Who Are You Submitting to: The Lord Jesus or the adversary?
The Power of Submission to God
By Prophetess Evangelist F. Harris, PhD
One day my husband and I were walking through a store and a man saw Stuttgart on the T-Shirt my husband was wearing. He walked over to us and asked my husband if he spoke German. My husband said, "Yes!" Then the man said, I have someone I would like for you to talk to. So, he made a phone call on his cell phone and called his mother. He said his mother was German, living in Germany. When my husband took the phone, they both started conversing in German. After my husband got off of the phone, he told me she was a 71 year old widow. She was a pleasant woman that was married at the age of 17. As my husband began to speak with this woman in German he began to declare, “You are a blessed woman.” She began to reply, “Yes, I am healthy, I have five children by my husband, 14 grandchildren, 22 great grandchildren, etc.” When my husband began to share the conversation with me, I was surprised that her response concerning being blessed had nothing to do with material things or social status. I knew that she was not a woman with a modern day mindset.
Thinking about the modern day woman, I realize that many do not have the virtues of the women in the Bible, nor do they aspire to. They do not have the virtues that are pleasing to God. I know pleasing God does not matter to most people. I mean, if everything in the Bible is true, and it is, then man realizes that he must answer to God , so humans spend their days attempting to nullify the things of God.
Women today think they can please the Lord on their own terms. I am still surprised with how many women refuse to walk in biblical instruction and yet they desire to be blessed with a husband. There are so many single women in the Body of Christ desiring to be married, yet they continue to go on waiting for something that will never happen because they are rebellious and will refuse to submit to a husband. The average woman in the Church will not say this out of their mouth, but it floods their character and shows in their actions. And then there are those who, while saved, get married and divorced, married and divorced, over and over again. And they are still waiting on another husband to marry and divorce. What is the problem? The problem is women refuse to walk in the Word of God. This is one of the greatest hidden sins in the Body of Christ. Women do not realize the seriousness of marriage. Once you are married, in the eyes of the Lord, you are married to that person until death. If your heart is hardened, you can divorce your husband, yet you cannot remarry. The Scriptures declare if a woman marries another man instead of being reconciled to her husband, she is an adulterer. She is only free to marry another once he is dead, 1st Corinthians 7:39.
I remember a Prophetess telling the women in a women's meeting I hosted that when she was young, she prophesied that a spirit of divorce had entered their Church. She said when she was prophesying, her heart was not right because instead of rebuking the spirit, she glorified in the fact that the Lord Jesus was using her to bring a Word in front of the Church. The next thing she knew, three months later, she had filed for divorce. Within the next six months she had moved into her own place and had a new job. She said she was feeling good about her new life. Then one day she said she was lying in her bed and she saw devils laughing at the foot of the bed. She thought, "What was that?" Then shortly thereafter, she saw satan at the foot of her bed and he said, "I got you now!" She said to herself, "I didn't leave God." Then the Lord immediately spoke to her and said, "When you left your husband, you left me." Fear gripped her and she immediately thought to make the situation right. The Lord told her what to do. She explained to her husband what happened and what the Lord said, yet he was too hurt, humiliated, and angry to receive anything she had to say. He told her, "To me, you are like that doormat outside that I walk on. I will not take you back." He had no more words to say to her. She said that hurt her much. However, the Lord told her to trust in Him and don't mind what her husband was saying. Since she still had access to the house, the Lord instructed her to go and clean and cook for him. In the meantime, the Lord was dealing with her husband on taking her back. Soon after, they went to the courts and the judge decided to void all of the paperwork concerning the divorce, like it never happened.
1st Peter 3:1-2 declares, “Likewise, ye wives, be in subjection to your own husbands; that, if any obey not the word, they also may without the word be won by the conversation of the wives; While they behold your chaste conversation coupled with fear.” This scripture actually declares a wife is to obey, be under obedience, and submit herself to her own husband whether the husband disbelieves or disobeys Scripture willfully or perversely, that the wife may also gain or win the husband without communicating Scripture because the husband is inspecting and watching the wife to determine if her conversation and behavior is clean, innocent, modest, perfect, and pure being displayed in fear, fright, and terror of the Lord.
