So You Really Think You Are So Humble? : Part 4

SO YOU REALLY THINK YOU ARE SO HUMBLE? : PART 4

Copyright 1994 - 2008 Endtime Prophecy Net

Last Updated : July 23, 2006

Defining True Humility, Wedding Feast And Being Clothed With
Humility, Humility Lowliness And Submission, Our Daily Cross
Under-Cover Christians, Christ's Humble Example, The Mind Of
Christ, Faith But No Works?, Mighty Hand Of God, In The Mud!
Rebellion Of King Saul, One Of Two Masters, Self-Idolatry,
Cloak Of Humility, Grace To Obey, Brotherly Submission, What
We Need When We Need It, Yes No Or Wait, Satan's Reprobates,
The Muslim Deception, Fruit Of Humility, Closing Remarks!

Believe it or not, most people do not understand true
humility according to the Biblical definition. Quite often
we hear the phrase, 'he grew up in humble surroundings'. The
immediate picture which forms in our mind, is that the
person in question grew up in a poor environment. Maybe his
mother stayed home with the seven children, while dad was
forced to work at two low-paying job because that is all his
education could get him. Or perhaps we think of someone who
grew up the slum or ghetto of some major city in the world.
Well, Biblically-speaking, this is not what it means to be
humble. Sometimes we also hear it said of a certain person,
'he is really a humble soul'. The implication is that the
person is probably soft-spoken and self-effacing. They often
gives the credit to others for things which they have
accomplished. These kinds of people can be humble, but this
still is not a full accurate description of true humility
according to the Bible. As the following two verses reveal,
being humble is actually a mental and a spiritual attitude
which one must acquire:

"Serving the Lord with all humility of mind, and with many
tears, and temptations, which befell me by the lying in wait
of the Jews:" (Acts 20:19)

"Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in
lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than
themselves." (Philippians 2:3)

In the above verses, the words 'humility' and 'lowliness'
are derived from the same Greek word 'tapeinophrosune',
pronounced tap-i-nof-ros-oo'-nay, which means to have a
humble opinion of one's self, or a deep sense of one's moral
littleness. It is also described as modesty, humility or
lowliness of mind. Exactly how does one go about acquiring
this attitude of humility? As we saw earlier, it cannot be a
self-righteous work of the flesh, any more than the gift of
Salvation can be a self-righteous work of the flesh. It may
surprise you to know that the way we receive humility is
similar to the way we received our Salvation. In my article
'The Gospel Of Thomas: Introspection Or Heaven-spection?', I
share the Lord's parable concerning the man who entered the
wedding feast without a wedding garment. I then explain that
the garment is symbolic of the righteousness of the Saints
as is explained in the Book of Revelation. The garment which
this man failed to wear is synonymous with the white linen
worn by the Bride of Christ at the Marriage Supper of the
Lamb. The following verses confirm this fact:

"He that overcometh, the same shall be clothed in white
raiment; and I will not blot out his name out of the book of
life, but I will confess his name before my Father, and
before his angels." (Revelation 3:5)

"I counsel thee to buy of me gold tried in the fire, that
thou mayest be rich; and white raiment, that thou mayest be
clothed, and that the shame of thy nakedness do not appear;
and anoint thine eyes with eyesalve, that thou mayest see."
(Revelation 3:18)

"After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no
man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people,
and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb,
clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands;"
(Revelation 7:9)

"And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine
linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the
righteousness of saints." (Revelation 19:8)

As all Christians know, this righteousness comes only
through faith in the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ, and no other
way. We cannot merit it through our own 'good' works as the
following verses clearly demonstrate:

"For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of
yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any
man should boast." (Ephesians 2:8-9)

"Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but
according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of
regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;" (Titus 3:5)

