Jimmy Evans - Walking in Authority
In Exodus 3:1 Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father in law, the priest of Midian and he led the flock to the back of the desert and came to Horeb, now that's Sinai, Mount Sinai, the Mountain of God. Now Moses is hiding, OK, this, he's on the back side of the desert. He's afraid of Pharaoh, the most powerful man in the world wants to kill him, so he is finding the safest place on Earth he can find, not to be killed by Pharaoh. Exodus 3:7 now, the Lord said I have surely seen the oppression of my people, who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their task masters, for I know their sorrows.
Now this is the Devil's will for our lives, this is the perfect picture of the Devil's will for our lives. He wants us to cruelly oppress our nation. He wants to cruelly oppress our families. He wants to cruelly oppress us, as we hide in fear. That's the perfect picture of the Devil's will for our lives. But God comes and He calls Moses now to go deliver the children of Israel. And in doing so, He supernaturally empowers his shepherd's staff or his rod.
This is Exodus 4 and beginning in Verse 1, Moses answered and said suppose they will not believe me or listen to my voice? Suppose they say the Lord has not appeared to you? The Lord said to him, what is that in your hand? And he said, a rod. He said cast it on the ground. And he cast it on the ground and it became a serpent and Moses fled from it. Then the Lord said to Moses, reach out your hand and take it by the tail. And he reached out his hand and caught it and it became a rod in his hand. That they may believe that the Lord God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob has appeared to you. And then in Verse 17 of Exodus 4, God says again, and you shall take this rod in your hand with which you shall do the signs.
So to empower Moses to go down and deliver Israel, He empowers his shepherd's rod. Now let me, this is actually Moses' rod, right here. I bought this online this week, they promised it's Moses', it's also an awesome Ninja weapon, but. So Moses is in the wilderness and he's with his sheep and he's got a shepherd's staff, OK? And so God comes and in the burning bush and He's calling Moses to deliver Israel. And Moses says, you know, there's all this fear going on in Moses, so Moses is pushing back on God. And God says, OK, Moses, I know you're afraid that the people won't believe you, throw the rod down. He threw it down, it became a snake, that's pretty awesome. And He said now pick it up by the tail, he did, it became a stick again. He said so I'm going to be with you now, in this stick.
But in the Bible, a rod is a symbol of authority and power, even with sheep. When you're a shepherd and you have this, it means you have authority over the sheep and if they do something wrong you reach over and pop them with it. And so this is a symbol of authority, but it also empowers you as a shepherd. But also in the Bible this is Revelation 19:15, out of His mouth goes a sharp sword, talking about Jesus, that with it He should strike the nations. And He, Himself, will rule them with a rod of iron, He, Himself, treads the wine press of the fierceness of the wrath of Almighty God.
There will be a tribulation period of time, seven years of tribulation, we won't be here, we'll be in Heaven with Jesus after the Rapture. There'll be a seven year tribulation and then Jesus returns. And for a thousand years we rule the Earth with Jesus, but there are mortals living on the Earth, there are people, unbelievers, who survive the tribulation. And part of their punishment is they have to live under the rule of Jesus Christ for a thousand years. Won't it be a joy to have Jesus as President for a thousand years? I mean it really will be, I mean what it, but for unbelievers it's torture, because they will have and it says that Jesus has one of these when He rules in His Millennial Kingdom, but it's iron. And what that means is He's not going to take any lip off Madonna if she makes it through the tribulation. He ain't taking no lip from Howard Stern. He ain't taking no lip from any politician, he ain't taking no lip from any unbeliever. He will rule them with a rod of iron because Jesus has power and authority and that's what this means right here.
And so Moses is going down, God is calling, thank you, Pastor Jimmy, it's Moses is calling, or God is calling Moses to go down to Egypt and God says I'm giving you supernatural authority and power to go down and deliver My people. And God's authority and power must always go together. You can't just have authority and you can't just have power, you have to have authority and power. And so authority without power is a badge without a gun. And power without authority is a gun without a badge. Jesus rebuked Him, saying be quiet and come out of him, this was a man in church with a demon. And when the demon had come out, had thrown him in their midst and came out of him and did not hurt him, then they were all amazed and spoke among themselves, saying what a word this is. For with authority and power, He commands the unclean spirits and they come out. And the report about Him went into every place in the surrounding region.
