The focus of this Sermon is on The Principle of Headship. When God gives you an instruction to teach on a topic It means that there is a deliberate intention of God to overturn somebody’s captivity.
“Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ”. (1 Corinthians 11:1)
Unity
There are three sets of persons that we have in this scripture to be able to understand the meaning of the subsequent scriptures. The first personality here is Christ, and Christ occupies the capacity of headship; Then we have people like Apostle Paul, their accuracy in Ministry and in life is dependent on their followership of headship. Apostle Paul is in the category we call leadership. Apostle Paul’s Ministry is going to be as efficacious and result oriented to the degree to which he conforms and aligns with headship. So, the three sets of people are headship, leadership then followership. you know he is asking some people to follow him and the reason why he has the authority to request that they should follow him as a leader is because his life and his ministry is angulated and aligned towards doing the bidding of Christ. Now I’ll still like to press this point because I would like to show you the spiritual significance of the kind of headship that is over your life. If Satan wants to exploit your destiny what he does is that he manipulates a certain factor in this orientation. Your life is supposed to be anchored on this tripartite orientation and if by any means you are dislocated from this arrangement, then you are not likely going to be qualified for inheritance. The Bible says:
“A song of degrees of David. Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity!” (Psalms 133:1)
There are three things mentioned in that first verse, that you need to be acquainted with to understand the subsequent verses. The first thing is that there is something that we can actually behold in unity. Unity can be seen and has fruits that are visible. Unity is not Union. The fact that we are in an organization, and we are trying to unite in order to have better political possibilities is not unity. Unity is something that can only be achieved by the harmony that is in the Holy Ghost and if by any means you have arrived at unity, which first of all means that it has all its roots in the harmony that is in the Holy Ghost, then there are a few things that will be evidences that will manifest in the natural as touching the fact that we are really functioning in unity. Unity is not just spiritual; it has physical evidences worthy of beholding. So, the call in this scripture is to behold. “Behold” means something that can be seen and desired. The Bible says behold how good and how pleasant; so, there are two things that can be beheld if unity is established. First of all, there is a goodness that can be beheld and there is a pleasantness that can be beheld if brethren dwell together in unity.
Unity also follows a process likened to a fruit called Bitter-kola which is very medicinal, but bitter in taste; unity is achieved through a process that may not always be pleasant but ultimately produces good results, which is akin to the bitterness of bitter-kola fruit being beneficial to the body. There are some things that you want to do because they are pleasant. Other things you need to do because they are good, though they may not be pleasant; like the doctors can give you a prescription to take, the pills are not even sweet, but you are taking them because they are good for your health. So, the Bible says “behold how good”; there’s an aspect of unity that we see which is a result of a certain process, the process may not be pleasant, but the result is good.
In marriage, you will realize that you are not as spiritual as you thought you were because it is a theater designed to manifest your flaws, character, impatience and anger. The immediate results that you might find in marriage might not be pleasant, but God knows that it is good. It’s like a therapeutic process designed to refine you so there are aspects of this equation that God knows is good and that is the reason why He brings you into it and if you can stay the process, you will begin to see evidences why God prescribed it. Marriage will make you go through a process that will earn you refinement in your character and conduct. I met Evangelist Peter in Brazil; we heard about each other and now met. Over the years, we have disagreed about many issues, and our friendship has produced a product that is better than what we were when we first met. So, there’s an aspect that will not manifest its goodness apart from the process, and then there’s an aspect that when you enter into, your motivation to remain is that it is pleasant. So, there’s goodness in it and there’s also pleasantness in it. The Psalmist brings us an illustration in the next verse:
“It is like the precious ointment upon the head, that ran down the beard, even Aaron’s beard: that went down to the skirts of his garments”. (Psalm 133:2)
This is the concept of dwelling together in unity. The subject being explored here is the possibility of brethren dwelling together in unity in order to deepen our understanding of this kind of unity that He wants each and every one of us to experience. I know in basic English when you see ‘’like’’ this is a simile, “it is like the precious ointment upon the head that ran down upon the head even Aaron’s beard that went down to the skirts of his garments.” You will notice that there are three body parts mentioned here. The first body part mentioned here is the head, second body part is the beard and then the third body part is the skirt of his garment. It’s the same thing as headship, leadership and followership or membership. Now you see, Paul was saying in 1 Corinthians 11 that the reason, why I believe I am followable is because I follow Christ; he is locked on headship and that’s why his leadership is exemplary because his leadership models Christ. If you see the way he leads, if you see his preferences, strategy and choices in leading, you will know who he is following. His leadership is revelatory of who he’s following, so he models the example of Christ and that’s why Paul believes he is a worthy leader to follow. You see, the authority for him to lead is not in himself. The authority for him to lead is in his conformity to the example of Jesus Christ. The Bible says:
“Wherefore seeing we also are encompassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us”. (Hebrews 12:1)
I need to draw your attention quickly because when the Bible says we should “run with patience” he’s saying you are not engaging in a sprint, you are engaging in a marathon. In fact, your capacity to accomplish that race is not your speed but your endurance. So, what Paul is saying is that your Christian Life, your walk with God is a marathon. I know most of you thought Christianity was a sprint, you just get a miracle on Monday and then you take off like a tornado, but you were disappointed to discover that is not how God structures your life. He structures your life with the hope that you will decide to be a part of the Marathon of Faith. The way you position your heart so that you can have a prosperous Christian journey is that you position your heart for a marathon. So, Apostle Paul is saying that if you are going to succeed in the marathon there is a weight shedding process that you will need to go through because the lighter you are, the easier it will be for your legs to carry you, and the weight in this case is “the sin that easily traps you”. Sin will increase your weight on the field and affect your output in your race. You might still manage to reach the finish line, but with this kind of weight you don’t even have any hope of receiving a medal. So, if you are going to be an enterprising athlete, Paul is saying we are in a marathon, so you will need to run with patience and build endurance to survive the race.
