Proverbs 22:4 “The reward for humility and fear of the Lord is riches and honor and life.” James 4:10 “Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.” 1 Peter 5:5 “Likewise, you who are younger, be subject to the elders. Clothe yourselves, all of you, with humility toward one another, for ‘God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.'” Philippians 2:3 “Do nothing from selfish ambition or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves.” Micah 6:8 “He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?” Matthew 11:29 “Take My yoke upon you, and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls.” Philippians 2:5-8 “Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though He was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but Jesus emptied Himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.” Be wise and accept the life crushing trials, with a low heart posture and meet Jesus there.
One single scripture can uplift the bent over, and brokenhearted. Read one Psalm, and one Proverb daily to expand faith. Pray the scriptures to increase hope. Be renewed by His strength. Delight in the conviction of the Holy Spirit as He delivers us from our self reliance. Our Father hears us, sees us, and He loves us beyond all emotion that we experience. There are a lot of voices out there, but when we ask God for discernment; He provides the truth in a powerful, transforming way. The anointing of the Holy Spirit releases God’s power to resurrect the walking dead into people alive in Christ. Jesus knows us intimately, and He has prepared an eternal place for us with Him. Bent low in this corrupt world, only He is worthy of our reverence. Fearing God is learned by bearing the heavy weight of our suns. God’s Wisdom illuminates our desperate need of a Savior. AMEN
Because the Holy Spirit dwells within, we bring His holiness into every room we enter. His presence changes the atmosphere as His light flows through us. Our lives should plainly show that meekness and lowliness of heart are how we are best recognized as we follow the meek and lowly Lamb of God. Therefore we earnestly ask the Holy Spirit for His help. We ask that His perfect humility shines through as our holiness. We pray to remain humble because we are human and we slip into pride easily as sinners. Only with humility can we return to our proper place before God. As His Ambassadors, our humility is the result of His lavish grace. Our lowly posture of heart is the highest worship we can offer our King. Many believers take pleasure in becoming less, so that the Spirit of God may radiate through them. It is NOT our sin that humbles us most, but it is God’s grace. The soul that is clear about the need for a Savior, turns to the only etetnal Redeemer. We find our true place in deep humility before Him. Jesus is our example of lowliness, so like Him, we crucify our desires to do His will. Humility is the only way to represent Jesus with honor. Wisely, we humbly submit and wear His robe of righteousness. Jesus told us, “whoever wants to be first among you must be a servant.” This is our great title. There is nothing more divine or heavenly than serving and helping others. Living as His servants is the highest purpose for those made in God’s image. The Holy Spirit is within and Jesus said, “He will never leave you or forsake you.”
Believe that you have already received the fullness of the Holy Spirit. We crucify doubt, and when we fall, He is in our midst. His heart breaks with ours. A contrite spirit reflects the humility of knowing that God within us, waits for us to acknowledge our sin. A deep earnest desire erupts within as we seek God’s forgiveness. Our humbled attitude before is welcomed by the One who describes Himself as meek and lowly of heart. Our contrite spirit knows that we have not behaved as Jesus would have in the same situation. We become acutely aware that our harsh words, our brittle attitude, actually grieves the very sensitive Holy Spirit. We are truly sorry that we have caused the Holy Spirit to take a backseat to our relentless, stubborn pride! To submit is to demonstrate meekness. Lord, we are crushed in sorrow and humbly submit, admitting that we need restoration by Your merciful forgiveness.
“The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” Jeremiah 17:12 – So it is wise for all of us to ask the Holy Spirit to reveal in us anything that dishonors God and confess it quickly. Ask God to dig deep and uproot that which is not from Him. Our genuine sorrow and regret for our self righteous attitudes, reflects an internal conviction from the Holy Spirit. With broken hearts we admit our failure to please God. We know that our Father desires to reconcile all to Himself, even those we felt superior to. Oh Lord Jesus, our need for You is greater than our desire to hold onto bitter resentment. We need Your help and forgiveness. Our remorse is deep and we sincerely desire to turn away from our sin and pursue Your way of righteousness. Our willingness to make amends to those we have hurt by our harsh words, overwhelms our pride. All resistance melts as we confess we were wrong to be pridefully so unwilling to forgive. Thank You Holy Spirit for the conviction to not make any more excuses or swear to God that we will never do that again. Matthew 5:36-37 “Do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or black. All you need to say is simply ‘Yes’ or ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.” Lord, forgive us for pretending to be holy.
