 All right. We are good to get started. Could somebody please pray for our very first session today? Okay. Yes, Siddhi, please go ahead. Father, we come to the throne of grace, Lord. Thank you for the day, the new day you have given us, Lord. Thank you for the privilege as we are going to learn from you, Lord. Whatever we will be learning, Lord, that it should be not be just kept in our hearts or our minds, Lord. It should be manifested in our daily lives, Lord, wherever we go, whatever we do, Lord. The godly characters should be visible in us, Lord, in the things we are learning, Lord. It should be used in the expansion of your kingdom, Lord. Thank you for the wisdom you have given us, Lord. Guide us and help us to understand each of the perspectives of your word, Lord. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. Amen. Thank you. Thank you, Siddhi. I hope all of you have downloaded the notes which I have posted in the Classwork stream. You could download that because we are going to use that as we go forward in this session and all the coming sessions. So please use that as a reference. And with regard to your assignments, I have assessments, graded assessments. I have made a mention in the notes itself. Basically, we will have something like a three graded assessment scoring for this course. You will have one assessment in February, one in March, one in April, 30, 30 and 40%. So that's how it will go. And we are all aware that our attendance is important and also up to 35% minimum scoring is very much important. So please make sure that you attempt all the assessments. That way you will be in a better position to clear the course. All right. All right. So let's get into our subject here on believers authority. So before we get started, I just wanted to hear from all of us. What do you know about believers authority? What is your understanding? If you could share that will be nice. And with that we can begin the class. Believers authority is the power given by God to the Christians. Okay. Okay. That's great. Yes, that's true. It's the power given by God to the Christians. Yes. What else do we know about believers authority? As per loop 1019, we have been given authority over everything, all the works of the enemy. True. So that puts us in a position of victory because we can overcome the enemy. So we've been given authority over all the works of the enemy. That's true. Anything else that you want to add to that? Ma'am, by the God, we are also given the authority. The believers have authority that what we will tie in the earth, it will be tied up in heaven. Okay. Okay. So you mean to say what we bind, right? What we restrict? I forgot that. No, that's okay. But that is what you mean. So that's true. Whatever we are going to restrict or limit on the earth here, it will be, in other words, whatever we know that, right? Like we discussed about it. Originally, whatever heaven does in the love, those things we bind or those things we restrict. True. So we can use our ability to do that. All right. So, good. Yeah. Anyone else wanted to add to it? I thought I heard someone. Okay, maybe not. So we have a good understanding already about believers authority. All of what you shared is correct. Okay. And we will, we will add to that as we discuss on the subject of believers authority. So in this course, what we will study is we will study about the authority that the believer has. And we will also study about the victory of the cross. Know how Jesus has won the victory and what it means for a believer. So we'll understand about the victory of the cross. And also, I'm sure many of us would agree that when we are in battle, it is necessary for us to understand our enemy. We don't need to be obsessed about what the enemy is going to do, what are his tactics. But in a healthy way to be aware that this is how the enemy comes in. You know, if your house, the home that you live, if it's having repeated intrusions through a particular door, you know that that door is a problem. I have to fix it. And then when you fix that door, the intruder cannot come in anymore. So to that extent, you're aware of who the enemy is, what the enemy is up to. And you know, that should be sufficient. We will be looking at the origin of Satan. Where did he come from? What does his kingdom look like? Who helps him? You know, we'll talk a little bit about the demons that are part of Satan's kingdom. How do they function? Just so we know how to deal with the kingdom of the enemy. And we always say that we should not give undue focus to Satan and his workings. Just to an extent for our understanding, for us to live victorious and for us to minister deliverance to people, we need to know about Satan. So that also will be covered in this course. And towards the end of the course, we will talk very in a detailed manner about the process of deliverance. How can we go about casting out demons effectively with the authority that we have been given so? In a detailed manner, we will have a discussion then. And all of this is definitely going to help us to live our lives in a victorious way. Just a usual lifestyle. And of course, as John said, we overcome the works of the evil one. So let's begin. So in our notes, we begin with the concept of authority. Now, authority is something we all come across in various ways in everyday living. For example, in our house, you have parents, you have elder folk who