It was Monday,
but very different than the rest of my Mondays at work. We had spent the
weekend at a men’s retreat and were basking in the afterglow. Monday morning had
arrived too early, I arrived at my office late, and only completed a few routine
items before lunch.
I walked a couple of blocks to the salad bar restaurant
with the twenty foot long buffet. Grabbing a tray, plate, and
soup bowl, I fell in line behind two well-dressed men having a rather animated
conversation. They were obviously Christians and were joyfully praising God and
sharing. As they
found a table in a corner, I was drawn to them and selected a nearby table.
After the two men sat down and blessed their food, their conversation
suddenly changed. The joyful praise turned into an intense, serious discussion. Not
wanting to hear their conversation I tried to ignore them and focused on eating, but something strange happened.
It had to be a God thing. What followed was not possible in the
natural. My chair was about ten feet away from their table - behind and
slightly to to my right. One man was facing toward me, while the other had his
back to me. I could not hear any of what the man facing me was saying, but I heard
very clearly the words of the man with his back to me. This is not natural.
It became clear that these men were both pastors, and the one whose
back was to me was seeking advice from the man facing me. Hearing only one
side of the conversation was strange but revealing. To this day, I remember the
exact words spoken by the man with his back to me.
The first thing I heard was, “The problem with my church is that the members
do not submit to me as their pastor.”
Later I heard, “The trouble with my family is that my wife does not submit to me as her husband.”
Almost immediately, I sensed a different voice speaking to me - It was the Holy Spirit, “This man is not submitted to Me.”
Basically, I am a shy person. Confrontation
is not my bag, but on this day, I was ready to go over and tell this man, “You are having
these problems because you are not submitted to God.”
Fresh from a weekend of fellow-shipping with Jesus and other spirit filled believers, I could be bold. But, the Lord saved me from total embarrassment with His next words,
“Sit still, this is a lesson for you.”
That incident was not the end of the lesson. It was the beginning of six
months of testing that began that very evening. After gaining a new insight, I
wanted to give it away. At a home group meeting that night, a lady began to
complain about her financial problems. This was not the first time. She had
been having financial issues for years. Armed with my noon time revelation, I
told her, “You are having financial problems because you have not submitted
your finances to God.”
The woman’s face turned purple with anger and my wife gave me a look
that indicated I had committed the unpardonable sin. My statement may have been
accurate but that was not the way or place to say it. The meeting ended
abruptly. It was a tense and quiet ride home that night – the lady was our
neighbor and riding with us.
There were several more
opportunities to give away my new insight and each time it failed to receive
its intended respect. Then one day, it hit me. Slamming the car dashboard with
my right hand, I shouted, “I get it!”
The lesson God had been trying to teach me was now clear. The enemy of
our soul is able to attack us in the areas of our lives that we have not
totally submitted to God. It is as if we are under God’s umbrella of protection
as long as He has control of our lives. But when we tell God that we would
rather be in charge, He may back away and say, “Okay, go for it.” That is where we get in trouble.
Submission is a difficult concept for most people in our society
today. The word itself evokes images
of abuse and the sense of becoming a
doormat. Yet both the Old and New Testaments tell us there will be great
benefits when we submit to God. The word translated in the New Testament
as “submission” means to place or arrange under. It is like products that are
arranged on a display table or an army deployed to go into battle. It is also used
to accept someone’s admonition or advice. In our lives we often submit to our
boss, the government, our spouse, pastor, or spiritual authority. We may also
submit to our possessions, pride, and sin.
But the Bible instructs us to
submit to God. Jesus Himself submitted to the Father. He did not do it from
weakness but from strength. Our submission must be as Jesus modeled.
Submission is not becoming a
doormat. Submission is more like an elevator. An elevator lifts things up. As
we submit to God, we elevate Him. When we submit to our spouse we elevate him
or her to a higher position. The purpose of submission is elevation or exaltation.
As we submit to God, we exalt Him.
We can be obedient in giving our time, presence, and resources to the
church without being in submission. Scripture calls us to give to the work of
the Lord. Therefore giving is obedience, but joyful giving and giving
cheerfully is submission.
