Allow me in this Nugget on Strongholds to remind you from where we have come and spell out more clearly where we are heading.
I wrote in the last Nugget the following statements:
We are all on the continuum of Dependence – moving from Dependence to Independence. We need to realize it is a continuum. We can’t pass from one stage to the next until we have left behind the previous stage. We can’t bypass a stage and still remain whole and complete. We can’t hope to become truly independent until we have left dependence behind. You can only truly become independent when you have learned to submit. There is a fine balance biblically between growth, independence and the ability to submit.
I made two promises: I would share with you another life example and let you into a secret both of which are life changing. But to grasp the next principles you need to understand the relationship between dependence and independence and to understand that true independence involves the component of submission. Why would you have to submit if you are now independent? A good question. One of the mysteries of God.
In a few short summary statements I have brought you to the brink of a biblical revelation. I must confess to you that last week I didn’t tell you the full story. I left you a step short. Deliberately!
When I first became a Christian as a result of George Curle’s Faithfinder Films ministry I was made aware that God will also leave you a faith gap short. On the 19th of August 1973, that’s right, that long ago! I stepped from death and darkness into life and light. I have already told you I was an atheist from the age of nine. I was strengthened in atheism through high school and university but I had niggling questions, which my university professors, lecturers and tutorial group leaders couldn’t or wouldn’t answer. I could never get straight answers to my questions. I was either fobbed off with intellectual circuitous reasoning or told to go and look up in Lyell’s Principles of Geology or some other reference work the answers to my questions. On the 19th August ’73 I was given answers to life questions by George Curle. A church guy was the source to my answers. That was a mystery to me. How could that be?
I bypassed the altar call and waited, until after the service had finished and the crowd around him had dispersed, to ask a barrage of further questions. George answered most of them, but then told me something shocking,
“Ian, you don’t need to ask any more questions. God has given you answers already. You already know enough to make a step of faith.”
I protested and said, “I am not a faith person George. I want facts.”
To which he replied, “Ian, everyone is a faith person. We all put our faith in something. God will not answer all your questions. He will always leave you a faith gap short. To truly know the truth, You will have to come to Him in faith and believe that He is Who He claims to be. It’s one of God’s mysteries.”
I deliberately left you a dependence gap short in the last Nugget. Our journey is not from Dependence to Independence as I told you last week. Rather it is from Dependence through Independence to Interdependence. The goal is not independence. If you stop at Independence thinking you have arrived and you have grown up, you have stopped your growth too soon. In God you are destined for Interdependence. That is how it should work; how it was designed by God. We ought to be on a journey toward Interdependence. Look at all of the references to one anothering in scripture. We are to one another each other. I have developed this far deeper in the Bible Gems I wrote on Paul’s letter to the Ephesians 592 to 725. But let me quickly give you the synopsis in a nutshell. Then following my summary, re-read the Book of Ephesians until you get it.
My Greek professor taught us to do that. Read a book over and over until you get it. He told us over and over, countless times, “Class to understand any book of the Bible you need to read it in one sitting, at least 7 times.” Whenever he told us that he would always have a wry smile on his face. Like he was holding a secret. He was! He was hinting at the fact that the number seven is the biblical symbol of perfection. In other words read it until you have perfected it. Until you get it. When I was writing the Bible Gems on Ephesians, Prof Basil Brown was reading them as I wrote them and sent them out. Then he would write back to me and we would talk about it.
Here is the book of Ephesians in a nutshell for you. Paul tells us clearly what the will of God is. It’s there for all to see in Ephesians 1:9-10.
God has now revealed to us his mysterious will regarding Christ—which is to fulfill his own good plan. And this is the plan: At the right time he will bring everything together under the authority of Christ—everything in heaven and on earth.
Ephesians 1:9-10
Paul writes about everything being submitted to the will of God. Ephesians is all about submission [hupotassō]. Furthermore it is all about everything falling under the authority of Christ:- submitted to Christ. Paul has a series of mysteries he refers to in his letter to the Ephesians. Study them, they are important. Submission is important all through the letter. Everything needs to be in submission to Christ – that is the mystery of the Will of God. The most frequent question I have received from people all over the world is “How do I come to know the will of God?” Paul tells you in Ephesians. Everything in heaven and earth is to be submitted, subject to the will of God in Christ.
Everything in Ephesians.
Paul talks about us needing to stop acting like little children but rather to grow up in every way to be like Christ who holds everything together. (Eph 5:14-16)
We are to one another each other:-
- Accept one another in love. (4:32)
- Be kind to one another. (4:32)
- Forgive one another. (4:32)
- Speak encouragement to one another. (5:19)
- Submit to one another. (5:22)
Moving on we would expect:- “love one another” – but Paul rather says something extremely profound which accords with modern psychological wisdom.
He says: Wives respect; husbands love. Where did Paul get his wisdom from? “I know, I know! Please choose me. I know.” From the Ancient of Days. From the Alpha and the Omega. From the Creator and Designer of Life. From the Author of Life. I have so much to tell you on this. I am not sure how much I will be able to squeeze into this Nugget.
