In his book, When Heaven Invades Earth, Bill Johnson has an interesting take on one element of spiritual warfare. He says, “First, God makes us strong and then he stirs up the devil’s hatred toward us. Why? It’s not because he wants to create problems for His Church. It’s because He likes to see the devil defeated by those who are made in His image, who have a relationship of love with Him by choice. We are His delegated authority. It is His delight to have us enforce the triumph of Jesus.”

I believe that statement is true but there is still a part of me that doesn’t warm up to that truth. I don’t like to be roused from my comfort zone to face an irritating enemy. I don’t like my world being rocked when I have just found the right balance and am peacefully coasting along. I find myself, like Rodney King, asking, “Can’t we all just get along?” Unfortunately, the answer is No. We live in a war zone and will until the King returns to cast the enemy and his angels into the lake of fire.

My problem is that while Jesus came to preach a selfless, other-centered gospel, I too often still make it a self-centered gospel. I too often seek the blessings for myself rather than relentlessly looking for others who need them more than I do. I too often worry about my comfort and security rather than the pain, poverty, and discomfort of those around me. As Americans, we tend to be self-centered consumers looking for a church that ministers to us and meets our needs rather than a church that is sacrificing and kicking down the doors of hell. That kind of self-centeredness robs the kingdom and us individually of both power and joy.

Regarding joy, Jesus said, “Blessed are the poor in spirit…” Those who are poor in spirit don’t demand much for themselves and often don’t think of themselves at all. Modern psychologists would say that such a mindset is a sure sign of self-hatred and a sure formula for depression. But Jesus said that those whose focus is primarily on others and not their own glory, happiness, entitlements, etc. are the truly blessed people of the world.

Philip Yancey put it this way. “My career as a journalist has afforded me opportunities to interview ‘stars,’ including NFL football greats, movie actors, music performers, best-selling authors, politicians, and TV personalities. These are the people who dominate the media. We fawn over them, pouring over the minutiae of there lives: the clothes they wear, the food they eat, the aerobic routines they follow, the people they love, the toothpaste they use. Yet I must tell you that, in my limited experience…our idols are as miserable a group of people as I have ever met. Most have troubled or broken marriages. Nearly all are incurably dependent on psychotherapy. In a heavy irony, these larger-than-life heroes seem tormented by self-doubt.

I have also spent time with people I call ‘servants.’ Doctors and nurses who work among the ultimate outcasts, leprosy patients in rural India. A Princeton graduate who runs a hotel for the homeless in Chicago… Relief workers in Somalia, Sudan, Ethiopia, Bangladesh and other repositories of human suffering…I was prepared to honor and admire these servants, to hold them up as inspiring examples. I was not prepared to envy them. Yet as I now reflect on the two groups side by side, stars and servants, the servants clearly emerge as the favored ones, the graced ones. Without question, I would rather spend time among the servants than the stars: they possess qualities of depth and richness and even joy that I have not found elsewhere…Somehow, in the process of losing their lives they find them” (Philip Yancey, The Jesus I Never Knew, p.117-1180.

It seems that Jesus knew what he was talking about and I think, in reflection, that the less we obsess about ourselves, our needs, our wants, our security, the more room we make for God and the love of God that we crave. The more of God we have, the more joy, authority, and even power we have to fight the inevitable wars on this planet against the devil. God does many things to get us to focus on him. He is not an egotist. He simply wants the best for us. When we are full of ourselves or even full of concern for ourselves there is little room for Jesus.

If we truly want to excel in spiritual warfare, then we must fix our eyes on Jesus not on ourselves. Greatness and joy in the kingdom, come when we seek it for others more than ourselves. The cross is the ultimate example of that truth. In the days ahead, it would be a good practice to check my “self-ometer” from time to time to make sure that there is truly room for God. The more of me that is in the tank, the less room there is for the very things I say I want most that can come only from the Father. Sometimes my own self-focus and concern for self is a more formidable enemy than Satan.

One of my favorite contemporary prophets is Graham Cooke. I have never met him personally but have heard him at conferences and read his books. One of the things I have heard him say that is worth pondering is that, as believers, we tend to be obsessed with our sin while God is obsessed with our righteousness.

His point is that we constantly worry about our past failures and let the enemy beat us up with condemnation and accusation. We often confess the same sin over and over and tell God how sorry we are for what we did years ago when God has completely blotted out any record of that sin in heaven. God is not thinking about our sin because that has been taken care of by the blood of Christ. He is thinking about establishing us in the righteousness that is ours in Christ.

I believe God’s great challenge with most of his children is to get us to understand who we are in Christ. We tend to live up to the view we have of ourselves. If we define ourselves as wretched, struggling sinners who are barely saved by the blood of Christ then we will continue to be just that. Our self-image will not allow us to paint very far outside the lines of our self-definition. Some of us feel like condemnation is the way to maintain our humility and, thus, be pleasing to God. But if that were the case, why would God tell us all these amazing things about ourselves in scripture.

Biblical humility is not self-rejection and abasement. It is the mindset that rejoices in who we are in Christ but always remembers that who we are is a gift from God and not something we have achieved by our own efforts. We do partner with God in many things, but our identity and our standing in heaven is still a gift of grace. If we spent the same amount of time and energy thanking God for who we are in Christ that we use to remind ourselves of our failings, we would be much further ahead. The proverb says, “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he” (Prov.23:7). God says that in Christ we are sons and daughters of God, a chosen people, friends rather than servants, priests of the Most High God, saints, holy ones, the righteousness of God, the household of God, those seated with Christ in heavenly places, the temple of the Holy Spirit, ambassadors of Christ, the loved, the accepted, the forgiven, the anointed of God, and so forth.

