For thus says the high and the exalted One who lives forever, whose name is Holy, “I dwell on a high and holy place, and also with the contrite and lowly of spirit in order to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite.” Isaiah 57:15.
Thus says the Lord, “Heaven is My throne, and the earth is My footstool. Where then is a house you could build for Me? And where is a place that I may rest? For My hand made all these things, thus all these things came into being,” declares the Lord. “But to this one I will look, to him who is humble and contrite of spirit, and who trembles at My word.” Isaiah 66:1–2.
As the Scriptures speak in both Isaiah 57:15 and 66:1–2, God dwells in the high heavens that no man can approach, but God also dwells with him who is of a contrite and humble spirit. In our Kingdom services, and in everything we do, there is a certain course we follow that is through a true humility. We have not understood this. But have you noticed that every time God deals with people, those He really reaches fall on their faces before Him. When He comes and meets them, they fall on their faces; when they come before Him, they fall on their faces—because there is a basic humility that opens a door to God, but there is a pride that He resists.
“God is opposed to the proud, but gives grace to the humble.” James 4:6b.
Let us read some Kingdom Proverbs and statements on pride, false humility, and true humility.
True humility often exists with false humility. Do you have real, true humility? Or are you afraid that your humility is false? Or do you feel you have no humility at all?
False humility is a negative aspect of pride—like a wolf in sheep’s clothing. People with false humility can appear to be so humble, but it is a put-on. The Pharisees had a false humility. Religion everywhere has a false humility to it, and yet it can be so arrogant. When God evaluates Babylon in Revelation 17 and 18, it is a proud and arrogant thing that He brings down.
False humility destroys the effective faith of true humility. If you are truly humble, the door is open to believe God for anything; but that false humility literally chops faith down.
False humility never lets you realize the greatness of God’s perfect will and His perfect commission over you. Because you do not believe in His perfect will, and you do not believe in His commission, what a deadly form of unbelief it is! False humility does not let you realize what God has said, what His commission is. It wipes it out. Face the fact that you may have reacted to things in the past only by becoming bitter, rebellious, and critical, or by becoming wiped out and withdrawing. That is a fake if there ever was one. You are not to react that way anymore. You are to believe God. You are to be humble, but your humility does not mean that you draw back with such unbelief that you wipe out everything.
Humility cannot cancel faith if it is real humility! It opens the door to faith!
True humility places no confidence in itself, or the flesh, but neither does it restrict faith in God’s promises and commission. I may be humble to the point that I put no confidence in the flesh, but that humility is not going to eliminate or restrict or hinder my faith to believe God! It is a false humility that imposes upon God the limitations that I may have accepted over myself. Can you say, “Get me out of this false humility. I will be humble; but I will also be a believer. I will be humbly believing.”
“We who are humble by choice, choosing to be humble. We gives the glory to God in everything that happens. That is the true humility.
Pride is a vampire spirit that sucks the life from us. Little do we realize that the force of arrogance that comes against us can actually take a demonic form of vampirism.
If pride is a vampire spirit that sucks the life from us, then false humility is the same deadly drain on the sons of God. Have you ever been in a spiritual battle and felt so weak and drained that you did not know what to do? It is the counteraction of devil power trying to drain you dry—a vampire spirit! But do not let that false humility drain you! It is as deadly as any vampire of any realm that you can think of.
Are you beginning to realize, “One more deliverance, one more step, and I can be rid of the unbelief and the arrogance, the pride that is really behind that phony, false humility. I am ready to really walk with God. I am ready to do anything God sets before me.”
True humility is the basis of appropriating faith. That is the ground level; that is where you start. True humility and meekness is a perfect channel of appropriation and therefore it can inherit the earth (Matthew 5:5, KJV). This is what makes it all work—to have God create in us a true humility.
False humility picks your own pockets of whatever faith and spiritual enrichment that you already have. False humility picks your own pockets, because it is really pride, which is based on a certain kind of unbelief. So while you go through the religiosity of appearing humble, it is not the humility that God honors because it is more a facade than anything could be. And so you destroy yourself with false humility; you pick your own pockets.
