There is a question worth sitting with before you read another word: When was the last time you walked into a room joyful because God used you?
Not happy. Joy and happiness are not the same thing. Happiness is circumstantial — it rises and falls with the weather, the bank account, and whether the week went smoothly. Joy is something altogether different. Joy is what the seventy-two disciples carried back to Jesus after he sent them out two by two. In Luke 10:17, they returned with an almost breathless report — even the demons submitted to them in his name. That is the kind of joy that does not depend on circumstances. It is the joy of someone who knows they have been sent, went, and watched God move.
The question is whether that kind of joy is available to ordinary believers today. The answer, according to scripture, is an unqualified yes. But somewhere between knowing that and actually living it, most of us have gotten stuck.
Sent but Still Sitting
Jesus did not send out just the twelve disciples. He sent out seventy-two. The implication is significant. The commission to go was never meant to be reserved for a select group of spiritually elite individuals. It was given broadly, to ordinary people who had been following Jesus and learning from him. And the instruction was not to wait until conditions were perfect, until they felt fully prepared, or until someone with more authority gave them permission. It was simply to go.
The pattern has not changed. Every person who genuinely follows Jesus has been sent. The problem is that many who have been sent are still sitting. They are waiting for the right moment, the right program, the right leader to organize it, the right feeling of readiness. Meanwhile, the work goes undone and the prayer board fills up with requests that never move to the answered column.
The Authority That Has Already Been Given
Luke 10:19 contains a statement that should stop every believer in their tracks. Jesus tells his followers that he has given them authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy, and that nothing will harm them. The word translated as authority there carries the meaning of a legal right — a judicial standing to act on behalf of someone else. In this case, on behalf of Jesus himself.
This is not a vague spiritual concept. It is a concrete reality. When the apostle Peter and John encountered a man who had been lame from birth at the temple gate in Acts 3, they did not add his name to a prayer list. Peter looked at him directly and declared that in the name of Jesus of Nazareth, he should get up and walk. He reached down, took the man by the hand, and lifted him. The man did not just stand — he leaped. He entered the temple courts walking and jumping and praising God, because two men understood the authority they carried and chose to exercise it.
The authority Peter used that day is the same authority available to every believer now. Jesus is described in Hebrews as the same yesterday, today, and forever. What he authorized then, he has authorized now. What he did through Peter, he is willing to do through anyone who genuinely belongs to him and walks in the understanding of what they have been given.
The Weapon to Go With the Authority
Authority without power is like a badge without a gun. It represents something real, but it cannot accomplish much on its own. Jesus understood this, which is why he did not simply give his followers authority and send them out unequipped. He promised them the Holy Spirit — the very power of God living inside every believer.
In Acts 1, Jesus told his disciples that when the Holy Spirit came upon them, they would receive power. The Greek word used there is dunamis — the root of the English word dynamite. This is not a gentle, quiet, barely-noticeable kind of power. It is explosive, transformative, world-altering power. And it was not given to a handful of exceptional individuals. It was poured out on all who were gathered, and it has been available to every genuine follower of Jesus ever since.
The tragedy is that many believers walk around as though they are carrying water pistols when they have been handed something far more powerful. They know the language of spiritual authority. They have heard the sermons. But when it comes to actually praying with authority, actually commanding sickness or darkness or fear to yield in the name of Jesus, they hesitate. They qualify. They add the phrase “if it be your will” as a kind of escape hatch, not as a genuine submission to God’s sovereignty but as a way of managing their own expectations in case nothing happens.
The Persistent Faith That Moves Things
Jesus told a parable about a widow who kept coming to an unjust judge with her request, refusing to stop until he answered her. The point was not that God is like an unjust judge who has to be worn down. The point was about the posture of persistent, believing prayer. She did not knock once, hear silence, and walk away. She kept coming. She kept asking. She did not stop until she received what she had come for.
That is the model for praying with authority. Not a single polite request followed by passive resignation, but a sustained, faith-filled pursuit rooted in the conviction that God hears, God moves, and God is faithful to his word. Revelation 12:11 describes believers overcoming by the blood of the Lamb and the word of their testimony. Testimony requires something to have happened. Something to have been believed for, prayed over, and received.
It Is Time to Walk in It
The authority is real. The power is available. The commission has been given. What remains is the decision to believe it enough to actually live it — to pray as though prayer matters, to speak in Jesus’ name as though that name carries weight, and to go as those who have genuinely been sent.
You have been given more than you are using. It is time to start.