For instance, I remember some brethren from the past who were on fire for The LORD. When I saw them some years later, one of them was cohabiting with a woman who wasn’t his wife, and the other one I found drinking alcohol heavily. Why? Because they prepared for a sprint, they did not prepare for a marathon. When you open up your prayer life, open it up with this understanding that “I am in a marathon”, and what guarantees that you even make the finish-line in the marathon is that you have enduring power. You see, endurance is the ability to outlast the devil, he is a very consistent personality and doesn’t give up easily so you will need to build the athletic character of endurance to outlast him. He is also a good athlete; he will not accept defeat without a fight, so if you don’t have the capacity in you to endure, then you are already a failure even before you start. Because when we want to start praying, satan will come and start conducting inspections and checking everybody. He knows the people that start praying who in two weeks’ time, when he brings some terrible situations around their, he will change their mood and they will become discouraged. We measure your capacity as a Christian, in “units of enduring capacity.” Now that Paul has revealed to us that we are engaged in a Marathon, he now tells us how to run. Don’t claim that you know how to run, you must be taught and instructed in the way of holy running. The way to run is by looking unto Jesus:
“Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God”. (Hebrews 11:2
But I thought if you are in a race your heart is on the finish line. That’s true! And Jesus is the Author and the Finisher of our Faith. So, the way to run is to look at the example of Jesus and model Him; That’s how to run. When you see someone who is not modeling the example of Jesus, that person isn’t going to survive the race, and will be disqualified from the race, because instead of running to the finish-line he’s running somewhere else. The fact that you are running doesn’t mean you are running the right race; your race will only count if you are running according to the rules. The prescription for this race is that we need to “look unto Jesus”. You can now understand why Apostle Paul’s leadership was authentic, because he was looking unto Jesus and modeling His example. You are not even in the race at all, if there is no reference point in your running. Someone can claim to be in Ministry, but he’s not in Ministry, he can be behind the pulpit yet not running Ministry according to the rules, because the author of Ministry is Jesus. The unit of measurement of Ministry compliance is Jesus. The energy by which we accomplish Ministry is the Holy Ghost, so if indeed you have the energy of the Holy Ghost and your finish-line is in keeping with the example of the Author and Finisher of your faith, then the extent to which you model Jesus is the extent to which you are part of the race. What the race is about looking at the example of Jesus and modeling it. To properly establish these principles Paul says “be ye followers of me even as I am of Christ.” Likewise, the Disciples were first called “Christians” in Antioch, because the word “Christian” actually means “little Christ”.
