Luke 22:24-30 says,

The Power of the Force

Chapter 10

Luke 22:24-30 says,

"And there was also a strife among them, which of them should be accounted the greatest. And he said unto them, The kings of the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; and they that exercise authority upon them are called benefactors. But ye shall not be so: but he that is greatest among you, let him be as the younger; and he that is chief, as he that doth serve."

Power is something that we all want more of but something that we all know so little about. The scriptures are full of references to the word "power". We must learn not only what true power is, but how to manifest it in our lives.

Jesus said in Acts 1:8,

“But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judeaand Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.”

What did Jesus mean when He said, “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you?”

The scripture mainly uses two Greek words to express the meaning of power. They are, Dunamis, #1411 in the Strong’s Concordance, and Exousia, #1849 in the Strong's Concordance. Most people are more familiar with the first word, Dunamis. This word has been discussed through various writings and teachings in the Charismatic move on the subject of God's power.

In Acts 8 the word ‘power’ is the Greek word ‘dunamis’, from which we get our word ‘dynamite’ and means, power, strength, violence. As you can see, the word Dunamis implies power as a force of miraculous power, and comes from the root word, Dunamai, which means to be able or possible. Dunamis deals with the ability to do miraculous things. Jesus was raised from the dead by Dunamis. Paul said in 1 Cor 6:14,

"And God has both raised up the Lord, and will also raise up us by his own power (dunamis)."

As you can see, dunamis is used when raw miraculous force is meant.

The second Greek word used for power is Exousia, and it is the most important one for us. Why, you may ask? Because it is the missing power of the body of Christ today. Look around you and you will see a powerless people. I'm not talking about muscles, I'm talking about authority, Exousia.

In Matt. 28:18 Jesus said,

“All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.”

The Greek word for ‘power’ in this verse is ‘exousia’ and means, authority, jurisdiction, liberty, power, right, strength. As a matter of fact the New International version says,

“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.”

Dunamis is strength, ability, might, Exousia is authority, freedom of action, right to act. The scripture says that there is only one source of dunamis. Rom13:1 "Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God." There is only one true dunamis, all other powers are controlled by God's dunamis. If there is any other miraculous force, it’s an invested power that has been given by the exouisa (authority) of God. Do not think that God has been thrown from His throne simply because there are other powers at work in the world?

We have resident within us all the dunamis of God that can ever be available. He dwells fully within us right now. It is impossible to get anymore of God in us than is in us at this precise moment. Every one of us is a container of the fullness of God and His dunamis. Paul said in Eph. 1:3,

"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ."

Exousia is the key to tapping into the reservoir of God's power in us. Exousia is dunamis expressed through authority given to us by God. The early church was given authority to operate the dunamis of God. It was an age of miracles and signs and wonders. The early church was filled with an ability to raise the dead, heal the sick, cast out devils, etc. Still, this early church was limited when it came to operating the authority and the right to act as God in the earth.

Acts 1:7 Jesus said,

“It is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set by his own authority.”(Exousia)

Authority was given to them to act through the dunamis of God, but not to act as God would act through His exousia (authority). The dunamis power of the early church was an "earnest", or a portion, of God's authority. It was not given to them to know the "times" and the "seasons" which the Father had locked up into His exousia.

This is the crux of the problem that we face today. We want power, but it seems that everyone has their attention on the miraculous power that has been displayed in the charismatic movement. You should be aware that there is another form of power that is coming to us and it is not a force of ability and might, but it is a power that invests us with authority and the right to act as God would act in the earth! It is His dunamis unleashed by an authority that heaven and earth obeys!

We are being faced with things in this day that cannot be defeated by brute strength. It is not even a matter of strength, since we know that God is able to defeat our every foe. The crucial element here is not whether God is able, but is it His time to place this enemy into our hands?

In the Old Testament David would ask the Lord and if the Lord said He had delivered the enemy into David's hand then David went up against the enemy. If the Lord said don't go up, they waited for the authority of God to be given before they acted.

We who are faced with so many things this day must know what the Lord says about these circumstances. We must first know that we are chosen administrators of His power and that we have been destined to carry out the acts of God.

Jesus had dunamis, but He also had exousia. Dunamis delivered Him from death, exousia gave Him authority over it for eternity, and allowed Him to give this dunamis to others that believed on His name.

In Luke 10 Jesus sent his 72 of His disciples on a limited commission and said to them,

⁸“When you enter a town and are welcomed, eat what is set before you. ⁹Heal the sick who are there and tell them, ‘The kingdom of God is near you.’ ¹⁰But when you enter a town and are not welcomed, go into its streets and say, ¹¹‘Even the dust of your town that sticks to our feet we wipe off against you. Yet be sure of this: The kingdom of God is near.’ ¹²I tell you, it will be more bearable on that day for Sodom than for that town…….“He who listens to you listens to me; he who rejects you rejects me; but he who rejects me rejects him who sent me.”