Just as the Lord is the one who chooses to clothe us with
Salvation, He is also the one who chooses to clothe us with
humility, because we, by our own sinful nature, desire the
exact opposite. Just like the man who proudly thought he
could sneak into the Wedding Supper by doing things his own
way, in our pride, we also want to be our own boss. We want
to run our own lives. We want to rule the Earth our own way
without any help from God. Sadly, the past six thousand
years clearly reveal what happens when we try to do things
our way, instead of submitting ourselves to The Boss and
doing things His way. Notice in the following two sets of
verses that not only are we told that we must be clothed in
humility, but we are told exactly how the process works:

"But he giveth more grace. Wherefore he saith, God resisteth
the proud, but giveth grace unto the humble. Submit
yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will
flee from you. Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to
you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts,
ye double minded. Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep: let
your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to
heaviness. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and
he shall lift you up." (James 4:6-10)

"Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder.
Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed
with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace
to the humble. Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty
hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time:"
(1 Peter 5:5-6)

In the previous verses, the first word 'humble' is derived
from the same Greek root word as the two words we looked at
earlier; 'humility' and 'lowliness'. This is the word
'tapeinos', pronounced tap-i-nos', which means not rising
far from the ground, of low degree, brought low with grief,
depressed, lowly in spirit, humble. In the same verses, the
word 'submit' is derived from the Greek word 'hupotasso',
which is pronounced hoop-ot-as'-so. This word means to
arrange under, to subordinate, to put in subjection or to
subject one's self, to obey or to submit to one's control,
to yield to one's admonition or advice. The second word
'humble' is derived from almost the same Greek word as the
first. It is the word 'tapeinoo', which is pronounced
tap-i-no'-o. This word means to make low or bring low, to
bring into a humble condition, to assign a lower rank or
place, to abase, to bring down one's pride, to have a modest
opinion of one's self, to behave in an unassuming manner
devoid of all haughtiness.

As can be seen by the previous definitions, in the Biblical
context, the words 'humility', 'lowliness' and 'submission'
basically mean the very same thing. They are all comparative
words. One person's status is being compared with that of
another. For we Christians, our status is being compared
with God's status. Humility is synonymous with submission,
and submission is synonymous with humility. We cannot submit
to God's Will unless we are humble, and we are not humble
unless we submit to God's Will; and that is the key to
overcoming our pride. God cannot clothe us with humility
unless we surrender our minds, our hearts, our lives, our
wills and our pride to Him. As Paul beautifully states in
his Epistle to the Romans, and as I clearly explain in my
article 'What Is God's Will For My Life?', to find God's
Will, we must begin with no will of our own, other than to
want to do His Will. We must deny ourselves and take up our
symbolic cross daily, as Jesus said, and present our bodies
a living sacrifice in daily service to others. Consider the
following verses:

"And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let
him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow
me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: but
whosoever will lose his life for my sake, the same shall
save it." (Luke 9:23-24)

"I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God,
that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy,
acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. And
be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the
renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good,
and acceptable, and perfect, will of God." (Romans 12:1-2)

This daily submission to God's Will, this daily humbling
ourselves before our Creator in order to fulfill His plan
and His purpose for our lives, is half of the solution. As
we have already seen, the problem is that most of us simply
do not want to do this. We all want the benefits of our
Salvation, but then most of us stop right there. We don't
want to have to give up our comfortable selfish lives of
materialistic living. We say we are Christians, but many of
us are only under-cover Christians. No one else knows that
we are Christians except we ourselves; and of course those
who may attend the same fellowship as we do. The rest of the
world can't tell the difference; because most of us continue
to act and live exactly the same as we did before our day of
Salvation. In other words, we keep doing things our own way
instead of God's way. Totally contrary to Jesus' words, we
hide our light under a bushel; so we are truly under-cover
Christians:

"Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an
hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put
it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light
unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine
before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify
your Father which is in heaven." (Matthew 5:14-16)

Naturally, the Lord isn't too happy about this situation.
Consider the facts. Our Lord was willing to leave His
Heavenly Estate in order to come down to Earth, and to take
on the form of lowly human flesh. During the final years of
His life, He was willing to be scoffed at and to be publicly
humiliated. Ultimately, during the final day of His life, He
was willing to be horribly tortured, and then to die an
agonizing death on the Cross. The Apostle Paul summed it up
quite well when he wrote:

"Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus:
Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be
equal with God: But made himself of no reputation, and took
upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness
of men: And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled
himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of
the cross. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and
given him a name which is above every name: That at the name
of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and
things in earth, and things under the earth;"
(Philippians 2:5-10)

There are some very important things I would like you to
notice here. First of all, notice that exactly as we saw in
the verses from James' Epistle, Paul also equates humility
to submission and obedience. He says of Christ, 'he humbled
himself, and became obedient unto death'. The Greek word
used here is the very same one we saw earlier. It is the
word 'tapeinoo'. If it still isn't clear to you, that word
'servant' is derived from the Greek 'doulos', pronounced
doo'-los, which means a slave, bondman, or man of servile
condition. Jesus Christ became His Father's slave. He bowed
Himself in submission to His Father's Will, even to the
death of the Cross. He obeyed. So again we see that true
humility is simply a spiritual attitude of being submissive
to the Will of God. Paul tells us that Jesus agonized over
His decision to do His Father's Will. Even though He was the
Son of God, He was in weak human flesh; and it was not easy
for Him to contemplate the immense pain and suffering which
He would soon experience:

"Who in the days of his flesh, when he had offered up
prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto
him that was able to save him from death, and was heard in
that he feared; Though he were a Son, yet learned he
obedience by the things which he suffered;"
(Hebrews 5:7-8)

"For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so
by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous."
(Romans 5:19)

It should now be clear to you that true humility is a mental
attitude of knowing who is the Real Boss in your life. It is
knowing who is in control of your life; and it is obeying
and reverencing Him, and doing His Will, and not your own.
This is precisely why Paul starts out those verses in
Philippians by stating 'Let this mind be in you, which was
also in Christ Jesus'. He is telling us that we need to have
the same spiritual attitude towards our Heavenly Father as
did Christ; which he then goes on to explain in more detail.
That phrase 'Let this mind be in you, which was also in
Christ Jesus' is synonymous with those two phrases we read
earlier; 'all humility of mind' and 'in lowliness of mind'.
This is precisely what the Lord was referring to when He
spoke the following verses found at the end of the eleventh
chapter of Matthew:

"Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I
will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me;
for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest
unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is
light." (Matthew 11:28-30)

When Jesus said that He was meek and lowly in heart, He
meant that He was submissive to His Father's Will. He wasn't
talking about being soft-spoken. Our Lord was anything but
soft-spoken. Time and time again He blasted the hypocritical
Scribes and Pharisees. That word 'lowly' is derived from one
of the words we have already discussed before; 'tapeinos'.
Jesus knew who had rightful authority over His life. He was
comparing His status with that of His Father's. He had no
doubts concerning what was expected of Him as His Father's
slave who had come down to the Earth to take upon Himself
the sins of the wicked world. Throughout the four Gospels,
the Lord emphasized over and over again the importance of
doing His Father's Will, and not His own. Consider these
verses:

"Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter
into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my
Father which is in heaven." (Matthew 7:21)

"For whosoever shall do the will of God, the same is my
brother, and my sister, and mother." (Mark 3:35)

"Jesus saith unto them, My meat is to do the will of him
that sent me, and to finish his work." (John 4:34)

"For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but
the will of him that sent me. And this is the Father's will
which hath sent me, that of all which he hath given me I
should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the
last day. And this is the will of him that sent me, that
every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may
have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last
day." (John 6:38-40)

This was and continues to be the mind of Christ; to humbly
submit ourselves to the Will of God. Let me say it again;
submission and obedience equal humility. In his first
Epistle to the Corinthians, when Paul is discussing the
difference between the attitude of the people of the world
who only seek to do their own will, and the attitude of the
born-again believers, he states in part:

"Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the
spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that
are freely given to us of God. Which things also we speak,
not in the words which man's wisdom teacheth, but which the
Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with
spiritual. But the natural man receiveth not the things of
the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him:
neither can he know them, because they are spiritually
discerned. But he that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet
he himself is judged of no man. For who hath known the mind
of the Lord, that he may instruct him? But we have the mind
of Christ." (1 Corinthians 2:12-16)

