Thursday, September 1, 2011

Respectability or humility

I was considering the concept of  Humility today as I was listening on the drive into work.  I realized that as a culture and especially church culture we are always appealing to people to receive us, accept us, and respect us based on our message, gifts, discipline, education, intelligence, even spirituality ( which creates schism, pride, condemnation or comparison).   We many times operate (old man) out of an innate and deep seated desire for respectability that is counter to and in opposition to what God's Spirit is trying to produce in us, which is humility- ( the proper estimation of who we are in relation to God/ identity). 

Then  I considered how humility is being produced in the body right now and I smiled. Respectability is being gutted out of the church and that is producing humility.  Every structure we can hang our hats on is being toppled, but not the way I thought it was going to happen ( by crawling on broken glass on my knees). Humility comes with the wine of his Spirit. 
The Spirit of God weaved two sections of scripture together for me to reveal a truth.  The first one is the story of Joseph ( Gen. 37-50), it is one of the longest continuous narratives in the Bible about one man who is I think, the clearest typological example of Christ.  This section is packed with prophetic Revelation  and detail about Jesus, the church, Israel and end time move of God.  One scene in particular that I want to highlight is the picture of the Baker and the cup (wine) bearer who were in the dungeon with Joseph in Gen. 40.

The dungeon speaks of  the preparation of humility before the exaltation to rule as seen in the life of Joseph, but a secondary and more definitive application for the church and ministries can be seen in the Baker and cup bearer.   Both were accused of poisoning the king ( God) and put in the dungeon.  The baker, who prepared bread, ( teaching the  the word, singing, prophesying, blogging, writing, drama)  was found guilty of  poisoning/opposing the king.  He was doing his own thing, his own recipe, his ministry was not producing humility or acceptable to the king.  The cup bearer who was entrusted to bring wine ( refreshment, joy, peace, celebration, adoration) to the king was found innocent and brought back into the presence of the king to serve and minister and exalt the greater Joseph ( Jesus) he had come to know during his time in the dungeon.  The ministry of bread was temporarily refused, but wine was received immediately preceeding the revelation of Joseph as ruler over the earth ( 2nd coming)- there is a new priority for the end time move and it is Wine.

The second section of Scripture is Acts 2,  when the Holy Spirit was poured out on the disciples after Jesus' ascension.  Notice the order of the manifestations of the Holy Spirit and how they were received and by whom.  Wind (power, leading, mystery, revelation)  Fire ( repentance, transformation, commitment, purging) and Wine ( joy, peace, love,)   Those that knew Jesus ( disciples/church) were impressed with the Wind and the fire, but notice that the nations were impressed with the effects of the wine and came running to see.   The nations had heard the words before, but had never seen the effects of the Spirit being poured out.   Peter told them, (acts 2:14)  "these men are not drunk as you suppose", ( but they were drunk in the Spirit)

The challenge I received in my Spirit today was to drink the wine and prepare the wine for the king and his subjects.  To be willing to be completely misunderstood and even foolish looking in the eyes of the religious establishment because the world will recognize and be drawn to the wine of humility made in the dungeons that produces joy. The church and the nations are choking on the bread we are making,  they need the wine to be able to swallow it.  There is a strength and ability to endure stigma and ridicule when your identity is secure and your identity is secure when you are humble.  Humility doesn't mean you think poorly of yourself, in fact quite the opposite, you see yourself how God sees you.  Worldly comforts mean less to you when you are under the influence.  You are loud and bold and unafraid under the influence and that is humility.



It seems to me that God has put us who bear his Message on stage in a theater in which no one wants to buy a ticket. We're something everyone stands around and stares at, like an accident in the street. We're the Messiah's misfits. You might be sure of yourselves, but we live in the midst of frailties and uncertainties. You might be well-thought-of by others, but we're mostly kicked around. I cor. 4:9-11 msg

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