Most families today have rebellion built into their daily life and operation. Most families have rebellion in their system. That means rebellion is a way of life for most people. And that’s serious!
Hierarchy of Authority
Authority must be conferred. It comes to us from those who have responsibility over us. We can only have authority by being under authority. Yet we need authority in order to be anything other than a pawn in someone else’s game.
The Bible reveals the hierarchy of authority which God operates by and which is the only legitimate authority structure for our lives. That hierarchy has God at the top, Christ under God (even though He is equal with God in nature), Man under Christ, the Wife under her Husband (even though she is equal with her husband in nature), and Children under their parents (even though they are equal with them in nature).
Rebellion Curses Us
Acts of rebellion take us out from the place of care and protection which God created for us. We are exposed to all the evil attacks of the enemy. We violate our right to protection by our rebellion against God.
Rebellion has the same effect on us as witchcraft has. Just as witchcraft brings us under the evil work of Satan, so too does our rebellion against God and all those He places over us.
“For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry.” 1Samuel 15:23a
Everyday Rebellion
Submission to those in rightful authority over us, in God’s hierarchy, is extremely important to us. So we should not think light of it, yet we do!
Most parents tolerate high levels of what I call “everyday rebellion“. Husbands and wives take it for granted that they will live with a high level of “everyday rebellion”. Parents take it for granted that “everyday rebellion” is a normal part of life.
Rebellion is not something that we should see as ‘normal’, nor should it be part of our everyday life. There should be no rebellion in the system of our home and family processes.
Tolerating Rebellion
It is common for mums to let their baby dictate to them. Babies are allowed to dictate when they will sleep, what they will eat and what they want when they want it.
When the mum needs the baby to comply with the mother’s wishes and needs, a baby or child can refuse to cooperate and put added stress upon the mother and her challenges. This is taken for granted in many homes. It is not always just that the baby is not hungry or is overly tired. It is often that the baby or child is pressing his or her will in opposition to the mother’s will. It is rebellion, even at such a tender age.
It is also common for western wives to contend with their husband. Many wives stand up to their husband, belittle the husband, contend with the husband in front of the family, and insist that their own will be followed over the husband’s will.
When a wife stands up to her husband she is violating the place of authority given by God to her husband. Therefore she is violating God’s authority, since He authorised the husband’s place.
All Rebellion is Against God
It is foolish to think you are rebelling against a person.
A child might think, “If I had a better dad I’d submit to him”. A wife might think, “It I had a better husband I would submit to him”.
Those thoughts are misdirected. When the child rebels against his or her parents that child is refusing to obey God. Their rebellion is not against a person, but ultimately against God.
All rebellion against God-appointed authorities is rebellion against God.
Rebellion and Abdication
What is happening in western homes today is a combination of rebellion from the subordinate and abdication from the person with authority. The evidence that we have rebellion in the very system of our lives is that both those with authority and those who should be under authority agree to cooperate in rejecting God’s authority hierarchy.
Western homes destroy their effective function by subverting what God gave them – His hierarchy of authority by which things work with His blessing.
Inability to Submit to God
Westerners are in a situation where they cannot truly submit to God, because rebellion and abdication rule their hearts and their culture.
Westerners cannot raise a different kind of generation because children are born under the perverse spirit of rebellion against authority.
Westerners instinctively look for ways to dispose of and nullify those over them. This is just normal business for people today, because they have never learned to willingly yield themselves in faithful submission to God, by happy and complete submission to those He has placed over them.
When children disobey their parents and wives stand up to their husbands they are simply giving to their parents and husbands what those people have earned for themselves by having violated authority in their own lives previously.
This is rebellion built into our whole operational system.
Its result is that people don’t really try to submit to God, but just recruit Him to their assistance for the things they need.
Children and Wives Ruling
The curse of children ruling their parents and wives ruling their husbands is evidence that God’s hierarchy of authority has been violated. It is violated by people who have wanted to be master of their own lives and therefore rebelled against those in authority over them. Therefore they have rebelled against God and lost His protection. God has given them over to the curse of Rebellion in the System.
“And I will give children to be their princes, and babes will rule over them.” Isaiah 3:4
“As for my people, children are their oppressors, and women rule over them. O my people, they which lead you cause you to err, and destroy the way of your paths.” Isaiah 3:12
Clean Up Time
When we violate God’s authority hierarchy there is Rebellion in the System. The only way out is through repentance. We must ask God to forgive us for rebelling against Him by not valuing what He has given us. Ask God to forgive you for resisting your parents. Wives, ask God to forgive you for resisting your husband’s authority.
We need to repent as a culture from the wholesale despisement of those in authority and how we all look for ways to remain free from the imposition of authority over us. Let us clean up our own hearts and families and then pray for our culture. Let’s get rid of rebellion in the system.
Tags: authority, authority structure, hierarchy of authority, legitimate authority, rebellion
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