Who among the gods is like you, Lord?

Who is like you—majestic in holiness, awesome in glory, working wonders?                                         (Exodus 15:11)

Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.       (John 14:12)

Dr. Charles Kraft, a former professor of mine who has also become a dear friend and mentor is in his eighties and still going strong in a ministry of healing and deliverance. He has equipped many others to minister in a similar way and has written extensively about the spiritual authority we have in Christ. His writing, and especially his book, I Give You Authority, touches deeply on transformational prayer. I have been rereading this seminal book and recommend it to you if you can get a copy to read it all. Here I just wanted to share a few of his wise comments based on decades of ministry experience. The issue of our identity in Christ and the authority that flows to us through that all-important relationship impacts how we pray and how far we go in our expectations of how that all-powerful authority will flow through us.

Here are a few of his salient comments about the authority we have been given that I hope will encourage you as much as they have me:

“It is as if God has deposited a million dollars in a bank for us and either we do not know it or we cannot find the checkbook.”

“If we do not assert our authority over Satan he will assert his authority over us.”

“By virtue of our position, and the fact that God the Holy Spirit lives within us, we carry infinitely more power and authority than the whole satanic kingdom.”

“Jesus’ power came from being filled with the Holy Spirit. The source of his authority, however, was His intimacy with the Father. He spent hours and hours in prayer along with the Father, keeping in close contact with Him and cultivating that most precious relationship. As Jesus ministered, His ears were always open to the voice of the Father… Because He listened, He could take authority confidently, knowing He was acting in God’s purposes. Jesus’ intimacy with the Father enabled him both to maintain his authority and to get God’s instructions concerning what the Father wanted Him to do each day.”

“I have become convinced, through working in inner healing and deliverance, that the enemy’s primary area of attack is our self-image. He does not want us to discover who we are.”

Some important points relative to our identity in Christ that Kraft has identified are:

1. We are created “only a little lower than God” (Psalm 8:5) and in the image of God Himself (Genesis 1:26)…
2. As family members, we get to carry infinitely more power than all the satanic kingdom put together!

3. We are children of the King. This is our true identity, giving us special rights and privileges with our famous Father. We have among other things special permission as his princes and princesses to come into the King’ mans presence at any time…
4. By His grace God actually trusts us! … In the spiritual realm we carry the same authority as God’s princes and princesses. When we understand that identity and use the power of Jesus’ name appropriately, the spiritual realm has to obey. We have every spiritual blessing in the heavenly world available to us (Ephesians 1: 3)… we must never forget who we are, even when we do not feel like it.
5. Spiritual authority, then, is part of who we are. It is recognized by God and by the enemy world as flowing from our very beings… as Christians we have no choice as to whether or not we possess this authority. It comes in the package when the Holy Spirit is given to us. Like a credit card.”

“Our task is to get our wills lined up with the will of Jesus and the Father, and on that basis to exercise the authority they have given us. This comes for us, as it did with Jesus, from spending time in prayer and fellowship with God in private, listening to Him to get his instructions and to line up our wills with His. Then we receive from God the necessary power and authority for the specific task ahead of us. Our aim in our relationship with God should be nothing short of total intimacy. Again, Jesus is our model.”

Charles H. Kraft, I Give You Authority: Practicing the Authority Jesus Gave Us (Chosen Books, 1997)

John Robb

IPC Chairman