Humility

I have wanted to write about the humility of our Father, but I haven't quite known the meaning of the quality of humility. I don't think we can know it, until the circumstances of life have brought us to the condition and experience of humility. We think we know how to be humble, and scripture tells us to have the quality of humility, but I don't think we truly know what it is.
The dictionary defines humility as "a way of behaving that shows that you do not think that you are better or more important than other people". Another definition is "the quality of having a modest or low view of one's importance." It comes from the Latin word humilitatem meaning "lowness, insignificance".
1 Peter 5:5-6 says in part,
"...Yes, all of you be submissive to one another, and be clothed with humility, for
'God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble'.
Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, 
that He may exalt you in due time." 
The word humility used here means "a sense of one's littleness", from a root word which means "not rising from the ground, lowly in spirit, humble."

The Proverbs tell us repeatedly the rewards of humility:
"By humility and fear of the LORD are riches and honor and life."

"The fear of the LORD is the instruction of wisdom, and before honor is humility."

"Before destruction the heart of a man is haughty, and before honor is humility."
                                                                        Proverbs 22:4, 15:33, 18:12 

Those who are entrusted with honor, are those who have the quality of humility first. In man's heart is the desire for honor and acknowledgement, the desire for eminence and respect from our fellow man. This is the exact opposite of humility. Jesus said that it was those who humbled themselves that would be the ones to be exalted (Mt.23:12). He also said as the disciples debated who was greatest among themselves, that the greater one is the one who serves, not the one who rules. He told them that He, Himself, was among them as One who serves (Lk. 22:26-27). Jesus turned down worldy kingdoms offered to Him, in order to be a servant of His Father (Mt. 4:8-10). And as we know, Jesus did as the Father showed Him to do. So if Jesus came as a servant, that same servanthood exists in the Father.


Humility is also essential in prayer before the LORD:
"If My people, who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sins and heal their land."                      2 Chron. 7:14

Being humble is the first requirement in the verse above. It is of the first importance.
This same quality in prayer is repeated in other scriptures:

"Because your heart was tender, and you humbled yourself before God when you heard His words against this place and against its inhabitants, and you humbled yourself before Me, and you tore your clothes and wept before Me, I also have heard you, says the LORD."
(Spoken by the LORD through the prophetess Huldah to King Josiah.)  
                                                          2 Chron. 34:27

"LORD, You have heard the desire of the humble;
You will prepare their heart;
You will cause Your ear to hear."
                                                          Psalm 10:17 

The highest realms of the Kingdom of God are inhabited by the humble, and the Father inhabits that place with them. The greatest spiritual heights, the most exalted of the holies, the place where the Father lives, is the place of humility. He fills it, and it surrounds Him, and in that place of humility where He dwells, revival is found:

"For thus says the high and Lofty One
Who inhabits eternity,
Whose name is holy:
I dwell in the high and holy place,
with him who has a contrite and humble spirit,
to revive the spirit of the humble,
and to revive the heart of the contrite ones."
                                                       Isa. 57:15   

To "revive" above means to be delivered from sickness and discouragement, from faintness and death. It means to restore and preserve. It is a place of revelation, breath, and life. To inhabit that place, to be with Him, we must be like Him. 

Luke 21:1-3 (Fran's Amplified Version)

“And Jesus, the Son of Man, the Savior, received sight, beheld, took heed of and discerned with His Spirit Eye, the rich men (the wealthy, the abundantly supplied, the ones to be completed and filled with the Holy Ghost) casting (throwing, casting out, letting go of)  their gifts (what’s supposed to be the expressions of honor for God, their supposed sacrificial offerings) without even caring where it fell or to what purpose it would be used for) into the treasury (into the place where the treasures are all kept, the special rooms in the court of the temple – the peculiar places of the Body – where all that’s needed for service is kept and where the priests of God themselves live – the place where they themselves are as a tribe, the nation of trumpets, the watched over ones).  And He also saw a certain poor  (needy person, one who toils daily for their substance, who is the image of the great gulf, the chasm fixed between those who are needy of things and of flesh and those who are needy of the Spirit of God the Redeemer in their own spirits/hearts) cast in two mites (the two, the witness of their being stripped, peeled and scaled back like a stripped husk from all the outer, meaningless, natural, temporal things; and He declared, decreed, spoke the Word over the fact that, that stripped down, humbled person, had thrown in more (a greater and more superior quality, a more excellent part as offering unto God the Father) than all the rest of them.”

