My Life and Books (6) Kingdom Authority

When I was a young Christian, I studied the New Testament avidly. I very quickly noticed that Jesus talked about the Kingdom of God far more than he talked about the church. He preached the good news of the Kingdom of God. I realised that it was important to understand the nature of the Kingdom. It took me a long time to come to a full understanding.

Since I decided to follow Jesus fifty years ago, I have been zealous for the kingdom of God. I wrote a book called the Glorious Kingdom in the 1980s, but no one was interested in the Kingdom back then, (and it was badly written) so it flopped. “Prophetic” was the popular buzzword at that time, with prophetic conferences and books on prophetic leadership.

A decade later, “apostolic” had become the popular adjective. Books were being written about apostolic government, apostolic leadership and apostolic reformation. That fad seems to have passed and “kingdom” has now become the adjective that everyone is using to describe what God is doing.

Authority is the heart of every kingdom. If there is no authority, there is no kingdom. Therefore, to understand the Kingdom of God, we must understand how authority works, in heaven and on earth.

Everything in this universe is shaped by authority. In the beginning, God said, “Let it be” and it was. He had authority over everything. Two chapters later, God said, “Let us give authority to humans”. Why on earth did he do that? When Jesus was being tempted, the devil said, “I have authority over all the kingdoms of the world”. How did that happen?

When Jesus preached the gospel, the people recognised his authority. Who gave him authority? By the end of the gospel Jesus was saying, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me”. How did that happen? The Book of Revelation says that Jesus has authority to open the scrolls that release God’s activity on earth. How does that work?

My book called Kingdom Authority describes the history of authority in both the spiritual and physical realms. It explains the big authority shifts that have had massive impacts on earth. Most theologies jump from the fall straight to the cross, without much need for the stuff in between. That is a mistake, as if we ignore the events described in the Old Testament, we will fail to understand everything God is doing, and the big authority shifts that have constrained him.

If we do not know about authority, we will not understand why evil has been so active on earth. God gave authority over the earth to humans. The forces of evil have been active on earth, because humans gave them authority, while God did not have the authority he needed to deal with evil. It took a special human do that, and until he came the powers of evil had a ball. Jesus preached the gospel of the Kingdom of God. This raises a couple of serious questions.

Jesus prayed that God’s authority would be done on earth and it is in heaven. How did the God who created the universe end up losing authority over the earth? What happened on earth and in heaven that meant his authority on earth has to be restored?

Why has God taken so long? Things went wrong on earth right at the beginning. Yet God let thousands of years go by before he sent Jesus to put things right. Why did he let evil go on for so long, before something about it?

To understand these questions, we must understand the working of authority and the big shifts in authority that have shaped history on earth. The big shifts in authority are described in Kingdom Authority. It also describes God’s plan for getting back the authority lost to the spiritual powers of evil and establishing his Kingdom on earth.

Human politics are an obstacle to the Kingdom of God because they use Imposed Authority, which empowers the powers of evil. Government-spirits have leveraged their feeble power by controlling political and military authorities. In contrast, God refuses to impose his authority on earth using force and coercion. He rejects all forms of political and military power. Instead, he calls people to serve him and freely submit to his will because they love Jesus.

More about Kingdom Authority.

Kingdom Authority

For the next two days, the Kindle version of my book called Kingdom Authority is available for free on Amazon.com.

If you want to understand God’s big strategy to bring his kingdom to reality on earth, you should read this book.

Kingdom Authority

Authority is the heart of every kingdom. If there is no authority, there is no kingdom. Therefore, to understand the Kingdom of God, we must understand how authority works, in heaven and on earth.

Everything in this universe is shaped by authority. In the beginning God said, “Let it be” and it was. He had authority over everything. Two chapters later, God said, “Let us give authority to humans”. Why on earth did he do that? When Jesus was being tempted, the devil said, “I have authority over all the kingdoms of the world”. How did that happen? When Jesus preached the gospel, the people recognised his authority. Who gave him authority? By the end of the gospel Jesus was saying, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me”. How did that happen? The Book of Revelation says that Jesus has authority to open the scrolls that release God’s activity on earth. How does that work?

