{"id":3598,"date":"2014-03-15T02:47:35","date_gmt":"2014-03-15T06:47:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ChurchOfTheBeyond.com\/?p=3598"},"modified":"2014-03-15T02:49:38","modified_gmt":"2014-03-15T06:49:38","slug":"slaves-no-more","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ChurchOfTheBeyond.com\/index.php\/2014\/03\/15\/slaves-no-more\/","title":{"rendered":"Slaves No More"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"freedom\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey<\/p>\n

Romans 6:16, portion<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Although Paul here was speaking of submission to sin, he spoke of a general principle which holds true in all things. \u00a0When we submit our spirits to any thing, we become its slaves. \u00a0This is true, whether it is to a job, a spouse, an organization, or any other thing.<\/p>\n

Jesus said that, for believers, we are to call no one Rabbi, Teacher, Father, Leader, or Master, for God alone is all of these things (Matthew 23:1-12). \u00a0In fact, Jesus Himself said that the Gentiles even consider it to the benefit of those they are leading when they do so, and call themselves their subject’s “benefactors” (Luke 22:25). \u00a0But, He said,<\/p>\n

But\u00a0it is<\/i>\u00a0not this way with you, but the one who is the greatest among you must become like the youngest, and the leader like the servant.\u00a0For who is greater, the one who reclines\u00a0at the table<\/i>\u00a0or the one who serves? Is it not the one who reclines\u00a0at the table?<\/i>\u00a0But I am among you as the one who serves.<\/p>\n

Luke 22:26-27<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The problem is that none of us are perfect, and, in fact, leaders fall. \u00a0There are spiritual principles and God-ordained dynamics that happen whenever one person willing yields themselves to another. \u00a0Whether in a pastoral setting, in a sermon, or in any other place or time, the spirit of another, and the spirits they are under, begin to operate through the person who submits to them. \u00a0In other words, if you are under someone else, you get all of them, including their junk.<\/p>\n

If they fall into adultery, you will battle with adultery. \u00a0If they slip into rejection, you will be faced with their rejection. \u00a0When they get in a wrong spirit, it will affect you. \u00a0What you submit to, in the measure that you do, you are slaves to obey.<\/p>\n

Yet, we have the choice. \u00a0As believers, Christ has set us free, and we can choose whom we will serve. \u00a0This is, indeed, why Paul wrote the following,<\/p>\n

For freedom Christ has set us free; stand firm therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.<\/p>\n

Galatians 5:1<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

This, indeed, is how all of witchcraft operates, including the Jezebel spirit. \u00a0When you submit your will, and your authority, your decision making capacity to another, you subject yourself spiritually to all they are. \u00a0When you allow your will to be ruled by another, you become subject to everything that is on them. \u00a0With a Jezebel spirit, it works on the basis of fellowship. \u00a0In a slow and methodical manner, a Jezebel spirit will win trust or favor in a person’s life, preying upon the insecurities and weaknesses, or loneliness, of an individual. \u00a0Once trust comes, it then tries to being the process of usurping authority. \u00a0Because it is a power-hungry spirit, looking for control, it tries to begin to make your decisions for you. \u00a0For the weak-minded, this begins to be manifested through ‘fighting your battles for you’. \u00a0Yet, for each battle that you allow a Jezebel to fight, your authority is slowly eroded away, and ground is given to this spirit. \u00a0Eventually, it will attempt to take your life completely from you, effectively making you a ‘eunuch’, so far as the Kingdom is concerned, with no authority, no power, and no liberty.<\/p>\n

What is the solution for witchcraft? \u00a0Guard your heart, and do not submit even an ounce of your authority to let someone else fight your battles for you. \u00a0Do not have fellowship with darkness.<\/p>\n

Consider this from another perspective. \u00a0When God formed the nation of Israel, He did not want them to have a king. \u00a0God alone was their King, and He was their identity. \u00a0Their sense of who they were as a nation was to be derived from Him alone, and not any particular leader. \u00a0But, when they begged Him for a human king, what did God say?<\/p>\n

