The second thing, it depends on your on-going relationship. I need to keep listening to God, so it's all very well to say I have authority, but actually it's for a purpose, so I need to know what God wants me to do. Finally, we need to yield to the Holy Spirit. So here's the thing. The authority Jesus gives you, and I'll list some areas He's given you authority in - we don't own it. It's actually, we're acting on behalf of someone else - so all authority that Jesus gives you, spiritual authority, you're acting on behalf of Him. You're representing Him, and so that means you don't own it, you've got to use it rightly or it creates many problems, and not presume or make any presumptions about just because I have all this authority, I can do what I want. No, we need to listen to the Holy Ghost, and learn to be led by the spirit of God - not a very hard thing to do.
So what do you have authority to do? What has Jesus entrusted to you some authority to do? He's given you a whole number of things, for example we'll just take this first one here. He's given us authority to preach the gospel. We think well that's a pretty obvious one. Actually it's not so, because there's many countries where, if you preach the gospel they'll throw you in jail. Think of the conflict here; I read in the Bible go and preach the gospel, and yet the authorities say: if you preach the gospel we'll put you in jail. What will I do? There's two authorities in conflict here; one is the authority of God, who says to do this, and that's the highest authority; two, there's the authority of the Government, which says don't do it, or we'll put you jail - so how do I address that? How do I address this apparent conflict in authorities? Very simply.
Firstly, all authority comes from God, so therefore is subject to Him ultimately. Secondly, I should give way and yield to the ultimate authority, the authority of God who's given a clear mandate in scripture, preach the gospel; thirdly, I need to show respect for civil authorities who are His representatives, but nevertheless I can be submitted to them, but not obedient to them, so I can have a right attitude to local authorities, but not do what they tell me to do. A classic example is in the Book of Acts, where the authorities gathered the disciples together, and they threatened them that you must not preach the gospel. If you preach the gospel then we'll have you thrown into prison and beaten up, and they said we must listen to God and do what God has said, so they went out and preached the gospel. Then - notice this - they got thrown into prison and beaten up, and they just rejoiced. They didn't make a big deal of it, they just accepted they had gone contrary to the authorities, and this was what was going to happen, they said for the honour of God. So they had a good attitude, but they were disobedient.
Now you have to understand that, so for example a person who is in a work situation, and in the work situation they tell you to do something which is quite clearly contrary to the law, and to your conscience. You can have a submitted heart, but still say no, I can't do that, because you have to live out of the authority of God, not just what people tell you to do. So these are some of the interesting things. Anyway let's just carry on through the list here: Giving you an authority to act as a representative of Jesus, to preach the gospel, make disciples - Matthew 20:8. He's told us to go do it, so we're authorised to do it. If someone says: why are you doing this, or who do you think you are, very simply, Jesus told me to do it, make disciples. We're also authorised to bless. In Matthew, Chapter 10, He says whatever house you go into, say peace be unto the house. Now what a stupid thing to say. That's an unusual thing to say - go into a house and say peace. Now we don't do that kind of thing do we, because we don't understand what He was saying to them. He was saying: you have power to speak, and release blessing into a house. You can actually release the peace of God in a tangible way into the house, and you are authorised when you go into a home that makes you welcome, to speak and release the blessing of God.
So just extending that out now, wherever you go, God has authorised you to speak words that release blessing over people, to speak and call upon the Holy Ghost to touch their life, to call upon the presence of God to come into that place, to call upon or invite the Holy Spirit to come. You are authorised to do that. We don't have to ask whether this is what God wants, He always wants that. You're also authorised to break bondages. Isaiah 10:27, the yoke is broken because of the anointing, so we're authorised to break bondages, and I'll describe that a little bit further. To break curses - Matthew 16:19 - curses are words spoken, that activate demonic powers. You are authorised to break curses. God has given you authority to break them. Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven; whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. So to break curses means to loose something that is holding a person in bondage.