Introduction
May the peace of the Lord be with you and your household. I give thanks to the eternal God, the Almighty, for the time He grants us in His grace and mercy to expose ourselves to His word and the power of His Holy Spirit.
We have been studying how to gain authority against the forces of darkness and demonic forces. In Ephesians 6:12, we find a guiding word for those of us who understand spiritual warfare and deliverance:
“For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.”
Paul not only reveals the battles we face daily, but also shows us that the kingdom of darkness is very well organized. It establishes platforms of spiritual government. If men and women of God do not understand this organization, when we face these forces we will experience a marked defeat.
It’s not just about saying “I rebuke you” or “I cover myself with the blood of Christ Jesus.” It’s necessary to understand that war is waged with wisdom, as the book of Proverbs establishes. Therefore, it’s important to understand the need to gain authority. Although authority comes from God, it is the responsibility of men and women to grow in it.
The Church Built Upon Revelation
In Matthew 16, when Jesus asks His disciples: “Who do men say that I, the Son of Man, am?” we know their answers: some said He was Elijah, others said John, others that He was one of the prophets risen from the dead. But when Jesus asks them directly: “But who do you say that I am?” Peter responds: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
Jesus then declares: “On this rock I will build My church.” What is the rock? Peter’s declaration: “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”
No one who does not recognize Christ Jesus, no one who does not walk according to God’s will, no one who is not subject to the lordship of Christ can build authority. Authority is only for those who have been born again and walk according to the grace, mercy, and revelation that the Lord has delivered.
Jesus continues: “The gates of Hades shall not prevail against it” — against the walk of the church, that is, all those who are walking according to the Lord’s will. Therefore, each of us must understand that authority must be built. We don’t receive packages of authority; it’s necessary to work to build it.
The Three Attributes for Gaining Authority
This is the third teaching on the attributes necessary to gain spiritual authority:
First attribute: Holiness
Holiness should be understood as the absence of contamination. As the apostle says: “Since we have these promises, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.”
Second attribute: Revelation
Walking in revelation is extremely important and necessary for every man and woman of God. Jesus established: “You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” Without revelation, it’s like throwing punches in the air without results or fruit. God calls us to establish effect upon our lives.
In Acts 16, it’s narrated when Paul was taken to prison in Philippi for having cast out a spirit of divination from a girl. On two occasions during that account it says: “These who have turned the world upside down have come here also.” When we count who they were, we discover there were only three people: Paul, Silas, and Timothy.
What world does this refer to? The spiritual world. This teaches us the importance of walking in revelation. If we don’t walk in the revelation that God has delivered through His Holy Spirit, we cannot tear down the enemy’s forces or the strategies established against God’s people.
Third attribute: Obedience
In today’s teaching we will close this chapter on how to gain authority against demonic forces by studying the power of obedience.
Biblical Foundation: The Authority of Obedience
In 2 Corinthians 10:3-6 we find the basis for understanding obedience:
“For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled.”
These verses clearly speak of the power that obedience has to take captive every knowledge raised up against God. But observe verse 6: there is a condition. We are ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled.
Many times we have not developed sufficient authority over the forces of darkness. We could have already walked in holiness and in revelation, but if we are still not walking in obedience, we cannot punish disobedience. If we don’t have that nature of obedience, we cannot exercise spiritual authority.
What Is Obedience Really?
Obedience is not following instructions
Many confuse obedience with simply following instructions: “They told me to do this, I did it. What else do I have to do? I’ll do it. I have no problem following instructions.”
But that is not true obedience. Obedience doesn’t have to do with consecutive actions following delivered instructions. A person can follow instructions and not necessarily be obedient.
The example of the older son
In Luke 15:28-30, we find the older brother of the prodigal son. Note what it says:
“But he was angry and would not go in. Therefore his father came out and pleaded with him. So he answered and said to his father, ‘Lo, these many years I have been serving you; I never transgressed your commandment at any time; and yet you never gave me a young goat, that I might make merry with my friends. But as soon as this son of yours came, who has devoured your livelihood with harlots, you killed the fatted calf for him.’”
