“Woe to you experts in the law, because you have taken away the key to knowledge (understanding). You yourselves have not entered, and you have hindered those who were entering” (Luke 11:52). “I will come to you very soon…and then I will find out not only how these arrogant people are talking, but what power they have. For the kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power” (1 Corinthians 4:19-20).
By John David Hicks
The lost key to power and authority has given Satan the ability to defeat and enslave Christians and the church. Jesus and the apostle Paul faced teachers of religion that were all talk, but demonstrated little power to fulfill the purposes of God.
Paul told the Corinthians how he established churches: “My message and my preaching were not with wise and persuasive words, but with a demonstration of the Spirit’s power, so that your faith might not rest on men’s wisdom, but on God’s power” (1 Corinthians 2:4-5). Christianity is not a doctrine or philosophy; it is a power encounter with God (1 Thessalonians 1:5). Without that you have a religion without authority and purpose.
The Bible is full of promises of power and authority to the Christian (John 1:12; Acts 1:8; Romans 1:16), but few Christians have it. Many live defeated, powerless lives. They are constantly defeated in temptation and live in bondage to the devil.
Jesus said in the last days, “Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold” (Matthew 24:12). Psalm 36:1 addresses this: “An oracle is within my heart concerning the sinfulness of the wicked: There is no fear of God before his eyes.” Even the church today has grown cold and indifferent.
Yet there is a guarantee from God’s Word that you are to live a supernatural life (John 15:5; 1 John 4:4; Philippians 4:13; Colossians 1:27) over the world, the flesh, and the devil. Because God cannot lie (Numbers 23:19), what’s wrong? There must be a lost key to power that Christians have overlooked and that Satan has found. Does Satan hold your key to power and authority in your life?
The key to power and authority was lost by Adam, but found by Jesus Christ. In the Garden of Eden God shows us how the key was lost. At the cross God shows us how it was found. God wants you to have the keys to the kingdom of God. “I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven” (Matthew 16:19).
Genesis 3 describes man’s fall into sin and shows how the key to power and authority was lost. The essence of all sin is to doubt God’s word (“Did God really say…?”); they doubted God (“You will not surely die”) and then they disobeyed God’s word (They “ate”). Rebellion against God’s authority and living in independence from God is at the heart of sin. Adam withdrew his trust by withdrawing his surrender to God’s leadership and his obedience to His commands. With pride they fantasized (“You will be like God”). So Adam and Eve ate of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; they disobeyed God’s express command and sinned. The key to power and authority was lost to Satan.
Sin has its consequences. Adam and Eve died spiritually. They were guilty and felt separation from God. They knew they were naked and covered themselves with leaves. By their own efforts they tried to cover their shame (They “hid from the Lord”).
Like Adam and Eve covered themselves after they sinned, the church tries to cover its nakedness and lack of spiritual power and authority with the fig leaves of:
• Programs rather than power.
• Rationalization rather than repentance.
• Self-sufficiency rather than self-surrender.
Adam and Eve stitched together their own fig leaves. This was the beginning of religion and self-righteousness that tries to atone for sin. But the curse of sin followed them with condemnation by their conscience, drudgery in their work, sorrow in there failures, and sickness and death to their body.
Only when we as the church cast away our fig leaves can God clothe us with the power and authority regained by the obedience of Jesus, the second Adam. When Jesus promised the Holy Spirit, He said to His followers that they would be “clothed with power from on high.” God’s people must cry out desperately for this “clothing” and stop trying to find more attractive ways to wear their fig leaves. Instead of turning fig leaves into high fashion, we need to admit our nakedness and humbly accept the clothing given us by the shedding of Christ’s blood. If we share in His death, we share in His resurrection power.
The definition of sin is twofold: rebellion against God and living in independence of God. Rebellion is resistance to authority or rule—disobedience. Living in independence of God is making oneself lord, or wanting to be in control—which is also disobedience to God.
