Derek Prince - We've Been Given Authority To Rule
Now, when we’ve learned to pray, and that means praise, thanksgiving, intercession, worship, the whole of the priestly ministry, then we’re qualified to start ruling. For those who don’t learn the priestly ministry never qualify to be kings. They’re potential kings but it’s never developed. I want to turn to a picture of this combined ministry of king and priest in Psalm 110. Which is what they call a Messianic psalm.
In other words, it’s a prediction of Jesus as the Messiah. I think the opening verse is quoted more often in the New Testament than any other passage from the old Testament. I want to deal first of all with the two first verses. Now we have Christ’s own application of the first verse: "The LORD said to my Lord", remember, it’s David who's writing, "The LORD said to my Lord, sit at my right hand till I make your enemies your footstool".
Now Jesus challenged the Pharisees. And He said: Who is the Messiah? They said: He’s David’s son. Which, of course, is orthodox. Then He said, Jesus said: If He’s the son of David, how does David in the Spirit call him Lord? And he said: The LORD said to my Lord. So we know the first 'the LORD' is God the Father. 'My Lord' when spoken by David is the Messiah. So, God the Father said to the Messiah after His death, resurrection and ascension: Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool. Some years back Ruth and I were briefly in the city of Cairo in Egypt. We went to the museum there, which I’m prepared to say I only want to visit once. We saw some of the footstools of the Egyptian kings. The interesting thing was painted on them were the faces of their enemies! So you make your enemies your footstools.
See, that’s a Middle East concept. So the Lord said to Jesus: Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool. Now we move on to verse 2: The LORD shall send the rod of your strength out of Zion; rule in the midst of your enemies. Now Zion is the meeting place of all God’s redeemed people. Keep your finger in Psalm 110. Turn to Hebrews 12. Those of you who have been here in these sessions, you’ve learned to find where Hebrews is. Hebrews 12. You see, when you’re on the priestly ministry, Hebrews is the main source.
Hebrews 12, beginning at verse two and reading through verse 24. This is addressed to believers in Jesus. And the writer of Hebrews says: But you have come to Mount Zion... Notice the tense. Not when you die you will get to Mount Zion, but you have now come to Mount Zion. Not in your physical body, but in your spiritual relationship. So those of us to whom those words apply have two locations. The physical body, we’re sitting in the Assembly of God at Tauranga. Praise God for the comfortable benches.
But, if we understand our position in Christ in the Spirit, we have come to Mount Zion. And it’s not the Mount Zion on the south side of Jerusalem, but it’s the heavenly Zion, because the next part of the verse says: to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. Those are our headquarters, brothers and sisters. Our headquarters are where our head is. No it's 12:22. Why, did I say it wrong? Did I? Sorry. Excuse me for forgiving you, The reference is Hebrews 12:22. I thought I said 22, but maybe I swallowed the 20. All right, are you with me now? I saw that your usually intelligent faces weren't looking quite so bright but I didn't know what to comment on it.