[b]Difference between human authority and spiritual authority
Zac Poonen
The multitudes were amazed at Jesus’ preaching, because they
saw a difference between the way He taught and the way the
Pharisees had taught them for so many years. The Pharisees
had a lot of knowledge. Jesus had even more knowledge than
they had. But it was His authority that impressed His
hearers, not His knowledge (Matt.7:29).
If we have knowledge but no spiritual authority in our
ministry, we will be like the Pharisees. God backed up the
words that Jesus spoke. This is what it means to speak with
spiritual authority.
Jesus told His disciples in John 15:26, 27 that the Holy
Spirit would bear witness along with them. This meant that
whenever they preached, the Holy Spirit would back up what
they said. That’s certainly how I want my ministry to be at
all times. As I bear witness to Jesus, the Holy Spirit must
also bear witness to what I say. He must speak to the hearts
of my listeners saying, "Listen to that. That’s from God".
Then I’ll be speaking with Divine authority. But if I merely
give a very accurate testimony about Jesus, and the Holy
Spirit doesn’t back up what I say, I won’t be called a
heretic, because my doctrines are all evangelical. But I
will still be ministering death, and not life.
There are many ways in which we can exercise authority over
people. There are human ways, religious ways and spiritual
ways.
A good example of human authority would be the authority
that film stars and rock musicians exercise. Look at the way
people worship them and go crazy over them. People stand for
hours in the rain and the sun to get a glimpse of them. They
have great authority over people. They use their human
abilities to rule over people’s minds and emotions - and
then get the people to pay them money too! This type of
authority is found among many preachers in Christendom too.
It is the power of the human soul and not of the Holy
Spirit.
Another way to exercise human authority would be through
money.
Almost every pastor is controlled by the board members of
his church, because the board determines his salary. Such a
pastor dare not say anything that will offend those board-
members! Churches usually have their richest men on their
boards. And these rich men are usually the ones who need to
be rebuked the most. But how can a pastor rebuke them if his
mouth is full of the money they have stuffed into it? He
can’t. So he has to tickle those rich men’s ears and say
exactly what they want to hear. If he displeases them, they
won’t give him his annual increment and that’ll be enough to
make him change. He’ll think of his poor family that will
have to struggle. He’ll have to vacate his convenient
pastoral house and he’ll have to take his children out of
that good school. Such thoughts will make him quickly submit
to the board and toe the official line quietly! This is the
main reason why we have hardly any prophets today. Almost
every preacher has fallen a prey to the lure of money. How
can such preachers ever exercise spiritual authority?
Jesus never controlled anyone through money. Not one of His
disciples followed Him for money, for He had no wealth to
give them. He offered them no retirement benefits in this
world, but only tribulation and suffering. He taught them to
seek the kingdom of God and His righteousness first and told
them that the material things they needed (the bare minimum
of food and clothing) would be added to them by their
Heavenly Father.
Music power is another power that we have to beware of. Rock
music can sway people to the point where they even commit
suicide. There are many forms of power like that in the
world today. We have to be careful that we don’t mistake
these for spiritual power. If we are unable to distinguish
between spiritual power and soul-power, it will be easy to
deceive ourselves about the success of our ministry.
One of the greatest needs in the church today is for a
demonstration of spiritual authority in the ministry of its
leaders. Spiritual authority is very different from
religious authority. What we commonly see in Christendom
today is religious authority, where strong leaders dominate
their flock.
Paul had such spiritual authority given him by God that he
could even deliver a person in the church at Corinth to
Satan for the destruction of his flesh so that the man could
be saved (1 Cor.5:5). The man was saved later and came back
to the church in repentance. Paul was the founding father of
that church and such fathers have a spiritual authority that
no-one else can exercise. Those apostles had Divine
authority given them by the Lord to build people up. This is
the type of loving authority that we need too. We see many
manifestations of such spiritual authority in the life of
the apostle Paul, that are a tremendous challenge to us.
When the disciples observed Jesus for 3½ years, they saw
that He was totally different from the leaders and preachers
they had seen in their synagogues. They had never met anyone
who lived like Him or who spoke like Him. He had authority
in His life and in His ministry. Until they met Jesus, they
had thought that spiritual ministry was what they had seen
in their priests and their bishops in the synagogues. And if
they had never met Jesus, they would have made those priests
and bishops their role-models. But now they had a new role
Model they could follow.
What our young people need are better role-models to follow.
It is our responsibility to be those role-models, as men
with spiritual authority.