Submission to Authority- a Key to Powerful Prayer

Proverbs 28: 9 – ‘He who turns away his ear from hearing the law [of God and man], even his prayer is an abomination, hateful and revolting [to God]’.
Our modern society is absolutely filled with rebellion. Look at the role reversals we have in our families. I believe that women can hold respectable positions in the world and make good money.
But this belief has nothing to do with the order-the authority structure- God has established for the home. The bible says that a wife should submit to her husband as unto the Lord. Wives need to have an attitude of submission, an attitude of respect, towards their husbands. If husbands would obey the Word and love their wives as Christ loves the church, and if wives would embrace true, godly submission, I believe marriages would last. This would be the case because we would all be living in obedience to God’s Word.

Even as the lack of true biblical submission is absent in many marriages, submission to spiritual authority is practically non-existent. Hebrews 13: 17 – ‘Obey your spiritual leaders and submit to them for they are constantly keeping watch over your souls and guarding your spiritual welfare, as men who will have to render an account of their trust]. Do this with gladness and not with sighing and groaning, for that would not be profitable to you’. Often when a pastor tries to bring some kind of correction, people tend to become upset and want to leave the church and that is not right. Paul corrected people often; that was part of his job as a spiritual leader, and it remains a responsibility for spiritual leaders today. If we will understand and believe that spiritual authority exists to promote our joy, we will embrace it, and when we do, our joy will increase and our prayers will be effective.

We simply cannot grow up or mature without correction. If we are rebellious towards office policy, company rules, government guidelines, traffic laws, or towards any other form of authority, then we have more serious attitude problems than we might think. If we refuse to submit to earthly authority, then we will not submit to God’s authority. That is called disobedience and it will keep our prayers from having power. One of the lessons God has taught me is that we are not fit to be in authority until we can know how to come under authority. I also learned that God will promote us at the right time if we keep a good, godly attitude during challenging times. Submission is not an act we put on: it is an attitude we should have.

The anointing of God (His presence and power) is a form of authority. If we want to operate in a greater anointing- a strange authority from God, then we have to submit to the authority under which God places us before He moves us on to a new level of leadership. In our marriages, in our spiritual lives, in our professional lives, and in any other realm in which authority is in place, we must be properly related to that authority in order to experience answered prayer and God’s favour in our lives.

We don’t have to express an opinion about everything; we do not have to make comments about everything. We have to stop grumbling about what we do not like and just do those things. We just need to do what we are told to do. We need to do it because our Lord has asked us to. We don’t live to please people, but to please the Lord.  An attitude of honour and submission towards authority needs to permeate our everyday lives. If someone asks you not to sit somewhere, don’t sit there.  If there is a ‘no parking’ zone, don’t park there, even if ‘just for a minute’. If the only parking space available is a disabled space and you are not disabled, don’t park there even if it means having to walk a long way! You may be thinking, ‘Well those things can’t make a difference. That’s all little stuff. I’ve got big problems’. We all keep our big problems until we learn that our little everyday attitudes and mindsets add up to create either big troubles or big blessings.

We do not have to think someone or something is right. All we need to do is obey the rules and if we do, God will bless us. On the contrary, if we have a stiff-necked attitude about authority, we are not going to be blessed and our prayers will not be effective. Remember the strong words of Proverbs 28:9- ‘He who turns away his ear from hearing the law [of God and man], even his prayer is an abomination, hateful and revolting [to God].