Living in the Abundance of God (14 page)

Many people are used by God for a short period of time, but humility is the key to continual usefulness. Paul warned the believers in Rome: “For by the grace (unmerited favor of God) given to me I warn everyone among you not to estimate and think of himself more highly than he ought [not to have an exaggerated opinion of his own importance], but to rate his ability with sober judgment, each according to the degree of faith apportioned by God to him” (Romans 12:3
AMP
). We must realize that all blessings come from God. All that we are, and all that we have, is the result of the grace of God in our lives.

I am continually aware of the fact that the good that is done in Lakewood Church is a result of the work of the Holy Spirit. God saved me at the age of seventeen when I was selling popcorn in a theater. It is only by the grace of God that I am able to minister to others.

Pride and an exaggerated opinion of yourself will cut off your usefulness. You may think,
Well, they do not have the respect for me that they should have! After all, I’m somebody!
That is an exaggerated opinion of your importance.

I realize that the only authority that I have as a pastor is a spiritual, intangible authority that Jesus gives me. If He withdraws that authority, I have absolutely nothing.

God set many ministries in the church. We should always hold one another in high esteem because God has a special work for each of us. Every ministry, according to Romans 12:4–8, is important.

For as we have many members in one body, but all the members do not have the same function, so we, being many, are one body in Christ, and individually members of one another. Having then gifts differing according to the grace that is given to us, let us use them:

Our responsibility is to function in the ministry that God has given us. Not every person is called into one of the five-fold ministries. God is using lay people all over the world in supernatural ways. Every ministry is necessary for the perfecting and full equipping of the saints.

We need to give unqualified courtesy to every person. We should never treat anyone disrespectfully. “But He gives more grace. Therefore He says: ‘God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble’ ” (James 4:6).

Pride destroys the flow of the abundance of God in our lives. God resists the proud. He does not just resist proud laymen; He resists proud preachers. He resists proud wives. God resists the proud and gives grace to the humble.

We all need the grace of God in our lives!

The apostle Paul had a beautiful spirit of humility. He said, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me” (Philippians 4:13). Again Paul confessed, “Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us” (Romans 8:37). Paul spoke of the mighty works that he could do through Jesus. Our confession should be what we have in Christ, and not what we can do in our own power and ability.

In his silent moments of reflection, Paul, remembering what a mess he made of his life before he knew Jesus, said, “I am the least of the apostles, who am not worthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God” (1 Corinthians 15:9). Paul was a man who knew within himself that he was not worthy of the least of the mercies of God, yet he knew who he was in Jesus. That is a man who can shake nations!

“Not that we are sufficient of ourselves to think of anything as being from ourselves, but our sufficiency is from God” (2 Corinthians 3:5). What good thing do we have that we have not received from God? He is our sufficiency. He is our source of life.

Humility is the key to living in the abundance of God and being continually useful in the kingdom of God.

The Bible says of the life of Moses: “Now the man Moses was very humble, more than all men who were on the face of the earth” (Numbers 12:3). Moses was the most humble man on the face of the earth, and God used him in a mighty way.

Many people think Moses was ignorant because of his humility, but in the New Testament, Stephen spoke very highly of him by inspiration of the Holy Spirit: “And Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was mighty in words and deeds” (Acts 7:22). Egypt was the greatest and most advanced nation of Moses’ day. Moses had all the privileges of its universities. He was a mighty orator, and the Bible says that he was mighty in deeds.

God revealed to Moses that he would be the deliverer of the children of Israel, but he was not yet ready. In all his pride, Moses slew an Egyptian who was fighting with a fellow Hebrew. He thought the children of Israel would understand that he was chosen to be their deliverer (Acts 7:23–25).

Moses felt he was well able to deliver the Israelites from their bondage in Egypt. He had the ability to speak and do great works. He was ready to do the job. He probably even felt that God had chosen him because of his great abilities!

Moses was a proud man. He felt he was sufficient, but he was not. He had the call of God upon his life, but he was not ready for God to trust him with that task.

Forty years later, on the backside of the desert, Moses had still not fulfilled the call of God. He felt defeated, but God appeared to him in a burning bush and spoke to him: “Come now, therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring My people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt. But Moses said to God, ‘Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?’ ” (Exodus 3:10–11).

