From
the Bible, we see that Jesus is referred to as both
the Lion of Judah and the Lamb upon the throne. Jesus
has both the strong, conquering nature of a lion as
well as the meek, humble nature of a lamb. He says,
"Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden,
and I will give you rest. 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. For my yoke is easy
and my burden is light" (Matt 11:28-30).
Jesus calls this the rest of faith. He asks for us to
be like Him, because He is gentle and lowly at heart.
To be "lowly at heart" means to walk in humility,
contrition and meekness. Many times we mistake meekness
for weakness, but meekness is actually strength. It
was the meek, lowly and humble One who created the heavens
and the earth.
Understand that humility is our gateway to success.
The Bible says, "Blessed are the meek, for they
shall inherit the earth" (Matt 5:5). Is there anything
bigger than inheriting the whole earth? No! And the
Bible says that those with humility will inherit the
earth. If we can understand that, we will have a realistic
view of life, because we will understand what we can
do and what we cannot do. None of us were born perfectly
humble; we still have a fleshly nature that acts up
every once in a while. Humility is something we need
to be taught. It is not an easy path to walk, but the
Holy Spirit will help us.
Even the 12 disciples were not perfect; they had all
kinds of problems. Peter's words created great trouble
for him. James and John, the sons of thunder, wanted
to call down fire on an entire city. That's certainly
not being meek and mild. Melancholic Thomas had impulsive
emotions instead of faith. Then, there is Philip, who
simply had no clue, asking to see the Father even after
being with Jesus for over three years! They were not
perfect people, but they ultimately achieved great things
for the kingdom because they had a perfect Messiah.
Some people thought Paul was arrogant when he said he
was an apostle, sent not from men but from God. Some
people will think the same about you, especially if
you have any form of success in your life. These are
the envious "leeches," who think it's their
job to keep you humble by sucking the "blood"
out of you. You need to get rid of them because humility
is not to put yourself down, but to understand where
you come from, what has really happened in your life
and Who made it all happen.
To discover what true humility is, we must look at its
opposite:
Pride.
PRIDE EXALTS SELF
"These six things the Lord hates, yes, seven are
an abomination to Him: A proud look, a lying tongue,
hands that shed innocent blood" (Prov. 6:16-17).
God resists and pushes away all who has pride. Looking
into the Bible, we read that even before man existed,
the angels were created. One third of them fell away
because they chose to follow a usurper, Lucifer. The
Bible recounts Lucifer's pride, "For you have said
in your heart: 'I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt
my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on
the mount of the congregation on the farthest sides
of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the
clouds, I will be like the Most High'" (Is. 14:13).
Lucifer said, "I want to be something higher, I
want to come into the center, run the show and have
everyone look at me. I am not content merely to lead
God's choir of a bunch of angels. I want to sit on His
throne." That was the moment when pride started
to fill the universe.
God hates pride because pride takes a meek, mild, innocent
creature and turns it into a wild beast. Pride takes
a loving person and makes him into a cold, calculative
and dominating personality that is scheming all the
time. This person smiles to get his way and uses others
to achieve his plots and plans. He wants to always be
in charge and always have his way. That is the spirit
of Satan.
Pride always seeks to alleviate self,
ending in disaster. Humility lowers self, resulting
in exaltation.
Pride centers everything upon self and uses everybody
else to elevate self. Pride is in the business of self-exaltation,
and that is exactly what the devil wants. Pride always
seeks to rob God and others of their glory, trying instead
to capture that glory to glorify self. It builds a fortress
around personal passions, desires and ambitions. No
one gets into that fortress; if anyone tries, they will
be killed. Consider Saul, when he did not have the anointing
anymore. He was all ready to kill in order to keep his
throne. Because he could no longer humble himself, God
could not use him anymore. Thus, pride destroys your
life and your destiny in God.
All of us will sometime or another be hit with negative
emotions such as anger, impatience, fear, etc., including
pride. If we do not fight them, it means we willingly
allow them into our lives. These negative emotions will
then start to get into our personality, and subsequently
will be expressed in our behavior. That is what the
Lord cannot stand—when He sees His own children
being influenced by the traits and nature of the evil
one.
GOD RESISTS THE PROUD
In the Garden of Eden, the devil started working in
the hearts of Adam and Eve, twisting the Word of the
Lord to suit his evil plan. At the moment when we allow
our selfish greed to push our convictions back just
a little (as it did with Eve), the devil will pounce
in for the kill. Pride killed Eve, because she thought
she could disobey God and get away with it. Pride says,
"I can fix this sin and make it look good.
God will understand. I will come through this somehow."
Pride is depending upon self, defending self, building
upon self and living for self.
The devil will deceive us and tell us that the more
arrogant we are, the stronger we are. Jesus says that
is the broad way that leads to destruction. The truth
is, we don't have all the answers to life; so we should
just be who we really are—believers who are wholly
dependent on the Lord. The Bible calls this being
"poor
in the spirit." When we say or believe that
we know exactly what to do, it's a form of false autonomy.
Our Father wants to lead us according to His infinite
wisdom, to bless and anoint us, but He can't if we insist
erroneously that we "know it all."
The Bible also instructs us, "Likewise you younger
people, submit yourselves to your elders. Yes, all of
you be submissive to each other, and be clothed with
humility" (1 Pet. 5:5). Humility makes it easy
for us to submit. To submit means to be pliable and
not insist on our own ways or insist on our ideas all
the time. Humility is the gateway to success. It allows
us to receive His yoke, which is easy, and His burden,
which is light. That does not mean never having to face
problems or opposition, but that there is an ease to
life. It is called the peace of God that passes all
understanding, and Jesus said that is for the humble.
This doesn't mean we become sloppy or lazy. It just
means our attitude gets changed by the Lord and we are
no longer hung up on whether people see us perform or
what they think of us. The truth is, there is pride
behind fear. We think, "I am afraid to fail. If
I fail, people will look at me and think that I am no
good; I want to be good and be proud that I am good."
That has to be broken off your life, and you break it
by killing it. Much of the entire Bible revolves around
"killing" and "dying." In the Bible,
it says that everyday in the temple, offerings are killed
and brought before the Lord. There are things in our
lives we don't toy around with; we have to kill them
and offer them to the Lord. As a priest in God's kingdom,
you are to constantly offer up sacrifices before the
Lord. When you kill something, it dies. The Bible declares
that we have died with Christ. Dead people do not react
or fight back. Dead men do not hear insults, and they
do not have any fear.
We need to get rid of the oversensitivity in our lives,
the fear of rejection and the need to be assured all
the time. Humility is not going around thinking that
we are nothing; Jesus definitely did not die for "nothing"!
Of course, internalizing all this is easier said than
done. That is why this is a continual walk with the
Lord, who will teach us, train us and help us in His
truths. Humility is reacting only to the truth, while
pride is reacting and acting on a lie. When you react
only to the truth that the Holy Spirit brings into your
life, it will set you free and make you stronger.
