I Have Given You Authority: Spirit of the Living God Series, #2

By Pastor Jedidiah

About the Book

In his revised landmark book, I HAVE GIVEN YOU AUTHORITY, Author, Missionary, and President at CrownLife International Inc 501(c)(3), Pastor Jedidiah Wayne Gaines draws on more than four decades of ministry experience to impart anointed wisdom, understanding, knowledge and revelation concerning the amazing things that God our Father does for His children.

This life-transforming book will teach you how to firmly grasp what Jesus established as "The Agenda for Rejoicing!" You will learn about the vast Kingdom Authority made available to the children of God, as well as the sacred trust established between God and His people.

As you read this anointed book, you will gain practical insights and revelations on how to receive God's "AUTHORITY AND POWER TO OVERCOME!" Every believing spouse and parent should desire and strive to equip their family with the "Authority and Power to Overcome!" coupled with an "Agenda for Rejoicing!" Amazingly, God accomplished this very thing for us through His beloved Son Jesus Christ.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Pastor Jedidiah
• Release date: Oct 29, 2021
• ISBN: 9798201999278

Book preview

Jedidiah Wayne Gaines

Copyright ©2021, Jedidiah Wayne Gaines; I Have Given You Authority, Nothing Shall Harm You.

All rights reserved.

This book or parts thereof may not be reproduced in any form, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means—electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise—without prior written permission of the publisher, except as provided by United States of America copyright law.

For permission requests, write to the author, addressed Permissions at [e-mail]

While the author has made every effort to provide accurate internet addresses at the time of publication, neither the publisher nor the author assumes any responsibility for errors or for changes that occur after publication. Further, the publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture quotations are taken from the New International Version. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Published by

Jedidiah Wayne Gaines

CrownLife International Inc.

101 Vista Drive

Cleveland, Georgia U.S.A.

www.pastorjedidiah.org

www.crownlifeinternational.org

[e-mail]

Published by

Amazon Createspace Publishing

Contents    Page

VI – Dedication    vi

Introduction     1

Travel Light for A Purpose   7

Resolve the Receiving Problem  11

The Agenda for Rejoicing   16

Get Ready for Trouble   22

Decide To Decide    27

Taste the Goodness of God   30

Discover God’s Purpose   35

What Are You Waiting For?    38

Jesus Took Your Place   45

Wait Upon the Lord    46

Simple Faith     48

A Secret Strength    51

Speaking Well in Prayer   53

Know God’s Word    55

Learn To Overcome    57

You Need the Lord on an Intimate Level 62

Power Conferred to You   66

Understanding the Times   69

Hold the Fort Still    72

Learn To Rest     77

Receiving Revelations   85

Knowing God’s Voice   87

Get Grounded     91

Get Understanding and Wisdom  93

Keep a Vigilant Watch   99

Crushed Olives Yield Oil   100

Perceiving God    104

Walk In Humility    108

Learn To Celebrate; It's Ebenezer Time 111

Make Room for Others   113

Unexpected Sources    116

Be a Person of His Presence   119

Consider the Ant    121

Build What God Wants Built   124

Learn How to Flow    131

Lead With Vision    153

Contents    Page

Honoring God      158

Overcome the Me Factor    164

Position Yourself Correctly    167

Know Your Enemy     169

Stir Yourself Up     173

Please God      177

The Overcomer’s Mosaic    181

Dedication

I would like to dedicate this book to my now deceased mother Carolyn Ann Gaines — Tyrney and my father Newman Fred Gaines. There are thousands of reasons to dedicate this book to my mom because she was a great mother full of blessings and sacrifice as she and my dad Newman Fred Gaines raised us up into adulthood. In fact, after I became a Christian at the tender age of 16, I shared Jesus with my mom, and I was blessed as a young kid to take her confession of faith and to baptize her into Jesus. It was an exciting and joyful moment that would come back to bless me years later.

The reason that I chose to dedicate this book to my mom involves something that happened at the time of her death some 30 years later. It happened when I was on a mission trip to Thailand and Jesus gave me the Authority and the Power to Overcome, the enemy in an instant of great need. I am sure that this book will help position you to receive from Jesus the Authority and Power to Overcome the enemy in your hours of greatest need. As we slide closer and closer to His Triumphant Return, Jesus desires that His people receive from Him the revelation and understanding that will empower them to become overcomers.