Now, see God has a plan for your life, number one, I want you to know that an awesome God created you in your mother's womb and you're special, period, you're special. And you have a special call in your life. Number two, I want you to know that in spite of the fact that you're special with a special call in your life, there's an evil Devil and he hates you. And for you to do what God wants you to do with your life, you're going to need authority and power and the good news is, God's given it to us. He's given us authority and power, just like He did with Moses, OK? He's, just like He did with Jesus, He's given us authority and power.
This is Luke 10:19, this is not to the Twelve Disciples, this is to 70 believers that include the Twelve, this is just a group of believers. Jesus said behold, I give you authority, that's the word exousia, I give you authority to trample, that's a violent word. If you hear like there's a soccer game somewhere and 50 people got trampled, that's a violent word, if a horse tramples somebody, it's a violent word. Jesus is saying, I'm giving you the divine authority to be violent with the Devil, to trample on serpents, that's the Devil and his powers, scorpions, that's demonic powers and over all the power of the enemy and nothing shall by any means hurt you. He's saying here I give you absolute authority over the enemy. The Devil and every demon in Hell has been put under the authority of My people. Somebody say Amen, that's pretty good news, y'all. I'm telling you right now.
OK, then, so there's the authority right there. Acts 1:8 Jesus said you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you and you shall be witnesses to me in Jerusalem and all Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the Earth. Let me go back to the story of the children of Israel. Pharaoh represents Satan, OK, Moses represents Jesus, he's a type of deliverer. And he has authority and power through his rod to deliver the children of Israel. But the Egyptians represent demons. The Egyptians, the task masters, represent the serpents and the scorpions.
Remember scorpions bite through their tail, the task masters have their whips, whipping the children of Israel, but here we have the church, the children of Israel represent the church. And Moses represents Christ, but he also represents leadership in the church. And here you have this pathetic story of the children of Israel being cruelly oppressed by demon spirits, while their deliverer is hiding on the back side of the desert, OK? Well what I want to say to you is this, thank God for Jesus. And thank God that He came and He took away the Devil's authority completely. And He has now given us authority and power to live our lives in freedom without being oppressed by the Devil in one area of our lives.
What Jesus said is nothing shall by any means harm you. If we use the authority that Jesus has given us, what it means is the Devil can't harm a hair on our heads. The Devil can't, nothing shall by any means harm you, OK? But we have to remember something and this is a part of the story now, the 10 plagues are over, there's just been the death of the first born, OK? The first Passover for Israel, the Pharaoh's son died and the first born of Egypt all died. And then and only then did Pharaoh agree that they could leave Egypt, OK? But then he hardens his heart you remember. They, they're leaving Egypt and they're up against the Red Sea, they have nowhere to go, OK, they're there.
And now he changes his mind and he has 600 chariots and his army that are pursuing them and they're pinned up against the Red Sea. And one of the interesting things in this story is as soon as they see the Egyptians coming the children of Israel say to Moses God brought us out here to kill us, there aren't enough graves in Egypt, He brought us out here to kill us. And that's one of the regular themes and that's one of my messages also is about the, just their perspective, their, you know, image of God that they had. And so Moses turns to them, this is Moses turning to the children of Israel, they're absolutely terrified because they see Yul Brynner coming after them. OK, Yul Brynner was the actor in the Ten Commandments that played Pharaoh, so that's it.
Exodus 14:13, Moses said to the people do not be afraid, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord which He will accomplish for you today. For the Egyptians, whom you've seen today, you shall see again no more. The Lord will fight for you and you shall hold your peace. And the Lord said to Moses, why do you cry to me? Tell the children of Israel to go forward but lift up your rod and stretch out your hand over the sea and divide it and the children of Israel shall go on dry ground through the midst of the sea. And I indeed will harden the hearts of the Egyptians and they shall follow them, so I will gain honor over Pharaoh and over all of his army and his chariots and swordsmen.
