3. The Benefits of Submission
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Submission to God’s delegated authority is one of the most wholesome and liberating truths ever given to us by God. It affects our lives positively at every level. This truth, however, remains hidden from most of us because Satan has taken this concept and twisted it into a negative term.
Granted, submission may not be easy on our flesh, but the benefits that we receive far outweigh the struggle involved. We experience what Jesus said: “Unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit” (John 12:24, nasb). When we die to our pride and submit to God’s authority, the benefits will follow.
Before their rebellion, Adam and Eve had every blessing—all that is of God without the pollution of sin. To the extent we submit, we
too will know God’s restoration to that life of blessing. Likewise, to the degree we allow rebellion in our hearts, we repeat the scenes of chaos and confusion that Satan introduced into the world.
Jesus’ parable of the prodigal son is a perfect picture of this truth.1The younger son chose to rebel and walk out from under his father’s covering. He rejected the authority over him and did what he pleased. In the end, however, what he got was waste and ruin. His inheritance was squandered until nothing was left. Then famine came. The last scene of Act One has him feeding swine while going hungry himself. He lost his dignity and his honor. It was then he started thinking, I am no longer worthy to be a son. But maybe I could ask to be one of my father’s servants.2 He was willing to come under the authority of his father again. A.W. Tozer remarks on this story: “At bottom of his restoration was nothing more than a reestablishing of the father-son relation which had existed from his birth and had been altered temporarily by his act of sinful rebellion.”3
When this drama ends, the son has returned. But he is not treated as a servant. Instead, he is honored as a son, with great love and celebration. Blessings are showered upon him. His father had been waiting for the day that he would return so that he could bless his son again.
We Are protected
When we submit to authority, we are choosing to arrange ourselves under that covering that protects us.
Some years ago I went through a difficult time. Someone involved with me in the ministry, whom I loved like a brother, was deceived by some people who criticized what we were doing. He wrote a long letter to me making all kinds of accusations against me. I read his words, and it made my heart sad.
I thought to myself, What am I going to do? Who will protect me from these charges? I wasn’t going to defend myself. Instead, I made copies of his letter and sent them to our board members. I told them, “Honestly, I don’t know what to do. I cannot defend myself. Would you please look into these allegations and reply to him?”
After examining the matter, the senior board member wrote a response. I was cleared of all the accusations. It had been one of the more difficult times in my life. But God used it to teach me the importance of having authorities to protect me. There were people I could look to and say, “I need help.” I was not all alone.
In such times, Psalm 91 is a comforting passage: “He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty. I will say of the Lord, ‘He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust’ ” (Psalm 91:1-2, NIV). I recommend that you read this psalm in its entirety. It paints a beautiful picture for us of being under God’s delegated authority and under His protection. God chooses to place people over us as an umbrella to shelter us.
Protection from the Powers of Darkness
It is the job of the shepherd to protect the sheep. Do you know what happens to a sheep that has gone astray? It is actually walking into the territory of its predators. When a pack of wolves is hunting, their instinctive goal is to go after any animal that has strayed. A wandering sheep has no shepherd to protect it, and it soon gets torn apart by ravaging wolves.
When we step out from under the covering of our authority, we become like that wandering sheep. The grass may look delightfully green on the outside of the fold, and we can sigh, “I’m tired of all these rules and regulations. I know my own way. I know what to do.” But we are wandering into the territory of demons who are looking for any who have walked away from the protection of their authority.
Predators actually chase a targeted pack for the simple purpose of isolating one calf, one deer or one buffalo from the group. Likewise, one of the devil’s schemes is to do this exact same thing. He will instigate rebellion against authority to draw us away from our protection. And what happens? If we are not on our guard, we will think we are justified in our thoughts and emotions and not even realize what is going on. We become independent and wander away from our covering. I’ve seen it happen. Although we may not realize it, when we rebel we choose to allow the demons to destroy us emotionally and physically.
I know someone who was pastoring a church, and a particular family got upset with him. They rallied a number of individuals who spread negative reports about their pastor and, in the end, tried to get him voted out of the church. Then they left the congregation in bitterness and anger along with four other families.