The young man says: “I never transgressed your commandment,” meaning “I have been obedient.” But observe the levels that develop in a person who is not truly obedient:
- He was angry (verse 28)
- He rebelled — the father tells him “come in,” but he refused to enter, showing rebellion and defiance
- There is reproach — “So many years I have been serving you, I have not transgressed your commandment, but you have not treated me like him”
Was he obedient? No. Although he was with the father all the time and did what he was told, he was not obedient.
Obedience is a substance
Obedience, as defined in Holy Scripture, doesn’t have to do with actions in reaction to instructions. Obedience is a substance, that is, the very nature of the person is obedient.
A person can be following instructions but not be obedient. Why? Because obedience doesn’t consist of actions in response to instructions. Obedience is a substance: the very nature of the person.
There will come a moment when what’s really there will come to light. This is a clear example in the negative sense.
The example of Job
In contrast, we have the case of Job, which is a clear example of what it is to be an obedient person. What does it consist of? “The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.”
Why? Because obedience is the very substance of the person. There is an essence in the person that is obedience. This is gained or developed precisely in the processes into which God brings men and women.
The Fruits of Obedience
Obedience has fruits. There is evidence that a person is walking in obedience. According to Luke 15, when there is no:
- Reproach
- Anger over things that happen
- Anger because others receive and I don’t receive
- Reaction or reactivity toward something we are seeing within God’s work
Then we could say we have entered the process of transformation of obedience. Meanwhile, when there is reactivity, resistance, or reluctance, we have not yet entered, and therefore we will not have developed authority.
The danger of disobedience in spiritual warfare
I have seen cases where people have tried to rebuke and have gained what they were rebuking. I have seen cases where people enter processes of spiritual warfare and deliverance, rebuking illnesses, situations, and attacks, and end up receiving what they are rebuking.
Why? Here we have the answer: they are walking in disobedience. There has been no transformation. Obedience doesn’t consist of following instructions (although that will be a fruit). There must be a nature, a transformation, a substance.
The apostle says in another text that we are the fragrance of life to those who are dead. This means there is a spiritual substance that has been transformed in the person.
How Obedience Is Built
Having made clear what obedience is, let’s see how it is gained or built.
First way: Remaining in the Word of God
In Romans 5:19 we read:
“For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous.”
This text refers to Genesis 3, the fall of man and woman. Let’s look at the account:
In verse 1, the serpent approaches and says: “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?”
The woman responds: “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’”
What did disobedience consist of?
They did not remain in God’s word. She herself is saying it: “God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.’”
Some believe the woman invented that last part (“nor shall you touch it”), but the woman was very precise. That is what God said. She was very specific because she remembered not only not eating it, but that God had been so specific that He told them: “Don’t even touch it.”
Why? Because don’t flirt with sin, don’t play with sin, don’t get close to sin. It’s not only not eating it, it’s not getting close, not exposing yourself. The woman said what had been direct instruction from God. But what happened? She departed from that word.
The fundamental principle
Obedience is built when men or women of God remain in the word.
The word is not only for three days, nor for a week, nor for a year. The word is for all the existence that God grants us on the face of the earth.
Many of us commit a very serious spiritual error: we are jumping from word to word, going after this word, going after another word. Many are seeking words: “Tell me a word. A word of promise, a word of blessing, give me another word, give me another word.”
The man of God who builds obedience, the woman of God who builds obedience, remains in the word. They don’t go jumping from word to word. If we haven’t been faithful to one word, how can we go jumping from word to word?
Knowledge doesn’t save
God does not satisfy man’s or woman’s curiosity. How many times have we approached saying: “I want to learn more about the Lord, I want to know more about Him. I enrolled in this course, I signed up for this faculty”?
