Democracy run amok in the local church contradicts the popular notion of “power to the people.” It actually throttles the flow of the only power that counts, God’s power to meet needs.
Authority and spiritual power run on the same biblical track. Where the authority of Christ is flowing correctly, the power of His Resurrection can flow as well. The level of the miraculous is tied to the level of submission.
The principle of authority by submission is God ordained. In this context, surrendering to human authority requires faith in God. The believer must look beyond the personality and ideas of the pastor and trust the Giver of the office. Then, God can release to the individual the necessary authority for his or her own ministry responsibility.
That is what we mean by “theocracy.” There is no pure theocracy today like Israel under God and Moses in the wilderness, but this is how God does church—dispensing His authority through His appointed and called representatives—this is theocracy.
Being a healthy, effective church demands this order because authority and divine power flow in tandem. People often wonder why more miracles seem to take place in nations other than the United States. At least one reason is that individuals in those lands, especially countries which are not democracies, understand submission to authority.
They know no other way. They submit to authority in the church and divine power flows. No one is distracted with “Well, I get my voice and vote. I get to make sure everyone knows what I think and how it affects me.” Third World believers submit to authority from God, clearing the way for God’s power to flow, and miracles unfold in that power.
To see the power of God evidenced in our churches, we must make a decision to let God re-establish the authority. He will call whomever He wills. We may question His choices, but it is not our call. He continues to confound the wise by using the foolish. God calls whom He wants and He gives authority to those whom He calls.
Matthew 8:8-10 beautifully illustrates this authority principle. The Roman officer asked Jesus for help but he refused the Lord’s offer to go to his house. It was ceremonially unlawful for a Jew to enter a non-Jewish home, and the man knew he was unworthy of the Master’s visit. He also knew it was not necessary.
The centurion replied, “Lord, I do not deserve to have you come under my roof. But just say the word, and my servant will be healed. For I myself am a man under authority, with soldiers under me. I tell this one, ‘Go,’ and he goes; and that one, ‘Come,’ and he comes. I say to my servant, ‘Do this,’ and he does it.” When Jesus heard this, he was astonished and said to those following him, “I tell you the truth, I have not found anyone in Israel with such great faith.²⁴
The centurion understood authority. His men obeyed him because his commands carried the weight of Caesar and the whole Roman Empire. He understood that Jesus, under God’s authority, had all the power his servant needed, no matter the distance. “All you have to do is say the word and my servant will be healed,” he declared.
Jesus stopped traffic at that statement! Matthew says He was “astonished.” Jesus said, “I haven’t found this kind of faith in all of Israel,” and he used this to emphasize that believers from all nations would join the Jewish patriarchs at God’s table.
This military man demonstrated faith that recognizes and submits to authority. You have to trust God to submit to the leadership He has sent to your church. If not, your issue is not only with the man of God but with the God of the man.
If you do not submit to God ordained authority in the house of the Lord, you will lose authority in your own house. When you stop submitting to the authorities God has placed in your life, those under your authority will not be able to submit to you. Your own children will abandon you because you did not treat the man of God the way He ordained, or they will follow your example and live in spiritual rebellion. That is the truth!
Since divine power and church authority flow on the same track, we have to get good at submission if we expect to experience God’s power. Theocracy requires it.
Democracy is just the opposite. In the extreme, it says, “I get my way, my voice, and my vote, and I have my representative. I want to make sure they know what I am thinking. I didn’t get to sit where I wanted and park where I wanted. This is my church and it’s about me!” A church infected with that spirit is in the throes of death. If we are going to be healthy, we will have to do church God’s way.
These principles grow even more exciting in light of Acts 2 and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost. God did not bring in just the Apostles and say, “I am going to use you in a mighty way and I want to fill you 12 with my Holy Spirit. Then, when you are about to die, you should bring in a dozen or so more and I will fill them, so we will always have a few key people full of the Holy Spirit.”
Everybody is welcome in the Upper Room. Christ told the 500 gathered when He ascended that they should stay in Jerusalem and wait for what His Father had promised. Interestingly, they did not all make it. Only 120 were still there when the Holy Spirit arrived, and all 120 were filled with the Spirit.
Were they the only ones who could receive? No! The previously embarrassed but now empowered Apostle Peter stepped forward to explain. “This is not just for this 120. This is for everyone! It’s for Mommas and Daddies. It’s for girls and for boys. It’s for old people and for young people. It’s for everybody from here on out, as many as the Lord our God shall call. Even though you weren’t here and didn’t get in on the ground floor, it is still available. Even now, if you will receive Christ, you can receive the power of the Holy Spirit.”²⁵
God fills believers with the Holy Spirit because every one of them is called to engage in ministry. Not just the 12 disciples, the 120, the pastor, or the evangelist, but the entire church should be in ministry. During the past 100 years, Pentecostals have become one of the fastest growing and largest segments of Christianity around the world. Why? Because the members, both by doctrine and by experience, take a personal responsibility for making Christ known.
As individual believers devote themselves to relevant service, they bring the power of God to bear on human need. Occasionally someone complains that they have had an experience with speaking in tongues but no power with it. Their problem may be that power is energy available to do work, not just a feeling.
Believers are not spiritual batteries to be charged for a buzz then held in reserve. We are conduits or circuits through which God’s power can flow to meet needs. When the woman’s desperate touch of faith brought her healing from 12 years of uncontrollable bleeding, Jesus realized “that power had gone out from him.”²⁶
Luke 6:19 records a tremendous moment in the earthly ministry of Jesus, “and the people all tried to touch him, because power was coming from him and healing them all.” Successive waves of power flowed out of God’s mercy to take away their sicknesses and pain!
Whether or not you feel power, God cannot use you to bring healing if you never go to the hurting. He cannot make you a soul-winner if you shun sinners, and you will not be energized for God’s service until you reach out to people in need.
Dr. Earl Creps, author of Off-Road Disciplines and a student of postmodern culture, often counsels “seeker-sensitive” churches who feel a need to incorporate Baptism in the Holy Spirit and spiritual gifts into their ministry models. He poses the question, “First of all, are you doing anything dangerous enough that you need the Holy Spirit?”²⁷ If your church is not storming the gates of hell and your lifestyles and ministries do not provoke the devil, why should you worry about power?
Baptism in the Holy Spirit is God’s power provision for each believer to get the job done. It is a powerful and healthy church where God’s love flows through every member to meet human needs—where everyone is filled with the Spirit and in the ministry!