Let every soul be subject unto the higher
powers. For there is no power but of God:
the powers that be are ordained of God.
Whosoever therefore resisteth the power,
resisteth the ordinance of God: and they that
resist shall receive to themselves damnation
[condemnation] (Romans 13:1-2).

Paul says that anyone who resists civil authority
resists the authority of God and will receive damnation
or condemnation. This is a continuation of Romans
12 in which Paul was speaking about the Christian
Church, the Body of Christ, acting and preferring one
another in honor. He warns that if we do not honor one
another, including those in authority over us, the devil
will move in our households and destroy us.

What if the government is totally against Christianity
and threatens to imprison anyone for preaching
the gospel? That is a dishonorable government. No
question about it. But that does not mean the people
in office are not ordained of God. It means they are
ignoring the ordination that God has placed upon
them. It is available to them if they only knew it.

What the Lord is saying here through the
Apostle Paul is that Christians still carry honor
about them, even in the midst of a crooked and
perverse generation.

The people in East Germany got hold of the Word
of God concerning the authority of the believer. They
prayed and believed God, asking Him for guidance
and deliverance. I have talked to pastors in that totalitarian,
anti-Christian society who had to operate
underground for years. Every one of them said to me:

“We had to learn to love those political leaders who
were trying their best to damn us to hell. We walked
in honor. We began to see that we could pull down
those demonic powers that were opposed to us and to
the gospel of Jesus Christ.”
Our fight is not against flesh and blood
(Ephesians 6:12).

These men said they prayed and asked God for
their situation to be changed without bloodshed,
and it was.

It was a different story in Romania. The believers
there, although lovely Christian people, were not
walking in a revelation of their authority from God,
so their deliverance has not been as quick or as
complete and certainly not without bloodshed.

Kenneth and Gloria Copeland