Category Archives: Faith

(ver 1.0) This is now Part 15 in a series of very important advanced Christian Bible lessons on the subject of Understanding Bible Faith.  I have covered a tremendous amount of information in this series that will not be repeated so if you have not read it from the beginning I would suggest that you go and start with “Part 1” first.  I dealt with the subject of Great Faith in one other lesson directly and several other lessons indirectly.  In the direct lesson on Great Faith about the woman from Canaan we discovered the importance of how we view the problem versus how we view the power of God to solve the problem matters.  I attempted to teach you that no matter how big the problem may appear, the power of God to solve it is so much significantly greater that it only takes a crumb of His power to change it.  This principle was an awesome revelation that combines two stated truths found in the Bible concerning faith.  First there is “All things are possible with God” and second that “all things are possible to those that believe” (Mat 19:26, Mark 9:23).   You see many Christians have no problem believing that God can do anything because He is omnipotent, but then they fail to realize that they have any part to play in getting this reality from God to occur in the natural realm.  It is a combined effort of agreement between God and you and you cannot ignore the fact Jesus taught that people must believe in order for the humanly impossible to transpire.  This is why Jesus told us that all things are possible to us “IF WE CAN BELIEVE”.  So our faith is again mentioned as the final determining factor for what is possible for us or what happens to us.  I hope that you understand what faith is by now.  Faith is a belief based spiritual system that comes from hearing His written Word about what God has already accomplished in the Spiritual realm.  It is this Bible faith that becomes the literal substance of those things that we cannot or have not seen in the natural realm (Heb 11:1).

Today I am going to focus in on the only other illustrated example given to us in the Bible of explicitly stated great faith.  Jesus only looked at two different Gentiles and said that they had great faith beyond what he could find in all of Israel.  Jesus revealed to us that he was looking for people with faith in this statement and He marveled at only two things; those in Israel that had no faith and those outside of Israel that had great over the top faith.  So I have already addressed the woman of Canaan that was rewarded for her great faith by Jesus casting the devils out of her daughter.  Today I am going to look at the story of the Roman Centurion that introduces us to a brand new perspective on the subject of faith.  How did this non-Jewish man obtain such great faith when Jesus was not even sent to anyone except to those in Israel?  I believe that this is an excellent question to answer and that will be my goal.   We will start reading in our Bibles in Matthew chapter 8 and verse 5:

Mat 8:5  And when Jesus was entered into Capernaum, there came unto him a centurion, beseeching him,

Here is the beginning of the great faith story.  Notice how the story begins.  The Roman Centurion is coming to Jesus and it was not Jesus coming to the Roman Centurion.  Recognize today where the source of your answer will originate and then start out to get it from Him the same way.  I know today that Jesus is not physically on the earth, but He is here spiritually and His written word is ever present here for you to still seek out.  God, His Spirit and His Word are all inseparable realities called three in one (1 Jn 5:7).  So come to the Bible and start to learn what you are missing and then pray and He will answer.  Also recognize that if you are waiting on God to show up you are out of the designed process of God’s flow and you are doing it all wrong.  If you want an answer to a problem in the world today you are going to have to go and figure out how to receive it.  This is exactly what the Roman Centurion is doing in this example.  The Roman Centurion was not sitting back passively but was taking steps and being aggressively active to seek God for the answer.  I hope you have gotten that concept from the previous lessons, but I restated it again for those that need to hear it.

Mat 8:6  And saying, Lord, my servant lieth at home sick of the palsy, grievously tormented.

Here is the stated great problem that the Centurion is seeking Jesus to solve.  The servant of the Centurion appears to be too “grievously” sick to come to Jesus himself.  We can understand that the servant is suffering greatly and in tremendous pain.  The Centurion obviously has great compassion in his heart to do something for someone else to try to help them.  Having compassion is a Godly quality that is highly desirable.  Here we must stop and understand why is the Centurion coming to Jesus?  At this point he must have either seen Jesus heal personally before or at the very least heard of Jesus healing someone by word of mouth from a witness.  Hearing is a requirement to having Bible faith.  As we continue in this lesson you will definitely learn that it was the Centurion’s faith that causes the positive results to occur.