While I was on the other side of the world on a mission trip to Thailand, my mother suddenly became very ill and unknown to me, she was taken to the intensive care unit. It quickly became apparent to the medical professionals and to my family that her long bout with a host of illnesses was going to claim her life. This was not just another trip to the hospital.

I received a very urgent phone call in Thailand. My dad in a trembling voice began to tell me about the urgent hospital visit and that the medical staff felt that life support needed to be removed from my mom, as she was already in an advanced vegetative state of coma. The medical diagnosis was such that even if she came out of the coma, she would remain fully on life support for the rest of her time on earth.

Suddenly my heart fell to the ground as all this stark reality came crashing in along with the realization that I was on the other side of the world and would not be there at her deathbed, wake, funeral, or burial. At that precise moment, I was surrounded by young Thai orphans who were playing games, tugging on my shirt, and making faces and my heart began to beat rapidly and my pulse accelerated. For the first time in my life, I felt like I was out of control. I had faced death threats in Nicaragua and Honduras while doing mission work. I have survived major earthquakes, catastrophic flooding events and deadly hurricanes, but somehow nothing prepares you for the passing of a dearly beloved family member or friend.

Instantly, my life felt like it was spinning out of control. I began to pray asking God to help me overcome this tragic, painful, and totally unexpected reality. It was then that I saw a mental image, a vision if you will, of Jesus standing upon the front of a small boat in the lake with His disciples. The wind was howling, and the waves were crashing as Jesus mounted the bow of the small boat and then He looked right in the eyes and said, Peace be still! Amazingly it was enough! It was sufficient! A peace beyond all understanding overtook me and I somehow knew for sure that through the power of Jesus, I was going to overcome this!

The Lord helped me to comprehend in my mind, heart, and soul that He is in control and that I was exactly where He wanted me to be at that very instant in time. Jesus wanted me to do what my life has been all about, being a missionary and blessing people. Secondly, the Lord helped me to understand that at the instant my mother died, she passed from life with a little l to LIFE with a big L. The Holy Spirit led me to understand that those who are in Christ don’t taste of death, or the sting thereof. The Lord reminded me that it was I who had taken her confession of faith and that as a young man I had baptized her into Christ. It was sufficient and it put me in a position of peace beyond all human understanding.

They said that just prior to my mother’s death, she suddenly opened her eyes and said, Who are all of these little children running around laughing and playing? Praise God from whom all peace and blessings flow! Indeed, I had missed my mother’s death, wake and burial yet the Lord said to me, She is not in that place!

Behold the Authority and the Power to Overcome! and to defeat the enemy at every instance in life. I dedicate this life-transforming anointed book to my mother and my father who overcame before me! My father who at the time of this writing has now followed her into glory! Hallelujah!

viii

They triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from death. (Revelation 12:11, New International Version NIV)

¹⁹I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you.

(Luke 10:19, New International Version NIV)

Introduction

Some years back, our family was living in Louisiana having already experienced the loss of all our possessions in two different floods and a variety of hurricanes. Then along came Hurricane Katrina which uprooted our lives and changed things forever. Our family was separated for nearly a year while I worked to rebuild our damaged and flooded home, help lead relief and rebuilding efforts for neighbors and friends while holding down my local government job where I had been employed for more than a decade. My family had remained in Alabama where we had all evacuated to prior to the landfall of Hurricane Katrina. We came to an agreement that three floods and the constant running from hurricanes, along with the oppressive heat was not how we wanted to live the balance of our lives.

¹⁸ "And I tell you that you are Peter, and on this rock, I will build my church, and the gates of Hades will not overcome it." Matthew 16:18 (NIV)

Our oldest son was a high school senior in Louisiana and went from a public high school with thousands in his graduating class to a small private Christian school with 8 to 10 graduating seniors.

Our oldest son won a scholarship to L.S.U. in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and would soon be headed to Louisiana as I moved to Alabama to join our family after wrapping up the repairs and the sale of our home.

²⁴Immediately the boy’s father exclaimed, I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief! (Mark 9:24 NIV)

Why is any of this important to share with you? It is vitally important because, in this life transformation, I learned some things about myself, my family, my sons and how a great parallel existed between what I was able and willing to do for my son and what God was able and willing to do for His Son and those who follow Jesus as Lord. This book has its Genesis rooted in our need for POWER TO OVERCOME and our need for An Agenda for Rejoicing.

