The spirit of control. Matthew chapter 8 and verse 8 and 9. The centurion answered and said Lord I do not deserve to have you come under my roof but just speak the word and my servant will be healed for I’m a man under authority having soldiers under me and I say to this one go and he goes into another come and he comes and to my servant do this and he does it. I remember many years ago when I was still at school they would appoint certain people to to be like little rulers in charge of the pupils.
Now I don’t know what they call them in this end of the world but where I was they were called prefects and they would appoint people from the senior classes in the school to be prefects and prefects were given authority almost like corporals and sergeants in the army. They were given authority over the students. So if a pupil, if a prefect told you to do something you had to obey.
You had authority and it was an awesome thing to be a senior at school and to have everybody look up to you and respect you and do what you tell them to do. Except I wasn’t a prefect. I wasn’t the right kind of person.
Didn’t have the right kind of contacts. My parents didn’t give enough money to the school. You know the kind of things that they chose people to be prefects.
At least that’s the way I thought they never really did choose people who were worthy to be leaders. They just choose people who knew the right people and whose parents were known in the school or if there was a teacher and their children were in the school. Obviously they were prefects.
And I remember the one day, just for fun, I asked one of my friends in my class who was a prefect if I could borrow his prefect’s tie. See those days you got a certain tie if you were a prefect. And so if you walked through the school and everybody saw the tie, the tie said he’s a prefect, do what he tells you to do.
So just for fun the one break time I borrowed somebody’s prefect tie, put it on, and went out amongst the people and tried to act like a prefect. And the people looked at me with disbelief. I said, hey, do that.
And they said, you’re not a prefect, are you? They weren’t absolutely sure because I was wearing the prefect tie. But I think my lack of conviction and authority gave me away. They just wouldn’t do what I told them to do.
I may have looked like a prefect, but I wasn’t one. I never had authority. I think all of us in life somehow desire to have authority over others, to be able to have the control to dominate and to tell other people what to do, to be looked up to and to be revered.
I think it’s a secret desire in every person to rise up and have greater control and authority. But there’s a danger. And especially as you rise up and are appointed a position over others, if you have a wrong spirit, that position can be abused and misused.
Now, this is very important that we understand how it operates. And I’ve called it the spirit of control. We need to understand how it operates, especially in the Church of God, especially in the ministry.
Especially as we rise up into positions of leadership and authority in the body of Christ. We need to know how to use that authority correctly. We need to know the dangers involved.
And we need to understand some of the things that can go wrong when this spirit of control takes over. Because it will destroy true authority and it will destroy true leadership. And it will destroy those that are under you.
So we need to get it right. Now, the first thing that we need to understand is that there is a difference between authority and control. Well, I’m using the word control in a specific sense now.
Nothing wrong with controlling something if it needs to be controlled. But we’re not speaking about controlling things here. We’re speaking about controlling people.
So we need to understand the difference between authority and control. The difference actually is not always that obvious. But I’d like you to see exactly where each one originates.
And you can begin to understand whether at any point in time you are exercising authority or whether you are exercising control. Authority is always delegated by another. Authority is given by someone else.
Now, authority, in order for you to have authority, it requires you being subject to somebody who is higher in authority than you. Authority always requires being subject to a higher authority. And when you are subject to a higher authority, that authority is passed down and you can in turn take the authority which came from above and you can wield it downwards.
Now, this scripture passage that I read explains it very clearly. The centurion was effectively the leader of a hundred. Hence the word centurion, because century is from the word from which we derive the number of one hundred.
So a centurion was the leader of a band of soldiers, of about a hundred people. Now this centurion, when he came to Jesus, immediately recognized Jesus’ authority. And he said, Lord, I’m unworthy to even come under your roof.
Because I see in you an authority. I see that you are under God and that the very authority of God is being delegated to you. And I know that you have authority over sickness and disease.
And all you need to do is to command that authority and they must bow. But he explains his position. He didn’t say, listen, I’m a hotshot around you.
I’m a centurion. See my rank? See? Fruit salad up on my epaulets. Everybody got to salute and bow and obey and jump.
Stand to attention when I walk past. See, I’m a centurion. And I have authority.
