Embracing Submission: A Path to Spiritual Growth

In our journey towards being fully at home in the fellowship of God, we have explored various spiritual practices that Jesus himself engaged in. Today, we focus on the discipline of submission, a practice that is often counter-cultural and misunderstood. Submission is not about losing our agency or personhood; rather, it is a call for help from those who are recognized as having depth in Christ-likeness and experience. [00:00:11]

The discipline of submission is sustained by humility, honesty, transparency, and sometimes confession and restitution. It is about mutual submission within a spiritual community, where we are subject to one another and clothed with humility. This is not about coercive power or hierarchy but about truth and mercy inhabiting mature personalities. [00:02:58]

In practical terms, submission involves identifying people whose character and spiritual life we admire and seeking their guidance. It is about asking questions and being open to their directive leadership in our lives. This practice is akin to the relationship between a sponsor and a participant in a 12-step community, where there is a spirit of tough love and accountability. [00:09:01]

As we practice submission, we are encouraged to think about who we would like to be like and to begin by asking them questions. This practice can be life-changing, as it has been for me through the guidance of spiritual fathers and mentors in my own life. Submission is a powerful practice that can help us grow in our spiritual journey and become more like Christ. [00:10:12]

The highest lovely rights of Fellowship involving humility, complete honesty, transparency at times confession and restitution is sustained by the discipline of submission. In the letter to the Hebrews, we read obey them that have the rule over you and submit yourselves, for they watch for your souls as they that must give account. [00:02:58]

In First Peter, those older in the way are told to take the oversight of the flock of God, not by being forced to do so and not as Lords over God's Heritage but as examples to the flock. The younger are then told to submit themselves to this gentle oversight by the elders. This is the way spiritual Community is to work, in mutual submission. [00:03:29]

The order in the Redemptive Community here implied obviously is not a matter of an iron heart hierarchy, some people in charge bossing around those who are underneath them, where unwilling souls are crushed and driven. Instead, it functions in the power of Truth and mercy inhabiting mature personalities, being the expression of a kingdom not of this world. [00:04:12]

Now, if you know about 12-step communities, you will know in that Fellowship people will be always encouraged to find a sponsor, and this is a picture of a relationship of appropriate and responsible submission. I go to somebody who is farther along than me and who knows how to work the program, and they love me and they don't shame me. [00:07:36]

How do we go about practicing submission? Well, I would encourage you today very simply think about who are some people you would like to be like, whose character and spiritual life you admire. Just identify them and then you might begin by asking them a question. I'm deeply grateful for people who became guides and leaders, spiritual fathers in my own life. [00:08:55]

I remember Jerry Hawthorn, a teacher in college, and he said to me and some others you ought to consider the possibility of devoting your life to the care of Jesus's church, and that's part of why I became a pastor. I think about my friend John Anderson; he was the first boss that I worked for, and he said to me one concern I have for you is you have not had to suffer very much. [00:09:20]

One of the reasons that I was so hungry for Dallas Willard and his influence when I found it was those words that I received from John Anderson. I remember Neil Clark Warren in talking with him about sexuality one time many decades ago in him saying now this is something here's a habit where I think you just ought to renounce this and agree not to do it. [00:09:54]

So today just pause and think, who is at least one person when you look at them, how they lead their life, their wisdom, their character, you admire them, and what's one question you could ask them, and then do what you say actually begin to submit thoughtfully wisely to their directive leadership in your life. That's the very powerful practice of submission. [00:10:28]