You can better understand sin when you see the opposite—surrender, obedience, and trust. When Adam sinned, he withdrew his obedience and trust from God. In salvation this relationship is restored—when you surrender back to God your obedience and trust. The Bible calls this faith. The precondition of life is that you were created to depend on God (John 15:5), to live by faith. That is why “without faith it is impossible to please God” (Hebrews 11:6), because you cannot have a meaningful relationship with a person without faith-trust. God can develop your faith only through your obedience and trust. For this to take place you must be surrendered to God unconditionally.
When Adam did his own thing, he withdrew his surrender and obedience to do the will of God. He was separated from God and transferred into the kingdom of darkness, oppressed by the devil. But God promised a savior (Genesis 3:15), a redeemer, a second Adam who would deliver us from the dominion of Satan into the kingdom of light. “For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins” (Colossians 1:13-14).
The Scriptures tell us that Jesus as the last Adam provided salvation by His surrender and obedience to the will of the Father. Through the cross and the shed blood of Jesus Christ, God restored the relationship and the kingdom that was lost (John 1:12-13). God gave Jesus the keys of power and authority: Jesus “humbled himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross! Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Philippians 2:8-11). In total surrender and obedience Jesus did the will of the Father. The Father put all things under His feet and gave Him the kingdom.
God now offers salvation as a gift of His grace that must be received (John 1:12). Then discipleship follows. God redeems us, but like Jesus we too must totally surrender to God’s will and commit ourselves to do the will of the Father (John 14:21; John 6:38; Hebrews 10:7). Surrender is a choice in discipleship. Obedience is the outworking of that choice in commitment. It’s a crisis and a process of continually yielding (Luke 9:23).
For you to have the keys to the kingdom of God—God’s power and authority—you must give back what Adam withdrew: your surrender and obedience. That means:
1. Unconditional surrender to His Lordship—like Jesus even unto death.
The dictionary defines surrender as: to yield to the power, control, or possession of another upon compulsion or demand; to give up completely. Absolute, unconditional surrender is not a question that is open to debate or reasoning with God. He makes it plain—to be His disciple there must be total surrender of every person, every thing, and your very self. All that you are and all that you have—everything belongs to Him! He is Lord of all or He is not Lord at all.
World War II ended when Japan unconditionally surrendered to the Allied powers. It placed itself at the mercy of the Allies, completely giving up its military and government. It had to lay down its arms and accept surrender with no conditions. That is what God is asking you to do! We know what followed. Japan’s recovery was slow but steady. Today Japan is a productive, peaceful country with one of the highest standards of living in the world.
Jim Elliot, the martyred missionary, said it well: “He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.”
In surrender there are two sides: God’s side and your side. God is the source of all existence and the power that holds it together. “For everything comes from him; everything exists by his power and is intended for his glory” (Romans 11:36 NLT). “The LORD has established his throne in heaven, and his kingdom rules over all” (Psalm 103:19).
God loves you too much to let you be in control. “Look at what you were when God called you. Not many of you were wise in the way the world judges wisdom. Not many of you had great influence. Not many of you came from important families. But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and he chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong” (1 Corinthians 1:26-27 NCV).
God has always taken the weak, despised thing of the world to confound the mighty. Jesus “was despised and rejected by men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief; and as one from whom men hide their faces he was despised, and we esteemed him not” (Isaiah 53:3 RSV). Paul testified that when he was weak he was strong, for the weak know that they need God.
God has promised, “He who comes to me I will not cast out” (John 6:37). God takes complete responsibility for the life that is totally surrendered to Him. Total surrender is hard on our part, but God helps us: “For it is God who works in you to will and to act according to his good purpose” (Philippians 2:13). All the Lord needs is your willingness. Come just as you are—with your imperfection, failures, and sin. “He who calls you is faithful, and he will do it” (1 Thessalonians 5:24).
