Tag Archives: Christian living

Mom’s Prayer that Invites God’s Transformative Love

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[from Gift a faithful, praying mom who walks in the Spirit by Katherine Bell]

Introduction

Some weeks back, I asked Mom to share the secrets of her oh, so close bond with the Lord. I had noticed over the years the way she had become more and more like Christ and walked out union with Him in heart, soul, mind, and strength. I knew she had sought out many anointed teachers and had received lots and lots of prayer from believers with strong prayer lives. And I had observed her many hours of soaking up the Word and mining it for spiritual and practical treasures. Mom is often found declaring out loud the promises of God which the Word tells us are all ours to receive. God says “yes” to every one of them.

2 Corinthians 1:20-22 The Message

20-22 Whatever God has promised gets stamped with the Yes of Jesus. In him, this is what we preach and pray, the great Amen, God’s Yes and our Yes together, gloriously evident. God affirms us, making us a sure thing in Christ, putting his Yes within us. By his Spirit he has stamped us with his eternal pledge—a sure beginning of what he is destined to complete.

But those things I knew. And they all have had a very important part. But the secret she shared with me that she said was a real, breakthrough key to experiencing deeper and deeper, closer and closer fellowship with the Holy Spirit, Jesus, and the Father—all three Persons of the Godhead that are in us by the Spirit—the key to letting God be her very life and flow out to others consists of daily praying the prayer below. This prayer positions you to receive God’s transformative love. [Listen to the prophet Graham Cooke’s short, YouTube video on God’s unconditional love titled “Love Encounter,” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y6wlClByBG8 .]

1 John 4:16 The Message

This is how we know we’re living steadily and deeply in him, and he in us: He’s given us life from his life, from his very own Spirit. Also, we’ve seen for ourselves and continue to state openly that the Father sent his Son as Savior of the world. Everyone who confesses that Jesus is God’s Son participates continuously in an intimate relationship with God. We know it so well, we’ve embraced it heart and soul, this love that comes from God.

Mom’s Prayer

I come before You, the God Who is love, to know You and to behold You in Your glory, beauty, and majesty. I humble myself in awe of You. I thank You that You are within me in the garden of my heart—the Eden within where I meet with You. I open my heart up fully to You. You passionately desire me to know and be known of You. You welcome me just as I am. 

Revelation 3:20 The Passion Translation

Behold, I’m standing at the door, knocking.[a] If your heart is open to hear my voice and you open the door within, I will come in to you and feast with you, and you will feast with me.[b]

Footnotes

  1. 3:20 The Aramaic can be translated “I have been standing at the door, knocking.” Jesus knocking on the door points us to the process of an ancient Jewish wedding invitation. In the days of Jesus, a bridegroom and his father would come to the door of the bride-to-be carrying the betrothal cup of wine and the bride-price. Standing outside, they would knock. If she fully opened the door, she was saying, “Yes, I will be your bride.” Jesus and his Father, in the same way, are knocking on the doors of our hearts, inviting us to be the bride of Christ.
  2. 3:20 This is likely taken from Song. 5:1–2, where the king knocks on the door of the heart of the Shulamite, longing to come in and feast with her.

James 4:8 The Message

Say a quiet yes to God and he’ll be there in no time.

James 4:8 The Passion Translation

8 Move your heart closer and closer to God, and he will come even closer to you.[a] 

Footnotes

  1. 4:8 The Aramaic can be translated “and he will be touching you.”

I bring everything of myself to You. I repent or change my mindset over anything that has not been of faith, Your love, or Your perfect will—anything that has not been aligned with Your heart. I thank You for Your forgiveness. I open myself to You for the continual restoring of my soul. Work out the restoration of all things in my life. 

Isaiah 53:5 The Passion Translation

5 But it was because of our rebellious deeds that he was pierced[a]
    and because of our sins that he was crushed.    He endured the punishment that made us completely whole,[b]    and in[c] his wounding[d] we found our healing.