The above verses are the result of Scripture study by a friend. What she discovered in the familiar verses about the widow who gave the two mites, is not just a lesson on giving, although it is that also. It is a picture of the value of a humbled individual in the eyes of God. This is an individual who has had the circumstances of her life peel away from her all pride. She lived through things that removed all the outer false glory and temporary beauty of man's self-importance. To the others giving that day, she must have seemed of no importance, her gift too small for notice. But as Jesus looked at her with the eyes of the Spirit, He saw that, in her humility, she and her gift were the greatest of them all.

Would we allow the LORD to peel back our pride through difficult lessons and circumstances? Or would we do everything in our faith and power, to escape from that peeling and scraping away? Would we, having had all things taken from us, still be willing to give the pittance we had left, because we had gained a humble, worshipping heart before God? Would we be willing to give up other people's esteem and good opinion, as we were (seemingly) diminished in their sight? If we lost all of the temporary comforts and ease of the world, would we become humble, or bitter?

Will we welcome the process of becoming humble before God and man?

                                                      

Our Father is humility.


"Humble Thyself in the Sight of the LORD"

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LZqv7ww-UJk




              

Joy!

 

"Without having seen Him, you love Him;
though you do not (even) now see Him,
you believe in Him and exult and thrill
with inexpressible and glorious (triumphant, heavenly) joy."
                                     1 Peter 1:8 (AMP Version)

If we look in the scriptures at the verses relating to joy, there are so many, it would be impossible to cover even half of them here. In the verse above, the joy of God makes us shine gloriously. It is so overwhelming, that we cannot even express what we are feeling. There are no words to describe it.

Jesus spoke about giving us His joy:
These things I have spoken to you, that My joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be full."     Jn. 15:11     
and, Jesus praying to His Father in heaven says,
"But now I come to you, and these things I speak in the world, that they may have My joy fulfilled in themselves."      Jn. 17:13

In the above, Jesus made the point that He was speaking of His joy, even while He was yet in the world. He wasn't speaking of a joy that could only be attained when we are in heaven. And the joy He was describing was a supernatural joy that is specifically found in Him. It is the joy of the Father.
Psalm 43:4 says:
"Then I go to the altar of God,
to God, my exceeding joy;
And on the harp I will praise You,
O God, my God."
Psalm 16:11 says:
"You will show me the path of life;
In Your presence is fullness of joy;
At Your right hand are pleasures forevermore."
The "fullness" spoken of in the above verse means to be filled to satiation, as with food or drink, to the point where you can contain no more.

Psalm 105:42-43 tells us that as the Father brought His people out of slavery in Egypt, He joy and gladness, the word gladness meaning "with a joyful shout". Our Father shouted with joy! When was that last time you were so full of joy that it came bursting out of you with a shout that you couldn't hold back? This is the kind of joy that our Father lives in and wants us to have.
Our Father wants our joy to be so full, that when we walk in the earth, this joy transforms creation:
"For you shall go out with joy,
and be led out with peace;
The mountains and the hills
shall break forth into singing before you,
And all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.
Instead of the thorn shall come up the cypress tree,
And instead of the brier
shall come up the myrtle tree;
And it shall be to the LORD for a name,
For an everlasting sign that shall not be cut off." 
                                   Isa. 55:12-13

In the above verses, the supernatural joy of our salvation impacts all creation, and transforms the curse (thorns and briars), into a blessing (cypress and myrtle trees). This joy establishes the Name of God in the earth.
Our Father commands us to be glad and rejoice forever in what He creates. Joy is listed as one of the fruits of the Holy Spirit in Gal. 5:22. If we have received Him, then not only should we be living in joy ourselves, but we should be feeding that joy to all whom we meet in life. If we truly feel gratitude to our Savior and our Creator, than that gratitude certainly expresses itself in joy. Have we lost that feeling of joy? Then let us stir up the gratitude that we once knew and felt so well.
Jesus talks about the person who resembles stony places in Mat. 13:20-21. This person received the word of salvation with great joy, but because of trials and disappointments, he has become offended by the word, and by God. Have we allowed hardships and disappointments to make us stony places devoid of joy? This is not the will of the Father for us.
Man has a hunger for the joy of God. So many look in diverse places trying to find the feeling of joy for which their souls hunger. They end up substituting temporary things to try to attain that feeling, but those things pass away, because they are not the everlasting joy for which our souls long. So many are suffering to find just a few moments of a temporary joy, that is not joy at all.
We who are the called of God, walking in His joy, bring the "good news" to all creation. In that joy, our lives exhibit for all to see that joy can be found in the wells of salvation.
This is Apostle Paul's prayer for us in Romans 15:13:

"Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing,
that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit..."

Our Father is joy!