That’s not what he said. He said, I’m a man under authority. I’m under authority.
And because I’m under authority, I now can exercise that authority and I can command others. See, I’ve got soldiers under me. And I can say to one, go.
I can say to another one, come. I can say to my servant, do this. Whatever I command has to be done.
Why? Because I am under authority. I want to emphasize this point. True authority is always subject to a higher authority.
True authority is not the be all and end all. When you’re under authority, you can command others. Now, control.
Control is a power that a person takes without it being given. In English, we use the term autocratic authority. It’s derived from two Greek words.
The word kratis means dominion, domination. The outside part simply means, take it from myself. So autocratic authority is when I take control by myself.
When I take that control, and I usurp it and use it without being subject to a higher authority, I become the final authority. I want you to understand that principle very clearly, because if you can see it very clearly, you’ll never get caught into this trap of exercising the spirit of control rather than spiritual authority that is given to you. Now, where did this control influence come from? How does it happen? What causes a person to move out of the realm of the authority that’s been given to them to autocratically claim for themselves a power that was never given to them? What causes this? Well, obviously, the first thing is that you’ve broken this order of being under authority.
Let me give you a couple of cases, a couple of scenarios of where it happens in our lives and how this thing begins to rise. The first thing that results in people taking control is when the authority above you fails, fails to assert that authority, fails to give that covering of protection that comes from authority. When the authority above you fails, there is a temptation to take control.
The most obvious one begins in the home, and in the home, where’s the authority? God has placed the man first under Christ, the woman under her, and the children under both. So where’s the first failure in the home? Well, it could start with a man. He fails to be the head.
He fails to give the covering of protection and authority, and his wife gets weary of waiting. She can’t exercise authority because her authority is not giving her that authority. So she takes it, and she takes control.
She says, I’m tired of you messing around with the finances. From now on, I’m handling the budget. You don’t want to discipline the children, I will smack them and discipline them, and I will bring order to this home.
You have failed as the head of this home, and I can’t wait any longer. I’m taking over. Now, we see that in politics too, don’t we? They call it military coups.
I didn’t have politics on my list, I’m just mentioning it now. But the family is the most obvious place where it starts. And then the children look, and they see that either mom or dad are not exercising their authority in the home.
A mother is not controlling all the siblings. And so one of the children, maybe the eldest, decides to take it upon herself to be mini-mother. Mother’s too useless, mother’s getting drunk, mother’s running around shopping, or messing around with other guys, whatever.
She’s not a mother. She’s not in the home, not there for the children. So one of the children steps in, takes over the authority, starts commanding and telling the younger siblings what they are allowed and not allowed to do.
We call that parental inversion, or PI. And because this is probably the first and most common source of the spirit of control, the spirit of PI, which we’ve also labeled the Jezebel spirit, and the spirit of Saul. They’re all mixed together.
It’s a spirit of control. It’s a spirit of using power that was not delegated to you. You took it autocratically, you grabbed it for yourself, and then began to use that authority on those below you.
And you’re no longer subject to an authority that’s above you when you’re doing that. Now that can happen in the job. Your boss is weak, can’t make the right decisions, lets the customers run all over him.
So you step in. You start telling some of the other employees what they should do. People start coming to you for advice instead of the boss.
Before you know it, you’re running the company and the boss doesn’t even know it. Autocratic control. Why? Because the higher authority failed to fulfill their responsibility.
We see it in the church. The pastor is weak. He lets people just manipulate him.
And sooner or later there’ll be those amongst the elders of the church who will now take control and determine what the pastor’s allowed and not allowed to do, what the people are allowed and not allowed to do. And they will sometimes totally usurp the pastor’s authority. And people will be too afraid to not obey because the elder is so strong.
And so awesome and fearsome that they’re afraid to not submit to that authority. Even though it’s quite obvious that that authority doesn’t come from the top. The guy at the top is not stepping in and correcting the elder.
He’s not saying you’re wrong, you’re out of order. So the people below automatically assume, well, he’s doing it with the pastor’s authority. So we must submit to it.
We have this autocratic leader. And eventually what is going to happen is he’s probably going to arrange to kick the pastor out and he’s going to take over the church. You ever seen it? Failure in the higher authority and failure in a lower authority to submit and to maintain submission to the higher authority.