have a certain degree of authority over the family. Whatever they say, that is a given priority. We also understand governmental authority on a daily basis. Maybe your electric bill person just came and he took your meter reading. You have to pay the bills. So the government has certain rules in place, certain laws, certain ways of certain things that we must adhere to as citizens. So follow that governmental authority. We understand that there is traffic rules if we are traveling and there again, these rules are by the authority. And we know how to follow those rules. And nearly everyone, even in school, we learn it. The first thing or what is a red light? What is a green light? What is an amber light? So we learn these things and we do have an idea of what authority really is. But we are going to delve a little deeper into authority so that we will have a better understanding of the biblical believers authority that we are speaking about. So when we talk about the concept of authority, we need to understand that authority is usually vested upon someone. If we go back to maybe our school days, we used to have a school captain and house captains. So one or two students among all the students would be chosen and they would be what we term vested with authority. So they would have this name given to them as a school captain vested with authority. And when one is vested with authority, it also comes with certain rights and privileges. So the captain might have the authority to walk into the staff room or the principal's office more freely than other students in order to communicate with the teachers. The captain might have the authority to come and speak from the stage so that he can talk about certain rules and programs that are coming up and things like that. Not everyone can do that. That is a right given to the captain. So in this manner, when authority is vested on someone, we have to understand that it comes along with some privileges and rights. So we are talking about all this so that we understand our authority as believers better. So then this means that when you and I have authority as believers, we have certain privileges and we have certain rights. Which someone who is not in the kingdom of God cannot enjoy. So we have rights, we have privileges. Now authority also helps us to influence others. It helps us influence other people's actions or their decisions. Now take for example the government. When the government says ok weekends because of the COVID situation, let's go in for a weekend lockdown. We will not have gatherings and things like that. But they are coming from a place of understanding to help the people. And this decision is going to influence the actions of the citizens. Obviously we will not have gatherings, we will stay home and make all our choices related to the rule which has been given to us. So anyone who is in a place of authority has, if you want to call it, it's a privilege. You can influence other people's actions. So as believers, we keep saying this, we say you are salt, you are light, you are the fragrance, you are ambassadors. So what is it that you and I can do? We have the authority to influence positively for the glory of God. Now when we look at this, there is a kingdom of darkness which exists. And it's true that Satan is constantly trying to influence people, circumstances, events. Satan will do his part to influence but here is the other side of things. You and I as believers, we can also influence positively because we have been given the authority of God. Authority is something that has been vested or given and it comes with privileges and rights. God has given us the authority, we have privileges and rights. And the second thing is we have the ability to influence. So authority has the ability to influence. Moving along, we see here that the exercise of authority need not always depend on the ability of the person. A very good example of this is a traffic police. Take for example a traffic police. All of us, whichever country we come from, I'm sure we do know who a traffic police is. Now what if the traffic police is a well-built individual? The moment you look at the traffic police, you feel like obeying the traffic rules. That would work well, isn't it? Look at the traffic police. Oh, if I don't do this, if I'm not on the right lane, what if he gives me a ticket or worse still, right? Something else he does to me. I don't want that. Let me follow the rules. What if this traffic police is not well-built? Imagine someone who has been in the service for many years. Maybe it's an elderly person or maybe not an elderly person. But you know what I mean, right? They've been in the service for many years and they're not one of the young ones. And when you look at the traffic police, he or she looks very weak and tired and sickly. Would you still follow the traffic rules? What do you think, class? If the traffic police is not big and mighty, will you still follow the traffic rules? Yes, because of the authority that he has. Exactly, thank you. So we see here that the capability of the individual in a sense does not matter. Because the authority which has been vested on that individual is what is considered. So even if the traffic police is weak at the end of the day, that's a traffic police. And we will look at the uniform and respect the uniform. We will respect the authority that the individual has over their lives. How