Leadership
We can talk about Apostle Paul and Apostle Peter, but they are not here. In Christianity there is nothing as powerful as a living example. The extent to which your leadership influences men unto Christ depends on how well you are modeling Christ. So, Paul says “Be ye followers of me even as I also am of Christ”, and in the next verse he tells us why he gives this charge with such confidence, because he’s following the example of Jesus:
“Now I praise you, brethren, that ye remember me in all things and keep the ordinances, as I delivered them unto you”. (1 Corinthians 11:2)
The Corinthian Believers were masters in keeping ordinances they had been instructed in, and Paul commends them for this. He does this to introduce a specific matter he now wants to raise, an additional ordinance for the people of God. Now you must understand this ordinance very well, because whether or not you are a victim of a certain matter; I’m about to dwell on now will depend on your understanding of this matter:
Headship
“But I would have you know that the head of every man is Christ; and the head of the woman is the man; and the head of Christ is God”. (1 Corinthians 11 :3)
The word “head” that Apostle Paul is using there is “headship” in modern English; the Headship of every man that is Born Again is Christ. It is Christ that is supposed to exercise Headship over him. Apostle Paul’s leadership was predicated upon his following Christ. He that is supposed to exercise Headship over every man is Christ, and he that is supposed to exercise headship over the woman in marriage is the man; and He that exercises Headship over Christ is His Father. I need to explain this Scripture because this is a Scripture of mystery. Paul births this scripture because of the revelations he had received about it. The example of the incarnate Christ is the mystery of God, when God became man, and the reason why God had to become man is so that you can know the message of the Gospel. And; the message of the Gospel is that “The Son of God became the Son of man, so that sons of men can become sons of God.” So, when we see the example of Him who is God and became flesh, you will notice that Jesus had one preoccupation only, and that preoccupation was to fulfill the will of His Father. It is Jesus that declared that He could not do anything of Himself. It is only what He sees His Father do that He has the capacity to do. This means that Jesus was under the Headship of His Father completely, such that there was no time that Jesus’ will was in conflict with the will of His Father.
In the Garden of Gethsemane, we saw a classic situation that revealed to us that Jesus was not a robot and Jesus had a will independent from the will of His Father. Part of the reason that constituted that prayer was because He was trying to journey through prayer to stumble on what the will of His Father was. His own will was that the cup should pass from Him, but He was travailing in prayer to secure the Father’s will. Before He started the prayer, He thought that the Father’s Will and the cup of suffering and of death were different, but when He pressed into the prayer, He saw that the Father’s Will and the cup of suffering were one. So, there was no need to press because He had already known the Father’s will. So, He poised Himself to submit fully to that cup of suffering, which was required to accomplish our redemption, because He knew without fail that this was His Father’s will.
His preoccupation was to fulfill whatever He was able to sense that His Father’s will was. So, when He spoke about His Doctrine and His miracles, He said that they were not His, but they belonged and were derived from His Father. The example that Jesus laid for us was an example of a man that was conveniently under the influence of headship, and the headship Jesus submitted to was the headship of His Father. So, you can now understand what that scripture means by “the head of Christ is God.” Jesus never operated outside the headship of His Father. The scripture therefore shows us three umbrellas: the headship that covers Christ is His Father. The headship that covers, a married man is Christ, and the headship that covers the woman is the man. So, the subject of 1 Corinthians 11 is the subject of headship. Jesus operated under the Authority of His Father, so Jesus modeled His Father. There was no need to ask Jesus, “where is your father?” He modeled, displayed and amplified the Father, and His own will was kept aside. So, the personality people were interacting with when Jesus walked this world; was not really Jesus, it was actually His father, because He gave His Father expression. It is the same kind of thing that Apostle Paul is saying, that “I follow Christ”; it means he has decided to put his own will aside, and his preoccupation is now to live out Christ.
Leadership
You must have heard Apostle Paul make a statement like “for me to live is Christ...” That is, the definition of living for me is to reveal Christ, and the only way that is possible is that his own will was set aside, and what became his will was the desires that he found in Jesus Christ, and he put them on public display. His life was a theater that manifested Christ such that Jesus Christ was visible and responsible for what he taught, how he responded, how he acted, his opinions, preferences, and strategies. It was Christ that was manifested through his vessel, his own will was kept aside. This is the same kind of concept that is supposed to exist in a marriage, the husband of a household is supposed to be well tuned to Christ. The whole idea of headship is to be in tune with Christ and model him accurately, and if you model Christ before your wife so well, submission will be natural. You will have a submission problem when it is yourself that is manifesting instead of Christ, then you will see how she will resist you with passion. It is a terrible place to be when a man subscribes to self, there is a sense of entitlement that becomes the result. But the moment you model Christ, you will not beg for submission, it will happen naturally, and if she refuses to submit, don’t try to do anything, just follow the prescription and the Jesus that you have submitted to will deal with her.