This also introduces us to an interesting concept and a fascinating question that comes up when discussing this subject of faith.  Can my faith or your faith be used to help someone else get their answer?  Clearly in this example given to us from God in Matthew 8 we are going to see that the Centurion’s individual faith definitely helped a servant without the servant’s faith being involved.  Part of the reasoning that needs to be taken into account is that a servant is a delegated household subordinate or individual.  In other words the servant was part of the household of the Centurion and under his roof.   However, it is more complicated than that statement.  You see in the example of the Centurion the fact that the servant is so sick that it would be impossible for him to seek out Jesus personally for himself must also be taken into account.  Plus the fact that the servant was the property of the Centurion means whatever happens to the servant is up to the owner in charge.  Both of these factors play a role in determining whether your faith can be used to help for others.   It is a great mistake to automatically assume that you can force your faith upon anyone or that you can override the will of another individual to get them saved, healed or delivered from anything that they do not want to be free from. 

Let me go into some examples of when your faith can and cannot work for others.  For example, if you have young children living at your home and they get sick, it is going to be your faith that gets them well until they get to the age of accountability to have faith for themselves.  This is the repeated reality found in the terms of the Roman Centurion who is the head of the house and the servant being a subordinate figure.  Children are always subordinate to the parent.  This same natural example crosses over into the spiritual realm also.  You see if a Christian is new to the faith, they are a spiritual child in the Lord too young and immature spiritually to have faith for most difficult things.  That is kind of an oxymoronic statement, since nothing is too hard for God and if they believed for their salvation that was probably the greatest obstacle that they will ever face.  Technically a saved person has already achieved great faith in one area for their salvation.  But, that is the problem it takes more faith in other areas like being filled with the Spirit, or healing, or finances to solve those different inadequacies.  I guess what I am trying to say is that your faith can be accessed to work for many new Christians at least once.  However, as they grow, spiritually mature and see how it works they will learn that they will be required by God to have faith for themselves.  Just like kids today in the natural are required to grow up and take responsibility for their own lives, so it is in the spiritual realm.

Next if a person is unconscious or unable to come or ask for their own healing then many times your faith can be used to help them also.  It is not always the case however.  For example, when my father was unconscious in a comma in the hospital after a stroke the entire local church body prayed and sought God for the answer in faith, but the answer did not come.  Was it our lack of faith that caused us to fail or were there other factors?  You see there were several other factors that hindered the healing.  The spiritual maturity of my father played a very significant role.  The previous actions of my father were also pivotal in determining whether our faith could work for him to be healed.  Also our will could not override his will and we do not actually know what he desired or thought about staying and being healed or going to see Jesus.  First off consider this; my father was not a baby Christian.  He had been a Christian for over 25 years.  Next consider that my father had been to two Bible schools and was a pastor of a church.  Then consider the fact that he ignored certain warnings from God about what was about to happen months earlier and the instructions given to him by God that showed him what he needed to do to fix the situation and it was all of these things that allowed death to dominate him and win.  Do you remember the story of the prophet coming to the king and telling him that he would surely die and to get his house in order (2 Kings 20:1)?   What did the king do and what result did it cause to change?  Surely you remember, the king repents before God and God sent the prophet back to tell him that God had lengthened the king’s days on the earth considerably.  So what people do on the earth, how they react to bad news, their ability to repent and change or not to change must matter if they want to live on the earth a long time.   Do you understand this?  What if the king did nothing?  God said that he would die and he would have died just as it was spoken.  This same thing happened to my father, God sent him a Prophet warning him of his death and he ignored it and guess what happened?  These are very powerful lessons to understand about when your faith will work for someone else and when it will not.  God says in the Bible “I am not mocked, whatever a man sows that will he also reap” (Gal 6:7).  This is a basic statement of truth that sometimes what we pray for some men may not matter if they have sown the wrong crop and refused to repent for it. 