The results of the 72 having been given authority by Jesus is recorded in Luke 10:17-20,

“The seventy returned again with joy, saying, Lord, even the devils are subject unto us through

thy name. And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven. Behold, I give unto

you power (exousia) to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power (dunamis) of the

enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you. Notwithstanding in this rejoice not, that the spirits are subject unto you; but rather rejoice, because your names are written in heaven.”

Jesus gave them the "right to act" against all the "force, might, and ability" of the enemy, but they are not to rejoice in this, but rather that they have their names written in heaven. There is a key to the kingdom that Jesus wants to hand over to us. It is certain that such power displayed by the seventy disciples was the best thing that had happened as yet, since Jesus says that He saw Satan fall from heaven as lightning. However, I don’t believe it was because of the miracles themselves, but because He had proven that God had given Him the authority to empower others with the same authority He had. What I believe that Jesus was warning them over was the thinking that what they were doing is enough. It is not! I thank the Lord for every miracle he has ever performed, but I still see the need for a much more far-reaching power than the healing of the sick, or even the raising of the dead.

I believe that there are a company of people in our midst, right this very hour, that are being clothed with an exousia that will cause the very foundations of hell itself to shake and crumble!

There is an authority that is coming upon that will do more than just heal the natural body, but the death process itself will be halted and death will be no more. I am not able to rejoice today, as some do, content to receive just an earnest of the full redemption that God has promised to us.

The day has come when this process of clothing ourselves in the authority of Jesus Christ will be matured and fulfilled and then we will not pray to the Lord, but we will speak as He would speak, with EXOUSIA!! Dunamis is waiting to be released by a people who have been commissioned with an order from the supreme commander of our faith. The chain of command is being set up and we are being given an insignia of His nature. It is this "mark" that Paul said he carried in his body, the dying of the Lord Jesus Christ. However, we will carry the "mark" of His resurrection!

Rev 20:6 says,,

“Blessed and holy are those who have part in the first resurrection. The second death has no power over them, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with him for a thousand years.”

This insignia, or uniform, of resurrection will be recognized by every other power and authority. There are powers that exist that are evil and work the works of destruction and mayhem. The problem at hand is that we are seeing too many ministers of the New Covenant get themselves entangled with these displays of evil dunamis. I am specifically speaking of the practice of casting out of evil spirits. That realm is certainly there if you want to get involved with it. However, I don’t believe those that toy with that realm understand the true dunamis that operates behind the scenes. The enemy is like a snake that wants it’s enemy to attack its tail and not it’s head. If you ever get hold of the real thing, you better know that you have authority to deal with it.

In my opinion, the majority of the demonic demonstrations in the church is not true demonic dunamis, but a combination of psychic powers and other powers that we need to be taught more about. The point I want to make is that we are still operating out of a Pentecostal view of what deliverance and escape from bondage is. I don’t care how many times you spit up, if the dunamis of the enemy is not overcome by a clothing of God’s exousia upon you, there will be a returning to bondage. There is a deliverance in our midst, but it won’t be done in a deliverance service, it will be done in heaven.

Paul said in Eph 6:12,

“For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers (exousia), against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.”

The enemy not only has dunamis, the ability to do evil, but he also has exousia, the right to do evil. Paul said in Eph 2:2,

“Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this

world (age), according to the prince of the power (exousia) of the

air, the spirit that now works in the children of disobedience:”

The Greek word for prince in this verse means "first in rank". In John 19:10-11

Pilate said to Jesus,

“Do you refuse to speak to me?” Pilate said. “Don’t you realize I have power either to free you or to crucify you?”

¹¹Jesus answered, “You would have no power over me if it were not given to you from above. Therefore the one who handed me over to you is guilty of a greater sin.”

It is not a matter of strength, good against evil, but one of authority and permission. It is not a matter of whether or not you have enough faith to gain life, it is a matter of permission being granted.

Rev 22:12-14 says,

“Behold, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to everyone according to what he has done. ¹³I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End. ¹⁴“Blessed are those who wash their robes, that they may have the right to the tree of life and may go through the gates into the city.

I know that we are products of a society and age that wants quick, simple answers to all of our problems. The truth of the matter is that the answer to our problems can be much more complicated than we have been led to believe by the present church system. "Just believe God!" the preachers of this age proclaim. "No one has to be sick, we are healed by His stripes" is the standard confession.

What do you do when this doesn’t work for you? Some of us have quoted scripture until we turn blue in the face, we have followed all of the formulas and rituals of deliverance, and we are not changed. Could it be that we need to hear God and wait on the answer? Could it be that life is not so simple that some would make it sound? All we have viewed is things black and white, but I do believe that there are some gray areas that need to be defined and expressed.

