Elusive Humility

Acts 20:19 - Serving the Lord with all humility…

Humility. There, I’ve said it, but where is it? Here we go saying we are walking in humility and when someone says something about us we feel indignation rise up inside so whatever it was we were walking in it wasn’t humility.

Humility is unattractive to the flesh and by its nature it will stand on the sidelines and never get called into the game. It is many times treated like an illegal alien and it is hard to embrace. It is the indispensable ingredient in pleasing God and it is at the very heart of Christlikeness. There are many reasons why humility is so often not even considered. Humility is painful to the flesh which is consumed with self image and self esteem. Many times humility will force you to accept and embrace shame.

There are no major conferences on humility because it is repulsive and runs contrary to the course of this world. Humility attracts God while pride repels Him and to us it is the opposite. We love accolades and we hate criticism. We will appear humble when praised but we will respond with venom when maligned. We will construct humility in the prayer closet but tear it down as soon as we leave God’s presence, but make no mistake, God is not fooled.

So humility is a rare and fleeting commodity. Like a hot potato very few will dare to hold its uncomfortable heat in their own hands. Now if you do not want to be challenged by God’s Spirit then you are free to exit this post now because what I am going to share will be uncomfortable and God willing convicting and ultimately crucifying to the flesh. Several times I have been asked not to comment on some blogs because I feel that God would have me challenge us not always them. Who are them? It is the purpose driven, seeker friendly, and emergent church movements that have cast off the Word of God and have gone their own way. They deserve to be exposed and rebuked and sometimes with bold and even caustic language. I wrote a post several months ago entitled Spiritual Pedophiles and I stand by that metaphor. So I am not saying that we should never have the mantle of the fearless prophet, no, I am saying that we are infinitely lacking in the area of the shining God’s exposing and convicting light upon us.

It is difficult to rebuke and correct without over time developing a veneer of pride and fleshly indignation. I know from personal experience that while I hold the standard of God’s Word to others, however true, I can easily ignore that same Word that is attempting to expose the thoughts and intents of my own heart. I have no corner on the truth, it is God’s alone and I am an unprofitable servant. It remains an invisible and insidious weight that can so easily beset us when we have the warrior spirit and yet we reject the suffering servant spirit. Our Lord embraced the shame. Oh my, what a thought…He who was without sin became obedient to shame, and mocking, and rejection, and betrayal, and scourging, and spit, and thorns, and yes even death, the death of a barbaric cross. He, for the joy that was set before Him, embraced and endured it all, for us. And He has asked us to do the same for Him. Selah.

Go ahead and search the watchman blogs and see how many will consistently, if ever, post an article about their own horrible sin. How many speak in bold and forceful tones to their own camp? Oh yes, the Warren, MacLaren, Bell, and all the usual suspects will be whipped beyond recognition and with that we are all content. We don’t need serious correction, oh no, just a slight course correction will do for us. Rick Warren gets a cat-o-nine tails but for us, well, a little and pleasant rebuke. As God’s children we sometimes and maybe often need a cleansing via repentance especially when some of us have been given the awesome responsibility of speaking for God against his enemies. If there ever was good soil for a harvest of pride it is that garden.

And if you listen closely you can hear the hoof beats of the golden calves that are being guided around the evangelical as well as the orthodox world. Is it not obvious that sometimes we hold certain men in such high esteem that it becomes a level of idolatry? I do not care what camp you are in, that calf is well fed in every theological stall. And in many arenas it is very difficult to have a humble discussion about reformed or Arminian theology without it getting nasty and self righteous. And if one day you get to heaven and discover that your theology was completely correct on all points, well, you will also discover that is was all by grace and the instruction of God’s Spirit and you never had any basis for pride or indignation.

Another pyrite (fool's gold) calf that is well purchased at the orthodox market is our calling. Listen as the Apostle Paul says “I am what I am by the grace of God’. Hear him call himself “the least of all the apostles”. Again he says “we are the off scouring of the earth”. “The chief of all sinners”, says Paul. And yet Paul was the Apostle who wrote most of the New Testament and studied under Christ Himself.

“I am a watchman for God”, you say. Let me bring all of us down a peg, God does not need you or me. We are insignificant and only used by God’s mercy and grace. So you are a watchman, fine, but who watches you? As we go plundering the enemies camp and return to mutual congratulations, who plunders the flesh in your tent? Oh we are such weary warriors because we have argued for God, well that smacks of self indulgence and pride. You want to see real warriors, study the martyrs. Listen to the cries of the Pakistani family whose father was slain for his faith right before their very eyes. Hear the tesimony of faithful missionaries who left this splendor and served on fields with little harvest and no earthly recognition. They are warriors.

Brothers and sisters, we live in a critical time and God is calling us out of Babylon and into the truth of His Word. We will continue to speak boldly about the anti-christ spirit that continues to harvest millions, but we must more than ever listen to the correcting voice of the Spirit toward us. Truth without humility is pride and it obscures much of the essence of that truth. God’s Word is the glorious foundation, but the vessel counts. Let us beg God for his power which can only fill an empty vessel.

So the Spirit’s message to us is “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus.”

What mind? Kneel down and lift up your head. Before you is the image of an innocent man, nailed to a cross and bleeding profusely. He has been abandoned by His friends and He hangs almost naked before His earthly mother and the entire world. He has already assured that this shame will be recorded so His humiliation can be documented throughout history. Dried spit and a bloody beard adorns His face. Listen and you can hear the religious leaders mock him. The soldiers treat Him like a criminal and in the spirit world demons rejoice at His predicament. He is a poor and pathetic figure paying the price for others, others who do not even want Him. Mere words can never do justice to this humility.

So go ahead and take your own cross and nail your own hands and feet on that cross. Embrace the shame, endure the mocking, forgive your tormentors, feel the pain, and speak the truth boldly through parched and bloody lips. Sound out the truth through lungs that labor to breathe. And before you can receive resurrection power, you must die. And no matter what we speak, be it reciting actual verses from the Bible, if we are any part of it, if we draw any self congratulations, if our flesh has enjoyed the correcting of others, well, then it is an abomination in the nostrils of the God we purport to speak for. And when you pick up the Sword of the Spirit and it isn't covered with your own blood and sharpened on your own flesh than it will be dull.

It all must be the Spirit of God who speaks of Christ and not Himself. Let us all not only engage the enemy, let us embrace humility which, contrary to popular belief, has become very elusive.

Lord, we are nothing before you except that which you have graciously granted to us. We can only understand by your Spirit and we can only communicate by that same Spirit. And if at the end I have stood strong and have spoken your Word I still do not deserve any praise. Let it all go to You.

I humble myself before Your Gracious Splendor, and as an unprofitable servant, I worship You and You alone…

Forever.