Having Lordship Issues With Jesus

Be careful when you question authority: here's why as follows.  We must surrender the ownership of our lives to Jesus to be one of His. This entails handing over the helm of our life to His sole lordship and control as the rightful owner of it. Jesus said that all authority had been given Him and this means His lordship.  Many mistakenly believe they can accept Jesus as Savior but not as Lord of all.  Even though no one is without sin and we are all works in progress, we must give Christ the sole proprietorship of our destiny. Some of us may have lordship issues such as a distaste of taking orders or not submitting to legitimate authority, even the government.

In salvation, we trust Him as Savior but also submit to Him as Lord.  These two go together and cannot be divorced. We have taken a loyalty oath as it were and given Christ authority to do with us as He pleases and are we called according to His purpose, not ours. Not doing so is called easy-believism (or cheap grace) and that is counter to the correct doctrine of lordship salvation. It is not biblical to "accept Jesus," but we receive Him for who He is:  Lord of all.  If not we have rejected Christ and not given Him His rightful domain of authority. This is who He is and the Father has made this Jesus, who was crucified at the hand of sinners, both Lord and Christ.

He rules our lives regardless of whether we consent: His sovereignty is always at work and Providence is in control of all world events as He orchestrates history according to His will and purpose. God has no Plan B and will achieve His will with or without us.  We can do nothing to interfere with or frustrate God's will. God's will is sure to happen.  In application, our Number One loyalty is to our Lord and Savior not to the state, our party, our church, or even our family, but to Jesus alone: Jesus is Lord and He has entered the door of our heart and taken over in every room because we have given Him the passkey. All of our pursuits are to the glory of God and we ought not to find ourselves fighting God's will rather than submitting and trusting.  We must not lean unto our own understanding but trust in the Lord working everything out for the good.

Knowing Him as Lord assures us of divine guidance and blessing on our lives and we can bear much fruit.  Receiving Him as Lord is measured in our obedience and our faithfulness, not our success, which is up to God and in His control.  We all have a calling and can only fulfill it by obeying our Lord.  God will fulfill His purpose for us and call us to His will and glory.   Our calling is to bring glory to God in whatever we do. When we have completed our calling and God's purpose is fulfilled, we are called home.  Our goal should be to complete our mission and to someday announce, "Mission accomplished."

As a test of your loyalty to Christ's lordship: whom do you love?  whom do you not love? who are your enemies?  what are your priorities? where is your true loyalty? to whom do you submit?  whom do you obey? whom do you refuse to obey?  whom do you trust? whom do you know and trust?  whom do you respect? whom do you listen to?  whom do you love? what are your habits?  what are your addictions? how do you spend your money?  who are your heroes?  what are your past-times?  who are your friends?  who are your enemies?  who are your associates?  who influences you?  What are your plans? what are your dreams? what are your ambitions?  what are your goals?  All these questions impact your lordship issues. 

In summation, I must ask you:  Do you own Him as Lord; do not only confess Him,  but follow Him as a true professor in word and deed, not just for show in name only as a nominal Christian.    Soli Deo Gloria! 

All Authority

Giving the Great Commission, Christ said, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me" (Matt. 28:18).  Peter declared at Pentecost: "Therefore let all Israel be assured of this:  God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Messiah" (Acts 2:36).  We do not "make Christ Lord" as the modern-day terminology coins it when we get saved--He is Lord and to accept Him we cannot divide His offices as Savior and Lord, because He couldn't be Savior without being Lord of all (Acts 10:36).

We are rejecting Christ if we don't accept Him for who He is and acknowledge His lordship over our lives (i.e., lordship salvation as opposed to easy-believism that denies this doctrine).  We trust Him as our Savior and submit to Him as our Lord--obedience is the only test of faith.  We must surrender unconditionally and give up the ship and helm of our lives to His leadership.  He is the new Captain of our soul and the Master of our fate.

When we refer to the good Lord or simply the Lord we are generally referring to Christ Himself--that is the exclusive privilege that God the Father has bestowed on Him.  The Father is Lord also, and there is one Lord, but we give the nomenclature of Lordship to Christ in deference to His role as executing and completing our salvation and rising on our behalf from the dead.

We are to pray in His name and not just attach the phraseology "in Jesus' name, amen!" at the terminus of our prayers for good measure--this implies to His glory and will!  We have the privilege to pray in His name that angels don't have and can boldly approach the throne of grace in His name (cf. Heb. 4:16).  We are given authority over demons and Satan's dominion of darkness in His name.

When Jesus preached and taught, He did not do as the Pharisees and scribes had done:  He taught as one having authority and as no one had dared preach before Him;  because He didn't footnote His sermons by quoting the so-called authorities and interpretations, but made His own pronouncements:  "Verily, verily, I say unto you," or "Amen, amen I say unto you."  His formula was not to say like the prophets, "Thus saith the LORD." but He said boldly and audaciously proclaimed, "You have heard it said, but I say unto you so and so.  The people were heard saying, "Never has a man spake like this man!"  If He relied upon an authority, His teaching would not have the authority of what the Father told Him to say.  He was His own authority! One of the reasons they objected to Him was because He was making Himself equal to God.

In application, God wants us to not despise prophesying and urges us to speak the Word of God boldly as if they were oracles of God.  A prophet today speaks to the edification of the body of Christ and proclaims what God has revealed to him.  A prophet speaks to men on behalf of God, while a priest speaks to God on behalf of men. Modern prophecy doesn't consist in foretelling in as much as forthtelling.  Jesus never prefaced His words but dared to speak out and tell it like it is.  Soli Deo Gloria!