Pride and false humility, alike, negate or cancel the promises and the prophecies of God over us. Why does this happen? God resists the proud (James 4:6). You will not receive anything from God when you are proud.
The path to a gift is illuminated by prophecy and revelation over you. A gift is a commission with great potential for a humble bondservant who has faith that works by love. This is an involved statement, but you cannot leave any of it out. A gift is a commission with great potential in your life for a humble bondservant who has faith that works by love. It has great potential. We are emphasizing the aspects of everything that God is doing as it is related to humble faith.
The self-condemnation that is basic in false humility is the most destructive force of unbelief that exists. Self-condemnation is basic in false humility: “Oh, I’m nothing, I’m nothing.” This self-condemnation, which is basic in false humility, is the most destructive force of unbelief, because it is not believing God. It is a destructive force of unbelief.
The fear to move in God is often born of self-condemnation or false humility.
“Why don’t you move out in God?”
“Well, I’m nothing.”
“What makes you say you’re nothing? You are what God has made you.”
“Well, I don’t have anything.”
“You have what God has given you.”
False humility has to be eliminated, because we will not move into the Kingdom with a false humility. Only with a true, real humility will we make it.
Humility is an open door to faith’s effectiveness, and that is why we wash feet. If I wash your feet in true humility, your feet will walk with kings. This is true wisdom. Humility is an open door to faith’s effectiveness, and that is why we wash one another’s feet. If I humble myself to wash your feet, I am believing God for you. If I wash your feet in true humility, I am opening the door for your feet to walk with kings—because I am believing. If I wash your feet in true humility your feet will walk with kings, because I cannot be that truly humble to wash your feet without believing God to loose you to walk in everything He has for you.
Washing feet is not a matter of who can be the most humble, because then we would wind up giving a purple heart to the one who is the most humble. How proudly he would strut down the street with his purple heart of humility. That cannot be the basis. We are humble with a faith that looses one another.
Can I truly impart to you unless I am a true bondservant to help you, to serve you? Paul, a bond-servant of God, and an apostle of Jesus Christ … Titus 1:1. Servant and Apostle are tied together. Paul was serving people because he was enough of a bondservant that he said to the Corinthians: “You could reign as kings” (I Corinthians 4:8–10).
How do you know if your humility is true or false? First, if praise exalts your ego, your humility is false. Second, if condemnation or criticism destroys or puts down your faith, your humility is false. These are two opposite poles: If I praise you and your ego is exalted, your faith is false. If I criticize you and you give up faith, your faith was not real in the first place; your humility is false.
True humility is an indestructible submission to God. Submit to the Lord, and people cannot exalt you; neither can they destroy you—you are submissive to God. A dedicated human will is behind every humble heart.
Humility is the protective foxhole in combat; because then, in humility, you are really seated in the heavenly places in Christ, beyond the artillery range of Satan. When you get down in that foxhole of humility, you are not really in a foxhole at all; you are seated in the heavenly places with Christ, just short of where Satan can shoot. We read in James 4:7 that as we humble ourselves under the hand of the Lord, we resist the devil and he will flee from us. We humble ourselves to effectively resist Satan.
Humility is more than a foxhole of protection; it is something that Satan hates. Let me tell you why. Satan flees at the resistance of the humble, because Christ’s authority over Satan is totally effective through true humility.
Satan flees at the resistance of the humble, because Christ’s authority over Satan is totally effective through true humility. Humble yourself, resist the devil, and he will flee from you, because only the humble are the perfect channels of authority.
How much effort we waste and how much we spin our wheels through pride and even through false humility and self-condemnation! Let’s get rid of it and really start moving in God.
True humility is a key we are going to learn. The story of the sons of Sceva clearly shows that there is no other way.
