John Bevere - Discover Your True Authority and Triumph over Fear
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Hey, welcome to the second lesson of Breaking Intimidation. For years, I battled the spirit of intimidation, but the problem was I didn’t know what I was fighting. I was addressing the symptoms instead of the problem. When God exposed it, this book came about. As I was writing this book, I’ll never forget the Spirit of God coming upon me one day and beginning to prophesy. I have seen this prophetic word come true. He said, «Son, there are many called to My great end-time army of believers who are bound by intimidation. They have pure hearts toward God and man; however, like Gideon of old, they are held captive by the fear of man.» That’s Judges 6:8. «The gifts I’ve placed in them are dormant or inoperative. I will anoint the message of this book or this course to liberate multitudes of them. They will step out and fearlessly obey Me. They shall be valiant warriors and shall bring forth great victories in the strength of their God.» That’s you, and I am so excited for you! Because when you get free, more people are impacted, the kingdom grows, and we get to see Jesus with a big smile because He loves people.
In this second lesson, I want to talk to you about your place of authority. You have to understand that you literally occupy a place in the spirit of authority. If you don’t grasp that, you won’t be able to effectively break the things that attack your life and try to hold you down. Let’s begin with this: When I was just starting out in ministry, I remember taking care of my pastor’s personal matters. It was a big church, one of the largest in the United States, with about 450 staff members. There was this guy in the art department; we’d call it the creative department today. He was from the back hills of Arkansas, and I’ll never forget that he had a beard down to here. I loved being around him because he was so full of God. I remember he walked up to my wife and made a statement to her: «Lisa, I have a word from God for your husband.»
Now, you have to understand I was just getting ready to become a youth pastor in Florida, and he didn’t want to bring me that word personally. He said, «Lisa, you give this to your husband.» He looked at my wife and said, «You tell John that if John does not walk in his God-given authority, someone else will take it away from him and use it against him.» When she brought that to me, that guy had never given me a word before, and he never did afterward. Something exploded inside me. I didn’t fully understand what he was saying until intimidation was broken in my life, but I’m telling you that statement means a lot now.
Remember, the New Testament says we don’t wrestle against human beings; we wrestle against demonic spirits. So, someone who will take authority away from you is a demonic spirit or someone influenced by one. Remember, if a person is influenced by a demonic spirit, God still loves that person. Don’t ever forget that. Flesh and blood is not your enemy; it is principalities, powers, rulers of the darkness of this world, and spiritual wickedness in high places. God loves people so much that Jesus died for them. Don’t forget that. If you listen to this message and don’t have that proper balance, you might think flesh and blood is your problem. No, they’re not; it’s the demonic forces influencing that person or a direct influence of a demonic spirit.
All believers occupy a place in the spirit. I will give you a couple of scriptures to solidify this, just from the book of Psalms. Psalm 91:1 says, «He who dwells in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.» Psalm 18:19 says, «He also brought me out into a broad place; He delivered me because He delighted in me.» He delights in you. Here’s Psalm 26:12: «My foot stands in an even place; in the congregations, I will bless the Lord.» It’s important for you, as a believer, not only to know that place but also to function from it. If you don’t know your position, you can lose it. Judas Iscariot is an example. When he betrayed Jesus, he hung himself. Peter makes the most remarkable statement, quoting the book of Psalms, in Acts 1. He said, «For it is written in the Book of Psalms: 'Let his dwelling place be desolate, and let no one live in it.'» Judas gave up his place of authority, and not only did he lose that, but he lost his soul forever. Jesus said it would have been better for him if he had never been born.
You must understand that when God created this earth and placed man on it, He said to them, «You are to rule this earth; you are to have dominion over everything I’ve created.» When Adam sinned, when he disobeyed God and listened to the serpent’s words through his wife, what happened was not only were Adam and Eve affected, but all of creation was affected. You would never have seen lions attacking zebras in the garden; you would never have seen cobras biting people and killing them. There were no earthquakes, pestilence, or diseases. Just the one that’s so prevalent in people’s minds is COVID-19. It created a lot of fear. But there was no coronavirus in the garden. It was when Adam fell that everything under him was affected. This is why Romans 8:20 says, «For the creation was subject to futility, not willingly, but because of Adam.» So, when Adam sinned, in essence, God had given him authority over the whole planet, and he turned the whole planet over to Satan. This is why three times, Jesus calls Satan the ruler of this world (John 12, John 14, John 16) and why Paul calls Satan, in 2 Corinthians 4:4, the god of this age (little g). Paul also calls him, in Ephesians 2:2, the prince of the power of the air.
