THE HEADSHIP OF JESUS
By Ron Wood
As I gathered with intercessors for our weekly prayer time, we followed our usual pattern. We scattered around the sanctuary and praised God privately for about thirty minutes. Then we collected in a circle near the altar for thirty minutes of coordinated prayer. As we assembled and began to worship the Lord, the Holy Spirit suddenly gave me a vision.
I saw a spine descending from a head, but it was terribly misaligned with the disks slipping this way and that. Obviously, the body was experiencing a lot of pain from this. Of course, pain in the body is felt in the head. Then I heard these words, "Prayer is the backbone of the church."
With this picture also came insight that God was going to give the backbone a chiropractic adjustment. He was going to correct the problem causing pain in the body. He was going to bring the backbone into alignment with the head.
This picture describes intercessory prayer warriors out of alignment with headship. Disjointed prayer is a pain in the neck to the body of Christ.
Warfare prayer is powerful. While devotional prayer is for our own souls, warfare prayer is wrestling in behalf of others. It impacts churches and cities. It engages God’s grace in behalf of our suffering world. It uproots evil powers from their positions of influence.
This kind of prayer is so potent that it must be safeguarded. Like nuclear weapons, it cannot be handled naively or used indiscriminately. There are several parameters that should be in place so that power-filled praying doesn’t degenerate into soulish witchcraft, wasted energy, or go cross-purpose to God’s revealed will.
Four simple safeguards are: 1) Our praying ought be in agreement with God’s Word. 2) Our prayer life should flow out of a crucified will. 3) Intercessors require increasing sensitivity to the Holy Spirit. 4) Prayer warriors must be accountable to spiritual authority.
A principle of God’s kingdom is this: The more authority we carry, the more we must desire to be submitted to God’s authority wherever we see it.
Independence is the essence of sin. It should be obvious to everyone if we are truly under God’s government, honoring the head of the church, the Lord Jesus.
Three times in the Book of Ephesians, Paul referenced the headship of Jesus Christ. (See Eph. 1:10, 1:22, 5:23)
If we engage in warfare apart from the initiative and authority of the Head, we are liable to be wounded or captured. Winning the battle requires strategic wisdom. War has to be fought with the Commander-in-Chief coordinating the army, not everyone doing their own thing.
Paul wrote the letter to the Ephesians while in prison near the end of his ministry, about A. D. 60. He had already been on many missionary journeys. By the time he got to Ephesus, he was able to plant a thriving church that epitomized his doctrine.
If you follow Paul’s itinerary, you can see how he grew in apostolic grace along the way. He didn’t waste his life-experiences. For instance in Athens, Paul tried to minister alone. None of his team was with him. The city was filled with idols. Paul preached the most eloquent sermon every recorded. Yet it had no effect. There was no church planted in Athens, no subsequent letter in our Bible to the church at Athens. Paul failed as a church-planter in that city.
Next, Paul went to the pagan city of Corinth. He determined to know nothing but Christ crucified. He established their faith in the power of God rather than the wisdom of men. He had his apostolic team with him, partners in prayer, supporting him financially. In Corinth, using this different strategy, a powerful new church was planted.
Paul then went to Ephesus. Starting with twelve disciples who had a power encounter with the Holy Spirit, a growing church began to impact the whole region. A fortune in occult literature was burned. The city was in an uproar. The kingdom of God had successfully colonized that city!
Paul’s letter to this Ephesian church contains the highest revelation of the kingdom of God in the New Testament. The letter addressed no major problem. In many ways, it was a model church. Like all of Paul’s writings, it moved deliberately from theology to lifestyle, from doctrine to application.
Do you know the climax of Paul’s practical word? Spiritual warfare! Paul gave us a protocol for how to do this without being killed in the process.
Understanding the structure of the letter to the Ephesians, let’s move backwards from its climax and see the foundation Paul lays for successful (and safe) spiritual warfare. Going in reverse order, there are ten major themes which are apparent. These should be dealt with in our lives prior to waging war.
10. Employees. Serving gladly is proof of humility, the mark of true rank in God’s kingdom.
9. Parenting. How can you have power over demons if you can’t control your own toddler?
8. Marriage. THE crucible of covenant love. Can’t get along? Then your prayers are hindered. Agree together in God!
7. Thankfulness, a true sign of being filled with the Spirit. Critical? Fault-finding? Not a genuine charismatic!
6. Morality, integrity, truthfulness in our hearts and lives. Put on Christ. This is the transformation of the inner man!