If you don’t have the disposition, the decision, and the awareness of what you’re going to do with that word, don’t keep enrolling in courses, seminars, and faculties. The life of faith does not consist of knowledge.
We could have a doctorate in theology, a PhD, with diploma and all, and still go to hell. How many in hell have diplomas and doctoral degrees? The life of faith doesn’t consist of knowledge; the life of faith consists of how pleased God is with our life.
What did God tell Satan in Job 1? “Have you considered My servant Job, that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man?” That is what God seeks: how pleased He is with my life, not by what I know, not by the diplomas I obtained, not by theological degrees, but by what I am doing with His word.
Perseverance in the word
The life of faith consists of walking in the word, remaining in the word. Therefore, the first way to gain obedience is: let us remain in the word. Let’s not be jumping from word to word or from version to version asking: “What does it really mean? What did the Lord tell us with that word?”
The Lord had told Adam and Eve, and she was well aware: “You shall not eat of it, nor shall you touch it.” Disobedience was built when she departed and eventually Adam departed from the word.
How do we build obedience? This is what God told me. I have remained all this time in that word. Remain in the word all the time of your existence, even if it has been only one verse, even if you haven’t known everything else. If you are remaining in that word, you are building obedience.
In Matthew 24, Jesus teaches: “He who endures to the end shall be saved.” He who remains in the word that I have given him, this one shall be saved.
The example of the widow of Zarephath
In 1 Kings, when the prophet Elijah is sent by God, He tells him: “Go to the region of Tyre because I have commanded a widow there to provide for you.”
When the prophet arrives, he finds that the woman God has commanded to sustain him was a widow with a son, which meant she had no provision. But the text says: “I have commanded a woman to sustain you.”
When Elijah arrives and asks her for water and a cake, the woman responds: “I don’t have anything. The only thing I have is the last portion that’s enough for my son and me, and then wait for death because we have nothing.” There had been three and a half years of scarcity.
What does this mean? That obedience is built when we remain in the word, not in our delights, not in our tastes. If the Lord said it, I have to walk in that word.
The consequences of abandoning the word
When God has delivered a word to us and we abandon it, we have a clear example of total destruction. To this day we are suffering the consequences of a man named Adam and a woman named Eve who departed from the word.
“For as by one man’s disobedience many were made sinners, so also by one Man’s obedience many will be made righteous.”
True ministry
You have a ministry from God. Ministry doesn’t consist of being behind a pulpit. Ministry consists of remaining in the word God has delivered to you. When you understand it and remain firm in that word, you will liberate entire regions even though you’re not behind a pulpit.
This is something we have to understand, because almost always the parameters we have of what ministry is are quite deformed and distorted by the religious philosophy that has proliferated abundantly in our day.
First way to build obedience: Remain in the word.
Second way: Through suffering and persecution
In Hebrews 5:8 we read:
“Though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered.”
The second way to build and gain obedience is suffering, pain, persecution, reproach, defamation. Everything the enemy sends to discredit you and knock you down is the way God uses to build obedience in those who are persecuted, oppressed, defamed, restrained, and hated.
It is the way God establishes to build obedience. Though He was a Son, speaking of Christ Jesus, by the things He suffered He learned obedience.
Christ’s obedience unto death
In Philippians 2:8 we find the level of obedience achieved:
“And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.”
It was not an instantaneous death where He did not suffer or endure. The apostle makes this clarification because death by crucifixion was the most painful.
When you read the account of the crucifixion, you know there were two thieves, one on the right and one on the left, and they broke their legs. Do you know why? Because it was the only point of support. Crucifixion mainly had the purpose of asphyxiation, of dying by suffocation after an agonizing ordeal.
The crucified person would raise himself up on his feet to avoid asphyxiation. That’s why they broke their legs: so they would have no point of support and the agonizing death would be final and certain.