Footnotes

  1. Isaiah 53:5 See Zech. 12:10; John 19:31-37; Rev. 1:7.
  2. Isaiah 53:5 This is the Hebrew word shalom, meaning “peace, prosperity, wholeness, success, well-being.” All of these have come to us through Christ’s sufferings.
  3. Isaiah 53:5 The Hebrew word could be translated “among his wounds (bruises)” or “in his wounds (bruises).” See the split-open rock of Song. 2:14.
  4. Isaiah 53:5 The Hebrew word for wounding (“scourging”) is chaburah and means “blueness of the wounds.” But chaburah is taken from the root word chabar, which means “to join together, to unite, to have fellowship, to become a couple.” A nuanced translation of Isaiah 53:5 could be “In the fellowship of being one with him is our healing.”

I give me to You as a living sacrifice. Search me and know me and try me and see if there is any path of pain I am walking on. 

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The Greatness of Drawing Close to Christ

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John, the disciple of Christ who penned Scripture, experienced the glory of knowing God. Like King David, he drank deeply of the love of God. In Psalm 73:23-24 and verse 28 David wrote of his relationship with the Lord, “You love me! You are holding my right hand! You will keep on guiding me all my life with Your wisdom and counsel . . . . But as for me, I get as close to Him as I can!”[1] John, too, came close and drank deeply. 

There is a song with a line in it that says, “God of glory, Lord of love, Hearts unfold like flowers before You, opening to the sun above.”[2] And an unfolded heart wide open to God and His higher ways—a heart no longer crippled because it is severed from its Divine Source of perfect love—is a heart on a journey to glory and greatness because it is being restored by its Maker to His intended design. John had such a heart. In fact, so much did he draw close to Christ that he became the picture of what happens when a man enters into the closest possible places of the Lord’s heart and mind. Jesus was the lover of John’s soul as he transformed the darkness of the state of selfish ambition into the light of the state of surrendered sonship in the image of the Pattern Son. And John wrote of the mystical union we are called to find in and with the Godhead—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. John dared to lean upon Jesus to experience His heart and know His secrets. The Father through Jesus shared with John the very secrets of agape love—the love that God is in His being and ever exudes. Finally, God called John to write of the union of God with redeemed men and women in eternal marriage in the heavenly Jerusalem in time to come. There the curse from the fall in Eden will be no more and men will so know the intense love of God for them that they will fulfill the command to “Love the Lord your God with every passion of your heart, with all the energy of your being, and with every thought that is in you.”[3] And the second, “Love your neighbor as much as you love yourself.”[4] They will willingly serve Him as bondslaves—love slaves.

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The Doctor of Love Degree in YHVH’s “Love School”

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Certifications and degrees from top schools are prized, especially graduate degrees. In keeping with such attainments, may we welcome our Potter-Father’s diagnostic tests as He tests us to show us where we are in our yieldedness to His Son, our Head who is Love Incarnate. We are in the highest school of all as His offspring, sons and daughters being raised to be just like His Pattern Son. In acknowledgement of Yeshua, I quote: “And he alone is the leader and source of everything needed in the church. God has put everything beneath the authority of Jesus Christ and has given him the highest rank above all others.” (Eph. 1:22 TPT) One day we will face a final assessment re: our fruit production branch to the Vine. (See John 15.) And 1 Corinthians 13:2 gives us a heads up about what our Maker most wants to see in us: “And if I have prophetic powers (the gift of interpreting the divine will and purpose), and understand all the secret truths and mysteries and possess all knowledge, and if I have [sufficient] faith so that I can remove mountains, but have not love (God’s love in me) I am nothing (a useless nobody).” (AMPC) The passage 1 John 4:7-8 concurs: “Those who are loved by God, let His love continually pour from you to one another, because God is love. Everyone who loves is fathered by God and experiences an intimate knowledge of Him. The one who doesn’t love has yet to know God, for God is love.” (TPT)

