5. What Authority Means

A brother asked me the following question. “When you say you are the Throne of God, what do you mean?”

We can see how this question fits right here at the beginning of the River of Life flowing out.

And he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding from the throne of God and of the Lamb (Revelation 22:1). – He that believes into Me, out of His innermost being will flow rivers of living water (John 7:38).

The River proceeds from the throne of God – the River proceeds from our innermost beings. Same river – same source.

Now, I don’t know for sure, I have written a lot of stuff, much of it in exuberance, but I don’t think I would say, specifically, that “I” am the Throne of God, but that my heart is that Throne. – And your heart as well.

But I have made this grandiose and extravagant claim. Have a look at this picture – Immediately I was in the Spirit; and behold, a throne set in heaven, and One sat on the throne (Revelation 4:2). – John was looking right at my heart, the throne of heaven upon which Father sits – and your heart as well.

The question is, however – What does that mean?

In order to give a response to that specific question, let’s go through how on earth I would make such a claim that my heart is that Throne. We know that there is no verse that actually says – “The heart of a believer in Jesus is the very Throne of God in the heavens.”

And in order to set forth such a claim, we must weave together the dynamic and living actions that are faith. Faith aggressively receives into itself every word God speaks through “Let it be to me.” Faith asks God and then believes it has received. Faith gives thanks in and for all things, knowing that God IS and that God IS doing. Faith speaks, and faith sees.

Let’s start with that last one – faith sees. Faith is the eyes of our spirits, and faith actively sees.

BUT – consider an infant. The image entering the eyes of an infant is reflected upside down on the back of his eyeballs. To the infant, as those upside-down images transfer to his brain, everything in his world is upside down from reality. BUT – as the infant reaches up to touch his mother’s face, his hand tells him that her mouth is below her nose, not the other way around. For a time, he is quite confused, but after a while, before he is able to walk, his brain has performed a mighty action of faith. His brain has re-interpreted every visual image coming in and turned it right-side up automatically, every single time.

Your brain sees by faith, for the real images coming in are all entirely upside down.

The most wonderful experience happened to me in the fall of 2011, as God turned my seeing right-side up and I saw God as He is for the first time. Always before I had seen God upside down, that is, I had called what God deems despicable, to be the “highest qualities of God,” and I had called “despicable” what God deems His highest qualities.

To God, the highest quality in the universe is a man of weakness humbling Himself under all, speaking “Father, forgive them” to the worst people on earth.

As God defines Himself by Heart, He is meek and lowly of earth, a Mighty Being who sees all others as better than Himself.

And so when we say “the throne of God,” we are not talking about some chair where a formed and bounded “God” sits up there somewhere in a measured geographical location called “heaven.” Just as the lampstand John saw IS the Church of Christ, so the throne He saw IS the authority of God in the universe; that is, the throne is a metaphor of one concept – authority.

When you see the throne right side up, you are seeing what all humans in their hatred of being the image and likeness of God call “low” and “despicable.” And when humans in rebellion against a God who reveals Himself through weakness, contemplate what they would call “the throne of God,” their eyes see the exaltation of external power and domination. They see what they want to see.

However, it is always a great danger to us to consider anything of God as ideas for our minds. We are not trying to figure out what all this means. If we were, we would quickly die.

And so we are always actively engaging in the primary action of a living faith, and that is seizing for ourselves every Word God speaks that it might enter into us to birth and form Christ in us as our life.

To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne (Revelation 3:21).

John defines “overcome” in 1 John 5:4-5. For all who have been conceived out from God overcome the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world – our faith. Who now is the [one] overcoming the world, if not the [one] believing that Jesus is the Son of God?

We assume that God’s word to us is His will. It is the intense desire of God that we sit down with Jesus in that throne of heaven that John sees in the very next part of his vision. Because we know that it is God’s will, we are not only free in Christ, but compelled to ask God to fulfill His word in us, and then, having asked, to believe that we have received, as Jesus commanded us to do.

God, I ask that you seat me together with Jesus in your throne, in all authority found in the entire universe, this present heaven-earth. Father, having asked, I believe that I have received all that I ask. I know, Father, that I am seated right now with Jesus inside your great Authority over all, for I have asked according to Your will and I confess that I have received all I have asked.

[Dear Reader, as an aside, let me recommend that you actively engage with God in this way regarding all the big things He speaks before you seek to obtain understanding from me. No one who does not engage directly with God face to Face regarding His Word – receiving that word aggressively through “Let it be to me” can know personally the things I teach.]

So, here is the progression.

“All authority in heaven and upon earth is given unto Me.” Jesus Christ – in Matthew 28.

“Christ lives in your heart through faith,” Paul – his gospel found in Ephesians 3.

It’s a simple equation. – All authority in heaven and upon earth lives inside your heart through faith.

The fact of Ephesians 3:17 requires us to see our own hearts as the place where the King of All dwells and from whence His river of influence flows.

But again – What does that mean?

Before responding to that question, let’s come at Authority from another angle. From Ezekiel we know that the Mercy Seat in the Holy of Holies is God’s throne, and that the rivers of living water flow out from that same Mercy Seat.

