Personal sovereignty is the inalienable right we each have to present ourselves before God and to do business directly with Him. Each one of us can approach the God of the universe, the creator of all things, on an equal footing. None of us needs a mediator or interpreter to represent us in that highest of all courts. We represent ourselves, and we do not need to heed the advice of any legal elite or any protocol protectors.
The rights of personal sovereignty are awesome in their unbounded scope. Governments can throw you in prison and hold a gun to your head, demanding that you do not approach God’s throne, and yet, from the stinking depths of a putrid dungeon, with your lips closed, you can lift your heart to God and do business with the maker of all eternity. No tyrant, political power or personal intimidation can deny you your rights before God.
That having been discussed in previous posts, I come now to the ugly thought of the true universality of personal sovereignty. A previous post, The Divine Right of Everyone, pointed out that human-kind has equality before God. One is not “better” or superior to another, based on rank or station. I pointed out that the wealthy property owner, Boaz, ancestor to King David, received a “blessing” from his lowly employees, when, as the Bible teaches, ‘the lesser is blessed by the greater’. Such an action should have represented an insult, but all humans are equal, despite wealth and station, so the lowest can invoke God’s blessing on the greatest among us.
But allow me to take that thought to another level. Even the vilest and most despised people on the planet have the right to personal sovereignty!
Now, I know that to be an offensive thought, because people have told me so. On one occasion I preached about the truly amazing quality of God’s grace. I pointed out that God’s grace is such that if Hitler, Idi Amin, Pol Pot or Osama bin Ladin were to ask for God’s forgiveness and grace, they could have it. I was confronted later by a delegation of people who insisted that God would most certainly NOT forgive such people. Murderers, serial killers and others were deemed by these church-goers to be outside the scope of God’s grace. It was offensive to them that the goodness of God should be allowed anywhere near such people.
Society at large carries a loathing toward certain evil personas. Society at large, being outside God’s grace and not knowing His ways, is keen to function as judge, jury and executioner for some of those evil characters. So the response I faced to my proclamation of God’s awesome grace is not an isolated case. People do not want the incredible divine privileges which God confers to be conferred on us ALL!
The last person to be deemed to be ‘outside the law’ in Australia, was a bushranger named Ned Kelly. He had become so notorious for his actions that all protection provided under the British legal system was withdrawn from him. He was deemed to be an ‘outlaw’. That word, which most of us know from old western movies, is normally taken to simply mean a ‘baddie’. But its legal application is that the person is deemed to be ‘outside the law’ and no longer under the protection of the law. Anyone could kill an outlaw, any time, any place, without legal recrimination.
But, even if the government of the day designates a person to be no longer protected by the civil law that outlawed person still has the full rights of sovereignty to stand before God and make their case.
Do you want a Bible example? Consider Cain, who murdered his brother, Abel. Cain was the first murderer in human history. He had given himself over to serving devilish will, instead of the will of God. God put a special curse on Cain and made him a vagabond. Yet, when Cain made appeal to God, God listened and gave concessions to Cain. See Genesis 4:13-15.
Believe it or not, God is ready to welcome Osama bin Ladin into His presence. Public enemies number #1, #2, #3, etc, all have personal sovereignty. They can yet change their eternal destiny. Until they are in hell they can still step into God’s presence and do business about their soul with the Almighty God.
I don’t know how that affects you or whether you like the idea or not. Personally I think it is fantastic news! I’m absolutely delighted that God does not write me off, even if everyone else on the planet does. I don’t want to stand before mankind, with all the foibles of resentment, unforgiveness, etc that can get in the way. I want the inalienable privilege, which God affords us all as sovereign citizens under heaven, to come to the Living God, just as King David did when he sinned, and to find God’s grace, even if others don’t want me to have it.
Sovereignty – And the Role of High Priests
It may seem strange to talk of High Priests in today’s western culture, but we are actually inundated with would-be gurus and priests, demanding that we subscribe to their peculiar belief system. We are constantly being asked to give up our wits and our will to the soothsayers who assure us they know what is going on and what is best. So, let me call them “High Priests”.
As you can tell from my opening remarks I am not particularly sympathetic to the new breed of social priests. They seem to loom from every quarter, like an elephant parade at a Hindu Festival. We have prognosticators on climate, ozone, diet, religion, politics, economics, education, origins, history, war, terrorism, and on and on it goes. Everyone “hath an opinion”. But it is not the opinions that both me.
What I am seeing is the assertion, by some, of their superiority over others whom they deem to be lesser mortals. In clever ways people have come on the scene to assert that ordinary people need the presenter’s peculiar wisdom, their prescribed methods, their “To Do” list, their 12 Step program, or whatever. I don’t doubt that there is safety in the multitude of counsellors – a fact attested to by the wisest man who ever lived (see Proverbs 11:14). However, I question the assertion that some have transcendent knowledge, like an illuminated guru, and therefore have the right to live above others. They even ask for the right to suborn the will and sovereignty of others, subjugating it to their own power.
