Do the Math
Matthew 28:18:
And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.
The word power in this verse is the Greek word exousia, which means authority, as opposed to the Greek word dunamis, which refers to power in the sense of energy. “Power” in Matthew 28:18 is the kind of power meant when we use the words “power of attorney.” Power (dunamis) and authority (exousia) are not the same thing. For example, a man holding a lollipop-like STOP/SLOW sign in a construction zone turns his sign to STOP in one direction, and an 18-wheeler comes to a stop in front of him. That man assuredly does not have the POWER (dunamis) to stop the 18-wheeler. The driver of the 18-wheeler stops because the STOP/SLOW man has the AUTHORITY (exousia) to make him stop.
Jesus said that all authority in heaven and in earth has been given to him. So how much authority does Satan now rightfully have on the earth? Do the math. ALL – ALL = ZERO! Jesus has ALL authority, so Satan has ZERO authority. Anything Satan does is completely criminal according to the courts of heaven.
When Jesus paid for our sins, He broke Satan’s right to dominate man. All authority on the earth was given to Him, leaving none left over for Satan. Satan became the biggest loser in the history of the universe. He lost his authority to make things happen on the earth. He was legally dethroned and brought to nothing. No more did Satan have any legal right to exercise his tyranny over man through sin and sickness.
Now Satan has no authority on the earth. All his works (sin, sickness, addictions, mental torment, etc.) are COMPLETELY ILLEGAL. He has no legal right to afflict mankind at all, because Jesus legally redeemed mankind, which includes you. Jesus came to destroy the devil’s works (1 John 3:8). He still has the right to be here. He will try to see what he can get away with due to people’s ignorance. But he no more right to rob you than a thief has the “right” to rob your house – even if he gets away with it. In the name of Jesus, we can stop Satan in his tracks if he tries to afflict us.
However, the earth is still a mess. How can that be? Unredeemed men still cooperate with Satan. Man has authority, so Satan needs men to work through, but he can still find them readily, which is why we still have terrorist acts, wars, abortion clinics and gay pride parades.
Jesus commanded His church to GO because He has all authority – but He now shares His authority with His Body, the Church. His church was authorized with His “power of attorney” to transact kingdom business in His name. He told His disciples to GO and that in His name they would drive out demons (Mark 16:17). Church elders could anoint the sick with oil in His name with His promise that He would forgive (if necessary) and raise up a sick person (James 5:14-15). We see in the book of Acts that miracles were done in the name of Jesus (see Acts 3:6, Acts 4:10, Acts 16:18). In other words, they were done by His delegated authority.
Christ’s authority now works (or doesn’t work) through the church. If we use our delegated authority, we can advance God’s kingdom on the earth. If we don’t use it, God will not use it for us, and the kingdom will not be advanced.
Some people go too far with this and teach that Jesus GAVE His authority to the church, the implication being that He abdicated it and now we have it and He doesn’t. But you can’t back that with Matthew 28:18 or any other Scripture. Actually, Jesus taught the opposite. He STILL has all authority in heaven and on earth, and He has delegated, not handed over, His authority to the Church.
This is further proved by the fact that in His name we would cast out demons, baptize people, and so on. In His name basically means “by His authority.” Thus, HE must still the One with the authority; He has just delegated it to us that we can use it on the earth today. If He had deeded it all over to the Church, we would no longer do things in His name (by His authority); we would just do things based on our own authority without a need to invoke the name of Jesus.
There is a difference between (1) having the owner of a corporation assign you a job and give you the authority to make decisions within your job and (2) having the owner of the corporation hand over the whole corporation to you. This sometimes gets mixed up.
Don’t Neglect Your Authority
Satan’s authority level over you is ZILCH – YOU are the one with Jesus’ delegated authority over HIM and his works. But you must use it. If you don’t, the job won’t get done. Jesus will not command sicknesses to leave from His throne in heaven. You must take your authority over them and command them to leave. Then the risen Jesus will back His name. If you sit around waiting for GOD to make sickness leave, you’ll wait for the rest of your life – which might end up being shorter than it should be.
Say that your pastor appoints you to be in charge of security for your church. You are stationed outside the main door. While he is preaching, you see a man with a handkerchief over his face, a can of mace and a large knife approaching the church entrance from the parking lot. You watch him go past you and attack people in the congregation, wondering why the pastor didn’t stop it from happening. While that may seem silly, that’s exactly how most Christians handle the devil. He gets away with all kinds of things while Christians wonder why God didn’t stop him. It’s because God gave YOU the authority to stop him, and it is no longer God’s job to do it, it’s yours – just as it would be your job as the security person to stop the mace man from entering the church. That was not the pastor’s job anymore because he delegated it to you.
Most people think that Jesus still has all the authority to Himself, but His command to do things in His name proves this false. When Jesus gave His disciples authority over all the power of the enemy, He didn’t intend for them to send a runner to Himself to let Him know that a demon was present and that His help was needed. Because they had authority, they could handle the demon situation themselves using Jesus’ delegated authority. That is what He expects from us today.