If we thought we had earned that position and that standing with the Father, we might certainly become proud and arrogant. If, however, we remember that all of that is a gift and an expression of God’s unconditional love for us, then it can only produce thanksgiving. To ignore our standing in some misguided effort to remain humble is to ignore or even reject the gifts of God and to leave much of what Jesus purchased for us on the table.

It is certainly a biblical matter to acknowledge and confess any sin that does arise in our life, but we should confess it quickly and leave it at the foot of the cross rather than carrying it with us. It should never define us. It should never become our focus and certainly not our obsession. Jesus should be our obsession and who he has made us by his blood and his grace should be the only thing that defines our life.

If you are in the habit of rehearsing your past failures over and over and continuing to bring them up before the Lord, let me encourage you to trade that habit in for a better one – rehearsing who you are in Christ and bringing that up before the Lord with an abundance of thanksgiving. That has much greater transformative power than living in the past and is a powerful acknowledgment of what Jesus has done for you. Blessings in Him.

A leadership group that I am apart of is reading a book by Roberts Liardon entitled God’s Generals. It is one book in a series on men and women who led movements and revivals over the past 150 years. This first book examines the lives and ministries of great healing evangelists such as John Alexander Dowie, Maria Woodworth-Etter, Evan Roberts, Charles Parham, John G. Lake, Smith Wigglesworth, Aimee Simple McPherson, Kathryn Kuhlman and others. Although we are not quite through with the study yet, there are some common denominators found in the life and ministries of these amazing people that can be instructive to us.

These were men and women that did not have the advantage of mass technology in their worlds. Some were born right after the Civil War and others around the turn of the century. No television, no CD’s, and few if any even found their way to radio. Yet their preaching touched thousands, hundreds of thousands, and even millions. Most preached and healed and had hundreds and even thousands of well documented miracles of healing in their ministries. Most felt a compelling call from God at a young age and grew up in families that were faithful believers that made prayer and Bible study a center piece of their family. Many of their parents were involved in Bible study groups and prayer groups and let their children participate at a young age. Some received a call from God later in life after they were married and running businesses. Most were not well educated by the world’s standards but had faith and once they surrendered to the Lord, were totally sold out to their calling. A number of them were strong willed. So was the Apostle Paul. Several were almost eccentric in nature. I’ve noticed that God often uses extreme people in extreme ways. Many came from working class families who were always just one step ahead of poverty. Hours of prayer were always at the heart of their ministries. God did amazing things through each of these individuals but sadly and disappointingly, many finished poorly and some very poorly.

Without being critical of any of these individuals, I want to share a few things that seemed to contribute to those who did not finish well after having world-changing ministries at one time. We too should guard ourselves as we serve the Lord. One thing that came up over and over was the fact that many of these evangelists were so consumed by their ministries that they did not take care of their health. They were sleep-deprived months on end. They did not exercise or learn to deal with the stress of ministry to thousands. They did not rest, did not take time off, and did not manage the demands that so many put on them. There is a real trap in feeling indispensible – as if all those making demands on you cannot live without you. Eventually they experienced emotional and spiritual burnout which often manifested in psychological issues which tended to discredit their ministries.

It may sound spiritual to “keep answering the 24/7 call of ministry” but Jesus often went off by himself, left the crowds when they were clamoring for more, and found time to sleep even in the midst of storms. Jesus never seemed to be in a hurry and his schedule never seemed to be out of control because God set his agenda rather than men or the demands of ministry. We must rest, exercise, take mental health days, and maintain some margins in our lives for the unexpected moments that God arranges that are not already scheduled on our calendars. God created us to need those things like food and water and to ignore them for weeks, months, and years invites disaster.

Secondly, most of these individuals felt that God had called only them to their ministry. They rarely equipped others to minister as they did or asked the Lord to impart their gift or their mantle to another. They prepared no one to take their mantle as Elijah prepared Elisha. When they died, when their health failed, or when they stumbled there was no one to continue the revival or the healing ministries. It simply began and ended with them. They equipped no disciples as Jesus had done to continue the work he began. The next generation was unable to build on the foundations laid by these great revivalists. The next generation was often left to start from scratch. As we lead and develop ministries, we must train and empower others to lead in better ways that we have ever led. We must pray for their giftings and anointing to be greater than our own. And we must be willing to turn the reigns over to them when they are ready.

Another of the things that is clear in the life of these men and women who finished poorly was that when they began, they saw themselves as inadequate servants of Christ totally dependent on Jesus and the Holy Spirit for their ministries. As time passed, they came to draw their sense of significance from the ministries they led, the reviews they received, and the miracles that men attributed to them. They began to take the glory that was God’s and stuff it in their own pockets. They became jealous, arrogant, possessive, and angry at anyone who questioned them. Suddenly they were above correction and criticism. Since God often speaks to us through other people, they began to miss the correcting voice of God and ended up in the ditch. They forgot that God exalts the humble but humbles the proud.

