The Key: Submission vs Obedience Saturday, Dec 7 2024 

Uncategorized , , , , kennethbow 10:18 am

The Key: Obedience vs Submission

Is there a difference between submitting and obeying?

Here are the definitions of each: Obedience: Obedience refers to the act of following instructions or orders from someone in a position of authority. It involves doing what you are told. Israel, obeyed, and grumbled while they were obeying. They definitely were not submitted.

Submission: Submission refers to the act of yielding your will and desires to the authority or control of someone else.

What is the spiritual meaning of submission? If your pastor is having problems with you, you have a problem with submission.

Submission is the spiritual discipline that frees us from the  burden of always needing to get our own way. If you always need to get your own way, life is frustrating and difficult and contentious. 

In submission we are learning to hold things lightly. 

We are also learning to diligently watch over the spirit in which we hold others— honoring them, preferring them, loving them even above ourselves.

Jesus provides the ultimate example of willing submission as He suffered intense agony in Gethsemane. Not my will but thine.

 Matt 26.39 And he went a little further, and fell on his face, and prayed, saying, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt.

Submission does not mean putting the will of the husband before the will of Christ. The Bible clearly teaches that the wife is a follower of Jesus before and above being a follower of her husband especially if he is going on the path of unbelief. She does not follow him in that, because she has been called to be a disciple of Jesus. 

Many years ago, I was at a conference and I heard a story. It was about a new convert and she was getting ready for church. When she walked out of her bedroom and stepped into the hall, her sinner husband was standing at the other end of the hall with a pistol pointed at her. He cocked the hammer back and said to her “you are not going to church tonight.”

She smiled and called him by name and said “if you pull that trigger, I’m going to heaven, and if you don’t pull that trigger, I’m going to church.”

That’s submission.

 

The Key: Submission Friday, Dec 6 2024 

Biblical history and Church news and Doctrine and Family and Marriage and Motivational and New Testament and Uncategorized , , , , kennethbow 11:36 am

Napoleon Hill said: You are searching for the magic key that will unlock the door to the source of power; and yet you have the key in your own hands, and you may use it the moment you learn to control your thoughts.

A key that opens many locks is worth buying. A lock that can be opened with many keys isn’t. 

If there truly was one single key that could open all of the blessings and benefits of God, what would it be? Would it be faith? Would it be prayer? Would it be giving? Would it be fasting?

I don’t know that one simple answer is the right key. But I do want to talk about at least one key that I think unlocks many things and possibly all things.

  • This key I am going to speak about unlocks your relationship with God. 
  • It unlocks your relationship with your pastor. 
  • It unlocks your relationship with your spouse. 
  • It unlocks your relationship with your parents and or with your kids. 
  • It unlocks your relationship with other people in the church 
  • It even unlocks your relationship with your boss and coworkers on the job and even neighbors.

I don’t remember ever hearing an entire sermon on the subject of submission. I’ve heard it alluded to and mentioned hundreds of times. But today I want to speak on this subject of submission. The key that unlocks every door. I hope the Lord will help me present it to you in all of its beauty and power. Too often it is seen as confining, or as an impediment to our will. Sometimes people see it limiting them or holding them back, which is not true.

What is the purpose of submission? Have we fallen into the thought processes that I am to submit to God but I don’t have to submit to my pastor, or I don’t have to submit to my spouse or I don’t have to submit to my parents.

By submitting we allow God complete control of our lives. As he works in us and through us, we will  see Him working around us. And where God works there is healing, life, and restoration. You see, our submission is to God so that He can use our lives to touch the lives of others.

Next blog:

Is there a difference between submitting and obeying?

 

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