Let me give you another example of when faith worked for an unconscious man.  A pastor of a small church in Texas once had a member of his church fall off of an oil well platform from a great distance and he was very near death.  He was unconscious in the hospital and the doctors said it was just a matter of time and he would be gone.  His pastor was a believer in faith and he did not accept that report.  This pastor went before God in faith and prayed and the man eventually fully recovered and came back to church well.  So what is the difference here?  The man was a member of the church of the pastor.  This means the member was under the jurisdiction of the pastor being a spiritual subordinate and I’m going to talk about this more in a little while.  What I am saying is that the pastor had a right to pray for his own member because he was not a fully grown mature Christian and the fact that the member could not pray for himself and ask God for healing since he was totally unconscious.  The church member had not been warned by God of impending disaster and he just fell into it.  Thus the factors were dramatically different between this man and my father’s example.  So the subject of faith and healing is a very complex one that has many factors involved in it and sometimes it is extremely difficult to determine when your faith will work for someone and when it will not.  Let’s continue with the Centurion:

Mat 8:7  And Jesus saith unto him, I will come and heal him.

Jesus replies to the Centurion that He will come with him so that his servant will be healed.  However, I want you to think and understand why Jesus said that He would do this.  It has to be the man’s faith being visibly seen that causes Jesus to go where he was needed.  I can find no other reason that caused Jesus ever to do anything for anyone just because they asked.  I guess I should qualify that statement, because there were times when Jesus did things through a manifested gift of the Holy Spirit’s working.   A gift of healing or a gift of miracles is a different type of the work of God that takes place by God’s divine choice and does not involve the faith of the individual to receive it.  God will sometimes heal someone as a sign or as a confirmation of the Word preached that will not involve a man’s faith as a great gift.  Just do not count on the gifts of God to heal you, this is a great mistake.  You do not control the gift giver; gifts are only given according to God the administrator by His divine sovereign choice.  This would be like if you heard of me giving away a present to someone that you really liked or needed.  Even if you came to me personally and asked me for one, does not mean I will give it to you?  That is presumptive thinking to assume someone will give you anything when you do not know the circumstances to why the other one got what they received.  Conversely your faith can be used to take hold of God’s power at any time as we discovered studying about the woman with the issue of blood that just came and took her healing without praying or asking God for it.  Next, I want to explore the scriptures that record the Centurion’s response to Jesus’ confirmation that He will come and heal.  Here is the beginning of the statement:

Mat 8:8  The centurion answered and said, Lord, I am not worthy that thou shouldest come under my roof: but speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed.

One of the first factors that I notice about the Centurion is that this man of great human power in the Roman army has great humility.  It takes great humility to even ask anyone for help.  Do you understand that?  The soldier could have demanded Jesus to come, but instead tells Jesus he is not even worthy for Him to come under his roof.  If you feel like you are worthy of Jesus coming to do anything for you then you are not in the right attitude of respect and humility for the all-powerful God.  You do not deserve the answer and there is nothing that you can do or to offer to make yourself deserving.  Anything that you obtain from God is solely based upon God’s Grace to give it.  Your position of wealth, fame, power and influence on the earth will not cause you to receive anything from God.  Then the next thing that I want to point out is the Centurion’s ability to perceive spiritual things.  This Centurion could see when Jesus spoke that things happened.  He simply asks Jesus to speak the Word and his servant would be healed/saved.  Wow, that is an awesome display of ultimate faith.  I can see why Jesus was so focused on this Gentile man entirely.  You see if the Centurion had no faith he would have not come to Jesus at all.  If the Centurion had only average faith he would have been very glad for Jesus to come to his house.  But because he understood spiritual things greater than any other, he asked Jesus to just give the command and it will be done.   You may not yet understand what is happening in this story and why this man has this kind of faith, but you are about to learn the key found in the Centurion’s next statement:

Mat 8:9  For I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me: and I say to this man, Go, and he goeth; and to another, Come, and he cometh; and to my servant, Do this, and he doeth it.