Related to that, it is remarkable how few of these great men and women had close friends who could speak into their lives and tell them the truth…especially as their ministries prospered. Most likely the hectic schedules and travel tore them away from whatever relationships they had once enjoyed so that those relationships grew cold. Many had families that they essentially abandoned for the “great works” God had given them. Since they had no long-term friends to watch their lives objectively and warn them if they were wandering from a godly path, they wandered. Sometimes their theology drifted way off course. Sometimes their attitudes and perspectives became skewed. Although they were surrounded by thousands they still lived in isolation from friends who loved them enough to tell them the truth before they were so far away that they could no longer hear anyone.

Everyone of us needs people in our lives who know us and who have permission to speak to us about concerns they have for us. Jesus surrounded himself with twelve and within that group he had three, Peter, James and John, that he held even closer. Of course, he didn’t need correction but even he needed companionship and encouragement. Even Jesus needed those close to him to pray for him and stand with him in times of persecution. We need that as well. When we isolate ourselves because we are too busy or because we don’t want people to tell us what we don’t want to hear, trouble is on the way.

Finally, as these men and women grew amazing ministries they often began to expand their vision for what they were doing or their ministry associates began to expand the vision. The ministry became a business. Some decided to build utopian cities where only believers would live and Christ would reign. Some saw themselves as the mayor or governor of that city and soon they were planning roads, marking out subdivisions, drafting budgets and raising money rather than preaching the gospel as they had been called to do. God was in their preaching but not in their city building. The planned cities failed and so did the ministries that were neglected because of the distraction of a vision God did not give. We need to stay on track and within our gifts as we fulfill God’s call on our lives. The distraction of good things that are not the thing God has called us to do often keeps us from being truly effective in anything.

These are just some thoughts I have had as I have been reading about God’s Generals. Maybe they can be useful thoughts and markers for you as well.

I know a highly successful man who is highly critical of others and himself. His rationale for pointing out even minute flaws in others and himself is that by making people aware of their shortcomings, they can improve. He sees his critical spirit as a public service. He said one time, “What my father did for me, I do for others.” By the way, he’s divorced now.

But there is a little of that mindset in most of us, in the sense that we often think we will do better if we demean ourselves, criticize ourselves, or even call ourselves names. We feel that humbling ourselves before God by emphasizing our weaknesses or failings pleases him. Sometimes we even feel guilty about enjoying our blessings because we feel that we don’t deserve them or because others don’t have what we have.   Sometimes, we often do a kind of penance by recalling past failures and moments of shame as a way of beating ourselves up. Our logic is that if we feel bad enough about what we did, we will never do it again. We often employ that strategy when we want others to “never do something again” as well. We try to shame ourselves into being a better person. This may have some semblance of logic to it, but it simply doesn’t work and it is just the opposite of God’s directives for “better living.” God does not call us to nail ourselves to the cross because Jesus did that for us. We don’t find our lives on the cross but because of the cross.

Think about it. Jesus told us that the world will know that we are his disciples by our love for one another. Paul defines love by actions and attitudes in 1 Corinthians 13. Love is patient. Love is kind. It keeps no record of wrongs. It always protects, trusts, hopes and perseveres. Notice that loves is not critical, blaming, always bringing up the past, harsh, demeaning, or humiliating. The way that God directs us to treat others is, essentially, the way we should treat ourselves. A major part of God’s program for transformation is not condemnation and rejection but acceptance and a call to a new identity. If he reminds us of the past, it is simply to remind us of who we once were but are not now, and how much his love has forgiven and forgotten.

In his letter to the church at Corinth, Paul said, “Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers…will inherit the kingdom of God. And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord” (1 Cor.6:9-11). Notice the past tense – that is what some of you were. Paul is calling them to their identity in Christ. You may have been that person before the Holy Spirit took up residence in you, but that is not who you are now! Don’t live like the person you used to be, live like the person God has made you to be. The Bible says, “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he” (KJV). In other words, we live up to or down to the image we have of ourselves. God wants to increase our image so that we may live up to the call he has placed on our lives.

I like what Bill Johnson says about this in his book, When Heaven Invades Earth. “The boldness we need is not self-confidence but the confidence that the Father has in the work of his Son in us. It is no longer a question of heaven or hell. It is only a question of how much of hell’s thinking will I allow into this heavenly mind of mine. Doesn’t it honor Him more when his children no longer see themselves only as sinners saved by grace, but now as heirs of God? Isn’t it a greater form of humility to believe Him when He says we are precious in His sight, when we don’t feel very precious? Doesn’t it honor Him more when we think of ourselves as free from sin because he said we are? At some point we must rise up to the high call of God and stop saying things about ourselves that are no longer true. If we are going to fully come into what God has for us…we’ll have to come to grips with the issue of being more than sinners saved by grace.     (P.168).

It is the nature of Satan to condemn and accuse. It is not the nature of God…especially toward his own children. In our internal conversations, we need to say what God says about us. We need to leave our past buried (we died to sin) and speak in the present and the future. We are redeemed, forgiven, accepted, children of God, royal priests on the earth, saints (all of us), God’s beloved, His called out, destined for greatness, ambassadors of Christ, the temple of the Holy Spirit, sons and daughters of the King, holy, the righteousness of God, appointed and anointed, and more.