1st Peter 3:4 declares, “But let it be the hidden man of the heart, in that which is not corruptible, even the ornament of a meek and quiet spirit, which is in the sight of God of great price.” The wife is to win the husband by her concealed, private, hidden, inward, secret countenance of the thoughts and feelings which are not decaying and are immortal, even the displaying of a mild, humble, still, undisturbed, peaceable, and quiet mental disposition, which is in the face and presence of the Supreme Divinity extremely expensive, costly, and very precious. No matter what is going on around this woman, she is not moved!
1st Peter 3:6 declares, “Even as Sara obeyed Abraham, calling him lord: whose daughters ye are, as long as ye do well, and are not afraid with any amazement.” Are you Sara’s daughters? Sara’s daughters, the true daughters of the Lord, obey, honor, and submit to their husbands. They willingly follow Sara’s example.
1st Peter 3:9 declares, “Not rendering evil for evil, or railing for railing: but contrariwise blessing; knowing that ye are thereunto called, that ye should inherit a blessing.” The wife is not to give again, repay, or recompense to her husband harm or injury, even if he render's harm or injury to the wife. Neither is she to slander or deal sustained bitter railing and condemnation to her husband even if he render's slander and sustained bitter railing and condemnation to his wife.
No matter what he does to you, do not return that evil unto him. The wife is to walk in Christian conduct and render to him elegance of language, commendation, adoration religiously, benediction, benefit, largeness, bounty and fair speech. Being aware, perceiving, seeing, understanding, being sure that the wife is called forth to be an heir to and to obtain by inheritance, elegance of language, commendation, adoration religiously, benediction, benefit, largeness, bounty and fair speech. This conduct of the wife pleases the Lord and he moves to correct the husband that should love his wife as Christ loves the church, even according to Ephesians 5:25 and 5:28, but I am not talking about the conduct of the man in this writing.
One thing women do not understand is that we are called to display virtues that men will not display. If married women of God would tell the truth they will tell you that even the most loving, Godly husband will require a wife that will strive toward walking in 1st Peter 3:1-9, for without walking in the scriptures the marriage will not be peaceful. No man, Godly or not, desires a woman that has male characteristics.
You may be thinking that your husband will use the Word of God as a license to mistreat his wife, but the Lord does not give a license in scripture for the man to mistreat his bride. 1st Peter 3:7 declares. “Likewise, ye husbands, dwell with them according to knowledge, giving honour unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel, and as being heirs together of the grace of life; that your prayers be not hindered.” Husbands have a duty to the wife to love and honor them. However, again, this message is not about the man. It is about the many women who have not tapped into the power or wisdom that the Lord gives through submission and humility. The Lord spoke to me and said, “One of the greatest things a man fears is a God-fearing woman that has wisdom. Not only does she have the Lord’s favor, she has an entire heavenly army at her disposal.”
Many are called to be women of wisdom, but wisdom is most difficult to attain to and obtain. Why is this you wonder? This type of wisdom can and will only come from God through humility and submission to the Lord and the Word of God. There are many people that humble themselves to man, but they refuse to humble themselves to the things required by God. Women forget that man is just a tool used by God to get them to a predestined purpose. That purpose is to gain power with the Lord.
You say, “But Prophetess, I have power with God!” Do you? Let’s take the test and see.
1) Are you obedient to the Lord above your obedience to man? Many sisters are pleasing the man of God that cares for their soul, but they refuse to please God and definitely will not obey a husband. Oh, you thought by pleasing the man of God, you pleased God. No! By pleasing God, the man of God will be pleased with you, IF he is truly called to be your shepherd.
Note: some spiritual leaders are shepherding past their season. They refuse to let the daughters of God go into deeper levels in the Lord, this includes the marriage covenant. I have found that many spiritual leaders pray for men to be sent to the ministry, but they do not desire for the single women to be married because they lose control of that woman and her household. Oops! Did I just open a can of worms?
2) Do you know what the Lord requires of you and are you striving to do it? For example, has the Lord told you not to date and you are still dating? Did he tell you not to marry a particular person and you married them anyway?
