In Matthew chapter ten, Jesus called His twelve disciples to Himself and gave them authority before sending them out to preach the Gospel. The Lord proposes that His Gospel be preached in power and authority.
“And when He had called His twelve disciples to Him, He gave them power over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal all kinds of sickness and all kinds of diseases.”
Matthew 10: 1
If we look at the ministry of Paul, he explained:
“I was with you in weakness, in fear, and in much trembling. And my speech and my preaching were not in persuasive words of human wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power…”
1 Corinthians 2: 2-4
Paul understood that if he was to preach and bring people to a real faith in the power of God, he would have to make manifest, show forth, provide proof, and demonstrate. The Greek word for “demonstration” is “apodeixis,” which means to make manifest, show forth, provide proof, and demonstrate.
John G Lake explained:
“The same divine authority that was vested in Jesus is vested by Jesus in every Christian soul. Jesus made provision for the Church for Jesus Christ to go on forever and do the very same things He did and to keep on doing them forever.”
We see that Jesus has sent the Church out with His authority to preach His Gospel not just to the lost sheep of Israel but to all the world.
“But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnessed to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.”
Acts 1: 8
Lake went on to explain:
“Jesus Christ has vested that authority in you. You say, ‘Well Lord, we understand that authority that is in Your Word, but we haven’t the power. But Jesus said, ‘Ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you.”
As born-again believers, we have received the mighty Holy Spirit, and therefore, we have received the power to be effective witnesses by walking with His authority and power. Lake then added:
“Now the Holy Ghost has come upon every Christian in a measure. It is a question of degree. There are degrees of the measure of the Spirit of God in men’s lives. The baptism of the Holy Ghost is a greater measure of the Spirit of God, but every man has a degree of the Holy Spirit in his life. You have. It is the Spirit in your life that gives you faith in God, that makes you a blessing to other people. It is the Holy Spirit that is outbreathed in your soul that touches another soul and moves them for God. Begin right where you are, and let God take you along the Christian life as far as you like.”
The early Church turned the world upside down, and despite all the odds against them, they grew at an incredible rate. Today, with all our technology and wisdom, we are failing. How is it possible? Because they walked in the power and authority of the Holy Spirit. Lake explained that we have the Spirit in measure, and sadly, we are walking in the smallest measure because that is all we are willing to give Him.
Giving ourselves to the Holy Spirit is more than simply saying words; it is a life of holiness and purity. The more we yield, the more we walk in holiness and purity before the Lord.
Lake added:
“In the life of Jesus, people were instantly healed. I believe Jesus had such a supreme measure of the Spirit that when He put His hands on a man he was filed and submerged in the Holy Ghost, and the diseases withered out of them and vanished.”
We are told that Jesus had the Spirit without measure, but we can press in and yield that we might have a greater measure of the Spirit in our lives. We must seek more of Him and less of us.
Lake said:
“But, beloved, you and I use the measure of the Spirit that we possess. And if we haven’t got as much of God as Jesus had, then you pray for a man today and you get a certain measure of healing, but he is not entirely well. The only thing to do is to pray for him tomorrow, and let him get some more and keep on until he is well.”
We are called to walk in faith, knowing Him and believing He is able. We are to stand and refuse to quit. Lake explained:
“We are inclined to think that God just desires, and our hearts are changed. But I want to tell you, beloved, that there is a process in a man’s soul that admits God into his life. Your heart opens because it is touched by the love of God, and into the heart, into the nature of man there comes the divine essence of the living Spirit, and bless God, it has an action in him. Sin dissolves from his nature and from the mind of man. The Spirit of God takes possession of the cells of his brain, and his thoughts are changed by its action. There is a new realization of divine holiness. By the grace of God he discovers himself SANCTIFIED indeed,”
The call is to enter the Secret Place of the Most High, the Holy One. Remember, the Secret Place is the Holiest Place of His Presence, and the deeper we seek to go, the closer we long to come, then our yielded and surrendering must produce increased holiness just as sin defined us before we were saved, now holiness, especially if we claim to dwell in the Secret Place.
Lake added:
Beloved, Jesus Christ had His eye and His soul fixed on that one dynamic power of God, the HOLY GHOST. And His holy life, His death, His resurrection, His ascension to glory were all necessary in the process of soul development to arrive at the Throne of God where He could receive from the Father the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and have the privilege of ministering to your soul and mine.
The degree to which we have bowed all areas of our lives to His authority and power is the degree to which we walk in that authority, and He is able to manifest it through our lives. The Lord doesn’t compromise or play games. His standards don’t change, and He still demands holiness and purity. He has made a means for us to stand clean, pure, and holy before Him. But we must take the necessary actions and steps to walk in them.
If we look at Jesus, we see He walked in absolute authority and power. How?
“And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the Name which is above every name, that at the Name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in Heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth…”
Philippines 2: 8-10
And:
“Who, in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death, and was heard because of His godly fear, though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered. And having been perfected, He became the author of eternal salvation to all who OBEY Him.”
Hebrews 5: 7-9 Emphasis added
Jesus paid the price of obedience, humility, and holy fear. We are to learn to walk in the same obedience, with the same humility and holy fear. We are to learn, through surrendering and yielding, to be transformed so that we become holy and walk with His divine nature.
Lake said:
There is a process of divine TRANSMUTATION. But beloved, by the power of God’s Spirit in a man’s heart, that process is going on every single day of your life, sister, where God takes that which is natural, that which is earthly, touches it by His divine power, moves upon it by His heavenly nature, and in the name of Jesus Christ you come forth no longer self and selfish, but now TRANSFORMED, changed, by the power of Christ, into the nature of the Son of God, into the likeness of the Lord, into His character and nature and understanding and knowledge. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ!
Here we too become sons and daughters that He can trust with power and authority. We are to go in His Name, representing Him and being a witness of Him.
