TRANSFERENCE OF AUTHORITY
For the believer understanding spiritual authority is a vital revelation necessary to walk in victory and in the plan and purposes of God. God has chosen the believer to be His agent to propagate and establish His rule and blessing in the whole earth. Jesus came preaching, “Repent, for the Kingdom of God is at hand.” For the believer understanding several incidence throughout history where a transference of authority took place helps us to understand the dynamics of spiritual authority and gives us confidence in who we are and what Christ has invested in us.
Luke 4:5-8 “The devil taking Him up on a high mountain showed Him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time. And the devil said to Him, ‘All this authority I will give You, and their glory, for this has been delivered to me, and I give it to whomever I wish. Therefore, if you will worship before me, all will be yours.’ Jesus answered, ‘Get behind Me Satan! For it is written, You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.’
This is one of the great events where the cosmic struggle for power and control over God’s creation, between good and evil, between God and the devil, occurred; the first being the struggle that occurred in the Garden of Eden when Adam succumbed to the deceit of the devil.
Satan knew who Jesus was and the authority invested in Him, and immediately challenged His authority by undermining His standing, saying, “If you are the Son of God?” Satan had already deceived and coerced God’s first son to deliver his authority over to him and for the second time was making a play for all authority. He knew that this was the home run, the grand slam play that would bring down all of God’s rule and deliver God’s supreme authority over to him. Satan understands the transference of authority and is the master usurper of power, and under miner of authority. When Satan said to Jesus, “All this authority I will give you, and their glory; for this has been delivered to me, and I give it to whoever I will;” he was declaring the legal entitlement over the world that had been delivered to him; the transference of authority that had taken place in the garden of Eden.
We must understand the immense authority God had endowed upon Adam. Adam was a king, and God had crowned him with authority to rule the entire world. Remember, Adam was created in the image of God and after His likeness. Adam was not given a suit of skin like the rest of the animals in the garden, but he was clothed with the glory of God; this is why the man and woman did not realize they were naked. It was God’s purpose for the man to utilize the glory and employ the authority to spread the blessing of Eden into all of the earth. One must assume that darkness already covered the earth and that Adam’s job was to reclaim and replenish the earth by restoring the blessing of heaven over all of God’s creation.
According to Genesis 1:2, “The earth was without form, and void; and darkness was on the face of the deep;” implies that Satan and the fallen angels were already on earth and had destroyed the original creation. The earthly reign of Satan is illustrated in Job 1:7 when God says to Satan, “From where do you come?” Satan replies, “From going to and fro on the earth, and from walking back and forth on it.” Sometime in antiquity the original creation had been destroyed by the powers of darkness. Jesus illustrates this when He said, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven.” “The Fall” occurred when Lucifer, the anointed cherub, exalted himself and tried to usurp God’s throne on the mountain of God. It was at this time in antiquity that Lucifer and a third of the angels fell from their standing in the kingdom of God and were cast into the earth. Jude says, “And the angels who did not keep their proper domain, but left their own abode. He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the great day,” Jude 1:6. When God planted Eden in the earth it was a beach head; a foothold from where He would reclaim His creation and plant His blessing over all the earth through His agent Adam.
Notice the words God used when He enthroned Adam as King of the Earth; “Let them have dominion (over everything), be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth, subdue it, have dominion over___ every living thing that moves, God put man in the garden of Eden to tend and keep it.” If we examine the commission in the original language we can conclude that Adam was given authority to rule and to guard, and to spread the domain. The words, to keep and to guard, contain a militant connotation. Through Adam and his offspring God would recover His creation and perpetuate His blessings into all of the earth.
Adam’s rule was demonstrated and established in the naming of the animals. Genesis 2:19, “And whatever Adam called each living creature, that was its name.” Adam used the power of the spoken word and his word was established. For the casual reader this statement seems to be insignificant; however, to the student of the word we can see the revelation of the power of the spoken word through God’s anointed agents. It is through the spoken word through God’s anointed agents that His rule is established and His will perpetuated. Adam’s implementation of the role of a King was verified through his actions. We can further understand the extent of Adam’s authority when we see the vast extent of the kingdom of darkness in all of the world. Satan uses the same authority that was given to Adam.
Satan hates mankind because man was created in the image of God. When Satan sees man it infuriates him because he sees in man what he wanted for himself. In Isaiah 14:13 and 14, Satan declared his desire to be like God in the five “I wills”, “I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God, I will also sit on the mount of the congregation, on the farthest sides of the north, I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.” When he sees man he is enraged with jealousy and hatred and desires nothing but to destroy the image of God in man. This is why he takes pleasure in destroying the unborn before the image of God can come forth into the world. It pleases him to terrorize mankind, to destroy and disfigure the image of God in man through sickness and disease and destruction. Jesus said, “The thief cometh but for to steal, kill and destroy,” John 10:10; He also said in John 8:44, “You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.”
