Walking in Humility

Humility is the opposite of pride. All of us have a choice - either we walk in humility or we walk in pride. But God hates pride and in fact He has appointed a day when He shall come upon everything that is lifted up!

Isaiah said, "The lofty looks of man shell be humbled, the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day. For that day of the Lord of hosts shall come upon everything proud and lofty, upon everything lifted up - and it shall be brought low. The loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be brought low. The Lord alone will be exalted in that day, ..." (Isaiah 2:11, 12, 17, NKJV).

By the grace and mercy of God before that day comes He will continue to resist pride in you life and my life. A spiritual principle is: If you do not humiliate pride, pride will humiliate you. But if you let pride to humiliate you, you will begin to lose the anointing and lose the hand of God in your life.

Greatest place of freedom

I believe the greatest place of freedom that a Christian can be in is, when he is in the place where he is willing to let anyone knows anything about him. If I am willing to come to the place in God and let the light of God exposes the inner thought of my heart then I will find myself walking in the light and at the same time walking in humility. Humility is the willingness to be know for who you are.

On the other hand, if I am not willing to open any area of my heart that God asked me to, then there is pride in my life. There is too much pride in the body of Christ. In a sense it is true what many people say about Christians - They say there are far too many hypocrites in the Church. Christians come to Church, they put on a "holy facade" in both speech and action. They are actually people who are full of pride.

Pride is the unwillingness to be known for who you are - the very opposite of humility. Contrary to what most people believed, when you go against your feelings of fear, and begin to walk in the light, and you begin to share with people what is in your heart, you are going to have more friends, more love, more freedom and more fellowship than you ever had before.

The Scripture says, there is going to be a day when everything is going to be made known:

Jesus said, "For nothing is secret that will not be revealed, nor anything hidden that will not be known and come to light" (Luke 8:17, NKJV).

Therefore, to humble youself is a good preparation for the time when everything is going to be know about your life.

Both James and Peter said, "God resists the pround, but gives grace to the humble" (James 4:6; 1 Peter 5:5).

So, if we are not embracing humility then we will miss out a lot of God's grace - a very hard truth. On the other hand, when we embrace humility, when we confess and repent over the pride of our lives, we will experience revival in our Local Church. And this will lead to greater revival in our city and our nation.


James said, "Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up" (James 4:10, emphasis added).


The phrase "He will lift you up" means "He will change you from the condition of a penitent child to a forgiven child; He will wipe away your tears; He will remove the sadness of your heart, fill you with joy and clothe you with the garment of salvation".


James echoed what Jesus said earlier, "And whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted" (Matt. 23:12).


James also said, "And the prayer of faith will save the sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Confess you trespasses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The effective, fervent prayer of a righteous man avails much" (James 5:15, 16, NKJV).

Here are some statements of truth:


1. Unless believers are walking in humility and walking in the light they will not be able to do what the above Scriptures require them to do - to confess their trespasses and wrong-doing to one another and to pray for one another.


2. The phrase "confess your trespasses to one another" does not mean that Christians are to indulge in indiscriminate confessions in public or even in private confessions. Believers are to confess their trespasses or their faults only that they may pray for one another. There is no place for pride when you are on your knees.


3. Confession of sin is closely related to those who are sick and such confession would contribute to the restoration to health.


Fellowship and Unity in God


Fellowship in God


We can only come into fellowship in God when we walk in the light and we can only walk in the light when we walk in humility. Fellowship is living and walking in the light and in humility among God's people which also means baring our hearts with one another; bearing one another's burdens, and so fulfilling the law of Christ (Gal. 6:2).


It is important to note that darkness and light cannot fellowship together. That is the reason why believers cannot fellowship with unbelievers. We can have friendship and not fellowship with unbelievers. If we want to have fellowship with God who is light, we ourselves must walk in the light.


"If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin" (1 John 1:6, 7, emphasis added).