As we are slated to be Yeshua’s sister-spouse, the Holy Spirit is ever working with us to perfect us in love or get us to the place where we love like He loves i.e. we let Him love THROUGH us unhindered. The bride will be equally yoked to Yeshua as His conjugal in the spirit partner in ministry. 1 John 2:3-5 gives us the Apostle of Love’s admonition: “Here’s how we can be sure that we’ve truly come to know God: if we keep His commands. (f) If someone claims ‘I have come to know God by experience,’ yet doesn’t keep God’s commands, he is a phony and the truth finds no place in him. But the love of God will be perfected within the one who obeys God’s Word. We can be sure that we’ve truly come to live in intimacy with God, not just by saying, ‘I am intimate with God,’ but by walking in the footsteps of Jesus.”

[Note f 2:3 Keeping God’s commands is the proof and evidence of coming to know God, not the means of knowing God.]

[And this doing of the Word IS all by grace. Paul told of superabundant grace given him by Christ as the ability he operated in as he wrote 1 Corinthians 13, our plumbline of maturity.]

We do get an “A” in YHVH’s New Covenant school of love when we function as “little Christ’s.” Thankful we can be to be among the emerging Bride/Son company who believe this 1 John level of likeness with the Godhead is possible. Thank you, Liz Wright, Virginia Killingsworth, and other mentors—disciple-makers unto our full maturity. That there is going to be a like-souled John 17 company in the earth is our good faith position. Jesus did pray in John 17: “Holy Father, guard them as they pursue this life that You conferred as a gift through Me, so they can be one heart and mind as We are one heart and mind.” (MSG) Do hasten to read Loved A 90 day journey into the heart of God by Liz Wright and co-author Gretchen Rodriguez with its keys to full possession by our Great Lover and Lord and Miracles Are Normal —Co-Creating Through Oneness with God by Virginia containing a map to the soul restoration necessary to flow as ONE with the Creator Himself. Both writers point us to overcoming self-imposed limits in the way of much greater change into YHVH’s image.

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Bondslave Freedom

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The reality that becoming a slave to Jesus

resulted in ultimate freedom was birthed in the days 

of the Apostle Paul and company.

Romans 1:1 “From Paul, a bondslave of Jesus Christ…”

1 Corinthians 7:23 You were bought with a price [purchased with a

preciousness and paid for by Christ]; then do not yield yourselves up 

to become [in your estimation] slaves to men [but consider

yourselves slaves to Christ].

This ultimate freedom is a freedom from the rule of self

and freedom from the rule of the sin nature 

by way of co-crucifixion with Yeshua Hammaschiach on the cross of Calvary.

Romans 6:22 “However, now, freed from sin and enslaved to God,

you do get the benefit—it consists in being made holy, 

set apart for God, and its end result is eternal life.”

Bondslave Freedom: The way whose time has come again.

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Glorious Integrity

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“For the Lord God is brighter than the brilliance of a sunrise! Wrapping Himself around me like a shield, He is so generous with His gifts of grace and glory. Those who walk along His paths with integrity will never lack one thing they need, for He provides it all!” 

(Psalm 84:11 TPT)

Part One: The Way Up from Adam

Integrity is moral soundness. And it can take some walking through life for us to reach the same conclusions that the Creator already provided in His Word about our human nature. Human beings need help in their hearts and minds. We are fallen. The sin nature came into our race through satan when he tripped up Adam, and Adam turned from His Father God. We do miss the mark in the way we behave towards God, ourselves, and the others with whom we share the abode of planet earth. 

Yahweh had His prophet Jeremiah declare, “The heart is deceitful above all things, and it is exceedingly perverse and corrupt and severely, mortally sick! Who can know it [perceive, understand, be acquainted with his own heart and mind]? I the Lord search the mind, I try the heart, even to give to every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings.” (Jeremiah 17:9-10 AMPC). 