Christ Jesus gave up His spirit at three in the afternoon. Why? Because when you read John 10, it says: “No one takes it from Me. Speaking of life, no one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. This command I have received from My Father.”
In Philippians 2:8: “And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross.”
Paul’s thorn in the flesh
In 2 Corinthians 12:7 we find another example:
“And lest I should be exalted above measure by the abundance of the revelations, a thorn in the flesh was given to me, a messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I be exalted above measure.”
The apostle says he pleaded with the Lord three times to take it away. He’s speaking of a messenger of Satan. What is a messenger of Satan? A demon. The apostle is saying he had a demon operating in his body.
In 1 Thessalonians 2, Paul says clearly: “I wanted to come to you once and again, but Satan hindered us.” The revised version uses a lighter word: “hindered us,” but the original speaks of something that operated from within the apostle.
He is speaking of a messenger of Satan, an illness. But in that text it’s understood that this came from God. God established it. For what? So he would go through processes. Paul had to learn to be obedient.
The lesson for us
People who are very autonomous, independent, who have the tendency to be independent, must learn submission, must learn obedience.
How is obedience achieved? How is it developed in the person? By going through the processes. There is no other way.
This comes from God. You cannot rebuke it saying: “I rebuke persecution, I rebuke the devil that is oppressing me.” No, because it comes from God. God has determined it this way.
For what? Because we read in Hebrews 5:8: “Though He was a Son, yet He learned obedience by the things which He suffered.”
Don’t complain about the processes
Don’t complain about the processes. Let’s not abort God’s work by wanting to escape, wanting to stop the processes to which God has submitted us. Why? Because in the end what will emerge is an obedient man with an obedient nature. What will emerge is an obedient woman. He transformed her from disobedient, rebellious, reactionary into an obedient woman.
That’s why the apostle Paul writes: “For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory.”
We must understand how important it is to go through the processes that have come into our lives, those that are part of God’s work. Of course, many times through foolishness we provoke situations that wouldn’t necessarily have had to be there. But when we are walking according to God’s will, God introduces us into those processes.
Second way to build obedience: Don’t complain about the processes of suffering and persecution that God allows.
Third way: Not conforming, but always advancing
In 1 Peter 1:14 we read:
“As obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts, as in your ignorance.”
The third way is: we cannot stop. We cannot reach a point of saying: “I already achieved it, I already accomplished it, I already graduated, I already did it, I’m already perfect.” We cannot reach that point. Do not conform.
Let’s not develop the attitude of: “I already have everything, I’ve read the Bible so many times, I know His word, I have much knowledge of His word.” We cannot reach that because we would be renouncing what God has established.
The example of Nebuchadnezzar
Precisely for that reason Nebuchadnezzar, when you read the book of Daniel, lived seven years of his existence as a beast, as an animal. God took away his spirit and made him dwell in the field with the beasts. He was one more beast.
God spoke to Nebuchadnezzar, showed him a dream of a lofty, fruitful tree. When Daniel interpreted the dream he told him: “That is you, who have risen so high by God’s hand, because it was from God, but you had not given God the glory.”
One evening came, the text says, when he was contemplating all his kingdom and his palace that he had built, and said: “Is not this great Babylon, that I have built for my glory?” And there he was pierced until he understood that the God of heaven has authority over men.
The warning
We cannot walk in the arrogance of believing that by our own strength we have achieved what we have achieved. We cannot walk in the vanity of knowledge so as to displace God from our lives.
Paul’s example
The apostle Paul says in Philippians: “I do not claim to have already attained it.” This is the man who in Romans says: “From Jerusalem and round about to Illyricum I have fully preached the gospel of Christ.”
When you locate those two points you realize it’s a vast expanse of territory that includes the promised land, Turkey, Greece, and part of Macedonia. All that he says he has filled with the gospel, without a vehicle, without his own transportation, exposing his life. But he did not conform.