My book called Kingdom Authority describes the history of authority in both the spiritual and physical realms. It explains the big authority shifts that have had massive impacts on earth. Most theologies jump from the fall straight to the cross, without much need for the stuff in between. That is a mistake, as if we ignore the events described in the Old Testament, we will fail to understand everything God is doing, and the big authority shifts that have constrained him.

If we do not know about authority, we will not understand why evil has been so active on earth. God gave authority over the earth to humans. The forces of evil have been active on earth, because humans gave them authority, while God did not have the authority he needed to deal with evil. It took a special human do that, and until he came the powers of evil had a ball.

Big Questions
Jesus preached the gospel of the Kingdom of God. This raises a couple of serious questions.

Jesus prayed that God’s authority would be done on earth and it is in heaven. How did the God who created the universe end up losing authority over the earth? What happened on earth and in heaven that meant his authority on earth has to be restored?

Why has God taken so long? Things went wrong on earth right at the beginning. Yet God let thousands of years go by before he sent Jesus to put things right. Why did he let evil go on for so long, before something about it?

To understand these questions, we must understand the working of authority and the big shifts in authority that have shaped history on earth. The big shifts in authority are described in Kingdom Authority. This book is a prequel to a book called The Government of God that I will be publishing in June. It will show how the principles in Kingdom Authority are applied in practice.

Authority

Authority is the heart of a kingdom. Many men have claimed to be king, but if their authority was not recognised, they were fooling themselves. A king without authority is not really a king.

When a king expands his kingdom, his authority grows. If a kingdom shrinks, the king loses authority. Shifts in authority change the shape of a kingdom and the status of the king.

Authority Shifts change Kingdoms

Jesus came to establish the Kingdom of God. A new kingdom brings a big shift in authority.

In the beginning, all authority in heaven and on earth belonged to God. To understand life on earth, we need to know how authority was transferred to someone else. To be part of the Kingdom of God, we need to know how he plans to get authority back. The gospel of the coming of the Kingdom implies a big authority shift on earth (Kingdom Authority p.13).

Kingdom Authority describes the nature of authority and explain how it operates on earth.

Two Thousand Years

The big question for God’s people is why after 2000 years, the Kingdom of God has made so little progress, compared to the glorious promises of scripture. The second question is why we can have confidence that the Kingdom will become stronger and come to fullness at some point in the future.

I answer these two questions in my book called Kingdom Authority.

Great Depths

When I wrote Kingdom Authority, I realised that some of the spiritual powers of evil were locked up following the flood (1 Pet 318-19; 2 Pet 4-5). But I did not understand why was God able to do this after the flood, when he could not do it before the flood? The penny has now dropped.

The reason is as follows. God gave authority over the earth to humans. They had authority on earth and over the earth, but they did not have authority over the depths of the earth and the structure of the planet. God retained control of the planet itself.

When Adam rejected God, and submitted to the tempter, he placed himself under the authority of the spiritual powers of evil. They gained authority over the earth. The powers of evil had authority to be there, so provided they remained in contact with the earth, God could not touch them. If they had attacked the spiritual realms where God dwells, they would have been defeated in a minute. As long as they worked upon the earth, they were safe.

At the time of the flood, some of the spiritual powers attacked the depths of the earth and broke them up.

On that day all the fountains of the great deep were broken up (Gen 7:11).

When some of the spiritual powers of evil attacked the great depths of the earth, they moved away from the place where they had authority upon the earth. God was able to send a host of angels and take them captive, so that they could not work on earth any more. God had authority to do this, because they had moved to a place where they did not have authority.

Big Authority Shifts that Change History

The authority of God will endure forever.

Your kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and your dominion endures through all generations. The LORD is faithful to all his promises and loving toward all he has made (Psalm 145:13).

