The Covenant Authority
The Blood Covenant
Week 1: The Covenant Ceremony
Week 2: Davidic Covenant
Week 3: The New Covenant
Week 4: Covenant Authority
Week 5: Covenant Warfare
What is a covenant?
The Hebrew word for covenant is berith or b’rit, which simply means “to cut, to bind together in obligation.” It is used nearly 300 times in Scripture and comes from the root word meaning “to cut”.
We covered the Covenant Ceremony last Sunday.
- Exchange of Outer Garments
- Exchange of Belts
- Exchange of Weapons
- Sacrificial Animal’s Cut
- Walk of Death
- Mark on the Body
- Blessings and Curses
- Covenant Meal
- Exchange of Names
There is a difference between a contract and covenant. Let’s go through some basic layouts.
Contract involves promises.
Covenant involves oaths.
Contracts involve part of your life.
Covenant involves all of your life.
Contracts has expiration dates
Covenants are till death.
Contracts are written in ink
Covenants are made in blood.
Contracts are enforced by courts
Covenants are reinforced by your character
In a contract, you sign your name
In a covenant, you bind your heart.
Now there are two types of Ancient Covenants.
Parity and Suzerain
A parity covenant is a mutual agreement or partnership between two parties of equal status.
SO, if Mr. Donald and I entered into a covenant, we are equals and whatever belongs to him now belongs to me and vice versa.
Then there is what was the Suzerain covenant. A covenant between a dominate power and a lesser power.
That’s when one person has everything and the other one has nothing. A king who has everything and a slave that has nothing. So the king is saying to the servant that you are going to have access to my kingdom.
The slave says, well what do I bring? I have nothing to give.
And King says, yes all I want is you.
This morning, we are going to walk through COVENANT AUTHORITY.
We know in contracts and such that we have rights…under the covenant we have promises. We have exchanged all of these things but what does that really mean??
How do we take the covenant teaching and apply it to our lives?
The purpose of the church is to continue what Jesus started…
IF we are going to do that we need to understand authority.
Luke 10:19 NKJV
19 Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you.
He said this to seventy Christians that had been believers for less than 3 years, and yet He sent them out to change the world.
Let’s hold on to that and read this:
Matthew 8:5-13 NLT
5 When Jesus returned to Capernaum, a Roman officer came and pleaded with him, 6 “Lord, my young servant lies in bed, paralyzed and in terrible pain.”
7 Jesus said, “I will come and heal him.”
8 But the officer said, “Lord, I am not worthy to have you come into my home. Just say the word from where you are, and my servant will be healed. 9 I know this because I am under the authority of my superior officers, and I have authority over my soldiers. I only need to say, ‘Go,’ and they go, or ‘Come,’ and they come. And if I say to my slaves, ‘Do this,’ they do it.”
10 When Jesus heard this, he was amazed. Turning to those who were following him, he said, “I tell you the truth, I haven’t seen faith like this in all Israel!
Now watch what Jesus says…unrelated to what is happening.
11 And I tell you this, that many Gentiles (those outside of Israel and outside the covenant at this point)
will come from all over the world—from east and west—and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob at the feast in the Kingdom of Heaven. (this is the Abrahamic Covenant and the blessing this covenant brings)
13 Then Jesus said to the Roman officer, “Go back home. Because you believed, it has happened.” And the young servant was healed that same hour.
There is a direct relationship between Faith and Authority.
Jesus says this when he said, “I tell you the truth, I haven’t seen faith like this in all Israel.” (Not even among the covenant children who are supposed to understand the covenant)
The key is learning how to live by faith and understanding our authority in Christ.
To understand authority, we must trace it back to the beginning…
Genesis 1:26
26 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; let them have dominion (some translations say rule or reign) over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”
Having received “dominion” or “authority” means that God gives you rule over something that isn’t yours. That same word is used for “steward” or “stewardship”.
Mankind has responsibility over something that isn’t ours.
WE inherently know the difference when we borrow someone’s car or manage someone’s else money. We are more careful because we know we are responsible….
The point is that we steward or have authority over it.
Psalms 8:4-6 NLT
what are mere mortals that you should think about them,
human beings that you should care for them?
5 Yet you made them only a little lower than God
and crowned them with glory and honor.
6 You gave them charge of everything you made,
putting all things under their authority—
As this scripture shows, God gave mankind significant authority.
LOST AUTHORITY
However, when Adam fell in the Garden of Eden, mankind lost the authority to Satan.
But let me ask you? What does Godly authority look like? How would Adam been able to resist the Serpent?
God models His authority:
Genesis 1:3, 6,9,11,14,20,26,29 and the scriptures read,
AND GOD SAID…
God that we serve just doesn’t think things into existence;
He spoke them.
Now think about that…what He said still reigns true.
Hebrews 11:3 NKJV
3 By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.
We are made in God’s image and thus our words, especially as Christians have spiritual authority.