And when John speaks of the propitiation of the Blood, he is speaking of that Mercy Seat. – And He is the propitiation [the resolution] {the Mercy Seat} all around our sins; but not all around ours only, but also all around [the sins of] the entire cosmos (1 John 2:2).

And so we can also say – The Propitiation [there I will meet with you] lives inside your hearts through faith, thus seeing our own hearts as the very Mercy Seat of God, sprinkled with blood, Jesus as authority, not just “seated” but ENERGEOING our hearts.

Authority means the right to command. But authority, by itself, accomplishes nothing. Authority cannot mean anything without power. And power is that which causes change or causes things to go in one direction instead of another.

The are two means of power in our present world. Humans define power by one thing only – FORCE. Consider the “horsepower” in an engine. What does that mean? It means that by exploding gasoline, the engine, by violence, forces the piston to go in a direction the piston would not choose to go if left to itself. And because the piston is forced by violence to go up and down, that same violence is directed to the wheels and the car goes in the direction the driver, controlling all that violence, intends to go. And the truth is, if you would measure the violence taking place to get you to the grocery store and back, exploding all that power at once, you would probably blow your house to smithereens.

All exercise of authority among men accomplishes the will of that authority by violence, by inflicting unbearable pain on others in order to force them in one direction or another.

Jesus said, “Let it not be so among you.”

All human government on this earth exercises its rule by imposing pain upon people in order to force them to do what they would not do of themselves.

God never does. God wins all hearts through love, through a Man laying down His life for them, and then causes everything to grow out from what it is in itself, a process called LIFE. And thus the River of Life flowing out, that is, the Spirit, is “upon all flesh.” That means, that when God exercises His authority, He simply moves up from within by His Spirit, extending Himself as that person in all that person is.

This quality is, of course, symmorphy, a quality of living in which our will and God’s will are continuously made one by Jesus.

Here is God’s political order. – Those who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God – owe no man anything except to love one another. And that Spirit arises within each person in full agreement with who and what they are.

God always accomplishes His desire through symmorphy and never by force.

Authority is the right to accomplish one’s desire, and power is the means by which one accomplishes one’s desire.

Here is the Desire of all authority in heaven and upon earth. – Father, I DESIRE that those whom You have given Me might be with Me, that they might behold My glory that You gave Me … that the love with which You loved Me, might be inside of them, and I inside of them (John 17:24-26).

You see that last part; that is the exercise of power by which Jesus causes His wishes to happen. – That the love with which You loved Me, might be inside of them, and I inside of them.

This is why we must be turned right-side up in our seeing. All humans lust after a “god-power” of force, to force their wills upon others, to rule over, to compel, “to get all these losers to do what I, in my brilliance and centrality, in my godhood, insist that they do. And if they don’t want to do what I say, then I will inflict pain in their lives, and I will increase that pain until they run screaming to obey me.”

This is one of the worst accusations against God believed fiercely by most Christians, that the “Kingdom of God” is an exercise of this kind of demonic wickedness, that God is a “dictator” compelling His will by pain-producing violence, forcing all against their wills to go contrary to themselves in order to “be obedient.”

As revolting as this accusation of evil against our Father is, this is how most of our brethren define His authority and power – by the devil. And they do so because they prefer to live inside the whips of “sin – do not sin,” rather than living only inside of Jesus.

Here’s what I am getting at. BEFORE we can know what it means to be the authority of God in the universe, we must be cleansed of all that filthiness of accusation that we once leveled against God, that He rules by the violent infliction of pain and not by Christ winning hearts by love and joining the will of the human together with the will of Father, in a symmorphic expression of both together.

And the glory which You have given Me, I have given them, that they might be one as We are one; I inside of them, and You inside of Me, that they might be perfected, brought to full completion inside of one, that the world might know… (John 17:22-23).

So, back to the question, but let me rephrase it slightly. What does it mean to be the authority of God right now inside our present world? And further, if we possess that authority as the very Life of our hearts, what is the power going forth from us that causes our desire to happen?

And that is the very question this present series is attempting to answer.

What does it mean to be the throne of God? BE the Mercy Seat. And what that means is found in Knowing Jesus As He Is; follow the link to read those letters again. HOWEVER, do not ever treat sharing heart with God as a mental idea. Never, never, never do you want to treat your Father in such a cold and uncaring way.

And that is why, if your heart is true, that you must Practice the Mercy Seat until it becomes the habit of your life, the beating of your heart, the breathing of your breath.

And what is the POWER, then, flowing out from the Authority of God energeoing as dynamic LIFE inside your heart? – “He that believes into Me, out from his heart, his belly, his innermost being will flow RIVERS of living water.”

God accomplishes all His will by winning hearts by love, in complete respect and honor for each person, and then by the sending forth of LIFE to heal and bring the joy of completion to each individual person coming out from His Being and expressing as themselves His own personality and nature.

And the One who ties all this together and makes it all happen is our High Priest, the Lord Jesus Christ. And the One going forth to accomplish all Oour desire, Father and us together, is Oour precious and Holy Spirit.

This is what I mean when I say that my heart is God’s throne, the Authority of God in and towards this present heaven-earth.

