You Have More Authority Than You Think

Most of us have a moment we remember getting in trouble with someone in charge. Maybe it was a teacher, a parent, a coach. That sick feeling in your stomach — the one that says I'm in trouble and there's nothing I can do about it.

Pastor Saz opened Sunday's message with exactly that. A schoolyard. A pot of yogurt. A blazer that didn't stand a chance. And a very nervous walk to the principal's office. It was funny. But it was also the setup for one of the most powerful ideas she unpacked all morning.

Ten years after that moment, Saz was standing in the same schoolyard — this time as the teacher. She watched a student accidentally drench a classmate with water and realized: she had moved from being subject to authority to operating in authority. Same yard. Completely different position.

Her message to Courageous Church on Sunday was simple and direct: most of us are praying from the wrong position.

We Ask Like Beggars When We Were Made to Pray Like Heirs

The story of the centurion in Matthew 8 is one of those passages that gets read quickly and absorbed slowly. A Roman military officer — someone used to getting what he wanted — comes to Jesus not with demands, but with clarity. His servant is sick. He knows who Jesus is. And he says something remarkable: just say the word.

He didn't need Jesus to show up in person. He understood authority. He lived under it and exercised it every day. And because of that, he trusted that the name of Jesus carried more power than any physical presence could.

Jesus called it the greatest faith he'd ever seen.

Saz asked the room a quietly confronting question: Do you know who you are when you pray?

Not who God is — most churchgoers have a working answer for that. But who are you in that moment? A beggar hoping for scraps? Someone trying to earn a yes through good behavior? Or someone who has been given, according to Ephesians, a seat next to Christ in the heavenly realms — right now, not just one day?

The Shift That Changes Everything

There's a difference between praying God, could you maybe please consider... and standing up, speaking out, and saying in Jesus' name, this has to change.

Both involve faith. But only one operates from an understanding of delegated authority — the idea that Jesus doesn't just answer prayers, he actually invites us to use his name as if it were our own badge of access.

Saz's practical challenge was almost laughably simple: stand up when you pray. Write down what you're believing for. Put it on the floor if you need to. Let your body signal to your spirit that these circumstances are under your feet, not on top of your shoulders.

The Bottom Line

You don't have to clean yourself up before you come to God. You don't have to earn the authority — it's already been given. The question Saz left the room with isn't whether God is powerful enough.

It's whether you actually believe that power belongs to you.