You see, no matter how you understand those verses, to be
instructed of God, or even to instruct others in the ways of
God, we must first have the mind of Christ; which means that
we must be submitted to the Will of God in our own lives
first, just as Christ was. Sadly, when most of us hear this
call to humble submission, we tend to say, 'Thanks Lord for
the Gift of Salvation, but that is all that I really want
from You; and that is all that I am willing to do for you in
return'. We may call Him Lord and Saviour, but do we really
do the things that He asks of us? Do we submit to Him in all
humility? Surely, the following verses speak to all of our
hearts:

"And why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things which
I say?" (Luke 6:46)

"For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith
without works is dead also." (James 2:26)

Well, our Heavenly Father is a very wise Father, and He has
a way of helping us to finally see the light; and in this
case, that light is knowing that 'Father Knows Best'; and I
am not talking about Robert Young who played the 1950's -
60's television character!

Earlier I shared some verses from Peter's second Epistle in
which he stated in part 'Humble yourselves therefore under
the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time'.
As we have already seen in this series, this is a lesson
which proud Peter certainly learned through his own bitter
experiences. In fact, not only did all of the first Apostles
and their successors have to learn this valuable lesson, but
every man and woman of God must learn it before the Lord is
able to effectively use them. In the Christian world today,
sometimes when we see the Lord's Hand in a picture or a
painting, it is resting on someone's shoulder as He leads
them up the Path of Life. They are usually seen walking side
by side as friends; for as Jesus Himself said:

"Henceforth I call you not servants; for the servant knoweth
not what his lord doeth: but I have called you friends; for
all things that I have heard of my Father I have made known
unto you." (John 15:15)

However, if we are proud and rebellious, that Hand might not
always be resting lightly on our shoulder in an encouraging
way. Sometimes, in a figurative sense, that 'mighty hand of
God' might be pushing down on us quite heavily. In fact, the
Lord might have His Hands on both of our shoulders as He
sternly but lovingly forces us to bow to His Will. If we
stubbornly continue to resist what He knows is best for us,
He might just decide to give us a real swat so that we take
a nosedive into the mud! Sometimes, it is only after we have
repeatedly fallen flat on our faces due to our pride, and
our stubbornness in wanting to do things our own way, that
we can finally humbly look up out of the mud and ask the
Lord for His help. Consider the following verses:

"Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit
before a fall." (Proverbs 16:18)

"He brought me up also out of an horrible pit, out of the
miry clay, and set my feet upon a rock, and established my
goings." (Psalms 40:2)

"Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto
thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him,
and he shall direct thy paths." (Proverbs 3:5-6)

This process of being swatted down by the Lord may be one of
the hardest ways, but it is definitely also one of the best
ways to learn true humility and submission to God's Will. I
should point out though, that it doesn't always bear the
good fruit that the Lord is hoping for. This is because it
is not often that the Lord will override human free will. As
we saw earlier, God resists the proud. If we continue to
resist His Will for our lives, especially to where our poor
example of humility is being detrimental to the overall work
of the Lord, He may just choose to dispose of us and throw
us on His scrapheap. Proud King Saul was one such case. He
resisted and he resisted; and God did not take it lightly!
Saul was responsible for the welfare of an entire nation.
When the showdown finally came, the Lord had the Prophet
Samuel say to Saul:

"And Samuel said, Hath the LORD as great delight in burnt
offerings and sacrifices, as in obeying the voice of the
LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to
hearken than the fat of rams. For rebellion is as the sin of
witchcraft, and stubbornness is as iniquity and idolatry.
Because thou hast rejected the word of the LORD, he hath
also rejected thee from being king." (1 Samuel 15:22-23)

Those are very strong words! Because of his stubborn
rebellious heart, and his utter refusal to do things God's
way instead of his own way, Saul lost the kingdom. But why
in the world would the Lord compare rebellion to witchcraft,
and stubborness to idolatry? The answer to this question is
found in several other verses found throughout the Bible. In
the Lord's Eyes, there are really only two basic choices:

