True Submission Is Not Oppression
All true submission flows out of submission to the Holy Spirit. To submit means to put your self under and do the will of another. Our first and foremost submission has to be to The Holy Spirit and nothing and no one else. From that submission, we should submit to church leadership only if our spirits bear witness that they are in submission to the Holy Spirit. If we do not hear the voice of God in them or sense in our spirit that they are doing the works of God as the Holy Spirit leads, we are under no obligation to follow them.
This is a different dynamic than is currently taught in much of the church world because it puts control of individual Christians firmly in the hands of the Holy Spirit and takes away that control from church leadership. What God is saying to His people is that instead of trusting the clergy we are only to trust in His Holy Spirit as the clergy is Spirit led. While this should be the norm of all Christians it is rarely followed to the degree God expects.
Trust God’s voice more than your own reason
We must mature into men and women of God that know God’s voice and can stand before Him no matter what manner of deception is going on around us. We must learn to trust His voice in our minds and hearts more than we trust any man’s voice in the world and in our lives. Indeed, it will come to a point where we will trust God’s voice more than our own five senses. Only in this way will Christians stand strong in the coming time of trouble that lies ahead for the whole world. Learn to know Gods voice now because in that day many will fail simply because they never knew Him.