OK, so the people and you can imagine, I mean they were terrified. And so even after all of the signs that God did through the 10 plagues and they saw the power of God and they're about to leave, they're still believing He just brought us out here to kill us. And so they turn around, they see the Egyptians coming, they're terrified and Moses just is preaching a great message. And he said hey, don't you fear, God's gonna, here's what Moses is saying, God is going to fight for you. And you just stand back and you just watch the salvation of God. It was a great message until God told him to be quiet. God, God's gonna deliver you, God sees you and he's gonna come and getcha. Everybody just gimme an Amen. The children of Israel were not Amening, I can tell you that right now.
And God, here's what God says. What are you, what are you doing? Why are you talking about Me? Why are you crying out to Me, acting like I'm going to do something? That rod is going to deliver you, Moses, stretch out your rod. And the sea will divide and the people will go out on dry land. Here's the moral of the story, God will not do for us what He's given us the ability to do for ourselves. We're not pawns, we're children of the Most High God, we're the Army of God, we're the bride of Christ. We have been invested with the authority and power of God.
And sometimes, I'm telling you right now, we're waiting for God to show up when God already showed up. We're waiting for God to do something when He empowered us to do that very thing. And what I'm saying to you, there's a time to pray, there's a time to read your Bible, there's a time to seek God, but when God has invested His authority and power for you, He won't do that thing, He wants you to do it! Stand up and take authority over the Devil! Stand up and take authority over every demon in Hell! Stand up and proclaim the deliverance of God, lift up your rod and the sea will divide!
Why are you crying out to me, Moses, why are you crying out? I empowered you when you left the wilderness to come down here and deliver those people. And don't you tell those people I'm going to do something that you have the power to do. We have authority as believers, every believer has authority, every believer does. When you ask the Holy Spirit to fill you up, you have power. It doesn't matter if you're a plumber, a student, a stay at home Mom, a lawyer, a doctor, whatever, whoever you are, you don't have to be a pastor, every believer has authority. And let me say and because of that you can live your life in freedom, without fear.
Here's the significance of the fact that we have supernatural authority and power.
Number one, the Devil, listen to what I'm saying, the Devil and anything associated with the Devil has no right to rule over us or oppress us, but rather we have the God given authority to rule over him. The minute that God handed Pharaoh the rod, or handed Moses the rod, Pharaoh lost his authority over the children of Israel. Listen to Jesus, all authority, this is Matthew 28:18, all authority has been given to Me in Heaven and on Earth.
Let me ask you this now, if all authority has been given to Jesus, is there any authority left for the Devil? Colossians 2 says when Jesus rose from the grave He took Satan and all of his demonic forces and paraded them through the Heavenlies, and pronounced him a loser. Every spirit, every demonic spirit, every angelic spirit in the Heavenlies know that Satan has no more authority. And Jesus said all authority, all exousia has been given to Me in Heaven and on Earth. I'm giving it to you, go therefore. We have the, Satan has no right over me. Listen, he has no right over my body, he has no right over my mind, he has no right over my emotions, he has no right over my children, he has no right over my marriage, he has no right over my finances, he has no right over my reputation, he has no right over my ministry or my business, he has no right, he has no right! He has no authority over me! So listen, listen, he's banking on the fact that I don't know I have authority. He, the only thing he can do to me is what I let him do. Well how do I let him do it, don't use my authority.
Number two, significance of the fact that we have authority and power. Nothing can keep us from living in the fullness of the promises of God and His destiny for our lives. The minute that God handed Moses the rod, Pharaoh lost his right over them and the rod was the key out of Egypt and into the Promised Land. You have authority and you have power. And what that means is that's your key out of bondage to the Devil and that's the key into the Promised Land God has for you. You have the power to set yourself free from the Devil and his bondage. God's given you that authority. Satan can never do anything to you that you can't outdo him. You have authority over the Devil.
Now Karen and I, we were coming to Trinity, I was in business with my parents and we had just started coming to Trinity. You know, we were getting a tremendous amount of ministry when we came here and we needed it. And we joined a Life Group, Bob and Sarah Keys Life Group, it was actually a discipleship group, really the first people we met here, there were 13 people in the group and we went every week. And Karen and I started fighting, you know, the Lord had healed our marriage, you know, of our horrible problems, but we were fighting this particular week a lot, you know, we'd just kind of been fighting, you know, about a little of everything, I don't even know what it was about. But Karen was on my nerves really bad. And so it was the night.