Therefore the condition for genuine Christian fellowship with one another is that we all walk in the light as He is in the light. When we continue to walk in the light the blood of Jesus continues to cleanse us from all sin.


Christian unity and fellowship


One of the things the world cannot create is genuine unity - only the Sprit of God can created unity.


Paul said, "I, therefore the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you to walk worthy of the calling with which you were called, with all lowliness and gentleness, with longsuffering, bearing with one another in love, endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace" (Eph. 4:1 - 3, emphasis added).


"Lowliness and gentleness" speaks of humility.


Paul said, "God is faith, by whom you are called into the fellowship of His Son, Jesus Christ our Lord" (1 Cor. 1:9, emphasis added).


The word "fellowship" comes from the Greek word "koninonia" which means having things in common, partnership and sharing things together. This is one of the important key concepts of the New Testament Christianity.


Paul was writing to believers in the Church at Corinth. When he said "you are" he did not refer to individual persons but he referred to the entire Church. When all believers come into fellowship with the Lord Jesus Christ they come into common sharing with the Lord as well as common sharing with one another. In other words, believers are to participate with Christ and become partakers with Him and with one another in all things in Christ.


Some of the things that Christians are expected to participate with Christ are:


1. In His Spirit - "But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His" (Romans 8:9).


2. In His trials and sufferings, being subjected to temptations and trials similar to His - "Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you, but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ's sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy" (1 Peter 4:12, 13, emphasis added).


Paul said, "... that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, if, by any means, I may attain to resurrection from the dead" (Phil. 3:10, 11, emphasis added).


3. In His heirship - "The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are Children of God, and if children, then heirs - heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together" (Romans 8:16, 17, emphasis added).


4. In His triumph in the resurrection and future glory - "Assuredly I say to you, that in the regeneration, when the Son of Man sits on the throne of His glory, you who have followed Me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel" (Matt. 19:28).


Yes, Jesus was speaking to the 12 apostles who were all Jewish, but He also spoke to the end-time Church with Gentile believers:


"To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne. As I also overcome and sat down with My Father on His throne" (Rev. 3:21).


Fellowship brings forth spiritual birth


Genuine Christian fellowhip is coming together to enjoy Jesus Christ, to worship Him, to wait upon Him and to share Him together. Out of that fellowship of sharing and praying, the Holy Spirit will bring forth a spiritual birth even in a Local Church committee meeting!


The general spiritual principle is, until God's people come together to fellowship there is no genuine spritual birth. This can be illustrated by the birth of the Church. Most Bible teachers say the Church was brought forth on the Day of Pentecost. But, I rather believe that the Church was actually brought forth during a prayer meeting preceded the Day of Pentecost!


"These all continued with one accord in prayer and supplication, with the women and Mary the mother Jesus, and with His brothers" (Acts 1:14, emphasis added).


There were 120 believers who spent 10 days of prayer and supplication with one accord. That was true fellowship between believers. Notice that fellowship always includes prayer. From then until now the only place of spiritual birth in the Church is the place of fellowship.


Let us look at another example of a spiritual birth that was brought forth by fellowship. At the beginning of the first missionary assignment of the Church (Acts 13:1 - 3), a group of believers including prophets and teachers, were fellowshipping in the Church at Antioch. They were having fellowship with the Lord, ministering to Him, fellowshipping with one another, and out of that came forth a divine purpose.


The Holy Spirit said, "Now separate to Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them" (Acts 13:2).


This assignment was not born out of a committee meeting or out of a program, but out of fellowship. The end result was that they accomplished the purpose of God as recorded at the end of Acts 14.


"From there they sailed to Antioch, where they had been commended to the grace of God for the work which they had completed" (Acts 14:26).


They have got the job done because it was born of the Spirit and not out of the flesh like many of our Local Church programs and projects!


John said, "Whatever is born of God overcomes the world" (1 John 5:4).


What is born of God must succeed and cannot fail. What is born of God cannot be touched or defeated by Satan!