But, let’s come at what being God’s authority means from a slightly different direction.

The one presently and actively overcoming and keeping watch until the completion of My works, I will give him authority upon the peoples, and he will shepherd them in a staff of iron, as the earthen vessels are broken; even as I also have received from My Father… (Revelation 2:26-28). – Now out of His mouth goes forth a sharp and eager sword, that with it He should strike the peoples. And He Himself will shepherd them in a staff of iron… (Revelation 19:15).

And again – He humbled Himself… Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow… (Philippians 2:8-10).

Most interpret this line the opposite of how God’s means it, that is they see everything upside down and not by faith in God. In other words, Jesus did something contrary to His “Godhood,” that is, He humbled Himself. And because He did so, then God made Jesus to be like the devil, forcing everyone to do what He says.

No, that doesn’t make any sense, in the same way that nothing inside the tree of right and wrong actually makes sense.

What God means is that this quality of revealing God as He is – meek and lowly of heart, seeing all others as better – IS the greatest thing in all the universe to God.

So Jesus, in His honored humility COMMANDS. And what is the sword coming out of His mouth by which He strikes all peoples?

In actuality, Jesus spoke five commands inside of “He humbled Himself.” In four of those commands, Jesus commanded God. Jesus, in His humility, commanded God to obey Him. And God DOES what Jesus commands Him to do. It’s called the Covenant.

The Sword of Jesus’ mouth is His requirement to God that God would obey Him.

Let’s list the obedience Jesus commands of God in the order that we know them.

Jesus first requirement of God that God would obey Him. – Father FORGIVE them.

– And immediately the Father obeyed.

Jesus second requirement of God that God would obey Him. – Father KEEP them. – And immediately the Father obeyed.

Jesus third requirement of God that God would obey Him. – Father make them HOLY. – And immediately the Father obeyed.

Jesus fourth requirement of God that God would obey Him. – Father Glorify Me in them. – And immediately the Father obeyed.

Then Jesus turns and speaks one commandment to us, in the exercise of His authority. – This is My commandment that you love one another just exactly as I love you.

But what does that mean? You and I are incapable of love – apart from Me you can do nothing. Apart from Father, you cannot love.

God is love.

This is My commandment that God would be all your connections together, flowing back and forth among you as Himself, that is as Love.

And immediately the Father obeyed. – Now hope does not bring to shame, because the love of God has [already] been poured out [has been shed abroad] inside of our hearts through Spirit Holy, the One having been given to us (Romans 5:5).

God’s part in this Covenant is to do what Jesus commands Him to do, that is, to do what He says, to fulfill His Word in our lives. Our part in this Covenant is to believe in Jesus, and so we do with all our hearts, calling God true at every point and seeing nothing else.

You ask me what I mean by my claim that I am the authority of God in the universe. I have taught you what I mean as carefully as I can. Let me lay it out again specifically, from Knowing Jesus As He Is.

11. Together we take our place as God’s authority, setting creation free, bringing life to all.

• 11.1 God placed humans as His authority over all. Changing our place never enters God’s mind. We have the authority of God to love one another and to call all things into goodness.
• 11.2 The work of God flows into all creation through humans. God reveals Himself, makes Himself known through us together, and His work is accomplished in creation by the sending forth of the Spirit as a River of Life.
• 11.3 The great task of believers is to set creation free. Our confidence is the first proof of Christ, and our loving one another is the second. As we love one another, so that River of Life flows out into all things, bringing all things into the glorious liberty of our Salvation.

12. We walk together as the full expression that is Christ, casting down every false word and sending forth the Holy Spirit as Rivers.

• 12.1 Believers walk as if already resurrected, just as Jesus walked, by this response to every Word God speaks – Let it be to me. Having no sufficiency in ourselves, we know that God directs our every step in the celebration of victory.
• 12.2 Through humans God proves Christ against all that opposes. The accuser accuses the Word God speaks of falseness; we cast that voice down as the Church together. Jesus proves Himself true as we see Him as He is in one another.
• 12.3 The ministry of Christ is the sending forth of the Holy Spirit to accomplish all that Love desires. That river of the Spirit flowing out from Father and us together will transform everything with the knowledge of God-made-visible.

HOWEVER, all of this must remain as a mental idea only and thus can only kill us, unless we engage directly with God in this most important point.

9.3 As believers love one another, so they share Hheart with God. Know that you are the Mercy Seat of God, practice being that Mercy Seat, love one another out from your shared Hheart with Father, that is, the Lord Jesus Christ.

A brother shared with me just recently, that when I sent out the assignment a few months ago, that you Practice the Mercy Seat, he followed that exercise fully all the way through for the first time.

Practicing the Mercy Seat changed his life more than he is able to express to me. At this point in his life, a few months later, he is not “trying to understand” what it means to be the authority of God in his world all around himself, he is being that authority.

And as we together practice being the Mercy Seat together, both towards one another in all ways as well as out towards all our world around us, we will see with our eyes what God means by rivers of living water flowing out of us.

What does it mean to be the throne of God?

It means to love one another and to call all things into goodness.