The following excerpt is taken from the book The Authority of the Believer by John McMillan:
The rapidly approaching end of the age is witnessing a tremendous increase in the activity of the powers of darkness. Unrest among the nations, more intense than at any previous time in earth’s history, is due largely to the stirring up of the ambitions and passions of men, while the spread of an almost wholly secularized education is quietly doing away with the scriptural standards which formerly exerted a restraining influence among the so-called Christian peoples. Our wealth and social culture have not made us thankful to the Giver of all good, but have centered us upon the material things of the world, and have produced a self-sufficiency that quite ignores our dependence upon the Creator of all. Godlessness, which we have condemned so strongly in the Soviet Union, is almost equally as pronounced though less blatant, in our own land.
These conditions are reacting strongly upon the great ministry of the Church of Christ, the giving of the gospel to the heathen world. War has closed many doors in foreign lands, and at the same time has cut off financial contributions in not a few countries which formerly took an active interest in missions. More seriously still is the attitude of large sections of the Church toward the state of the heathen. No longer are these concerned about the lost souls which wander in darkness; their thought is centered on raising their social status and meeting their intellectual and physical needs. They seek, in their own jargon, to “build a better world,” but the world they envision is one without a Savior. Christ, in their view, has degenerated into a Superman, an example which in their own feeble strength they seek to follow. To meet the situation, the Church of Christ needs a new conception of prayer. The urgent call is for men and woman, wholly yielded to the Lord, whose eyes have been enlightened to see the ministry in the heavenlies to which they have been called. Such believers, whether as intercessors, or as workers at home, or missionaries on the foreign fields, may in union with the great Head of the Body, exercise an authority to which the powers of the air must give place wherever challenged.
Authority, then, is delegated power. Its value depends upon the force behind the user. There is a story told of the Right Honorable W.E. Gladstone when he served as Prime Minister of Great Britain. On one occasion he brought into Queen Victoria an important measure for her signature, in order that it might become law. The queen objected to it, and after some discussion, refused to sign. The Minister of the Crown was unusually urgent: “Your Majesty,” he said, respectfully but firmly, “you must sign this bill.” She turned on him haughtily: “Sir, I am the Queen of England.” Unmoved, the statesman answered quietly, “Your Majesty, I am the people of England.” After a little thought, she accepted the situation and affixed her signature to the document.
This story may be apocryphal, but it illustrates the question of authority when two opposing powers are in conflict. The believer, who is fully conscious of divine Power behind him, and of his own authority thereby, can face the enemy without fear or hesitation. Those who confront him bear the specific names of power and authority: “We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities … against powers …. But, behind the “authority” possessed by the believer, there is a “Power” infinitely greater than that which backs his enemies, and which they are compelled to recognize.
When the Lord Jesus, the Captain of our salvation, was raised from the dead, the act of resurrection was accomplished through “the exceeding greatness of God’s power, to usward who believe, according to the working of the strength of His might.” In this working there was such a putting forth of the divine omnipotence that the Holy Spirit, through the apostle, requires four words of special significance to bring out the thought.
In calling attention to the “exceeding greatness of God’s power,” we passed over without comment four words. These are “to usward who believe.” All the demonstration of the glory of God, shown in the manifestation of His omnipotence, pointed manward. The cross of Christ, with what it revealed of obedience to God, of atonement for sin, of crushing defeat of the foes of divine authority, shows us a representative Man overcoming for mankind and preparing, through His own incumbency, a throne and a heavenly ministry for those who should overcome through Him.
“According to the working of the strength of His might when He raised Him from the dead and you when ye were dead.” The same verb which expresses the reviving of Christ expresses also the reviving of His people. That is to say the very act of God which raised the Lord from among the dead, raised also His body. Head and body are naturally raised together: Christ, the Head; His body, the Church, the assembly of believers. This is a most important statement, and one of which the definite significance cannot be overestimated.
That there may be no misunderstanding of the Holy Spirit’s meaning in this presentation of the truth of the elevation of the Lord’s people with their Head, He gives it a second time in Ephesians 2:4 –6. They are made to sit with Christ “in the heavenlies.” Christ’s seat is at the right hand of God. His people, therefore, occupy “with him” the same august position. This honor is not to a chosen few, but is the portion of all those who share the resurrection of the Son of God. It is the birthright of every true believer, of every born again child of God.
The elevation of His people with Him to the heavenlies has no other meaning than that they are made sharers, potentially for the present, of the authority which is His. They are made to sit with Him; that is, they share His throne. To share a throne means without question to partake of the authority which it represents. Indeed, they have been thus elevated in the plan of God, for this very purpose, that they may even now exercise, to the extent of their spiritual apprehension, authority over the powers of the air and over the conditions which those powers have brought about on the earth and are still creating through their ceaseless manipulations of the minds and circumstances of mankind.