Is it wrong if your leader is weak and you have strengths that he doesn’t have? Is it wrong for you to overcome the weaknesses of your leader by adding your strengths? No, it’s not. Provided you’re doing it under authority. Doing it under authority.
See, the centurion may say, well, you know what? I really have no confidence in my leader, my leader of thousands, or even all the way up to Caesar. That’s not his prerogative. He’s been delegated authority and in the context of that authority, he asserts his authority.
He doesn’t command a soldier to do something which Caesar has forbidden. Can’t do that. That’s always done in the context of higher authority.
Now, the classic case we see in scripture where this failure in authority and taking control occurred is of course in Jezebel. Jezebel was the queen, but the king was in charge. The king was the one who made the decrees and the laws.
The king was the one who was the final authority and she was under him as the queen and reigning with him and under him, but subject to him. And yet she had authority. She had authority over the people.
Under him. But King Ayyub was a mummy’s boy, a weakling. Didn’t have the courage or the strength to be the leader that he should have been.
And she got fed up and just stepped in and took over. Okay. You don’t have the courage to stand against this guy who won’t sell you his vineyard.
I’ll do something about it. Just grab the seal out of his hand, made a decree and sealed it in the king’s name and send it off. Go kill him.
And have him killed. And good old Ahab, instead of bringing her into line said, hang on, hang on, that’s wrong. I never ordered that.
Stop that right now. He just submitted to it and rejoiced in the fact that he got the vineyard and she took control. And from there on it went from bad to worse.
She made him serve her God, which was Baal. She made him kill all the prophets. She usurped that authority, took it over.
She took control. It was the spirit of control. Can you see it? Now, sure she was a stronger leader.
And if he had given her that authority and said, okay, go ahead and do it. It would have been perfectly in order. She could have appealed to him and said, look, you know, I know that you don’t have the courage to do this, but don’t you think this is what should be done? You know what the kings of those days, actually, I don’t think any of them had any courage because they always had a bunch of advisors would tell them what to do.
But at the end of the day, when the king made the decision, whether it was the wrong decision or the right decision, he was the high authority and those below him would have to carry it out. Whether they like it or not, it’s the chain of command and the chain of command stands firm. And you know what? It works.
It works in the military where it goes right from the top, from the chief of staff, right down through the generals, right down to the private. And everybody maintains that authority, each one being under authority, each one having authority, each person doing what they’re told and giving commands accordingly. Everything flows perfectly until some general thinks I don’t like the way they’re doing it.
I would like to take control. I would like to be the ultimate authority. And the spirit of control comes into play.
And the country is in anarchy. There’s civil war. There’s all sorts of problems going on.
And who suffers? Everybody underneath. Everybody underneath suffers when a person takes control. You might think that this only affects you.
It doesn’t. Because what you are passing down to the people is something that originated from you, not from your higher authority. Now, who’s the highest authority? He’s got to stop somewhere.
You say, well, that’s fine. I have people under me and I have somebody above me. But when you get to the top, how high do you go? Where do you finally get to the place where, as they say in America, the buck stops here.
This is the guy who is the final authority, who determines the source of all authority. All we know is only one person that carries that authority. And his name is God.
Because he’s the source of all authority. And so all authority comes from God. Even in the book of Romans where Paul speaks about civil authorities and magistrates and governors.
He says he is a servant of God to keep law and order. God is the ultimate originator of authority. If there were no God, there would be no authority.
But God took that authority and he delegated it to man. And he put man in charge of the earth. And he put Adam in charge of the woman and of the children and of the animals and of all the earth.
And do you know what? Everything went great until the spirit of control entered. And where did the spirit of control come from? It came from the serpent. The serpent who came and put ideas into Eve’s head and said, Hey, how would you like to be like the ultimate authority? God himself.
And the first thing she did is she took control, usurped the authority of her husband and thereby affected the whole world. Opened the door to the curse. Can you see the danger of the spirit of control? It’s deadly.
Spirit of control also comes when you rebel against the authority. And the scripture says rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft. And stubbornness as idolatry.