They said to the demons, “We adjure you by Jesus, whom Paul preaches, come out.” How did those demons respond? “Jesus we know; Paul we know, but we are going to tear you apart!” (Acts 19:13–16.) That is what Satan does, because he does not yield to an arrogant command. You can come with all the right formulas—you can say, “In the name of Jesus Christ, the Lord,” but it will not necessarily work. There are no religious formulas that work apart from the humility and submission to Jesus Christ that brings His authority in full focus against Satan, in that perfect manifestation of Christ’s victory over principalities and powers. He won the victory! But we cannot manifest it in pride. We can only manifest it in humility.
Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. Therefore also God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those who are in heaven, and on earth, and under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father. Philippians 2:5–11.
And when you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us and which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having triumphed over them through Him. Colossians 2:13–15.
The like figure whereunto even baptism doth also now save us (not the putting away of the filth of the flesh, but the answer of a good conscience toward God,) by the resurrection of Jesus Christ: who is gone into heaven, and is on the right hand of God; angels and authorities and powers being made subject unto him. I Peter 3:21–22, KJV.
The greatest manifestation of authority in earth and in the heavens is found in the creatures in the book of Revelation who are prostrate before the Lord’s presence.
The rulers in the Kingdom of God are all kneelers.
The ultimate is that every knee shall bow. The humble kneel voluntarily, but the proud fall with broken legs.
Kingdom proverbs are coming and reducing everything down to the truth which people can understand and apply to their lives.
The humble can accept the reality of what God has made them to be, without a fleshly exaltation in it. If a man is proud and God speaks over him, “You are going to be an apostle of the Lord,” it could destroy him. When God brings prophecies and commissions and revelations over people, He then proceeds to devastate them. Left to their natural tendencies, a revelation would exalt them—they are not humble enough (I Corinthians 8:1–3).
The humble can accept the reality of what God has made them to be without any fleshly exaltation in it. Would you work miracles only to build your own kingdom? Would you gain a position only to lord it over others? What would God’s greatest blessings do to you? If you are humble, you can accept the reality of what God has made you without it exalting you. Do not ask God to help you be humble, without really knowing what you are praying. If you say, “Lord, make me humble,” He will make you humble. Just say, “Lord, I believe to be humble.”
The true humble are concerned about only what the Lord is. They care naught for what they are. He has to be everything.
A church will not be proud of the Word that came first to them; but they will rejoice in the Word, whether it came to them or the ends of the earth, because they are one with that Word. The humble shall hear thereof, and be glad. Psalm 34:2b, KJV.
If you have a revelation of another person, do not praise him; believe with him and for him, because praise can be a deterrent to his humble faith. But the encouragement of faith can unlock the door of miracles to him, and he can walk with God. People do not say to me, “You really preached a good sermon; you are a good preacher and a wonderful teacher of the Word. What a marvelous gift you have for Kingdom Proverbs!” They say, “My, the Word was good.” Why do they forget about me? I am glad they do, because I think we miss something when people praise us; we do not know what shackles praise can be to us. However, people can give encouragement by saying, “That was a real Living Word; we are going to walk in this Word.” It is an encouragement of faith that binds us together in a fulfillment.
In the Scriptures, flattery is associated with a whore. But humility fills the songs of Hannah and of Mary. Hannah and Mary sang that God scatters the proud, but He exalts the humble (I Samuel 2:10; Luke 1:51–52). But the whore, mentioned several times in the book of Proverbs, flatters with her lips (Proverbs 7:21). It is good to remember the things that prey upon pride and arrogance. How much of sex is related to pride? Have you ever heard that almost all of sex is in the mind? This is why it is emphasized so much in advertising. Going a step further, I think that almost all of lust is in the ego. Eliminate pride, and you will eliminate the greater area of the flesh’s domination and temptation over you. Knowing this helps us. Lord, we are going to be loosed.
The proud of this world have songs that always deal with a broken heart, but the victorious songs of the Kingdom are sung by the humble. Have you ever noticed the theme of some songs, especially in country music: “She done me wrong, and she left me …” There is a futility on some of the country and western songs. The old Blue Grass music had sounds that were sad. The Hawaiians have had sad music, too. They continually sang about things being bad. The whole world sings a song of futility because of the arrogance that is in the hearts of men. But when we really come into the humility, we will sing the songs of victory.
