A Warning: Stay Humble (Keys to the Kingdom)

These days we hear so much about God giving us "keys to the kingdom" and very often modern believers hear this as an understanding of our power and authority. Power and authority are imperative if we are to claim that we know God, for He came to overthrow Satan's lies, and to release us from the authority of Satan. The Kingdom of heaven is of power, or it is nothing at all! That said, the keys to walking in the kingdom of God are often at variance with our human understanding. Most modern churches would not consider humility to be a key to power and authority, and yet it is at the heart of the kingdom of God.

First and foremost, all that we have in Christ, the riches of our inheritance, are experienced by faith, and faith comes from God. Faith is a fruit of the Spirit. Hearts full of pride cannot see God because the ground of the heart is full of rocks and weeds and nothing can grow in it. For a season of my life my faith eyes grew dim, and I discovered that my heart had become hardened. In the parable of the seed we see that God's word produces fruit in a heart that has good soil free of worries, pleasures, cares, and offense- and that keeps the word through hard times.

So as I sought the Lord about my lack of faith (I wasn't getting breakthroughs), I began to see that I had forgotten what God had done in my life. Although I knew it mentally, the reality had faded from my heart so it didn't matter how much of the word I consumed, the seed could not take root in my heart. I had to walk through a long cleansing season so that God could reveal Himself again to my heart.

Nothing is as deadly as forgetting that God, in His great love, has washed us of our many sins. This reality must remain alive in our hearts, not in our minds only. Humility is one of the most important keys to the kingdom of Heaven.

Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

David shows us how to remember:

"Because thy lovingkindness if better than life, my lips shall praise thee. Thus will I bless thee while I live: I will lift up my hand in thy name. My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness; and my mouth shall praise thee with joyful lips. When I remember thee upon my bed, and meditate on thee in the night watches." Psalm 63:3-6

In contrast, King Nebuchadnezzar became proud after God exalted him:

"But when his heart was lifted up, and his mind hardened in pride, he was deposed from his kingly throne, and they took his glory from him." Daniel 5:20

David was severely disciplined after he counted his troops. David used to say that God was his strength, and now David enjoyed a sense of pride and security in God's blessings, and not God Himself. After God healed King Hezekiah, he became proud and invited everyone over to see his awesomeness! What a fool, and yet, so often we commit the same sin totally forgetting that it was God who saved us.. The modern church in America has also become proud and lifted up. We have forgotten God, and that He is the one who has blessed us.

Any time we survey our blessings, our gifts, or anything that we have been given, seeking to gain any kind of admiration, influence, or praise, we are in gross sin. It must be rooted out and destroyed by God's grace. All man pleasing is idolatry and it will lead to spiritual destruction.

I really believe that in this hour, the most important call to the church is to return to the Lord with fasting and weeping as he searches each heart. God raises up who He will based upon the faithfulness of His people! It is a travesty and a reflection of the depths of our backslidden condition that we flock to those who tickle the ears and say what we want to hear.

God, in His love, is calling us to buy gold tried by fire. He sees our nakedness and loves us all too much to let us go on like this. I have been under his loving surgical knife for many months now, so don't hear me preaching from on high.

A few months ago I wept over this passage as I experienced His heart for his people.

"Thus saith the Lord, thy Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, I am the Lord thy God which teacheth thee to profit, which leadeth thee by the way that thou shouldest go. O that thou hast hearkened to my commandments! then had thy peace been as a river, and thy righteousness as the waves of the sea." Isaiah 48:17-18

In Jeremiah, the Lord says that he keeps sending correction, and the people fail to repent; they continue in their idolatry while claiming to love God. He says that they can't seem to understand that it is God trying to get their attention. They were too proud to see it, too hard in their pride to hear Him! But God allows us to experience trials and fires so that we would be "zealous and repent". Our confession of our sin opens up the door to fellowship with Jesus. After telling them to repent, Jesus says "behold I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and dine with him, and he with me."

Zealous repentance opens the door! We dine at the communion table where we remember his broken body and shed blood, and we celebrate His love afresh. Fresh worship flows from this lowly place, and it's how we fight every battle, especially the battle against the sin nature. Jesus won for us. Pride and idolatry have no power over us if we will turn to Him and open the door. Praise God. He is so so good.

"When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the Lord your God for the good land he has given you. Be careful that you do not forget the Lord your God...otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down...and your silver and gold increase, then you heart will become proud and you will forget the Lord your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery..." Deuteronomy 8:10-20

That admonition comes with a warning: If you do forget, you will be uprooted. It is good for us to be humbled, to confess our sins, and to be refreshed in His sacrificial love, knowing the though our sins be as scarlet, He washes us white as snow! Mother Basilea said it best; Jesus is for the sinner. When we fail to see our sin, we don't need him much do we? But we can live in the divine exchange of his righteousness for my sin and be continuously transformed. Refusing all condemnation, for you will never find the condemned sitting next to Jesus, but off hiding in the shadows. If you condemn yourself, you will also commend yourself, and you will also judge others-it's inevitable. So no condemnation (or commendation), rather...always divine transformation!

God bless you!

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