The Centurion says “I am a man under authority”.  Wow again and double wow!   The Centurion just revealed one secret to having great faith and this is where we are going to spend the rest of the lesson.  The Centurion tells Jesus, “I speak commands and they are obeyed”.  The centurion says “I tell this one to go and he goes, I tell this other one to do this and it is done”.  In other words this is a military man who understands authority.  Everyone in an army has an assigned rank of authority.  Anyone new to the army is at the bottom of the authority food chain.  Anyone with extended experience and maturity is at the upper echelons of the authority ladder by their years of experience and wisdom.  There is literally no one in the army that is not under the authority of someone else.  Even the chief leader is under the lordship of the ruler of the country.  There are vast numbers of lessons to learn from the military but I will not attempt to give you very many.  Just understand that orders are given and orders are obeyed.  If orders are not given, nothing is done.  If orders are not obeyed then severe consequences are delivered.  All of the army is a word based command structure system of authorities.  No one shoots their gun without someone in charge telling them to shot, where to shoot and how often to shoot.  If you don’t understand this I’m sorry, but that is generally how life works in the army.

Mat 8:10  When Jesus heard it, he marvelled, and said to them that followed, Verily I say unto you, I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel.

Jesus’ responses to the Centurion’s words are very revealing.  As you can see Jesus is clearly looking for faith in Israel and has found it to be a scarcity.   If you do not understand that Jesus is still looking for faith today then you are not in touch with reality.  God has not changed, is not changing and will not change.  So this is the key factor for what is happening in this story.  Jesus stood in astonishment with the words spoken to Him by a man outside of the Old Covenant.  This wisdom that came from the Centurion’s mouth demonstrated his ability to recognize things that others ignored around him.  Do not think that Jesus did things in isolation or in private always.  When Jesus cast out a demon with His Word, the demon was gone and people could see the result immediately.  Many people in Israel recognized this to be authority in demonstration, but only the centurion used this knowledge of spiritual authority to set his servant free from his pain, torment and impending death.  Let me show you some other scriptures found in the Gospel about Jesus’ authority quickly:

Mat 7:29  For he taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes.

Mar 1:27  And they were all amazed, insomuch that they questioned among themselves, saying, What thing is this? what new doctrine is this? for with authority commandeth he even the unclean spirits, and they do obey him.

You see the authority that Jesus carried with Him on the earth was clearly evident so that everyone could see it to be different than all the other teachers in Israel.  This is what the Centurion also observed and only he understood how it worked.  You can clearly see that men of Israel questioned Jesus in Mark 1:27 saying He speaks and the demons obey Him.  These are military realities.  They were very self-evident but yet some saw them and questioned them, others saw them and accepted them.  Where are you today on this authority revelation?  That is exactly why I am teaching on this subject to help your faith.  Let me show you another verse on this subject of Jesus’ authority:

Mat 21:23  And when he was come into the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came unto him as he was teaching, and said, By what authority doest thou these things? and who gave thee this authority?

Here we have the Jewish leaders in the synagogue questioning the obvious display of authority from Jesus to teach, to heal or to do anything.  You can tell these leaders recognized what authority was, but yet they did not accept it to be a legitimate authority since it was not given to Him by them or by any other established human organization, government, etc.  The things in their minds were not right.  They saw Jesus as a mere man from an insignificant city called Nazareth and not the God man sent from heaven born in Bethlehem.  Uh Oh?  That was a major stumbling block of offense to them and they allowed their ignorance of the truth to stop them from seeking the truth.  That was not very good news for any of them at all.  You see these men were very closed minded locked into a false knowledge of the truth.  When confronted with truth they closed their eyes because of His overwhelming brightness, even though truth was standing right in front of them.   To be closed minded is a state of mental and spiritual blindness that is used by Satan to keep people from knowing the truth (2 Cor 4:4).  I pray that you will always be open to learning more from God, because He certainly has more that He can teach you.

In Matthew 8 we have discovered a new factor for having great faith.  This factor for having great faith is called “authority”.  Both the Centurion and Jesus walked in authority, understood authority, recognized authority and used authority to produce positive results.  The Centurion’s authority was natural and Jesus’ authority was clearly spiritual.  Both men knew what authority was and both men understood how authority worked completely.  Both men recognized the power of spoken words and this is the basis of ALL authority.  That is where we are in this lesson.  Perhaps we need to research what authority is and how it affects our faith next?  We still have a lot to learn on the subject of authority so let’s explore deeper.