The proud have a false image of themselves, but the humble worship God for what He has made them. In Luke 18:9–14, we read how the Pharisee said, “God, I thank Thee that I am not as other men are, or even as this publican.” But the publican smote his breast and said, “God, be merciful to me, a sinner.” The proud have a false image of themselves, but the humble worship God for what He can make them, or what He has made them. Just because I am humble does not mean that I am going to be a beat-down nothing.
If I am humble, and I believe God, I will never discredit what He has done in me. I will not sin against the grace of God; I am not going to frustrate it. I am what I am by the grace of God.
For I am the least of the apostles, who am not fit to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain; but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I, but the grace of God with me. I Corinthians 15:9–10.
Only with humility can we have a revelation of our own sonship in God. If you are trying to work up to sonship, you are going in the wrong direction. You work down to it. Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ: down, down, down (Philippians 2:5–9). Humility is the path to sonship. How will this work with us? This principle will open the door to our services. This will open the door to our walk with God. This will make a spiritual gift a hundred times more effective than it has been. This stops the spinning of the wheels. This stops the limping. This opens the door for a great appropriation in our lives—greater than we have ever known. Only with humility can we have a revelation of our sonship.
Only the humble know who they are without stumbling. The proud are destroyed when their self-image is exposed as false. The proud can put on a veneer of what they are—a front—but they are destroyed when that is gone. The proud are destroyed when their self-image is exposed as pride, because basically pride is idolatry. This means that they worship what they want to be more than what God is.
Would you like to have a simple definition of humility? Humility is a right spiritual relationship to God. You cannot define it any other way.
The awful sin of the proud is that they banish themselves from God’s favor and they incur His resistance, because He resists the proud. This is the sin of the proud.
Before devastation, our pride made the gulf too wide for God’s hand to reach us. Now our humility has placed God’s hands under us to exalt us in due time (I Peter 5:6). Grasp this, and you will begin to understand why the devastation we went through was so important. And if you have a bitter spirit or you are critical, you were not listening to what God was trying to do. God was trying to bring a humility of spirit, so that He could lift you up and bless you and minister through you.
God’s exaltation of the humble is the only height from which you cannot fall. If you are humble, and God lifts you up, that is the only place you cannot fall from. Your humility is the guarantee that you will not fall. Lose your humility and you are in trouble.
We learn from Isaiah 57:15 and 66:2 that God dwells with him who is of a humble spirit. Everyone who wants to live in God’s neighborhood has to be humble. All of God’s neighbors are humble; and you are not going to wreck the neighborhood.
The grace of God is not manifested by groveling. The humble repent, and then they are positioned by God in His presence; but they do not grovel in self-condemnation. True humility always worships and sings before God; it does not grovel in self-condemnation.
False humility often has a partial repentance that knows no release. False humility will be the perpetual wailing in perdition, because Revelation 21:8 says that the fearful and unbelieving lead the parade of the condemned into hell. It begins to dawn on you that Satan does not have anything greater to work against you than pride or its sister, false humility.
The fearful and the unbelieving lead the parade of the condemned. The self-condemnation of false humility will never have an end. Self-condemnation can be in you because of false humility. Read the lessons on repentance in the School of Prophets series, The Gifts of the Spirit. You will see that almost everything we ever receive in the gifts of the Spirit begins with “Repent,” because humility and repentance is the climate in which God pours out His gifts. Never can we teach about the gifts of the Holy Spirit by saying, “Now you are going to be something important.”
The true, humble repentance brings a finality, a final end, to our unworthiness as His grace ends it. The true, effective repentance is in the humility; and the ineffective repentance is in the pride of the heart.
False humility digs a hole you can never climb out of. True humility digs a foxhole of immunity.
Self-condemnation digs a grave, but humble repentance opens the door of life. It is just the opposite. You could study these proverbs for years to come, because they are as potent and as rich as any proverb you have ever heard.