"I call heaven and earth to record this day against you,
that I have set before you life and death, blessing and
cursing: therefore choose life, that both thou and thy seed
may live:" (Deuteronomy 30:19)

"And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you
this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your
fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or
the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for
me and my house, we will serve the LORD." (Joshua 24:15)

"And Elijah came unto all the people, and said, How long
halt ye between two opinions? if the LORD be God, follow
him: but if Baal, then follow him. And the people answered
him not a word." (1 Kings 18:21)

"No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the
one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one,
and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon."
(Matthew 6:24)

In short, we are either serving El Shaddai, the Almighty
God, or else we are serving Satan, regardless of what local
name he may go by. To rebel against God's Will in our lives
is akin to witchcraft because it is devil worship. It is
either one or the other. As popular American music artist
Bob Dylan once sang, 'Now it may be the devil, or it may be
the Lord, but you gotta serve somebody'; and that is the
absolute truth! Either we are serving the God of Heaven by
humbly submitting ourselves to His Will in daily sacrifice
to others, or else we are serving the god of this world;
Satan; the prince of the power of the air who works in all
of the children of disobedience:

"In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of
them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious
gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto
them." (2 Corinthians 4:4)

"Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of
this world, according to the prince of the power of the air,
the spirit that now worketh in the children of
disobedience:" (Ephesians 2:2)

But why does the Lord have the Prophet Samuel compare
stubbornness to idolatry? The answer which immediately came
to my mind is that when we stubbornly refuse to follow God's
Will for our life, we are in effect idolizing ourselves. We
are idolizing our own mind, our own wisdom, our own plans,
and our own ego. Like Satan, because of our pride, we think
that we know better than God Himself. We become gods in our
own minds; but these are all false gods; and thus it is
idolatry in the Lord's Eyes. Both Jesus and the Apostle
James exposed the folly of making our own plans which may be
contrary to the Lord's plans when they said:

"Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow
shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto
the day is the evil thereof." (Matthew 6:34)

"Go to now, ye that say, To day or to morrow we will go into
such a city, and continue there a year, and buy and sell,
and get gain: Whereas ye know not what shall be on the
morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that
appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away. For
that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live, and
do this, or that. But now ye rejoice in your boastings: all
such rejoicing is evil." (James 4:13-16)

As a final note on the sad story of King Saul, you might
find it interesting to know that because of his pride and
his stubborness, Saul did in fact choose the way of death as
Moses had spoken hundreds of years before. It was shortly
after Saul's fall from grace that both he and his sons died
in battle at the hands of their Philistine enemies.

Normally, however, I don't believe that the Lord employs
such strong measures, unless we are extremely important to
His overall Work. I tend to believe that His normal mode of
operation is to let us stubbornly go our own way until we
learn through our own sufferings, brought on by our own
stupid mistakes, that He truly knows what is best for us. As
with Christ, it is through our sufferings and breakings that
we truly learn obedience and submission. It is in this way
that He strips us of our cloak of pride, and places upon our
shoulders the mantle of humility. It is His doing, and not
our own. It is simply not a human trait to want to be
clothed in humility.

What is interesting about the Lord's humbling and breaking
process, is that the more we yield ourselves to our Father's
Will, the easier it becomes for us to continue to submit to
His Will. This is because, as I shared earlier from the
Epistle of James, '...he giveth more grace. Wherefore he
saith, God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the
humble'. In short, He will give us the grace to obey, once
we show our desire, and put forth our effort to obey. The
Apostle Paul taught the very same thing. He wrote:

"And he said unto me, My grace is sufficient for thee: for
my strength is made perfect in weakness. Most gladly
therefore will I rather glory in my infirmities, that the
power of Christ may rest upon me." (2 Corinthians 12:9)