Words have authority in the realm of the Spirit. Like seeds, they are planted, and we reap the harvest—good or bad.
The Bible says:
Proverbs 18:21 New Living Translation
21 The tongue can bring death or life;
those who love to talk will reap the consequences.
The implications are enormous—especially with those with authority. We exert our authority by speaking it.
Consider
Luke 17:5-6 NKJV
5 And the apostles said to the Lord, “Increase our faith.”
6 So the Lord said, “If you have faith as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, ‘Be pulled up by the roots and be planted in the sea,’ and it would obey you.
Is Jesus trying to teach the disciples how to prune trees? No
He is giving them the key to His kingdom, the Covenant Authority.
Let’s look at this in context:
3 Take heed to yourselves. If your brother sins against you, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him. 4 And if he sins against you seven times in a day, and seven times in a day returns to you, saying, ‘I repent,’ you shall forgive him.”
Is that difficult to do??? Forgive?
So, Jesus proceeded to talk about mustard seeds and mulberry tress, the disciples knew exactly what He meant. He wasn’t concerned with the seeds and trees at all—he was speaking about forgiveness.
When someone wrongs us numerous times, we have an option; we either let it sink roots of bitterness into our hearts or we renounce bitterness.
Jesus said that in such moments, we don’t need “more” faith- we simple need to exercise the faith we have by SPEAKING…
In Jesus’ Name I renounce the spirit of bitterness.
Our response has results because we speak from covenant authority.
God created us to be COVENANT CHILDREN. Although our bodies are made from dust, our spirits are made from God Himself…
1 Corinthians 2:12 NKJV
12 Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.
Okay, quick review:
God has all authority. He gave authority to mankind. Mankind fell and now we are all brought under the curse of sin.
Romans 6:16-18 NLT
16 Don’t you realize that you become the slave of whatever you choose to obey? You can be a slave to sin, which leads to death, or you can choose to obey God, which leads to righteous living. 17 Thank God! Once you were slaves of sin, but now you wholeheartedly obey this teaching we have given you. 18 Now you are free from your slavery to sin, and you have become slaves to righteous living.
RECLAIMING THE AUTHORITY OF THE COVENANT
How would God reclaim the authority that Adam so foolishly forfeited?
COVENANT.
How?
Since man gave it up—only a MAN—Jesus could get it back and as we learned the past few Sundays, the Covenant requires the exchanging of belongings.
WE learned in the suzerain covenant (in which a king has everything and a peasant has nothing) the kings says, Everything I have belongs to you.” The peasant says, “I have nothing to give except myself.”
In this case, God says, “I want you, Abraham. I want you and your offspring.”
GOD’S PLAN
The result is that God gained “legal access” to reclaim authority.
God spoke these words:
Genesis 3:15 NKJV
15 And I will put enmity
Between you and the woman,
And between your seed and her Seed;
He shall bruise your head,
And you shall bruise His heel.”
So we fast forward:
John 1:1-5, 14 NKJV
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was in the beginning with God. 3 All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. 4 In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5 And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.
14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
Okay, so we know that Jesus came in flesh, died and was resurrected for the forgiveness of our sins but what does that have to do with authority?
Okay, so the enemy’s desire was to take out Jesus and destroy Him.
Jesus was driven to the cross by the enemy’s capacity to stir up the mobs in anger to such a point that they would execute a completely sinless person…
But when people died for their sins, the enemy had in a sense a “the authority or right” because they had sins.
But with Jesus, the Son of Man, which had no sin…that meant innocent blood had been spilled first time in the history of mankind…
Basically, Satan had just taken out someone that wasn’t under his authority.
But this One was innocent, pure, spotless and a part of the way of understanding the cross of Jesus was the enemy had stirred the crowds into a frenzy.
Hebrews 2:14 ESV
14 Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil,
Now later on it’s going to destroy the death, the enemy of mankind.
Now look…
God says we're in covenantal authority with him. You can act in my name, pronounce in my name. So now you're back with God backing you up.
What you do is you get your spirit soaking with the word of God, link your spirit, your voice, your lips to the spirit that's soaked with the Word of God, and speak the Word of God in the situation. That's covenantal.
You're declaring the Word, the will, and the way of God by His authority because the covenant is made good.
Now where did Jesus say this?
In Matthew 16:19 NKJV
19 And I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”
Jesus says it TWICE!!!
Matthew 18:18
18 Truly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
Jesus says that I took these out of Satan’s hands, I didn’t just take them back to keep….
I’m to send you out and I’m going to be with you always and you’re going to be in my authority. You are going to operate in my authority…
The keys of the Kingdom, once you have them it is for this…
Is so that we will speak the will of God, the WORD of God over this planet.
So you and I need to soak ourselves with the Word of God, then link up with that soaked Spirit and with your lips start speaking the Word of God to the situations of life.