News Intelligence Analysis
From CBN
Who is Ruling Your World?
By Dutch Sheets
CBN.com – A few years ago I was given a double-billed cap with one bill pointing to the left, the other to the right. The words on the front of the cap, "I'm the leader, which way did they go?" are intended to prompt the obvious question, "Who, really, is in charge?" I loved the humor in spite of the not-so-subtle and obviously asinine aspersion it cast on my leadership skills.
That question in one form or another is asked throughout the world millions of times a day. I recall the day our dog, Mercedes--she's a Boxer, so ugly she needed a classy name--tried to assert her dominance over me. She was young, and the two of us were in a season of trying to establish who would rule our house. I was lying on the floor watching a football game, and she, very ceremoniously I might add, sauntered over and sat right on my chest. She then stuck her chest out, head up, and looked disdainfully at me out of the corner of her eye, glancing proudly at everyone else in the room. Easy to interpret: I'm in charge here; you will submit to me. (Maybe it was because I was wearing the cap.) ....
But it is not only people and their dogs that struggle with the "Who's in charge?" question. It is at the heart of all conflict on earth. The question was born in the heart of Lucifer when he tried to sit on God's chest in heaven, and it spread to earth when he passed the question on to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Satan spewed his poisonous deception, and our foreparents also tried to sit on God's chest. We humans have been wearing a double-billed cap ever since, thinking we're in charge, all the while stumbling around, wondering which way to go. It seems that at every level and in every arena of life, power struggles occur:
men and women wrestle over control of relationships.
parents and children struggle with who will rule the house.
siblings quarrel over toys, clothing, tv, and a host of other
issues.
businesses connive to corner various consumer and investment
markets.
sports teams vie for first place.
democrats and republicans strive for the domination of america.
leaders of nations war over control of lands, people, and wealth.
Everybody wants to be in charge!
Who is ruling your world? ...God doesn't intend that any outside force dominate you. He has given you jurisdiction over your life.
....God has given you jurisdiction over your world--under His authority, of course. He wants you, not sin, demonic powers, negative circumstances, or any other outside force to govern it. ....
Even so, God doesn't want the devil or any of his agents ever
to sit on our chests.
The question of who's in control is a governmental issue. We
often think of government only in its civil sense, but Webster's
defines govern as "to direct and control; to regulate by
authority; to influence; to direct; to restrain; to steer or
regulate the course of; to exercise authority; to maintain the
superiority."
To exercise authority is to govern. Praying with authority, therefore, is "governmental intercession." So in essence, this is a book about government--not politics, but prayer! Politicians and government officials legislate through man-made laws and rulings. We legislate through spiritual laws, principles, and activities.
One of Scripture's primary themes is governmental authority. The primary biblical struggle is over the questions "Who will rule humankind?" and "Who will rule the world?" We will see as we progress that the answer to the first determines the answer to the second--yes, in many ways the war is about you and me and who we listen to--we are going to help answer the question of who is in charge of the earth. In this earthly war over who is going to rule it, you and your double-billed cap are caught right in the middle!
Excerpted from Authority in Prayer: Praying with Power and Purpose
by Dutch Sheets, copyright © 2006; ISBN 0764201808. Published
by Bethany House Publishers.
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