{"id":81,"date":"2008-07-24T20:34:42","date_gmt":"2008-07-25T03:34:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/warriorshepherd.com\/blog\/2008\/07\/24\/authority\/"},"modified":"2011-09-06T11:52:35","modified_gmt":"2011-09-06T09:52:35","slug":"authority","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/warriorshepherd.com\/blog\/authority\/","title":{"rendered":"Authority"},"content":{"rendered":"

Being a military guy, I love the account of the Centurion in Matthew 8:5-10:\u00a0<\/p>\n

When Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, asking for help. “Lord,” he said, “my servant lies at home paralyzed and in terrible suffering.”<\/p>\n

Jesus said to him, “I will go and heal him.”<\/p>\n

The centurion replied, “Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and that one, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.”<\/p>\n

When Jesus heard this, he was astonished and said to those following him, “I tell you the truth, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\"Roman<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Understanding Authority<\/h2>\n

For the past 10 years, I’ve lived a lifestyle that is established on authority.\u00a0 I have had authority over some, and I am under the authority of others.\u00a0 In the military, it is essential that orders are followed–in the most drastic cases, it could mean life or death.\u00a0 In day-to-day work, authority is just as important–it’s the way work is completed, efficiently and quickly.\u00a0 <\/p>\n

So I identify with the centurion here, and I can accept the ultimate authority of Jesus in my life.\u00a0 I take his words at face value, and I know his promises will be accomplished.\u00a0 I’m trained and conditioned to follow the direction of my leaders.\u00a0 I don’t do it blindly, but my leaders have earned my trust through their words and actions, and their willingness to sacrifice for the mission.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In the same way, I trust Jesus wholeheartedly–I know His word will not return void, and he has already made the supreme sacrifice for all of us.\u00a0 So I follow his authority.\u00a0 And if he says something will be done, it will be done<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Accept Authority When Given<\/h2>\n

Matthew chapter 10 also talks about authority: that which was given to us by Jesus Christ.\u00a0 “He called his disciples and gave them authority <\/strong>to drive out evil…”\u00a0 <\/em>We, as Christ-followers, as Warrior-Shepherds, have been given the authority, entrusted to us by Christ, to exert\u00a0our God-given power\u00a0over evil, to defeat it, to crush it under our feet.\u00a0 Amen!<\/p>\n

Relinquish Authority When Needed.<\/h2>\n

How are you with authority? Have you recognized it in your life? Do you ‘relinquish authority’ when necessary and accept it when given?<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Being a military guy, I love the account of the Centurion in Matthew 8:5-10:\u00a0 When Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to him, asking for help. “Lord,” he said, “my servant lies at home paralyzed and in terrible suffering.” Jesus said to him, “I will go and heal him.” The centurion replied, “Lord, I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1435,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44,42],"tags":[171,186,230,185],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/warriorshepherd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/warriorshepherd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/warriorshepherd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/warriorshepherd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/warriorshepherd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=81"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/warriorshepherd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1095,"href":"http:\/\/warriorshepherd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/81\/revisions\/1095"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/warriorshepherd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1435"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/warriorshepherd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=81"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/warriorshepherd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=81"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/warriorshepherd.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=81"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}