Kings Don't Get Upset: Why Submission Gives You Power
Dr RJ Sing, 24 June 2006, 16 min
Originally preached as “Ministerial Ethics: Submission”
Sermon outline
Submission to God, to His Word and to the authorities He has placed over you is not weakness but strength, because it clothes you with authority in the Spirit and trains you to rule your own spirit instead of being upset.
Main text
- James 4:6-7
Opening
This recording is an excerpt that begins as he asks the church to turn to James 4, telling them they have not even started and are only warming up. He reads James 4:6-7 and points out that before you can resist the devil and see him flee, the Bible says to submit yourself to God.
Submit to God before you resist the devil
Resisting the devil should bring a result: he flees. But the order in the verse matters, because you cannot resist the devil if you do not first submit yourself to God. Submitting to God gives you power in the realm of the Spirit.
“You cannot resist the devil if you do not submit yourself to God.”
- James 4:6-7
God is always using men and women
Some say they will listen to God but not to man, and he tells them that is wrong. God has placed authorities in the land and in the church whom we should obey. Because God always works through people, at some time He will get a man or a woman to speak to you, and then you should be listening.
“If you can just bear in mind all the time that God is always using men and women.”
- Romans 13:1
True submission is submitting when you don't agree
Agreeing with an instruction you already like is not true submission; anyone will follow what suits them. Nine times out of ten you will be told something you might not agree with, and submitting then is submitting to authority.
Illustration: If he announced that everyone should wear grey because Pastor Wesley's jersey is grey, Pastor Wesley would gladly 'submit', but only because he is already wearing grey.
“True submission means I sometimes don't agree, but nonetheless, I submit to that.”
Submission clothes you with authority in the Spirit
People want to cast out devils and pray for the sick, but if they are not submitted they are naked in the realm of the Spirit. When you are submitted to God, His Word and the authorities you can see, you are clothed in the Spirit and your words carry power. Submission does not make you weaker; it multiplies your strength.
Illustration: Being naked versus fully dressed in the realm of the Spirit.
“If you want more power, submit.”
Let your spirit man rule
Man is spirit, soul and body, and the soul is the mind, will, intellect and emotions. A spiritual person is so yielded to God that the spirit man rules over the soul and body, taking his light, instruction and food from the Word of God. Most Christians, though, are ruled by the sense realm: they only pray, or are only kind, when they feel like it.
Illustration: Someone takes your parking place at church, so you sit fuming through the whole service and miss the hour in which God was speaking to you.
“Most Christians are sense realm ruled.”
- 1 Thessalonians 5:23
Kings don't get upset, they make decisions
A king does not act, talk or carry himself like a child, and church is part of your training. Decide in advance that nothing and nobody will upset you, and take charge of your own spirit and personality. Everyone faces challenges every day, but if you are looking to be offended, the devil will gladly supply the offence.
Illustration: At a meeting in Johannesburg he chose not to arrive hours early and told Pastor Wesley that if he were given a seat in the last row, or even turned away at a packed door, he would go back to his hotel room just as happy as if he had been in the service.
“Kings don't get upset, they just make decisions.”
- Proverbs 16:32
Putting it into practice
- Submit to God and His Word before you try to resist the devil.
- Listen when God speaks to you through the people He has placed in authority.
- Submit even when you don't fully agree with an instruction.
- Let your spirit, fed by the Word, rule your feelings, not the other way round.
- Decide in advance that nothing and nobody will upset or offend you.
Closing
The excerpt ends while he is still teaching, as he warns that the devil will deliver an offence on a platter to anyone looking for one and declares that, as a Spirit-filled child of God, he is not letting anyone upset him.
Declarations he led
- If you want more power, submit.
- Grow up.
In his words
- “Submission is strength, submission gives you power.”
- “You're not naked in the Spirit, you are clothed in the Spirit.”
- “A king does not act like a child.”
- “Kings don't get upset, they just make decisions.”
- “If you are looking to be offended, the devil will deliver one on the platter for you.”
Every scripture in this message
- James 4:6-7
- Romans 13:1
- 1 Thessalonians 5:23
- Proverbs 16:32