I'm not sure if you can feel it or sense it, but there is a shift coming to the body of Christ.
God is re-routing our desires, our focus, our priorities, and our boasting.
In other words, the GPS of the Holy Spirit is recalculating our trajectory from a broad path to a straight and narrow one.
There is so much talk in the church today that centers around ‘us.’
God is changing that.
There is more discussion about personal destiny than there is about the water basin and towel.
It seems, at large, to be about our wants, our dreams, our future. In short, it’s more about what God can do for us than anything else.
We long to see God use us, to move through us, and see Him catapult us into our calling.
I wonder if what we are really desiring is to feel significant, to feel like someone, and to be positioned in a way where others will take note of us.
I know I’ve felt that way before…
I wonder if we are covering up selfish ambition with religious zeal.
Now, I understand that’s not true for everyone, but I know from personal experience that I’ve had to work through such thoughts and temptations, and still do today.
To be honest, I’ve never been more aware of anything in my life that smells like “please see me” or “please notice me” than right now.
The problem with such thinking is this: If I want people to see me, they can’t see Him!
I’m more aware today of how easy it is to find yourself in what God does through you.
I'm more aware of how easy it is to mask pride with religious talk — to share testimonies and revelations that seem to glorify God, but are laden with the mixture of self and a desire to be seen.
The temptation of pride is never more near the believer than when God begins to move in and through an individual. This is, after all, is why Paul was given a messenger of Satan to torment him.
This very thorn in his flesh both protected him from self-exaltation and formed humility within him.
At first, Paul tried to pray away the very means by which God was perfecting His power in his life, but when Paul learned what the purpose was behind the difficulties he faced, he welcomed them.
Isn’t that just like us? We often try to wiggle out of what will bring us low before Him.
For the past year or more, I’ve pleaded with God to form the humility of His Son within me.
It seems that He is answering this prayer… and if I’m honest, it isn’t always pleasant.
You can’t sincerely pray to have the humility of Jesus without having the pride of self revealed.
The removal of pride hurts, but the blessedness of humility is far greater.
He has humiliated me in many ways over the last few months, and I am learning to cherish these times.
Whatever takes you low before Him will lift you up in Him.
The attitude of Jesus, His inner disposition, is what I’ve been chasing and will be the very desire of His.
We are going to fall in love again with the meek and lowly Lamb of God — The One who became nothing and regarded everyone as more important than Himself… The One who came to serve… The One who became obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
Make no mistake… it’s the cross of Jesus that will become center stage — not the fame and fortune of man.
Humility’s end is always a cross.
Humility is the path to death, the very denial of self.
We enter into the Christian life through self-denial and we continue to traverse this life through the same means.
This is why Paul said that he dies daily (1 Corinthians 15:31).
Denial of self is a choice.
The born again experience carries along with it the power of choice: Do I surrender my will to Him or do I seek to satisfy it?
Do I walk by the flesh or do I walk by the Spirit?
Do I want to be glorified, or do I want to glorify Him?
The goal of the new life is not to become someone; rather, it’s to become no one.
There has never been more of a temptation to draw attention to ourselves than right now. Social media is a wonderful tool, but it is also a platform to seek the glory that comes from man.
The Christian life is about surrendering everything to Him — including your wants and desires.
I exist for Him. He does not exist for me. This needs to be understood.
Satisfaction is never found in when I live for me. It’s found in when I live for Him… when I’m dead.
The loss of self is the soul’s greatest joy and its only freedom.
To be lost in Him is our delight.
Jesus is taking center stage… We are beginning to care more about what He is doing in us rather than what He is doing through us.
We will care more about His inner disposition than His outward manifestation.
We will want His attitude more than His power.
A new breed of Christian is arising… but then again, it’s the one that was always supposed to be.
The pride in the church is being exposed and expelled and His humility, the willingness to be nothing so that He might be everything, is what we will long for and experience.
Then and only then will we experience the true power of God.
- Brian Connolly, Faith Like Birds Ministries