Why Many Believers Struggle to Rise in Authority

If we study the New Testament closely, we will begin to see a pattern that is far too easy to miss in modern Christianity: Jesus spends far more time restoring the believer’s identity and authority than He does proving His own. While people fixate on His miracles, He continually redirects the gaze of His disciples back to themselves. For instance, He talks about who they are, what they carry, and how Heaven sees them.

Do you know why? Because He understood that authority is not activated in people who do not know who they are.

This, I believe, is the true reason so many believers struggle to rise in authority. Not because we lack faith, but because we lack identity. More times than not, we pray from insecurity, speak from fear, and approach God like beggars rather than heirs. We also admire Jesus’ works without absorbing His words about us. Essentially, it's not enough to rehearse His divinity while ignoring the dignity He returned to humanity.

And what did He restore upon His return? Our Kingdom dominion.

If you want proof, just look at the way Jesus consistently teaches the Kingdom. I hope you notice that He never frames it as a distant place or a spiritual abstraction; instead, He announces it like a government being reinstated. “Fear not, little flock,” He says in Luke 12:32, “for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the Kingdom.” Notice He didn't loan it or withhold it, but gave and transferred it. Here, He's telling us that He is placing the Kingdom into the hands of His sons and daughters so that we can finally rise into the role creation had been waiting for.

And what He gives, He expects us to use.

This is the thread that runs through His teaching in Matthew 6:33 when He says to seek the Kingdom first. It’s also the same thread shaping His parables in Matthew 13, and what tightens around His command in Matthew 4:17 when He announces that the Kingdom of Heaven has arrived. So we see that again and again, Jesus is re-introducing a realm that we were designed to govern from.

But He doesn’t only restore government; He restores worth. For instance, when He tells the people, “You are more valuable than the birds of the air” (Matthew 6:26), He is recalibrating their internal scale. But we see that before He asks them to operate in authority, He establishes their identity.

Why? Because value precedes dominion, and identity precedes assignment.

Friend, if you do not know how Heaven ranks you, you will never speak like someone Heaven recognizes. Jesus expands this again in Matthew 10:29–31 when He reminds people that sparrows fall with divine awareness but that their value outranks entire flocks. To be clear, He is restoring status.

And then He demonstrates authority in a way that exposes the believer’s real battle. When Peter asks Jesus, “If it is You, command me to come,” in Matthew 14:28–31, Jesus responds with one word: “Come.” While people pause to marvel at what Peter does next, we should pay close attention to what Jesus is actually saying. When Jesus issues the command to "come," he was transferring jurisdiction. We know that Peter stepped out of the boat and walked on water, but what we don't realize is that it was because authority was granted. I suggest, then, that Peter didn't just walk on waves, but on a word.

Then why did he sink? From my perspective, he sank because his awareness shifted. Ultimately, the moment he shifted from identity to environment, we see that his authority was dissolved.

This, again, is the believer’s struggle.

To be clear, the fight is not necessarily against unbelief, but against misalignment with identity.

If we just slow down and read slowly enough, we will see that Jesus repeatedly restores identity so that authority has a place to land. When he gives us the keys of the Kingdom in Matthew 16:19 it's because keys belong to heirs. When He grants authority over serpents and scorpions in Luke 10:19, it's because protection is a right and not a privilege. Last but not least, when He promises greater works in John 14:12, it's because inheritance always outgrows point of origin.

So if we begin to gather all these threads, we see the larger fabric, which is that Jesus did not come to create religious followers but to restore governors. With this, He came to make us necessary in the earth by establishing our dominion.

Can you see it now? Can you see why so many believers are stuck? If not, I'll state it clearly: it's because we have been trained to admire the Kingdom but not administrate it.

This is exactly why the Let There Be Challenge exists and why it matters so deeply. My goal is to recalibrate your identity, reintroduce you to inheritance, and a restore your governmental voice.

Over time, I've learned that decreeing is about legal execution.

So when wesay, “Let there be,” we are not begging for breakthrough; instead, we are issuing it. We are exercising the same constitutional authority Jesus spent His ministry restoring. And if there is anything this moment in history requires—with systems shaking, institutions weakening, and spiritual fatigue growing—it is believers who know how to stand in identity, speak from inheritance, and govern with authority.

This is why the challenge matters.

This is why your voice matters.

This is why rising in authority is no longer optional, but essential.