The determining factor of resurrection life is in our humble suffering with Him that we might reign with Him (II Timothy 2:12). The humble suffer by their voluntary identification with their Lord. They suffer with Him by choice that they might reign with Him by His choice. But the proud suffer because the Lord resists them (James 4:6).
Only the humble have a true basis before God to stand, for we all have much to be humble about. The proud have no basis before God for their pride, for at best they stand before Him in filthy rags. Adam’s fig leaves have long since withered.
Even if you do not understand all of this now, the understanding can come later; but receive the spirit of this and let your faith be a creative force of impartation. Say, “I am not going to have any pride or false humility. I will be a humble believer and walk in everything that God has ever promised—every provision, every prophecy, every revelation, every promise—I am going to have it!” To say that is not pride; that is not arrogance. Faith and humility are determined, and expressed through a dedicated will: “We come to do Thy will, O God” (Psalm 40:7–8). Only this kind of faith will say, “I will be anything that God wants to make me, and I believe for it. And no matter what He makes me, there will be no pride or arrogance operative in me.”
Do you understand that unbelief is negative faith? What do we mean by negative faith? When God gives you a Word and you say, “I don’t believe it,” actually you are saying, “I believe it is not true.” It is a negative faith: “I believe that it isn’t so!” Positive faith says, “I believe that it is so; I believe that what He has promised He is able to perform.” Unbelief says, “I do not believe it.” What this really means is, “I believe it is not true.”
If unbelief is negative faith, then pride becomes the greatest form of unbelief, because it does not doubt the truth so much as it believes in the self-image that is a lie, that is not true. If you have an unbelief that is negative faith you are believing that God’s Word is not true. Then pride becomes the greatest form of unbelief we know, because pride does not so much doubt the truth as it goes beyond that and believes in a false self-image that is a lie. Pride has to believe something that is a blatant lie. The proud do not say, “Here is God’s Word; I do not believe it.” They go beyond that and say, “Here is the image I have of myself; this I believe.” It is deadly. God help us! Let us humble ourselves and walk in the power of God. This is a key for all of us. Whether or not it is real to you now, it will have to become very real to your heart.
Creation’s detour on the road of futility ends when we reach the highway of humility. All of creation was made subject to futility. That is the detour creation is on. But the detour of futility ends when we come to the highway of humility. This begins the manifestations of the sons of God and the liberation of creation from futility (Romans 8:19–21). We are on the highway. We have caught the Kingdom freeway. When we get off of this path of futility and false humility and pride, and we get back onto one thing—humbly we walk with God—that is when we move. Leave all the phony things of false humility and religion—pass them by. You know they are phony. But this true humility is the path to the miracles. There will be a constant miracle in your life if you appropriate true humility with faith before God.
The Lord has given us something here that is going to turn loose the miracle power of God. There must be a course of impartation by which we walk in this. Let us go back to the principle of this Living Word tape, “Double Giving, Double Taking,”* and believe God with enough faith to appropriate a double portion, just the same as we believe to prophesy and loose a double portion. What are we asking for? We are believing for a complete deliverance from pride and arrogance. We are believing for that false humility to go. We are believing for a humble faith that will turn loose miracle power until we will be astonished at what God has made resident within us, and how ineffective it has been because of these things which God resists. Once the humility is in our hearts before the Lord, there will be no pride for Him to resist.
People have thought, “Oh, I don’t have any faith; maybe I don’t have enough love.” They blame themselves for a thousand things, not realizing that it comes right down to the basic arrogance of Lucifer who exalted himself above the heavens and said, “I will be like the Most High” (Isaiah 14:12–14). He came to Eve first, and then to Adam, and said, “You know that you will be like God” (Genesis 3:5–6). Then he spoke to Christ in the wilderness, “If You bow down and worship me, I will give You all the kingdoms of the earth” (Matthew 4:8–10). With Satan there is always that arrogant, proud, self-assertive thing that manifests itself over and over and over again.
The wisdom of this world is sensual, devilish—self-exaltation.