³³"I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world." (John 16:33 (NIV)

It quickly became apparent that our oldest son would be leaving home and headed to school two states away back in Louisiana as we attempted to rebuild our shattered lives. What were we to do and how were we to prepare him with The Power to Overcome while away from us for the first time?

⁵The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. (John 1:5 NIV)

²¹Do not be overcome by evil but overcome evil with good. (Romans 12:21 NIV)

It quickly became apparent that he would have to lean on us in very practical ways. We had to go down and sign a lease agreement with him for his apartment in Baton Rouge; his car insurance and health insurance was still ours to bear.

¹³I am writing to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. I am writing to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one. (1 John 2:13 NIV)

⁴for everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. (1 John 5:4 NIV)

Suddenly our son needed a bank account of his own and we felt the leading to have his bank account located in the same national bank as ours so that we could monitor, and transfer funds as needed. We needed an extra measure of assurance, so we gave him one of our credit cards and authorized him to use it in the event of an emergency.

⁴You, dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. (1 John 4:4 NIV)

All of these things were done for him simply because he is our son, and we love him. (We have three sons, a daughter-in-law and a lad named Drake, by the way and we love them all).

⁵Who is it that overcomes the world? Only the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. (1 John 5:5 NIV)

By undertaking these activities, we were empowering our son with Power to Overcome and giving him an Agenda to Rejoice. Take a look at this pivotal passage from Luke Chapter 10.

¹⁷The seventy came back triumphant. Master, even the demons danced to your tune!

¹⁸-²⁰Jesus said, I know. I saw Satan fall, a bolt of lightning out of the sky. See what I've given you? Safe passage as you walk on snakes and scorpions, and protection from every assault of the Enemy. No one can put a hand on you. All the same, the great triumph is not in your authority over evil, but in God's authority over you and presence with you. Not what you do for God but what God does for you—that's the agenda for rejoicing. (Luke 10:17-20, The Message MSG)

Do you see how Jesus accomplished the same thing for His disciples and for us who are in Jesus? The Lord received the disciples back in their triumphant attitude as they arrived declaring that even the demons had to obey every echo of the tune of Jesus.

I read this passage and I had an image of my son returning from college and feeling triumphant because the credit card we had given him worked every time that he attempted to use it. I can see myself saying that credit cards are supposed to work and that is what they are for.

Jesus was telling His disciples that the powers that He had given to them would work and that they were effective for bringing in the harvest and for their protection from enemy assault. Then I read the portion where Jesus said, "All the same, the great triumph is not in your authority over evil, but in God’s authority over you and presence with you. I pictured myself with my son again saying, Why are you so surprised that the credit card worked? You bet they let you in when we co-signed the lease along with you! These things are great, but the greater triumph is this, because you are our beloved son, we are willing to pay the bills when they come in and we are willing to trust you to use the credit card properly. The great triumph is this, no matter what, you should have the supreme assurance that you can call Dad and Mom if you need us. We are here and we want to help you have the Power to Overcome whatever stands in your way.

Then in Luke 10, Jesus said something profound, Not what you do for God but what God does for you—that's the agenda for rejoicing. It hit me like a bolt of lightning that the real victory, the real triumph, the real Power to Overcome and the Agenda to Rejoice over is the fact that because God is our Father, He has a supernatural bend to answer our prayers and to be with us. Our Father is willing to do for us whatever we ask according to His will.

This was earth-shattering because God had been separated from man because of sin, but in Jesus, God was restoring men back to a right relationship to Himself. That was unheard of and indeed An Agenda for Rejoicing. In Jesus Christ, God made a way to receive man back to a right relationship with Him. God was willing to be with the disciples of Jesus as He was with Jesus Himself. It was amazing...simply amazing!

The parallels became so clear with my own son and our experience sending him off to college two states away. The fact that he had our credit card and our ability to co-sign with him and our authorization to represent us, were helpful in giving him the Power to Overcome. But the real agenda for rejoicing was that because he was a beloved son, we would do all within our power to bless him and to empower him to succeed and to rejoice over his lifetime. We are in a right relationship and connected as family. These rights and privileges are conferred upon sons and daughters throughout generations so that they can have the Power to Overcome and the Agenda for Rejoicing.

What a great and consuming understanding of how God feels about us as His children. Jesus was modeling His own Father as He sent out the 70 disciples and taught them about the heart of God and what really matters to God.