Rebellion in the System

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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.

Individualism as the Satanic Theme

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Satanism openly admits its link to individualism. I only observed that fact recently. The connection between Satanism and individualism makes sense and is probably plain to any serious thinker, but I had not given the subject much thought. What made this observation stand out to me is my recent consideration about what a true ‘son’ is. Observations about the prodigal heart as compared with the heart of a son focus the idea of being ‘individual’.

In my book, “Family Horizons – Creating Families of Destiny”, I point out that individualism in the western culture has been promoted at the expense of family. In reality, people are not individuals in the way they like to think of themselves. They are members of a family and a society. God takes those family and broader connections very seriously, even if the person does not.

The rejection of family, such as we see in the example of the Prodigal Son, is based on the idea of being separate from the family connection. The prodigal demanded to get what was his, then he headed off to live without the constraints his father and family would have imposed on him. This is individualism.

In the context of a prodigal who pulls away from his family to live an independent life, being an individual is an act of rebellion. Such ‘individuals’ are rebelling against the place God put them in within their family. And the Bible teaches that, “rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft” (1Samuel 15:23)! It is no surprise, then, that being ‘individual’ is a strong point for satanists.

A quick web search of the terms ‘satanism’ and ‘individualism’ comes up with the following quotes. “Its teachings are based on individualism”. “Polish Satanists are individualistic oriented”. “Modern Satanism preaches individualism”. “Satanists treasure individualism”.

Satanism stands counter to worship of the Judeo-Christian God and it celebrates each person’s personal pursuit of self-interest. The ‘individual’ is promoted, over family, society and community values.

Individualism prompts a person to think of self first. Instead of loving their neighbour as they love themselves, individuals are more concerned about “what’s in it for me?” Self-interest takes centre stage of the individual’s life.

The rampant individualism of western culture deserves closer scrutiny in the light of its anti-Christian values. Rather than celebrating the individual, we are wise to be suspicious of all promotion of individualistic themes.

Now, God clearly deals with individuals. His call is to “whosoever will”. God has called individuals to step out in faith and to obey Him. However, these individuals are not to despise their family connection, but even to fulfill family destiny.

God called Gideon. No one else in his family was given that call. He was the individual who God chose to deal with. Yet the first task Gideon was given was to pull down his father’s altar to the false God, Baal. The ‘individual’ was given a ‘family’ assignment.

Each of us is a uniquely created person and we each stand before God as master of our own destiny. Yet, each one of us is to live for others, within the context where God has placed us. We are to honour our parents and to love our neighbours. Our unique, personal identity includes our family heritage and a destiny connected with the community in which God has placed of called us.

Sovereignty Attacked

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Each of us has a remarkable privilege of presenting ourselves before God, independent of the demands and tyranny of our peers or oppressors. Yet this wonderful privilege is attacked and attempts are made to deny us our sovereignty, at many stages in our life. This first commentary on how our sovereignty is under attack may well be expanded on in future posts, but at this point I want to simply draw your attention to the fact that there are various forces which oppose your divinely bequeathed right to personal sovereignty.

Since we are created by God and the rights we have come from God it is logical that the first enemy to any such privilege given us by God would be from the principal evil spirit, who we know as the devil. The devil is a created angel who rebelled against God and came under God’s judgement. His activities since then have been to attack those things which God has created, especially humankind.

The devil attacks our sovereignty in a number of ways. We know from the records of his influence over mankind that he seeks to prompt people to use their sovereignty in acts of rebellion against God. This results in them coming under God’s judgement instead of God’s blessing. Temptation and deception are two key strategies used by the devil.

Another strategy is to get people to hand over their personal sovereignty to the devil. Strictly speaking it is not possible to do so, but the devil has a couple of devices which work in this direction. When a person submits to some kind of inappropriate attitude or behaviour that person becomes a slave to that thing. For example, when a person gives in to anger, they become an angry person, enslaved to angry responses. When a person gives in to lust they become a lustful person, enslaved by lustful thoughts. This does not strictly take their sovereignty from them, but it imprisons their soul and seems to them as if they have lost sovereignty. If the person was to repent and cry out to God for deliverance they still have the right to do so. They may still call upon God, as a sovereign creation, and find God’s help.

The other way of getting people to hand over their personal sovereignty comes in the form of a contract with the devil. The ancient German folktale character, Faust, is a classic case of someone who made a deal with the devil. In recent times youth attending rock concerts have been encouraged to sign themselves to the devil, in their own blood. The act of making such a commitment is a major compromise of a person’s will and results in a tremendous inner sense of slavery. While the person’s personal sovereignty is, in reality, intact, the insistent claim upon them by the devil can seem irrevocable. I have heard testimony of people who have sought Christian help to break such contracts and who have become free from the tyranny of the devil’s claim.

So, temptation, deception and intimidation are typical methods of compromising personal sovereignty. While these methods are used by the devil, they are also employed by other people who wish to assert their will over others and to deny people their rightful freedom. The carrot and the stick, used by governments and other social structures to direct people’s wills, are expressions of temptation and intimidation. Propaganda, indoctrination and deception are also widely used by regimes intent on controlling the masses. Hitler’s Minister of Propaganda, Dr Goebbels implemented the Big Lie theory, that the bigger the lie the more likely people are to believe it.

Fear is another tool for making people give up personal sovereignty. Fear could relate to simple avoidance of rejection by others, such as social pressure to conform in order to be accepted. Or it could relate to the immediate threat of reprisal, death or torture if compliance is not given. Totalitarian regimes often resort to abductions, murders, genocide and other atrocities to instil fear and compliance in the community.

At a more personal level, there are those who seek to enslave others, including their family, employees or people in their care. Manipulation and control may involve just one subject, such as a parent manipulating their child, or a wife manipulating her husband. In such cases the manipulator seeks to turn another person into their slave, at least within certain behaviour patterns, and so resorts to various means of control to get the other to give up their sovereignty. A similar condition is that of domination, where an assertive person will project their personality over others, simply to indulge their own pride and self-centredness. The right to personal sovereignty of those around them is impacted by their domination.

In each of the cases I have outlined, our personal right to come into God’s presence and make appeal directly to Him, remains intact. We may be in physical danger if we do so, but we have not lost the divine right to do so. This is the Divine Right of Everyone! No religious or political domination, nor sin or deal with the devil, can take from us our right to cry out to God and present ourselves before Him.