And the\u00a0Lord\u00a0told him: \u201cListen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king.\u00a0As they have done from the day I brought them up out of Egypt until this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are doing to you.\u00a0Now listen to them; but warn them solemnly and let them know what the king who will reign over them will claim as his rights.\u201d<\/p>\n

1 Samuel 8:7-9<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

God was to have Samuel tell them what a king over them would mean. \u00a0They had rejected Himself as their true King, their true sovereign, and, by asking for a human king, someone to rule over them, this is what they were going to receive.<\/p>\n

Samuel told all the words of the\u00a0Lord\u00a0to the people who were asking him for a king.\u00a0He said, \u201cThis is what the king who will reign over you will claim as his rights: He will take your sons and make them serve with his chariots and horses, and they will run in front of his chariots.\u00a0Some he will assign to be commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties, and others to plow his ground and reap his harvest, and still others to make weapons of war and equipment for his chariots.\u00a0He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers.\u00a0He will take the best of your fields and vineyards and olive groves and give them to his attendants.\u00a0He will take a tenth of your grain and of your vintage and give it to his officials and attendants.\u00a0Your male and female servants and the best of your cattle\u00a0and donkeys he will take for his own use.\u00a0He will take a tenth of your flocks, and you yourselves will become his slaves.\u00a0When that day comes, you will cry out for relief from the king you have chosen, but the\u00a0Lord\u00a0will not answer you in that day.<\/p>\n

1 Samuel 8:10-18<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

God warned them ahead of time of what a king would entail. \u00a0He would lead them, and bring them into battle. \u00a0Take their possessions, and rule over them. \u00a0Remember what the state of the nation was. \u00a0Before, in the book of Judges, while the nation had failures and breakthroughs, they were each doing what they thought was right. \u00a0Yet, when a king was in place, all through the books of Kings and Chronicles, you can see the fate of the nation described by the faithfulness or failure of their leader. \u00a0Because they had submitted themselves to another ruler, their state as a nation was determined solely by the faithfulness of that one man.<\/p>\n

Notice, further, that in so doing, God no longer raised up judges in His people. \u00a0Because the people wanted a king, they no longer had their Sampson’s. \u00a0They no longer had their Barak and Deborah. \u00a0They no longer had their Gideon’s. \u00a0The only of this sort was Elijah, who stood out, and, in the midst of gross darkness, began the process of turning the nation back to God.<\/p>\n

But, God said He didn’t want a king. \u00a0Yet, having asked for a king, He told them that when they finally wished to be delivered, He Himself would not hear their cries. \u00a0This is indeed exactly what happened.<\/p>\n

Yet, don’t think that just because they had a ‘good’ leader for a time that it was necessarily a ‘good’ thing, either. \u00a0No, God wanted sons. \u00a0He wanted individuals, with their own will, able to make their own choices. \u00a0He wanted people unique, and separate, and not with a ‘group-think’ or ‘group mentality’, or any other thing. \u00a0He wanted us each to seek and find God on our own.<\/p>\n

But, you could also think of the corporate world. \u00a0Does a man have a job, or, as certain corporate types have desired, does the job have the man? \u00a0When you think of certain individuals, it is as if they have completely become the company. \u00a0They are a ‘company man’. \u00a0This is because they have fully yielded themselves to the company. \u00a0They are its slaves. \u00a0It does not matter whether the company does good or evil, they will follow it, regardless. \u00a0They won’t even think twice, more than likely, because they are submitted to it. \u00a0They won’t even see it coming.<\/p>\n

So, too, the church fails when it elevates man. \u00a0The surest road to deception is hierarchy. \u00a0When one person, no matter their gifting, character, calling, or whatever, is regarded as higher than any other.<\/p>\n

Two things need to be considered, then.<\/p>\n

First, we must submit ‘one to another’, out of reverence to Christ, according to Ephesians 5:21. \u00a0As well, God has given gifts to the body, and we are to obey our leaders, according to Hebrews 13:17. \u00a0We are to learn from them, for God has given us teachers in the body, so that we can grow the full statue of Christ, Ephesians 4:11-13. \u00a0Yet, we do not submit our ‘headship’, and our authority to them, even as it says in 1 Corinthians 11:3, the head of every man is Christ. \u00a0This difference must even show up in today’s work place, even as Paul admonished the slaves of his day to obey their earthly masters according to the flesh in Ephesians 6:5. \u00a0Yet, again, there is not, here a spiritual submission of one’s will, personality, or being to another.<\/p>\n

