Praise the Lord ASR Family,
I recently read an amazing book and would like to share some excerpts from it, Radically Apostolic by Bishop Charles G. Robinette. I believe this book is going to shake the spiritual foundation of anyone who reads it with an open and spiritually hungry mind. We all want to make it to heaven but we won’t make it without radical submission. Everyone who is coming to the National Rally will certainly want to have read this book in advance of his teaching there.
Rev. Stephen M. Merritt, Missionary to Samoa wrote this testimony: Bro. Robinette was away visiting other churches within the region. I was required to make sure the Apostolic Ministry Training Center
(AMTC) was operational and runnng smoothly in Bro. Robinette’s absence. I can’t say what it was exactly that caused me to undermine that responsibility, but I did. (Even now, reliving this moment brings me to tears.) Word gets to Bro. Robinette that school did not start on time and the AMTC module of excellence and Apostolic responsibility was broken through my lact of urgency and readiness.
Later that day I received a text from Bro. Robinette expressing his disappointment in my performance and promptness. As I read the message, defiance, self-justification, and self preservation rose within me. I quickly typed a response. As I typed each letter and word into the message box … my inner glorified conscience was telling me to step back and reconsider In a fit of defiance, I sent the message.
It was a few days later that I received a reply from Bro. Robinette simply saying, “We’ll talk when I get back.”
From that moment to the moment he arrived … my mind raced, my spirit burned and my emotions churned within me. I knew deep down that what I had done was wrong. It was an act of rebellion and defiance.
For the next few days I lost my appetite to eat, I could not sleep, and my morning and nights were plagued with great conviction. I felt as though something was building within me that was going to burst forth from the inside out. Monday arrived and Bro. Robinette texted me, asking if I could meet him at his house.
As I sat on the train heading to his house, thoughts raced through my mind: thoughs of what I had done, thoughts of what he was going to say, and thoughts of worse-case scenarios and best-case scenarios. Powerful emotions went through me. My body leterally ached with conviction. As I disembarked the train and boarded the bus, my heart began to race even faster and my palms began to sweat: Something was happening within me that I could not explain. This was not the typical “going to the principal’s office” feeling. It was something much more powerful, much more supernatural!
When I finally arrived at Bro. Robinette’s house, I stepped down off the bus and began walking to the front door. I still did not know what I was going to say; as a matter of fact, I had no idea how I was even going to respond. I had to decide to either entertain, follow the spirit of rebellion, and go the way of self-justification and self-preservation, or surrender to the evident work of the Holy Ghost.
It was at that moment when I knocked on the front door and Bro. Robinette opened the door … Seeing him standing caused all those emotions and feelings to burst forth into storm of sorrow and repentance … It was supernatural … I physically fell down in the doorway and wrapped my arms around his legs crying out in repentance and submission. I can look back now at the moment and clearly see without a doubt that it was in that moment of radical submission to God and to the man of God that God allowed something to shift within me that became the catalyst for eponential revival everywhere my feet were planted. There are no substitutes, no replacements, and no alternatives for radical submission.
When we serve spiritual authority, radically submit to spiritual authority, pray for spiritual authority, trust spiritual authority, honor spiritual authority, and humble ourselves before spiritual authority, God will bless us abundantly!
What a story, does this resonate with you? This is one example in the book, of which there are many, including Bro. Robinette’s radical submission to others. (Hebrews 13:17) We fool ourselves if we are not willing to submit to spiritual authority.
Diane Beall
Ladies Chaplain, ASR Motorcycle Ministry International
