By Jonathan Shieh

When I first became a believer, I didn’t know anything about the authority of the believer. What I did know is that Jesus asked us to “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature” (Mk 16:15). Jesus then continued to tell us to cast out demons and heal the sick by laying on of hands.

Great! That sounds so exciting! I want to cast out demons! I want to see the sick get healed! I want to see the miracles of God!

But you know what? As much as I would like to see these miracles, my past experiences immediately rose up and stopped me. “That’s impossible. Why would someone get healed just because I put my hand on them? I don’t have any miraculous healing powers like Jesus! And I certainly don’t know anything about demons!”

Unfortunately, this mentality tends to stick with us even as we grow and get to know God better. Even when we have seen and experienced God’s power in these ways, sometimes we still have difficulty mustering up the courage to actually lay our hands on someone and pray for them!

A simple explanation of authority

There is a place in the bible where authority is spoken of plainly.

Matthew 8:5-10

“Lord, my servant is lying at home paralyzed, dreadfully tormented.” Now when Jesus had entered Capernaum, a centurion came to Him, pleading with Him, And Jesus said to him, “I will come and heal him.”.The centurion answered and said, “Lord, I am not worthy that You should come under my roof. But only speak a word, and my servant will be healed. For I also am a man under authority, having soldiers under me. And I say to this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and to another, ‘Come,’ and he comes; and to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” When Jesus heard it, He marveled, and said to those who followed, “Assuredly, I say to you, I have not found such great faith, not even in Israel!”

Here, Jesus meets a person who knows and understands authority. A centurion is an officer in the Roman army, which commands a unit of 100 men. When this particular centurion looks at Jesus and saw Him casting demons “with a word”, he recognized something! It’s authority! It’s what the centurion uses everyday. A command is issued, and it is done.

So then if that’s how Jesus performs healings, the centurion realized that Jesus doesn’t even have to come to his house! “Just say the word! I know it will be done! That’s how authority works!” Jesus commended him. No. Jesus marveled at him and said He has not met anyone among the God-chosen people with such great faith.

The disciples of Jesus were probably standing very close by. Peter, James, and John and all the others followed Jesus day-in and day-out. They saw Jesus perform miracle after miracle. They should be living and breathing miracles. And yet, Jesus often rebuked them for their lack of faith and their unbelief. Imagine how the disciples of Jesus must have felt when He made that comment.

What’s the difference between the centurion and the disciples? What makes one of “great faith” while the other of “little faith”? Jesus helps us make a connection here. A clear understanding of authority gave the centurion certain insight that resulted in what Jesus called “great faith”. And indeed, the understanding about authority, will help us receive healing, as is the case in this scripture. But more than that, it will help us to begin to move into ministering to others supernaturally, as Jesus has commanded us to do.

There is so much more to say about authority. We’ve only laid the foundation for a continuing discussion so far. Now, we can continue speaking about authority along the line of a centurion. But that seems a little far-fetched and distant from us. How many times have you seen a centurion anyway?

But I’ll bet you’ve seen a policeman… Let’s leave that until next time though.