When Adam succumbed to the treachery of Satan an occurrence of the transference of authority took place in the spiritual realm. It was at this point in time that all of the authority, the dominion, and anointing that God had placed on His son Adam were legally transferred onto Satan. Jesus called this “The Foundation of the World;” A legal action that took place founding the legal establishment of the Kingdom of the World under the rule and reign of Satan himself. The Greek word for foundation is themelios meaning the founding of an organization, company or entity. When Adam came into agreement with the serpent and rejected to command of God he legally handed over his Kingship to Satan and reduced himself to become a slave of the devil. Isaiah says it in chapter 60:2, ”Behold the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people.” Once again God’s plan to restore His blessing over creation was thwarted, and set back for another time and for another man.
When Satan declared, “All this authority has been delivered to me, and I will give it to whoever I chose,” he was enforcing his right over his domain, the authority he had usurped from the first son of God. We find that all of the world follows the serpent, or dragon, and worships him, and he finally finds an entity called the beast who he delivers his worldly authority over to, Revelation 13:2. When Satan showed Jesus all of the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, Jesus was seeing in the spiritual realm all of the kingdoms of darkness and demonic networks in the world; He saw the networks of terrorism, the networks of religion and idolatry, the networks of greed and riches, the kingdoms of tyranny and injustice, drugs and addictions, the epidemics of sickness and disease, death and destruction, hell and the grave. All of this authority Satan had corrupted and turned to be used to destroy God’s glory in creation. Jesus revealed the true nature and destiny of Satan’s kingdom in Matthew 12:25, “Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation, and every city or house divided against itself will not stand “
Unfortunately for the devil his play to usurp God’s authority from His Son Jesus was not going to work. The devil knew that if he could get the Son of God to bow down and worship him he would once again triumph and under mine the authority of God. It seemed simple, “If you will worship before me, all will be Yours.” The devil was stupid to think Jesus would be tempted to desire all that was in the world and their glory but he knew that Jesus may be tempted to try to regain Adam’s authority by one act of bowing before the devil. It seemed simple enough. But remember the command of God in Deuteronomy 5:6, “I am the LORD your God ___You shall have no other gods before me ___you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children.” The devil knew this command and the consequences of breaking this law, just like he knew the command given to Adam, “thou shall not eat of the fruit of the tree in the midst of the garden, for in the day you eat of it you shall die.” Just one little act of worshipping the devil and all this authority will be yours. Jesus was a man under the Law and was commissioned to fulfill all of the Law, every jot and tittle.
What the devil was counting on, since Jesus had come in the flesh, was for the mystery of iniquity that had corrupted Adam, to kick in. The devil had mastered the corruption of the nucleus of God’s desire. In the heart of God He desired to create an intelligent being who was capable of forming a relationship with Him, and that had the freedom to choose to love and worship Him. When God created man he placed within him the innate desire to worship his creator and the freedom to choose. The core nature of man is to worship and glorify God in perfect harmony and union. Man can never be a complete being until he becomes one with His creator. Unfortunately, with freedom of choice, or free will, comes the right to make the wrong choices. This is the mystery of iniquity; the perversion or corruption of true worship. Because man was created with an innate desire to worship he will worship something whether it is God or something else. When this worshipping nature is turned to something other than God it becomes perverted. Iniquity and idolatry are synonymous throughout scripture; idolatry is the act of worshipping false gods, while iniquity is the nature in man that is adulterous and betrays his creator by giving his devotion to another. At the fall man turned away from God and he began to worship the creation rather than the creator, Romans 1:25. When Jesus spoke to the devil He said, “Get behind Me Satan, for it is written, you shall worship the LORD your God and Him only shall you worship!” Thus, declaring His devotion and allegiance to His heavenly Father.
What the devil didn’t realize was that Jesus did not come to reclaim Adam’s authority; He came in His own authority and to establish a new dominion. Jesus did not want power in the world; He had power over the world. He did not come to regain the power of the world but He came to destroy the works of the devil. Adam’s authority was inconsequential to Jesus. His authority was greater. When Jesus declared in Matthew 28:18, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth;” He was not saying all power in heaven and earth and the world has been given to me. He did not want power in the world He had power over the world. When Jesus said, “Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy,” He was declaring His authority over the powers of darkness.
Jesus came proclaiming the Kingdom of God. He announced a new rule, a new dominion, a new ruler, a new King. This Kingdom was not an earthly kingdom; it was the Kingdom of heaven, God’s rule, God’s authority. This was the white stone from Daniel 2:34, “A stone was cut out, without hands, which struck the image on its feet of iron and clay and broke them in pieces ___and the stone that struck the image, became a great mountain and filled the whole earth.” This was Jesus who came to destroy the powers of darkness and the tyranny that Satan had cast over the world.