To the surrendered heart there is no end to the blessings the love of God will bestow. “For the LORD God is a sun and shield; the LORD bestows favor and honor; no good thing does he withhold from those whose walk is blameless” (Psalm 84:11). Total surrender and obedience makes you blameless before God (1 Samuel 16:7).
The ability to choose is an indispensable part of being made in God’s image. When you choose God’s way and His kingdom, God must change you by changing your thinking. He transforms you by repentance. Repentance means to change your mind or your way of thinking. When the Holy Spirit changes your worldview, you start to see things from God’s perspective and get the “mind of Christ.” The passion of Jesus’ life was to do the will of God. “For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me” (John 6:38). Jesus says His disciples will have the same passion (John 7:17).
From repentance, a change of mind, commitment is born! For the Christian, surrender is a commitment—a choice of the will, not an emotional experience. It is giving of yourself and all you have freely, unconditionally to God—without any conditions attached (John 15:4-5). It is a commitment of faith in the character of God and not in the circumstances around you. You have no say in the matter. This commitment must be total and renewed daily (Luke 9:23).
Unconditional surrender to God’s Lordship must be like Jesus even unto death. In Revelation 12:11, God makes it clear that the ones who have power to overcome are those who “did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.”
Jesus used this weapon of unconditional surrender to God’s Lordship to overcome the devil. The victory of the cross was assured in the Garden of Gethsemane when Jesus prayed, “Father…not as I will, but as you will” (Matthew 26:39). Jesus loved not His own life even unto death. He is your example. He showed you that you can defeat the devil the same way. The devil has no advantage over a person who has died to self. Jesus makes this a requirement for His disciples in Luke 9:23-24, “If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it.”
It is the conviction that God has the last word, even in death. That Jesus is Lord of all. So much so that you are willing to put your life on the line. The cross is the demonstration of that, for Jesus and for you. Your sinful selfish self will be crucified by your commitment, “not my will but God’s.” Then the Holy Spirit is free to pour Himself out into your life “without measure.”
Jesus tells us how this power and authority is released in unconditional surrender. “I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds” (John 12:24).
This is the law of the harvest: A seed must die before it can reproduce. Jesus is the “seed” that had to die. His death produced spiritual life for all who would receive Him. As a Christian, you are the fruit of His suffering and death.
Jesus declared that this principle of a fruitful death applies to His disciples. You too must take up your cross and die. Paul called it “being crucified with Christ,” dying to self. That is why he declared, “But God forbid that I should glory except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world” (Galatians 6:14). Why must you die to self? Because self is the root of lack of love and at the heart of all disobedience!
This law of the harvest that death produces life is what makes you fruitful in the kingdom of God. As you follow Jesus’ example, you can say with Paul, “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me” (Galatians 2:20). “For to me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain” (Philippians 1:21).
This principle of a fruitful death sets you free. There is nothing that the devil or man can do to you because Jesus holds the keys to hell and death. “I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades” (Revelation 1:18).
A missionary in the former Soviet Union was arrested by the KGB and told to stop preaching the gospel or they would kill him. He told them, “Then I will use my secret weapon against you.”
“What is that?” they asked.
“It’s the martyr’s death. My converts will see me as a hero of the faith and preach more boldly the gospel of Jesus Christ. Please kill me so I can be a martyr.” They let him go.
When you surrender your all to the Lord, you are free to live (Romans 14:7-9). As you embrace this concept of death, you will be an overcomer and receive eternal rewards: “Do not be afraid of what you are about to suffer. I tell you, the devil will put some of you in prison to test you, and you will suffer persecution for ten days. Be faithful, even to the point of death, and I will give you the crown of life” (Revelation 2:10).
However, Jesus also warns you: “For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me and for the gospel will save it” (Mark 8:35). It is your surrender to the Lordship of Christ that removes the fear of death. Jesus has delivered them “who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage” (Hebrews 2:15).