In addition, as James also wrote, 'Draw nigh to God, and he
will draw nigh to you'. So the more effort we make to do
what is right in His sight, instead of stubbornly doing what
we want to do, the easier it becomes for everyone involved.
Finally, James states, 'Humble yourselves in the sight of
the Lord, and he shall lift you up'. As we continue to
submit ourselves to Him, He will honour our obedience and
lift us up; presumably above our brethren; perhaps as He did
with Joseph and his eleven brethren. As I said earlier,
Peter taught the same thing when he wrote:

"Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder.
Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed
with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace
to the humble. Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty
hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time:"
(1 Peter 5:5-6)

Notice that walking humbly before the Lord by submitting
ourselves to His Will, has an exponential effect. The more
we submit to God's Will in our lives, the easier it also
becomes for us to submit to those who may have spiritual
authority in our lives, whether it be our own husband, or
our parents, or perhaps spiritual elders in our particular
Christian fellowship, whatever form it may take. In short,
we can only yield to each other in direct proportion to how
much we are yielded to the Lord. We cannot possibly say we
are yielded to our Heavenly Father as long as we remain
unyielded to our spiritual overseers here on the Earthly
plane.

Now that you have read this series, you should have a clear
understanding of what it truly means to be humble according
to God's Holy Word. Being humble does not just mean growing
up in poor surroundings as the world would have us to
believe. Being humble does not just mean being soft-spoken
and self-effacing. There are many poor people in the world
who are soft-spoken and self-effacing, but this does not
necessarily mean that they are humble; that is, submitted to
God's Will in their lives. Many of these people are very
hard-hearted and either don't believe in God, or else they
don't have very much respect for Him. Being humble does not
just mean performing outward acts of piety for all to see
such as some modern Christians tend to do.

I am now going to share with you a short true-life story
which clearly demonstrates some of these points. While I was
working on the last part of this series, the Lord reminded
me of a small incident which occurred to me just a few days
ago. Sometimes the Lord allows certain incidents to happen
to us which we do not understand at the moment they occur;
however, if we are patient, sooner or later He will reveal
His purpose and His plan to us. As we read in the Book of
Isaiah:

"For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your
ways my ways, saith the LORD. For as the heavens are higher
than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my
thoughts than your thoughts." (Isaiah 55:8-9)

As some of my readers know, whenever I am out in public, I
always try to remember to take my little nylon waist pouch
with me. I actually refer to it as my 'seed pouch' because
it contains my 'Gospel seeds'; that is, my homemade Gospel
tracts. Whether I am at the store, or waiting at the bus
stop, or at the post office, or standing in line waiting to
take care of personal business, I try to pass out a few
tracts. Sometimes I'll pass out up to perhaps fifty tracts
during one outing. On this particular day, I was having an
usually rough time. Things were just not going as easily as
I had expected; and I was a bit frustrated and moody. Well,
I finally finished taking care of my personal business and
was waiting at the bus stop for the shuttle to arrive.

While there are normally a lot of people at this particular
bus stop to whom I can witness, at that time there were only
two persons; a man and a woman. As is my way, I offered both
of them a tract to read. In the short conversation that
followed, I discovered that, according to them, they were
both homeless. The man was the first to speak; and he
informed me that he had been praying for fifteen years for
the Lord to provide him with a place to live; however, as
far as I could tell, his attitude was not one of brokeness
and humility, but rather it seemed more like he was judging
God for not taking better care of him. I recall that at
several points in our conversation, he said something like,
'I need money. Why doesn't God give me money?'. Again, I did
not sense any sincerity in his words; and more than that, I
did not sense any godly fear or reverence either.