When we see ourselves as God sees us, we will live up to that image. It is true for those around us as well. If God says that is who we are, then that is who we are – since it is impossible for God to lie. Let me encourage you today, to increase your transformation by increasing your identity in Christ. In word and thought, say what God says about you and call any other identity a lie. Ask the Holy Spirit to give you a revelation of your identity in Christ. Speak the same things over your children, your spouse and your friends in the Lord as well. The truth we call out in Christ becomes a reality, because God’s word, whether from His lips or ours, has creative power and always fulfills its purpose. Be blessed today because you are the redeemed of God, perfect and righteous in His sight.

Over the years, I have discovered that anyone who begins to press into the power of God will garner his or her share of criticism and suspicion. Most believers like a tame God and a Holy Spirit who always colors inside the lines. We want God to act in predictable ways so that we can order our lives based on past performance and so that God makes no unexpected demands on our faith or obedience.

When you begin to press into the power of God, things can get unpredictable. That makes you unpredictable and a source of discomfort to all those who don’t want God “acting up.” Miracles put a demand on our faith. First of all, the demand is expressed in terms of whether we believe that God is a God of present-day miracles or not. The second demand that miracles make is expressed in terms of whether we have faith to join God in those miracles or not.

Living with an expectation of miracles or, at least a hope for miracles, is both exciting and challenging. It is exciting when we see God move. It brings the Bible to life and our faith is confirmed experientially. If we have seen God move in response to our prayers or declarations, we feel affirmed and are excited by that partnership. The challenge comes when we don’t see God move as we expected. Then the questions flood in. Why was our friend not healed? Why did we see no deliverance when we were certain a demonic presence was infecting the person to whom we ministered? Why is the man we’ve been praying for still unemployed? Why is our son or daughter still addicted when we have done all the right things? When we don’t see the manifestation of God, we can struggle with our own faith, our own sense of “being okay” with God, and our own understanding of how God works.

Believe me, life was easier when I was a cessationist. When I believed that God no longer moved in miracles and that he essentially did whatever he wanted to do regardless of my input, life was easier. Live a decent life, go to church, pray for the children in war-torn Africa, give a little to missions, serve a little, then die and trust Jesus to take you to heaven. I felt little responsibility for God’s purposes on the earth and I never had to struggle with the theological questions surrounding the miracles of God. When I believed that God only spoke through the Bible, I never had to struggle with discerning his voice from my own or the enemy’s voice.

When you start pressing in to the power of God and asking others to do so with you, you get push back. Suddenly God is not so predictable. Suddenly, men and women have to wrestle with questions of faith and their view of God that were never unearthed before. Suddenly, they become responsible for most of what God wants to do on the earth. Suddenly, you are asking them to step into unfamiliar territory. They push back…at least emotionally. Often that push back will come in the form of criticism, suspicion, and even accusation. The enemy will fuel that criticism, trying to discourage your walk into greater realms of the Kingdom.

You will most likely be told you are being deceived; that you are spiritually arrogant; that you are rejecting sound teaching; or that you are causing division in your congregation. Friends may distance themselves from you and leadership may offer you fewer opportunities to serve. All of that may create self-doubt for you personally and cause you to question the direction you are moving. If it helps, remember that Jesus was accused of the same things – even being in league with Beelzebub.

Without exploring everything attached to this, I want you to consider what to do with the criticism. I like what Stephen Mansfield has to say about this and I hope it will be hopeful to you. Let me quote from Stephen’s blog.

One of the maxims that has helped me is from the great missionary/statesman E. Stanley Jones. He said, “My critics are the unpaid guardians of my soul.” Now, these weren’t easy words for me to hear. Jones wanted me to look fully into what my critics and my enemies said about me to see if there was any truth. Then, he wanted me to get busy changing what needed to be changed—based on the hurtful words of people who wanted to hurt me.

 When I heard Jones’ words, I decided to try. I wanted so badly to be an exceptional man. I began listening to what people said to me. Sometimes, they were angry. Sometimes, I heard that veiled criticism we pick up in the humor of friends. There were also the side comments from people I hardly knew. Once in a while there was kind, direct, hard-hitting correction from someone who wanted to help me.

I got in the habit of writing down the core of each bit of criticism I received, and then I would write what today they would call an action statement from it. I don’t want to give you the wrong impression. It wasn’t as though I was constantly criticized. I also hadn’t descended into some type of self-abuse that had me addicted to the pain of harsh words. Instead, I had simply come to accept three possibilities for any harsh words said about me. First, they weren’t true and needed to be discarded. Second, they weren’t true but needed to be addressed. Third, they had some truth in them that could help me be a better man. The benefits of thinking like this changed my life.

Hearing criticism is hard but sometimes God speaks to us even though our enemies. If we are to move in the greater things of the kingdom we must guard our hearts and humble ourselves before the Lord. Consider Stephen’s approach and the wise sayings of Proverbs. “Do not rebuke a mocker or he will hate you; rebuke a wise man and he will love you. Instruct a wise man and he will be wiser still; teach a righteous man and he will add to his learning” (Pr.9:8-9).   If you chafe at criticism, you might also consider Proverbs 3:11-12, 10:17, 12:1, 13:8, 15:12, 15:32; 27:6).

Don’t worry, if you are doing anything noteworthy in the Kingdom of God, criticism will come your way. View it as a tool God will use to deepen your character and guard your heart. Discard what is unjust and receive what the Holy Spirit confirms. Like a ship sailing across vast waters being pushed by winds and currents, our path will need constant correction. Welcome it, even if you don’t enjoy it. It will bear great fruit in your life. Be blessed today.