The Kingdom will not end, even when Christ returns. At that point Jesus will hand his Kingdom over to his father so that God might be all in all (1 Cor 15:28). He will rule forever and ever. His authority will never end.

God started his action on earth by placing people in a garden, with instructions to push out and fill the entire earth. Having completed the fulfilment of his Kingdom on earth, he will want to push out and fill the entire universe. Once the spiritual and physical realms are integrated, he will fill the universe with wonderful worlds and kingdoms. Those who have been faithful with little on earth, will work with him to fill the universe with his glory.

Kingdom Authority, p.174

Kingdom Authority

The boundary of a kingdom is not fixed by geography, but is determined by the authority of the king.

Authority defines the boundaries of a kingdom.

A kingdom extends wherever the authority of the king is accepted and obeyed. When a king gains authority over more people, his kingdom expands. When a king loses authority over his more distant subjects, his kingdom shrinks.

A nobleman who lives within a kingdom may refuse to accept the authority of the king. If the king cannot control the nobleman, the people controlled by him are not part of the kingdom. Outlaws do not accept the authority of the king. Although they live within the geographic boundaries of the kingdom, they are not part of it. They do not acknowledge the laws of the king, so they do not receive his protection.

Geography is only relevant, if it constrains the expansion of authority. Extending human authority over mountains and across seas is difficult, so most human kingdoms are limited to a particular region. The kingdom of Israel was a geographic kingdom. The king’s authority waxed and waned as its geographic boundaries expanded and contracted.

The scope of the Kingdom of God is not limited by geographic barriers. The boundary of the Kingdom of God is defined by attitudes to his authority. It extends wherever God’s authority is accepted and his decisions are obeyed. The Holy Spirit can carry the authority of God throughout the world, so his Kingdom can extend into all the earth.

Kingdom Authority, p.9

Kingdom Authority

Kingdom Authority is a prequel to my book Times and Seasons.

Authority is the heart of a kingdom. Many men have claimed to be king, but if their authority was not recognised, they were fooling themselves. A king without authority is not really a king.

When a king expands his kingdom, his authority grows. If a kingdom shrinks, the king loses authority. Shifts in authority change the shape of a kingdom and the status of the king.

Authority Shifts change Kingdoms

Jesus came to establish the Kingdom of God. A new kingdom brings a big shift in authority.

In the beginning, all authority in heaven and on earth belonged to God. To understand life on earth, we need to know how authority was transferred to someone else. To be part of the Kingdom of God, we need to know how he plans to get authority back. The gospel of the coming of the Kingdom implies a big authority shift on earth. (Kingdom Authority, p.13)

Kingdom Authority describes the nature of authority and explain how it operates on earth.

Kingdom Authority

The Kindle version of my book called Kingdom Authority is now available free from Amazon. The offer lasts for two days.

The Holy Spirit has immense power, but no authority. We have authority on the earth, but no power. When we use our authority to give the Holy Spirit permission to use his power, we can do great things together for the Father. Without him, we can do nothing. Without our permission to act, he is constrained. By joining his power with our authority, we allow the Holy Spirit to do great works on earth for the Father (Kingdom Authority p. 118).

Institutions and the Kingdom

The Kingdom of God is often described as people obeying Jesus. This is too narrow. The Kingdom of God covers human institutions too.

A Kingdom is a complete society. It has farms and families, carpenters and courts, houses and horses, roads and schools, engineers and entertainment, work and wells, merchants and midwives, artists and gardens. The scope of a kingdom covers every aspect of life. The whole of society is controlled by the king. There is no society apart from the kingdom. A new kingdom with a new king means a new society. Every aspect of that society will be under the authority of the king.

Jesus came to establish a new kingdom. This new kingdom requires a new society structured and organised in a way that reflects his character and will......

