Humility, part of the new nature in us
As part of the nature we inherited from Jesus when we became born again, humility is one of the warmest parts. Jesus was humble, gentle and thoughtful and kind. He was modest in his actions and deeds, and thought of others first. He rejected nor judged no one, as he said in John-3- I did not come to judge the world but to save it; Jesus could have quite easily judged the world and even condemned it, but he didn’t he came to put aside his godliness, and became a man being subjected to the same temptations that we as human beings have to face on a daily basis.
He could have walked the earth with godly honour, with head held high looking down on those beneath him, but he did not do that, he chose, and note I said chose, to humble himself, taking the guise of man, putting aside his nature and power as God. He chose to walk among us to feel what we feel to experience what positive and negative things we as human beings feel, he wanted to understand what it was like to be human, so he put aside his Godliness and became the same as us, an ordinary human being; who only could do great miracles through the same Holy Spiritthatwenowhave.Hehumbled himself,took on alowly position in life,going from being God to being human that is great humility.
If you think Jesus walked about healing and delivering people because he was God you are wrong; he put his godliness aside and became a man like me and you, flesh and blood.
Jesus went to the toilet just like us, he ate his fish and bread, like us, he even took a drink, just like us. Thinking about Jesus like this makes him more accessible more approachable. Do you think that he just ate and drank and saved it all up somewhere supernaturally inside him? No he went to the toilet just like us.
Jesus told his disciples to follow him and they did. When we were young we played a game called, “follow the leader,” everything the leader done we followed exactly to a T. If the leader walked funny, we walked funny, if he jumped up and down we did the same, we followed closely his every move, and this is what God wants us to do with our lives follow Jesus, our leader and instructor.
God wants us to humble ourselves! He expects us to do this ourselves, he wants us to live our lives as if we were Jesus himself; living in love, walking in love and talking in love, sacrificing ourselves for the betterment of others. This is not an easy task but we do have Jesus living in us, and the Holy Spirit helping us Humility is not an easy thing, some people are blessed in these ways, its part of their nature, but the majority of us are not, it’s something we have to work at. Most people have selfishness in them, they see to themselves first.
Jesus himself said in; Matthew-11-29-“take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls, for my yoke is easy and my burden light.” Jesus is telling us the only to follow him in everything, and that is simply by asking him to give you his yoke, {burden}.
Humility opens the door to God’s heart.
James-4-5 that is why scripture says; “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.
I don’t know about you but I need all the grace I can get from God, and the more he wishes to pour out on me the more I will keep asking for it; for without grace I can do nothing. I don’t
write these books under my own intelligence or cleverness because I had no education for a start, I missed three years off school due to illness, but this keeps me humble because I know I write under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and I know the difference between what I write and what the Holy Spirit gives me, what I write, I usually scrap when I proof read my book, I can feel the difference between grace and my effort, and grace wins each time. Jesus said in Matthew -11-29- for I am gentle, and humble in heart; here he is telling us to place the mantle of his nature over ourselves every day. Can I be gentle? Yes for I have the nature of Christ Jesus within me when I became born again, but I have to work at releasing that nature within me, always, because I grew up a very selfish person, and put myself first. I remember one time when I was about 15 and I just got a bag of sweets and when I came home
I went straight upstairs to my bedroom to eat my sweets, my sister Sue was upstairs and she heard me rattle my bag of sweets and asked me for one and I lied and said It was only an empty bag in my pocket; the nature of Jesus? I don’t think so.
I always took the best cuts of meat for myself when serving my eight children their dinner, Rose on the other hand gave her meat to the kids, and took little, I would usually get her food when she finished before the kids could ask. I was a very selfish person, even when I became a Christian I was still very selfish, I looked after my own interests first and foremost; leaving Rose sitting on her own at meetings and places where we ministered I would be talking to people about how wonderful I was, {that’s probably what I was really doing} sharing scripture and healing them, and poor Rose sat there on her own, as I bragged about God. That wasn’t humility, it was pride and severe pride I might add, I was the most selfish person on the planet; everything was me, me, me, or as Rose would say to me, It was I, I, I, she heard me proclaim all those years.
