06.09 | Storms, Snakes & Sickness
Acts 27:27-28:10
‘His father was sick in bed, suffering from fever and dysentery. Paul went in to see him and, after prayer, placed his hands on him and healed him.
Acts 28:8
How different the Church would be if we better understood our authority.
Authority is a great theme of the Scriptures—often implied and yet, frequently in the ministry of Jesus, explicit. Put very simply, authority is the right to use power. It is permission to influence. It is not the same thing as ownership—for you can be given authority over something that you do not own. Neither is it the same as power, for authority may give you the right to use the power of another. But authority is essential territory for Christian understanding.
We see authority first in Eden, as the all-mighty Creator over everything delegates responsibility to humankind. He invites them to rule1 over the creation—stewarding it, caring for it, naming it, harnessing its potential. For God does not create minions, but participants. He did not create slaves, but rulers. We see authority in the great leaders of the Old Testament, advancing the cause of God within the measure of their obedience. We see it in Elijah calling a drought upon the land or Elisha raising the dead. We see it as the heroes of the faith learn that the God they follow invites them to become participants in unleashing His rule and reign into the earth.
We see it in the ministry of Jesus—emptied of all the inherent power of being God, and yet unleashing the power of God in word and action—rebuking the demonic, dispelling sickness, re-establishing worship, interpreting the Scriptures. We see the disciples, stumbling their way into learned authority, as Jesus restores them in stumbling steps into restoring the created intent of God in their lives.
And, today, we see it again in Paul. As the storm continues to batter their boat—cold winds and driving rains—we see this prisoner increasingly becoming the leader of this expedition. It is he who stops the sailors escaping on the lifeboats. It is he who gets them all to eat. It is he who hosts this final meal on the ship. It is his actions that lead to the lightening of the ship. It is he who visits the chief of Malta. It is he who rebukes the fever from his father. And it is all of this that leads to the mass healing of many illnesses upon the island. The Kingdom of God has come near once again. And how?
Authority.
Paul has learned his delegated right to use the power of God to change the course of history.
What stirs in you as you read these things? The Scriptures present us with a mirror for our self-examination.
Too quickly, I go to critical introspection. My life doesn’t look like this. I don’t feel confident. I’d rather hide. This feels unattainable. I tried and it didn’t work.
I get it.
And yet, my friends, further up and further in. The invitation onwards is always about the next step, and not the one twenty years from now. It is about progress, not perfection. Stumbling feet still carry you up the mountain. Growth in understanding that the Father gives us authority is the slow and steady learning that we do not stand powerless before storms and snakes, fear and fevers—for the God of all power is inviting our growth into a people who learn to stand in such authority that declares Enough to the darkness and welcomes the light.
Begin with Him. Authority overflows from intimacy, and Kingdom power always flows from love.
Reflect:
What chaos is God asking you to stand against today, in prayer, or word, or action?
What peace is God asking you to bring into being today?
Pray:
Father,
You made me
To rule:
It was not a rule that happens
By myself—
In the hollow perversions of egotistical independence;
It was a rule that overflows
From intimacy—
From knowing your heart,
And loving your way—
That we may together
Dispel darkness,
And bring peaceful beauty
Into all kinds of chaos.
And so,
Today,
I step up,
And I give you this life again,
That I may learn what goodness you desire to release through me—
Unto salvation from storm,
And guidance for the floundering,
And healing of pain—
That the reign of Jesus,
May grow in me,
And be increased through my life.
For all authority is His,
In the power of His Name,
Amen
Old Testament:
For those also reading the Old Testament this year, your additional readings are here:
Job 40-42 | Proverbs 23:4-9
Genesis 1:26