In fast forwarding to the New Testament, we receive the revelation of God’s answer to our condition. Paul, too, writes on human nature. Yet, Paul goes on to explain the way in which God is now creating a brand new human race indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God as the solution. Indeed, through the new birth, we are indwelt by the three-in-one Godhead through the Spirit put in us at the moment we repent and accept Christ’s atoning work on the cross. At that point, we are regenerated by a Sovereign work of God. We are placed into union with the Lord and all that He accomplished on the cross. His death becomes our death, and this death is the means of the power to die to the flesh nature in us. His resurrection life then begins to flow through us and out from us. Jesus invites us into this new creation life through His words in Luke 9:23, “If any person wills to come after Me, let him deny himself [disown himself, forget, lose sight of himself and his own interests, refuse and give up himself] and take up his cross daily and follow Me [cleave steadfastly to Me, conform wholly to My example in living and, if need be, in dying also].” [To further understand the way of dying to live, see Jessie Penn’ Lewis classic book, Dying to Live.]

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Let’s Say “Yes” to True Freedom this Fourth of July Season

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“So, if the Son sets you free from sin, 

then become a true son [of the Father, the Creator,] 

and be unquestionably free!” (John 8:36 TPT)

In our nation now, the understanding of freedom that’s out there in the culture is deceiving many. Voices that are influencing the dear hearts and minds of our fellow citizens are saying freedom is doing and having anything and everything one wants. In other words, freedom is license. The headlines and the dysfunctional relational life of the population at large attest to the destruction that results from such pursuits. 

Let’s consider another understanding of freedom and the purpose of life for which we are designed. And let’s consider that freedom is recovering that design. 

First, let’s admit that deep down inside we know there is a God, a Creator. Can we know Him and what He is like? Is there an ultimate fulfillment? The Bible has answers that we can experience in a way that we know that we know that what it declares comes from the heart and mind of God. The Bible reveals that Jesus is the Promised Messiah or the way back to Eden. When one meets this Son of God as Savior or Rescuer, one encounters the One who is the Way, the Truth, and the [Source of abundant] Life. (John 14:6; John 10:10) Another Kingdom opens. 

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Union of Wills

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Overcoming Hidden Pockets of Pride and Rebellion so as to Gain Christ;

Experience a Passionate Love Relationship with God;

Know Fruitfulness and Prayer that Prevails;

And Find Favor, Protection, and Soul Prosperity

Part One

The Father reveals the great dream in His heart for our inner life on earth in Paul’s letter to the Ephesians. He desires us to walk in an Edenic reality on the inside even as we exist in “the midst of a brutal and perverse culture.” (Phil. 2:15 TPT) Paul writes of this Eden within in his heavenly Epistle using these words: “that you may be filled [through all your being] unto all the fullness of God [may have the richest measure of the divine Presence, and become a body wholly filled and flooded with God Himself]!” (Eph. 3:19 AMPC) We look back to the Psalms to capture how pleasureful this fullness is. King David, who gave himself to hours and hours in the Old Testament version of a house of prayer, talked of drinking from “a river of thy delights,” “a wonderful river,” and “a refreshing stream.” (Psalm 36:8 KJV, ERV, HCSB). One more translation says of knowing God and imbibing His zoe life: “You give them water from your river, that makes them happy when they drink it.” (Psalm 36:8 EASY) 

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Overcoming Pride Blindedness

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At the end of my month at the Great Commission Intensive at the International House of Prayer in Kansas City, the Holy Spirit gave me a word of wisdom [see 1 Corinthians 12:8] for a brother called to high-level spiritual warfare who admitted he suffered from pride. I repeat this word for all of us: “War against pride as if your very life depended on it.” Today I read Zephaniah 2:3, and it says the same thing. “Seek the Lord [inquire for Him, inquire of Him, and require Him as the foremost necessity of your life], all you humble of the land who have acted in compliance with His revealed will and have kept His commandments; seek righteousness, seek humility [inquire for them, require them as vital]. It may be you will be hidden in the day of the Lord’s anger.”