Who is wise and understanding among you? let him show by his good life his works in meekness of wisdom. But if ye have bitter jealousy and faction in your heart, glory not and lie not against the truth. This wisdom is not a wisdom that cometh down from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. For where jealousy and faction are, there is confusion and every vile deed. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without variance, without hypocrisy. James 3:13–17, ASV.
But true love does not flaunt itself, is not puffed up (I Corinthians 13:4, KJV). It is the opposite of pride or the self-abasement of false humility. And it brings us to the place where, if the flesh is in the way, we crucify it; but we believe God for His nature to come forth in us. We believe to be everything God can create us to be. And I believe you can take it right now in a double portion. You can have a breakthrough such as you have never had before. I believe it will work from this hour on. We proclaim it in the name of the Lord. We take this. Our determined faith says we will not walk one minute longer without this deliverance. We appropriate a double portion. Even if we do not understand it fully, we know that we can take it in the name of the Lord and He will write it on our hearts.
Prophecy: We overthrow the idolatry of the carnal nature. We throw it down from its throne, and we reach in to draw and appropriate the new nature—the nature of Christ that is allowed to be exalted and allowed to be lifted up in the humility of spirit. We declare that we receive the impartation that brings the new nature, which has been born of the Spirit of God, into its rightful place to exalt the Lord of Glory and exalt the Christ. We declare that this union between His Spirit and our spirit is taking place, and we are being lifted up by the grace of God. We are being brought forth by the Spirit of God into the liberty and into the freedom. We loose it upon our spirits. We receive the impartation of it. We receive the force of it in our spirits. We receive the liberation of it, and we overthrow by the grace of God the exaltation and the idolatry of the old nature.
The book of Mark tells how Christ spoke with great authority, and straightway the devils departed (Mark 1:23–27). Oversimplifying the different emphasis of each of the four Gospels, Matthew tells about the Kingdom and the King; Mark tells about the servant of the Lord; Luke tells about the Physician, the Son of Man. And when you come to John, you see that the whole picture of his Gospel is about the Son of God. Now let’s go back to Mark.
Mark is speaking about Christ the servant; and it is interesting that this Gospel speaks the most about His authority, because the humility of Christ is inseparable from the authority of Christ. We will find the Bible opening up to us as we have never seen it before. We will see how God has set before us, in the Gospels, all the patterns of the Kingdom.
We cannot read Matthew about the Kingdom of God and the King who is going to rule over it and the principles and laws of the Kingdom, without also reading Mark to see the way the Kingdom works.
We have never had the Kingdom music breakthrough because of the arrogance and the pride of musicians. When they get out of that trip, they will have harmony. If there is oneness in the musicians, they will have a harmony that comes before God and from God. The book of Job speaks about the sons of God singing at the dawn of creation (Job 38:4–7). It is going to come.
This message is an example of the flow of the Word on a new level. It is heavy, meaty, like steak; but it is also like milk. You cannot read this without also receiving a faith that says, “We are going to break through!” All the churches can be loosed simultaneously, because the Word that comes now is so powerful that they will be loosed even before they hear it. Joshua 2:24 tells us that when the children of Israel were ready to cross the Jordan River, God had already put the fear and the dread on all the nations ahead of them. And today we believe that our confidence and boldness will be an evident token to Satan of our deliverance and of his judgment, and that right soon. We believe that this is not being done in a corner. Victory is coming to the whole land.
Only conduct yourselves in a manner worthy of the gospel of Christ; so that whether I come and see you or remain absent, I may hear of you that you are standing firm in one spirit, with one mind striving together for the faith of the gospel; in no way alarmed by your opponents—which is a sign of destruction for them, but of salvation for you, and that too, from God. Philippians 1:27–28.
There will be so many aspects of this release. You say, “Well, I was praying for one thing, and you are speaking about something else.” But this is also the answer for all those other things. We do not realize that once God hits the key, then a thousand things fall before Him. This is only the beginning. It is a new era.
