Last week we concentrated on one particular statement that Jesus made about the Holy Spirit, “He will not speak on His own authority.” Jesus made the same statement about Himself, He said “For I have not spoken on My own authority . . .” We see in these statements, again the beautiful unity of the Godhead, that the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit have no separations, no divisions, no competition and no ambition; again the relationship that God has with Himself reveals the true meaning of Deuteronomy 6:4 “Hear, O Israel! The LORD is our God, the LORD is one!” I’ve quoted James 1:17 almost every week and I will do it again today, there is no shadow of turning in God. The Godhead is perfect, united, faithful and true. Jesus’ statements about both Himself and the Holy Spirit not speaking on their own authority reveals that in the Godhead there is both authority and submission and that we were created by a God of authority and submission, in the image of a God of authority and submission to live in a relationship with Him of authority and submission. He reveals His authority by His love and we live in submission by our trust of His love. If God doesn’t love me then I can’t trust Him and if I can’t trust Him I will not submit to Him. This is a fundamental of all authority and submission relationships. If you are an authority figure of any kind, a husband, a parent, a pastor, a coach or an employer your authority must be displayed by your love. How can I possibly come to this conclusion or make this statement? Romans 13:1 says “Every person is to be in subjection to the governing authorities. For there is no authority except from God . . .” This means that we submit ourselves to the authorities in our lives not because of them but because all authority is from God. When I obey the laws of the land (that don’t directly contradict the laws of God’s Word) I am actually obeying God because I recognize Him as the keeper of all authority. But here is how I can say that all authority should be walked out and displayed and operated in love, all authority comes from God and I John 4:8 simplifies God’s enormous character into one small statement that I believe we have to work from as our foundation, “God is love”. So, if God is love and all authority comes from God then doesn’t that mean that true authority, proper authority, Godly, God-like and God endorsed authority has to be displayed and lived out in love? So, let me start with this before we even get to our focus this morning, if you are an authority in anyone’s life at all, are you exercising your authority in love? Search your heart, search your life and for the next few seconds openly and honestly answer this question, are you leading with love? Jesus told us that the way to discipleship, the way to salvation was through following Him, but in leading us He said “Greater love has no one than this that He lay down His life for His friends”, John wrote of Jesus, “We love Him because He first loved us”; when Jesus commanded us to follow Him He was leading in love, He has never asked us to do anything for Him that He has not already done for us. Authority is about love.
If authority is about love then submission has to be about trust. When I trust your love I can follow you, when I trust your love I’m not afraid of you, I don’t need to defend myself, build up walls to hide my past or be quick to reject before I get rejected. Trust and submission go hand in hand because submission in and of itself means to trust in the authority of someone else. When Jesus said that He and the Holy Spirit don’t speak of their own authority He was saying that they were willing to let someone else answer, they were willing to let someone else speak, they were willing to let someone else become the leader of their voice. Jesus trusted the Father and so He didn’t need to speak for Himself, He trusted whatever the Father’s loving authority empowered Him to say. The Holy Spirit trusts Jesus, He doesn’t need to weigh every word before He speaks them, He listens to Jesus and He speaks from Jesus’ authority. The Holy Spirit of God that lives inside of you trusts Jesus completely because He knows that Jesus loves fully; He is working to build that same trust of Jesus’ love within each one of us. Trust is difficult for many of us. We have been hurt, lied to, overlooked, rejected and left out and while God hasn’t done any of those things to us and He is actively working to heal us most of us still carry some of the effects if not wounds from having our trust broken. Today I want to talk about the work of the Holy Spirit in teaching us to trust when we don’t understand. There are events in life that we are totally taken by, things we didn’t see coming, didn’t imagine, were sure we would not ever have to face. There are events of suffering, disappointment, discouragement and delay that we can’t explain and often can’t understand but if we can become sure and convinced of God’s love we can learn how to trust. I have said for a long time that trust is a choice, that statement has been used against me in the not so distant past and I’ve considered and reconsidered it but I still believe that it’s true, trust is a choice. Sometimes it’s a choice to look for more evidence of love, to weigh the cost of going on or to measure the effects of the hurt, but in the end trusting when we don’t understand is a choice based on our assurance of and submission to God’s character of love. Today I don’t want to talk about all of our relationships, I don’t want to try to make this broad, I want to make it very specific, I want to talk about one thing, trusting God when we simply don’t understand.