Romans 13:1
Let every soul be subject unto the higher powers. For there is no power but of God: the powers that be are ordained of God.
Accountability is a key of life that keeps us doing what we are supposed to do and doing it the way we are supposed to do it. Every time you see a person who does not subject themselves to someone else, you will find that person going the wrong way. The book of Judges is filled with generations of people who did that which was right in their own eyes, but the end of each generation was that they strayed from God and faced His judgment.
You cannot follow yourself and your feelings and end up doing what is right. Proverbs 16:25 teaches, There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. Just because it seems right does not make it right. Just because it feels right does not make it right.
Every soul needs to be subject to a higher power. In other words, every person needs to be accountable to someone. Every person needs to be answerable to someone. Even God is subject to a power. Jesus, the Son of God, was subject to God the Father. The Holy Spirit is subject to God’s Word. God the Father is subject to His Word. God has something that guides Him with every action; therefore, if God makes Himself answerable to His Word, we must be answerable to a higher power. Let me help you with this critical truth about being answerable or subject to a higher power.
First, every person has a higher power. Just because you are a leader does not mean that you can do what you want. If you plan on doing what is right, you must have something you answer to; you cannot live in your world and answer to yourself and end up doing the right thing. Every person who does right is subject to a higher power.
Second, when higher powers disagree, always obey the highest power. For instance, when government says I can’t go soul winning because it is against the law, I subject myself to the higher power, which is God, and I go soul winning. When a husband tells his wife not to go to church, the wife is to obey the higher power, God, and go to church. Higher powers may have the power to tell you to do something against the highest power, but that does not make it right. Right is always accomplished by making sure the higher powers are in line with the highest power, which is God.
Third, you must always be answerable to someone if you are to do right. This means you must place yourself under their power. To be subject to the higher power means you yield yourself to the higher power. As a pastor of a church, I need someone to keep me in check so that I don't do something wrong. I have godly men of God I go to when I have a question about something and ask their advice; I then yield to their advice so that I do the right thing. If a leader is not answerable to someone, they will do what they want to their own destruction.
My friend, God commands every soul to be subject to the higher powers, and that includes you. To resist yielding to a higher power is to resist God, and you are subjecting yourself to heartache by resisting. You are subject to something; you are either subject to a higher power or you are subject to the punishment of sin, which brings heartache. Never yield to the urge to be your own person; that always ends in heartache.