The Sin of Independence

First, let me confess that the title for this blog is not original. It came from the sermon of an esteemed preacher, Derek Prince. I had wondered if independence was a sin, so I went to do some research, and I found the transcript of this sermon. Here is an excerpt:

But Satan did what he always does, he began to discredit the character of God. He suggested God as a tyrant. “He’s put you in this beautiful garden. True, it’s a lovely garden and everything you have is needed and you’re doing wonderfully. But... think what it would be like if you were free, if you could just do whatever you want. If you could find your own answers, you didn’t have to depend on God. See, God is treating you like a second class citizen. He’s not treating you the way you deserve. You deserve something more than that.” And so she responded. She was moved by the motivation to be like God but without depending on God. The root error of Adam and Eve was the desire to be good without depending on God. Notice their motivation was not bad, it was very good to be like God—but, without depending on God. And they entered into a relationship of independence of God. They are our first parents. When the Bible talks about the old man it never talks about the old German man or the old Russian man or the old Jewish man or the old Gentile man because it goes back beyond all that to our first parents, the old man, the old Adam. Adam never had any children until he was a rebel. And every descendant of Adam from that day to this has been born with rebellion inside. The essence of the rebellion is the desire to be independent of God.

I am afraid that sometimes we don’t understand this. Wanting to be independent is in our DNA. You can see this in the actions of a stubborn two year old. We never truly grow out of it, but we call our rebellion, independence, and make what is wrong in God’s sight a character trait to be emulated by the world. This is one of Satan’s subtle lies that puts us on the path of doing things our way instead of God’s way. We often want to rewrite our own rules because we don’t want to be limited by God’s instructions. So we go off and do our thing, then we ask God to bless what we are doing, even though He has nothing to do with it. This is disrespectful to Him because He expects us to have complete reliance on Him.

Trust in the Lord, and do good; Dwell in the land, and feed on His faithfulness. Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He shall give you the desires of your heart. Commit your way to the Lord, trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass. Psalm 37:3-5

It is clear that we must trust the Lord, delight in Him, and commit our way to Him, and He will take care of us. Unfortunately, we feel the need to take care of ourselves. Now I am not saying we must not be accountable or responsible. However, when we do things in our own strength, we leave God out of the equation, and then we get less out of life.

Thus says the Lord: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man and makes flesh his strength, whose heart departs from the Lord. For he shall be like a shrub in the desert, and shall not see when good comes, But shall inhabit the parched places in the wilderness, in a salt land which is not inhabited. Jeremiah 17:5-6

When we lean on our own understanding, we will try to find our own solutions to our issues, and we might try to do things in our flesh and run to people instead of being led by God’s Spirit. This is absolutely wrong, and it is not God’s way. When we trust God we will achieve different results in our lives.

“Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, and whose hope is the Lord. For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters,which spreads out its roots by the river, and will not fear when heat comes; But its leaf will be green, and will not be anxious in the year of drought, nor will cease from yielding fruit. Jeremiah 17:5-6

When we trust in the Lord and put our hope in Him, we will surrender our will to His and let Him have His way in our lives. When we commit our way to Him, He will order our steps and even position people to assist us in different seasons of our lives. From the very beginning, the Creator says that it was not good for Adam to be alone, so He joined him with Eve. Still today, God expects us to work together as the body of Christ, in which each member is important to the other.

But now indeed there are many members, yet one body. And the eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you”; nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” No, much rather, those members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary. And those members of the body which we think to be less honorable, on these we bestow greater honor; and our unpresentable parts have greater modesty, but our presentable parts have no need. But God composed the body, having given greater honor to that part which lacks it, that there should be no schism in the body, but that the members should have the same care for one another. And if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; or if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it. 1 Corinthians 12:20-26

God has created us to be dependent on Him, and no one is independent of one another. We need our doctors just as much as we need our garbage collectors. We must recognize our place in society and respect the position of each person, without making any man an idol, while putting our complete trust in God, and we should stop yielding to the sin of independence.