Faith Filled Family Magazine October 2016 | Page 72

AUTHORITY MEANS MORE THAN JUST TAKI
A FEW STEPS

Tread Upon Serpent
and Scorpions
By Amber Lawton

A

uthority, for many believers, is difficult to imagine
because the supernatural realm is unseen. We may
have tangible examples in our
everyday natural life, but spiritually we don’t know how to apply
these principles. What can bring
further difficulty to our perception of authority is the feeling of
not having control. If we are in
a level of position, or influence,
and are uncertain of how to assert our level of authority we can
feel weak. When others usurp
our authority we have tendency
to remain passive, or become
aggressive. Neither of which
are effective. Our tendency to
rely on feelings, emotion, or instant results can be deceiving
to what authority actually looks
like. Let me give you an example. Imagine you are called into
the CEO’s office of the company
you work for. They have just informed you that you are being
promoted for an open position
you did not apply for. You take
the promotion because of the
benefits, and because you are
well qualified in many ways to
complete the assignment. However, this position changes your
ranking in the company and you
now have a team of individuals
that directly report to you. Unbeknownst to you the team is a

rebellious bunch. The only reason the position you acquired
became available is the last person quit under pressure. As well
as the person before them. The
team is rather rowdy, more focused on slacking off, and using
company resources for personal
gain. While other departments
that work closely with them are
aware of this behavior, they
have not been able to address
it. The team members are highly
ranking experts in their respective fields. They may slack off a
majority of the time, but have occasionally shown great success.
Part of this new assignment is
to bring consistent success, and
increase to the department. You
realize you can’t walk in with
your most Stalin-esque attitude
and demand these individuals
to fall in line. Even though every
part of your inner being wants
to walk in the room like Morgan
Freeman in Lean on Me, and in
your best Joe Clark voice tell
everyone who the head person
in charge is. You also recognize
that if you come bearing a box
of donuts your first day you have
already lost their attention. What
then do you do? In this type of
scenario you may find that reviewing policy and procedure
as it relates to your department
will prove to be helpful. In con-

junction with that you also review each employees files for
their strengths and weaknesses
to have a better assessment of
them outside of the unwanted
behavior. You then prepare a
meeting where you discuss the
objective of where you are leading the team, and each person’s
role to this objective. You create
an open dialect with team members, because after all they are
experts. Essentially, you have
created an expectation, while
fostering a safe environment.
Over time unwanted behavior
has been eliminated, because
these types of behaviors are met
with company policy, and discussion. Instead of running to the
CEO’s office every other day,
you recognize you have the authority to address anything that
goes against the standard set.
Like this example we are given
the gospel, not only as a tool of
everyday living, but also as an
instruction to the authority assigned to us.
Luke 10:17-19 NKJV tells us
this: “Then the seventy returned
with joy, saying, “Lord, even the
demons are subject to us in Your
name.” And He said to them, “I
saw Satan fall like lightning from
heaven. Behold, I give you the
authority to trample on serpents