It was a sad situation, but not nearly as sad as the stories those five families lived out in the days and weeks and months and years that followed. Their concerned pastor watched as their lives unraveled. They stopped going to church altogether. The hearts of their children became hard and rebellious. Unexplained sickness touched various members of the families. The stories of ruin were almost too many to tell about these who once were living in hope and peace.
Their leaving the church was not wrong in and of itself. It was the rebellion they manifested in their hearts that brought this judgment on them.
Again, God places people over us not to hurt us, but to protect us. God told us exactly what we need to do to be free of the Enemy: “Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (James 4:7, NIV). We are called to submit to God, which means we are also called to submit to His delegated authorities.
You can pray all you want, you can fast all you want, you can argue all you want, you can make all the telephone calls you want, you can even go to the court of law and prove you are innocent, but the demons will not leave you alone when you are acting in rebellion. They are relentless. God is saying, “There’s little I can do. I cannot get through! There’s a roadblock.” Its name is insubordination and rebellion. God works through His authority, through the people He sets over us. And with this covering, there is safety from the powers of darkness.
Protection from Bad Choices
Submitting to authority also gives us protection from making bad choices. It provides us with a safeguard and is like a railing so we don’t go over a cliff.
In the day of the prophet Jeremiah, Jerusalem’s doom was set, and the Babylonians were already on their way to lay siege against the city.4 Even so, God provided a safeguard and a way of escape through His servant Jeremiah, a spiritual authority for Judah. Jeremiah told the people on behalf of the Lord: “Behold, I set before you the way of life and the way of death. He who remains in this city shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence; but he who goes out and defects to the Chaldeans who besiege you, he shall live, and his life shall be as a prize to him” ( Jeremiah 21:8-9).
The Lord sees our future, including the wrong choices we’re about to make. Understanding the hearts of the Israelites, He knew they would opt to fight. Yet through their spiritual authority, He provided wisdom regarding what they should do in this tough situation.
Unfortunately, few heeded Jeremiah’s godly counsel. Such is the case with all those who are stubborn and self-willed. They think they know the direction they should take, that they don’t need input from others, even those God put as authorities over them. Many times, therefore, they end up making bad choices.
If we choose to submit to authority, however, it will protect us from heading in wrong directions. I know of a young man in India who is a prime example. He was blessed with godly parents who earnestly sought to teach him the ways of the Lord. Because he had all kinds of opportunities before him, there was every reason to believe he would succeed in life and become a blessing to his generation.
However, there had always been a hidden streak of stubbornness and passive rebellion in him. Though he stayed pure, his unbroken will kept him from experiencing a deeper walk with God. Then when he was in the midst of his 20s, he began to drift slowly toward thinking independently about his marriage and his future.
Finally, he ended up wanting to marry a certain young woman who was not a believer. His parents counseled him strongly against it, and he was devastated. He wept and went through deep pain. His parents suffered right along with him through his season of rebellion.
Finally, knowing his bent toward self-will, his dad told him, “Son, you can have your way; only I cannot give you my blessing. But I will not stand against you anymore.”
By the mercy of God, this young man decided not to go against his parents. Through a series of incidents, he came to a place of submission. Soon after that he married a Christian girl from a godly family.
Later I asked his dad about how his boy was doing. His father said, “They are both so happy and are serving God.” His son now admits how terrible it would have been had he gone against his parents’ advice. This story ends well. But there are many who live with deep regrets, wishing they had listened to their parents.
Submitting to authority protects us from deception. In Jeremiah we read, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked” (Jeremiah 17:9). Paul also wrote in his letter to the Corinthians, “I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ” (2 Corinthians 11:3, NIV). None of us is free from the possibility of being deceived. The worst thing about being deceived is that in the midst of it, we don’t realize what is happening.
