Prayer and Authority (18) Submission

Submission is very important for Christians, but unfortunately it has become a tool for Christian leaders to control their people. The real purpose of submission is different. God has made us free, so another person can only have authority in our lives, if we give it to them. We give another person authority in our lives by submitting to them.

This is important for effective prayer. By submitting to each other, Christians are giving other Christians authority in their lives. When we submit to our elders, we give them authority in our lives. This enables them to pray to God on our behalf and release the Holy Spirit to work in our lives. It also allows them to resist evil on our behalf. The more I submit to Christian friends or elders, the greater spiritual authority they will have to resist any evil that is attacking me.

This relationship between spiritual authority and submission is not well understood. We often ask other Christians to pray for us, but it does not have much affect. The reason is that they lack authority in our lives, but they cannot have authority, if we will not give it to them. Modern Christians want to be independent, so they are ambivalent about the concept of submission. This leaves them vulnerable in spiritual warfare, because no one has authority to stand with them to resist the attacks of the enemy.