STAYING HUMBLE 2
(week 09/10)
OLUBI JOHNSON
In our article last week, we saw that humility is submitting to the will of God when you don’t feel like it and that it takes the consistent inflow of the life of God in sufficient measure from your spirit into your soul: mind, will and emotions to be humble.
We also saw in King Uzziah that it is possible to become proud after God has exalted us because of an initial period of humility.
2 Chronicles 26:3-5 ESV: (3) Uzziah was sixteen years old when he began to reign, and he reigned fifty-two years in Jerusalem. His mother’s name was Jecoliah of Jerusalem. (4) And he did what was right in the eyes of the LORD, according to all that his father Amaziah had done. (5) He set himself to seek God in the days of Zechariah, who instructed him in the fear of God, and as long as he sought the LORD, God made him prosper.
2 Chronicles 26:15-16 ESV: (15) In Jerusalem he made engines, invented by skillful men, to be on the towers and the corners, to shoot arrows and great stones. And his fame spread far, for he was marvellously helped, till he was strong. (16) But when he was strong, he grew proud, to his destruction. For he was unfaithful to the LORD his God and entered the temple of the LORD to burn incense on the altar of incense.
This week, we will see how to stay humble even after having been greatly blessed and exalted by God.
To understand this, we need to see that the condition of our souls is dynamic:
Luke 11:34 AMP: Your eye is the lamp of your body; when your eye (your conscience) is sound and fulfilling its office, your whole body is full of light; but when it is not sound and is not fulfilling its office, your body is full of darkness.
We see from this scripture that your ‘eye’ or soul: will, mind and emotions; can either be ‘sound’ or ‘evil’: when it is sound it allows the life (and so light of God (Jn. 1.4)) from God through your spirit to flow into the physical body; when it is evil it shuts off the life (and so light of God (Jn. 8.12)) from the physical body.
So, the soul can be humble in the morning of one day and proud in the afternoon of the same day if we do not maintain the flow of a sufficient measure of the life of God into the soul through a diligent prayer life and walk in the Spirit.
So, to remain humble, even after great exaltation and blessing, you need to pray for humility and the fear of God daily like God told the Kings of Israel to do:
Deuteronomy 17:15-20 MKJV: (15) you shall surely set a king over you, whom Jehovah your God shall choose. You shall set a king over you from among your brothers. You may not set a stranger over you, who is not your brother. (16) But he shall not multiply horses to himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt, so as to multiply horses, because Jehovah has said to you, you shall return no more that way from now on. (17) Nor shall he multiply wives to himself, so that his heart does not turn away. Nor shall he greatly multiply silver and gold to himself. (18) And it shall be, when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write a copy of this Law in a book from before the priests, the Levites. (19) And it shall be with him, and he shall read it all the days of his life, so that he may learn to fear Jehovah his God, to keep all the words of this Law, and these statutes, to do them, (20) so that his heart may not be lifted up above his brothers, and that he does not turn aside from the commandment, to the right or the left, so that he may make his days longer in his kingdom, he and his sons, in the midst of Israel.
It is obvious that Uzziah did not obey this command: that is why his heart became lifted up after he began to succeed.
Any king or in fact anybody who does not keep the Word of God in his heart day and night as the scriptures instruct will find his heart becoming proud and lifted up, whenever they experience some level of success or exaltation:
Deuteronomy 6:6-7 MKJV: and these words which I command you this day shall be in your heart. (7) And you shall carefully teach them to your sons, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up;
Joshua 1:8 AMP: This Book of the Law shall not depart out of your mouth, but you shall meditate on it day and night that you may observe and do according to all that is written in it. For then you shall make your way prosperous, and then you shall deal wisely and have good success.
In the New Testament, we fulfill all the law (Gal. 5.14; Rom. 13.10) by the law of life and love (1 Jn. 3.23) operated by the law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus (Rom. 8.2).
So, we stay humble by praying for the fear of God and humility daily before we even pray for wisdom and love, because the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and wisdom is the principal part or major part of the love of God:
Proverbs 9:10 NIV: The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.
Proverbs 4:7 KJV: Wisdom is the principal thing; therefore get wisdom: and with all thy getting get understanding.
Philippians 1:9-10 NIV: (9) And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, (10) so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ,
Ecclesiastes 12:13 MKJV: Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter. Fear God, and keep His commandments. For this is the whole duty of man.
As you do this, you will be putting on the 7 lights of your individual candlestick or lampstand daily, so keeping your ‘eye’ consistently ‘single’ or ‘healthy’ and so your whole body full of light: the divine nature which is intrinsically humble.