The devil made this statement to Jesus. Do you remember the Temptations when Jesus was in the wilderness? The devil showed Him all the kingdoms of the world and said, «All this authority"—say that word out loud right now—"Authority! 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.» When was it delivered over to Satan? When Adam fell.
You must understand that Adam gave up his place of authority, and he gave that authority in the earth to the devil. That’s why he’s called the ruler of darkness, the ruler of this world and this age. A man forfeited our position of authority. God just couldn’t come into the earth and slap that authority out of the devil’s hands and say, «Uh-uh, we’re doing a reset here.» No, God never takes back His word. When He gives something to someone, He gives it to them and doesn’t go back on His word. So, a man lost that place of authority, and a man had to get it back. That’s why Jesus had to come and be born of a virgin; it had to be a man who got it back. Having Mary as His mother made Him 100% man, but having the Holy Spirit as His Father made Him 100% God. He wasn’t under the curse that Adam brought us all under; He is free from that curse—the curse of having a nature that wants to sin.
Here’s Jesus; He lives perfectly for 33 years, goes to the cross, gives Himself in our place, suffers, dies, and sheds His royal blood as an offering for our sin. Once He satisfied the claims of justice, God raised Him from the dead because He was perfect. When God raised Him from the dead, He seated Him in the highest place of authority in the universe. Oh my gosh, I’m preaching myself happy right now! I just have to take a little break and get excited. This is why Jesus looks at us in Matthew 28 and says, «All authority.» Yeah, I said it pretty strongly, didn’t I? Because I want you to hear these words: All authority! In other words, Satan, you don’t have that authority anymore. You showed me that you tried to give it to me the easy way, but I went My Father’s way, and now all authority is given to Me. He then looks at us and says, «Therefore, you go.» You know what He’s saying? «I have the authority, and now I’m telling you to go in My authority.»
Listen to what the Apostle Paul writes—this is so exciting! I’m telling you, I have just preached myself so happy right now. Paul, regarding what Jesus accomplished, says this in Ephesians 1:19–21: «What he prays is that we might know what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe.» He’s talking about you and me, according to the working of His mighty power, which He worked in Christ when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him. Listen to this! Seated! What does seated speak of? Rulership! When a king sits on his throne with his scepter, he declares, «All authority is mine; whatever I speak is to happen.» He seated Him at His right hand—now listen to this—in heavenly places. It doesn’t say He seated Him at His right hand in a heavenly place; it says He seated Him at His right hand in heavenly places. Now, where are those places? Far above! He goes on to say, «Far above.»
When the scripture says «far above,» it doesn’t mean a little above; it means so far above you probably can’t even see below. Far above all principality! Did you hear what I just said? All principalities, powers, might, dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but the one which is to come. That means this age right now—not only this age but the age to come. So where do we, believers, dwell? Paul tells us in the second chapter of Ephesians: «But God, who was rich in mercy because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive.» Now listen to this: «Made us alive together with Christ.» So when God raised Christ, He raised you and me.
Now listen: «And raised us up together and made us sit.» You aren’t standing in the heavenly place; you’re sitting, which means rulership, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. Now, where are those heavenly places? Far above all principality, power, might, dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, this age, but the one to come. Do you understand your place of authority? You are seated with Christ in that authority position. That means there is no devil—no devil—that has authority over you. You have authority over every demonic spirit, every fallen angel. That’s why Jesus said, «I give you power over all the power of the enemy, and nothing will by any means hurt you.»
That’s why the Bible says, «Give the devil no place.» Why? What is Paul saying when he says, «Give the devil no place»? He’s saying, «Don’t give him your place of authority.» Don’t do what Judas did. Don’t do what Adam did. The wonderful thing is the covenant is based on what Jesus did. If you make a mistake, you just pray; the blood of Jesus cleanses you, but you are still seated in that place. You see, that’s the wonderful thing: our covenant is based on what Jesus did, not what you did. That’s why the devil can only get that place if he intimidates us. He ain’t intimidating you any longer! I know I said «ain’t.» My English teachers would be rolling over in their graves right now, but that’s okay. He has no authority over you. Don’t give him your place. I hope you’re getting something out of this because I’m preaching myself plum happy right now! Okay, now that you know your position, it’s time to exercise your authority. In the next lesson, we’re going to discuss what happens when we neglect to walk in that authority. We’ll see you in lesson three!