撒督牧師：醫治教導第一講
The Authority of a Believer 1-3/8
Our gracious and loving Heavenly Father, we come before your holy presence in the name of Lord Jesus Chris this evening.
Lord Jesus, one day as you are praying, your disciples came and asked you Lord, teach us to pray. Because they saw
that great power followed when you prayed, and you taught them how to pray, and that became the foundation of their lives,
and prayer became the foundation of the early church and the New Testament Church. Now we ask you to teach us,
that every person in this church who gathers here will learn how to minister prayer, in Jesus name we pray. Amen!
- What is a church?
Many people do not understand what is church. The church is not a social club, the church is not a club where you become a member. There are so many clubs in the world. If you become a member you can use a squash court, play tennis, go to their gym, use swimming pool. These facilities are available there. Many people has this kind of mentality
when they join the church.
- Why Join the church?
When you are sick the pastor will visit us. When we can’t sleep we can call the pastor for prayer. I am telling you the truth, people do like that to me.
Once one lady called me at 12 midnight, she said:
“Pastor Sadhu, please pray for me.”
I asked, “For what? ”
“I cannot sleep, If you pray God will hear you prayer and make me sleep”This kind of simple, simple things.If there is a dead, the pastor will conducts the ceremony. These are not the reasons why we go to the church.If you have this kind of thoughts in your mind, you need to change your thoughts. The church is a ministering church, not only the pastor does the work of God, but every member, Amen. This was the purpose and the will of God. That every member in the church, big member, small member, young member, old member. Every body does some ministries
You know my family as I tell you I have 4 nephews and 2 nieces. So whenever we have a family prayer meeting, I train my little nephews to pray. So one day in our family prayer my father was having chest pains , he requested prayer.
So I called my little nephew. He was at that time 5 years old.
I said,”Jacob now you prayed for granddad.” So he was scared.
He say, “Uncle I do not how to pray.”
So I told him, “Don’t worry Jacob. Do you remember how uncle used to pray?” He was trying to think for a while.
“Just rebuke the sickness!” That’s all I said.
He said, “Ok, uncle, let me try.”
So he came near his grand father, put his little hand on my father’s chest and he asked everybody to close eyes. He said, “In the name of Jesus I rebuke the breathing.”
If the breathing is rebuke what would happened? I got a big shock! So God knows what this little boy meant. But you see God heard the prayer, and breathing problem my father had was instantly gone. So the little boy was so excited. You see God hears his prayer, Amen.
Whoever you are, whether you have a big faith or a small faith, When you sincerely pray, God hears the prayer, Amen.
The New Testament Church has been given authority, by the Lord Jesus Christ.
Matthew chapter 28: 18 to 20
Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”
- What is that authority?
Mark chapter 16: 15 to 18
He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation.
Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned. And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all;
they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.”
Matthew 28:18
There the Lord Jesus says:” I have all authorities.”
When Jesus Christ died on the cross, he broke all the power of the devil.Whatever the power the devil has, he took it. And now he said I have the authority, and he said I give you the authority.
Now look at Mark16: 17 -18 says:
You shall cast out demons, you shall speak with new tongues that is the ability to talk with God. And you shall take up serpents. If you drink any deadly poison by accident you will not be killed, and you shall lay hands on the sick and sick will be healed
So many times we pray:” Lord Jesus please go and heal him!”
Have you pray like that? That is wrong prayer.
And many times we pray:” Lord please ask demons to go away!”
Have you pray like that? That is wrong prayer.
- Why wrong prayer?
Because Lord Jesus says you heal the sick, not you pray that Jesus Chris to heal the sick.
In our first study I am laying the ground work. So Lord said: cast out demon in my name! You do the job.Not you pray to ask the Lord Jesus to do the job.
See the Bible says:
“If you drink the deadly thing it will not harm you.”
It doesn’t say the Lord Jesus drink the dead poison it harms you. Now this is where we need to change our mind. The church has been given authority, this thought must go into our hearts.
I am the church.I have been given authority.You have the authority.But now you are just moving your lips because I am saying it.Now remember one thing.It will not work if you don’t believe in your heart. If what you are hearing in your ears doesn’t sink in your heart it will not work.