People today in the modern world still question authority and do not understand the importance of its existence.  They typically disrespect those that are in authority and they do not understand the chaos that would exist without any organized structural authority.  We like to live in a free country and enjoy all of these freedoms offered, but these are only made possible because there are established laws under authority.  In this country that I live in we have an organized system of hierarchical layers of authorities.  Let’s quickly look at a definition that I found on the internet for the word authority:

1. The power or right to give orders, make decisions, and enforce obedience:
2. The right to act in a specified way, delegated from one person or organization to another.

Authority involves power, but authority does not mean you are all powerful.  Being the strongest man in the world does not make you the one in charge.  This is true in every realm of government, sports, corporations, organizations, families, etc.  Many times the shortest weakest men or women are the ones with the most authority.  Understand the difference between power and authority.  For example, a policeman carries a gun that gives him power, but he also has been given delegated rights of authority by the badge that he wears.  Both of these are separate distinct factors that combine for either positive or negative results.  Look at the definition of authority; this word means a delegated right to give orders and to enforce their obedience.  These orders given are expected to be carried out or there are major consequences.  Having rights is a key part of the definition to having legitimate authority.  This is why Jesus was questioned by Satan asking what right do you have to do these things on the earth?  Satan did not realize how smart God was and that God does not do anything that is illegal.  God certainly had a right by all of His past previous divine acts.  But, I do not have time to fully elaborate on all of these today.

Using these definitions of authority we can easily understand that our God holds all authority by preeminence and power.  But, can we also find the transference of rights and authority from the most High God to us or anyone else here on the earth?  You must realize that God is sovereign and being sovereign God has the explicit right to delegate authority to whoever He wishes.  Does God do that and why would God do that?  Certainly God has the right to do that, but many do not understand why God would do anything to relinquish any control.  To surrender control would violate their idea of an omnipotent God in sovereign control of everything that occurs.  Delegation of authority would allow others to make independent choices, laws, rules and commands and thus things on the earth would no longer be in God’s full control.  That concept boggles the mind of many religious people endlessly.  That is really very unfortunate that people do not just read their Bibles and actually see what God has said in His word and then believe that.  Read this verse carefully and observe the transfer of authority from God to man:

Gen 1:26  And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.

Man being made in the image and likeness of God dictates “that what God is capable of man is also capable of” on a lesser scale.  You see I once had an educated seminary man try to tell me this verse does not mean what it literally says.  If that was true then no verse in the Bible could be taken as truth either.  Anyone could easily dismiss the virgin birth, the existence of the man Jesus Christ or His death on the cross and his subsequent resurrection from the dead as all being invalid occurrences.  This verse in Genesis clearly from God says man/Adam has been given “dominion” over all of the earth.  Did God have the right to do this, certainly He did.  Perhaps it is the word dominion that you are having problem with.  This word has a very different meaning than what may come to your mind at first.  Let me give you the Strong’s definition of the word to investigate what God intended to happen with His created man Adam:

A primitive root; to tread down, that is, subjugate; specifically to crumble off: – (come to, make to) have dominion, prevail against, reign, (bear, make to) rule, (-r, over), take.

Interesting Hebrew word definition, isn’t it?  To “tread down” is a very familiar term if you have read many of my other Bible studies.  You see this word “dominion” corresponds to an impending prophecy after the fall of man found in Genesis 3:15 where Gods says that the “seed of the woman” would bruise the head of the serpent.  The confusion arises because people do not understand who the woman is or what the seed is either.  Genesis 3:15 has not been fulfilled yet even though many teach that it has.  To those that teach that it has been fulfilled show me the Bible verses that declares this.  You are going to have to show me where Jesus is called the seed of the woman and then show me where he bruised the head of the serpent.  Since you cannot find these verses, you have to make other verses try to fit your beliefs and that is a dangerous approach to Bible interpretation. What we must first understand is that “dominion” to God means to “tread under foot”.  Then we can try to figure out why Adam did not do this and what the consequences were for not following God’s orders.