When he is writing his epistle to the Romans, he says: “I hope that after visiting you, you will send me on my way to Spain, because I want to go to Spain as well.”
Don’t conform. Let’s not conform by saying: “I already arrived, I already achieved everything, I already graduated, there’s nothing more to do.”
The Lord expands our vision to reach regions and ways we had not seen before, to extend the work to which He has called us.
Third way to build obedience: Adopt the vision of the kingdom, press forward without conforming.
Conclusion: Obedience as Nature
Obedience is not conduct. Obedience is not behavior. Obedience is not the affirmative response to instructions given to us. Those are actions.
Obedience is a nature, it is an essence, it is a transformation, it is a complete life.
Signs that we have entered into obedience
We know we have entered the processes of obedience when:
- We don’t get angry over things that happen
- We don’t rebel because we haven’t obtained the things we had asked the Lord for
- There is no reactivity saying: “I can’t stand this anymore, who can stand this situation, who can tolerate this”
As the apostle says: “Forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”
Summary: Three Attributes for Gaining Authority
We have studied three attributes for gaining spiritual authority:
1. Holiness
Understood as absence of contamination. This leads us to understand the need to submit to deliverance.
“Being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled.”
How can we expect to cast out demons? How can we expect to establish authority against the forces of darkness if we have not gone through a decontamination of our bodies?
Many of us have lived in practices of fortune-telling, witchcraft, sorcery, and spiritism, and have said: “I don’t do it anymore.” But a life that has not been confessed is a life that still keeps alive the forces of darkness that led them to those practices.
We all need deliverance. If we say “that person needs it and I don’t,” we are actually avoiding participating in this great work of God’s Spirit that He is raising up in these last times to establish His kingdom on the face of the earth before the coming of Christ Jesus.
2. Revelation
Walking in the knowledge that God delivers through His Holy Spirit to tear down enemy strategies.
3. Obedience
Developing the nature of obedience through:
- Remaining in God’s word
- Going through the processes of suffering that God allows
- Not conforming, but pressing forward in the vision of the kingdom
Two Emphases of the Last Times
There are two events that God will be developing in these last times:
First event: The restoration of all things
In Acts 3:21 it says:
“Whom heaven must receive until the times of restoration of all things, which God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began.”
Jesus will not come without the restoration of all things coming first.
Second event: Spiritual warfare and deliverance
In 1 Corinthians 15:25 it says:
“For He must reign till He has put all enemies under His feet.”
This is a declaration of the apostle Paul. Both Peter and Paul, in different times, are speaking in almost the same terms, establishing or giving the revelation that before the coming of Christ Jesus, God will raise up men and women to work in the restoration of all things. And here enters the spirit of Elijah, which we have read about in some texts, the spirit of Elijah that restores all things.
Second, spiritual warfare and deliverance. It is necessary that He reign, Christ Jesus reign until all His enemies are put under His feet. What is this speaking of? Spiritual warfare and deliverance.
Therefore, the two major emphases that will be developing in what constitutes God’s work in these last times have to do with the restoration of things. The spirit of Elijah has to do with spiritual warfare and with deliverance.
Therefore, “being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled” is establishing for us the need to submit to deliverance. Why? Because otherwise we cannot develop any authority.
We conclude today with the third attribute: it is necessary that we walk in holiness, understood as decontamination from all contamination of flesh and spirit; that we walk in the revelation that God delivers to us; and third, that we build obedience, that we develop obedience, that we gain obedience.
In today’s teaching we have seen what obedience consists of and how obedience is gained.
May the eternal God, the Almighty, open our eyes so we can see in these instructions a call, a prophetic call, an apostolic call, to work in these last times, not behind a pulpit, possibly not even sponsored by a church, but so we can work establishing God’s kingdom in the neighborhood, in the community, in the development, in the business, in the town, in the country where He has made us dwell.
May the peace of the Lord be with you and your household. Amen.
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