That was the soul spirit, wasn’t it? King Saul, when God gave him commandment and told him what to do, and he took it upon himself, he didn’t think it was a good idea. Sorry God, you missed it this time. I think you’re getting a bit old up there.
And you’re getting a bit senile. And you don’t understand what’s going on down here. So just for now, just let me handle this, okay? Because you don’t know what you’re doing.
That’s effectively what he did. I mean all these animals. Come on God, just think about it.
Just think about what these animals are worth. You’re asking me to throw away millions. We could use it for your kingdom.
Now people argue that way still with God. And try to usurp his authority and do what they think is right. Instead of obeying the spirit of God.
It’s a spirit of control. What did it bring? It brought destruction, it brought curse. Spirit of control.
Also takes place where there’s an insecure authority. And there was Saul again. When they first came to a point, Saul to be king.
Where did they find him? Hiding. Hiding away amongst all the stuff. You can’t understand why a guy like that would be insecure.
He was about six inches taller than everybody else. Everybody were looking up to him. Thought he was this great big hulking brute.
The women probably thought he was wonderful. And he’s hiding away. He’s insecure.
And a person’s insecure. They sometimes try to cover that insecurity. With an external form of strengths.
I’ll show you I’m not weak. I’m strong. Look at me.
I’m a tough guy. Are you? Do that. Jump.
Come on. We start asserting authority that actually isn’t authority. It’s insecurity.
But it looks like authority. You don’t have to be insecure in your authority. Because your authority is not based on you.
It’s based on who lives above you. You say, well I don’t feel very confident in my authority. Then use the name of the person that’s above you.
Hulk’s in the name of the king. It’s not your name you’re using. No, we’ve been given a name, haven’t we? It’s a name that has the highest authority in the world.
And in heaven. And earth. And under the earth.
In heaven and hell. And on the earth. In the name of Jesus.
No, we can say stop. We can say do this. We can say don’t do that.
Or who do you think you are to tell me to do that? I come in the name of Jesus. Oh, okay. I come in the name of the king.
Are you sure? You want proof? There’s my insignia. Okay, okay, okay. I’m sorry, I’m sorry.
I’ll do it. They don’t think nothing of you. Puny little traffic cop stands up in the middle of the road.
Holds up his hand. And this great big ten-ton truck comes to a screeching halt. Where did he get this power? He hasn’t got any power.
Now you go try and do it and see if you can stop a bicycle. But he stands up there in his uniform. As proof.
That he’s been given authority. From somebody above. From somebody that everybody has to listen to.
And he stands in that authority. And he asserts that authority. People go and look at him and say what an ugly looking cop.
I don’t see why I should stop. Do you know what? The guy’s only five foot five. How can he stop a great big truck? It’s even worse.
It’s a woman. Why should I submit to a woman? Sometimes they’re tougher, let me tell you. It’s not your authority.
If it’s not your authority, you don’t have to make excuses for it. And you don’t have to be insecure about how useless you are. Obviously somebody higher than you.
Considered you worthy to carry that authority. And if that person gave you that authority. You have a right to use that authority.
And to command those below you. Who are not given that level of authority. It’s that simple really.
You don’t have to be insecure in your leadership. You don’t have to try and take control to prove that you have authority. All you need to do is be in submission to the higher authority.
And it’s quite obvious where the control is coming from. It’s coming from the top. Not from you.
And then there are those who abuse their authority. Because of this great big need for recognition within so many of us. We think that now that we’ve got authority.
At last, I can act like the boss. I can do what I like. Boss is away, everybody take the day off.
Or, eh, let’s just not work for today. Or, why don’t we all go out for golf for the afternoon? Hey, I’m the boss now, I can do that, right? I can do that. Well, what were the boss’s instructions? What would the boss expect you to do? If he were there? Scripture gives us an example of that in Luke chapter 12.
Speaks of a master who put a servant in charge while he was gone. And the Lord said, if that servant should say in his heart, my master is taking his time and returning. And he should begin to beat the male and female servants to have parties and continually get drunk.
The master of that servant will come on a day when he’s not expecting him. In a time that he’s not aware of. And will cut him to pieces and allocate him a position with those that cannot be trusted.
Don’t abuse the authority. Don’t think that, hey, I must be such a good guy. That the boss put me in charge.
