The Authority We Lost: Why We Crave Control (Authority Redeemed series: 2 of 3)

The Craving in Us Is the Echo of Eden

Now, in every human heart, there’s a restless desire for significance, influence, and control. Why?

Because we were wired for dominion, and that nature didn’t disappear after the fall. It became distorted.

“You long for, yet you have not, you are a murderer likewise you boil with anger, yet you have not been able to have obtained, yourselves having wrangled, in fact, you are engaged in warfare. Yourselves have not by reason of yourselves to have not asked, you ask yet you receive not, on the very account that you having asked improperly, so that wherewith your desires for pleasure you might have squandered.“
— James 4:2-3 (2020 New Testament)

Control becomes the idol. Power becomes the prize.
But it’s all a counterfeit. The flesh reaches for what only the Spirit can restore.

We Reach When We Should Yield

The very thing we were created to hold—godly authority—can’t be seized. It must be received again through surrender. And yet the world, and even many in the Church, keep trying to take it back by effort, manipulation, or performance.

But power doesn’t come through pride. It comes through presence.

Conclusion: The Way Back Is Not Control—It’s Christ

Jesus didn’t come just to forgive us—He came to restore us. That includes our lost authority. But it won’t be reclaimed through the flesh.

The echo of Eden still calls. But only one voice leads us home.

“Now He was saying with everyone, If anyone desires to have come after me, disregard one’s own interests, then take up that one’s own cross every day and follow me.”
— Luke 9:23 (2020 New Testament)

Reflection Question:
Are you grasping for control, or yielding to the One who gives true authority?