It leads to questioning God for suffering that some believe they can relieve when others cannot. It is just a mess. God's grace is not sufficient if we can always relieve our pain and suffering.

If we could heal ourselves, raise the dead and command the elements, why doesn't someone just clear out the hospitals of the sick and suffering? Where was the Christian standing on the shores of the Gulf Coast to rebuke Hurricane Katrina? You get my point. In the Bible we have the examples of Timothy and Epaphroditus. Paul instructed Timothy to "Stop drinking only water, and use a little wine because of your stomach and your frequent illnesses (1 Timothy 5:23)." Timothy obviously stomach problems and "frequent illnesses" and Paul don't him to drink wine to help him deal with them. Why not just use God's "authority" and heal Timothy? Of Epaphroditus Paul writes, "Indeed he was ill, and almost died. But God had mercy on him, and not on him only but also on me, to spare me sorrow upon sorrow (Philippians 2:27)."Epaphroditus almost died, but what spared him? It was God's mercy that spared him not his or Paul's "authority" that did it. Saints, if you experience a miracle of God, other than the miracle of salvation, praise Him for it, share it with all you can as a testimony of His love and faithfulness. But, don't expect them all the time or believe you can call on them at your will. "That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong (2 Corinthians 12:10)."Be strong in the Lord!