Pride is a primal sin. It dates back to Eden. It’s very deep within us. And we who live to know and operate in the Truth – the Person Jesus Christ Who also comes in written form as the Word or Bible – must wage a real warfare against pride because pride so blinds. Let’s take a look at some verses and phrases from the Holy Bible that diagnose the condition of pride blindedness. 1 John 2:16 describes the society we came from this way: “For all that is in the world – the lust of the flesh [craving for sensual gratification] and the lust of the eyes [greedy longings of the mind] and the pride of life [assurance in one’s own resources or in the stability of earthly things] – these do not come from the Father but are from the world [itself].” In two places Old Testament prophets write: “the pride of your heart has deceived you.” [See Jeremiah 49:16 and Obadiah 1:3.] A phrase from Job 11:12 in the Amplified describes a proud man very blind to his true state: “…as when he thinks himself free because he is lifted up in pride.” Then Proverbs 11:2 teaches the spiritual yield of pride: “When swelling and pride come, then emptiness and shame come also, but with the humble (those who are lowly, who have been pruned or chiseled by trial, and renounce self) are skillful and godly Wisdom and soundness.”  Finally, Habakkuk 2:4 reveals there is a perversion or twistedness in the proud soul: “Look at the proud; his soul is not straight or right within him.”  Pride actually is “the sin of an uplifted heart against God and man” according to Mark 7:22 in the Amplified Bible.

Now that we see our desperate need, how can we get free from pride? How can we attain places of abject humility? First, we must have inside us a great desire to see God and to see the way forward in God. And also a great desire to walk as a kindred spirit to our Elder Brother and Pattern Son, Jesus. Matthew 5:8 tells us the truth, “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”  John writes in Revelation that it’s the salve or anointing of the Spirit that overcomes the Laodicean thinking of, “I am rich, I have prospered and grown wealthy, and I am in need of nothing.” The Living Bible proposes, “get medicine from Me to heal your eyes and give you back your sight.” Then, recognize with amazement that Jesus, the Lord of the whole universe, is humble and even lowly. And the more we become like Him, the more we will experience kinship with Him.

There is one more motivation before we get to warfare strategies for the assault against pride. Note these few straightforward verses revealing God’s posture when He sees pride in man. Amos records in 6:8, “The Lord, the God of hosts, says: I abhor, reject, and despise the pride and false, futile glory of Jacob (Israel).”  Proverbs 6:16-17 AMP declares that the Lord hates “a proud look [the spirit that makes one overestimate himself and underestimate others]” – it is an “abomination to Him.”  Proverbs 16:5 goes further: “Everyone proud and arrogant in heart is disgusting, hateful, and exceedingly offensive to the Lord.”  Then sense His favor on those who comport themselves in humility. 1 Peter 5:5 records, “For God sets Himself against the proud (the insolent, the overbearing, the disdainful, the presumptuous, the boastful) – [and He opposes, frustrates, and defeats them], but gives grace (favor, blessing) to the humble.”  The Psalmist agrees in 138:6 AMP, “For though the Lord is high, yet has He respect to the lowly [bringing them into fellowship with Him]; but the proud and haughty He knows and recognizes [only] at a distance.” And Mary, Jesus’ mother, confirms this same God in Luke 1:51, “He has scattered the proud and haughty in and by the imagination and purpose and designs of their hearts. He has put down the mighty from their thrones and exalted those of low degree…the rich He has sent away empty-handed – without a gift.” Isaiah 66:2 is the attitude of heart He wants: “This is the Lord’s declaration. 
I will look favorably on this kind of person:
  one who is humble, submissive in spirit, 
and trembles at My word.” David’s Psalm 25 tells us, “The humble He teaches His way.” 

