The Spirit of Humility.

Reading Romans 7:15-8:5 in The Message you see with familar eyes the endless struggle between the sinful desires of ‘self’ and the purposeful passion of the Spirit. Then Light breaks through the darkness and the deliverance of Jesus’ finished Work, available to anyone who humbly accepts the Spirit’s labors within them, comes roaring to the forefront. The key is the humility... being humble enough to embrace and accept whatever the Spirit is offering in the moment.

So, let’s look at the role humility plays in our relationship to the Holy Spirit. Author and pastor A.W. Tozer once said,

We may as well face it: the whole level of spirituality among us is low. We have measured ourselves by ourselves until the incentive to seek higher plateaus in the things of the Spirit is all but gone…. [We] have imitated the world, sought popular favor, manufactured delights to substitute for the joy of the Lord and produced a cheap and synthetic power to substitute for the power of the Holy Ghost— A.W. Tozer.

This was written in the mid-20th century. But Tozer’s words could have easily been penned yesterday ...or tomorrow. I wonder what kind of indictment this great man of God might pronounce if he were to ‘peek in’ on post-modern Christianity with its name-seeking, glory-loving leaders, and its ridiculous tendency to point disciples in every direction but to Jesus Himself {cf. Paul on “selfish ambition” in Phil. 2:3-4 and Gal. 5:19-21}.

Listen... every generation has its own brand of Pharisaism, its own theological prejudices, its own denominational biases and its own brand of doctrinal Nazism. Yet the fact remains. Every step of intimacy with Abba, maturity as a man or woman, peace, power and perspective in Christ is taken under the overwhelming influence of the Holy Spirit, the Resurrection Power of Jesus. You can’t work this up and you can’t make this up. “This is the Word of the LORD...: ‘Not by might, not by power, but by My Spirit,’ says the Lord of the Everlasting Armies” {Zech. 4:6 RRExp}.

And when the Spirit of Grace is unleashed in a life, given the freedom to woo and to work when and where He wills, the result is profound. We find our hearts becoming whole, our lives becoming holy, and our souls attuned to the Shepherd’s voice {Jn. 10}. We rediscover the passion for Jesus which once burned so brightly, still alive and waiting to be ignited {Rev. 2:4-5}. We begin to long for more of God just as He longs for more of us. And we find there a resiliency, a courage, and a compassion which guides us through the darkest days and longest nights.

That is the Spirit of Christ, the Spirit of Freedom and of Life, laboring in love, forging us in the fires of affliction so that we might shine all the more boldly, all the more brilliantly. Abba loves us enough to make His ultimate goal our transformation and not our happiness. Which comes as a major shock to a majority of believers in the self-satisfied West! Make no mistake about it, my friends, you were made by your Master to shimmer and to shine.

Ric Webb, Shepherd
Heart's Journey Community
hjcommunity.org