Lot started his journey with his uncle Abraham, but he ended up far away in Sodom and Gomorrah. After the destruction of these cities, his family was left in ruin. He was a righteous man, yet he lost all. Why? He wouldn’t seek counsel from his authority. If Lot had sought Abraham’s advice about where to settle, I am sure he would not have made that terrible choice to be in Sodom and Gomorrah. Lot was deceived by the wealth and prosperity of the region, and he couldn’t see where this choice would lead.5
In another example, Gehazi had the potential to become a prophet like Elisha, maybe even greater in his usefulness. But he became a leper and died as one. What if Gehazi had submitted to Elisha by going to him and being open about his temptation to go after the gold of Naaman? What do you think his master would have told him? To go after the money? On the contrary, Elisha would have advised him not to even think about it. That word of wisdom could have saved Gehazi from the deception that destroyed his life.6
When the world was offering money and position to Demas, imagine if he had come to the aged Paul and asked, “Paul, may I ask you for some advice?”
“Son, go ahead, ask!”
“You know they’re offering quite a lot of money and a good position. What do you think I should do?”
I imagine Paul shaking his partially bald head and saying, “My son, it’s not worth it.” But Demas never sought Paul’s counsel. So Paul writes, “Demas, having loved this present world, has deserted me” (2 Timothy 4:10, nasb). Because of an independent spirit, Demas made a very bad choice.
One of my senior leaders in the ministry came to me a while ago and said, “I have a personal matter I want to talk to you about.” Then he explained what he was planning to do. He wanted to know what my thoughts were. So I asked him a couple of questions. From all appearances, it looked like the direction he was headed was a smart move, but I had no peace in my heart. I felt led to tell him, “I don’t think this is a good move for you.”
He changed his plans according to my counsel. A few months went by, and he found out some additional information about the situation. It would have been a destructive decision had he gone through with what he initially planned. It is true what Proverbs tells us: “There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death” (Proverbs 14:12).
I have traveled many miles in my life. As I look back, I can honestly say that the decisions I made on my own, without listening to those over me, I paid for dearly. But I thank God for whatever you see in my life that is good, because it has a great deal to do with God guiding me through my spiritual authorities.
We Are restored
Many people are living with maladies of one kind or another. I suspect if we knew the truth, we would discover that in numerous cases the trouble is rooted in rebellion. Think about the five families I mentioned who left the church. Consider the prodigal son.
But once there is repentance and people begin to submit to their authorities, the Lord starts to heal the damage of the Enemy. Wholesomeness and a clear mind are restored. When Naaman submitted to the direction of the prophet Elisha, he was actually healed of his leprosy.7
Look at the story of Philemon’s slave Onesimus.8 He ran away from his master and ended up in Rome. It was there he met Paul, who led him to the Lord. Onesimus became Paul’s son in the faith. In a brief New Testament letter, Paul in essence writes, “Philemon, I am sending Onesimus back to you. But you know what? It’s been wonderful having him with me! He’s been so useful, and
I have no one. He is your slave, however, so I have instructed him to return to you.”9
Paul obviously wished that Onesimus would stay with him. But he knew the restoration and blessing of Onesimus as a new creation in Christ was connected with his willingness to return to his authority. His submission was the way he was going to grow and understand the ways of God.
Then Paul writes, “Receive him as a brother, not as a slave” (Philemon 1:16, paraphrased). Onesimus was a slave, in his own eyes and in the eyes of others. But when he actually submitted to the authority he previously ran away from, he became a brother. He was restored. How wonderful!
People who live in rebellion against authority—whether in the home, the church or a work relationship—miss out on a great blessing that could be theirs. But when they follow the submissive example of Onesimus, they know healing and peace and blessing. It will be well with them. God promises this for those who simply honor their parents.10 Yet God not only restores us physically, He does so in a spiritual sense too.
We learn Brokenness
Brokenness is incredibly important in our Christian walk. From a scriptural perspective, it is at the foundation of all godliness. Salvation begins with brokenness. And becoming mature in the faith is based on continuous brokenness. Galatians 2:20 is a classic verse about being filled with the Holy Spirit and becoming Christlike. Look at what it says ( NIV): “I have been crucified with Christ and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.” It’s about our stubborn self, which fights for its right, being broken to His will. One of the powerful tools God uses to do this is submission to those He places over us—parents, church leaders, people at work or those in government.