Each man must stand before God alone, and the work of his own life will be judged and merited. \u00a0The world, the corporate world or any other part of it, will always attempt to control, and externally govern. \u00a0And, in fact, remember, this is exactly what Jesus Himself said, they say they are doing good for those they are controlling (‘benefactors’). \u00a0Yet, this is always detrimental; it is always at the expense of personal liberty.<\/p>\n

Of course, perhaps, in a fallen world, there may be no other way to restrain the a general populace who by and large has not been made a new creation through the Gospel and is wholly evil in their thoughts and intent of their heart. \u00a0But, even as the Law of Moses did nothing to actually produce righteousness, in the people of God, all external attempts to control anyone do nothing but contain and manipulate the flesh. \u00a0In the work of God, all such is worthless for the production of righteousness.<\/p>\n

Second, we must address discipline and growth. \u00a0True Christian growth comes only by faith. \u00a0When we hear a “Word of the Kingdom”, then faith comes as a result of it. \u00a0When that seed of the Kingdom falls upon a good heart, and they act upon it, the individual sees the production of the fruit of Christ. \u00a0Whether this be in salvation at the first, or the continued obedience to the ‘ever-proceeding Word of God’, this is the only growth of the Kingdom there is.<\/p>\n

This, also, then, is submission to Christ’s Spirit. \u00a0In the same way that submission to a human spirit, or a corporate spirit, or any other thing of the Earth, submission to the Holy Spirit results in spiritual slavery to righteousness, Romans 6:18. \u00a0This slavery, however, works on the laws of love, and not fear. \u00a0It produces life, and not death. \u00a0And, in that slavery, a greater freedom than any have ever known is experienced. \u00a0This is Eternal Life, to know the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom He has sent.<\/p>\n

So, when the Word is spoken, faith comes. \u00a0Yet, when we do not live by the faith within us, we find ourselves submitting to another spirit.<\/p>\n

Yet, both faith and sin works by communion, even as the metaphor of yeast is used of both sin and the Kingdom. \u00a0So, Christ warned His followers,<\/p>\n

Be on your guard! If your brother sins, rebuke him; and if he repents, forgive him.\u00a0And if he sins against you seven times a day, and returns to you seven times, saying, \u2018I repent,\u2019 forgive him.<\/p>\n

Luke 17:3-4<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Jesus knew the power of communion. \u00a0He knew that if He let people in to His heart, who couldn’t be trusted, that it would spell disaster for Himself. \u00a0As it is recorded, He didn’t trust His heart to anyone, because He knew what was in the hearts of all men (John 2:24).<\/p>\n

Sin works in four ways. \u00a0Obviously, the temper can simply come and tempt you, as he did in the Garden to the couple. \u00a0Secondly, it can be already within you, as David cried out in Psalm 51, “In sin my mother conceived me”. \u00a0Remember, the iniquity of the fathers is passed down to the third and fourth generation, and, four generations up was Rahab the harlot. \u00a0Quite literally, this iniquitous root within David was laid within himself three generations prior. \u00a0Hence, while the power of the curse of iniquity is passed down to us today, it is broken by the power of the cross. \u00a0Hence, we apply the blood of Jesus over our lives, taking authority over every iniquitous root, and shut the door to it, and break it off our lives.<\/p>\n

Third, then, sin comes through wrong submission. \u00a0Thus, if we submit to any headship other than the Lord Jesus, we are in violation of God’s Word. \u00a0While we submit one-to-another, and we obey those with authority over us, we do not put our lives into a passive mode, and allow anyone to make decisions for us. \u00a0Since we will stand and fall solely upon our choices, we must take responsibility for our own lives. \u00a0Not taking ownership of our lives is a decision in itself, and until we stand up in ourselves, we will continually be at the mercy of the world around us.<\/p>\n