That is why Scripture says: “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up. (James 4:6-10)

All believers who involve themselves in spiritual warfare love the words from the text above that declare, “Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” On occasion, however, when we resist the devil or lead others in resisting the devil he does not flee. It might be worth asking why.

In our Freedom Ministries at Mid-Cities we walk many, many people through deliverance each year. Most get freedom in a short period of time, some gain freedom after an extended period of ministry, and a few seem to get no freedom at all. I’m sure there are lots of reasons for the variations including the category of spirits we are dealing with, the rank of those spirits, and the amount of time they have been oppressing the individual to whom we are ministering. But sometimes, I’m convinced our seeming inability to force a spirit to leave lies in the heart and mind of the one who has come to us for deliverance or even in our own heart and mind.

Notice that the promise of the devil fleeing is submerged in an extended text that keeps bringing up the issue of submitting ourselves and humbling ourselves before God. Primarily this falls into the arena of alignment or, more accurately, misalignment with the Father.

To submit myself to the Father includes agreeing with him about right and wrong, good and evil, righteousness and unrighteousness. To submit myself means that I give him judgment in those areas rather than judging for myself what thoughts and behaviors I think are acceptable or unacceptable. How many times do we say, “Yes, I know that is in the Bible, but….”
Then we go on to rationalize our own thoughts or behaviors that are contrary to scripture and in essence give ourselves a pass on disobedience.

We always feel there are extenuating circumstances that somehow make our situation different so that God’s command does not really apply to us in our case. Sometimes its because we’re afraid to submit to doing things God’s way because we feel vulnerable. Forgiving those who hurt us, refusing to take a brother to court, turning the other cheek, or giving up our manipulative behaviors, in fact, does make us vulnerable and dependent on God for care, provision, favor etc. when we turn our well-being over to him. Sometimes we enjoy a sin that we are not quite willing to give up. Sometimes we have a hidden addiction that creates so much shame we don’t want to acknowledge it – even to God. At other times we place greater value on a relationship, our career or our standing in an influential group than we do on pleasing God.

Whatever we hold to ourselves, refuse to give to God, or excuse is a failure to submit and gives the devil a legal right to maintain his position in our lives. When Satan or his servants have a legal right to harass or torment us, deliverance has limited affects except with the weakest of spirits.

On the other hand, when we submit to the Lord in every area of our life, it not only chokes off any legal right the enemy has held over us but God, in turn, “lifts us up.” The original language implies that our humility before God motivates God to give us a “higher position” in the kingdom, which implies the granting of more authority. As we submit to the Father and humble ourselves before him, in essence, we gain greater authority in the kingdom of God and that authority is what sets the devil to flight. Another kingdom paradox is at play here. The more we submit in the natural realm, the more authority we possess in the spiritual. The more we release to the Father in the natural realm, the more we are given in the spiritual. The more we bow the knee in the kingdom, the taller we stand.

When the devil does not flee we may need to check our own hearts or the heart of the one to whom we are ministering to see if something is continuing to give the devil authority to afflict or if something is diminishing our authority to minister in the spiritual realm. What is unsubmitted, what is unreleased, or what is being loved more than God? The same exam should take place before praying for healing as well. Too often we jump in and start commanding spirits to leave or begin to pray for healing without seeing where the person to whom we are ministering stands with God. Sometimes, we begin without taking a moment to make sure our own hearts are aligned with the Father. In the arena of spiritual warfare, submission and humility before the Father is what makes us more than a conqueror.

Our freedom in Christ is dependent on two essential things.  The first is that Christ took responsibility for our sins.  That is grace.  “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God” (2 Cor. 5:21). Jesus took on the responsibility of our debt because it was a debt we could not pay.  The second essential is that we take responsibility for our sins. Many believers fail to experience freedom from sin, brokenness, and their past because they will not take ownership of the failings and faults in their own life.

We are glad for Jesus to own our sins but somehow we are not willing to do the same.  However, if I don’t own something I can’t legally give it away.  If I don’t own my own failings and faults I cannot give them to Jesus so I retain the very things I wish to be rid of. I just want Jesus to take away the things I struggled with and the things I’m ashamed of without me ever having to acknowledge those issues in my life. Lets just keep my secret sin secret.

Philip Yancey says, “People divide into two groups: not the guilty and the “righteous,” as many people think, but rather two types of guilty people. There are guilty people who acknowledge their wrongs, and guilty ones who do not” (Philip Yancey, What’s So Amazing about Grace, p.181).  John tells us a story where those two categories collided with Jesus illuminating the sins of both.  You know the story.  In John 8, Jesus is teaching in the temple courts and a group of religious leaders haul a young woman into the courtyards and essentially throw her at the feet of Jesus.  She has been caught in the act of adultery and the religious zealots quote the Law of Moses that demands she be stoned to death because of her sin. They ask Jesus what he has to say about this woman and her punishment.  Interestingly, the Pharisees are trying to place Jesus in the middle of a religious controversy.  If he denounces the Law as too punitive then he opposes Moses and will be seen as a false teacher.  If he hands out the rocks, he will be despised by the people witnessing this event because he showed no mercy.

