One day, the mother of Zebedee's children came with her two sons to Jesus to pray (Matt. 20:20-23). She prayed a good prayer, asking that her two sons sit on the Lord's two sides in the kingdom. We all might have prayed such a prayer. The Lord Jesus answered her prayer, but not according to the way she prayed. The Lord Jesus said, "You have prayed about the two sides. Now you must know that whether or not your sons will have these two sides is not up to Me. It is up to the Father. But I tell you one thing—you must suffer. You must drink what I will drink and suffer what I will suffer." This means that if you are going to have authority, you need to have life. To suffer is to gain life. If there is no death, there is no life. If there is no suffering, there is no life. Life always comes through suffering. If we are going to obtain authority, we need to gain life through suffering.
The entire book of Acts and all the Epistles show us that the apostles were persons who bore the image of God. Therefore, they constantly had God's authority. They had God's image and they exercised God's authority. We should not just consider them as good preachers or great teachers. That is too low. That is not the climax. We must look at them as persons who bore God's image and exercised divine authority.
The seven sons of Sceva saw how Paul cast out demons by the name of Jesus (Acts 19:13-16). They imitated Paul, telling the demons, "I cast you out by the name of Jesus whom Paul preaches." The demons are not so easy to deal with. The demon said, "Jesus I know and Paul I know, but who are you to cast me out? I will jump all over you." Instead of defeating the demons, the demons defeated them. If you don't have the image, you can never have authority. The demons know and you yourself also know. If you don't have life, you don't have authority. If you don't bear the image, you can never exercise dominion.
Revelation 5:10 and 1 Peter 2:9 both tell us that today Christians are royal priests. On the one hand we are priests; on the other hand we are kings. However, we need to contact God that we may have the real image to bear the glory of God in life. Then we have the authority to represent God. But most Christians miss this. They don't look like priests and, thus, they are not kings. If you don't bear the image, you will lose the authority. Praise God that through all the centuries there have been and there still are some saints who contact God, keeping themselves in the real priesthood. They have authority and they exercise kingship.