The ultimate goal of your life is to bring forth much fruit that will remain. “You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last” (John 15:16). The only way for this to happen is for you to embrace the concept of a fruitful death! The ultimate surrender is when you die to self. The victorious Christian life is not you conquering sin, but Jesus conquering you! It is “not I, but Christ.”
The first key that Adam lost was unconditional surrender. The second was obedience. Obedience is the outworking of unconditional surrender into Christ’s Lordship.
2. Obedience to the Lord’s commands starts with the Great Commission.
The definition of obedience is complying with or submissive to authority. In the Garden of Eden, “the LORD God commanded the man” (Genesis 2:16). God said to Adam, “Have you eaten from the tree that I commanded you not to eat from?” (Genesis 3:11). Notice that obedience is the one condition for man to abide in the presence of God. Nothing is said about faith, humility, or love—obedience embraces them all.
Notice also how the Bible closes: “Blessed are those who do His commandments, that they may have the right to the tree of life, and may enter through the gates into the city” (Revelation 22:14 NKJV). In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said, “Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father in heaven” (Matthew 7:21).
Peter affirms this: “We are witnesses of these things, and so is the Holy Spirit, whom God has given to those who obey him” (Acts 5:32). John adds, “We know that we have come to know him if we obey his commands” (1 John 2:3). Paul says by your obedience you will be judged: “He will punish those who do not know God and do not obey the gospel of our Lord Jesus” (2 Thessalonians 1:8).
It was through Adam’s disobedience we were made sinners. And it is through the last Adam’s obedience we are made righteous (Romans 5:19). Jesus not only modeled true obedience, but also fulfilled all righteousness for us. Obedience is the fulfillment of righteousness. When you “Seek first his kingdom and his righteousness…all these things will be given to you as well” (Matthew 6:33). As you “seek first his kingdom,” you are submitting to God’s sovereign rule. Then “all these things,” including righteousness, are supplied to you by faith. Your heart desire is to be obedient to the will of God. Jesus confirms this: “Whoever does God’s will is my brother and sister and mother” (Mark 3:35). For you to be in God’s kingdom there must be unconditional loyalty to the rule and will of God.
Jesus defines the will of God in the Lord’s Prayer: “your kingdom come, your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:10). The purpose of the will of God is to see His kingdom come and His will done on earth as it is in heaven. That was Jesus’ mission and your commission: to demonstrate the reality of God’s kingdom in the world. You are to be Jesus to your world, doing the will of God.
From the beginning of time God’s plan for mankind was to rule and reign with Him in His kingdom. In The Divine Conspiracy, Dallas Willard defines kingdom as the “range of one’s effective will.” When your desires and wishes are achieved, your kingdom has come. Thus, when God’s will is done, His kingdom has come. When the King’s will is done, His kingdom is present; when Satan’s will is done, his kingdom is present.
The kingdom rule of God has broken into this world in the person of King Jesus (1 John 3:8). Jesus told His disciples, “Fear not, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the kingdom” (Luke 12:32 RSV). Jesus’ ministry demonstrated this kingdom rule by saving, healing, and delivering people from the kingdom of darkness. The apostle Paul affirms this: “For he has rescued us from the kingdom of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of his dear Son, who purchased our freedom and forgave our sins” (Colossians 1:13-14).
The Great Commandment of loving God and loving others as ourselves is where we must start in our obedience. Out of love for God and others the motive comes for further obedience and going into the world to proclaim the gospel. In fact, if we don’t have this love burning in us, can God really trust us with power and authority? Obedience that is a means to an end (getting power and authority) rather than an expression of love and adoration cannot be sustained and will not be honored by God.
Jesus gave us the Great Commission to continue His mission to heal the sick, crippled, and injured. To deliver the oppressed and those in bondage to Satan. To bring reconciliation and forgiveness of sin to the lost and an inheritance among God’s chosen people. There is no greater calling.
The 16th century mystic and Archbishop Francois Fenelon understood that obedience must come from the will. He said that our relationship to God “resides in the will, alone.” Emotions do play a part in relationship, but faith depends on the application of your will. Obedience is something you do when you are inspired or uninspired, because the commitment of your will is to be aligned with the will of God.