The self-righteous feel no need for mercy so they are concerned about the letter of the law. The crowds watching the spectacle feel the weight of their own sin and their hearts cry out for mercy because they themselves need so much. John recalls that at the moment of decision, Jesus simply stooped down and began to write on the ground.  This is the only account in the gospels of Jesus ever writing.  What he wrote we don’t know.  Many think he began to write out the sins of those who stood in the crowd ready to stone the adulteress.  Perhaps, he wrote scriptures related to mercy or confession. Still, we don’t know. What we do know is that Jesus simply pointed out that everyone in the courtyard that morning belonged to the “guilty of sin” group.  The only difference was that the woman acknowledged her sin (albeit under duress) while the ones holding the stones did not. Convicted of that reality, they all left one after another dropping their stones in the dust.

Jesus told a related parable that Luke recorded for us. “Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.    The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.’ “But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, ‘God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’ “I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted” (Lk.18:10-14).

Again, one acknowledged his sin while the other remained silent about his own. We fail to acknowledge or, at least, fully acknowledge our sin because we fear the judgment and rejection of men but also because we fear the rejection of God. Many of us read the call to repent and confess as God’s way of shaming us or getting more dirt on us for the scandal sheets in heaven. But it is just the opposite.  God calls us to take responsibility for our sin so that he can forgive, heal, and exalt us in the kingdom. Whoever humbles himself will be exalted. Whoever humbles himself by acknowledging his sin, his weaknesses, and his failings will experience more fully the grace of God and will more readily extend that grace to others.

Jesus told Simon the Pharisee, “He who has been forgiven much loves much.”  The truth is that we have all been forgiven much.  But not all of us acknowledge or allow ourselves realize how much has been forgiven. We deny, rationalize, and minimize our failings but not the failings of others. In doing so, we greatly limit our love for God and our healing.

There is no question that we are sinners.  The only question is which group of the guilty will I stand with? If you desire freedom and healing you must stand with the ones who take responsibility for their “stuff” so that Jesus can finally take responsibility for “their stuff.”  Blessed are the poor in spirit who acknowledge their sin, their weakness, and a great need for a Savior, for they shall be healed and set free. We can all be blessed today by owning “our stuff” because once we own it, Jesus will be glad to take it off our hands.

We love the passage from James that says,” Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” It makes us feel powerful and in control.  But to truly understand the passage we need to look at it in context.

That is why Scripture says: “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up. (James 4:6-10).

The promise that Satan (or his representatives) will run from us is found in the center of a passage that speaks about submission and humility. Jesus said that if demons are cast out by the finger of God then the kingdom of God has come to men (See Luke 11:20).  But he also said, “Blessed are the pour in spirit for theirs is the kingdom of heaven (Mt. 5:3).  Humility is the key to power in the kingdom of God.  Don’t assume that humility is the same as timidity or a self-loathing view of ourselves.  Jesus described himself as gentle and humble in heart but he was neither timid nor unsure of himself.

Humility before God is simply knowing that we are totally dependent on him and spiritually bankrupt without him.  It is remembering who the Father is and that we are his children and remembering that he is King and that we are not. As long as we are clear about the source of power in our lives we can be entrusted with that power.  The moment we believe that we are the source of power that power will be diverted. Notice the comparison between Paul and certain Jewish exorcists in Acts 19.

God did extraordinary miracles through Paul, so that even handkerchiefs and aprons that had touched him were taken to the sick, and their illnesses were cured and the evil spirits left them. Some Jews who went around driving out evil spirits tried to invoke the name of the Lord Jesus over those who were demon-possessed. They would say, “In the name of Jesus, whom Paul preaches, I command you to come out.” Seven sons of Sceva, a Jewish chief priest, were doing this.   One day the evil spirit answered them, “Jesus I know, and I know about Paul, but who are you?” Then the man who had the evil spirit jumped on them and overpowered them all. He gave them such a beating that they ran out of the house naked and bleeding. (Acts 19:11-16)

Paul constantly fixed his eyes on Jesus. His view was that it was no longer he who lived but Christ who lived through him.  Paul was clear that all that he had and all that he was came to him by the grace of God. He was certain that whatever power was displayed in his life was from God and was exercised to bring glory to God rather than himself. As a result, God was pleased to display his power through Paul with “extraordinary” miracles.

In contrast, certain Jews launched their own ministry of deliverance undoubtedly for financial gain.  They used the name of Jesus for personal profit even though they had no relationship with him.  These first century “ghost busters” got away with their bravado and presumption for a while until they met a demon who did not flee but who beat the daylights out of them. Satan doesn’t run just because someone shows up shouting the name of Jesus. He s when men and women of standing in the kingdom show up because they carry with them the authority of Christ and the more submitted we are to the Father the more authority we carry.  James says that we should humble ourselves before God and he will exalt us or promote us.  Faithful servants, who do exactly as the master commands, are given more in the kingdom of God.

As always, the kingdom is paradoxical.  The first shall be last and the greatest must be the servant of all.  To have standing in the kingdom we must humble ourselves.  No trash talking in this league, no double-mindedness, no taking sin lightly. I stood in a long security line once at a major U.S. airport and overheard a group that had apparently just returned from an evangelistic campaign in South America. The leader of the group was literally talking about how amazing his preaching had been and how many had responded to his preaching.  In the two or three minutes I listened I never heard him give God glory for anything.  He was young and I chose not to speak into the situation but I wonder if he is still preaching today or whether he has been taken out of the game by Satan who had no need to flee from a man who had no humility.