"Joy to the World" (Flash Mob)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9865b-K9s2w

"Center of My Joy"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=265uVZ39Z1E

"Trees of the Field"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjL27TlSwYU

Wisdom

 



One of the most mysterious qualities of our Father, is His wisdom.
When we think of "wisdom", we think of a quality that incorporates intelligence, common sense, a certain talent for understanding. It does include these things, but the wisdom of God far exceeds the ideas we may have concerning wisdom, as we find it in man.
The quality of supernatural wisdom is directly connected with justice, judgment, and the power of creation. In the Old Testament, one of the meanings of "wisdom" in Hebrew, and the primary power of the word, is in regard to judging. In 1 Kings 3, Solomon asks God for a gifting of wisdom. In verse 9, Solomon says to the LORD, "Therefore give to Your servant an understanding heart to judge Your people, that I may discern between good and evil. For who is able to judge this great people of Yours?" The LORD answers him saying, "Behold I have done according to your words; see I have given you a wise and understanding heart..."
Similarly, in the New Testament, the word "wisdom" is defined as "the wisdom of God as evinced in forming and executing counsels in the formation and governing of the world, and the scriptures. So wisdom can be very much about justice, judgment, and governing.

Even more mysterious, is the role that wisdom played, and continues to play in the creation power of God. We can see this wisdom in Prov. 8. The person of Wisdom is speaking throughout this chapter:

"The LORD possessed me at the beginning of His way,

Before His works of old.

I have been established from everlasting,

From the beginning, before there was ever an earth.

When there were no depths I was brought forth,

When there were no fountains abounding with water.

Before the mountains were settled,

Before the hills, I was brought forth;

While as yet, He had not made the earth or the fields (outer places),

Or the primal dust of the world.

When He prepared the heavens, I was there,

When He drew a circle on the face of the deep,

When He established the clouds above,

When He strengthened the fountains of the deep,

When He assigned to the sea its limit,

So that the waters would not transgress His command,

When He marked out the foundations of the earth,

Then I was beside Him as a master craftsman;

And I was daily His delight,

Rejoicing always before Him,

Rejoicing in His inhabited world,

And my delight was with the sons of men.”

                                  Prov. 8:22-31

Before, during, and after the completion of creation, Wisdom was present and participating. Even from everlasting, the person of Wisdom was with the Father.

And the delight of Wisdom, and of the Father, was seeing the inhabited creation, especially the sons (children) of men. They celebrated and rejoiced as that life was brought forth.

We know that wisdom also includes the concept of judgment and justice, and government. So what judgment was being accomplished with Wisdom present at the dawn of creation? What caused the great rejoicing at the bringing forth of an inhabited world?

The previous condition of the earth was emptiness, darkness and chaos, according to Gen. 1:2. By establishing light, and life, our Father was also establishing His judgment on those forces that had created such previous turmoil, and destruction. By establishing a creation teeming with life, our Father  was judging darkness and death. By this judgment, He was re-establishing His government, His Kingdom, in the midst of the void. And by the presence of Wisdom, the re-newed creation was brought forth.  The grace, beauty, joy and power of wisdom, the Wisdom that exists with the Father, are being revealed in the scriptures above.

The partnership of creation and wisdom are revealed in other parts of scripture as well. Master craftsmen were appointed by Moses to build the beautiful pieces of furniture used in the Tabernacle of God, among the congregation of Israel. The talent and artisanship of these craftsmen were attributed to the fact that these men and women were filled with the Spirit of wisdom (Ex. 28:3, Ex. 31:2-4).

And yet, the gift of wisdom is not just for God, kings, and craftsmen. In James 1, we can read:

“If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him.”

Just as our Father answered Solomon’s prayer for wisdom, so He will answer our prayer for wisdom as well. Why is it so important for the people who are the called by God, to desire and attain wisdom?

Ephesians 3:9-11 tells us:

“and to make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden on God who created all things through Jesus Christ (the Word of Christ is all wisdom-Col 3:16), to the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places, according to the eternal purpose which He accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord…”

The same purpose that we read in Gen 1 is commanded above to His church: establishing the judgment of God, the government of God, to the powers of darkness that would try to rule the earth. They did not succeed the first time, and they will not succeed this time – it is against the purpose, will and wisdom of God.

While the wisdom of our Father carries His judgment and government, and His creative power, yet the qualities of that wisdom are wrapped in His nature of love:

“For the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy.”

                                                         And

“Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show by good conduct that his works are done in the meekness of wisdom.”

                                                      James 3:17, 13

In this age, it is desperately needed for those who know God to seek and attain His wisdom, and all that His wisdom entails. Our Father says in the verses from Ephesians above, it is to be done now, manifesting through the church (His called out assembly). All we have to do is ask.

Our Father is Wisdom.