You cannot be continuously relying on visiting preachers.The pastor alone cannot do all the jobs. He will die very soon. Then you all must share the work. You know this is what Moses’ father-in-law told him. Moses’ father-in-law came to visit him. He saw Moses sitting on the chair from morning up to the evening. One by one people come to him for problems.
When I have been in India. Once a month I met people who want to see me for prayers to come and visit from 9 o’clock in the morning up to 8 o’clock at night. I never leave my chair. This is no exaggeration! I cannot leave my chair.
One after the other people came for prayers. Sometimes we did it for 3 days, I only get to eat my dinner after 8 pm, no lunch. So my staff for every 2 hours they bring me a big cup of tea, so tea is my only food.
This was Moses’ problem. So his father-in-law told him. If you continue doing like this, Moses, my son, you will die. You cannot do like this.
Select some leaders, give them authorities. All the smaller problems give them deal with it. The big cases you handle them. So when Moses did like that, he continued to live for 120 years.
So the responsibility is the church.
Remember this you have been given authority, you must believe this in your heart. If you do not believe this, the devil has authority over you. If you believe this, the devil has no power over you.
This is the secret.
Now the same authority the Lord Jesus Christ gave to the disciples.
Look at Matthew chapter 10. After training them for a few 1 or 2 years, he wanted to give them some practical experience. So he call his disciples to come closer to him, gave them a long teaching.Then he said one by one come here. He laid his hands upon them
Matthew 10:1
He called his twelve disciples to him and gave them authority to drive out evil spirits and to heal every disease and sickness.
You see He gave them power, he gave them authority. To cast out spirits and to heal all kind of sickness and diseases.
Matthew 10:7-8
As you go, preach this message: ‘The kingdom of heaven is near.’ Heal the sick, raise the dead, cleanse those who have leprosy, drive out demons. Freely you have received, freely give.
Look at verse 8. The Lord Jesus press them to do 4 things:
Number 1, heal the sick.
Number 2, cleanse the lepers. Every kind of unclean diseases, cleanse them.
Thirdly, raise the dead.
Fourthly, cast out demons.
4 things they were told to do.
In Luke chapter 10. Another time he sent out 70 disciples. He gave them same power and authority, when they went out.
- How successful were they?
- Did they fail, or were they successful?
- What happened to them?
Luke 10:17
The seventy-two returned with joy and said, “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.”
They all returned with joy.Which means they were successful. Because they were successful, they were joyful. If they had failed they will be very sad. So they came and told Jesus: Jesus do you know what happened? The demons were running away when we say Jesus, and this is the power they experienced. Whatever you read in the bible, you can also do the same thing.
I tell you one truth,from the smallest demon to the biggest demon. They are actually afraid of you. This is the truth I tell you. In the 25 years of my ministry, I have been seeing all kind of demons. Indian demons, Chinese demons, western demons, actually the demon is the same.
When they go to India, they dress Indian clothes. When they go to Hong Kong, they wear long shirts. When they go to Taiwan, they wear Chinese cloths. When they come to America, they wear business suits or jeans. But the demons are the same everywhere, no change.
So I tell you one truth. Remember in your heart, from the smallest demon to the largest demon, they are afraid of you. If this is true then why are we afraid of the demons? It is because you do not know the authority. Because you do not know your authority, the demons knock you down, because you are running away. But if you stand to fight, the demon will run. This is the truth. So don’t be afraid.
So the early church were given authority. Look at Acts chapter 4, Now we are going down step by step. First I share with you the disciples were given authority
by the Lord Jesus. After the Lord Jesus Christ arose from the dead, when the disciples started the first church.
- How did they exercise the authority?
Acts 4:33
With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and much grace was upon them all.
With great power they gave witness, they were not just conducting the church service, with great power. They did not come every Sunday, then they have half an hour worship, then they collect offering, then the pastor preaches a message, then everybody shakes each other hands, then go back home. No, they do not do just that, every Sunday and every meeting there was power.
- What kind of power?
Acts 5:12-16