The Apostle Paul was caught up to the third heavens and heard and saw things that were not legal for him to relate to others. Indeed, there was given to him a thorn in his flesh, a messenger of satan to buffet him. That thorn had exousia over Paul, since he prayed for it to be removed 3 times and it was not. Paul claimed it was sent to keep him from getting too exalted in revelation. The important thing is that Paul certainly had enough dunamis to deliver himself from this thorn, but he didn’t have the authority.

We will begin to walk in authority and empowerment. I am confident that God will give us wisdom in the matters of this age of all ages, and we will operate as priests of God, binding things in heaven, and seeing them bound in earth, freeing things in heaven and seeing them freed in earth.

The fact of the matter is, with all of our revelation, we are still dealing with the same problems that the rest of the world is dealing with. Sexual promiscuity, lying, cheating, wife beating, child molestation, homosexuality, all of these things are in our midst. Are we going to keep them swept under the rug? Maybe we should start holding deliverance services in all our churches and deliver the saints of God from all these demons. Who shall we start with first? I know! Let’s start with the pastor. How about the song leader? The fact is, you could line every one of us up and pray for us until we felt delivered, but the hard truth is that we would more than likely go back and pick those things up again. Dunamis cannot do it by itself. Life’s battles don’t always go to the stronger or faster man; but sooner or later the man who wins is the fellow who thinks he can."

Knowledge is power. The more you know about something, the more power you have over it. The enemy prospers under falsehood and superstitions. Truth strips off the disguise and reveals the masquerade at hand. I am not saying that evil does not have true power, because it does. I am saying, however, that for those of us who are ready to believe God to lead us into new and living ways of life, must recognize our own destiny. If the early church only received a down payment of power, then we must know that we are being prepared to know the times and seasons of His kingdom. We must know what God has given us authority to act upon and what the Lord has told us to leave alone. This is and will be the hardest test for us.

This is a very complicated realm. It is not so complicated when you only deal with healing the sick and the gifts of the spirit, but when you deal with the matters of good and evil, life and death, powers and principalities, thrones and rulers, kingdoms and dominions, times and seasons, dunamis and exousia, things get very complex and can overlap into confusing no man lands. It is in this realm that death is sometimes life and life can become death. Dunamis is dunamis no matter who is operating it.

As we into areas that no man has walked before, we must understand that this is the place where God operates. His throne of dominion and dunamis stands in the center of it all. Paul said so eloquently said in Colossians 1:16,

“For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers (exousia): all things were created by him, and for him:

Never, ever, lose sight of the fact that these things were created not only by God, but FOR Him. God has something to prove. He alone has true dunamis. He establishes thrones and He pulls them down. He appoints rulers and He ends their rule. He alone has life, and He alone has the power to give life, or to take it.

Jesus said in Luke 12:4-5,

“I tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more. ⁵But I will how you whom you should fear: Fear him who, after the killing of the body, has power to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him.”

Jesus also said in John 10:17-18,

“The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life—only to take it up again. ¹⁸No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have authority to lay it down and authority to take it up again. This command I received from my Father.”

We don’t have the dunamis in ourselves to lay our life down, but God has given us the exousia to lay it down, and the exousia to take it again. Behold, I am he that was dead, and now I live forevermore! Not by might, not by power (dunamis), but by God’s spirit. No man is taking this life. No religious practice, or doctrine or creed can make me lay my life down, only by the saving grace of our Lord can we have the "right" to lay it down.

God has given to us His exousia to live eternally. Nothing in this world, no principality or power or angel or devil can separate us from the love of our God. We are laying our lives down willingly. Our knee is bent only to our one and true potentate, the Lord Jesus Christ. He has empowered us, given us His vesture dipped in blood. His banner flies over us, we wear His life as a robe of honor, He has placed a crown of life on our head. Somewhere in us, beneath this dusty exterior, there is a scepter, a rod of iron that will break the nations, both visible and invisible. We simply MUST put on incorruption. Nothing can stop us. Not even ourselves. We have no power to stop the plan of God from being fulfilled. No force on earth or in heaven can stand against His divine will and purpose for creation.

When God is ready for a people to die entirely to self and to live in Him, we will have no recourse but to live! His determination is unquenchable, His will unrestrainable. It is God that is working in us. Phil 2:13 "For it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do of his good pleasure". We are empowered by the authority that was so magnificently displayed in that first Son. Col 2:13-15,

“And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath he quickened together with him, having forgiven you all trespasses; blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross; and having spoiled principalities and powers (exousia), he made a show of them openly, triumphing over them in it.”

Jesus knew His hour had come. He defied death and the grave and all of the ordinances that held His brethren in chains, and made an open display of their inferior authority when measured against His right to be Saviour of all men. May we also realize our hour is come.