Let us be diligent, however, because we must realize that the boomerang principle works in the realm of spirit. The enemy will resist and try to send back his judgment; but after you receive a deliverance, let there be an insisting: “I have it! I have advanced; I have taken the hill. Now I hole in; and I am going to take the barrage, the counterattack, and I am not going to give an inch. I have taken it, and I am going to keep it in the name of the Lord.” It is dangerous, after winning the victory, to not be diligent to keep it; the enemy will try to steal it away. This is not to put fear in your heart; but we have the victory—let’s keep it. We establish our hearts. For it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace; not with meats, which have not profited them that have been occupied therein. Hebrews 13:9b. We establish ourselves for the heart to be established in the grace of God.
God will deliver His people and give a greater level of spiritual authority. We are in that process right now! Let us stand with faith to believe that our weapons are not carnal, but they are mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds (II Corinthians 10:4). On every front, whether it be the medical world, the judicial world—every realm—there must be a first-fruit victory like there was with Christ, so that the Body of Christ now will have it. He won it for us in His own body. We manifest the victory He won in His many-membered Body, standing fast in one spirit, striving together for the faith of the gospel (Philippians 1:27).
Let us believe for a breakthrough, a release. We are not wanting to win battles; we want total victory. We may face one thing after another, but let us not ever face the same thing again. We believe the promise that God made to Israel: “The Egyptians which you have seen today, you will see no more forever!” (Exodus 14:13.)
This Word marks a whole new breakthrough. These principles of the Kingdom must be expanded and become manuals in the hands of the people, because this is the way we are going to move. Thirty years ago the Lord said, “I will give you the wisdom of Solomon.” But I don’t think Solomon ever had wisdom such as is coming now, because Christ was the great One who taught by parables. Not only have I been teaching in proverbs that have been coming by the Spirit through the Lord Jesus Christ, but I believe that God will give me the ministry of parables to teach the Kingdom of God in parables as He taught. He did not teach anything without a parable. This will be the next phase of the Kingdom. We will have parables by which people will be able to understand the things of the Kingdom.
We are ready for these breakthroughs. Let’s not back off now. There has been an assault on the people’s finances, but God has the wisdom. The power to get wealth comes from the Lord (Deuteronomy 8:18). He will not let His people be bankrupt and destroyed financially; He will deliver them. God has tested us all to see if we will be faithful stewards. Our faithfulness is no longer an issue. We know the secrets of our own heart, and we know what we would do if we had money; we know what we did with it when any measure of it came to us. We trust God that He has worked a perfect work in us and He can trust us with a deliverance. Whether it is in the legal realm, the physical realm, the financial realm, or other realms, we are believing to go ahead.
Every one of us is a humble vessel, chosen of God to manifest His will. We believe for the Kingdom schools, for education that will come as much by impartation as well as by any kind of teaching we have ever known. We believe for people to become what they never would have been, what they never were; but by the grace of God, He will lay upon His lowliest ones the magnificent gifts of His grace. His manifold wisdom will be manifested through the Church to the principalities and powers (Ephesians 3:10).
Be ready, because God will not use only one or two vessels. His glory He will not share with another, so this will all be done through a manifold, many-membered Body in which everyone will be a participant. We will all be in it! Let’s renounce our independence and individuality as much as we renounce pride and false humility.
Let’s rebuke also the fears that come in the night, from our past conditioning that comes up from some psychic level or memories, and believe we will never be wiped out by the attack of the enemy, by the fiery darts of the wicked one. We take faith as a shield of God to quench the fiery darts (Ephesians 6:16). Let us be the people willing to walk with God, determined in our faith that He will be manifested and glorified in us.
Humility cannot cancel faith; it opens the door to effective faith.
The self-condemnation that is basic in false humility is the most destructive force of unbelief that exists.
Satan flees at the resistance of the humble, because Christ’s authority over Satan is totally effective through true humility.
The true humble are concerned about what our Lord is, more than about what they are not.
God’s exaltation of the humble is the only height from which you cannot fall.
Creation’s detour on the road of futility ends when we reach the highway of humility.