Authority has been given

What defines your authority in a situation or an organization? I will never forget my "leap over tall buildings" when I made the transition from 4 years of Computer Science to doing an MBA at the age of 21. I had to make the big transition from reading many lines of programming code and studying logic to reading many books and writing many essays. One of the early things I learned was about leadership and how you had both formal and informal leadership in an organization. Formal is given by the formal rules and procedures in the organization, and informal leadership is given by the strength of your know-how and relationships. Jesus exercised His authority with informal leadership from a human standpoint. But, He had formal leadership from a Godly perspective.

John 2:15
When He had made a whip of cords, He drove them all out of the temple, with the sheep and the oxen, and poured out the changers’ money and overturned the tables.

Quite a ruckus here and He was asked under what authority He did this. They were looking for a sign of His authority. He simply responded with the fact that He was going to die and be risen again in 3 days, implying that His authority was of God. But the people had no clue what He was saying at that time. Jesus spoke with authority because He had it. It was a heavenly one. Do we have authority to speak like that about the kingdom? Yes, we do! We see this when Jesus gives His last command and the early Church was born at Pentecost with God ordained authority. In actual fact we had the mandate or mantle of authority right from creation, but mankind made some unwise choices. The original mandate giving that authority is still there. Only available through a personal relationship with Jesus Christ.

Genesis 1:28
Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”

Father, I shall speak with authority because you have given it.

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