5. Ascension-gift ministries and relationships with them as members in the body. Recognize, Receive & Relate!
4. Unity in the Body of Christ, even between converted Jews and Gentiles. One Lord, one faith, one Body!
3. The riches of God’s grace. We will spend eternity trying to appreciate the depths of this awesome truth!
2. The Headship of Jesus over the Church, over ALL authority and every power in every dimension. He is Lord!
1. Redemption through the blood of Christ. It is finished, settled for all time once for all on the cross. Praise God!
The pivotal verse in this book is Ephesians 1:10. This verse speaks of the Lord Jesus Christ being the head of the church. The rest of Ephesians is merely addressing how the headship of Jesus is worked out in our lives in the context of Christian community. For example. If you are truly a disciple of Jesus, you will put in an honest day’s work for your boss. You won’t rob your boss by showing up late or pilfering from the store. If you can’t respect secular authority or ownership, you aren’t ready for spiritual warfare.
Look at another way the headship of Jesus is addressed–relationships with five-fold ministries. Paul says the Body of Christ is composed of members connected together in covenant love, the supporting ligaments of Ephesians 4:16.
God doesn’t dwell in buildings. He dwells in relationships in the Body of Christ. If Jesus is the Head, then his authority is mediated through his servants he has sent to minister to us. God is restoring respect for these offices in the church. The day will come when it will be more important to identify with your apostolic father than with your denominational mother.
The Greek word Paul used in Eph. 1:10 is anakephalaiomai. If is translated in the KJV as "gather together in one." This gathering is to occur in the "fullness of time," a kairos moment in history. It is to unite heaven and earth under Christ. The New American Standard Bible translates this word, "the summing up of all things in Christ." It means this world’s administration is going to be added up under one head, Christ Jesus.
Perhaps this verse is best translated in the New International Version, which reads "to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ." Anything that resists coming under the headship of Jesus opposes God. God’s will is for every knee to bow, of things in heaven and things in earth.
The spirit of anti-Christ says, "Do your own thing." The Spirit of Christ says, "Obey the Son."
Sadly, headship has been misunderstood and used to dominate people. Many women have suffered abuse or prejudice due to mis-guided men lording it over them. Headship is not male superiority, but a role we are assigned to play within certain relationships under God.
Headship is an organizing principle in God’s kingdom. Every healthy living thing has a head. When we dishonor our head, we despise authority. The number one problem in American society today is disrespect for authority.
In the Bible, Elisha looked to Elijah as his head. (2 Kings 2:5 KJV) Paul said divine order in the home came by the husband’s headship. (1 Cor. 11:3) Isaiah said God’s government would rest on Messiah’s shoulders. (Is. 9:6-7)
Shoulders carry weight. Every head of every government has an administration to implement their policies. Jesus’ administration uses apostles and prophets, teaching the whole Church the obedience of faith (Romans 1:5).
It is mission-critical that all of us who are intercessors recognize Christ’s headship by relating to spiritual authority. This does not mean letting anyone or anything replace Jesus. (Col. 2:19) But it does mean commitment to apostolic community in our city. We must have accountability and covenant relationship with the representatives of Christ’s headship. Then we can get into proper alignment with the Head of the Church.
Apart from doing this, our posture of being under God’s authority is only pretense. When we go to war in prayer, the devil will know it and laugh at us.
© 1999 by Ron Wood. Ron and his wife, Lana, have been pastors more than 30 years. He has served as a State Coordinator for the U. S. Strategic Prayer Network. Ron is best known for his prophetic writing ministry. Ron & Lana are a ministry team. They are members of Reconciliation Ministries International led by Bishop Joseph Garlington. Ron & Lana were sent to Africa to help equip emerging apostolic leaders in the developing church. If you wish to copy this article for free distribution, permission is hereby granted to duplicate it provided there are no changes or omissions made to this article and this byline is included. The author asserts his moral rights of ownership. For more information or helpful literature, visit our web site at touchedbygrace.org, or e-mail us at ron@touchedbygrace.org.