Once again I will say, God’s plan for us to grow up necessitates us understanding that we are to grow up into Interdependence. His goal for us and our goal for ourselves and those around us ought to be “one anothering”. Oh how relevant that is at this time in history. I would love to say more about this too, but I will keep the main thing the main thing. Given the fact we are all in lockdown around the world, or ought to be, we should be more focused on those more vulnerable than us. Those we can care for and look after. But what do you find? We find people who refuse to submit and want to do their own thing. Just stop and take a long hard look at the world around you. Laws have been passed to keep people in their bubble, to encourage us to stay at home in order to protect us all. But we human beings find it hard to submit to anyone, even to God Himself. That is our problem. It is called SIN in the Bible but we modern people who are with it and know the truth, don’t like that word and don’t want to submit. Let me just remind you that Jesus didn’t need testimony about man, because He already knew what was in a man and mankind; the whole race and each individual intimately. (John 2:24,25)
Allow me now to pick up on the next life example and secret and bring it into focus. You can’t have true Independence without submission and that certainly is true moving on to Interdependence. All of creation has to be in submission. God designed it that way. I could quote all the verses about submission and coming under authority. The Roman centurion knew all about it because he was well trained in submission. He was a man under authority. Let me ask you: Are you a man under authority?
(Notice: I addressed the question to men. Again deliberately.) We have two pandemics in our midst. Coronavirus and domestic abuse. Regretfully the two have been brought together in the current environment. As we spend more time in our bubbles, the more tension grows, especially for those who suffer domestic abuse.
What I am about write is another deep mystery and a key to unlocking so many barriers and strongholds in lives everywhere.
I have often preached Ephesians 5:22 in churches in New Zealand, Australia and Indonesia. “Wives submit to your husband.” When I announce the topic and the verse generally the ladies’ heads go down and the men sit up straight and I have seen numbers of men over the years of preaching on this verse, stretch out an elbow and nudge their wives as much as to say listen up wife, this one’s for you. I tell women not to worry. This one is actually for the guys. Are you ready fellas? Maybe you need to go and make a strong coffee at this point. Or perhaps something stronger still; something off the top shelf, yeah you know, the hidden one in the garage. There is just one thing I am pondering here, how clear and direct to make this with the niggling thought of scaring you off fella before we really get into this.
I think maybe to hit you with both barrels now while you’re still reading this and go deeper and explain things in subsequent Nuggets. So here goes. . .
Any man who has to keep his wife submitted to him by violence of any sort, be it physical, verbal, intimidation, threats, belittling or any other means in order for him to make him feel like a man is really no man at all. I grew up with an alcoholic father who used physical force, threats, intimidation and anger to keep his wife, my mother, and me, his son cowering in fear. I remember clearly to this day the fear that would come upon me when we came close to 6.00 pm and my father’s home-coming was imminent. The six o’clock swill meant he would try to down as many beers as possible before they called time. It didn’t get any better with 10.00 o’clock closing. He had more time to drink steadily and bring more home with him. We never knew the mood he would arrive home in, but even what you could call good moods were wretched. It was a fact of life.
The man of the house needs to be someone who has more to give his family than his anger and abuse in order to control them and make him feel like he’s a true man. Wake up and face reality – Ephesians 5:22 does not stand alone. It is dependent on the verse before it. Ephesians 5:21 says “Submit therefore to one another out of reverence for Christ.” Husband, you need to be able to submit to your wife as well. Are you man enough to do that? It is a mutual submission. Wives to husbands and husbands to wives. Oh I will develop this in the following Gems. But let me give you the essence of it now before I prove it to you later. While I still have you fellas reading this. A real man, a real God man is able to submit to his wife as much as he looks to her to submit to him. It is not a one-way street. It works both ways. There is mutuality involved. That is what Paul is saying. Ladies, Paul is NOT a misogynist and against women. Like Jesus, Paul was speaking about a radical new shake-up in his time and culture and it sure applies to our time now.
Guys, you realise I am sure what we call “forced submission” is called rape. Do you realise anytime you have to resort to force to get your wife or your partner to submit to you (force doesn’t have to be physical to still be called force – it can be any form of manipulation and control) it can be put in the same category as rape. Forced submission is the equivalent of rape. At least that’s the feeling that it leaves your wife or partner with after you have got your own way through forcing her will. Think on this for a moment. God designed marriage and life as a mutual interdependent relationship. If the man is submitted to Christ, then the woman has no problem submitting to him. It is like the centurion said, a man who is submitted to authority understands how authority works and actually realises that no one has authority unless they themselves are submitted somewhere to someone. If a man is truly submitted to Christ, his wife will be able to submit to her husband without a problem. It is God’s will that ALL are submitted to Him, Christ, who is the Head of the Church but also Christ is the head over everything in heaven and earth – all of creation. Even a non-believer ought to be submitted. They are just not smart enough to know it yet. I was like that before the 19th of August 1973. But after 10.30 pm that night all that changed for me and I started to fall in line with every atom in the universe.
I have much more to share about understanding strongholds. I hope you fellas come back for more, I am sure the ladies will.