Most Christians have never actually exercised their God-given authority, even believers in Word-of-Faith circles who know a lot about spiritual authority. They have heard the teachings and understand the concept, but there is a huge difference between hearing and doing. The Word makes this clear.
James 1:22-25 But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. 23 For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror; 24 for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. 25 But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it and is not a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does.
I want you to pay particular attention to verse 22, which says that if you hear the word of God and are not a doer of the word, YOU deceive yourself. Not the devil, YOU. So, what does that deception look like concerning spiritual authority and taking dominion?
It looks something like this: You study the Word, you listen to good, anointed teaching on the believer’s authority and taking dominion, you can quote all the relevant Scriptures in three different translations. You may even be able to teach a nice 5-part series on The Authority of the Believer and be biblically accurate in what you teach. But if you are not practicing what you have heard, walking and growing in the light you have received, you don’t actually know it. You just think you do; you only know about it.
Just because you have learned about all these things and can even teach them to others, you think you know it. But you don’t. You are deceived. Before you can truthfully say that you know ANYTHING, especially God’s Word, you must first DO IT! If you haven’t done it, you don’t know it yet. I have witnessed this in the body of Christ for decades now, and it seems to me that this problem is getting worse every year.
Think about this;
If you memorized every piece of literature on the planet about performing brain surgery and then watched and memorized every video made of operations on the brain, would you be considered a brain surgeon? Would anyone in their right mind allow you to operate on their brain? NO! Why? Because you are not considered a brain surgeon until you have SUCCESSFULLY operated on some brains.
It’s the same with spiritual authority and exercising dominion. You must, at some point, start practicing what you have learned, or you will never walk in it. The enemy observes whether your conduct consistently agrees with what you profess. The devil will not respond…until he is sure you are serious. Resistance from the enemy will often test whether you believe God’s Word enough to remain steadfast.
When my oldest son was learning to drive, and he got behind the wheel for the first time, I started to review the controls and prepare him for this learning curve that I knew he was about to experience. He interrupted me confidently and said, “Pop, I got this. I’ve been watching you for years. I remember everything you taught me.” I said, “alright hot shot, let ‘er rip”.
He proceeded to back out of the driveway too fast and barely missed our mailbox. He put the car in drive and oversteered, running into my neighbor’s yard and barely missing their mailbox. I yelled, “BRAKE, BRAKE, BRAKE!” He stopped so abruptly that my head jerked forward and almost hit the dash.
He was wide-eyed and was breathing harder. He got scared. The revelation that He didn’t know what he thought he knew hit him like a ton of bricks. He couldn’t wait to get out of that car to get himself together because he was visibly rattled. I encouraged him and said we would take it slowly and keep practicing until you get used to it.
Exercising your authority with the settled confidence of faith makes it effective and powerful, but you probably won’t have that confidence when starting out. You just have to keep using the authority, keep standing, keep applying the pressure until you start seeing results. Then your confidence will grow. Your faith will become stronger. And you will see the spirit realm and the physical realm start responding to and bowing to your authority quicker.
Two Problems, One Solution:
I have seen two obstacles keep believers trapped between hearing the Word and doing it: an identity crisis rooted in sin consciousness, and the loss of confidence when results are not immediate. That space resembles the wilderness in which Israel wandered for forty years without entering God’s promises. Walking in those promises was God’s perfect will for them then, and it is His perfect will for you and me now. I refuse to spend the rest of my life wandering while God’s promises remain available.
A necessary clarification: Exercising authority does not mean denying facts or attempting to control other people. It means submitting to God, resisting evil, agreeing with Scripture, and faithfully taking the actions within your God-ordained responsibility.
What biblical dominion means: Biblical dominion begins with governing our own thoughts, words, choices, and responses under Christ’s lordship. It is never permission to dominate, manipulate, or override another person.
Problem 1 – Identity Crisis:
The first big obstacle is having a sin consciousness.
Sin-consciousness is a constant, exhausting cycle of focusing on your guilt, failures, and shortcomings. It is simply a matter of wrong focus.
The devil uses three primary deceptions to keep us stuck in a cycle of sin consciousness. Guilt, Condemnation, and Shame.
GUILT– Is a subconscious belief that I am worthy of judgement.
CONDEMNATION– is a subconscious belief that I am not truly forgiven.
SHAME– is a subconscious belief that I am still that old person I used to be. That I’m not really a new creature in Christ.
All LIES! All three tactics are designed to keep you looking inward instead of upward. They cause you to focus on you, your weaknesses, and your failures. They make you the central focus instead of Jesus and what He paid for you to become. If you find yourself the focus of all your attention, remember this;
“THE SMALLEST WORLD YOU CAN POSSIBLY LIVE IN IS THE ONE YOU ARE THE CENTER OF”
The Voice of Guilt, Condemnation, and Shame (The Accuser): Focuses entirely on the self, magnifying failures to create despair, paralysis, and a desire to run away from God.
And as long as these three accusations are dominating your thoughts, you won’t believe you have the right to exercise any authority. Your identity in Christ has not been established yet.
The believer who is dominated by a sin consciousness will not exercise authority because sin consciousness constantly undermines their faith in their belief that they are in right standing with God.
Romans 8:1 There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.
Romans 8:9-10 But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His. 10 And if Christ is in you, the body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
There is to be no condemnation for those who are in Christ. Condemnation attacks your identity and drives you away from God; conviction identifies a specific wrong and draws you toward repentance, restoration, and fellowship with Him.
