The world is broken and our mandate as followers of Jesus is to set things right. Doing so takes spiritual authority.

A teenager Clint knew saw herself as fat and ugly. Anorexia was killing her. She weighed 88 pounds. Her father diagnosed her situation with a western worldview and offered her $100 for each pound she gained, to no effect.

Desperate, he called Clint and asked him if he could help. Clint had a conversation with her. It didn't take long before he saw the lying spirit at work and cast if off the girl. She felt something change inside - she didn't hear the same voices. Almost immediately, she began to gain weight again. Today she is a normal, healthy girl.

That was authority working, not doctrinal understanding.

Ten years ago, when Henry Wright rebuked the spirit of death off Caspar McCloud after his heart had stopped, he returned to life. Caspar is a healthy minister of the gospel today, having prayed for and seen many healing miracles himself.

A lot of people would rather go through a lot of convoluted attempts to rationally explain such things, but I say that a more logical explanation has to do with spiritual authority. There is another dimension that we can't see and it is governed by spiritual laws that hinge on spiritual authority.

When Sunday Adelaja began applying his understanding of Jesus' command to disciple nations in Ukraine, his church grew to be the largest in Europe (25,000) and led demonstrations against the communist government. The Ukrainian government later fell. Draw your own conclusions.

Jesus gave his disciples authority over demons on a practice run (Luke 9). When he sent them out again (in Luke 10), their results improved with experience. Spiritual authority must be tested to grow. It's a transaction in the realm of the spirit. No amount of book study will increase your spiritual authority. That's why a lot of seminary grads experience so little fruit - they have book knowledge, but little spiritual authority.

When Jesus gives his disciples the mandate to begin a worldwide discipling campaign (Matt. 28), he notes that he'd been given "all authority in heaven and earth." That's all he needed to commence a global revolution, and it's all we as his disciples need to continue it.

How much spiritual authority do you possess? You won't know until it has been tested.

Read more on this subject: Spiritual authority needs practice