But, finally, sin comes as ‘yeast’. \u00a0As Paul wrote, a little leaven leaveneth the whole lump. \u00a0The reason certain sins had to be dealt with by death and excommunication is the Old Covenant is that the demonic element in sins resulted in those evils being spread throughout the entire camp of Israel. \u00a0In the same way that an adultery can work its way through a work-place, so too, it can work its way through an entire nation, if left unchecked. \u00a0Yet, this leavening power of sin, through the invisible demonic agency, continues today, yet, through deliverance in the power of the Kingdom, we see that instead of needing to kill the sinner in our midst, through repentance and forgiveness, the unbelieving sinner can be brought to wholeness, instead of stoning, and the believer who stumbles can have their feet washed again. \u00a0When one sins, we must rebuke them quickly, not harshly. \u00a0They must be corrected, and brought back to obedience, not only for their sake, but for the whole. \u00a0If we truly desire to have a pure work before God, even little things matter, and this is why Ananias and Sapphira were fell dead, because of the urgency of a right heart before God.<\/p>\n

There is such life and liberty in the power of the Spirit of God. \u00a0And, it is is your connections to others where most of our failings arise. \u00a0We find ourselves in subjection to many things, in the course of our lives, and as we seek the Lord, and many of them are not the will of the Lord.<\/p>\n

The Lord would want to open our eyes, and to see the things we are serving, that we might, as it is written, Worship the Lord your God and Him only shall you serve (Matthew 4:10).<\/p>\n

This is proper headship. \u00a0This is the sovereignty that God desires for each one of us to walk in, yielded to Him alone. \u00a0In Daniel 4:31 NASB, it says “sovereignty has been removed from you”, regarding the King. \u00a0When this was removed, he went mad. Proper authority is always broken by sin, and when we allow something to cause us to sin, or to provoke our spirit in an ungodly manner, as Israel did to Moses (Psalm 106:33), our ability to rule is taken from us. \u00a0Only through prayer and the mercy and grace of God is it restored, through properly acknowledging our sin and His Lordship.<\/p>\n

May God open our eyes, and see the other things that we serve. \u00a0May He reveal to us the places where we have yielded our authority and our sovereignty to another. \u00a0May He restore the the crown upon our head, and the hedges around our lives. \u00a0May He reveal to us every place that we have been tempted and failed, every root from our past, every wrong act and pattern of submission, and every unrighteous relationship within our walk. \u00a0May He show us how to cleanse and remove each one, applying the efficacious blood of Christ, and the authority of the victory of the cross and resurrection over our lives, that we might be kept in perfect peace.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.<\/p>\n

Isaiah 26:3<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Do you not know that when you present yourselves to someone as slaves for obedience, you are slaves of the one whom you obey Romans 6:16, portion Although Paul here was speaking of submission to sin, he spoke of a general principle which holds true in all things. \u00a0When we submit our spirits to any […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3599,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[264,18],"tags":[1189,107,869,29,194,370,1188,148,1301,1192,577,1190,1191,324,141,1193,576,394,222],"class_list":["post-3598","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-church-of-the-beyond","category-kingdom","tag-benefactors","tag-christ","tag-emotions","tag-faith","tag-freedom","tag-head","tag-headship","tag-king","tag-kingdom","tag-kingship","tag-mind","tag-samuel","tag-saul","tag-soul","tag-submission","tag-submit","tag-thoughts","tag-will","tag-word-of-the-kingdom"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2MdeJ-W2","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ChurchOfTheBeyond.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/freedom.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ChurchOfTheBeyond.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3598","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ChurchOfTheBeyond.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ChurchOfTheBeyond.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ChurchOfTheBeyond.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ChurchOfTheBeyond.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3598"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.ChurchOfTheBeyond.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3598\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3603,"href":"https:\/\/www.ChurchOfTheBeyond.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3598\/revisions\/3603"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ChurchOfTheBeyond.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3599"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ChurchOfTheBeyond.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ChurchOfTheBeyond.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ChurchOfTheBeyond.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}