In obedience to Jesus’ commission we are to continue His ministry in word and deed. Jesus declared to Philip, “The words I say to you are not just my own. Rather, it is the Father, living in me, who is doing his work. Believe me when I say that I am in the Father and the Father is in me; or at least believe on the evidence of the miracles themselves. I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Son may bring glory to the Father. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it” (John 14:10-14).
“The truth is,” said Jesus, “anyone who has faith in me I have given them authority to proclaim the kingdom message and the power to take it from the adversary” (Matthew 16:18; Luke 10:19). The Great Commission is an empowerment of authority to carry out this mission. The purpose of the Holy Spirit is to give you power to fulfill that commission (Acts 1:8). But this power is rooted in obedience. James 1:22 warns us, “Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says.” You are authorized to proclaim the message and demonstrate it under the anointing of the Holy Spirit. This commission is given to every disciple of Jesus Christ.
Jesus said, “All power and authority is given unto me. Go!” This is a command. A suggestion is different from a command because there is no penalty attached to it. If you don’t obey a command, you pay the consequences to the authority that gave the command.
As a parent I might say to my children, “We need to pick things up around this house.” No one does it, because it is suggestive talk. My children are waiting for others to do it. But when I call them by their name and say, “I want you to do this,” they know if they don’t do it there will be consequences. Like children, we make excuses and will do it if we feel like it or when it is convenient.
Henry Blackaby wrote in Men of Integrity (May/June 2003) about the funeral for a beautiful three-year-old, the first he ever conducted. “She was the first child born to a couple in our church, and the first grandchild in their extended family. Unfortunately, she was spoiled. While visiting the little girl’s home one day, I observed that she loved to ignore her parents’ instructions. When they told her to come, she went. When they said, ‘Sit down,’ she stood up. Her parents laughed, finding her behavior cute.
“One day their front gate was inadvertently left open. The parents saw their child escaping out of the yard and heading toward the road. To their horror, a car was racing down the street. As she ran out between two parked cars, they both screamed at her to stop and turn back. She paused for a second, looked back at her parents, then gleefully laughed as she turned and ran directly into the path of the oncoming car. The parents rushed their little girl to the hospital, but she died from her injuries.”
Blackaby said, “As a young pastor, this was a profound lesson for me. I realized I must teach God’s people not only to recognize His voice but also immediately to obey His voice when they hear it. It is life.”
If you will “Go!” Jesus gives you the spiritual authority to go in His name. The basis for our spiritual authority is a legal one. It is a legal reality that does not waver because of our unbelief, and is as real as any transaction. In fact, it’s a legal arrangement much like marriage. If you ask someone if they are married you will never hear, “Well, I’m not sure. Sometimes I feel married, and sometimes I just don’t know.” They will always say “Yes” or “No.” If you are married, you are totally convinced of it at all times, and have a legal document to prove it. Feelings, thoughts, and personalities do not change the reality of that legal arrangement. Your spiritual authority is just as real and legal as marriage. It is not just a belief; it’s a certainty.
As Christians we are meant to represent Jesus Christ and His kingdom to this world. You are to demonstrate and endorse the will of God on earth as it is in heaven. The training ground is our time on earth. This is where we learn to exercise His power and authority.
According to Paul Billheimer in Destined for the Throne, our prayer life determines our place of rulership in God’s kingdom. Jesus’ victory on the cross won the legal right and authority over all that was lost in the fall. Satan is defeated. But God has given the enforcing of this victory over Satan to His church, to you and me. Satan will not give up any of his rights or authority until the church enforces Jesus’ victory.
The early church obeyed. In the book of Acts, ordinary men turn the world upside down. This is how it works: prayer from men, then power from God. That is how the early church did it. Prayer, then God’s answer through them, throughout the whole book of Acts! They had no money, political influence, or spiritual training, but they had the legal right and authority of prayer.