3) Do you know the Lord’s voice clearly for yourself? Even if a respectable servant of the Lord tells you something contradicting what the Lord told you, will you obey what the Lord told you to do? I remember a man of God telling a story about how he had to step out on what the Lord told him and his wife to do concerning ministry, and the organization he was in, his mother, and the leaders of that organization didn’t agree. He had to do what the Lord was telling him. The Lord does not always tell the man or woman of God over you what he is doing or what he is going to do in your life and yet you have to know for yourself what the Lord told you. 1st Kings 13:1-26 is a good Scripture to research concerning this matter.
4) Do you obey what the Lord says no matter what it will do to your reputation? For example, did the Lord tell you to leave the ministry you are in because he has something else for you and you will not leave because of what your family or the Church will say?
5) Are you willing to give up what you have worked for to do the will of the Lord? Or do you think the Lord would never require you to give up anything for him?
If you cannot answer YES to ALL of these questions, then what kind of power do you think you have with God? Operating in spiritual gifts does not mean you have power with God. Surrendering tithes and offerings does not mean you have power with God. Seeing a “blessing” here and there does not mean you are pleasing God and certainly does not mean you have power with him. Since when has gain become associated with godliness? Power with God can only come through obedience to the Lord through his Word.
One of the most difficult things for a woman to do is submit to a man. I believe this is because for many generations men have oppressed women. I do not believe it was the Lord’s plan for the woman to be oppressed by the man. I do believe it was intended for the two to work together to fulfill the Lord’s purpose in the earth and then the man was to give an account to the Lord. That is not to say that women will not give an account, for all should give account of himself to God, Romans 14:12. But the enemy tricked Eve and everything changed, 1st Timothy 2:14.
Many women have no idea of the power of submission so they refuse to humble themselves to walk in it. If you find it difficult to submit to a man, than you are not submitting to that area of the Word of God that requires the woman to submit and obey her husband. How then can you truly have power with God? Be honest! Again, how then can you TRULY have power with God when you are not submitting to all of His Word?
Now that I am married, I have chosen to submit to the Lord and this area of his Word. This includes all the Scriptures about submitting to and obeying my husband. Through this the Lord moves on my behalf. Even in times when I do not understand what the Lord is saying or doing through my husband, I submit to it then afterwards the Lord reveals to me what he is doing. If you were not raised to operate in the power of submission it will be difficult, but not impossible to submit to your God given husband. If the Lord gave him to you, then the Lord knows you two will grow together. I have missed it many times because I was single for 39 years. However, the Holy Ghost is there to help me adapt and adjust so that I may please the Lord. If you make up your mind concerning obeying all of the Word of God, the Holy Ghost will help you too.
There is power with God through submission and humility. Make the choice to submit to the will of God for your life and you shall truly be blessed. I can tell you this, the Lord is not sending good, Godly husbands to women that refuse to submit and obey.
A message from the Lord to single women in the Body of Christ:
“My faithful daughters, I hear your cries at night. In the midnight hour you cry for someone to hold you. In the noon day you yearn for attention. You yearn for someone to love and for someone to love you. I am here saith the Lord. Let me be your husband. I know you have needs, I made you. I know you have needs, I put them in you. Let me meet them, saith the Lord. Many will say there are reasons why you are not married, but I say you are my very special gifts. You are in a place where I can have you all to myself and I can use you mightily in my Kingdom with little distraction. It’s only for a short time that you will be single so be wise and don’t spend it foolishly. In just a little while you shall see your desires come to pass. Just wait on me. Don’t strive to please man, be determined to please me and I shall bring it to pass. It doesn’t matter what men say, I bless whom I will bless and I make wait whom I will make wait. If you find yourself waiting, wait on me saith the Lord. Get productive in my house and I will bless you. Allow me to complete the work I’ve started in you and I will bless you. Some things I am not going to be able to work out until I bring the man I have for you into your life, but you must allow me to shape and mold you now so you will be able to make the greater adjustments later. Stay encouraged, it is for your strength. Rejoice with those that rejoice and your time will come. I promise you, saith the Lord."
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