Our Identity Comes From His Authority

David. Carr • August 18, 2022

      Many of us look around and we see ordinary all around us. Every day the world imprints on you what you should believe. What you need to do to be significant or taken seriously. And even who you are to become. We go on day by day and week by week not having a clear understanding what our purpose for the Kingdom of God really is. The Holy Spirit this year has really highlighted this to me as a primary need for the body of Christ. As I am writing this, there are several conversations and faces that are flashing through my mind. Recent memories of conversations with people or hearing testimonies of others that feel like they are an odd puzzle piece that can't find its place in the picture God is revealing to them.


God’s authority establishes our identity. He is the source of our power and we must be in relationship with him to receive the revelation through the written (Logos) and spoken (Rhema) word of God. The truths that only he gives through others prophesizing the Rhema word over you and your life. But it also comes from time in the secret place with him. We read the bible asking our advocate (Holy Spirit) to imprint on us and the words that are God breathed start to come alive and we learn to live in spirit and truth. We see things we never saw before. Things will be different and it is those times of intimacy with him that will reveal and shape who you are to become in Christ.


Our perfect example of this is Jesus and how he lived his life on earth. Where did he spend the most time? He spent it alone and seeking the father through prayer and spending time in God’s presence. Jesus knew who he was and what he was to do on earth because it was revealed to him as he spent time with the father. The number one thing the devil will do to keep us from the father is to make us busy. He will disconnect us from the source of authority in our lives so we can’t see our identity in Christ.


Look at and read Acts 19:11-20 the seven sons of Sceva. They were travelers who made a living casting out evil spirits. It was not like Jesus casting evil spirits into swine, but more like a biblical Barnum and Bailey’s show for money. They rolled into town dropping the name of Jesus and Paul. They probably saw this done by Paul at some point and they started to make a living copying something that Paul said as he cast out demons from many people. They said “In the name of the Jesus that Paul preaches, I command you to come out.” They named dropped Jesus and Paul but had no actual authority to use their names. The evil spirits caught on eventually. There are so many people riding on the faith of someone else and don’t know their own identity and authority given by Jesus.


The sons of Sceva never took the time to get to know or understand the authority Jesus had. They would tell the evil spirits to leave and cited Paul’s authority and not their own. This was fine with not very powerful spirits. But there came a time in this account in Acts that the evil spirits called them on this authority. The sons of Sceva were beaten badly and left naked after the evil spirit put a whopping on them.


They failed only because they were lacking one thing, their own identity. Who are you in Christ? How you find your identity is spending time with him. Seeking the written and spoken words of God over you and your life. Becoming hungry for him and seeking his face first and not his hand. Desiring to be in his presence and not treating him as a genie only talking to him when you need to be bailed out. Scripture says seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things will be added to you (Matt 6:33).


James was clear that we have not because we ask not. We also sometimes ask with the wrong motives. James even added to this by calling the Jewish audience he was writing to “adulterous people” (James 4:4). Most of us are focused living our life with a fear of man and not a fear of God. This is how we profess we are Christians but are never born again. Never dying to sin and rising with Christ. James was preaching in Chapter 4 to not only the Jewish people of that time, but also to our generation today. It is just as relevant today as it was 2000 years ago. There are some things the big “C” is lacking and it has resulted in a lack of equipping the saints by understanding their kingdom identity through the proper authority. This mindset and understanding is absolutely necessary to being effective for the Kingdom of God in all areas we are called to influence.

