God has set spiritual laws and natural laws in place - we can't shift them, they are upheld by His power. Our only response is to recognize them and align ourselves with them to flow under His blessing, or resist. Resisting the laws of God (even in ignorance) opens a legal doorway for demonic spirits to gain access to our lives and bring destruction. This teaching will help you become aware of your positioning and help you move forward.
Romans 13: Let every soul be subject to the hard delegated authorities, for there is no authority but of God, He's the source of it. The powers that be, or the authorities that God has set in place, they are ordered or set in place by God; so whoever resists the authority, resists what God has ordered; and those who resist, receive for themselves His judgement. For rulers, or those in authority, are not a terror to good works, but to evil. Are you afraid of authority? Do what is good, and you'll have the praise of the same; for he is the minister of God to you, for good. But if you do that which is evil, you have every reason to be afraid, for he does not bear the sword in vain; he is the minister of God, to bring and to execute God's judgement upon all that do evil.
Father, I'm asking that you'd bring divine order into homes and families, particularly today that you'd open our hearts to understanding of Your government, Your order; and You'd cause a willingness to come into our hearts to respond to it, in Jesus' name. Everyone said [Amen.] Amen.
Let every soul be subject to higher powers. The Bible makes it very clear, that every one of us has a choice, how we will respond to authority. The Bible tells us that the powers that be, whatever that means, are ordained or set or ordered by God. Now everyone loves to come to God like a great Santa Claus, and to receive blessing from Him; but God wants us to actually understand that He has set things in order in the spirit world, that operates by principle. The natural world operates by principles and laws, and God upholds what He has set in place. He's created an order in it all, and so the Bible tells us this. It says that the powers that be, or authorities - that word there is a lawful authority, or someone who has been delegated a legal right to exert power or influence. The Bible tells us, that wherever we go in life, we will encounter authority. We encounter it in the physical realm and the natural laws. You cannot change those laws, you just accept that they're there and work with them.
If you are driving a car fast, and you slam on the brakes, everything unattached will fly forward. You can't stop that. You just understand it happens. It's called the law of inertia. It's a law, God set it in place. If you step off that decking there, what will happen is, you'll fall down - the law of gravity operates. So in the spirit world, there are laws as well; and the Bible tells us that God has set some things in order. He says there are some authorities that God has established. An authority is someone with a lawful right to act, because they're given responsibility. Authority and responsibility always go hand in hand, so when God gives someone responsibility, He says: you've got the right to act. If it's not your responsibility, you've got no right to act. If that's your house, you've got the authority to change the colour of it; if it's not your house, you've got to leave it alone, you can't go painting. It's as simple as that. If that's your car, you've got the authority to run it the way you like. If that's not your car, you keep your hands off it and leave it, it's not your right to do that.
So wherever you have responsibility, authority is closely attached. Authority is the legal, or lawful, right to be able to act, or exert power, or to run something. So the Bible tells us there are higher authorities. There are some that are different levels, they have a greater level of responsibility. You have lesser responsibility, lesser authority; greater responsibility, greater authority; and the Bible tells us where the source of that is. The source of it is God, and it tells us how we are to respond, whenever we encounter this. You're going to encounter it everywhere you go in life. You go out on the roads, you'll encounter authority. You go into the tax department, you'll encounter authority. You get your rates demand, you're encountering authority. It may not all be good in the way it's done, or run, or we may disagree with how it operates, however the Bible says we're going to encounter it, and it's there to bring order into society. We found when we looked last week, there were four authority structures God has set up, that affect us directly. One is the authority of government. Government is given certain responsibilities, given certain authority. If it goes beyond its responsibilities, it becomes oppressive.