How To Respond
Humility before Honor Part 2: How to Respond to being Humbled
In part 1, we made the case that the Church is going through a season of humility. Churches are empty, big events are on hold, and we’ve got some dirty laundry out on the line.
Actually, this is a good thing
Because we know that God loves His people and is working all things for our good, we must think properly about what has been happening over the past year. God is bringing us low and allowing us to go low so that He can shower us with grace and show us honor. While this past year has been painful, we can recognize that it is designed by God for our good.
However, there is a risk here. God’s intention toward us is good. However, our response to this humbling can put us in incredible danger. In the midst of being humbled, we could stiffen our necks (resist the process) or even worse bring vicious accusation against our loving heavenly Father. This could lead us to draw back in unbelief instead of learning what He’s trying to show us.
You may recall there was an entire generation of people who God loved that ended up wandering in a desert for 40 years until they all died. They experienced plenty of the “humility” but not much of the “honor” that God intended for them, because of their hard hearts and unbelief. The honor of entering into the promised land was reserved for their children.
In other words, humility is a necessary part of God’s process. But seasons of humility can kill you! Proverbs 29:1 says “He who remains stiff necked after many rebukes will suddenly be destroyed with no remedy.” So our response to rebuke and humility can either be unto life or unto destruction.
Master the Dungeon
Joseph was the most beloved son of his father and had prophetic dreams from God that he was destined to rule a great kingdom. And yet instead of becoming a prince, he found himself assaulted, sold into slavery, then falsely accused and thrown into a dungeon. It would have been easy for him to become bitter at God, his family, and hate the whole world. The sweetness of the prophetic revelation about His future as a ruler might have only intensified his anguish and made the humiliation of the dungeon too great to bear. I can imagine Joseph as a broken and bitter man, cursing God and the world from his hole of despair.
But that’s not what happened. Instead, Joseph believed God in the midst of being greatly humbled and falsely accused. He mastered his season of humility and was appointed as the overseer of all the prisoners. He became the ruler of the dungeon just as he would later become ruler over the kingdom.
This past year may feel like your dungeon. Like Joseph, we as the church have promises to be “Kings and Priests”. You, like Joseph, may have personal promises from God as well. Are we going to exclude ourselves from the promises of God with bitterness and unbelief? Or will we rise up with faith in God’s word and become the masters of this dungeon. As with Joseph, how we rule in the midst of humility is how we will rule in the midst of honor. If we can’t rule in the dungeon, how will we rule the Kingdom? If we can’t be trusted with a little, how can God entrust us with something greater? Those who master the dungeon, the Father will trust to rule in the midst of honor as well.
· Self Assessment Question—have I mastered the challenges of this past year? Am I ruling in the dungeon or feeling sorry for myself? Have I allowed bitterness, unbelief or offense with God or with other believers to have any room in my heart?
Receive God’s Rebuke
A rebuke is never enjoyable to receive. It hurts viscerally. It’s awkward. It is painful. It means change, correction, the unknown, and a death to part of ourselves. However, how we respond to God’s rebuke is a matter of life and death. It can result in the Holy Spirit being poured out on us in a new way, or in destruction.
In Proverbs 1:23 God says, “Turn at my rebuke; Surely I will pour out my spirit on you.” In contrast, to the one who ignores God’s rebuke Prov. 1:26 says “I will laugh at your calamity, I will mock you when your terror comes.”
Is there a way the Lord has been seeking to bring correction in your life over the past year? Receive the rebuke, painful though it may be. Welcome it in like a friend, so that a fresh anointing from the Lord, fresh honor from heaven can come. As Proverbs 25:12 says, “Let a righteous man strike me, it is a kindness—let him rebuke me, it is oil for my head, let my head not refuse it!”
· Self Assessment Question: How have I embraced or ignored the rebuke of the Lord over the past year? In what specific areas of my life has the Lord brought or tried to bring correction?
Take the Lowest Seat and Wait on the Lord
In Luke 14:8-11, Jesus tells a parable about the seats at a wedding feast.
Jesus (who knew the Bible pretty well) took Proverbs 25:6-7 and put it into story form. The take-away is simple—the guest who rushes in and sits in the most honorable seat ends up getting humbled, and the guest who chooses the lowest seat eventually receives honor from the host and is placed in a higher seat.
There’s no wilderness wandering here. No dungeon. No painful circumstance. Just a choice—which seat will I choose?
Learn to Prefer Humility God is not only humbling us through the pandemic and its attendant trials. He is teaching us to prefer and choose humility. When we walk in this way, we “have the mind of Christ” as described in Philippians 2:5-11.
Keep this in mind: At every step of His life, Jesus always chose voluntarily to sit in the lowest seat. And because of this, the Father has highly exalted Him to sit at His right hand—the highest seat in the universe! I’d say if this pathway was good enough for that Master, it is good enough for us!
When we choose the lowest seat, we do it not because we hate honor. In fact, we do it because we are those who Paul says in Romans 2:7 “seek glory, honor, and immortality.” We just understand that the pathway to honor, glory, and imortality always runs through humility. We do it because we understand the mind of Christ. We do it because we are walking in the way He first walked.
Sit there…and Wait
The key when choosing the lowest seat is not only to choose it, but to choose it and wait until the Master calls you forward. Don’t try to manipulate the situation. Don’t wave to the host way at the end of the table, trying to get his attention—“Did He see me come in?” If anything, try and avoid his eye. Don’t post your choice on social media, #choosethelowestseat.
When you choose the lowest seat, you are expressing your faith in God’s intervention—leave room for Him to act. At just the right time, He will call you forward!
· Self-assessment question: Where in my life have I been trying to take the “best seat” where I should have been seeking the “lowest seat”? Where is God opening up an opportunity for advancement through choosing humility?
In Conclusion, this past year has humbled the Church. This is in preparation for honor that God plans to pour out upon His people. God’s intentions for the Church are so good—but because we do not understand His ways, we may be tempted to respond with offense, bitterness, and unbelief.
External circumstances have humbled us but by faith we will master the dungeon.
Along with trials, we’ve also had to contend with God’s rebuke. We’ve been shown patterns of behavior that do not please God. We welcome His rebuke as a forerunner of Holy Spirit outpouring.
It’s not enough to be humbled by external circumstance, we are also learning to prefer Humility and choose it for ourselves. Because everyone who chooses the lower seat will be exalted. If our Lord chose this path, who are we to go another way?
4/6/2021
Jonathan Friz