Let’s continue today with where we were last week in our discussion. We have a ways to go with these scriptures as a part of our foundations. Let’s explore the real cost of true authority. We are going to look at the lives of some individuals in Scripture who exercised the authority given them by God. That authority did not (and does not at any time in history or the present) come without cost.
We are really goimg to take a different direction today, and possibly next week as well. I want to talk today about how we access the authority of heaven and take the rulership over ourselves, events that take place in our lives, events that take place with friends, and events that occur in this country and around the world.
When I was growing up as a child in church, I used to hear folks pray for various needs. They’d pray for some family member or some other individual’s crisis and ask for the intervention of the Lord. Invariably, they’d tack on the phrase, “if it be your will,” or the Elizabethan, “if it be thy will.”
Years ago during the Charismatic Renewal there was a considerable amount of teaching on the Kingdom of God -- and specifically dealing with the Keys of the Kingdom and accessing the Authority that is available to believers.
Greetings and Salutations! Ready for the day? Good. Then pour yourself a cup of that good dark brew and let's pick up where we left off last week where we were talking about the initial rulings in the Good News Club case. At first, the Federal Judge hearing the case granted a preliminary injunction which allowed the Club to hold weekly after-school meetings in school facilities for a year, while awaiting trial. But trial never happened. Instead, in August 1998, the federal trial judge vacated the injunction and summarily ruled in favor the school district. The Club's subject matter was ruled "decidedly religious in nature, and not merely a discussion of secular matters from a religious perspective."As a result, the Club was kicked out of the building.
It was in 1980 or 1981 that I first became acquainted with Jay Sekulow. I had a brief guest appearance on the 700 Club on this occasion (I was heading up CBN's operations in Alaska at the time), and Jay was the primary guest. When I heard him talk about Law and the Constitution, everything inside me just leaped. Here was a man who had a real grasp of what our nation's founding fathers intended, a man who was more than just an astute attorney. Jay had an anointing from the Holy Spirit to go with his legal brilliance.
Let's see if we can finish up with a couple of Supreme Court decisions today -- decisions, that is, that took away more of our First Amendment guarantees to religious liberties in America. One thing that I think you will find interesting in this Coffee Break is a link to Justice William Rehnquist's argument in the Wallace v. Jaffree case; and I believe that many of you will find his (lengthy, but) complete argument very interesting reading. Here's the link: http://www.belcherfoundation.org/wallace_v_jaffree_dissent.htm
For the past twenty-nine weeks, we have dealt with this nation’s earliest founders, the covenant they made with each other, and the covenant they made with the Lord to establish a nation under God, a nation that would spread the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ around the world. We have talked about the fact that every one of the 13 colonies established the fact that their existence was due to the favor of God. The fact is that everyone of the 50 states that now exist pretty much followed the example of those first 13 colonies who began the formation of this nation.