“Every man praying or prophesying having his head covered, dishonoreth his head”. (1 Corinthians 11:4)
The head of man is Christ. If the man has another headship in his life, for example his own biological father, as a man who is submitting first to his father’s covering before Christ, then it means that Christ has been dishonored by that posture. If the one who is now providing headship for me is my biological father, it means my head is covered and someone is exercising headship on my own life, dictating how I should run my home, how I should relate with my wife, etc. What I have done by yielding to the authority of my biological father is that I have dishonored Christ who is supposed to be my head and that is a spiritual violation. Do you realize that if I am in violation, it will not be obvious until the moment I decide to pray or to prophesy. If I am in violation there may be no challenge, but the moment I decide to exercise my spirit to do spiritual business then I will be held accountable for my error. You know in prayer I am releasing a petition into the spirit realm; in prophecy, I’m receiving something from the spirit realm and downloading. Prayer is you “uploading”, and in prophecy you are “downloading”. The moment you begin to upload or download in the realm of the spirit, your headship error will begin to speak against you. If you can afford not to pray, if you can afford not to prophesy, then your error in headship will not be brought to account. If you decide that you won’t pray again, but you will be drawing the wisdom for running your affairs from your biological father, knowing that you have violated spiritual principles, then you cut off from praying, you cut off from prophesying, no more uploading or downloading, it is only in that context that you can stay in “safety”. And I don’t know which man will refuse to pray and expect to be safe.
The reason for my error is because my head. according to the definitions in verse 3 is Christ. So, the same way Apostle Paul modeled Christ by following Christ and modeling his example, likewise every man that has a household has a Head, which is Christ, and is also in headship himself. And that is not referring to being a preacher. We have headship, leadership, then followership. Every man that is married is in the capacity of leadership, and if you are going to manifest your leadership accurately your leadership must be a mirror image of Christ. Meaning that you must be effectively under the Authority of Christ yourself in order for your leadership to be properly recognized and have the capacity to demand submission. So again, Paul is saying that if by any means I receive covering from another source, what I have done is that I have dishonored my actual Head. It means that in that my orientation there is no way Christ can be manifested, because the wisdom by which I order my ways is no longer coming from Him but is coming from another source. Any error will not be brought to the book until I attempt to upload and download.
Spiritual Covering
“But every woman that prayeth or prophesieth with her head uncovered dishonoureth her head: for that is even all one as if she were shaven”, (1 Corinthians 11:5)
What it means “to uncover her head” here is that she doesn’t recognize the authority of her husband; what she is doing is she “dishonoreth her head”, who is her husband. So, this scripture really doesn’t have anything to do with head-tie. A woman wants to operate in the prophetic and deliverance Ministry, but she has violated the simple principle of headship, and as much as the anointing upon her life may be valid, in administering that anointing, she is going to come under attack. The reason is because she’s not covered, she’s operating her Ministry at her own expense not under covering. Now if Jesus sends me to deliver a message: The message can be “ye brood of vipers!” That was how John the Baptist preached; you know what? Part of the evidence that the man was sent was that he did not even preach a very good salvation message, he drove them away and said: “brood of vipers!” Yet the people he was preaching to all came. The one that sent him went ahead and convicted them because that was a message he was given to preach. You can go and try saying “brood of vipers” without the backing of headship, then you are likely to learn some practical lessons.
Now the difference between a man and a woman is that a woman is designed to operate from a covered position. A man also is designed to operate from a covered position, but the covering of the woman is physical, while the covering of a man is Invisible. Think about it, it is more difficult to align with a covering that is invisible than a covering that is visible. For instance, God says, “you have not yet loved the human beings that you can see, what makes you think that you can love God that you cannot see?” It means it is easier for you to submit to entities that are physically present than for you to submit to an entity that is invisible. So, do you now see why Apostle Paul is beckoning on the church to follow him? See, in the business of headship, covering and followership there is nothing as powerful as a physical example of a man that is following Jesus Christ. That can be a very good asset for you to see and copy in keeping step with operating under the covering of Christ.
“Now when he had ended all sayings in the audience of the people, he entered into Capernaum. And a certain centurion’s servant, who was dear unto him, was sick, and ready to die. And when he heard of Jesus, he sent unto him the elders of the Jews, beseeching him that he would come and heal his servant. And when they came to Jesus, they besought him instantly, saying, That he was worthy for whom he should do this: For he loveth our nation, and he hath built us a synagogue. Then Jesus went with them. And when he was now not far from the house, the centurion sent friends to him, saying unto him, Lord, trouble not thyself: for I am not worthy that thou shouldest enter under my roof: Wherefore neither thought I myself worthy to come unto thee: but say in a word, and my servant shall be healed.” (Luke 7:1-7)
Why did the Centurion believe this? He tells us why: “For I also am a man set under Authority, having under me soldiers.” Are you seeing the umbrella of authority? This Centurion is saying, “I have an umbrella over me, and I myself am an umbrella over some other men.” So, the principle I’m trying to unveil here is the principle of headship. “I Also” means he’s telling Jesus that, “I’ve seen the way you Minister, you are not in charge, I can tell, because I also have someone that is my superior that I take instructions from, and I’ve seen you Minister, and I’ve discovered that there is someone superior to you that gives you instructions. I know how it feels like when I see somebody taking instructions and obeying instructions, I’ve seen that in your Ministry.” So, he says, “I also am a man under authority.”
