13 Humility and God’s Promised Exaltation.
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Although not pretty work, seeking to grow in humility is the most fruitful work one can begin. And today, at least podcast wise, we complete that work.
As we have discussed, humility is not a popular or even fun topic, and frankly not many people want to hear about it. So if you are listening to me right now, and you have tuned in over the past few months to this series, God bless you. And I mean that. Because as we’re going to discuss today, our pursuit of humility leads to God’s promised exaltation.
And there is nothing better than favor with God and exaltation from Him.
Before I get into that though, I want to quickly remind you of the definition of humility and the four pillars of humility that we have established over the course of this series.
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So, what is humility?
Humility is being rooted in an accurate assessment of self. That we are nothing, and God is all.
True biblical humility comes when we see ourselves as nothing in the light of God, and in recognizing this, we seek to make ourselves nothing so that God may be everything in our life. Now from that definition we laid out the four pillars of humility:
Firstly, that humility is necessary to battle sin. Our sin is the fruit of our pride, and the way we are to combat the pride of the flesh that leads to sin is to humble ourselves before almighty God. Not only is humility necessary for our salvation, but it is necessary for our sanctification.
Humility is necessary to battle sin.
Secondly, we discussed that humility is the foundation to lasting righteousness. Again, knowing pride to be the root of all sin, that means that conversely humility is the root to righteous fruit. Proverbs 4:23 says to ‘keep the heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life’. If our heart is prideful, we produce sin. If our heart is like Christ’s, if it be humble, we will begin to produce righteous fruit.
And that second pillar of humility being the foundation to lasting righteousness led us to the third pillar, which is that humility distinguishes the believer. Jesus’ life was founded in humility, from his great descent from Heaven down to earth, to his even greater descent among man to become the least of them. Again, Christ’s life was rooted in humility, and his heart, as he described himself, was gentle and lowly. His actions flowed from a humble heart.
Jesus’ humility is the cause for our salvation, because He died on a cross for us even though he did not have to. And if humility be one of, if not the distinguishing mark of the One we seek and claim to follow, it should also be ours.
Humility should distinguish us as believers from the world.
Lastly, we discussed the fourth and final pillar of humility, which is that it is the most important virtue. Jesus’ first beatitude was ‘blessed are those who are poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven’ (Matthew 5:3). In other words, blessed are those who live with complete dependence upon God. Blessed are those who are humble.
In this series, we have elaborated on this visual that no flower can grow except from the seed which was planted. So if that holds true, that means for us to produce the flowerous virtues of love, of joy, of kindness, of any fruit of the spirit, we firstly need the seed of humility planted in our hearts. And that seed is the Holy Spirit. Without humility we cannot begin to produce any of the other virtues. Remember, humility is the foundation to lasting righteousness.
This is why we must surrender to the Spirit, seeking to make ourselves nothing so that God might be everything in our life, bearing fruit for Him.
Now,
To reiterate the four pillars:
Humility is necessary to battle sin (and sanctify us).
Humility is the foundation for lasting righteousness.
Humility distinguishes the believer.
Humility is the Most Important Virtue.
I also want to mention how in every episode I have tried my best to provide tangible things we can do to grow in humility. Specifically, we talked about dying to self through obedience to God’s will, we talked about growing in humility through service, and we also talked about growing in humility through revelation of God’s holiness.
In this last episode, if I could leave you with one thought for you as you seek to grow in humility, it would be this:
You cannot sin when you are infatuated with the glory of God. In revelation of who He is, His character and His power, you cannot be prideful. Pride is shattered in the presence of God. Like we discussed in episode 10, look at Job, Isaiah, and John. Job repented in dust and ashes, and Isaiah and John fell on their faces. You cannot be prideful in the presence of God.
For those reading today who desire to grow in humility, yet you still ponder how to do that, I recommend that you seek God with your whole heart. Ask, seek, and knock for revelation of Him and to be in His presence. That pursuit alone will humble you and you will quickly realize that you lose sight of self, and the pride that exists in self, when you are continually gazing upon the beauty of the Lord.
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Now with all that said, I mentioned that God promises exaltation to those who humbles themselves before Him and before man.
James 4:10 reads
‘Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will exalt you’.
In this verse we are given a responsibility and a promise for doing that responsibility. What is that responsibility you ask? That responsibility is to humble ourselves. God says our work is to humble ourselves, and He also says in that verse that His work and responsibility is exaltation.
The promise in James 4:10 is divine and sure: those that humble themselves will be exalted.
If you see to it that you do the one thing that God asks of you in this verse, God will see to it that He does what He has promised.
Now many of us do not know what exaltation is. Exaltation, in God’s eyes, is being uplifted to a position that can greater profess and glorify His name. Exaltation is not deliberately a pay raise, or a promotion, a cute guy/girl, whatever. It’s not necessarily getting the thing you want. If you desire to humble yourself solely to get something you want from God, you don’t know what humility is at all.
Exaltation exists in the highest glory of man…, which, as we’ve discussed in this series, is being used as a vessel for God - to receive and bring and show forth His glory.
Now God could use things like receiving a pay raise or a promotion in your life as a means of exaltation, but don’t overlook His giving of opportunities to share the gospel with others, or His allowing of you to be the person that gets to encourage another, or maybe even being the person that gets to donate money to another. Because guess what? God does not need to use you. He chooses to do that. The opportunities that you have been given to profess Christ either in deed or in word are acts of exaltation from God. And many of us miss that.
You truly never know how God may exalt you, how He may uplift you to receive and bring and show forth His glory, but believe that He will. That’s His promise.
SO, if you continue your pursuit of humility, God will exalt you.
When God can have His rightful place in you, the rightful place of being your everything, being front and center in your heart, He will lift you up.
He will lift you up.
That is His promise.
I love you all.
God bless.