does this work in a believer's life? We may say a lot of things like, oh, I don't have much experience in prayer or I don't have much experience in ministry. I don't know how to do this. We could talk about our own experience and put ourselves down. But that does not take away from the kind of authority that God has given you and me. When we are a believer, we have been vested with authority. And when the kingdom of darkness looks at us, it's the same reaction that we have to maybe a weak looking traffic police. The weakness doesn't matter. At the end of the day, so and so is a person vested with authority. And so we have authority. And it really is not depending on our capabilities. As long as we have the authority, we are able to stop the work of the enemy. We are able to do great exploits for the kingdom of God. And that's how authority works. Now, in some cases, authority can be earned. And we see this especially in the workplace. You might have someone who starts out in a very basic position of clerical position. One might just start off there. But as years go by and the office folks see that this person is doing good work from the clerical role, maybe they grow up into more of a managerial role at some point. So at that point, they are vested with authority as a manager. So authority also comes because of the growth. So an individual can earn the authority. So in some ways, as believers in Christ Jesus, as we progress, have you heard people say this? Oh, this person, they've really grown in authority when it comes to healing. This person has really grown in their authority when it comes to ministering the word of God. Not that authority was not there. In the first place, it was already there. However, it's just that a greater bearing, a stronger bearing on things one was able to get as they went along sincerely growing and following after in that path. So sometimes authority comes by the growth. So in other words, in our notes, it is put as it is earned individuals earn it. And we see a lot of this in the workplace. Now, basically the kind of authority that we are talking about in our course is the authority which we have been vested with. Which Christ has given us. So we will limit ourselves to that conversation. Moving on. When we talk about authority, we also have to understand the realms of authority. Realms of authority simply means that there are boundaries. For example, if there is, if we have a manager at work, the manager can tell us how to perform better in the given assignment. But we would say that the manager has no authority or some put it this way, no right to dictate how I should spend my money. No, how I should spend my time. How I who my friends should be because the realm is very different. In the work space, yeah, in the work area, the manager has authority over me. But when it comes to my personal space, the manager has no authority over me. So there are what we call as the realms of authority, even when we talk about the kingdom of God. When we exercise our authority, we have to be careful. And I think we have touched on this when we spoke about prayer. We said that when there is a family, the parents exercise great authority over their children. But those same set of parents, they cannot go around, you know, instructing and dictating terms to other people's children. Because those children will come under their parental authority. So there are boundaries that are realms of authority that we have to understand. So even when we use our authority as believers, we have to be mindful of these boundaries and the realms in which we function. All right, a little more about authority. Authority, many a time is associated with the badge or a symbol. So when we talked about the traffic police, remember, I said that one is we know so and so is the traffic police. Now, if someone has been standing at the traffic lights for many years, because even if they're not wearing the uniform, sometimes we understand, oh, this person has been here. So we have to follow. If they say stop, we have to stop. But in general, when we look at a traffic police, we would look for their uniform. So it's their uniform that speaks for them. So there is a badge or a symbol of authority which they carry, which, you know, tells us to respect that person. So when you look at us in the kingdom of God, you know, we are the redeemed of the Lord. We are the redeemed of the Lord. We are purchased with his blood. We are children of God. We have been given that authority by God. So God recognizes us as his children, but also the kingdom of darkness or when we say kingdom of darkness, basically we are referring to Satan and his demons. So when they think about us, they too can see us as, oh, they are the redeemed. They are covered by the blood of Christ. So there is something upon us that is showing us that we carry that authority. So symbol or a badge sometimes refers to represents the authority which one carries. And here is the next thing about authority. You would all agree with me. We can have the authority, but never use it. And that is the sad part, when one has the authority and we never use it. It's told about elephants that are trained by Mahots, not just here in India, but even in other countries. It is said that when the elephant is brought in, they usually chain the elephant. And it's not able to remove the chain because it's young and smaller. But as the elephant