Understanding realms of authority is a safeguard against getting outside of your spiritual coast. Knowing your limitations in the spirit is a must. Understanding realms of authority will also enhance and accent your God-given gifts. It brings correction to our tendencies to rebel. Understanding realms of authority gives us a better foundation in understanding order. It is true there is no male or female in the spirit—but there is always order. You do not have to worry about proving what you can do when you are subject to God’s order. God’s order always undergirds true authority, and that which He sets in place cannot be moved.
The authority of God will always be challenged. It is simple: The devil hates believers! Whether it is in the natural or the spirit realm, demonic forces always fight against the constituted authority of God’s elect. The words constituted authority are very important and must be defined. Constituted authority is that which has been appointed, set up and established by God. What God has appointed is anointed and cannot be denied.
Many people try to operate in the spirit and do not understand spiritual realms. In order to understand spiritual realms, we must understand realms of authority. Though there are many kinds of authority, spiritual authority is the greatest. If our authority in Christ is by the Spirit, it cannot relate to whether or not a person is a male or female, Jew or Gentile. There is no distinction between them in the spirit.
Some people would give everything they have for religious authority, political authority or even the authority that comes with fame. Athletes draw from physical authority, while great minds lean on the authority of the intellectual realm. Rich people glean from their financial authority, and the people of the world cannot help but depend on their natural authority. Although spiritual authority is the greatest, it often takes the back burner in the minds of men for the more obvious realms of authority.
Spiritual authority is the secret weapon of creation. Many people in high positions have tapped into this truth. Witches and those from the dark side crave authority in the spirit realm to the point of knowing that authority, when harnessed and pushed in the right direction, can rule over and affect every other realm that exists.
By making this point, I must note that there are always opposing authorities in the spirit realm—good vs. evil, dark vs. light, the kingdom of our God vs. the kingdom of darkness. There is a battle going on in the spirit, and it is not a natural one. The real battle is not over land, oil, political positions or the keys to the stock market. The real battle is over authority in the spirit. Every human being has the potential inside to rule and have dominion in the earth.
In the Garden of Eden, God gave dominion to all mankind, not just to believers. The problem comes into play when believers do not use their access to the spirit realm that God has given them to represent Jesus in the earth realm. The devil has been recruiting men to operate in the spirit realm (on the dark side) since the fall of mankind. The Holy Spirit is wooing us to walk with God again as Adam did in the cool of the day.
To be effective in the earth realm, we must do two things:
1. Walk with God in a personal relationship and have nothing before Him in our hearts.
2. Walk in the dominion that God has given us in the earth realm.
Doing the things I have listed above will confuse darkness. It causes a level of spiritual authority that overrides the authority of those on the dark side. I have an armor bearer who was a crack addict for 10 years. He was on crack most of the time while he was in my church. He was also a part of a cult that was involved in the Yorùbá religion form of witchcraft. He was dedicated to the devil and was involved in sacrifices to demons. His wife was studying to become a high priestess in the cult. She was at the church for many years but eventually went back to operating on the dark side. My armor bearer eventually separated from her and was miraculously delivered and is serving the Lord.
He had three children with his ex-wife. After he divorced her, she got into a relationship with another warlock and had two more babies with him. I thought this young man would never be delivered, but today I witness him living for the Lord wholeheartedly.
Recently the warlock that his ex-wife is with flagged him down as he was driving through the neighborhood. My armor bearer was caught off guard, because he knew that this young man was working witchcraft against him. The warlock ran up to him and made amends. He said, “I have fasted seven days for you to die. I have sent spiritual hurricanes and tornadoes to your life, but none of it has affected you.” Glory to God! When we walk in power as we walk with God, our spiritual authority overrides all authorities of opposition.
At an early age, I took an interest in mythology. At the time I did not know the Lord and had no interest in reading anything. For some strange reason I became absolutely fascinated with reading stories on mythology. I took classes on the subject in high school and college. After giving my life to the Lord and becoming a deliverance and warfare preacher, I noticed that there was a connection between the spirit realm and mythology.
The importance of what God revealed to me was rooted in the meaning of what a myth actually is. A myth is a legendary narrative that has been verbally passed through generations but cannot be verified. God showed me that just because things cannot be verified does not mean they do not exist. This is why people do not understand how to maneuver in the spirit. Believers are supposed to walk by faith and not by sight. Unfortunately this is not always the case. Second Corinthians teaches that what we see is temporal, but what we cannot see is eternal (2 Cor. 4:18). I am sure most Christians understand what this passage means when they use the word eternal, but we need to investigate deeper into the meaning of temporal. The Greek word for temporal is proskairos, and it relates to that which is only for a season and temporarily exists.
The things of the spirit realm are very real, but they cannot be socially, scientifically or intellectually confirmed. The things of the spirit can only be spiritually discerned. Let’s take a look at 1 Corinthians 2:
“But as it is written: ‘Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.’ But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God. For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God. Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God. These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual. But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. But he who is spiritual judges all things, yet he himself is rightly judged by no one” (1 Cor. 2:9–15).
This passage of Scripture is very clear and to the point. Spiritual things must be spiritually discerned! Intellect, science or anything that we can relate to in the natural will only distort a clear view of what is going on in the spirit realm. We discern things spiritually by knowing them through our spirit man and not through our natural man. First Corinthians 2:14 says that the natural man cannot relate to the things of the spirit. {eoa}
Kimberly Daniels pastors Spoken Word Ministries in Jacksonville, Florida, and Fort Lauderdale, Florida, with her husband, Ardell. She is a city councilwoman in Jacksonville as well as the author of numerous books, including Spiritual Housekeeping (Charisma House), from which this article is adapted.
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