Consider this line of reasoning. “The things presented in the Bible are deep and profound. Only truly enlightened or highly intellectual people have any hope of really understanding it. Many people through history have ended up with a wrong interpretation, leading to tragic consequences. Therefore the wisest thing you can do is to subscribe to the answers and insights given by ……”
Whoever is plying that line of reasoning is arguing for the High Priest status. They wish to be a guru, exercising sovereignty over the beliefs of others. Yet, history reveals that millions of very ordinary people, even those with lesser minds, have found faith, forgiveness and transformation through their simple reading of the Bible. What the theologians or deep thinkers claim to be hard to grapple with proves to be accessible to the meanest of folk, even those who cannot read what it says.
We continue to see the emergence of a new guru-ism. Ordinary people are less secure about their common sense and more ready to swallow the high-sounding opinions of others. The foundations, especially the foundations of the fear of God and knowledge of the Bible, are being eroded. The result is insecurity, leading to an increase in dependence on others.
Allow me to suggest an alternative to handing over your personal sovereignty. Ask God for wisdom. That’s right. Pray. Ask God to give you wisdom. The Bible says that if you lack wisdom you should ask for it. God will give it freely (see James 1:5).
God did not say, “If you lack wisdom – get yourself a guru, or find a High Priest to follow.” God said, “If you lack wisdom, ask for it and God will give it to YOU.” Wow! That means that God, Himself, is on the side of your personal sovereignty. God wants you to rely on Him, not some other man. Even the most intelligent man in the world has nothing over you, in terms of sovereignty. Oh, and don’t forget what the Apostle Paul pointed out. He said that God delights to take those who seem to be useless to confound those who really think they are somebody! (See 1Corinthians 1:27)
God is barracking for your personal sovereignty. He gave it to you and He expects you to live in it, not hand it over to someone who thinks they are better than you. If you don’t know what to think in a situation, get many counsellors, not one guru. And ask God for wisdom. You’ll be surprise what God has equipped YOU to do.
Sovereignty Attacked
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.
Sovereignty – The Divine Right of Everyone
I have spoken to the subject of Sovereignty before and will certainly do so again, so you might as well read this post and tune in to why I think the subject is important.
There is a profound equality which empowers us all to stand before God and to do His bidding for our lives. We have the right to get about God’s business. We have the privilege of drawing on God’s resources, no matter what tyrrany we are under, or what limitation has been pressed on us.
Sovereignty and Judgement
Personal Sovereignty is our inalienable right (something that cannot be taken from us) to stand before God. And that’s profound because it gives us an amazing personal value when we can stand before one who is of much greater authority than kings, presidents, magistrates, media magnates, military leaders and power brokers. I sense that if we could grasp the true significance of this incredible personal privilege it would impact our entire life.
Another way of capturing a glimpse of our personal sovereignty is to consider what happens in judgement. I’m not talking about what happens in your nation’s judicial system, but what happens at the end of time when everyone is judged before God. What happens is that, as I just gave it away, “everyone is judged before God”.
Did you get that? Did you catch the awesome significance of that fact?
If you were some lesser being then your parents might stand before God on your behalf, discuss your behaviour and make a deal. They may come up with a plea-bargain or some other construct, to which you are not really a party, but simply a pawn. If you were ‘owned’ by someone else then they could make you pay for things you didn’t do, or they could negotiate on your behalf, striking whatever deal they choose to make.
But that is NOT what happens at the Great White Throne of Judgement. On that day YOU stand before God, on your own, accounting for yourself, because you are a Sovereign Citizen. And, it’s not that you have something over everyone else. We ALL get to stand accountable before God, because we are all sovereign citizens. We all have the same right and privilege to stand before God and account for ourselves before Him. We each have the same opportunity to come before God and make a personal commitment that gives us the same eternal privilege that everyone has access to.
Your social standing, education, income, ethnicity, physical prowess or disability have no relevance when it comes to your personal sovereignty. Wicked King Ahab was advised of God’s judgement due to come upon him (see 1Kings 21:20-29). He was evil and deserved to be destroyed. But when he turned to God in prayer, even he was given a concession by God. He was worthy of destruction, yet he still had personal sovereignty and the right to come to God.
That’s how every one of us can come to God as a sinner. We are worthy of God’s eternal damnation, but we have the gift of personal sovereignty so we can come to God and ask Him for the grace which is ours through Christ Jesus. It’s as available to Saddam Hussein and Osama BinLaden as readily as it is to us. Even they, for their evils, have the right to stand before God and do business with Him.
I pray that you grasp something of the awesome possibilities God provides to you by allowing you to stand before Him and do business with Him. You are not subservient to anyone. Others will not determine your eternal destiny for you. You are given the grace to stand before God and to ask Him for what you will. He is not at your behest – you cannot make Him do what He does not want to do – but you can meet with Him and let Him do business with you.