Dating from my first steps with Jesus after I surrendered to and encountered Him around May 1995, I entered into the fight to stay in humility before the Lord. I had thick walls of pride to hack through as well as serious internal insecurities.  But I truly wanted to see; I desired in wholeheartedness to gain Christ. So whenever pride surfaced, I entered into the war of Spirit vs. flesh. I sought answers from the Lord and His Book, the Bible. Again and again I would go over the promises concerning humility and the precepts addressing pride. Victory sometimes took significant hours per week. The warfare involved hard labor. And in truth, growth in sustained humility took a number of years of perseverance. Today, often after a success, I find there are deeper cuts to go in attaining full freedom from my pride. However, praise the Lord God: because I have cooperated with Him, I now experience longer and longer stretches of clear, cool, good-tasting humility. Today, I only experience shorter or longer skirmishes against pride.

A key thing in overcoming pride is obedience to Psalm 119:11. Storing the Word in your heart does hold you back from sin. James 1:21 adds, “…in a humble (gentle, modest) spirit receive and welcome the Word which implanted and rooted [in your hearts] contains the power to save your souls.” The more verses you take in that warn against pride and promise humility the better. It’s essential to engraft the truth in your heart. The Holy Spirit then has Truth to work with. He brings up the Word just when you need it, and right at the threshold of thought, you can choose to think and declare words of humility over your soul. The idea is to literally become the Word in one area at a time. From John’s Gospel, Jesus is the Word made flesh. We, too, are to become a walking, talking, functioning Word of God. For example, when swelling rises up, say aloud Psalm 36:11, “Let not the foot of pride overtake me.” Or state the truth of Matthew 23:12 over your soul, “Whoever exalts himself with haughtiness and empty pride shall be humbled (brought low; and whoever humbles himself – who has a modest opinion of himself and behaves accordingly – shall be raised to honor.” You might have to do this a lot. I did.

Another key is commanding your soul to bow low. As much as you need to, speak with authority, “Soul, humble yourself before the Lord.” I have done this, at times, all through a morning or the better part of a day.  And over extended seasons. Once you have won some battles over pride and the Lord’s dominion over your soul within is more established, less work is required. As with other weapons, if you are vigilant and watchful and utilize this command at the very first sign of pride, a win will happen more quickly. Both James 4:10 and 1 Peter 5:6 direct us to humble ourselves. Along this line, take thoughts of pride and grandiose self-centered thoughts and projections captive to the obedience of Christ. Refuse such thoughts. In this, it helps to keep your inward gaze on Jesus. Dethrone feelings of pride by staying open to the heart of God.  Militantly cast down imaginations and high things that rise up against the Truth – the true knowledge of God found in Holy Writ. [See 2 Corinthians 10:5.]

Along with the Word, we need the Spirit. Welcome the Holy Spirit in full measure. Pray in the Spirit i.e. in tongues for extended hours.  Ask stronger saints to pray for you. James 4:5-6 reveals, “The Spirit Whom He has caused to dwell in us yearns over us – and He yearns for the Spirit [to be welcome] with a jealous love. But He gives us more and more grace [power of the Holy Spirit, to meet this evil tendency and all others fully].” After all, the Holy Spirit is the producer of humility, lowliness, and meekness or the grace to wear the Lord’s yoke – these are of His fruit. Too, God is our source of love. And the pursuit of agape love will deny envy, jealousy, vainglory, conceit, and pride a place in us. So 1 Corinthians 13:4-5 prescribes. “Charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up,” the King James says. At the point of testing, draw upon the Spirit inside. Pray: “Lord, Your love for brother John Doe or sister Jane Doe.” Pray: “Lord, You be humility in me.”

