Natural Law Brought Under Subjection
Scripture: Matthew 3:7-17
In Matthew 3:7 John the Baptist was preaching about Jesus and he was preaching about Jesus
the Judge. He says here that the axe is laid to the root and every tree which does not bear
good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. He said in verse 11, “I indeed baptize you
with water unto repentance, but He who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals
I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.” When Jesus
baptized the church with the Holy Spirit and fire in the book of Acts, how did that manifest?
It manifested with a language called tongues. John went on to say in verse 12, “His
winnowing fan is in His hand, and He will thoroughly clean out His threshing floor, and
gather His wheat into the barn; but He will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.” Not
only did they receive the prayer language of tongues in the Book of Acts, but when those
tongues rested upon them so did a manifestation of fire. We read in Matthew 3:13-17 about
the baptism of Jesus. Was it optional? Apparently not! In this passage Jesus said, ‘No John,
we have to do it. It is an issue of fulfilling all righteousness.’ When He was baptized in water,
then He was endued with power from on High because the Holy Spirit came and rested on
Him. Matthew 3:16-17 says, “When He had been baptized, Jesus came up immediately from
the water; and behold, the heavens were opened to Him, and He saw the Spirit of God
descending like a dove and alighting upon Him. And suddenly a voice came from heaven,
saying, ‘This is My beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.’” Now there is a testimony on
which you can start a ministry! Where is that testimony in our life? Does it come through
tongues? The only way we will ever know is if we start to use it the way God intended. If
receiving the Holy Spirit was not optional for Jesus and it was not optional for the 120
disciples who waited in Jerusalem until they were endued with power, why should we
presume it would be optional for us. I have been filled with the Holy Spirit a long time, and I still marvel that the third Person of the Godhead would choose to come and take up His abode with us! To think that, at our invitation, He fills us in baptism and oversees God’s plan for our lives is more grace than we
could. The more of God’s plan we find, the more the Holy Spirit (who is the Executor of spiritual
law) will be able to bring natural law under subjection in our lives. Natural law governs the
circumstances that surround us, causing things to go for or against us — making us either rich
or poor, sick or healthy, happy or sad. But God designed natural law to be made subordinate to spiritual law. And since the divine plan for our lives comes from the very heart of God, it is enforced as spiritual law.
Prayer: When we spend any amount of time at all praying in the Holy Ghost, we are
uttering divine secrets, or spiritual laws. The Holy Spirit then employs those laws to see
that circumstances — natural laws — line up with the purpose and plan of God for our
lives. We cannot pray consistently for very long before the things that don’t belong in
God’s plan for us begin to fall away.