A kingdom is not just the people ruled by a king, but all the economic, legal and social institutions that support their lives. The Bad Authority Shift corrupted all human institutions, so as the Kingdom comes, they will need to be restored. When people receive the gospel, the institutions that make up their society will need to be transformed to align with God’s will.

• People are born into the Kingdom by repenting and submitting to the authority of Jesus.
• Institutions shift into the Kingdom when the people with authority over them submit their authority to Jesus by obeying his word and his Holy Spirit.

(Kingdom Authority pp.13,135)

Authority Questions

The gospel of the Kingdom raises a couple of serious questions.

1. Jesus prayed that God’s authority would be done on earth as it is in heaven. This raises a big question. How did the God who created the universe end up losing authority over the earth? What happened on earth and in heaven that meant his authority on earth has to be restored?

2. Why has God taken so long? Things went wrong on earth right at the beginning. Yet God let thousands of years go by before he sent Jesus to put things right. Why did he let evil go on for so long, before he did something about it?

To understand these questions, we must understand the working of authority and the big shifts in authority that have shaped history on earth. These big authority shifts that have shaped history are the theme of this Kingdom Authority.

Reigning

The scriptures often describe God as reigning over the earth.

God is the King of all the earth;
God reigns over the nations;
God is seated on his holy throne (Ps 47:7-8).

These passages are description of the way things should be, not the way they are. God created the entire creation, so he owns it all and is entitled to complete sovereignty over it. The scriptures also acknowledge that he gave authority over the earth to human and many people now refuse to acknowledge his sovereignty, but they look forward to the time when his sovereignty will be restored.

God created the universe, so he owns it. He established the rules and principles under which it will operate. That is what makes him sovereign. He decided that humans should have authority over the earth. This was his will and decision, so while humans control the earth, he is still reigning , because his decree is still being implemented. He is in reigning, because he wanted humans to have a period of history when they are in control on earth (Kingdom Authority p.43).

God's Soverignty

God’s sovereignty is often presented as if he directs events on earth by remote control, but that would be a breach of his gift of authority to humans, and would turn us into puppets. He has the power to control people, but he limits himself to influencing people into freely choosing to do his will. He uses a variety of means to get people who do not know want to obey him to do what he wants.

• The Holy Spirit can put thoughts into the minds of hostile people. If they accept his ideas, they voluntarily do God’s will without understanding that they are being guided by him.
• He will often give the same thought to several people, so they spur each other on.
• The Holy Spirit makes his suggestions well in advance, at a time when the person is receptive. He often repeats the thought until it is accepted.
• The Holy Spirit presents his thoughts in a way that appeals to people, so they think it is their own idea.
• When dealing with kings, he takes advantage of their pride. God was able to use King Cyrus to accomplish his purposes, because Cyrus accepted the suggestions of the Holy Spirit. He was led by God without realising it (Is 45:1).
• When dealing with ordinary people, the Holy Spirit often stirs up emotions like fear or anger (Deut 2:25). Many Canaanites fled their land when they bought into the fear that he stirred up.
• God sometimes uses evil spirits to deceive evil people (1 Kings 22:19-20). These spirits do not want to do his will, but if he makes a suggestion, they will often do it, because they do not have many original ideas. Unlike humans, angels were created to obey another person, so they are not very creative.
• God uses physical events to prevent powerful people from doing evil things. He used the Red Sea to destroy Pharaoh’s army (Ex 14:27-28).

God does not control events on earth. He accomplishes his purposes by superior wisdom and the ability of the Holy Spirit to influence people, often despite their opposition, and without their understanding (Kingdom Authority, p.44)

Kingdom Gospel

Jesus announced the gospel of the Kingdom of God, but his message is hard for us to understand, because real kingdoms no longer exist. Modern kings are just ceremonial figureheads trotted out for special occasions and the covers of women’s magazines. These rock star kings give a distorted view of the Kingdom of God, because they are worshipped, but they have no authority.

Real kings had absolute authority over every person and thing within their kingdom. A king without authority was not a real king. He is a pretender.