Another primary tactic is found in Galatians 2:20. Declare it this way: “Pride is crucified with Christ; pride no longer lives and reigns in me, but Christ reigns in me.” Use 2:20 as well for selfish ambition, self-exaltation, self-glorification, self-will or any traits of self-centered life. At the cross, we entered into the circumcision of the flesh – “the circumcision not made with hands” of Colossians 2:11. This “a spiritual circumcision [performed by] Christ by stripping off the body of the flesh (the whole corrupt carnal nature with its passions and lusts).” Now we can pray as needed, “Lord, cut away all pride, vainglory, and conceit.” “Uproot pride. Go to the very taproot.” Pray repeatedly until pride is subdued – until it is nailed down in the crucified position. Your aim is to once more experience an unblocked, free-flowing stream of the life of God from within, and taste His humility.

Insecurity turns out to be a root of pride. Because insecurity drives a soul to hunger for attention and recognition, the swelling of pride often results. In my own life, asking the Lord to heal my insecurities greatly lessened pride’s hold. What such a soul really needs is the unconditional love of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit – the intimacy (into-me-you-see) and expert nurture the Godhead so freely gives.  I have prayed with powerful results, “Lord I receive Your perfect love. I receive Your perfect nurture. I receive the acceptance I need from You.” Confidence has come. The humility of Christ has become my default mode. When the flesh-dominated self again seeks center stage,  state, “My drive for attention, recognition, adoration, and worship from others is crucified with Christ. Christ and His Christ-nature reign in me.” According to Galatians 2:20 PHILLIPS, “I died on the cross with Christ. And my present life is not that of the old “I”, but the living Christ within me.” The Amplified Version reads, “I have been crucified with Christ [that is, in Him I have shared His crucifixion]; it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. The life I now live in the body I live by faith [by adhering to, relying on, and completely trusting] in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself up for me.” Psalm 100:3 reveals the truth that slays seeking the place of God; “Know ye that the Lord he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves.” All glory to my Maker—my Designer. The Author and Perfector of my story. We must keep our gaze upon Him to overcome in general and definitely to overcome pride. Hebrews 12:2 AMP encourages, “focusing our eyes on Jesus, who is the Author and Perfecter of faith [the first incentive for our belief and the One who brings our faith to maturity] . . . ”

In and around people, especially around the Body of Christ, 1 Peter 5:5 is mandatory: “Clothe (apron) yourselves, all of you, with humility [as the garb of a servant, so that its covering cannot possibly be stripped from you, with freedom from pride and arrogance] toward one another.” Wear a servant’s garb by praying for the needs of others, and watch any inflated emotion, caused by an inordinate focus on yourself, subside. Continuously confess aloud Philippians 2:3, “I consider others (name them) more excellent – more highly than myself.” I encourage:  keep at this confession until it marks your heart and is grafted into your soul. Verse 4 explains how to obey verse 3:  Regard the virtues of others. Look to their interests above your own.

Also in Body and family and civic life, bear in mind Jesus’ teaching from Luke 14:7-10 – a lesson in humility. “Then he gave a little word of advice to the guests when he noticed how they were choosing the best seats. When you are invited to a wedding reception, don’t sit down in the best seat. It might happen that a more distinguished man than you has also been invited. Then your host might say, ‘I am afraid you must give up your seat for this man.’ And then, with considerable embarrassment, you will have to sit in the humblest place. No, when you are invited, go and take your seat in an inconspicuous place, so that when your host comes in he may say to you, ‘Come on, my dear fellow, we have a much better seat than this for you.’ That is the way to be important in the eyes of all your fellow-guests! For everyone who makes himself important will become insignificant, while the man who makes himself insignificant will find himself important.” Direct yourself at all times to go low.  The Apostle Paul considered himself last in the triumphal procession. [See 1 Corinthians 4:9.]