grows, the train kind of gets the elephant to think throughout that it's not able to break the chain. So it's surprising that fully grown elephants as well, even though they can break the chain, they never really do it. Because in their training, in their minds, they think throughout their lives that, hey, I can't do this. I was not able to do it earlier and I'm not able to do it now. So what's happening? Is there power? Is there strength in that elephant? Yes, there is, but it's going unused. It's not able to use it because of the mentality that I can't do it. But who told you that you can't do it? You already have what it takes. So when it comes to a believer, we hear this a lot from believers, you come faster, you pray. I can't pray. I can't face the devil or I can't cast this demon out or I can't do this. I can't do that. I don't have the authority. I can't face the kingdom of darkness or this is happening, that is happening. But when we study God's word, the Bible very clearly shows us that every child of God, every believer has been given God's authority. And isn't it so sad when we don't recognize it? Maybe one of the reasons why we don't use it is because we don't recognize it. But when we do recognize it and we know that I have the authority and we don't use it, that's sort of funny. Why would we not use it when we know that we have the authority? So it's unfortunate, one can have the authority but may never use it. But that brings about a lot of sort of, you could say, wasted time, wasted energy. For example, if a parent could instruct the child, hey, don't go out or always wear your mask and go out. It would probably help the child, it would prevent the child from catching an infection in the current scenario. But what if a parent never uses their authority and says, yeah, you do whatever you want, never instructs the child. The child is just doing whatever they want to do and comes home with an infection. What the parent could have done, they could have used the authority, they have the authority but they did not use it. So in the same way, when it comes to us as believers for our family, our authority that we can use for our family, the authority that we can use for our personal lives, maybe Satan is coming, going about tempting us, causing us to fall. But we can rise up and say, hey, I have the authority, you cannot tempt me, it is written in God's word. So I'm using my authority to overcome the methods, the tactics of the devil. Maybe in my circumstances Satan is trying to interfere. But as Sitkenu said, I take the authority, I bind, okay, you're trying to do this, create confusion. Satan, no, I bind every spirit of confusion in the name of Jesus. What am I doing? I'm taking authority. I know I have an influence, I use the influence. How about on my local church, I speak protection over my local church. I speak the provision of God over my local church, things like that. So whatever level of capacity you have, you can use it. Whatever level of capacity I have, I can use it. And it's only when we use our authority that it is beneficial for the kingdom of God. So that's a little bit of understanding about authority and using the authority. And we will also build further on this. So why should we learn about all this spiritual authority and all of that? Okay, any idea? Why do you think we should learn? How is it helpful? According to me, it will enable us to lead the victorious Christian life. Excellent. Yeah, that's true. Help us to live a victorious Christian life. Yes. Yeah, anything else? How else can that help us? The more and more we come to know our authority and who we are, it helps us to always stay in faith. And yeah, that's what I want to know. Yeah, wonderful. So it helps us stay in faith. Okay. And yeah, no matter what we're going through, we can be firm in God. Great, wonderful answer. Yeah, anything else? How would it help to know our authority? Yeah, it can help us to operate in the position of strength. Because we already, like he last said, if you have the authority and you don't know how to use it, there is like a weight of energy. So yeah, if we know, if we learn to know how to operate with our authority, we will operate from a position of strength. Thank you. Yes, thank you. Thank you, Brother Isaac. That's very true. So yes, all of these, all of these answers are correct. So we are able to live a victorious life. We are able to stay strong in our faith because in this life, you know, it's not a easy ride, isn't it? There will be challenges as long as we are here on the earth, but we can stay firm, we can stay anchored and be steady in our Christian life. And as Brother Isaac also said, when we have the authority, when we study about authority, we also know how to really use it. So these are all reasons why it's good to study about the authority. Now, there is a, like a man of God who shared of a vision that he had. And in that vision, apparently, what was happening is that he was encountering the Lord Jesus and he was speaking to the Lord Jesus. So you can imagine, you know, Jesus was in front of him. And at the same time, suddenly when this encounter was going on, he saw that a creature, something like a little naughty monkey jumped in between Jesus and him and started jumping all over the place, started jumping all over the place. So he was disturbed as he was seeing this vision and having this encounter. He was like, what