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Today's Man -- Entering Covenantal
Authority
Tracy M. Schellhorn
08-31-05
Today's Man -- Entering Covenantal Authority
While it is still called today, we must encourage one another.
(Hebrews 3:13) Our destinies are tied up in one another, and yet
we run from that understanding. After all, most of us have been
hurt and reviled by our fellow brethren, and trusting in anyone
again is not a risk we are willing to take.
However, to enter into the promises of this day, which is a
transitional period into tomorrow, we must enter in with
"covenantal authority."
The entire Gospel message is based on the authority of God's
covenant. Do we really think that we can stand, personally, on
anything less when the foundation of our faith lies in covenant?
God's covenant is one that God made with man and sealed in blood
– the blood of His Son. To be a partaker of the divine nature,
we must accept the terms of that covenant, including the
sacrifice that seals it.
We spend much of our time trying to earn God's and man's
approval, when all that has already been settled. With the
covenant of blood, upon which our salvation is based, we are
already approved – was, is and is to come.
In reverse, we also spend a great deal of our time approving or
disapproving God's workmanship – His ways and deeds as well as
His people.
In so doing, we disavow the blood. The entire covenant, and all
its promises, is sure because of the pure and undefiled blood of
the Son of the Living God, Jesus.
Therefore, our covenant with God brings with it the authority of
God. There is nothing more powerful than the blood of Jesus, and
through our covenant with God based on that blood, we are
partakers of His nature – the power, the authority, the love.
Jesus said that all power had been given Him both in heaven and
on earth. Therefore, through covenant, that same power and
authority has been given us.
"Well, if that's so, then why am I not seeing a display of His
power in my life," you might say.
That's a good question, and one I'd also like answered. I do
believe, however, that part of the answer lies in understanding
covenant.
In the days when covenant was more widely understood, when two
people entered into covenant with one another, everything that
was at one's disposal became the property of and at the disposal
of the other party, and vice versa. The two actually became one.
Like with the marriage covenant. Some families even joined their
names together as a sign of their covenant.
If my father made a covenant with a neighbor, then everyone and
everything in my father's house was now covenanted together with
that neighbor, and the same was true of the neighbor's house.
The premise is that the two are stronger together than apart. As
scripture says, one can put a thousand to flight, but two can
put ten thousand to flight! Joining together brings forth the
power of multiplication.
Now, if the neighbor's son was a real stick-in-the-mud, and I
didn't really like him or want to be around him, I would still
be expected to honor my father's covenant with his father. If I
did not honor and stand by this "difficult" son, then I would
not be honoring my father's covenant or his name and would bring
shame upon him and his house.
We don't think much about honor in the western culture, but
civilization, even in the early formation of this country, was
built on honor. A man's word was, and is, an extension of
himself. Not just business transactions but virtually every
aspect of life was based upon honoring one's word and
reputation.
Today, we are not honoring our Christian brethren and are
therefore bringing shame upon our Father's house. He has made a
covenant with each of us, but when we fail to recognize His
covenant with another or honor that covenant, we have breeched a
contract.
For us to truly walk in the power and authority of Jesus and
fulfill the great commission, we must embrace our covenantal
responsibilities to one another. This was so important that
Jesus spent a long discourse just prior to His death discussing
this with His Father.
Here is an excerpt of that discourse:
John 17: 20 -23
"I do not ask in behalf of these alone, but for those also who
believe in Me through their word; that they may all be one; even
as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that they also may be
in Us; that the world may believe that Thou didst send Me. And
the glory which Thou hast given Me I have given to them that
they may be one, just as We are One. I in them, and Thou in Me,
that they may be perfected in unity, that the world may know
that Thou didst send Me, and didst love them, even as Thou didst
love Me.
". . . that they may be one, just as We are One . . ." – the two
becoming one; that's covenant!
The Lord is manifesting His love through His Church, and with
that love comes power and authority, but the true authority lies
in the covenant that God established when the Lamb was slain
before the foundation of the world. Perhaps, with the promise of
power and authority dangling before us like a carrot, we will
take the time to study, meditate on and inquire of the Lord
about His covenant and how we are to enter into the covenantal
authority of brotherhood that He has established and shed His
blood to achieve.
Thy Kingdom come, Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.
Selah.
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