What God is teaching us is that how the world began with man in authority will be how the world will end.  This word definition for “dominion” conveys delegated authority and at the very least the right of man to have limited human sovereignty over the earth.  This would give Adam the right to make independent decisions apart from God.  For Adam to rule and to reign on the earth represents the delegated right of power and authority given from the highest authority in the universe and that was God.  Was Adam the strongest and most powerful being on the earth at this point of assignment?  As of Genesis 1, he probably was, but as of Genesis 3 we see the entry of another spiritual being called the serpent coming onto the scene that at the very least God says in the Bible also has great power but yet no authority on the earth.  Let me ask you at the point of the entry of the serpent on the earth, who had authority?  Was it God, Adam or Satan?  Adam of course had been given full authority by God to kick Satan out.  Therefore, God did not have the responsibility to do it.  Satan comes into the world and causes sin and death to reign.  Now authority has been transferred to Satan.  God gave it to man and the man gave it to Satan.  Probably not the best choice Adam could have made.  But nevertheless all of this was legally transferred authority based upon God’s Word.   

You see when Jesus came into the world Satan took Him up to a high place and showed Him all of the kingdoms of the world and said I will give these to you if you worship me (Mat 4:8-9).  Satan declared with this statement that the rights and authority of the world had been given to him.   Where did Satan get this if not from Adam since it was first given to Adam by God in Genesis 1:26?    I find things like this written in the Bible to be fascinating.  Why would God put such detailed information of events if they were not significant things that we needed to know about and to understand?  Also these related subjects would not be understood if they were not properly connected in some way.  God is teaching us that authority matters and that was one reason that Jesus came into the world to reverse the works of Satan (1 Jn 3:8).   You see after the resurrection of Jesus from the dead He makes another radical statement about a transfer of authority that is often ignored:

Mat 28:18  And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.

Do you see what Jesus the risen Savior has just declared?  Is Jesus a liar?  Is this not omnipotent God in the flesh?  What a new radical statement.  Here God is telling us of another transfer of all authority that has just taken place.  Jesus Christ informs us clearly that not all power was His before, but now is in two different dimensional realms.  Power in both the spiritual dimension and the natural dimension has again been transferred back into the hands of God.  Wow, is that a tough concept to comprehend?   Do not forget these words, because they are very important.  This Greek Word translated as “power” does not mean God lost His omnipotent ability of force at any time.  This Greek word translated as power actually means “Authority” has been transferred again back from Satan and returned to God on the earth.   Uh oh?  That means Satan no longer has any authority again on the earth as before Adam sinned.  Do not confuse power and authority.  Satan still has power, but he has no authority to use his power unless a Christian gives him the ability to use it.  Let me show you the very next statement that Jesus makes to the church after saying all authority has been returned to Him:

Mat 28:19  Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:

Can you see that Jesus after saying that all authority has just been transferred to Him, immediately He transfers that authority back to the church, His body on the earth?  That is why this verse 19 starts with the conjunctive “therefore” which connects the previous statement to the current statement.  You see Jesus immediately delegates responsibility again to His people on the earth to do something in the power of His name.  Do you understand this?  These concepts are very important to embrace as a Christian.  You again have delegated rights and authority from the Most High God to do things.  What Satan took from Adam and lost, you have gained back from God through Jesus Christ.  The only difference is we are not working independently from God because God is joined with us working together in us to bring about the final victory over Satan.  Now we need to go back and determine what do all of these transfers of authority have to do with faith and more correctly us having great faith? 

This is where the rubber meets the road so to speak.  We are going to make a practical application of how to possess the greatest kind of faith using our newly found knowledge of how authority was transferred from God to Adam, Adam to Satan, back to Jesus and finally to the church and how this type of authority works from a military perspective.  Recall what the Centurion said to Jesus.  He told Jesus to “Speak the Word” only and my servant will be healed.  Did Jesus do this and what happened to the Centurion’s servant after Jesus spoke?

Mat 8:13  And Jesus said unto the centurion, Go thy way; and as thou hast believed, so be it done unto thee. And his servant was healed in the selfsame hour.

