I have heard people say we have authority in Christ, But what authority is this? When we have fear and doubt can we not rebuke it? I was always afraid to rebuke the fear and doubt for fear of it not working, If there is power in the name Jesus then should we not be able to ask in his name for help and receive it? I am not going to lie, yesterday I tried to perform a miracle of sorts. Do you remember when Jesus feed the 5,000 people? All he did was thank the lord for the food and suddenly he had enough food to feed them all and much more. So I figured I could do the same, i had run out of coffee and thanked the Father and asked for forgiveness for my sins.
Now normally I would never be so bold as to try this but I tried anyways. The strange thing is i expected it to be filled, it was funny because every minute or so I would check the cup expecting it to be filled againLOL. It didn't work but i am still glad I tried it. So if we have authority in Christ why are not ever able to do anything? I am sure I have the faith of a mustard seed, and I trust God. But perhaps I am missing something?
I say these things only because I don't want anything to hold me back anymore, mainly fear and doubt.
Hi Blain, heres my 2 cents
I was brought up in a church whereby they rebuke just about everything.
I used to pray (rebuking) for people who had fear & doubt. I started to notice that the same people would come up for prayer every Sunday in church for the same thing.
As I grew in my relationship in Christ and reading his word more and more, I've come to the realisation that rebuking fear and doubt is not going to take away the fear and doubt, because rebuking is not a magic wand whereby you rebuke and it disappears. Fear and doubt will only disappear when the individual maintains a relationship with the Lord, reads the bible diligently and hears the word of God. When a person's life is centred on God, eventually fear and doubt will go, then peace, comfort and trust in the Lord will reside in the person.
About authority
Matthew 10:1 He (Jesus) called his twelve disciples to him and gave them authority to drive out evil spirits and to heal every disease and sickness
Mark 3:14 He appointed twelve-designating them apostles-that they might be with him and that he might send them out to preach and to have authority to drive out demons.
Luke 10:17-19 The seventy two returned with joy and said "Lord even the demons submit to us in your name" Jesus replied "I saw satan fall like lightning from heaven. I have give you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the powers of the enemy, nothing will harm you.
As we are the temple of God, no evil spirit can reside within us, therefore I believe that this driving out of evil spirits is for the unsaved who are possessed by the evil one. In this sense, if I was in this situation, then when led by the Holy Spirit I would rebuke the evil spirit within this person to come out. The gospels have examples whereby Jesus rebuke the evil spirits.
Paul himself commanded the evil spirit to come out of a fortune teller, Acts 16:18 In the name of Jesus Christ I command you to come out of her". At that moment the spirit left her.
About miracles, sometimes we can have total faith in God and not doubt Him at all but it does not mean that just because we ask Him to do some miracle in His name, that He will do it. If He does not do it, it is because it is not in accordance to His will although the miracle we are asking maybe something really good for someone else. So it all depends on God. We just obey when he leads us.
A miracle did happen to me and this was with food and I did not even ask for it.
I started attending a spanish church back in Australia and one evening I invited a family of 4 for dinner. At the same time, that evening itself, we were going to have a few other people come over after dinner in order to have a prayer time.
As it turned out, everyone turned up for dinner. Instead of having 4, I had 12.
I thought "Oh Lord, what do I do". Anyway, I had everyone seated and I just said that we will share whatever we have.
I had already cooked rice for 6, so the first thing I did was to start dishing out rice and to be honest I could not believe it. I filled up 14 plates of rice and there was no left over.
I had a chicken dish and vegetables and this too seemed to be enough. I just sat in awe for days.
The most important thing is to grow in the Lord and let the Holy Spirit lead in everything. When you are not sure about something, ask the Lord in prayer to show you and wait.
God bless you Blain
