What do we mean when we say some one speaks with authority? An example will help. Suppose there is a speaker about mountaineering. He has read all the important books, and analysed them carefully. He has a multitude of maps of the best routes and climbs. He has met scores of successful mountaineers. He has studied the topic for many years. A great deal of what he has to say will be very useful. But compare such a speaker with an actual mountaineer, who has been to the top of Matterhorn or Everest. He will speak with an authority our theoretical expert can never possess.

So many in the modern world pay regard to the analyst, the specialist in the field with years of study behind them. They are given great respect and esteem. But when we meet another specialist in the same field, we give him (or her) the same respect too, regardless of whether the two agree or differ.

Too much credibility is given on the basis of academic study, in preference to direct experience. The Internet has a huge danger, because everything there is seen or read. We can build up a view of the world without being able to test the authority of the author. Is the author to be trusted? Does he or she know whatever is claimed by direct, personal experience? The warning is against relying on the immense fund of data, information, knowledge, to be found at our PC as the sum of all things.

If you study the life of Jesus of Nazareth in the Gospels, almost the first thing that hits you is the authority he had. It amazed every one. Here are just a few extracts with examples of this word as the key concept, which not only surprised, but even offended, his contemporaries.

The key issue, and the one for which, effectively, he was condemned, was the authority he claimed.

This aspect of Jesus' teaching is easily overlooked. It is fashionable to suggest that Jesus was a great moral teacher, remembering sayings like 'Love your neighbour' (which he was quoting, actually, rather than originating). The extent to which he offended his contemporaries is lost. But read any one of the Gospels, especially that of John, from start to finish, and a proper understanding of this factor will emerge.

A lot of the church has lost this offensive authority, and is seen by the majority nowadays as an irrelevance. Many of its spokesmen see themselves either as dedicated to providing an uplifting ritual for those already inside, or as political commentators, or social therapists.

Those few who have direct knowledge of the spiritual dimension, who have experienced things deeply which they know are not counterfeit, have a duty to speak about them with authority. If one is not challenging, one is not doing anything useful.

If you, dear reader, are outside, and want to find a true haven for your soul, search out those with authority. Test what they say carefully, and make sure their claims are not spurious. You are looking for some one who knows, some one who has been to the top of the mountain, not just an self-proclaiming 'expert'. You must turn away from your PC and meet real people at this point of your quest.

This is a dangerous road to travel on, of course, for there are many examples of those who claim authority when they do not possess it. But it is the only road to the ultimate source of all authority. His true followers have received (in a small measure, and in a fallible container) the essential authority He alone can give. If you recognise it at any point in your life, do not let it slip past you.