So Karen came in the room and said it's time to go to Life Group, you know, with Bob and Sarah. And I said, I'm not going. And I was just doing it just to irritate her. And I said I'm not going. And she said Jimmy, come on, come on, you know, we need to go, you know, let's go and I said, I'm not going, get out, I'm not going. So she left and she went to the group without me. And when she came home a few hours later I was probably sitting there watching TV and she walked in the door and she was real serious and she sat down in front of me. And she said I need to tell you what Sarah Keys said. And I said what and she said Sarah has been praying for us and she saw a lion's head in our living room and it was the Devil trying to break us up. And she said we need to hold hands and pray and bind that in the Name of Jesus because it's trying to break up our marriage.
Jesus, Matthew 16, I say to you you're Peter, on this rock I will build My church. And the Gates of Hades shall not prevail against it. And I will give you the Keys to the Kingdom of Heaven and whatever you bind on Earth will be bound in Heaven and whatever you loose on Earth will be loosed in Heaven. I didn't know about binding and loosing, I'm going to talk about it again next week. I didn't know, bind means disallow, loose means allow. Whatever you allow in your home, Jesus said I'll honor that, you can allow anything you want to in your home. But if you disallow it, if you bind it, I'll honor that, too. Whatever you allow in your body, I'll allow, but whatever you disallow, I'll honor that, too. Whatever you allow, whatever you bind on Earth is bound in Heaven, I'll honor it in Heaven, whatever you loose on Earth is loosed in Heaven.
Well, see, I didn't want to be a weird person. I thought anyone who speaks to demons is weird. And Karen came home and said there's a lion's head roaring and Sarah said for us to hold hands and pray and bind it and it would leave. And it's the first Karen and I held hands and it's the first time in my life I ever talked to a demon spirit. And I was not a good prayer, I was real self conscious about not being a good prayer and now I'm a professional. And I said in the Name of Jesus we bind you over our marriage and over our home. Immediately, immediately it was like you sprayed air freshener and opened the drapes, immediately the atmosphere in our home changed. And immediately I looked at Karen and thought I love her so much, what are we fighting about? I couldn't even remember, I couldn't even remember why I was mad at her. And our marriage was fine and we stopped fighting.
What I'm saying to you is there are demon spirits that are out to get you. You need to open up your eyes and understand that not everything happening in your life is happening just in the physical realm. Sometimes, not every time, but sometimes there's a demon behind it or the Devil behind it and you have the power to bind and loose him and the Gates of Hell cannot prevail against you. The Gates of Hell. And the Gates, the Gates are the most fortified area of a city. In the Old Testament, you know, in Old World, when you had a city and you built walls the gates were the most fortified areas. And when the Church was birthed, Jesus said the Gates cannot prevail against you. Against any believer, you have the ability to come against them, I'm gonna say it one more thing.
We didn't know we were Jimmy and Karen Evans. We didn't know that one day we would set millions and millions of people free in their marriages, we didn't know that. I don't know how much the Devil knows, but I think he knew something. But if we wouldn't have won that battle, we certainly wouldn't have gotten to our Promised Land. Because our Promised Land was helping people all over the world to understand marriage and to overcome the Devil. You're someone special, you may not know it, we didn't know it back then, you may not know it right now. But you understand this, you have a Promised Land that's awesome
And you better bear the rod because you're not gonna get there without it. You have the power to get out of Egypt and the power to get into the Promised Land, but you'll have to do some binding and loosing to get there. There's one other thing and I'm done. God has called us to be a deliverer to others who are being oppressed by the Devil. One of the most exhilarating things in the world is to be able to pray and minister to another person and see them set free.
John 14:12, most assuredly I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also. And greater works than these he will do because I go to My Father. I believe that we have been, remember Jesus cast the demon out? And they said with power and authority He does these things? Jesus said you'll do greater than that. We have authority and what Jesus wants us to remember is, not only does He want us to be set free and live in victory, He wants us to be a Moses for somebody else. When you see someone on your block being cruelly oppressed by the Devil, you should start praying for those people. You should reach out to those people. When you see someone that you know is in bondage, you should start praying for them and pray God, give me an opportunity to use the power and authority on my life to reach out to them and set them free.