Don’t Abuse Your Spiritual Authority

The title of this article brings up an interesting question: Can you abuse your spiritual authority and what would that even mean. Christians can call on the name of Jesus for help and God will respond, and any unclean spirits will at the very least duck and run for cover. This is not the type of authority I’m talking about.

Spiritual Authority is something that God gives certain people to help expand the Kingdom of God. It is conferred by the Holy Spirit and usually is given after a person has passed a number of tests. In my experience, the authority is usually exercised in the spiritual realm and does not directly affect the physical realm. 

Spiritual Authority is the ability to command that certain things happen in the spiritual realm. There are two different spiritual realms that this authority can affect: the earthly realm and the “Kingdom of Heaven”. In both cases, it is Angels that do most of the work. I don’t really understand this very well, but all my experience convinces me that God uses angels to “perform the work” that implements his will.

A side effect of God using angels to do work, is that God gives some people spiritual authority that allows them to “order” angels to perform certain tasks. One use of this would be for a person with a gift of healing to order that “healing” be poured into a person. It then is the job of the angels to do the pouring. It is the job of the person who is giving the order to make sure that Jesus gets the credit, but that’s a whole different topic. The angels know which person has spiritual authority and what types of authority each person has. Based on the authority that a person has, the angels know if they need to listen and act or not.

The whole subject of spiritual authority revolves around the trust that God puts in individuals. God delegates his authority and he expects us to not abuse it.

So, what does it mean to abuse spiritual authority? Simply, if you use your authority to do something that is not in God’s “Perfect Will”. People have been known to use their authority to order angels to attack a person. The person giving the order assumed that the order was in God’s “permissible will” and also assumed that God would approve of their actions. Unfortunately, by not checking with God before acting, they have assumed that God would approve of their actions when their actions may in fact be directly against God’s will. It is important for us humans to remember that we don’t always know what’s really going on in a particular situation. Humans can easily jump to conclusions that are totally wrong. Only God knows if an exercise of spiritual authority is appropriate or not. It is up to us to “check” with the Holy Spirit before we exercise our authority against an individual.

So, what are the consequences of misusing spiritual authority? In the worst case scenario, the person attacked was doing God perfect will. In this worst case: God can inform the attacked person who attacked them and how. God can then present them with options for dealing with the person(s) who attacked them. The options include one or more of the following:

• Stripping the attacker of all of their spiritual authority until they repent of the attack.
• Rebuking the attacker in some way. I don’t know what God does with this, I’ve never been rebuked.
• Request that God ignore any prayers of the attacker until they repent.
• Command all angels to ignore the attacker’s commands until they repent.

The solution to misusing spiritual authority is to repent.

The moral of this article is ”Look (ask) before you leap”. If you ask God what he wants to do, and he shows you what to do, you can’t go wrong. If you go off on your own, you may shoot yourself in the foot or even worse.

Scriptures about Angels and their relationship with God and humans:

God commands angels:

• 1Ch 21:27
• Then the Lord spoke to the angel, and he put his sword back into its sheath.
• Ps 91:11
• For He will give His angels orders concerning you,
  to protect you in all your ways.
• Ps 103:20
• Praise the Lord,
  [all] His angels of great strength,
  who do His word,
  obedient to His command.

God gives angels tasks:

• Joh 5:4
• because an angel would go down into the pool from time to time and stir up the water. Then the first one who got in after the water was stirred up recovered from whatever ailment he had].

God uses angels to perform work:

• Ps 103:20 (NAS Strongs version)
• Bless the LORD, you His angels, Mighty in strength, who perform His word, Obeying the voice of His word!
• 2Ch 32:21
• and the Lord sent an angel who annihilated every brave warrior, leader, and commander in the camp of the king of Assyria. So the king of Assyria returned with shame to his land. He went to the temple of his god, and there some of his own children cut him down with the sword.
• Ac 12:7
• Suddenly an angel of the Lord appeared, and a light shone in the cell. Striking Peter on the side, he woke him up and said, "Quick, get up!" Then the chains fell off his wrists.
• 2Th 1:6,7
• 6 since it is righteous for God to repay with affliction those who afflict you,
• 7 and to reward with rest you who are afflicted, along with us. This will take place at the revelation of the Lord Jesus from heaven with His powerful angels,

Jesus has authority over angels:

• Heb 1:4
• So He became higher in rank than the angels, just as the name He inherited is superior to theirs.

We will or do have some authority over angels:

• 1Co 6:3
• Do you not know that we will judge angels--not to speak of things pertaining to this life?

Scriptures about Authority and it’s proper use

God gives authority:

• Eze 37:4-7
• 4 Again He said to me, " Prophesy over these bones and say to them, 'O dry bones, hear the word of the LORD.'
• 5 "Thus says the Lord GOD to these bones, 'Behold, I will cause breath  to enter you that you may come to life.
• 6 'I will put sinews on you, make flesh grow back on you, cover you with skin and put breath in you that you may come alive; and you will know that I am the LORD.' "
• 7 So I prophesied as I was commanded; and as I prophesied, there was a noise, and behold, a rattling; and the bones came together, bone to its bone.
• Mt 10:1
• Jesus summoned His twelve disciples and gave them authority over unclean spirits, to cast them out, and to heal every kind of disease and every kind of sickness.
• 2Co 10:8
• For even if I boast somewhat further about our authority, which the Lord gave for building you up and not for destroying you, I will not be put to shame,
• 1Th 4:2
• For you know what commandments we gave you by the authority of the Lord Jesus.

God tests people before giving authority:

• Lu 19:17
• "And he said to him, `Well done, good slave, because you have been faithful in a very little thing, you are to be in authority over ten cities.'
• Re 2:26
• `He who overcomes, and he who keeps My deeds until the end, TO HIM I WILL GIVE AUTHORITY OVER THE NATIONS ;