Submission is far more than merely obeying the authority of God and man. It is participating in the very life of Jesus. He demonstrated that all the privileges He had in heaven were far less important to Him than being in submission to His Father’s authority. He submitted and chose the way of brokenness and humility.
We have fellowship with Him when we join Him and take up His yoke.11But to take up His yoke, we must choose to be broken and to humble ourselves. There are many who seek after godliness that still lack greatly in humility and a gentle spirit, even though they attain some degree of “righteousness of [their] own” (Philippians 3:9, NIV). They have missed this critical step of brokenness. Genuine godliness is rooted in the nature of Christ, which only comes through being a servant under His yoke.
In this age, however, we are always looking for shortcuts and easier ways. We are living in the era of microwaves. It used to take 10 minutes to boil water on the stove to make a cup of coffee. Now you open the little door, put the glass of water in, close the door, and before long, bingo, the water is boiling!
We may look at someone who is accomplished in their field and highly respected, with the title, the house, the car and all
the extras. We think, Wow! I want that! But we forget that this person is 60 years old and went to school for many long years! It often was a prolonged journey of agony and hard work to get to where he or she is. We want all the success yet without the toil it takes to get there.
The same thing happens when we meet individuals who are especially godly. Just by being around them we feel closer to God. We admire them and think, Wow! I want that. We don’t realize the incredible journey they walked with the Lord to get to that place. We don’t see the years of faithfulness sometimes without fruit, the tears, the trials, the misunderstandings that brought them to their place of knowing the Lord and being like Him. There are no shortcuts to godliness.
Being truly pliable in God’s hands is the only way we can learn to touch godliness, and God regularly uses the authorities over us to bring us to this place.
When I was a youngster, for nearly three years, I was under the leadership of someone who was often unkind to me. Our personalities just didn’t mix. No matter what I did, he found fault with it. I often cried alone. Those years were one long stretch of suffering and loneliness.
Yet they were some of the best years of my life. I truly believe God was the One who placed this person over me. I knew enough at that time to realize that as long as my leader did not ask me to sin, I needed to submit. So I did. Through the combination of his harshness and my submission, I began to learn all kinds of lessons in brokenness.
Brokenness is a fruit of submitting, and submission is a fruit of being broken. You can’t have one without the other. As you are increasingly submissive, it results in you being more broken. And when you are more broken, it allows you to be more submissive. Being broken means we are willing to receive correction, humble ourselves, repent for our failures and allow others to have first place. It’s when we stop fighting for ourselves and become pliable in the hands of God. It is when our hearts are no longer hard but are becoming soft instead.
The Lord often uses an authority over us whom we may not like to reveal areas in which we are still hard. God led the children of Israel into the wilderness for this exact purpose: “Remember that the Lord your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not” (Deuteronomy 8:2).
Look at Jacob. God had a tremendous plan for his life. “The older shall serve the younger” (Genesis 25:23) was the prophecy. But Jacob was shrewd, crafty and independent. Actually, he was too smart. So God placed him under Laban, who was twice the crook that Jacob was, to teach him his first lessons in brokenness.12
Thus it is that brokenness prepares us for a greater work of God. In the book of Hosea, God speaks to the people of Israel, “Break up your fallow ground, for it is time to seek the Lord, till He comes and rains righteousness on you. You have plowed wickedness; you have reaped iniquity. You have eaten the fruit of lies, because you trusted in your own way” (Hosea 10:12-13). Before God could effectively move, their hardened hearts had to be softened.
I heard a story about a man who owned a large company. As his only son grew up, he had him do the dirty work of the factory, sweeping floors and cleaning the engine rooms. He was required to arrive exactly on time and work until the end of each day. He would come out of the factory dirty and greasy.
Years went by, and that young man grew up to be the CEO of the entire company. When the father was asked why he started his son at the bottom, he commented, “He would never have been able to handle such responsibility if I had not been willing to put him through the years of training—starting from the bottom, working his way up one step at a time. The price he paid was heavy, but now he is the owner.”