The only thing the Lord gave me to share with this man, was
something which I have learned myself through personal
experience; and that is that the Lord always gives us what
we need, when we need it. Sadly, I seriously doubt that he
even understood what I meant by that statement. As I shared
earlier in this series:

"But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit
of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he
know them, because they are spiritually discerned."
(1 Corinthians 2:14)

That man was probably thinking to himself, 'Well, if God
gives us what we need when we need it, then why don't I have
a place to live or any money? I've been praying for fifteen
years!'. You see, the witness of the Spirit I received, is
that if this man truly had been praying for fifteen long
years, which I honestly doubt, it certainly wasn't with the
right attitude. I don't believe that God is so limited in
power that He requires fifteen years to answer a prayer if
He truly wants to answer it. As I also told this man, God
usually answers yes, no or wait. What I basically was trying
to tell him without offending him, was that God had indeed
given him exactly what he needed at the moment, but that he
simply failed to recognize it. It seemed to me that through
his homelessness and his poverty, the Lord was trying to
break his proud, haughty and accusatory spirit. The Lord was
waiting for him to stop praying 'Lord, why haven't you
provided for me? What's wrong with you Lord?' and start
humbly praying, 'Please forgive me for my pride and other
sins in my life, and for accusing you falsely. Please
provide for me Lord'. The latter is a true attitude of
humility before our Creator, and not the former.

The homeless woman, if she was indeed homeless, surprised me
even more. She was standing very close to the other man, and
had heard every word that I had spoken to him. Upon giving
her a tract, she noticed the addresses on the back of it and
quipped, 'What's this, a gimmick?'. I tried to explain to
her that there was no gimmick, and that no one was asking
her for any money. She was just as hostile in attitude as
the man; and after a few short exchanges, she told me that
she believed that God makes mistakes. Although she didn't
come right out and say it directly, the implication seemed
to be that God had made a mistake with her by allowing her
to become homeless. This statement really surprised me, so I
asked her again, and she confirmed that this was truly what
she believed; that is, that God makes mistakes; that He is
not perfect. As Christians, we all know that this simply is
not true. God does not make mistakes. As I have quoted many
times before:

"And we know that all things work together for good to them
that love God, to them who are the called according to his
purpose." (Romans 8:28)

I immediately sensed that she was just like the man in her
attitude, and that nothing I would say was going to make her
think any differently. That this woman would even say such a
thing, clearly showed me that, like the man, she had no real
fear of the Lord; and I was very candid with them both and
told them so. After making her outrageous statement, this
woman then tried to lecture me on how to be a good listener
in order to properly witness to people. I quickly realized
that I was dealing with two of Satan's reprobates who were
simply trying to give me a hard time and discourage me even
further. Well, as some of you know, Jesus specifically told
us to not cast our pearls before swine; that is, to not
share His Word with the unworthy who really don't wish to
receive it:

"Give not that which is holy unto the dogs, neither cast ye
your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their
feet, and turn again and rend you." (Matthew 7:6)

So, following the Lord's advice, I decided to take my leave
by going to the other side of the bus shelter. Within a few
minutes, an elderly man sat down next to me, and we began to
engage in friendly conversation. As I think about it now, I
don't know where he came from, as I don't recall seeing
anyone else at the bus stop while I was talking with those
two people; although he could have approached unawares to me
from an angle outside of my view. At any rate, he knew what
we had been talking about, and immediately began to talk to
me about free moral agency and our pre-existence in the
Heavenly Realm. I don't doubt that we would have had a very
interesting conversation; but alas, my bus arrived and I had
to leave him with the words still in his mouth; but not
before apologizing to him for my quick departure.

No doubt you can see how this incident with these two poor
people is relevant to this current series. It is truly
amazing to me how the Lord often allows certain incidents to
occur in my life, which He knows will later find their way
into an article. This story is a prime example of how the
world defines things vastly different from the way the Lord
sees them. A worldly mind might view these people as two
poor humble persons who were the sad victims of certain
circumstances which had occurred in their lives; in God's
Eyes, however, I seriously doubt that He sees anything
humble about them whatsoever. In fact, as I have already
stated, I would think that He would be very upset by their
proud defiant attitudes. These kinds of experiences are
supposed to break and humble us, and not make us bitter and
even more rebellious against the Lord.

