The Bible says: unless the Lord builds the house, they labour in vain; you put a lot of sweat in, you don't get much result. How many know that's hard yakka, when you put a lot of work in, and get little results? It's true, so God wants us to flow in the principles of His blessing, and that comes firstly through relationship with Christ. When a person connects with Jesus Christ, receives Jesus Christ as their saviour, becomes connected and joined to God through a personal relationship with Christ, they are positioned where they can come to blessing. However, there is something else needed, and that is that we have to bring our life into harmony, or co-operation, or agreement with God, so that His blessing can flow. In other words, you can say all you like you're a Christian, but if you position yourself against what God has set in place, you're pushing water up hill. It won't work, and so you can't just pray for God to bless you, unless you're willing to bring your life into harmony with His way of doing things. That make sense?
So we can choose to resist, or stand against, what God has set in place; or we can choose to submit, or subject, ourselves to that. Now let's look at that word there. Let every soul be subject to the higher powers, that's every Christian. You notice now, in that passage, it's not talking about men; it's talking about men and women, both, every person. Every one of us must learn to recognise the position that God has given to Jesus Christ, and bring ourself into harmony. It's your choice. You can either co-operate, and receive the blessing of God; you can position yourself against it, and you miss out; it's as simple as that. It's not as if God sort of is personally favouring this one, personally doesn't like this one. It's nothing to do with that. It's just, both people love the Lord, but those that actually bring their life into harmony with Him, find the release of blessings, it's very simple. So what does it mean to subject? The word to subject yourself means literally this, it's a similar kind of word to the one before. The other one was 'position yourself against', this one is: 'position yourself beneath'; so it says: you do it yourself. You position yourself in a place, where you recognise what authority God has put over you.
Now that's a choice every person must make. The first time you ever do that, is when you recognise who Jesus Christ is, that He died on the cross, that He loves you, and that one day you'll give account to Him. When you subject yourself to the word of God, then you become born again, the power of God is released to your life. Every time you subject to the word, and order of God, the power of God is released. So the start point for our walk with God is recognising who Jesus is, and submitting to that. Now the word subject means literally this: it describes an order in a relationship. It does not mean that one is more superior to the other. It does not mean one is inferior to the other. It is actually: this is how you put it together; and it's put together like this, in order that as a team, you can accomplish a purpose. That's what it's about. This one subjects to the leadership and direction of the other one, so together they can accomplish a great purpose. That's what 'subjecting yourself' is about. It's about team work. It's about knowing where you fit. It's about accepting your placement in God's purpose and structure of things, and out of being an equal person, you take your role; and your role is, you look to the one above you, for leadership and direction. That's how it works.
So when the Bible is talking about this, it has in mind team work; and I'm going to show you the illustration of this in a moment, very powerful illustration. Now to be subject, you can be obedient without being subject, but you can never be subject without obedience being a part of it. Why? Because I can do what you want me to do, but inside I'm saying: no way, no way! I'm going to go slow, reluctant resistance. If I'm subject, I actually recognise the right that you have to give leadership direction, and I co-operate with it. So to be subject means these kinds of things. It means to have respect, or to honour, or to value the role that person has in my life. It means to listen to their directions in my life. It means to co-operate with them, in the purpose they have, which is God's purpose for me.