I Say Come & They Come…

Our kids’ club meeting last night was about the Roman Centurian in Luke 7 who amazed Jesus with his faith. Think about that – amazing Jesus! But he did, so let’s look at him & learn. The main point I was getting out of this story was he had faith – I always link this passage to Hebrews 11:6 – “Without faith it is impossible to please God…” But I stumbled upon an obscure Donut Man song & it brought out a whole new side to this story. WE have authority under Jesus! If you want to hear the song, you have to go to his site & scroll down to the “King of Kings” album. The song is the second one down, The Centurian’s Secret. Double click on it & you can hear the whole song. It goes…

A centurian soldier marched up to Jesus
& said, “My good dear servant is so terribly ill.”
Jesus said He’d come quickly but the soldier replied,
“Just say the word & I know that he will be alright
FOR… I, too, am a man under authority.
I say come & they come. I say go & they go.
Oh… I, too, am a man under authority.
Just say the word & I know he’ll be healed as I go.”

Jesus then marveled, “I’ve never seen faith
like his in all Israel in all of My days!”
The soldier knew the secret of Jesus’ ways
& his servant was healed when that centurian said…
“I, too, am a man under authority.
I say come & they come. I say go they go…”

We, too, are men under authority of Jesus if you make Him your Lord. When you pray, you can ask for God’s blessings to come & they’ll come. You can tell the Devil to go & he will go!

“I, too, am a man under authority.
I say come & they come. I say go & they go…”
Left, right, left, right , left!
God’s power is ours if we obey!
In His Name we chase the Devil away!!

My first reaction to that song was, “Oh, boy, I don’t want to be teaching ‘name it claim it’ theology here!” But the more I thought about that, the more I want to use this song again. As long as the kids know we’re not talking about “magic words” for whatever we want here, this is a very important teaching for our kids that isn’t talked about much in my circles.

We DO have authority in Jesus. We have it, not Satan! But so often we Christians live our lives either totally unaware of the fact we have an enemy prowling around like a roaring lion trying to destroy us, or we don’t have the faith to believe we can do anything about it!

Do we live like we have Jesus’ authority to keep the Devil from running the show? In our homes? In our country? In our world? In our churches? We end our prayers with “In Jesus’ Name, Amen.” If we pray in Jesus’ Name (in line with His will), He has “given (us) authority over all the power of the enemy…” (Luke 10:19). Just sit back for a minute & think about that!

At the teachers’ meeting afterward, a teacher brought up the prayer request for a few of the older kids’ attitudes. On our ride home, Keith shared that the youth group has the same issue & request. These are boys from solid families. Keith & I put two & two together – Satan has his sights on these young men!! Our church is not lacking for male role models & leadership, yet the youth group is lacking due to boys from godly homes not maturing & stepping up. Not only are they not stepping up, their attitudes run the risk of distacting others. And the older boys in our kids group are following in their steps. We have started a serious prayer battle for these boys. They have so much potential & Satan knows it! We must pray a hedge of protection around these guys & command Satan to leave them alone, in faith, knowing we have the authority & power to do so! Exciting stuff!!

God wants us to be great & mighty, but there’s a “secret” to unlocking God’s power in our life – obey God. That’s a pretty big & neccessary point to make to these kids & remind myself right along with it!

You thought from the title that this post was going to be about my kids & discipline, didn’t you? Well, actually, in a round about way, it is. Power in prayer & obedience seem to be pretty closely linked. Keith & I dream of the day when a certain little one in the family gets the point that when we say “come”, he is to come, etc. – every time – preferrably with a smile & “yes, Ma’am”. How often & in what areas has God said the same thing about me? DOH!