Lets go to one of the most quoted leadership scriptures:
Mathew 16:17-19
MSG trans: ‘Jesus came back, “God bless you, Simon, son of Jonah! You didn’t get that answer out of books or from teachers. My Father in heaven, God himself, let you in on this secret of who I really am. And now I’m going to tell you who you are, really are. You are Peter, a rock. This is the rock on which I will put together my church, a church so expansive with energy that not even the gates of hell will be able to keep it out. “And that’s not all. You will have complete and free access to God’s kingdom, keys to open any and every door: no more barriers between heaven and earth, earth and heaven. A yes on earth is yes in heaven. A no on earth is no in heaven.”
AMP – ‘I will give you the keys (authority) of the kingdom of heaven;’
Lets uncover this by point form:
The revelation of the person of Jesus was and is an essential ingredient to the foundation of the Church and the authority of the believer.
The ability to see what God is saying in his word or in a particular situation is called revelation. It is in His word.
He used a wordplay on Peter’s name, declaring to Simon, “Thou are Peter [Petros, or stone], and upon this rock [Petra a mountaneous rock] I will build my church” (Mt. 16:18). Ones capacity is increased in and by revelation.
So Jesus is saying that faith is the ‘stone’ upon which his community will be built—not intellect, not tradition—and as Simon has expressed that quality, he is renamed ‘Stone’ to ’emblemize’ the faith he truly represents. Later Jesus talks about a cornerstone and that is faith.
In Mt. 16:17, Jesus affirms Peter’s declaration of faith and declares that Peter – and by implication, his profession of faith – are the ‘rock’ on which the church is built.
There is a correlation between revelation and power.
The greater the revelation you have of who Jesus is the greater authority to release His power.
That is why the question. “Who do you say I am?” If Jesus is a theological concept that is all you get. But if He is the Christ then He is the anointed one then you will get what He has and is He is – the source of all miracles.
Jesus referred to the “keys.” That is Authority to enact heaven on earth.
The word is keys is the Gr. word, “kleis” denoting power and authority of various kinds.
As given in the last blog: Miracles are part of a spiritual inheritance given to us through Jesus from the dead. And therefore we have received the same dunamis power – the power to perform miracles.
So the revelation of Him releases authority and power. These is part of the keys, and one part of them are the spiritual gifts of which the miraculous is one. We will briefly show how this works.
Eph 3:20 ESV “Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us,”
Notice the word according to the power that works within us. Our ability to do exceedingly abundantly above all we ask or think IS according to the ‘power that works within us’. We have something to do with the releasing of the kingdom of God on earth.
Two words:
‘According’ Gr. which comes to mean: “down from” or “throughout”. So it shows us this that God can do His mighty works down through us. Gods omnipotent ability flows down from or throughout the power that works in us.
Next word is ‘dunamis’ – power: that works in us which literally means miracle-working power or power to perform miracles, or power resident in a thing by virtue of its nature. In other words Gods ability to work for us or through us is inextricably connected to the measure of His power working in us. There is a permanent resident ability within us Act 1:8 says so. Imagine you have a Ford F 450 available with 6.7L Power Stroke V8 Turbo Diesel. All you do is go to work and home in traffic. Maximum speed is probably 80kmh. You never really experience all that brute unleashed power under the bonnet. Then one day you do a trip and discover what the other gears a re really for. Like many believers they live a life stuck in spiritual tarffic not knowing His potential in them. Or is it bad driving habits. have you ever wondered why we are to speak in tongues often?