Stewardship is our primary role on earth.  We steward the things of God either for his purposes or for our purposes. You know the parable of the talents. The faithful steward who remembers whose resources he manages and who remembers how the master wanted them to be handled is entrusted with more.  Those who forget their source or who ignore his ways because “they know better” will have those resources taken away.  Authority is a resource.  Satan flees from those who walk in the authority of their king.  The humble and the pour in spirit carry the most authority.  Be blessed today.

Prophets Without Honor

When Jesus had finished these parables, he moved on from there. Coming to his hometown, he began teaching the people in their synagogue, and they were amazed. “Where did this man get this wisdom and these miraculous powers?” they asked.  “Isn’t this the carpenter’s son? Isn’t his mother’s name Mary, and aren’t his brothers James, Joseph, Simon and Judas? Aren’t all his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all these things?” And they took offense at him. But Jesus said to them, “Only in his hometown and in his own house is a prophet without honor.” And he did not do many miracles there because of their lack of faith. (Matt/13:53-57)

There is nothing more discouraging than trying to share your faith or your understanding of scripture with people who have known you in the past and discovering that you have little to no credibility with them. Sometimes it’s people who knew you before you encountered Christ.  Sometimes it is family members.  I’m not saying that you can never lead old friends, acquaintances, and family members to the Lord.  You can and many do, but on occasion you get no audience.

Jesus experienced the same thing.  In Matthew 13, Jesus revisited his hometown – Nazareth.  He began teaching in the synagogue and, at first, people were amazed and impressed. Matthew says, “They were amazed. Where did this man get this wisdom and these miraculous powers?’ they asked.”  But their amazement soon turned to resentment and rejection.  These were people who had known Jesus and his family before he left to begin a public ministry and declare that he was the Messiah.  Some of them remembered the scandal of Mary’s pregnancy.  Others remembered him working on their homes or building basic furniture for them.  They remembered Mary and Joseph and their children coming to synagogue and being taught. They may have even remembered Jesus playing practical jokes on friends or always having a runny nose as a kid.

Apparently they had heard great stories about miracles he was performing and witnessed his anointed teaching themselves.  But anointed teaching often challenges dearly held perspectives and “settled theology.” Remember the “Sermon on the Mount” in Matthew 5-7.  Jesus said in several places, “You have heard that is was said…but I say unto you.”  Many of the Jews had grown comfortable with their understanding of God and their view of the world.  The teachings of Jesus implied that there was something lacking in their view of God and how to have a relationship with him.  I’m certain that they at first began to feel uncomfortable with his teachings and then angry as his teaching challenged them.

The first response of the flesh and a religious spirit when anyone suggests that a person’s approach to God or their understanding of his word has been lacking is to take offense and to accuse the teacher of self-righteousness and a “holier than thou” attitude.  That is exactly what happened to Jesus. Suddenly his teaching raised questions about the adequacy of their faith their understanding of the Torah.  It wasn’t long before some began whispering, “Who does he think he is?”  In their own minds, they rushed to discredit his teaching and even his miracles by discrediting him.  They simply recast him in the role of the boy who grew up in a home on the wrong side of the tracks in an ordinary working class family.  In that moment, they refused to see him as he was in the synagogue – the Anointed One of God – but would only see him as the person he used to be.  Few miracles were done that day because of their unbelief. We are also told that even his own brothers refused to believe who he was until after the resurrection.

There are a several lessons to be learned from this account.

1. Sometimes, we are not the one who should be talking to certain friends or family members about our faith or life changes they need to make – sinful lifestyles they need to abandon.  For whatever reason we are so familiar to them that our words carry little weight.  That is especially true when adult children try to speak into their parents’ lives. When the gospel is declared or when we call people to repentance the word carries authority – no matter how gently we say it.  Many parents can never give up their role of authority over children – even grown children – so they can’t receive anything from one of their children that has authority attached to it.  Close friends and siblings are often the same.  In those cases we need to simply ask God to influence them through other people.  Love them.  Pray for them.  Realize you may not be the one to speak to them about their lives.

2.  Sometimes we believe that if God would just do a miracle for our unbelieving friends or family members, they would immediately come to faith and give their lives to Jesus.  Sometimes a miracle and the kindness of God expressed through that miracle does create faith, but not always.  The Pharisees witnessed numerous astounding miracles but never came to faith.  The people of Nazareth heard of many of his miracles and saw a few, but took offense at Jesus rather than believing on him.  I love miracles and believe we should ask God for them everyday.  I’m just saying that miracles do not always open the door to faith. God knows what the key is to every person’s heart and we need to pray for that revelation when trying to reach any person for Jesus.

3.  We need to watch our own hearts when people come to us with a teaching, an insight or even a rebuke that doesn’t line up with what we have always believed.  Sometimes, when people challenge my theology or my motives, I can feel offense begin to rise up in me and something wants to dismiss immediately anything they have to say.  But God calls us to maintain a humble spirit, to be teachable, and to always seek truth.  Proverbs tells us that a wise man receives correction and is thankful for it.

How can we do less and how can we judge whom God will use to sharpen our understanding of his word and his ways or to call us to a heart correction?  Many in Nazareth missed the Son of God because they judged God’s messenger.  I’m certainly not saying to receive every new teaching or even every rebuke.  But consider them, pray about them, and be humble enough to receive those things from people you disapproved of in the past, from those who don’t have your education or income, or even those who seen a bit eccentric.  Remember John the Baptist – camel skin clothes, long hair, and a diet of locusts and honey.  Eccentric!  Be blessed today and be open to hearing from God from all kinds of people in your present or even from your past.