is going on? You know, here I am with Jesus and Jesus is speaking his valuable words of life to me and this little monkey is jumping all over the place. So he waited for a while and he didn't know what to do. And finally he told Jesus, he said, Lord, can you not see that our meeting is being interrupted? Why can't you command this monkey to leave? And apparently Jesus told him, you do it. It's your responsibility, you do it. So basically he shared this to say how certain things need to be done by us because God has already given us the authority. And of course, you know, this individual has also written a book on believers' authority in which he shares this example. And that moment he had the realization that, yeah, God has given me the authority to do certain things which he is not that he cannot do it, he can, but he has already done the needful on the cross and he has given me the responsibility and the authority to do it now. And I am supposed to do it. You know, I am supposed to chase the devil and stop the devil from interfering and interrupting my life. And so he woke up to that reality and he talks about how we have been vested. We are not just talking about responsibility. Yes, we all have responsibility. You tell me, what if an organization sends us to work somewhere and they never give us the authority to do that? For example, if you work in a, let's say a government office, you work in the national government office and they tell you to go to a village. And they tell you, okay, you go, you question them on all these things. So you're going to a village. When you go to the village, people ask you the question. You have the responsibility to question us. Who sent you? What authority do you have to ask us all these questions? What if the government office never gave you a title or a badge or an ID card or an appointment letter? The government office just says, ah, okay, anybody you go, you ask questions. You're going there with no authority, you can't do anything. But if you're going there with authority, you have all the right. If people ask you, yeah, it's your responsibility to ask questions. Where is your authority? You just pull out your ID card, just show them your uniform and say, hey, this is who I am. Here's my ID. Now, give me the answers. So God has not just given us responsibility. He has also vested us with authority and that's the beauty of it. So when we are here living our lives on the earth, you know, we can live bold, we can live victorious because we also have the authority and there are certain challenges that we may go through. But as I just said, Jesus looks to us and he says, you do it. Okay. And this is to every believer. It's not just to the pastors, the leaders and, you know, people who are in certain positions. Every believer, Jesus says, you are victorious. You can deal with the devil. You can overcome temptation. You can cast out demons. You can speak and declare healing over people's lives. I've given you the authority, right? So this is the reason why we must understand about authority. When we understand, then it gives us more courage to start using it. Okay. So why should we learn about authority to put it in a nutshell? A couple of points. One is we can live victorious personal lives. So that is the reason. The second reason is we can overcome and we can dominate, you know, any sort of demonic disruption or disturbance. Because we already know that, hey, I have the authority and of course we can minister and serve others. It's one thing for us to only use this authority in a personal way for ourselves. But we also realize that, hey, I can help somebody else. Okay, you're going through some challenges. Let me pray for you. You're going through some difficulties. Okay, let's pray together. Let's agree together. We will bind, you know, the work of the enemy or things like that. Let's press in. Okay, so you minister to someone else. Maybe even minister deliverance over their lives. So we can also help somebody else and we can exercise our authority for them as well. So these are all the reasons why we must learn about authority. And you know, it's not just about overcoming the evil one, but also to just fulfill our God given responsibility or purpose on the earth. We need to know what kind of authority you and I carry, right? As children of God, it gives us great confidence to fulfill God's purpose for us. So that these are all reasons why we need to understand our authority. Now, here is another question for us to consider. This authority, I've been saying that Jesus won the victory for us. And so through the cross, we can overcome. So is it that we have received authority only through the cross? Or did mankind have dominion and authority before that? What do you think? Any, any thoughts, any views about it? Okay, so Jefina says only through the cross. Okay, great. Yeah, anyone else contrary views to that? Or maybe a line to it? Yeah, go ahead. According to me, when God created Adam and Eve, he gave Adam the dominion to rule over the inquisitions. Yes, yes. Okay. So, as Elitoli says that God gave Adam many created Adam himself, he gave them dominion. Okay, so let's see, let's see what the answer to this question is. When did we get this authority? Did it come upon us after Jesus died for us? Or was it already there before that? Well, when we look at creation, okay, we go back to Genesis chapter one, verses 26 to 28. Can