So far in this short series about our identity in Christ we have highlighted the truth that in Christ you are a new creation, born again with the full potential of a new life and a new heart within you. In addition, every believer is a child of God, a priest, and a king on the earth placed here to rule as representatives of the Great King. With that position, you are royalty anointed with God’s Holy Spirit and by that Spirit you may exercise the authority of Christ to do everything Jesus did as Son of Man and more.

Since you are a man or woman of authority, it might be good to discuss how to exercise that authority on behalf of Jesus and the Kingdom of God. The key to understanding our authority and how to exercise it is found in remembering that God determined to partner with his children by ruling the earth through them. He could impose his will on the earth at anytime without involving us, but he has chosen not to do so. Jesus is our model.

The Father could have healed any sick person or infirm person at anytime or could have sent any demon on the run without any human involvement. However, he chose to do those things through Jesus. It was Jesus who laid hands on the sick. It was Jesus who commanded healing. It was Jesus who called Lazarus out of the tomb, and Jesus who commanded unclean spirits to leave. The Father exercised his authority through the Son and did so with the Son’s touch, his prayers, his commands, and his declarations.

In Jeremiah 1, we get a sense of how that works. “Do not be afraid of them, for I am with you and will rescue you,” declares the Lord. Then the Lord reached out his hand and touched my mouth and said to me, “Now, I have put my words in your mouth.  See, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant” (Jer.1:8-10). In Isaiah the Lord also declares, “So will My word be which goes forth from My mouth; It will not return to Me empty, Without accomplishing what I desire, And without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it” (Isa.55:11).

What we discover is that God’s word fulfills it’s purpose whether is goes forth from his mouth or from one who represents him. It is still God’s word going forth. A study of Jeremiah makes it clear that the prophet uprooted and tore down kingdoms by declaring the word of God over those kingdoms, not by any power of his own. The same is true with us. We rule just as Jeremiah did. We rule by declaring God’s word over situations, over people, and over nations. They key is that we declare what we have heard from the Father either by a fresh word whispered by his Spirit or by his clear will and direction derived from his written word. We do so in commands and declarations. We also rule through prayer because our prayers coupled with the authority of our position, release heaven to move in powerful ways on the earth.

In the book or Revelation, we see that there are golden bowls or censors that are filled with the prayers of the saints (Rev.5:8).   Dutch Sheets points out that when those bowls have been filled sufficiently with our prayers then fire is added to the bowls and they are poured out on the earth with great power – thunder, lightening, and earthquakes. The idea is that when God’s saints have prayed into a situation with enough faith and perseverance, then the power of heaven is added to the prayers and heaven’s power breaks out on the earth. It seems that our prayers, our declarations, and our commands that release the word and will of God over situations and people also release and direct the power of God because he has chosen, to a great extent, to let us determine when and where he will work on the earth.

We rule by declaring his word over the earth just as Jeremiah did so that God’s will is done on the earth as it is in heaven. We are people of authority who partner with God to release the power of heaven over those things and people we care enough about to engage the enemy in war and assault him with the very words of God that come from our lips. You are a very powerful person in Christ and with your own lips often direct the artillery of heaven in the Kingdom’s war against the dominion of darkness. Pray more. Command more. Declare more.