The Voice of Conviction (The Holy Spirit): Conviction identifies a specific wrong and draws you toward repentance and restoration. Conviction always points toward Christ, highlighting hope and faith, restoration, and a clear path into a loving relationship with God our Father.
The righteousness of God is our identity, and this must be our governing conviction rather than just a theological position.
Colossians 1:21-22 And you, who once were alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works, yet now He has reconciled 22 in the body of His flesh through death, to present you holy, and blameless, and above reproach in His sight.
Put this into practice whenever guilt, condemnation, or shame rises: first, name the accusation without agreeing with it. Second, answer it aloud with Romans 8:1 and Colossians 1:21–22. Third, thank God that in Christ you are forgiven, reconciled, holy, blameless, and above reproach in His sight. Finally, choose one obedient action that agrees with that identity. Do not wait until you feel worthy; act from the righteousness God has already given you.
To arrive at a place of confidence in who you are in Christ requires you to first take dominion over your own heart. And this leads us to the second thing.
Problem 2 – Casting Away Your Confidence:
The second thing that keeps many believers from using their authority is the disappointment that comes from not seeing immediate visible results. Many Christians exercise authority once, see no immediate change, and conclude that it is not working for them for whatever reason, and they retreat to a position of asking God to do what He commanded them to do with the authority He has given them. This is a very common occurrence and comes from having an unrenewed mind.
Authority is not a vending machine that produces instantaneous visible results in every situation. Occasionally it will. I have seen it. But for the most part it is a legal position that is enforced and maintained through speaking and believing the truth of God’s Word until the visible manifestation comes to full fruition. You must stand on the promises of God, declaring the victory until that victory is fully established
A believer with a carnal mind will attempt to stand in faith and take a position of authority, but when circumstances do not change quickly enough, they may relinquish their position. Relinquishing that position means ceasing to exercise the authority they have been given, which is exactly what the enemy desires. Resistance may persist, requiring believers to remain steadfast rather than surrender their confidence.
The New Testament gives us some powerful promises that we must hold onto when exercising authority.
Galatians 6:9 And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart.
Due season, not the season of your convenience. The only thing that can prevent the harvest is losing heart, relinquishing the position, casting away your confidence.
1 Peter 5:8-9 Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. 9 Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world.
Steadfast resistance is not one and done; give it your best shot, hope for the best. Steadfast means start, and don’t stop until it is finished. And there may be some suffering along the way until it is finished.
Hebrews 10:35-36 Therefore do not cast away your confidence, which has great reward. 36 For you have need of endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise:
Endurance and patience are required when exercising authority
Job 22:28 You will also declare a thing, And it will be established for you; So light will shine on your ways.
The believer who exercises their authority and stands firm, unmovable, continuing to speak faith from their position regardless of what the visible circumstances are, is the believer who sees results. This is why the first place you practice exercising authority and taking dominion is over your own heart, your own soul, your own body. This is your training ground. In a sense, it is Authority and Dominion bootcamp.
When visible circumstances do not change, use this rule and follow this pattern: State the promise you are standing on, speak your response in agreement with that promise, take any obedient action available to you. Declaring that the promises are yours NOW (not going to be) is the most common way a believer can add “works” of obedience to their faith. Refuse to measure God’s Word by the speed of the visible result. Record what you are believing for, what you are doing, and the date you began standing. Review it daily so that delay does not quietly become surrender.
Most believers never graduate from bootcamp. Many never even realize they are in faith school and there will be testing daily.
The Solution to Both Problems:
Taking dominion over your own heart establishes your identity and gives you the confidence needed to go to war. Romans 12 gives us the how and the why.
Romans 12:1-2 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
The development of the inner man is crucial in the practical exercise of spiritual authority and the process of walking in dominion. Look at the latter part of verse two here. This tells us why we are to submit to God and why we need to be transformed by renewing our minds. It is so we can PROVE the will of God.
Without the submission and transformation described in this passage, you will never prove to yourself, the devil, or anyone else that it is God’s will for you to have spiritual authority, to take dominion over devils, sickness, poverty, weakness, fear, depression, or any other thing that is not God’s will for your life. Without a renewed mind, you can’t reign as a king in this life by Christ Jesus.
Romans 5:17 For if by the one man’s offense death reigned through the one, much more those who receive abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.
You will never reign as a king until you first act, think, and believe like a king. By renewing your mind, you transform yourself into thinking like royalty. It all starts in the mind. This is the first battlefield that must be secured and taken.
2 Timothy 1:7 For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.
Believers must take hold of that amazing promise, enforce that New Testament reality, and I command fear to go. That is the daily exercise of authority, and the way you take dominion over your own heart and mind.
In the next lesson, we will examine the daily practice of maintaining a sound mind and exercising godly discipline over our thoughts, emotions, and bodies.
7-day Challenge:
For the next seven days, begin each morning by reading Romans 8:1, Romans 5:17, and 2 Timothy 1:7 aloud. Identify one thought, emotion, physical symptom, or circumstance that does not agree with these truths. Speak God’s Word over it, pray the promise over it. Refer to your specific deliverance as a memory, not a future event or possibility. This puts you in agreement with God and His finished work. Command any fear, condemnation, or shame to leave. Then choose one action that reflects faith rather than retreat. That demonstrates belief in what you just prayed and declared. At the end of each day, write down where you stood firm, where you yielded, and what you will do differently tomorrow. Consistent practice is how confidence is formed.
1 John 4:4 You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.
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