In the same way, God uses submission to train us for greater usefulness. Joshua is a great example. His title was “servant of Moses.”13 How would you like to be called “servant of So-and-so”? Night or day, whatever the authority says, you are to respond, “Yes, sir.” Yet Joshua became a great leader who actually stepped into the shoes of Moses! Joshua placed himself under his authority and truly lived the life of a slave, doing whatever Moses asked of him. Thus he was trained to take Moses’ place when the right time came.14
In Isaiah 57, God tells us that He dwells with the one who is contrite and humble15—the one who is broken. Wow! God who dwells in heaven says He will come and dwell with me. This “dwelling with” is more than what we have in conversion.
There is a sublime power and a godliness that come through submission. It is the fragrance of the cross, of dying to oneself. It is a hundred times more potent than carnal power. Submission and brokenness are the fallowed ground that grows this kind of godliness in our lives.
blessed by God
When we choose to submit, we have God’s protection over us from the Enemy and from going in the wrong direction. The Lord restores us from the destruction the Enemy brought on our lives. We are also prepared to grow in godliness. It would seem these are benefits enough for us to choose the path of submission. But God goes beyond this and pours blessing and favor on our lives.
Think again about the prodigal son. His father not only restored him as a son, but he also heaped good things upon him.16 God is this kind of loving Father. He’s just waiting for the moment He can bless us. But all too often He is restrained by His own principles. When we live in rebellion, He can’t bless us as He would like.
God’s blessings for obedience and submission should come as no surprise to any of us. These thoughts are scattered throughout Scripture. The first time submission is mentioned is when Hagar is asked to go back and submit to Sarah. In the following verse the angel tells her, “I will multiply your descendants exceedingly, so that they shall not be counted for multitude” (Genesis 16:10). The book of Deuteronomy is filled with the promise of blessings for obedience and curses for disobedience.17 Proverbs is filled with verses promising a good future for those who will take rebuke, for those who are respectful or for those who listen.18
We all know the story of two young women named Orpah and Ruth.19Their husbands and their father-in-law died. Their mother-in-law Naomi, an older woman, became their authority. Naomi decided to go back to Israel. As they were about to depart, Naomi talked to her daughters-in-law and said, “Children, I am an old woman. Even if I get married and have children, there’s no way you will want to wait to have a family by them. Go back to your people.”20Orpah wept, but she went back to Moab for security and for her future.
But we read that Ruth clung to Naomi. You have to think emotionally as you read this passage. Ruth must have reasoned this way: “My mother-in-law, she’s an old woman, weak and broken. But the only person I have over me is her. Now what does she really want?” Ruth came up with her answer and then said to Naomi, “Wherever you go, I will go, Your people shall be my people, and your God, my God. Where you die, I will die” (Ruth 1:16-17). In essence, she said, Nothing will make me leave you.
Her story of obedience continues as they return to Naomi’s community. Ruth submits to all that Naomi tells her to do. The Lord then blesses Ruth, and through her He blesses Naomi. Ruth becomes the great-great-grandmother of King David and a Gentile in the line of Jesus Christ. The women of the town, in their blessing for Naomi’s new grandson, say to her, “For your daughter-in-law, who loves you, who is better to you than seven sons, has borne him” (Ruth 4:15).
In the late 1960s, I was on a ministry mobile team along with about 10 others. I remember one particular morning when we were stationed near the city of Jhansi in northwest India. Our leader called me to his side and said, “You know that we are stuck.”
I said, “I know.” You see, our old vehicle, packed with crates of Bibles, tracts and personal belongings, had two flat tires, and we had no spares. We also had no money to buy new tires.
My leader then told me, “You are the only one who has a watch.
So why don’t we sell your watch, and we can buy the needed tires?”
At first I couldn’t believe he would ask me to do something like this. Though it was difficult for me to handle his request, I had been told, “Obey your leader.” Honestly, it was a hard decision for me. But I prayed about it, and God said, “Obey him.” So even though I didn’t like it, I took my watch and gave it to him. He smiled while I cried on the inside. The watch was sold, we bought the tires, and the team went happily along its way.