Maybe there was nobody else. You just got the luck of the draw. You just happened to be the only person there who could handle it.
And the boss had nobody else he could use, so he picked you. Always consider yourself unworthy. To carry the authority and the power that has been placed into your hands.
See, how do we break free of the spirit of control? Well, perhaps the first place you need to start is to go back. As far back as you can remember. And think about all of the people that were above you that you judged.
Think about your parent that you judged. You thought, I can do better than him. I can do better than her.
See, that’s where it started. That’s where you began to reject the authority that you were under. And that’s when the spirit of control began to take place in your life.
And then learn to submit to whatever authority God has placed over you right now. Because when you’re under authority, you can command. Until you come under authority, you have no authority to command.
Perhaps you’re afraid to let go of the spirit of control. You say, well, you know, if I let people see me the way I really am, all weak and frail, they’ll jump all over me. They’ll have me for breakfast.
Whose authority are you under? See, if people should attack your authority, you simply bounce it upwards and you say, don’t talk to me. You command somebody to do something and say, you don’t have power over me. I remember the famous Derrick Prince.
He was well known in his life for deliverance ministry. And I listened to one of his tapes many years ago when I was trying to learn about deliverance. When I still knew nothing about deliverance.
And I remember he was telling of an African preacher who was dealing with a demon in somebody. And the demon said to him, you can’t cast me out, you’re uneducated. You’re too stupid to cast me out.
And the man said, I’m casting you out in the name of Jesus, not in my name. No, you will come out. He knew his authority.
Stop looking at yourself and thinking I’m weak and frail. Of course, you’re weak and frail. That’s why you needed to be given authority from somebody else.
You’ll always be weak and frail. And you know, that is the key. That is the key to your authority.
It’s not your natural strength, but your humility, your ability to submit. I’m going to close by reading you a passage from Hebrews. Which describes us, to us, the way Jesus was.
The one who carries the name that is above all names. Hebrews 5 verse 1. It says, For every high priest taken from among men is ordained for man in things pertaining to God, that he may offer both gifts and sacrifices. You can have compassion on the ignorant and on them that are out of the way.
Because he himself is surrounded with weakness. And he says, And no man takes the son unto himself but the one who is called of God. Like Aaron.
He says, So also Christ glorified not himself to be made a high priest. But he that said to him, You are my son, today I have begotten you. He says in another place, You’re a priest forever.
After the order of Melchizedek. How did Jesus respond to this? Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up prayers and supplication, with strong crying and tears to him that was able to save him from death, and was heard because he feared. Though he was a son, yet he learned obedience by the things that he suffered.
And so he was given the name. Which is above every name. In the name of Jesus every knee shall bow.
Things in heaven and things in earth and things under the earth. How did Jesus get that authority? By submitting totally. Where even at the point where he was tempted to give it in.
He said, Not my will. Father, let yours be done. But Father, this is getting to the point where I’m thinking, I don’t think this is such a good idea anymore.
But you know what? You said it. I’ll do it. I’m not going to question your authority.
I’m going to follow through. Jesus earned to himself the highest authority that there was. You want to get promoted? You want to have control over more people? You want to move higher in authority? You don’t compete with the person that’s above you and displace him.
You walk in humility and you say, Okay. Here I am. I will be the servant.
What would you like me to do? That’s the person that’s going to get promoted. Because they’re faithful to submit. The spirit of control will destroy and take away every opportunity you could ever have in life.
The spirit of control will cause you to be demoted and removed from position. And end up as the servant who thought he could just take control and do what he wants. You’ll be put at the bottom rank.
You’ll be put at the bottom of the pile. You’ll never have a chance to rise again. It’s very easy to overcome the spirit of control.
Walk in the spirit of humility. Walk in the spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead. Walk in the spirit of Christ which dwells within you.
And as you walk humbly under his authority, people will look at you like they did at the disciples and say, I can see who you’ve been with. I can see it shining right out of you. And what are they going to see? They’re going to see your higher authority.
And what are they going to submit to? They’re going to submit to your higher authority. Because they can see that authority just shining out from you. That’s the only way you’ll overcome the spirit of control.
Amen.