Pride

Proverbs 29:23 NKJV

A man’s pride will bring him low, But the humble in spirit will retain honor.

Pride is not something we have or don’t have permanently. We can be very humble by nature but still experience pride. It is something we can all be tempted to fall into. It is the original sin. Satan fell because of pride and has been using it to try to destroy mankind ever since God made us. We must examine our motives for doing things and repent when we recognize pride.

A sad thing about pride is that it comes to make us feel exalted but the opposite happens in the end. We are brought low as the scripture says. The Bible tells us to humble ourselves. That means we need to express our desperate need of the Lord and verbalize it to Him. We need to avoid situations like the one illustrated in the dream descibed in the previous post where we are doing unecessary things, spending unecessary money just to try to impress people. We are not here to glorify ourselves. Our divine purpose is to glorify God. It would not hurt to kneel on lay prostrate before God from time to time to remind ourselves of our total dependence on Him. Psalm 95:6 NKJV says, “Oh come, let us worship and bow down; Let us kneel before the Lord our Maker.” We can ask God to search our hearts and cleanse us from pride or anything related to it.

Mysteries of the Kingdom Part 1

I will begin to share some things I learned through dreams and other spiritual experiences. When you have a similar occurence, you should seek God for understanding. If you do, you are more likely to get more. Keep in mind that God will not contradict His Word, so everything must line up with the Scripture.

I had a dream October 8, 2018. Someone was telling me that they were going to put their son who had already graduated from Christian School in a public high school for a year because they heard he would get a better education if he finished high school there. Then they wanted him to go to a prestigious university and get a degree from there. I argued about how they would be exposing him to things unnecessarily, jeopardizing his spiritual well-being. I talked about all the negative things going on at college campuses today and explained that if my child did not need a college degree, I would not send them to college. Also, I would recommend finishing school on line to avoid the atmosphere. The person insisted that they were going to send the child to public high school and university because they wanted him to have the best education and a degree from a prestigious place even though they did not need a degree to do what they were destined to do in life.

This dream had several themes. Some I understood myself and others, I got after discussing it with my daughter who has experience in dreams, etc. The things we saw that we should stay away from are pride, wrong priorities, lack of concern about spiritual things, false identity, false view of success, false security and poor stewardship. We will begin to examine these one by one in our upcoming posts.

Water Part 36

Isaiah 64:2a

As fire burns brushwood,
As fire causes water to boil—
Fire causes water to boil. The water serves a purpose cold or at room temperature. But there are times we need hot water and that’s when we need fire applied to the water.

Spiritual parallel: The water of the Word is useful. Sometimes we need to serve it cold. It needs to be soothing to the one we are ministering to. Sometimes it needs to be room temperature. We need to just dispense the truth to bring understanding. Sometimes it needs to be hot and burn out what we need to get rid of, or to force movement in the right direction. Jeremiah experienced fire forcing him in the right direction when he tried to hold back on delivering the Word of God to those he was supposed to prophesy to.

Jeremiah 20:9 NKJV

Then I said, “I will not make mention of Him,
Nor speak anymore in His name.”
But His word was in my heart like a burning fire
Shut up in my bones;
I was weary of holding it back,
And I could not.

When the Word needs to be hot, we must add the fire of the Holy Spirit to it.

Water Part 35

Isaiah 55:10-11 NKJV

[10] "For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, And do not return there, But water the earth, And make it bring forth and bud, That it may give seed to the sower And bread to the eater, [11] So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, But it shall accomplish what I please, And it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.

Whenever the natural water from heaven contacts the earth it causes fruit to come forth. That fruit benefits those with needs as well as those who assist in meeting needs. The rain does not stop before it hits the ground. It does not return to its source unproductive. It accomplishes its mission. It is the same with spiritual rain. When the Word and the Spirit contact the heart of a man, it causes fruit to come forth. That fruit benefits the man who needs it and the person who assists in meeting needs. The needy eats the fruit and the sower gets the seed to produce more fruit. Spiritual water does not return to its Source unproductive. It accomplishes what God wants it to. It prospers in the place He sent it. He sends the rain with a purpose. When that purpose is fulfilled He is pleased. The condition of the ground the water hits determines the level of success. The Word will undoubtedly produce somewhere. It cannot return to God as a useless thing. Since He sends it to do a work, the work will be done. When we make our spirits good ground - receptive to the Spirit and the Word, we will be the ones to experience the productivity God intended. We must be receptive with an attitude that God will work in us as He pleases, not as we please. We may open up to the word expecting one thing that we want done, but that may not be the reason God sent that word to us. So let us be open to not only receiving the Word but to receiving God's pleasure as the Word comes forth.

The earth cannot be productive by itself. It must have water added to make it productive. Likewise, if we do not receive the ministry of the Spirit and the Word, we remain dry unproductive dirt. We must remember that when we find ourselves trying to bring forth fruit without the ministry of the Holy Spirit and the anointed Word. Also, just like you cannot always see the water working, we must continue to receive the Word even though we cannot always see it working. We walk by faith, knowing that eventually we will see the results.

Water Part 34

Isaiah 58:11 NKJV

The LORD will guide you continually, and satisfy your soul in drought, And strengthen your bones; You shall be like a watered garden, And like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail.

For God's people who would choose the kind of fasting God approved of, there were promises of various blessings. One of those blessings said they would be "like a watered garden, and like a spring of water, whose waters do not fail." When we do things God's way, we will be watered by the Holy Spirit for productivity. Then we will be like a spring that never runs out of water - a means that is always available to bless others by the anointing that abides in us.

Water Part 33

Isaiah 44:3-5 NKJV

For I will pour water on him who is thirsty, and floods on the dry ground; I will pour My Spirit on your descendants, and My blessing on your offspring. They will spring up among the grass like willows by the watercourses.' One will say, 'I am the LORD's'. Another will call himself by the name of Jacob. Another will write with his hand, 'The LORD's,' and name himself by the name of Israel.

 God promised Israel that He would pour water on the thirsty. He said He would pour out of His Spirit and blessings on their children. Why should we as Christians expect anything less? The only reasons He would say that to them was because of His love for them and the covenant He had with them through Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. God loves us and has a covenant with us through Jesus Christ.

Galatians 3:26-29 NKJV

For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus. For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. And if you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.

 In addition to being in a covenant relationship, there is another qualification for receiving an outpouring of God's Spirit - thirst. The thirstier we are, the more we can take. God will pour and flood those who want it badly enough.  When we go to the water of the Word, the “additive” of the Holy Spirit increases the flow into our spirits. We can get much more out of the Word when we allow the Holy Spirit to participate in it being delivered to us. We do that by being conscious of His presence when we get into the Word, and asking for His help to understand what we read and study.