Authority is the heart of a kingdom. If there is no authority, there is no kingdom, so to understand the Kingdom of God, we must understand the nature of authority, and how it interacts between heaven and on earth.

Most kings imposed their authority with military force. God has a totally different approach. He uses Free authority to accomplish his purposes on earth. My book Kingdom Authority describes the difference between Imposed Authority and Free Authority and explains why this has constrained God’s ability to work on earth.

Holy Spirit and Authority

Over the last fifty years, Christians have rediscovered the power of the Holy Spirit. Power is really important, so we need the power of the Holy Spirit working in our lives. However, the Holy Spirit has not had a free hand to bring in the Kingdom of God. He is often constrained by lack of authority. If we want to experience the fullness of the Spirit and see him working to accomplish God’s purposes on earth, we must understand the working of authority. That is why the New Testament speaks about authority, as much as power.

Jesus has given us the keys of the kingdom. He said that what we bind or release on earth will be bound or released in the spiritual realms. Understanding the nature of authority transforms intercessory prayer. Prayer is not pleading with God to do things that he is reluctant to do, it is finding out what he wants to do and giving him authority to do it.

We have a marvellous gospel and the Holy Spirit is up to the job, but the Kingdom of God has still not come in the fullness that Jesus promised. The reason is authority. Two big authority obstacles stand into its way. My book called Kingdom Authority explains how they will be removed, so that God’s Kingdom can come as Jesus promised.

Kingdom Authority

My latest book is now available at Amazon.com. I think it is the most important book I have written.

For many years, I have wanted to write a book about the Kingdom of God, but I found that it was too hard. My problem is that the kingdom is so glorious that a thousand books could not describe its fullness. I have chosen instead to write a couple of shorter ones that describe important aspects of the Kingdom of God. That is all I can manage.

Kingdom Authority comes first. Authority is the heart of every kingdom. If there is no authority, there is no kingdom. Therefore, to understand the Kingdom of God, we must understand how authority works, in heaven and on earth.

(The book is a prequel to a book called The Government of God that I am working on now. It will show how the principles in Kingdom Authority are applied in practice. I hope to have it completed sometime in 2015.)

Kingdom Authority
Everything in this universe is shaped by authority. In the beginning God said, “Let it be” and it was. He had authority over everything. Two chapters later, God said, “Let us give authority to humans”. Why on earth did he do that? When Jesus was being tempted, the devil said, “I have authority over all the kingdoms of the world”. How did that happen? When Jesus preached the gospel, the people recognised his authority. Who gave him authority? By the end of the gospel Jesus was saying, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me”. How did that happen? The Book of Revelation says that Jesus has authority to open the scrolls that release God’s activity on earth. How does that work?

Kingdom Authority describes the history of authority in both the spiritual and physical realms. It explains the big authority shifts that have had massive impacts on earth. Most theologies jump from the fall straight to the cross, without much need for the stuff in between. That is a mistake, as if we ignore the events described in the Old Testament, we will fail to understand everything God is doing, and the big authority shifts that have constrained him.

If we do not know about authority, we will not understand why evil has been so active on earth. God gave authority over the earth to humans. The forces of evil have been active on earth, because humans gave them authority, while God did not have the authority he needed to deal with evil. It took a special human do that, and until he came the powers of evil had a ball.

Big Questions
Jesus preached the gospel of the Kingdom of God. This raises a couple of serious questions.

1. Jesus prayed that God’s authority would be done on earth and it is in heaven. How did the God who created the universe end up losing authority over the earth? What happened on earth and in heaven that meant his authority on earth has to be restored?
2. Why has God taken so long? Things went wrong on earth right at the beginning. Yet God let thousands of years go by before he sent Jesus to put things right. Why did he let evil go on for so long, before something about it?

To understand these questions, we must understand the working of authority and the big shifts in authority that have shaped history on earth. The big shifts in authority are described in Kingdom Authority.