Quotes about Authority

I have a reverential fear of God in my life, and I think we need a lot more of that. I believe that God is God, and I believe He means business. If He tells me to do something, He means it, and when He tells me not to do something, He means it.

If we are trusting God to bless us through those who are in authority over us, yet we aren't praying for them - it's as if we're not praying for ourselves.

Jesus knew when it was about time for Him to go to the cross. In John 14:30 He actually said to His disciples, I will not talk with you much more, for the prince (evil genius, ruler) of the world is coming. And he has no claim on Me. [He has nothing in common with Me; there is nothing in Me that belongs to him, and he has no power over Me.]

When we do not take authority over our own souls and we allow our emotions to run wild, we lose our peace very quickly. We certainly end up in inner turmoil and we often create strife in our relationships. For

I looked at that woman and thought, This poor lady thinks she is hearing from God. "But how do you know she wasn't?" you may ask. I know because if God had wanted to correct me about my clothes, He would have done it through my husband, one of my children or one of the leaders in my ministry. He would have chosen someone I knew and whose opinion I respected, not someone I had never met or even heard of before. It

We convince by our presence.

Pharaoh is clearly a metaphor. He embodies and represents raw, absolute, worldly power. He is, like Pilate after him, a stand-in for the whole of the empire. As the agent of the "empire of force," he reappears in many different personae.9

When we suffer from amnesia, every form of serious authority for faith is in question, and we live unauthorized lives of faith and practice unauthorized ministries.

The truth that is variously enacted by such agents is not an idea or a proposition. It is rather a habit of life that simply (!) refuses the totalizing claims of power. The governor, on behalf of the empire, will continue to ask, "What is truth?" And the apostles will continue to give answer, uncommonly unintimidated: "'We must obey God rather than any human authority'" (Acts 5:29).14

The royal dynasty of King David, as portrayed in the biblical text, was a tax-collecting, labor-exploiting, surplus-wealth-exhibiting regime.

power is not free to disregard truth.

The withdrawal of the king from the narrative exposes the king as an irrelevance. The one with all the power can do nothing to save. Because it is only "my God who saves.