“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33). Here are two reasons for victory:
1. Jesus is Lord of all. “All power is given unto me.…”
2. Jesus has pledged Himself to answer. “This is the confidences we have in Him, if we ask anything according to His will.…”
But remember:
First, there is no victory without conflict. Jesus “learned obedience from what he suffered” (Hebrews 5:8), and so will you. If you are not obedient, you may not suffer; but if you are you will. “In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted” (2 Timothy 3:12). Satan has been cast down to earth, and He knows he has a short time (Revelation 12:7-12). He’s mad.
Second, the victory comes by faith. “And this is the victory that conquers the world, our faith. Who is it that conquers the world but the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?” (1 John 5:4-5 RSV). That Jesus is Lord of all! The word “victory” is used in military, athletic, debate, and courtroom situations—it always involves a conflict. Faith provides the power source and is the means of victory. Jesus said, “I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you” (Luke 10:19 NKJV).
Satan has been defeated. He is a squatter and will not move until you take the authority to evict him. Like a marshal of the federal court, you must serve him an eviction notice from the covenant of the Word of God. In Revelation 12:11, Jesus gives you your warrant and authority: “They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death.” You are a commissioned officer in King Jesus’ army. Boldly proclaim Jesus’ Lordship! “You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world” (1 John 4:4).
King Jesus has given you authority to bind and loose. “I tell you the truth, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven” (Matthew 18:18). “Bind” and “loose” are terms used for tying up or imprisoning someone. That is what Satan wants to do to you. Turn the tables on him. You are to proclaim the kingdom of God—the rule and reign of God. Serve Satan an eviction notice. I like The Message translation of Matthew 16:18-19: “This is the rock on which I will put together my church, a church so expansive with energy that not even the gates of hell will be able to keep it out. And that’s not all. You will have complete and free access to God’s kingdom, keys to open any and every door: no more barriers between heaven and earth, earth and heaven. A yes on earth is yes in heaven. A no on earth is no in heaven.”
Paul confirms this in Colossians 2:15: “Having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.” Jesus now has the keys to death and Hades, and Satan is no longer legally in control. “I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades” (Revelation 1:18). Jesus took from the devil the legal right, authority, and power to this planet.
God gave the keys of power and authority to Jesus because “he humbled himself and became obedient to death—even death on a cross!” (Philippians 2:8). This is the ultimate example of true surrender. No other obedience is as pleasing to God.
In 1993, Pastor Dennis Nice was sensing a call to Liberia in West Africa to minister to orphans and to encourage the church that was suffering through the ongoing civil war. He gathered his wife and three adolescent daughters and asked them to pray to seek confirmation and agreement for the dangerous trip. They came back together a week later and the feeling was unanimous; their husband and father should go!
Dennis told them that since they had found God’s will together, they were giving up the right to be angry with God if for some reason he never returned. His surrender and obedience set him and his family free and gave him boldness in living.
In Liberia, Dennis was an answer to prayer for the church. Time and again he experienced God’s guidance. Since his trip, more than 150 orphaned children have come to the Pacific Northwest for adoption.
“Give me a hundred men who fear nothing but sin, and desire nothing but God,” said John Wesley, “and I will shake the world. I care not a straw whether they be clergymen or laymen; and such alone will overthrow the kingdom of Satan and build up the kingdom of God on earth.”
Thomas Merton writes: “We do not receive enlightenment only in proportion as we give ourselves more and more completely to God. We do not first see, and then act. We act, then see. And that is why the man who waits to see clearly, before he will believe, never starts on the journey.”
Adam lost the keys to power and authority when he withdrew his surrender and obedience. The Lord wants you to have the “keys to the kingdom.” The ultimate surrender is when you die to self. Your obedience is completed when you not only hear the word, but also do the word. Go set the captives free!
In the next issue, with the foundation of surrender and obedience restored, God’s plan is for power leadership to flow out of your identity and direction.