The Divine Purpose of the Ages
The “God of the whole earth” does not purpose to tolerate forever this rebellion against His righteousness. “I have sworn by myself, the word is gone out of my mouth in righteousness, and shall not return, that unto me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear” (Isaiah 45:23). Ere this can be accomplished, the instigators of human rebellion must be cast down. In this regard the divine method is clear. “The powers of the air” are allowed to retain their seats only while their successors are being prepared. God, having redeemed a people and purified them, has introduced them potentially into the heavenlies. When they have approved themselves, they will in actuality take the seats of the “Powers of the air.” Thereby superseding those who have manifested their unfitness and unworthiness.
This purpose, present and future, is very definitely stated in Ephesians 3:9-11. Here it is revealed as the divine will that “now (the present time) unto the principalities and powers in the heavenly places might be made known through the Church the manifold wisdom of God (3:10). The Church is to be God’s instrument in declaring to these rebellious and now usurping powers the divine purpose, and in administering their principalities after they have been unseated and cast down. This is further declared to be “according to the eternal purpose of the ages which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord (3:11).
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Prayed…
Father, we thank You for Your truth which makes us free
Your truth is going forth unabated and unrestricted
We lift up believers going forth acting on Your Word
Taking their authority and dominion
We are equipped to finish in these last days
Arising on the borders, where there seems to be conflict
“No, you’re not coming here”—watching in the spirit
We call in the forces of God
Not recoiling but running to the giant declaring “who is that uncircumcised Philistine?”
No name is above the name of Jesus, no name of sickness, disease, enemy threats
No entrance, no plan
There’s no access because of the blood
We put the blood around the borders in Jesus’ name
Every inch of the southern border, we push back with the blood
We apply the blood of the Lamb throughout Texas for things to be revealed and uncovered
We plead that blood up around the western side of the United States in Jesus’ name
Over the water ways and the ports and the containers, we declare protection and detection
Hidden things be uncovered today
We declare, “That will not operate”
We declare confusion over the enemy’s plans and his ways
We come up around the northern side of the United States, up around Alaska and Canada
In Jesus’ name, we put a restriction on it with the blood
Every border agent, we plead the blood of the Lamb over them
Eyes to see and ears to hear… wisdom
We lift up the eastern border, over New York and the water ways and all the air ports
“No! you cannot come in, in Jesus’ name; we declare these ways are cut off and canceled by the blood”
The ships that come up to the harbors, even the cruise ships on the southern and eastern borders of the US
No disease, no sickness in Jesus’ name
We plead the blood of the Lamb across the states, every city and every town
We take authority over every kind of cell that’s been set up already operating
We break you up in Jesus’ name—by the blood of the Lamb, you cannot operate
We lift up the authorities to see the hidden things and to be revealed
We lift up the Church, that it rises up and takes its place of authority
There’s more, even in the minds of men, the plans, you cannot operate here
We pray that lies will be revealed for what they are and what they’re planning to do
No weapon formed against the Church will prosper in Jesus’ name
There’s a shaking, it must come
Enormous change and lifting for the body
It’s tenacity, a different kind of spirit
Taking it by faith
Some dead things being raised up now
Things that have been put on a shelf for a later date, it’s time to take them off the shelf
Getting up and stretching forth and beyond
A mighty transformation
We pray over every bridge, that connect
A restoration of those connections, those relationships
Even companies that were once connected becoming connected again
We pray for every authority in the United States
Airports and watching over the passports
We watch over any new strategies—cannot be hidden but will be uncovered
It will not spread and move out across the United States
We lift up Minnesota’s borders
We plead the blood over the Twin Cities
We break up hidden plans in Jesus’ name
Word of Exhortation…
I keep picking up angels, a lot of angelic activity. We’re not to rely on our own abilities but it’s a reliance on the Holy Spirit to lead us on what to speak, what to say, and what to declare. And when you speak those things, the angels are hearing the words… it’s the Word of God that we speak by the Holy Ghost. And they’re being dispatched. Angels, the mighty angels, the mighty forces. Michael and his divine intervention. We should not be in a place of fear but a place of authority. It’s a place of peace because we believe that when we speak and when we pray that heaven is moving on our behalf and there is nothing that can stand in our way and nothing that can come upon our soil.
As we were praying, I saw tankers full of gasoline or some other liquid, and they were being used in a terrorist plan, an evil scheme. I saw they lost control before they got to their destination because of help from our ministering spirits, the angels.
