Category: one with Jesus

You Have Authority

At the very end of the Gospel of Mark (Mark 16:16-17), after Jesus’ resurrection and before He ascends to Our Father, we see Jesus giving His disciples final instructions.

Those Who Believe Shall Use My Authority

(16) Those who believe and are baptized will be saved. But those who refuse to believe will be condemned. (17) “And those who believe shall use My authority to cast out demons, and they shall speak new languages. (emphasis mine)

We see Jesus at His Last Supper, telling His disciples,

Anyone Believing in Me shall do the Same Miracles I Have Done, and Even Greater Ones

(John 14:12-13) “In solemn truth I tell you, anyone believing in Me shall do the same miracles I have done, and even greater ones, because I am going to be with the Father. You can ask Him for anything, using My Name, and I will do it, for this will bring praise to the Father because of what I, the Son, will do for you. (emphasis mine)

Let’s take a look at four more passages, that bring this truth to light.

He Spoke to the Fever

In Luke 4:39, we see Jesus speaking to Peter’s mother-in-law’s fever, (39) Standing at her bedside He spoke to the fever, rebuking it, and immediately her temperature returned to normal, and she got up and prepared a meal for them! (emphasis mine)

He Spoke to the Storm

In Luke 8:24, the disciples are out in the boat with Jesus, (24) They rushed over and woke him up. “Master, Master, we are sinking!” they screamed. So He spoke to the storm: “Quiet down,” He said, and the wind and waves subsided and all was calm! (emphasis mine)

And I Know You Have Authority to Tell His Sickness To Go – and it Will Go!

The Centurian knows it in (Matthew 8:8-9), Then the officer said, “Sir, I am not worthy to have You in my home; and it isn’t necessary for You to come. If you will only stand here and say, ‘Be healed,’ my servant will get well! I know, because I am under the authority of my superior officers and I have authority over my soldiers, and I say to one, ‘Go,’ and he goes, and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes, and to my slave boy, ‘Do this or that,’ and he does it. And I know you have authority to tell his sickness to go—and it will go!” (emphasis mine)

How They Praised God for Giving Such Authority to a Man

In Matthew (9:8), we see some men bringing a paralyzed man to Jesus. Jesus was amazed at their faith! (8) A chill of fear swept through the crowd as they saw this happen right before their eyes. How they praised God for giving such authority to a Man (Jesus)! (emphasis mine)

If we believe, we can, and we are to use His authority. We are to speak. We are to rebuke. Do we?

St John Eude’s Treatise

(Download a pdf copy)

I ask you to consider that our Lord Jesus Christ is your true head and that you are a member of his body. He belongs to you as the head belongs to the body. All that is his is yours: breath, heart, body, soul and all his faculties. All of these you must use as if they belonged to you, so that in serving him you may give him praise, love and glory. You belong to him as a member belongs to the head. This is why he earnestly desires you to serve and glorify the Father by using all your faculties as if they were his. He belongs to you, but more than that, he longs to be in you, living and ruling in you, as the head lives and rules in the body. He desires that whatever is in him may live and rule in you: his breath in your breath, his heart in your heart, all the faculties of his soul in the faculties of your soul, so that these words may be fulfilled in you: Glorify God and bear him in your body, that the life of Jesus may be made manifest in you.

You belong to the Son of God, but more than that, you ought to be in him as the members are in the head. All that is in you must be incorporated into him. You must receive life from him and be ruled by him. There will be no true life for you except in him, for he is the one source of true life. Apart from him you will find only death and destruction. Let him be the only source of your movements, of the actions and the strength of your life. He must be both the source and the purpose of your life, so that you may fulfill these words: None of us lives as his own master and none of us dies as his own master. While we live, we are responsible to the Lord, and when we die, we die as his servants. Both in life and death we are the Lord’s. That is why Christ died and came to life again, that he might be Lord of both the dead and the living.

Finally, you are one with Jesus as the body is one with the head. You must, then, have one breath with him, one soul, one life, one will, one mind, one heart. And he must be your breath, heart, love, life, your all. These great gifts in the follower of Christ originate from baptism. They are increased and strengthened through confirmation and by making good use of other graces that are given by God. Through the Holy Eucharist they are brought to perfection.