Principles about the word “obey”

Since every believer is a priest and since every believer is royalty it is important to understand the system of authority authorised by God for the universal priesthood. Two basic principles of authority exist in the royal family of God, one is overt and one is inside. The overt makes it possible to have the inner authority. The overt authority in the royal family is the gift of pastor-teacher and, again, every priest has his own right pastor who communicates the Word of God. In his communication he is the authority, he speaks in monologue and everyone else listens. But the whole purpose for the overt authority is to make the believer spiritually self-sustaining, to give him an inner dictator of his soul. So there is an inner authority. Bible doctrine resident in the soul must become the dictator of the believer’s life. This is only possible by reaching the supergrace life, this calls for a lot of recognition of the authority of your right pastor so that you can grow up spiritually and become mature. These are the two systems of authority which exist in the royal family — the overt, including the divine delegated authority of the pastor-teacher as the communicator of the Word of God; the inner authority, consisting of the believer with Bible doctrine resident in his soul. This demand (obey) brings together both systems of authority in the royal family: the right pastor plus the function of your own free will in positive volition toward doctrine.

There is a very important biblical principle here. A sign of human maturity is your ability to recognise whatever authority exists in your general life, and your ability to respond to that authority with objectivity is a sign of your maturity. All principles of maturity are related to volition and to free will. For example, human maturity is the ability to assume the responsibility for the decisions of your free will. That is true as far as the royal family is concerned. The believer priest must take the responsibility for his attitude toward doctrine. If it is positive there will be great blessing in his life; if it is negative there will be great discipline. There is no middle ground for the royal family. You are going to come to the place of great blessing or you are going to come to the place of great discipline. You must decide, but remember this: in your decision you must take the responsibility for that decision.