Further to my previous posts on the topic of Jurisdiction I want to alert you to your dangerous practice of letting people speak into your life and over your life when they have no right to speak. I am quite confident that you have probably allowed people to have a say in your life, when they have no right to speak authoritatively over anything about you.

The Clamour of Voices

Have you noticed how many people appeal for your attention every day? There are myriad voices shouting at you for your attention and calling you to respond to them. Most of those voices have no right to speak. They have no jurisdiction over you. You should ignore them completely and live without regard for anything they say. Yet you most likely listen to them and allow them to mess with your life. While they have no real jurisdiction you may foolishly give them jurisdiction over you.

Let me define some of those non-jurisdictional voices which are speaking into your life on a daily basis. They come in various shapes and sizes and speak at different levels. However they can be categorised into a few convenient groupings to allow definition and evaluation.

Marketing Messages

Radio advertisements, billboards, television commercials, signs and a plethora of advertising messages bombard your senses every day. They are all seeking to market some product or service to you. Some are pushing for a sale, while others are promoting a brand, and others seek to mould your behaviour toward their commercial interests.

Many marketing messages are very powerful, charged with emotive subtext and sensual captivation, using million dollar power tools to reach into your life and dictate your choices and behaviour. Those voices speak with compelling and mind-altering power. Yet they have no right to dictate to you your choices.

Consider the case of the American razor blade manufacturers who wanted to penetrate the Japanese market. They had a superior product to the local supply, but no-one needed the sharper American blades. The Japanese bathed at the end of the day and then shaved after their bath, to be clean faced for their wife. The hot bath softened their bristles so the inferior blades worked perfectly well.

The only real chance the American suppliers had to penetrate the market was to get the Japanese to shave in the morning, while their bristles were not softened by the hot bath. So they set about a concerted campaign to shame the Japanese into shaving in the morning. The marketing message was that truly loyal Japanese men would be clean shaven for their boss in the morning.

The social engineering apparently worked, changing the shaving habits and prompting the need for the superior American razor blades. A whole culture was subverted for commercial gain.

Now, tell me you have always been aware of marketers’ attempts to do something similar to you, and that you have intelligently and studiously avoided their every influence. I don’t believe you.

Social Engineering

Apart from those messages which have commercial gain in their sights you are also bombarded with messages from people who wish to change your social attitudes. The irreligious want to subvert your faith. The politically inclined want to win you to their brand of politics. The immoral want to weaken your moral resolve. The rebellious want to loosen the restraints in society. The proud want your adulation.

When easy divorce was made possible the divorce rate went up and most people accepted the new social reality. When pre-marital sex became more prevalent most people accepted that as the new social order. And so it goes.

But don’t think you are always aware of those social engineering processes. Clever and subversive messages and social arrangements are set up to sell you on attitudes, choices and responses that play into the plans of those who seek to change you.

I know from my years in the media that news reports, feature articles, images, movies, music and television are carefully crafted to create impressions which prompt attitude changes which feed into social outcomes. Media services have long been infiltrated by people who have message agendas, who can then interpose their subtle messages into the public forum.

Consider the orchestrated trumpeting of the global warming message, despite all the evidence to the contrary. The topic has become something of a religious dogma and is spoken of as a fait accompli. Similarly evolution is spoken of as if any rational person knows intuitively that it is the only possible scientific reality. This is done despite the enormous body of literature from evolutionists and others pointing out that it is a completely baseless notion.

Now, tell me you have always been aware of the attempts of social engineers to influence you, and that you have intelligently and studiously remained untouched by their every attempt. I don’t believe you.

No Jurisdiction

The reason these voices clamour for your attention is because they have no authority. They are without jurisdiction. The only way they can gain currency is to get you to willingly give up your personal freedom and your right to reject them. If you buy the dogma, message or attitude package that is being pushed on you, then you give that message jurisdiction by the choice of your will.

When a child believes that a bogey man is hiding under his bed that child will lose their peace and careless ease. The message has no real validity, but it gains power over the child by the child’s willingness to accept it.

When a person believes that certain politics, certain social agendas, certain moral compromises or some other such social value is valid they will come under the power of those who promote it. The believer has given over their personal sovereignty to the peddler of that particular value. The message that has no jurisdiction is given the right to speak, only by the listening ear, not by the moral force of the message.

Freedom Given Up

The subject of jurisdiction cuts close to the subject of personal freedom. People who are gloriously and wonderfully free can become slaves to ideas, ideologies, philosophies, moral compromises, social agendas, attitudes, limitations, intimidation, and so on, just by allowing an invalid voice to speak over them.

When you allow someone or something to have the right to speak over you, your life becomes subverted under their power. When the only ones you listen to are God and those He endorses, then your freedom is maintained and kept intact. When you obey the voices of greed, lust, pride, self-assertion, self-indulgence, anger, and so on, you have given over your freedom to voices that should have no jurisdiction over you.

Reclaim Your Freedom

You were created free. By worshipping God and by the saving grace of Jesus Christ you can be made free even when you have become a slave to evil things. So take this whole matter seriously. You were not created to be a slave. You are not supposed to allow anyone and anything to walk all over you. You need to discern the voices that press themselves upon you. You need to reject those that do not have authority, or right to speak. You need to devote yourself to the voices that God has placed on His behalf to guide and bless you.

I exhort you to reclaim your freedom. If the Son of God makes you free, you are truly free. Stand firm in that freedom, to which Christ has made you free and don’t be caught up and entangled again in the chains of slavery.