Grace to the Humble

One of the most amazing characteristics of Jesus as revealed in His life on earth as the Son of Man is the ability to live in such deep humility. Although the Bible records the temptations of the devil towards Jesus in Matthew and Luke chapter four, the reality was, His three years in ministry was a series of temptations almost daily. We see this as revealed in Luke 4:13, "Now when the devil had ended every temptation, he departed from Him until an opportune time." The devil sought opportunity after opportunity to work at discrediting Jesus, yet Jesus humbly walked in pure grace. (John 1:17)  

So, what is this grace that Jesus walked in? Grace is defined as, divine favor; good will; kindness; the free unmerited love and favor of God; the spring and source of all the benefits men receive from God; divine influence; God’s strength, ability or energy at work in the believer to do His will; the influence of the Holy Spirit in renewing the heart and restraining from sin. We see this defined in the scriptures, "For it is [not your strength, but it is] God who is effectively at work in you, both to will and to work [that is, strengthening, energizing, and creating in you the longing and the ability to fulfill your purpose] for His good pleasure." (Philippians 2:13 AMP) "Now to Him who is able to [carry out His purpose and] do superabundantly more than all that we dare ask or think [infinitely beyond our greatest prayers, hopes, or dreams], according to His power that is at work within us." (Ephesians 3:20 AMP)  

Wow, think about that for a moment. The living God is effectively at work in every believer, our recreated spirit, strengthening, energizing, and creating in us the desire and the ability to do His will for His good pleasure. This is the amazing grace that Jesus walked in and we can too! Now, let us look at the word humble. Humble or humility is defined as, Lowly; modest; meek; submissive; opposed to proud (pride), haughty, arrogant or assuming; to mortify; to make humble or lowly in mind; to be meek and submissive to the divine will; freedom from pride and arrogance; humbleness of mind; act of submission. The following are some scriptures reveal the contrast between humility and pride...

"Though the Lord is exalted, He regards the lowly [and invites them into His fellowship]; But the proud and haughty He knows from a distance." (Psalm 138:6 AMP)..."A man’s pride and sense of self-importance will bring him down, But he who has a humble spirit will obtain honor." (Proverbs 29:23 AMP)..."Whoever exalts himself shall be humbled; and whoever humbles himself shall be raised to honor." (Matthew 23:12 AMP)..."But He gives us more and more grace [through the power of the Holy Spirit to defy sin and live an obedient life that reflects both our faith and our gratitude for our salvation]. Therefore, it says, “God is opposed to the proud and haughty, but [continually] gives [the gift of] grace to the humble [who turn away from self-righteousness]." (James 4:6 AMP)... "Likewise, you younger men [of lesser rank and experience], be subject to your elders [seek their counsel]; and all of you, clothe yourselves with humility toward one another [tie on the servant’s apron], for God is opposed to the proud [the disdainful, the presumptuous, and He defeats them], but He gives grace to the humble." (1 Peter 5:5 AMP) 

As we can clearly see, it is very important that believers desire to live the life of Jesus not only in His teachings and actions (miracles, signs and wonders), but also in His humble character. This is the place where God can manifest His great grace in our lives where we can move in miracles, signs and wonders. When looking at the lives of the twelve disciples, we see how Jesus exposed their true character of pride and selfishness to bring them to the place of humility where grace could abound in their lives.  Let us look at a few of the incidences, revealed in the scriptures, where we see in the lives of the twelve disciples the lack of the grace of humility. 

Once they had been disputing which of them should be the greatest. (Luke 9:46-48) Another time the mother of the sons of Zebedee asked Jesus for the seats on His right hand and on His left hand for her sons. (Matthew 20:20-23) Then, at the Last Supper, there was again a contention concerning who should be the greatest. (Luke 22:24-27) Not that there were not moments when they humbled themselves before the Lord. For example it was Peter who cried out to the Lord, "Depart from me, O Lord, for I am a sinful man." (Luke 5:8) We also see the disciples humble themselves when they fell down and worshiped Jesus when He spoke "peace" which stilled the storm. (Mark 4:35-41) However, as we see in the examples above, such occasional expressions of humility were far and few, which had often given way to their natural and spontaneous expression of the power of self. Like the disciples, though they lived with Jesus for three years, many believers today respond in the same manner. Although there may be an earnest and active religion in one’s life, for many, humility is still sadly lacking. 

We see in the disciples a fervent attachment to Jesus; the Father revealing to them that Jesus was in fact the Christ, (Matthew 16:16-17); we also observe, they believed in Him, they loved Him, they obeyed His commandments; they had forsaken all to follow Him. (Matthew 19:27) When others went back, turned away from Him, (John 6:66), they continued to walk with Him to the point that they were ready to die with Him. (John 11:16) But deep down there was a dark power, the existence of a hideous nature of which they were hardly conscious, which had to be slain and cast out. It is even so for many today. 

We may find professors, ministers, various Christian workers, missionaries, teachers, etc., in whom the gifts of the Spirit are many and manifest, and who are the channels of blessing to multitudes, but of whom, when the testing time comes, it becomes a painful reality that the grace of humility is scarcely seen. We can all agree, humility is one of the chief and the highest graces yet one of the most difficult to attain. Although this may be true, walking in humility must become one of our first and highest efforts. We must permit the Holy Spirit to have His way in us causing us to realize more and more every moment of every day that we are partakers of the indwelling Christ, and He lives within us. (1 John 4:4) 

For three years the disciples had been in the training school of Jesus. He had told them what the most important lesson was, "Learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly in heart." (Matthew 11:28-29) Time after time He had spoken to them, to the Pharisees, to the multitude, of humility as the only path to the glory of God. (Matthew 18:1-5) He had not only lived before them as the Lamb of God in His divine humility, He had more than once unfolded to them the inner most secret of His life, "The Son of Man came not to be served, but so serve" (Matthew 20:28). He had washed the disciples feet, and told them they were to follow His example, (John 13:1-17), and yet, as mentioned above, at the Last Supper where this took place there was still the contention as to who should be greatest. 

It is only by the indwelling of Christ (the Holy Spirit) in His divine humility that we become truly humble. The pride that we deal with came by way of the fall, from Adam. Pride is a part of our old nature and if we let it, it can rule us. On the other hand, humility is in the new nature which must be permitted to displace all pride so we become who we truly and newly are, new creations in Christ. All Christ's teaching of His disciples, especially that of humility, was in preparation for His entering into them, His divine nature. In His death He destroyed the power of the devil. (Hebrews 2:14) Jesus put away sin, and provided an everlasting, perfect and complete redemption. 

What shall we say to these things? Let us pray to God that the pleasures of the world may not satisfy us; let us us mortify the old nature; let us grasp the fact that the absence of this grace, humility, is the cause as to why the power of God is not manifesting in mighty works. Let the Holy Spirit reveal to us deep within, it is only when we, like Jesus, truly know and show that we can do nothing of ourselves, but the grace of God released will do it all. (John 15:5; 1 Corinthians 15:10) It is when the truth of the indwelling Christ, the Holy Spirit, becomes such a reality to us, and that we permit Him to takes His place in and through us, that the church will become the most beautiful and desirous living thing on planet earth. So, "Arise, shine; For your light has come! And the glory of the Lord is risen upon you." (Isaiah 60:1)