Myth #3 - We Need Somebody More Spiritual Than Us To Cover Us and to Rule Over Us.
The awesome principle that keeps Churches from becoming cultish is that every believer can hear God within their own hearts and is personally responsible for their own choices. Jesus told us not to accept a father, teacher, or leader other than God Himself. The Bible says there is only one mediator between people and God, and that is Jesus. Hebrews tell us that we won't need teachers to direct us because we have God Himself dwelling in us, from the least to the greatest of us. Those with teaching gifts are meant to explain this message to the Body.

A ten minute study in a concordance of New Testament occurrences of the word "cover" or "covering" will reveal no evidence for the widely accepted myth that we need a human covering. Besides random occurrences of the word referring to things like jar lids and head cloths, the only spiritual application of the word "cover" refers to love covering a multitude of sins.

The New Testament tells us that all believers have many gifts from God and that when we meet, we can use our gifts to build each other up, to remind each other who we are in Jesus, and to equip each other to carry His message and ministry to this hurting world. In the Body there is a deep authority in the life of every person who walks closely with Jesus. There is also a practical organizational structure among groups of believers. We are encouraged to have an open heart of learning when we are in the presence of Christians whose faith is greater than our own. We are also encouraged to help those who coordinate the practical aspects of our ministry efforts and fellowship meetings. But these things are different altogether from allowing a human to take control of your life - to step between you and God.

The verse in Hebrews which reads "obey those who rule over you", really should be transaletd, "yield to those who lead you", a completely different statement. When we come up against odd verses which seem to contradict the greater principles of the New Covenant and God's character, we should take a look at them in a concordance. The love, freedom, and enlightenment of the original message is astounding.

The Bible tells us ALL to submit to one another. The apostle Paul made it his goal to serve everyone from a humble heart and not to esteem himself above anyone. A human trying to rule humans is like a junior high kid ruling over other junior high kids.

Jesus is the lifter of our heads. He has forgiven us completely and set each of us beside Himself. We are in Him and He is in the Father. We are all co-inheritors with Him. The same power which raised Jesus from the dead dwells in each of us. We have died to the old human, we've been buried, we have been raised with Him a new creation, and we are now full citizens of Heaven. That is what it means to be reborn. We have already been given everything pertaining to life, and to Godliness, we just have to believe it! - WF