(Be blessed by this awesome reminder from our friend and guest blogger, Barry Adams)

And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” (Matthew 28:18-20)

We are all very familiar with these words that constitute the Great Commission. Of course, for Jesus to be able to give his disciples the authority to go, He would have first had to be given authority Himself. Verse 18 is the key to this charge that He gave them:

“All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me”.

For you and I to walk in our destiny as sons and daughters of our heavenly Father, we need to be convinced of the same revelation that Jesus was convinced of…that everything that belonged to the Father belonged to Him as well.

We read this clearly in Jesus’ high priestly prayer in John 17:9 when He said: “All I have is yours, and all you have is mine.”

Jesus knew that He was His Father’s Son. Based on that fact, He walked in the authority of being the Son of the living God. He did not have to grasp for it or strive to earn it.

The authority that He received from His Father was based on the simple principle of inheritance. Sons and daughters who know the security of being loved know that they are heirs to whatever their parents have.

If someone struggles with an orphan mindset, they are not yet convinced that they are sons and daughters to the Father and joint-heirs with Jesus. If they aren’t yet secure in who they belong to, they will need to establish an identity and an authority that is clearly based on their own self-effort. What else can they do?

If they don’t know who their Father is, then how can they rest in the divine authority that He gives to sons and daughters?

Jesus told His disciples in Matthew 10:8 the secret to walking this out. He told them: “Freely as you have received, freely give”. The more that you and I learn to receive from heaven, the more that we will be able to give away to others.

In Luke 22:29, Jesus told His disciples that just as the Father conferred a kingdom on Him, He conferred a kingdom on them.

Because of the cross, we are now joint-heirs with Jesus and fellow citizens of the household of God. We carry within our own spiritual DNA our heavenly Father’s seed.

In Philippians 2:1-11 we read how Jesus did not consider equality with His Father as something that He had to grasp for. Instead, He was happy to humble Himself, take on the form of a servant and became obedient even to death on the cross.

He knew who He belonged to. He knew that He was His Father’s Son and this revelation gave Him the courage to walk in the humility of a servant heart, yet with an authority that caused His Father to exalt Him to the highest place above every name that is to be named.

My dear friend, I pray that this knowledge of the divine authority that the Father has given Jesus and which Jesus has in turn given to us would bring you into a deep rest.

May you know that you do not have to establish an authority apart from what has been freely given to you already–as a beloved son or daughter of the Creator of the universe.

(Barry Adams is the humble vessel chosen by God to bless the world with the revelation known as the Father’s Love Letter. Along with his wife Annelise, Barry ministers the Father’s Love all over the world. Today’s DWOD is from a post he wrote for A Son’s Life Blog)