Jesus speaks several things but I skipped down to verse 13 to shorten the lesson for now.  Jesus says to the Centurion to go your way and that as you have believed (past tense) it has been done to you exactly that way.  Ok, that was my paraphrase of the words of Jesus, but surely you can see what Jesus has declared.  Why did Jesus emphasize that the Centurion had already believed and did not currently believe (present tense)?  Do you think this make any difference?  I believe that it does make a huge difference.  If you believe that God will heal you someday in the future then that is not real great faith.  Maybe it will help if we review what just happened to the Centurion and the servant.  Here is a synopsis of what the Centurion did and what happened:

1. The Centurion heard of Jesus and had faith in His Word.
2. The Centurion initiates the exchange and does not wait passively for Jesus.
3. The Centurion was very humble in his approach to God.
4. The Centurion had great compassion for another to seek God to help.
5. The Centurion recognized the Authority that Jesus possessed.
6. The Centurion understood Authority involved only Giving Orders.
7. The Centurion believed that he only needed Jesus to Give the Order.
8. And finally the Centurion believed it was done when the Order was given.
9. The Bible then said after the word was spoken, the servant was healed.
10. Therefore, by the time everyone was back at home everything was back to normal.
11. Understand that at no time on the way home did the Centurion doubt that it was not done.
12. Therefore, the Centurion had great confidence in the Word of God that was spoken to him.

These are all factors of having great faith today.  In other words all of this happened exactly like it was previously believed and spoken by the Centurion first.  Did you notice I did not say spoken by Jesus first?  Yes I did mean it that way.   Yes Jesus did say it was done according to the way the Centurion believed, but Jesus didn’t tell the Centurion to believe this way or what to say.  The Centurion made the choice what to believe and knew based upon his knowledge of authority that it would be done if Jesus would agree.  This was the greatest faith example in the entire Bible of an unsaved Gentile man that was never in covenant with the almighty God because he understood authority.  Clearly we can see that it was only because the Centurion believed in authority and spoke humbly with authority that caused him to have such noted declared great faith that caused even God to stand in awe and marvel.  Do you want to amaze God?  Here is how you do it.  You believe He has given you the same authority that He possessed “to tread on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy” (Luke 10:19) and you speak with this delegated authority of God’s Word in your mouth declaring what has been already established in the spiritual realm and God will then say to you “be it unto even as you have believed today”.  You see I just quoted you a part of Luke 10:19 and you need to go and read this verse closely and study it:

Luk 10:19  Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you.

This verse confirms your authority over Satan.  God says that you will “tread on” the power of serpents.  Isn’t that a full circle back to what God said to you in Genesis 1:26 and Genesis 3:15?  To “tread on” again means that you have been given transferred rights of authority to demonstrate Satan’s defeat on the earth personally.   You will need to look up the definitions of the words “power” in this verse in Luke 10:19 in order to fully confirm what I am telling you.  The first word translated as power in this verse means “Authority” and the second word translated as “power” means force.  So they are two different Greek words concerning two different spiritual beings.  We have God’s “Authority” over Satan’s force of power.  Both of us are in the world but light overcomes darkness every time.   However, if we do not exercise our authority, Satan will dominate us with his illegal power.

I guess I have been going a long time in this lesson.  I have many more things that we could talk about concerning using your authority.  Perhaps I need to do a series of lessons just on the subject of authority.   This is truly a great revelation that every Christian needs to understand.  Jesus has come into the world to restore the right order to man and has given to us His newly transferred authority for a purpose.  We are going out of this world a victorious church and not a defeated church.  We can only be victorious if we learn that we have authority and then learn how to use it with our faith.  This information will change your life and your attitude.  When Satan attacks with his power, you can fight back with your authority and he will flee in terror.  Satan will not like me teaching you this authority, but that is just too bad.  If you will grasp these concepts and take hold of them firmly and believe what God has told me to tell you, you too will become an over comer for God.  God bless you until next time and please leave me a comment about how this is helping you to learn and grow in the knowledge Jesus Christ.

If you would like to continue to read in this series you may now go to “Part 6“.