I smiled at the boy who had stuck his head up as he turned around three rows in front of me. I’m tall, so it’s normal for me to have a view over the seats ahead of me on flights.
His gaze turned to me fleetingly as he saw my smile, then he executed the intention of his positioning. He looked at the air hostess who had just passed me and was walking away, down the aisle.
He raised up both hands, middle fingers extended and swore at her.
As his gaze shifted back to me, puzzlement, shock, and disappointment played across my face. We connected. He was embarrassed, his bravado spent, and he ducked back down. His Mum and Dad, sitting on either side of the aisle were none the wiser.
I thought about what to do. Should I approach them after the flight? The Mum was wearing Mickey Mouse ears, and I surmised that the family were on their way home from Paris after a trip to Disney land. I had been delivering a workshop with a company in Montparnasse, as it was a normal working week – not the school holidays.
I wondered if the family as a whole didn’t have a profound realisation of the need to respect authority. Maybe it was a reward trip for him, or something special to help him overcome a tragedy or personal loss, I try to weigh my judgements.
I couldn’t understand this child’s behaviour, The flight was short, and the only possible ‘crime’ the air hostess had committed that could have elicited such rudeness was telling everyone to sit down, buckle up, and listen to safety instructions. Maybe he just had a visceral repugnance towards someone who was in a uniform.
These were all thoughts and feelings, I needed to be open and discern. I closed my eyes and sat with my heavenly Father. I held this boy before Him and started to pray. I thanked the Holy Spirit for hovering over the chaos of a rebellious life. I asked that the boy would respond to God’s invitation and spoke freedom to his life. I asked God to bring salvation to his whole family as his life turned around, and they were confronted with our Father’s capacity to bring the dead to life.
I was moved by love, and prayed into the situation with authority.
I spoke into and over his life as led by the Holy Spirit. I have no idea how God will move in response to this supplication. I have played my part and will water these seeds as led by the Holy Spirit over the coming days/ months/ years.
So easy. So simple. Obedience and faith.
Who am I to take such authority in the spirit?
I’m a son of God. Aren’t you?
I was so moved by Jesus’s response to his authority being questioned in Luke 20: 1-8.
The Pharisees, scribes and elders came with two options. Either someone had given Jesus authority, reflected on documents, or a commissioning; or He was deluded in His own vain imaginings. They had no revelation that Jesus’s authority was His life. His authority poured out of who He was, who He is.
Authority in the Greek is Exousia. Here we mine the treasure. Ex is ‘out from’ ousia is ‘essence’, the ‘I am’. Jesus’s authority comes out of His I am, out of who He is. Out of His relationship with His Father, sealed with the stamp of the Holy Spirit. John leans into this throughout his gospel.
So the question is: who are you, and what is the basis for your authority? Do you believe that you have any?
Your authority flows out of your capacity to love people, as God does. It is then determined by the extent to which you know, and speak out of, your ‘I am’; your essence, who you are IN HIM as the Holy Spirit leads you and you walk as Jesus walked.
A brief moment, a passing encounter. Jesus’s life was full of these moments of love. Touching, healing, bringing freedom, hope… fulfilling Isaiah 61. This is also your invitation, your ministry.
I passed a lady carrying a baby whilst walking with friends this morning. The Holy Spirit gave me a word of knowledge for her. I stopped, jogged back back to her and spoke as tears filled her eyes. Just being obedient in love.
If this has got you thinking, I explore it more through Luke 20 in a recent video I’ve posted on my YouTube channel – Unveiling, with William Thompson.
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Photo by Rifqi Ramadhan: Go to – pexels.com
Unveiling Faith with William Thompson 