somebody read that passage, please? Genesis chapter one, verses 26 through 28. Genesis chapter one, verses 26 to 28. Then God said, let's make human beings in our image to be like us. They will ring over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground. So God created human beings in his own image, in the image of God he created them, male and female he created them. Then God blessed them and said, be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and govern it. Ring over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky and all the animals that scurry along the ground. Amen. Thank you. Thank you, Jeffina. So it's so clear, isn't it? So when God created man, obviously man and woman, he created mankind in the image of God and we see how he gave them authority and the realm of authority also has been clarified. Everything, all the animals on the ground, in the sea, in the sky, so it was defined the realm of authority that man had. So God said, go subdue or I give you the dominion. You have the power to overcome, you have the power to take care. So when he made mankind caretakers of this earth, he gave dominion and authority. So originally that is what God had in mind, that man should live victorious. Man should rule and reign over all the things of the earth. Now let us also look at one more scripture here. This is Psalm 115 and verse 16. Psalm 115, can somebody please read that for us? Psalm 115 verse 16. The heaven belongs to the Lord but he has given the earth to all humanity. Okay. Thanks, Jeffina. So do you notice here God created man or let's say mankind with dominion and authority and here is the allocation. It's like the heavens belong to the Lord but who does the earth belong to? It belongs to us. It's like we have been given responsibility. Now if you take for example a house which has been rented out to tenants, the people who live there as tenants, they are given the authority over that house. Now if they don't keep their home clean or if they end up breaking some portion of the wall or worse still, if they don't stay protected and people come and steal, create havoc in that house, do we call the owner and complain or do we talk to the tenant? Obviously we will talk to the tenant and say, hey, it is your responsibility. The owner has given you the keys. You are responsible to take care of this house. You are responsible for the cleaning of the house. You are responsible for the protection of the property of this house. You are responsible to prevent anyone from barging into your house. So in this manner, we also understand that God gave the earth to man and said, the earth belongs to you. You are given dominion, authority, responsibility, stewardship. It is your responsibility. You take care. You subdue, you rule and reign. So that is the original intention with which God created mankind and God gave the earth to man. You saw that Psalm 105 verse 16, the heavens belong to the Lord but the earth is given to mankind. So we are responsible for the earth here and we have to take authority over the earth. So that is how we understand the authority that God has given man. So basically when God created man and the descendants, God completely qualified mankind as the caretakers or managers of this earth and his expectation was that man would do a good job. So we also see here that man, one of the things that is described is man is made in the image of God. So what is that image of God? You know that image of God, it is like God made man a thinking being. So God gave man an intellect, God gave him the ability to reason, God gave him a personality. He gave him every other ability to perceive, to hear, to see, to speak, to basically have the characteristics of God and also the ability to reproduce of his own kind. So with all these abilities in the image of God, God created man and God gave man this image or the likeness which also involves the authority and dominion that he handed over to man. So he wanted man to really take care of the world. So in one sense you can say that we were or mankind was divinely appointed and empowered to exercise God's authority here on the earth. We were appointed to execute God's government here on the earth. We were the ones who were authorized to protect God's property here on the earth. And as the ones who were created in his image, how can we do this? Yes, we have been given the dominion but also to walk with God, to come under his authority first and be subject to him. These are all, this is what God's original expectation of man really was. But we know the fall happened and then Jesus had to come to set it all right. And that's how things went on from there. So what we'll do is since we are running out of time on our first session, we will pause right now. Any thoughts, any questions on whatever we've discussed so far, believers authority, we've talked about that. Why should we study about authority? We've discussed that. And now we are looking at the fact that God originally wanted man to have dominion and authority. Along these lines, any additional thoughts, questions? Okay, Zeretoli says all clear. And that's good. That's good to know. Okay, so fine. In that case, we could go in for a 10 minute break and then we come back. So you don't really have to log off the call, just stay muted. And we will connect back at 11am. So see you all soon and we will continue from where we stopped. Thank you everybody.