I would think I could give a better sermon than the speaker or priest, and I could heal better than the pastor or minister, or priest or church leader. There was never a more arrogant person than myself, I had the nature of Jesus within me but I sure wasn’t releasing it, it would only get in the way of my pride.
The holy nature of gentle Jesus was within my reach but I was too important to me to reach in and release it. I was spiritually my own worst enemy; I had the power inside of me to heal and deliver anyone and I was too wrapped up in myself to realise that. God had told me some awesome things regarding who I am in Christ, and I listened for a while but then got wrapped up in me again and forgot about trying to be a better person. Don’t get me wrong there were times when I tried to be a better more loving thoughtful person especially when Rose pointed out how selfish I was, and I could see I was being selfish, but tried to excuse myself for my actions, sometimes shouting her down or quoting scripture at her, or saying she was blocking God from working through me, and secretly I resented her, because she was right. Rose has the opposite nature of me, she is gentle of heart, is very soft and tender, and loving, she puts me in front of her all the time, right up to this present moment, she is always asking, are you ok? Do you want to watch something else, as she hears me sigh loudly about what she is enjoying on TV? And I still would be selfish at times, not as often as I used to, would say this show is rubbish or knock it in some way and she would turn over to watch what I liked. Rose has the gentle humble nature of Jesus in her and showing through her, I unfortunately have to work hard at being a better person, and I am like most men, selfish.
Now I sense God saying to me enough is enough, it’s time to throw off the rotten old nature and cloth myself with the new nature within me. It is time to put aside my-self seeking ways, and become more and more like Christ Jesus. I am 62 years old and I wasted a lot of golden
opportunities to be a tremendous witness for Christ, and would dearly love to be able to change that; you on the other hand are young probably, and you can change quicker than I by learning from my mistakes. Stop being a selfish person like Satan, instead put on the nature of Gentle Jesus putting everyone else first in your life. My biggest problem was I didn’t think first, I acted first and usually on my own behalf. I have had many opportunities to be a witness for Christ and my selfishness destroyed that opportunity, I talked more than I should have, over talked boring the pants off of people. Now I know when I talk too much, I sense it inside me and try to get away as quick as I can before I blab about me, me, me again.
Matthew-11-29-“take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart.
Even at 62 I can learn because I have the grace of God on me just like you who are born again. With grace I can change become more like Christ, become gentle and meek, thinking of others as better than me, or equal to me. I know now not to lord it over people with scripture quotations after scripture quotation, boring them to death nearly. I know my weakness now, and am still learning more and more as the Holy Spirit reveals it to me; I know it is only God’s grace in me that heals people, it is his grace in me that shows me scripture with a deeper understanding, so that in turn I can share that scripture with others. If I don’t humble myself under the hand of God he will do it for me and I will not like that very much as it will be so humiliating. God is giving me chance after chance to change, he is not going to change me, simply because change is within me, it is Jesus himself living within me, it is his nature that I have dwelling inside. My old nature belonged to the devil and he used it for his selfish purposes now I am going to take that back from him and begin to glorify God my Father with the new nature I put on. Prayer; Lord Jesus please forgive me for all the times I refused to obey your nature within me and I opted for my selfish nature and missed your blessing for me and for others, help me now by gracing me with your amazing grace which builds up and not destroys, to adopt your gentle thoughtful, loving, caring nature as my own for your glory and not for mine. Amen
One last thought; I know I could have quoted scripture after scripture to you, but I know what I said will bring about change in you if you are wise, learn from my mistakes. Don’t be arrogant, be humble and study God’s word in all areas of the new nature of Christ within us, then cloth yourself with the new nature. It’s worth it to change quickly rather thanspendyearsinfrustrationtryingtobetteryourselflikeIdid.Graceiswhatyouneed, go for it!