Our Mandate Is Multiplication

By David Carr • August 18, 2022
When you think of a mission field what pops in your head? Where do you visualize this to be? For most of us we think of jumping on a plane and going to another continent to do mission work. We as followers of Christ have gotten this skewed. With so many churches and some 2.3 billion so called Christians how can we look around and see so many ineffective followers of Christ. Mission fields are all around us. Some of us are called to be in media for influence, some entertainment, some to be teachers, some government officials. We all have a mission field and more likely than not it is in our own back yard. It is time we think of our businesses and our jobs as mission fields. It is where we spend the most time and energy since we go to them every single day. Multiplication comes from Matthew 28:18-20. Straight from Jesus’ mouth. Jesus relayed that all power and authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me (Matt 28:18). Jesus received this inheritance from the father. Jesus’ inheritance (Psalm 2:7-9) after he ascended into Heaven and sat at the right hand of the Father is clear. Jesus was to inherit the earth and all the nations were his. He split them up with his scepter and this is how we end up with different races, ethnicities, languages and individual people sets. God was the first nationalist. That can be a whole other blog or sermon. Jesus stated we were to go! Like Acts 1:8 we are to be equipped to travel throughout the ends of the earth to preach the gospel of Jesus. Show the world through signs and wonders who he is. Like a life that is conducive to what Jesus demonstrated on earth. Living a life like we see in Acts. If 12 men couldn’t be stopped then why would we think we can now. If you are a parent you can relate to how we can imprint ourselves onto our children. We pass on the good along with the bad. Before we know it, our children are like little clones of ourselves. When I entered the picture with my wife, her son was 5 years old. He is our son and he is now 31 and grew up acting more like me every year. He took on the good things, but also the bad qualities that were pressed into his moldable mind. It is even more clear proof that somethings can be in your DNA but we can never underestimate the power we have by the time and relational situations we share with others. We were also charged with making disciples wherever we are called to go. We are called to go and leave his impression with everyone we come into contact with. We should be acting like his chosen ones and leaving his mark like a signet ring in wax (Haggai 2:23 b). This is a whole other discussion for end times. Why do you think making disciples is rare in the church today? Why does the entire body look to the pastor for all the answers? I think it comes down to one simple thing we often overlook. Family is the answer. Years ago, I heard it in a book “Sticky Church” written by Larry Osborne. He discussed his observation that many believers come in the front door of church, but often leave out the back door never to be seen again. The way he said to keep believers plugged into church was getting them plugged into small groups. This was to get them to do church like it was originally designed. Small groups that are successful consider themselves like family. Even small groups get together for a season and often break up. Why? I truly believe in family sized groups of believers doing life together. But I would add to this thought that if they want to be successful, they have to have the Christ centered mandate of multiplication so they will stay alive past a few years and multiply naturally. Without this outward multiplication model, they will only be for a season and Jesus will not bless what he didn’t model in his own life. Our common current model of Evangelism for many is simply addition. We go into places or hold local services where we do an alter call and have them pray a sinner’s prayer and we leave. Ephesians Chapter 4 is important and essential to building unity and maturity in the Body of Christ. Currently we are not equipping the saints (Ephesians 4:12) and definitely not imprinting Christ into them or discipling like we are mandated to do. The Christians who have been imprinted with a simple prayer only usually find their place in the kingdom after a quick survey that is focused on and results in how they can serve their congregation within their four walls. Soon they are passing the offering bucket or communion elements on Sunday, help out with baby siting in the church nursery, or stand at the door and greet. People as they are discipled should grow. Our current model is to save souls and not shape nations. For in Psalms 2 Jesus’ inheritance is nations not souls. He calls us to go, but more importantly make disciples. We need to make disciples who make disciples. There are a number of people who call themselves followers of Christ who don’t know the true gospel and there are still approx. 1.6 billion unreached people who haven’t heard the gospel at all. With all that we have, this is unacceptable to me. God has placed on my heart this very solution. Resurrected Home Ministries is called to establish and unify home sized churches with spirit filled disciples who are committed, equipped, and living a life in love and worthy of our Lord and Savior-Jesus Christ. We are focused on making disciples who make disciples. We do this centered around three foundations we call Tents, Tribes, and Travelers. We help people enter into the presence of God wherever they go (Abraham’s tents), establish and belong to a tribe here on earth and in heaven (Tribe of Judah and Tribe of Zion), and develop a hunger that propels them into all the pockets of the world they are called to because they can’t contain the gratitude God has placed in their hearts (making discipling travelers). Each home church that is formed enters into this understanding that we are called to make disciples that make other disciples. The faces they see should change if they are carrying out what Jesus modeled for them. A model that Jesus proved to be successful with his 12 disciples as they took the earth by storm as outlined in Acts. Living this way is easy. It is outlined from the beginning in Genesis 1:28 “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it.” It has a deeper meaning than just make babies. We are the bride of Christ, Jesus isn’t returning for a scattered, ineffective, ignorant, crippled army or family of believers. It is time that we become equipped, multiplying an equipped family, and subdue the earth which is Jesus’ inheritance. This is something important to him and he has entrusted us with it all until he returns. It is time for some spring cleaning and a changed mindset in the house of the Lord