Keys and Authority (July 13, 1996)

"Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades." (Rev 1:17)

Have you ever read this verse and through to yourself something along the lines of "Gee, I hope Jesus never loses His keys?" Of course we know that He has all authority and that being God, He would never lose anything He has been given. We can trust Him to keep us, just as He promised He would in John 6:38-40. All the same, being human and knowing how easily my own keys wander off from me, that though did cross my mind one day...

The Lord often speaks to me through object lessons, and He gave me an interesting one last night along those lines. I am a lay leader at my church and lead some meetings at my church. So I have a set of keys: one to get into the building, one to get into the office area and another one to get into the room where the sound equipment is stored. I need these keys to open the church and to get things ready for the meeting. Yesterday (Friday) was my turn to lead our Friday night renewal service. I had been in a car accident a few weeks prior and my car is still in the shop. So my husband dropped me off at the BART station (San Francisco's version of a subway) that morning to commute to work. My work is only 1.5 miles from the Church and I had arranged for a friend who attends the meetings to give me a ride home afterwards. I said goodbye to my hubby and got out of the car. Just after he drove off, I realized that I'd forgotten my keys at home. Ouch. Too late to flag him down. So I went on to work. But I was trying to figure out how I would handle this situation. Without keys, I would not be able to open up the building or to lock it up afterwards. I could not take a taxi home to get my keys since I didn't have a key to get into the house. So I was sorta of stuck without them. So I called the church and asked for one of the associate pastors. I mentioned how I forgot my keys and had the meeting to run and was not sure what to do. The bottom line was that they arranged to lend an extra set of keys for that evening and I should return on Sunday morning. All I had to do was to get to the church office before it closed to pick up the set of keys. I was releived that this was taken care of. I was surprised at how easy it was to borrow an extra set of keys. It turns out that it was easy to borrow them because I was on the list of people who were supposed to have them.

I had thought "Without my keys, I am nothing. I will not be able to get into the building and do my job." But it was not the keys that made me able to get into the building, it was having been granted the authority to be there. Even though I did not physically have my keys with me, I was granted the authority to be in the building and because of this authority, arrangements were made to enable me to be there.

Then the Lord began to speak to me. He showed me that having the keys was not the sign of "authority" to be in the church building. The keys themself were incidential (and easily replaced if forgotten or misplaced). It was the fact that I'd been granted authority that allowed me to have the keys. It was the authority that was significant, not the keys that represented this authority.

Likewise, in God's kingdom, it is our relationship and standing with God that counts, not our gifting. God grants us His authority in certain areas. Often manifestations (like keys) will follow ... things like seeing people miraculously get well if you have been granted the authority to heal, frequently seeing prayers answered if you have been granted authority in intercession, seeing folks saved if you have been granted authority in evangelism. The "key" to the whole thing is the Authority that God grants to us. Those things which accompany this authority (such as the set of keys to the church building) are incidential to the authority and are not the cause of it. And the Lord grants us that authority out of a deep commitment to Him and relationship to Him and desire to give Him Lordship in our lives -- out of a sincere commitment to live for Him and to honor and obey Him.

So, we are not to seek the manifestations of authority but to seek the one Who gives us that authority. The more we pour ourselves into following Him and being committed to His Lordship in our lives, the greater authority He will grant to us. Then the things that accompany the authority (like a release in the prophetic flow, signs and wonders, power and boldness, walking in His miraculous power, etc) will begin to happen in our day to day lives.

Blessings.

- teresa