I’ve been spending a lot of time working on Walking in Spiritual Authority. Both the manuscript and the course are well under way.

Into the mix there has been a heavenly peace superseding and surrounding us at Capturing Courage. And I am reminded of late that the task of identifying our Spiritual Authority can be an interesting and lengthy process.

Most of the time it is right in front of us, and yet we often miss it.

I was at the local T&T market the other day. This is an small Asian supermarket that I frequent, and this day I was looking to buy some cream and some tea.

Now I am a tea snob. Just ask anyone. It has to be made just the right way (cream and sugar and tea bag combined before the hot water is poured in), and with just the right kind of tea. Tetley is my favorite.

There I was, Saturday morning out of tea and on the search. Now T&T, being an Asian store, does not have everything that I would normally find in any other supermarket, and I wasn’t too sure I’d find Tetley Tea there.

I stood in the aisle before some 60 square feet of various teas. In boxes and tins and bags, most of which I couldn’t read, I searched and looked and perused.

And then I searched and looked and perused some more, “Dang it, I just might have to buy that Red-Rose Tea instead!” I muttered to myself.

Yet I reasoned that maybe there was an exotic Asian black tea that would be a delight to try. So I kept standing there, rooted in the same spot, searching, looking, and perusing some more.

And there – after a full 4-5 minutes of standing there – right in front of my face, was the Tetley Tea.

Right in front of my face, not 20 inches away.

Wow. Now if I’d not stood there for the vast length of time that I had, I would have missed it. I would have bought something in a settling sort of way – a giving up kind of gesture.

Thank-You Lord that I stood there long enough.

But of course, I tell this story because it indicates so much more than tea.

How many things are right in front of our faces that we miss?

What might be right there that we are not getting?

I seriously wonder.

Our spiritual authorities hide like this.

The parts of us harnessed forward in and through the Kingdom of God are always right in front of our faces.

Somehow we look for the magnificent, the grand, the extravagant. But the deepest works of the Lord through us to others comes in what feels very easy and normal and ordinary ways.

It’s right in front of us, and we easily miss it.

It’s not about what we do. It’s about who we are, that piece of our DNA through which the living breath of our Holy Spirit blows and where the finger of God mixes our bits with much impact.

What might your spiritual authority be?

Find out more about Walking in Spiritual Authority HERE