Continuing with authority

I don't know that I will keep blogging from this wonderful book, Abba's Heart. It just seems as if I may have reached content that is best shared in the context of the rest of the book. However, I had begun one entry before I reached this point, about which I haven't had time to finish writing, and which seems well aligned with my most recent posts from the book. In this chapter, Neal has moved from general principles of authority to specific truths about the Father's authority that guide us as we walk in the delegated authority of sons and daughters that has now been restored to us. Each of these underscores a point which Neal has previously made: no matter what our personal experiences may have taught us to the contrary, authority is not evil. In fact, the Father's authority in particular is immeasurably, indescribably good.

The Father's authority is compassionate. I believe we see an example of this in the Holy Father's most recent encyclical. But in countless examples from the Gospels we see how Jesus repeatedly responds to those who are in difficult circumstances by putting the hurting individual's needs first. As he feeds the hungry, cures the sick, and raises the dead - even as he teaches the crowds - he is moved by compassion. Yet he never compromises the truth to do so: he doesn't tell the woman caught in adultery, the Samaritan woman at the well, or the tax collectors with whom he eats that it's okay to continue in sinful patterns of behavior.

The Father's authority is humble. Jesus doesn't shirk the Father's plan, even at the ultimate personal cost. I often wonder: how completely did the human Jesus have faith in his own resurrection? Was there ever doubt mingled with the anxious - even fearful - anticipation of the cup which he accepted in the Garden of Gethsemane? In front of Pilate, but before as well, he clearly he understood that he wasn't to be the sort of Messiah that his Hebrew brethren expected. His kingdom was to be greater, yet not an earthly kingdom. And Neal points out that Jesus' humility is rooted in understanding who He is in relationship with the Father. The same is true of our own humility - when it is true, rather than an excuse to not do that to which we are called.

Acting with authority releases power. When we are moved by these two characteristics to exercise the authority which God bestows on us according to His plan for our lives, powerful, wonderful things happen. In the context of Unbound deliverance ministry, the Holy Spirit moves in ways we would never expect to deliver God's sons and daughters from bondage that has held them back for their whole lives!

Perhaps I will yet share another post or two from this book, on the topic of forgiveness. It's a theme on which I've written on many occasions, but as you might imagine, Neal addresses aspects of it that are particularly relevant to our relationship with the Father.