But David would not. David refused to take advantage of the opportunity. David responded to his men with some very powerful words: "It is a serious thing to attack the Lord's anointed one, for the Lord himself has chosen him." David recognized the one thing that was lost on everyone else. God chose Saul. God placed Saul on the throne. Since God made that choice, David surmised that God was the only One who had the right to remove Saul. In spite of the justifications and rationalizations. If God was through with Saul, Saul would no longer be on the throne. So David relented and let Saul go. In another similar instance David expounded further on his understanding of position and power in God's kingdom. ""Don't kill him. For who can remain innocent after attacking the Lord's anointed one? Surely the Lord will strike Saul down someday, or he will die in battle or of old age. But the Lord forbid that I should kill the one He has anointed!"
David is known as the "man after God's own heart" not because of his worship, his music, his killing of giants or victories on the battlefield. He is a man after God's own heart because of voluntary submission.
The greatest principle of your walk of faith, the most powerful revelation you will ever understand applied to your Christian experience, the most fundamental of all truths is submission. Submission is the key that unlocks the door to every avenue of your relationship with God. You will never repent without submission. You will never be water baptized without submission. You will bever be filled with the Holy Ghost without it. You will never grow and mature as a disciple of Christ without submission.
It's not an exciting topic. It goes against every grain of our carnal fiber. We want to be king. We want position. We want to control and manipulate. We want to call the shots. We want territory and thrones and crowns and scepters. Submission is the antithesis to that whole attitude.
It's easy to submit to the police officer when his lights are flashing and he is right behind you, inches from your bumper. There's quite an incentive to submit to a boss who has the power to remove you from your source of income. The thought of prison is a great motivator to submit to the federal government on April 15 and file your taxes. The most difficult kind of submission is voluntary submission. Submitting to spiritual authority is the toughest act of submission that there is. But it holds the most potential for the greatest rewards as well.
Jesus wants us to have authority. Jesus wants us to have power. He told us that we had power to tread upon serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy and that nothing by any means shall hurt us. He gave his disciples authority to heal the sick, raise the dead and to cast out devils. The Bible says that He has made us both kings and priests. He wants us to have dominion. He wants us to rule and reign with Him.
But the difference between the power-hungry, grasping-for-territory-and-position in life that takes on a King of the Hill quality and the anointed, powerful and authoritative child of God is this: submission. James says this "Submit yourselves to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you." We like the idea of casting out devils, rebuking sickness and disease, laying hands on the sick and their recovery. But sometimes we forget the first part of James' formula. Submission precedes power.
If you want the favor of God on your life, you must be willing to submit.
Romans 13 says that all authority comes from God. When you resist authority in your life, you are resisting God Himself. Rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft Samuel told Saul because it taps into the very reason Lucifer transformed into the most evil and wicked creature ever known. Lucifer did not want to submit to spiritual authority. He wanted his own authority. He wanted to wrest control from God and sit on the throne himself. He wanted to ascend above God. Blasphemy is simply "you being a man make yourself God." There is no more concise definition of the unforgivable sin than this.
That is why submission to spiritual authority is so hard. Because we want to be king. We want to be in control. We don't want to yield our will to someone else's. You cannot come to Jesus unless you are willing to make Him king. The prayer "not my will but Yours be done" is one of the toughest prayers to pray. And then Christ's Lordship is also measured by the spiritual authorities in your life. God places spiritual leadership in your life and you have the choice to voluntarily submit or not. Pastors and pastor's wives, assistant pastors and worship pastors and youth pastors and lay ministers and others are used by God in the framework of the church to help guide us and grow us and encourage us and lead us.
Its easier to say "I am submitted to God" but then resist submission to another human being that can only lead by our permission. You don't like the music at church. So what will you do? Complain, criticize, undermine, gossip? You didn't like a certain statement in a sermon. You don't like how the church is decorated. You aren't crazy about the fact that the pastor and his family went on vacation to Florida for two weeks when you can't even afford a weekend. The pastor has asked you to do something that you don't like. The list can go on and on. What are you going to do about it? Go to another church? You should if there is no way you can respect and honor the leadership God has placed in your life. But you will find at the next church a pastor that is human too and doesn't have it all together like you would want. So then do you quit going to church altogether?
Or maybe you should start some church trouble. Maybe get influential and powerful people to team up with you to play King of the Hill. Maybe you can get the board to hand the preacher a pink slip. Maybe you can drum up some petty charges. Unfortunately this happens too often.
What if God was trying to give this preacher some space to get his act together? Maybe God doesn't see it like you do and finds you more at fault than he or them. Who knows? But isn't better to humbly walk with the Lord, praying for your leaders, submitting to them (as long as they aren't demanding something that contradicts scripture), seeking to be a solution to the problems in a church rather than a being a source?
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