And most helpful in successful spiritual life is the practice of removing yourself to a place alone with the Lord and His Word after times of social life with fellow humans. Some duration given to prayer and the Word keeps you walking in just what the Word promises and keeps you dependent on the very Source of humility – Christ. You stay centered in Him. You stay anti-pride in your stance. Such a discipline reminds you that you are a container of Another. As you grow in grace upon grace, this right discernment protects you from spiritual pride or pride in your spiritual gifts and exploits. As John 15:5 reveals, “I am the Vine, you are the branches. Whoever lives in Me and I in him bears much (abundant) fruit. However, apart from Me – cut off from vital union with Me – you can do nothing.” Always know He is the Treasure; we are just the vessels.  2 Corinthians 4:7 puts it beautifully, “However, we possess this precious treasure [the divine Light of the Gospel] in [frail, human] vessels of earth, that the grandeur and exceeding greatness of the power may be shown to be from God and not from ourselves.” Emblazon this on your heart: to God belongs the glory and the thanksgiving for what He is making of you.

We have talked about using the Word to overcome the flesh. Know that you have to make your flesh submit to the Truth. At times, you must hammer your flesh down with powerful and pointed verses. At other junctures, you have to use the “sword” of the Word to cut through or hack through the flesh, specifically pride. When pride is hard to conquer, demons are likely involved as they feed on pride. In such cases, the all-powerful weapon of the blood works when you are not strong enough with other weapons. Remembering Jesus drenched in blood at the cross humbles us. But the cry aloud of “the blood, the blood, the blood of the Lamb Jesus Christ stands against you satanic forces” in the face of aggressive demonic spirits does prevail. [See Revelation 12:11.] Couple this with repentance for allowing pride in your heart. Ask the Lord to forgive you, and also forgive yourself. Follow with the prayer: “I loose myself from a spirit of pride.” Then command pride to go. All in Jesus’ name.

Finally, the call to humility is a call to know your true condition apart from Jesus, Savior and full Zoe Life Source. Jeremiah 17:9 instructs us well: “The heart is deceitful above all things, and it is exceedingly perverse and corrupt and severely, mortally sick! Who can know it [perceive, understand, be acquainted with his own heart and mind]?” Proverbs 3:5 adds, “Don’t ever trust yourself.” Thankfully we have the Lord.  We have the Healer of pride blindedness. And we can pray day after day Psalm 139, “O Lord, you have examined my heart and know everything about me…. When far away you know my every thought…. You know what I am going to say before I even say it…. I can never be lost to Your Spirit! I can never get away from God!… Search me, O God, and know my heart; test my thoughts. Point out anything You find in me that makes You sad (any hurtful way), and lead me along the path of everlasting life.”

A sequel to this post on hidden pride is in the works. SHAME is the major root of pride. This, the Lord has caused me to understand.

Key books on shame and overcoming shame are: Released from Shame: Moving Beyond the Pain of the Past by Sandra Wilson and Into Abba’s Arms: Finding the Acceptance You Have Always Wanted, also by Sandra.

A keyword search on blueletterbible.org re: the phrase “accepted in the Beloved” from Eph. 1:6. How glorious Abba’s acceptance of us truly is in the full study of this word! Thank You, Lord, for Your blood shed on the cross to gain humans the embrace of Abba again.

Readings I highly recommend in your pursuit of humility:

Humility by Andrew Murray

How to Get Rid of Self by Betty Green

Available from www.bettygreenministries.com

The Veil of Self by Art Katz

Online article at www.artkatzministries.org/articles/the-veil-of-self/

The Context of Humility in the Cosmic Purposes of God by Art Katz online at http://artkatzministries.org/articles/the-context-of-humility-in-the-cosmic-purposes-of-god/

Walking in the Spirit by Katherine Bell

YouTube videos on humility by Pastor Bryan Wright of Boomerang Church, Albemarle, NC.

Request by email katherinefbell@me.com

In the end:

Daniel 4:17 “This sentence is by the decree of the [heavenly] watchers and the decision is by the word of the holy ones, to the intent that the living may know that the Most High [God] rules the kingdom of mankind and gives it to whomever He will and sets over it the humblest and lowliest of men.” 

If this blog blessed you, and you’d like to support my writing labors, please consider donating via PayPal or Venmo (@Katherine-Bell-micro.)

Zelle katherinefbell@icloud.com.

Blessings in return—

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