Knowing who we are in Christ is essential to receiving all the inheritance and kingdom privileges that Christ has purchased for us. A few of us prayed with a lady a few weeks ago who obviously loved Jesus with all her heart but who was failing to know who she was in Christ.  She had been suffering with severe health issues for several years but they had taken another turn for the worse in the past few months.  The doctors were uncertain of the cause of her recent symptoms of seizures and extreme fatigue but they were telling her she would never work again.

She is a very gifted person and her work has been a place where she was able to use her gifts as “her ministry.”  The idea that she could not longer touch people with her gifts was emotionally devastating to her as well as the pain she was in.  She had asked a small group from our church to come pray for her healing.  She was not a member of our church but her church was not very confident in God’s willingness to heal in this day and age.

We began by asking about her illness – when it started, the symptoms, etc.  She quickly began to download a litany of symptoms and suffering that began in her childhood.  She spoke about her emotional brokenness and disappointments and even the struggles in her marriage. What struck me the most was how convinced she seemed to be that her suffering was God’s way of bringing her to a complete place of brokenness so that she was asking for more brokenness while she was wanting us to pray for healing.  She went on about how undeserving she was and how she just wanted God to use her but she knew that she needed to be even more broken more so that he could use her in great ways. All the time she was weeping and wondering when God was going to answer her prayers for healing and restoration.

In her mind, God was humbling her so that at some point he could lift her up. In her mind she was trying to achieve humility by focusing on her insignificance, by devaluing herself, and by accepting this suffering as something she deserved because she was unworthy of anything God might do for her. At the same time her heart yearned for healing, God’s assurance of her significance to him, and release from her sense of isolation and despair.

Our friend had fallen prey to the misconception that humility is coming to the place of denying that you have any value or worth in the kingdom of God and that it is only by God’s grace that your are artificially assigned any value at all.  You’ve heard the expression that you can put lipstick on a pig, but it’s still a pig.  Many of us have been taught that God’s grace is the lipstick, but we are still just pigs. We have also been taught that once we accept our “pigness” then God can begin to use us and bless us.  My experience has been, however, that once we accept our “pigness” we feel so unworthy of God’s love and blessings that we pray with little faith and lower our spiritual expectations to avoid more disappointment in our “piggy” lives.

Biblical humility is maintaining an objective view of who we are rather than denying that we have any value or capacity for achievement. But in that objective view we must know that we are, in fact, sons and daughters of the King, members of his royal priesthood, God’s anointed representatives on the earth, the vessels of God’s Holy Spirit, dispensers of his power on the earth, and that at all times we are his chosen ones and more than conquerors. Humility is not denying our value and significance but rather knowing who we are and being confident in that, while at the same time not feeling as if we are superior to all those around us.

Think about Jesus.  Our goal is to be like him in everyway.  Jesus walked on this earth being confident of who he was to the Father – the Son of God, the beloved, the Messiah, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords.  When he commanded demons he did not question the authority the Father had given him.  When he prayed over a little bread and a few fish to feed five thousand, he did not doubt his significance to the Father and so did not doubt that his prayers would be answered.  We see Jesus having time for the lowliest of people and yet never denying his significance in the kingdom of God. Actually, knowing who we are and believing it releases us to be servants and to hang out with the lowly, the powerless, and the impoverished. Knowing who we are releases us from the need to be part of the “in crowd” because we are already part of God’s “in crowd” and you can’t get anymore “in” than that.  Knowing who we are releases us from the need to appear to be significant because we are significant. Confidence in our significance in Christ allows us to walk in humility which is actually strength under control rather than denying our strength.

As our friend kept speaking about her brokenness and a desire for God to break her even more, I stopped her in mid-sentence.  I began to remind her of who she was in Christ and the promises that were hers because of that. I began to remind her of the healing, provision and joy that had been purchased for her by the blood of Jesus.  There is a time for brokenness but that is usually reserved for the prideful, the arrogant, and the self-sufficient of this world, not for the suffering and brokenhearted.  As I began to remind her of what she had once known but had forgotten, her countenance changed and her prayers and declarations for healing changed. Instead of whimpering before the throne and pleading her lack of worth and value, she began to approach the throne of grace with boldness.  That night she received freedom from the demonic and a significant amount of healing.

We always know that the source of our value, giftedness, and anointing is by grace and from God through Jesus.  But when Jesus makes you an ambassador, you are an ambassador. You don’t deny your ambassadorship, but you exercise it with confidence because you know Jesus has made you that. To walk around declaring that Jesus gave you the post because of how amazing you have always been would be arrogance. But to accept the position as a reality is required before you can fulfill your calling. To think that Christ calls you an ambassador but that you really aren’t an ambassador undermines everything he appoints you to do because you will only act like his representative, conveying his power and authority, when you believe that you truly are his authorized representative on the earth.

So…today be humble.  Know who you are in Christ, know your significance in the kingdom; know your significance on the earth. Be confident in who God has made you to be and live with that confidence. Faith is not just knowing who Christ is but also who you are in Christ.  Pray with confidence and expectation because you have great standing in the courts of heaven.  Believe it. Be blessed.