As a final small example of how twisted worldly views are
compared to what we are taught in the Bible, consider the
Islamic faith. As I point out in my controversial article
'The Holy Qur'an: Doctrine Of Devils!', the word 'muslim',
or 'moslem' if you prefer, actually means one who submits
himself to the Will of God. This is a very big thing with
the Muslims. It is something of which they are extremely
proud; however, if you read the aforementioned article, you
will quickly realize that the last thing the Muslims do is
submit themselves to the Will of God in all humility. In
fact, they are in open rebellion against God's Will. As we
saw earlier in this series, God's highest Will for all men
everywhere, regardless of ethnic origin, is that they accept
the Sacrifice of His dear Son for the remission of their
sins. As Jesus said:

"...This is the work of God, that ye believe on him whom he
hath sent." (John 6:29b)

"And this is the will of him that sent me, that every one
which seeth the Son, and believeth on him, may have
everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day."
(John 6:40)

Despite this Universal Truth, while Muslims claim to accept
Jesus Christ as a great prophet, their holy book, the
Qur'an, is full of verses which deny His Divine Sonship. It
repeats over and over again that God does not have a Son,
and that Jesus did not die for the sins of the world. He was
only a prophet like Moses, but not the Saviour of the world.
In fact, Muslims are taught that Muhammad, or Mohammed, is
the greatest prophet who has ever lived. So tell me, how is
it that the Muslims can claim to be submitted to the Will of
God when they deny the most basic Truth of the entire Bible?
It is all a lie. It is a deception. They can claim to be
humble; they can claim to be submitted to the Will of God;
but don't you believe it!

Before concluding this series, let me ask you; what about
you? Do you really think that you are so humble? Do you
truly believe that you are submitted to God's Will in your
life? Or are you so full of pride that you rebel against the
Lord, and complain against the Lord? Do you know how to
humbly submit to godly correction through your brethren in
the Lord when God requires it of you? Remember, as Jesus
said in the Gospel of Matthew:

"Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them."
(Matthew 7:20)

If you are truly humble, that is, yielded to the Lord, it
will be manifested in your life in some way. It will bear
positive fruit for His Kingdom. This means that not only
will it bear good fruit in your personal life, but more
importantly, you will bear positive lasting fruit in the
lives of others; for as Jesus said:

"Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained
you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your
fruit should remain: that whatsoever ye shall ask of the
Father in my name, he may give it you." (John 15:16)

As we have now seen, if there is one thing which can stand
in our way of being what God truly wants us to be, and if
there is one thing which can separate us from our brethren
in the Lord, it is our own pride. Pride is a spiritual
growth inhibitor, and not a growth stimulant. It causes us
to fall down, and not to sprout upwards; although in the
long run, what may appear to be a fall downwards in our
eyes, God can indeed turn into great victory, if we learn
the lessons He is trying to teach us. I also discuss the
topic of following the Lord's path more fully in the article
'Are You Clean Every Whit?'. I encourage you to read it when
you have the chance.

In closing, I pray that this series will serve as a catalyst
to motivate all of us to truly search our hearts. I pray
that it will convict all of us to be more humble servants of
the Lord who strive to do His Will, and not our own. If you
personally are not sure what God's Will is for your life, or
if you do not know how to find God's Will for your life,
allow me to again encourage you to read the article 'What Is
God's Will For My Life?'. It will offer you some sound
Scriptural advice for making sure that you are in the center
of His Will. If you are, then His Word promises us;

"Delight thyself also in the LORD; and he shall give thee
the desires of thine heart." (Psalms 37:4)

Lest some of you feel a bit discouraged after reading this
series, please remember that none of us have arrived yet.
None of us have attained. None of us have apprehended as
Paul wrote. We are all still vessels in the making. We are
still 'under construction'. We have not yet been perfected.
We still have problems with our pride and with other sins of
the flesh which we must battle against daily. As long as we
are in this life, the Lord will continue to break and to
mold us into the people that He wants us to be. As far as I
can tell, this is a life-long process which may not even end
at physical death. As I have suggested in other articles, we
may have to continue learning on the next level. Just please
remember, the Lord does not expect perfection in the flesh.
What He does expect is that we have willing minds and hearts
to do His Will. This is true humility. This is true
submission. I pray that this series has been instructional,
and a blessing in your life.