“The Perfect Wisdom of Our God”

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSnzYnOe6kI

Reconciliation

Scripture in 2 Cor. 5, tells us that if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away and all things have become new. Yes, we have become new, but this scripture says "all things" have become new with us. How is this accomplished?
Verses 18-21 in the same chapter continues the thought:

"Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has given us the ministry of reconciliation, that is, that God was in Christ reconciling the world to Himself, not imputing their trespasses to them, and has committed to us the word (logos-living voice, decree) of reconciliation..
Now then, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were pleading through us: we implore you on Christ's behalf, be reconciled to God.
For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him."

Paul is writing to a church of believers in Corinth, yet he is pleading with them to become reconciled with God (verse 20). Aren't believers already reconciled with God?
The meaning of the word "reconciliation" in Greek, refers to the exchange of currency. Unlike coins are made equivalent by a rate of exchange. Although the coins may have nothing in common, they are made to relate to each other, and to equal one other.
If we use this understanding of currency exchange, we might be able to say that man's sinful and dying nature is being exchanged or made equivalent, to the holy, everlasting nature of God by the application of Christ's sacrifice. As it says above "that we might become the righteousness of God in Him."
This exchange is an ongoing application of the blood of Christ, and the person of Christ to our souls. If anyone is IN Christ, he is a new creation. Jesus said to abide IN Him (Jn. 15:4).  To abide means to remain, continue, to be held, kept continually, to remain as one, not to become another or different.
The importance of this reconciliation between ourselves and our Father, is that this same reconciliation that the Father desires with us, He also has desired with the world, with "all things". In that same desire, He has imparted to us a ministry of that reconciliation. We apply a "living voice, a decree" from our mouths of the reconciliation between our Father and the created world through the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ. As we become reconciled with our Father, so does all creation - "ALL things have become new".
In 1 Thessalonians 1:8, the Apostle Paul tells the church:

"For from you the word of the Lord has sounded forth, not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place. Your faith toward God has gone out, so that we do not need to say anything."

This church might have expected or hoped to impact their immediate surroundings, mentioned in the above verse, but they were probably unaware that the Word of God spoken from that place affected ervery place in the world. The Word of God is Spirit. It is alive, and cannot be bound nor fettered (2 Tim. 2:9). It is not limited to the human ears of listeners, but reaches beyond to "every place".
As we speak the Word, as we sing the Word, as we pray the Word of Reconciliation, we are operating in the Ministry of Reconcilation between God and His creation. That which has been broken is repaired. Where there is a gap between God and man, we spiritually stand in it, to make the connection again:

"Those from among you shall build the old waste places;
You shall raise up the foundations of many generations;
And you shall be called the Repairer of the Breach,
The Restorer of Streets to Dwell In."
                                              Isa. 58:12

A "breach" as described above, is something that has been broken open, broken apart, or broken in pieces, sometimes with the use of violence. The relationship between our Father and man, was broken into pieces by our own rebellion and rejection of Him. He has made a way to repair what was broken by us. We, who understand what He desires to do, can be repairers of that destruction.
Sometimes we view the destroyed spiritual condition of our nation, and we judge it, and we despair over it. But our Father has instructed us to repair it.
Moses is described as a man who stood before God in the breach between God and His people, who had turned away from Him (Psalm 106:23). In doing so, Moses prevented the judgment that the people deserved for their rebellion.
This is the ministry with which we also have been entrusted. As we have heard and read many times in 2 Chron. 7:14,

"If My people, who are called by My name, will humble themselves, and pray, and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and heal their land."

The reconciliation begins with us. We are to be newly reconciled with our Father every day. Why must it be done every day? Isn't once enough? No- the scriptures tell us that the mercies and compassions of the LORD are NEW every morning (Lam. 3:22-24). This newness means "refreshed, renewed, repaired". The renewing and repairing are available to us every new day, not just once.  As we live, and walk in that reconciliation, it doesn't just affect our own lives, but it will be sounded in every place, even to the healing of our land.
Having been given this ministry of reconciliation, we must now walk in it. How sad it would be for our Father to say over our lives'

"So I sought for a man among them , that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before Me for the land, that I should not destroy it; but I found none."
                                                                        Ezek. 22:30

It is the heart of our Father to be reconciled with His creation, so much so that He paid with His own blood to do it. We cannot doubt, despite the wickedness we see, that this is His desire. We need to be reconciled to His desire, and speak forth the Word of Reconciliation.

Our Father is Reconciliation.



"A Beautiful Exchange"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r-bUZj1bkoE

"We'll Stand in the Gap"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5jKnP8sKXc

"Song of Reconciliation"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzSbbldJ488

"Take Me to the King"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8TAr9jgA9A