One of the very interesting things that Jesus promised about the Holy Spirit was that “He will not speak on His own authority”. The King James says “He will not speak of Himself” which has often caused people to believe that this means that the Holy Spirit never talks about Himself; literally it says “He does not speak for Himself” or on His own authority and opinion. The interesting thing about this is that Jesus made the exact same statement about Himself. In John 12:49 Jesus said “For I have not spoken on My own authority . . .” This means that 2/3 of the Godhead does not speak from their own authority, that when Jesus spoke it was from the Father and when the Holy Spirit speaks it is from Jesus; again this shows that there is no shadow of turning in the Godhead, there is no competition, no jealousy, no division, no thirst for power, no stubborn opinions, there is only unity revealed through a relationship of loved submission. Today I want to talk about authority and submission. What does it mean to live under authority and in submission? These are words that we as a culture struggle with. Many of us talk freely about having a problem with authority and the idea of submission immediately evokes thoughts of abuse and humiliation and yet, in the God who created us in His image we find a relationship of authority and submission and so we have to find what those things mean and how they fit into our hearts and lives if we are ever going to see Jesus’ prayer answered in our lives that we would be one even as He and His Father are one. The Bible tells us to submit ourselves to God, to submit to our earthly authority, to submit to each other, it even tells wives to submit to their husbands—what does any of this mean and what does it look like? Even more, for this series we are in what does it have to do with the Holy Spirit? I’m hoping that we can answer those questions today, I’m hoping that we can see that love and submission are tied to each other, that how we respond to authority reveals how we view God’s character and that there is a direct link between the need to speak our mind and our willingness to trust God’s heart. Today I want us to see that the Holy Spirit is a person under authority and that we were created or purposed for a relationship of submission, understanding these two points will help us to live loved and loving lives and will free us from the tyranny of our opinions so that we can live in the restful confidence of knowing that God does all things well.