I didn’t remain without a watch. Actually it’s amazing how many watches people have given me over the years. God has paid me back for my watch many times. One watch somebody gave me was made the same year I was born. I have also given away more watches than you can imagine. My wife says, “Your hobby is getting watches and pens, then giving them away.”
Another time, when I was 20, we were in Bharuch, Gujurat, for our missions conference. During our time there, I received a letter in the mail. It was an invitation for me to fly to London and preach. They even sent me air tickets from Delhi to London and back, along with £600. I went to my senior leader, full of excitement about this invitation, and asked his permission to go. All I needed was a couple of weeks off.
He looked at me and said, “Send it back.” That’s all. He didn’t ask me a single question about it. He didn’t argue with me. He didn’t even say anything except, “Send it back. You cannot go.”
I just couldn’t handle it. I cried and said to myself, How can this be? It is my life. It is my invitation. How can he do this? Then I remembered, “Obey your leader.” With great pain, I sent the whole package back.
Somebody asked me recently, “Where is your home?” I replied, almost automatically, “In a suitcase.” I don’t know how many millions of miles I have traveled in every class on airplanes. I gave up one air ticket, one trip to England, and now I can hardly keep up with all the invitations I receive from countries everywhere to come and speak!
“Give, and it will be given to you: good measure, pressed down . . . running over” (Luke 6:38). This verse is not just about money. When we give away our rights and surrender our wills, when we give our obedience, our return is “good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over.” I received more watches and more invitations. No angels dropped them down from heaven, but God orchestrated it. The blessings I received, I believe, have everything to do with my willingness to give up my ways and my will to submit.
Submitting to authority is never for evil, but always for blessing.
“I Am well Pleased”
At the end of our lives, what could we possibly want to hear more from God than the words, “I am well pleased”? We are made by Him and for Him, and we only have this brief moment to make choices that will please our Lord. In the light of eternity, we can’t even begin to comprehend how brief the 80 or so years we live on earth are. It’s like it’s less than a fraction of a second. Yet what we will be in eternity is determined by this split second we call time.
When we choose to say, “Lord, I will do whatever You ask me to do, no matter how difficult it is” and then are rewarded by hearing, “I am well pleased. I am happy,” we have earned one of the greatest privileges a man or woman can know. I don’t believe any of us is without such a desire in our hearts. When all is said and done, we want to know that we have brought pleasure to our Creator.
Scripture says our obedience pleases the Lord. “Children, obey your parents in all things, for this is well pleasing to the Lord” (Colossians 3:20). When a wife submits to her husband, God whispers, “I am pleased.” Jesus said, “If you love me, you will obey what I command” (John 14:15, NIV). Meditate on the words below:
I am the Lord’s!...
“The Lord’s” to love, to honor and obey.
I am the Lord’s! Yet teach me all it meaneth,
All it involves of love and loyalty,
Of holy service, absolute surrender,
And unreserved obedience unto Thee.21
These are the words of a hymn written by Lucy Ann Bennett at the turn of the 19 th century. Our love and our devotion are intertwined with our obedience to Him, which also means to His delegated authorities. To love the Lord is to obey Him and His delegated authorities, His covering over us. There are few greater ways to express our love to Him than to surrender our wills to His.
Jesus Christ, Creator of the earth, moon, sun, stars and all the galaxies, came to earth as an infant. He emptied Himself and walked on this planet like us. During the first 30 years of Jesus’ life, we never hear God the Father say “I am well pleased” about
His Son. But when Almighty God, now a man, chose to walk down into the water and bend His neck under the hand of a man whom He created and submit Himself to go under the water, the voice came from heaven: “This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased” (Matthew 3:17).
“I am well pleased.” May it ever ring in our hearts.
Lord, we bow our hearts before You. You alone are God. You alone are wise. Yet too often we find ourselves thinking we know better. Lord, in Your grace, remind us that You put authorities over us for our protection, and that as we submit to them, we become more like You and experience Your blessing in our lives. Thank You for all the benefits You grant us through submission. Help us, Lord, to choose this path for You. Amen.