That thing we call “Covering” is a man that is set under authority. if you are set under authority and the authority that you are set under gives you an instruction, go to the international market and call all of the people you see there “brood of vipers”, because you are set under authority the consequence of your actions will come to the authority under whom you operate, not unto you. So, you will not bear the consequences of the actions you carry out under the authority, and the consequences of your actions will be borne by the authority that has dispatched you. So, the man says, “I also am a man set under authority, having under me soldiers and I say unto one go and he goeth, and unto another come and he cometh, and unto my servant do this, and he doeth it”, and when Jesus heard these things, He marveled at him. Now why did He marvel? “And He turned about and said unto the people that followed him, I say unto you I have not found so great faith; no not in Israel.” what is Jesus Calling “great faith”? Jesus’ definition of great faith was revealed in that man’s ability to discern the mechanism by which spiritual things that are invisible to the eyes are seen; the man was able to see a system, a set of principles at work in the ministry of Jesus.
I hope you know faith gives you the eyes to see things that are not visible, and the centurion was able to see and understand. Faith has its own logic and the logic that is behind your acts of faith is not a logic that is verifiable by your physical senses but nonetheless there is logic in faith. Can you see the logic that the man was unveiling? He says “I’m also a man under authority; I’ve seen you Minister and I know that you are not in charge, you bear witness and carry the authority of another. I’ve seen your efforts that you have put in place to find alignment with the one that has sent you, so speak the word only, and my servant shall be healed”. A man that is set under authority has authority on his tongue, so you speak the word only and my servant shall be healed. And Jesus said in the whole of Israel, He never saw a man with this kind of faith. What was the understanding that the man had? It was on the subject of headship and covering. A man that is covered is set under authority.
When you are set under a certain authority your life becomes an expression of the will of that authority. It will interest you to know that in your family there’s a system of authority that has been established there. The entire physical family structure is based on the Principle of Headship. The principle of headship can be a very terrific power when it is wielded in unrighteousness, so you need to know how to deal with it because if you don’t, the consequences of the headship in your own family being wielded in unrighteousness can ensnare your destiny, because God recognizes the principle of headship. In my years of pastoring, I’ve had to pastor women that their husbands are unbelievers, they attend gatherings where they do ancestral venerations and pour libations to spirits. Now these women are trying to be wives and they don’t believe in the priesthood their husbands are bringing, but they are the ones that wield the scepter of headship. This becomes a very complex situation for us to deal with. And for most of us, the one that sits in the capacity of head of your clan and family is likely to be an unbeliever and just in case that person is a believer, then God has helped you. The scepter of headship can be wielded in the most notorious way to bring injuries to the destinies of men. Part of the reason we have had this discourse on headship is so that we can undo the entanglement that have befallen men and women on the account of the scepter of headship that was wielded with a demonic force against destinies.
There is something called the altar of your father’s house. It is possible for you to gain some mileage when there is this darkness in your family because the darkness feeds from the principle of headship. At some point you’ll have to do damage to this system, if not, it has the ability to limit you from becoming everything God has created you to be. You will see in the bible how God dealt with men that were raised in families that had those altars that were managed by people that had the right of headship. There were strategic information God made available to them, strategic directions and directives they received in combating the situation, because the thing about the matter is that the headship is legitimate; God Himself recognizes headship. Headship is not of the devil, just like marriage was instituted by God and not man’s idea, but it can be wielded in a fashion that it can become an object of injury. How do you survive in such cases? We will need to find out what is behind your limitation, your struggle, the weeping that you weep sometimes, there can be a complex maze of demonic activities that finds its premise of legality in some of those installations that are valid before God.
One thing you must know about the deities of darkness and wickedness is that they are exceptionally possessive. If someone brings an idol into the family, the idol is not just satisfied with the person that brought it into the family. It wants to dominate and become the ruling principle behind the civilization of the people, it wants to determine who dies, who rises, who is afflicted. The idol wants to be the one that determine what happens. Just in case there are preachers that are hoping to press forward, and there is an image of jealousy that is in your context, you might find yourself advancing and you’ll get to a level you are unable to advance beyond that point. Whenever you see yourself being on one spot for a long and not advancing into the possibilities of glory that are associated with your destiny and your rising, we need to take on our telescope, new eyes and lenses and check the reasons for the resistance because the bible is very clear as to what God does to people that are in alignment with Him.
