A few months ago, on a Wednesday, a storm blew down a tree in my yard and broke my cable television and internet line.
My wife called the company and they promised to be there the next day to fix it. The next day it wasn’t fixed so I called the company myself. They said they couldn’t do it as planned, but they’d be happy to come back in three days to fix it. I told the man that was unacceptable and that they needed to get it fixed tomorrow.
He insisted that it was impossible, that they were already overbooked for Friday. I asked to speak with his supervisor. He said that she was busy. I offered to hold as long as it took. After holding for about five minutes, he informed me that the supervisor was still busy and that she couldn’t schedule anything before Sunday either. It was impossible for them to come out Thursday, Sunday was the absolute earliest they could be there. I again told him that three days was unacceptable and that I expected it to be fixed tomorrow.
I also told him that I knew they had repairmen laid off in the area and they could call them in to work, or call up the guys they have sitting in Columbus or Toledo that don’t have anything to do. I reiterated that I would hold for as long as it took to speak with his supervisor to get my service back tomorrow.
He put me back on hold for ten or fifteen more minutes. When he returned to the line, he informed me that he had spoken with his supervisor and they would have a repair crew at my house the next day.
YES!! VICTORY!!!
Amazing what can happen when you refuse to take ‘no’ for an answer. But I had to appeal to a higher authority. In any large consumer-oriented business, there are scads of people whose job is to say ‘no’ to the customer as kindly and politely as possible; but there are very few people that have real authority who can say ‘yes.’ The key for the pushy consumer, like me, is to get through to the people in authority regardless of how insulated they may be.
In your own life, who has the ultimate authority? There are really only two answers to that question: You or God? Another way to ask it is, “What is the highest authority in my life, my own will, or God’s will?” (Hint: Matthew 28:18, Luke 9:23, Luke 12:5)
I have only two points to make.
Point one: God has ultimate authority over all Christians’ lives (and in everyone’s life for that matter).
Point two: God’s will can be known only through reading the Bible and praying in the spirit.(General or special revelation are not sufficient or reliable respectively).
If we claim the name of Christ, we must subject ourselves to God’s will and subjecting ourselves to God’s will means subjecting ourselves to his Word. We recognize God’s will as the highest authority in our lives and we recognize the Bible as the highest authority on God’s will. (Luke 6:46, John 14:15)
The authority of scripture and the authority of God are so closely related that they are inseparable. To question one is to question both and to doubt one is to doubt both. If you have a low view of scripture, you will have a low view of God.
Keep God’s will the highest authority in your life.
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