The Hebrew word for humility means bent down, or crushed by life. It is the broken place where we are totally spent, empty, and poured out. True humility occurs as we recognize our dependence on God’s grace and mercy. We understand that our best effort is woefully insufficient for reconciliation with God. “Lord, I am crushed in spirit and I need Your strength.” Our Father’s response to our contrite heart is found in His Word. Psalm 51:17 and Isaiah 57:15 both assure us that God is near to those who are contrite in spirit. He offers comfort, healing, and renewal to those who humbly acknowledge their need for Him. A 30 minute revelation of the Hebrew word humility.
We approach God with a crushed, humble and repentant heart. We admit our criticism, bitterness, judgements, unforgiveness, pride, and false humility. We ask Jesus to forgive and restore us. We turn back to God with a broken spirit to accept His forgiveness as Holy Spirit renews our identity as His anointed servant. Psalm 51:17 “MY SACRIFICE, O God, is a BROKEN SPIRIT; a BROKEN and CONTRITE HEART you, God, will not despise.” To crouch, to bend a knee, is to take action, to groan in our spirit for grieving His Spirit, we are sorry. In Hebrew to be contrite Dakah is a verb, meaning to crouch, to bow, to break, to crush our will.
Isaiah 57:15 “For this is what the HIGH and EXALTED ONE says—HE who LIVES forever, whose NAME is HOLY: ‘I live in a HIGH and HOLY PLACE, but also WITH the ONE who is CONTRITE and LOWLY in SPIRIT, to REVIVE the SPIRIT of the LOWLY and to REVIVE the HEART of the CONTRITE.'”
Psalm 34:18 “The Lord is close to the BROKENHEARTED and saves those who are CRUSHED in spirit.”
Zephaniah 3:12 “But I will leave WITHIN YOU the MEEK and HUMBLE, the REMNANT of Israel will TRUST in the NAME of the LORD.”
If ours is an examined faith, we should be unafraid to doubt. There is no believing without some doubting, and believing is all the stronger for understanding and resolving doubt. “If we say we are without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.” Our Father desires that we ask questions of the Holy Spirit. Reveal anything in me that dishonors God. The Holy Spirit’s conviction is a blessing. He affirms in our spirit “this is the way, walk in it” We are a spirit, and for a designated time, we occupy a body, with a mind of its own. Our spirit (soul) and mind are both invisible. The brain is not the mind. The brain is a physical thing that gets dissected in an autopsy. We are called to examine the thoughts that stream through our mind with the intent to capture, arrest, and evict all that does not honor God, or serve us. Our faith in God builds upon our personal experience with the Holy Spirit, who teaches, guides, comforts and convicts us.
As His servant, we get still to listen, and gladly obey. Moses was 80 years old when he reluctantly said yes to God’s call. Joshua was 80-85 years old when Jericho’s walls fell down. Elijah’s age at the time of Mt Carmel is unknown. The factual event is described in 2 Kings 2, where Elijah is taken up in a whirlwind, his age at the time of his ascension is unknown. Job suffered greatly before his restoration and he lived for another 140 years after God restored him. Job 42:16-17. All this to accentuate that Moses, Joshua, Elijah, and Job did not rely on their whole food diet, their 10,000+ steps per day, or peptides like we do in this generation. God continues to use old, contrite souls to do His bidding as all glory MUST be ascribed to God! It is entirely His strength that keeps me going. My weak knees, and elevated blood pressure is nothing compared to the agony Paul endured. Studying the non-God believing, gentile widow in Sidon, I found it very interesting that she said, “As the Lord, your God lives, I do not have bread..” Why did those words come out of her mouth? Because it was God who COMMANDED her to provide for Elijah, before he arrived. Likewise, I say “As the Lord, our God lives today, regardless of our sufferings, let us eat and give thanks for His ongoing lavish provision. The RENEWAL of ALL THINGS is at hand! SOON is never soon enough!
Matthew 19:26-30 Jesus looked at His disciples and said, “With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.” Peter answered Jesus, “We have left everything to follow You! What then will there be for us?” Jesus said to His tribe of followers. “Truly I tell you, at the RENEWAL of ALL THINGS, when the SON of MAN sits on HIS glorious throne, YOU who have followed ME — will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or fields for MY sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life. But MANY who are FIRST will be LAST, and many who are LAST will be FIRST.”
