Our responsibility is a crucial concern in the exercise of power. In the Kingdom of God, those who wield power are accountable before God to discover and follow His will, rather than merely implementing their own desires.

Being in authority does not depend on our ideas and thoughts. Instead, it relies on understanding the will of God. The measure of knowledge of God’s will is the measure of one’s delegated authority.

God establishes a person as His delegated authority entirely based on their knowledge of His will. This has nothing to do with many ideas, strong opinions, or noble thoughts. Indeed, those who are strong in themselves are to be feared in the church. Compliance with the will of the One who grants authority is thus a major requirement. Indeed, every time we assert the authority given to us, it is up to God to decide whether He will fulfill it or not. But, as 1 John 5:14 tells us,

“We are confident that He hears us whenever we ask for anything that pleases Him.”

We must use the delegated authority, as Nee writes, to represent God and His will, not to substitute our desires for His. Our authority is delegated, granted by God. We are simply stewards of what He has entrusted to us.

We must never presume that our authority comes from an inherent quality or value within us. Whether our authority is greater or smaller, we all have the same worth in the eyes of God. Take the authority of a husband over his wife, for example. It does not rest on a greater value of a man (there is none), but solely on the fact that God has delegated authority in this way. The same applies to the authority of parents over children or pastors over their congregations.

The authority that God delegates to each of us may differ, as it is not inherently ours. It is something granted to us, as emphasized by Nee, with the purpose of representing the God who gave it to us.

This text is an excerpt from the book “You hold authority in Heaven and on Earth“, written by Benson Idahosa.