Our Badge Of Authority

Let me use a story to illustrate the power of delegated authority. In the United States they have many small towns they call “whistle stops”, the kind where if you come down one side of a steep hill and go up the other side, you have passed through the town. At the bottom of the hill in this story, there was one main store that housed groceries, a post office, and the city gas pumps.

A big thirty-two-foot truck once came down the hill at about Sixty miles per hour, violating the speed limit of twenty-five miles per hour. A man sitting in front of the all-purpose store, dressed in a blue uniform, saw this truck speeding down the hill. Without a moment’s hesitation, he stepped out into the middle of the street, held up his hand, and brought the truck to a screeching halt.

This man was an elderly gentleman, the town’s only police officer, a retired coal miner. About seventy years of age, he was about five feet six inches in stature and weighed about 150 pounds. That elderly man slowly walked over to the cab of that truck and spoke with a voice that echoed down the street. “Get out of that truck, mister!” When the truck cab opened, a burly man of about six feet and two-hundred and forty pounds crawled out. The short, elderly policeman shook his old bony finger at this giant of a truck driver and shouted, “Where do you think you’re going? What are you trying to do, kill somebody?”

“No, sir!” the truck driver replied. “I’m sorry, sir. I didn’t mean to violate the speed limit.”

“Follow me,” the policeman ordered. He took him into the general store which was also the police station, wrote him a ticket, and fined him right on the spot. The driver meekly paid the fine and left silently.

My question is this: Do you think the truck driver, six feet tall, two-hundred and forty pounds, middle-aged and strong, was afraid of the old retired coal miner? No. It is absurd to think so. It was his police badge of authority which said, “This man represents the state of Pennsylvania and behind him is all the power of that state and the United States.”

You stand in authority over all the power of the enemy. Jesus said, “As My Father sent Me, even so, send I you.” You are a man of authority. God’s badge of authority gives you power which the devil cannot violate. Satan and evil must obey this authority for it comes from God Who is all-powerful.

No, the devil is not afraid of us, but he is afraid of Jesus. He is afraid of the badge of authority that we wear because we do not stand alone. Behind us stands Jesus and behind Him stands God the Father. When we catch sight of these facts, we have the keys to power in our hands.