So be subject to God. Resist the devil [stand firm against him], and he will flee from you. James 4:7 (AMPC)
Subjecting ourselves to God is siding with Him. It’s agreeing with Him. It’s yielding to His lead.
We do this by being subject to His Word and to His Spirit.
We are subject to God by being subject to the Word of God and to the Holy Spirit.
John 14:23-24 (NKJV) Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word; and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him. He who does not love Me does not keep My words; and the word which you hear is not Mine but the Father’s who sent Me.
When the Word of God has first place, when it has the supremacy in our lives, we are subject to God.
When the Word of God has the final say, when it is the ultimate judge and decision maker in our lives, when it runs our lives, then we are wholly subjected to Him.
We can engage and engross ourselves in all sorts of seemingly self-denial and self-sacrificial services to God but if we aren’t in line with His Word then we are not subject to Him and thus we are not sincerely serving Him.
The Pharisees in bible times where such people who on the outward and in their rigid and rigorous performance seemed to be serving God but they were not subject to Him as clearly shown in their constantly all the time contradicting, and colliding with Jesus (who is God).
Saul of Tarsus while still a radical religious rabbi of the strictest sect of Judaism persecuted the Church convinced that He was serving the God of His fathers Abraham Isaac and Jacob. But Jesus met him and asked him “Saul why do you persecute me? Acts 9:1-5
When we are yielded to and are following the Holy Spirit who lives in us and communicates with us in our hearts then we are subject to God.
Disregarding, rejecting or resisting what the Spirit of God is saying and directing us to do shows that we aren’t subject to God.
Acts 7:51 (GNT) How stubborn you are!” Stephen went on to say. “How heathen your hearts, how deaf you are to God’s message! You are just like your ancestors: you too have always resisted the Holy Spirit!
Therefore be subject to God’s Word. Let it run your life. Be subject to the Holy Spirit. Let Him lead you. That’s how you are subject to God.