The first words that Moses spoke were, “Who am I?” Forty years before he had thought,
Here I am! I am God’s great deliverer!
Here is a man who had all the skills and
learning of the Egyptians and was mighty in word, yet Moses argues, “O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither before nor since You have spoken to Your servant; but I am slow of speech and slow of tongue” (Exodus 4:10). Was Moses lying? No! He finally realized that without God he was nothing. Only by the power of God could he bring deliverance to the children of Israel.

God had to show Moses that he could depend on the power of God. “Then Moses answered and said, ‘But suppose they will not believe me or listen to my voice; suppose they say, “The L
ORD
has not appeared to you.” ’ So the L
ORD
said to him, ‘What is that in your hand?’ He said, ‘A rod.’ And He said, ‘Cast it on the ground.’ So he cast it on the ground, and it became a serpent; and Moses fled from it. Then the L
ORD
said to Moses, ‘Reach out your hand and take it by the tail’ (and he reached out his hand and caught it, and it became a rod in his hand), ‘that they may believe that the L
ORD
God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you’ ” (Exodus 4:1–5).

Moses later marched out of Egypt with two million slaves, waving the rod of God in his hand. This time, God was with him. Moses learned to reign in life through the spirit of humility.

God uses and exalts many men and women. Unfortunately, some believers get a touch of the blessing of God, and then they become proud and haughty. That is a dangerous place to be in.

Oral Robert once said, “The most dangerous time in a man’s life is when he feels so sufficient that he does not need faith in God.”

The most dangerous place is that secure place where you think you have it made. You have all the money you need. You have no challenges. You have no need to trust God and His power.

I encourage you to forever extend yourself to the place where God must work for you.

Moses chose to humble himself, and God blessed him mightily, but soon criticism came from the mouths of his own brother and sister. “Then Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses because of the Ethiopian woman whom he had married; for he had married an Ethiopian woman. So they said, ‘Has the L
ORD
indeed spoken only through Moses? Has He not spoken through us also?’ And the Lord heard it” (Numbers 12:1–2).

Over the years, I have had a few people take a similar attitude in our church. My responsibility is to keep order in the services. I try to operate in love and protect the congregation. I have had a few people stand up in the middle of a service and give a revelation that is totally out of order. When I asked them to sit down and wait, they got mad and stormed out, saying, “Is he the only one who knows how to move in the Holy Spirit?” That is an ugly attitude, and it is not biblical.

You will never grow in the Lord if you do not respect the leadership God sets over a congregation. Any revelation from God can be held in your spirit until the right time to give it. I have held a prophecy in my spirit for a day or two. You may think,
God gave it to me, and I cannot control it
. If you cannot control it, it is not of God.

The Bible says that when Miriam and Aaron spoke against Moses, God heard it. We never have a right to criticize anyone. Every child of God has an important function in the body of Christ. God sees His children differently than we see them. Notice what He said about Moses: “Not so with My servant Moses; he is faithful in all My house. I speak with him face to face, even plainly, and not in dark sayings; and he sees the form of the L
ORD
. Why then were you not afraid to speak against My servant Moses?” (Numbers 12:7–8).

God had spoken to Moses face to face, and yet they were critical of him. Miriam and Aaron had also been chosen for great tasks. Why should they be jealous of Moses? They should have been glad for the ministry that God had given them.

Miriam and Aaron’s critical and proud attitude provoked the anger of God, and Miriam was struck with leprosy. Moses interceded on her behalf, and God healed her, but the Israelites’ journey was delayed for seven days. The whole move of God was stopped because two people had exaggerated opinions of their importance.

Miriam and Aaron’s attitude cut them off from the abundance of God as well as their usefulness, until they repented. When God begins to use you in the gifts of the Holy Spirit, when He begins to bless you and give you revelations, let it humble you more and more. It is not you; it is God.

Consider the life of King Saul in the Old Testament. Saul was a fine-looking man. The Bible says that he was head and shoulders above all the rest of the men (1 Samuel 9:2). He was the first king over Israel, and God used him mightily. However, Saul disobeyed God and fell from favor with Him. The prophet Samuel interceded on Saul’s behalf, but God rejected Saul as king. God spoke through Samuel and made a statement about Saul’s attitude that we should always remember: “When you were little in your own eyes, were you not head of the tribes of Israel? And did not the L
ORD
anoint you king over Israel?” (1 Samuel 15:17).

When you were little in your own eyes
is the secret. When we are little in our own eyes, God is pleased with us because we know that we can do nothing without Him. If we will have a low estimation of our own importance, God will use us. After all, “Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall” (Proverbs 16:18), and “Before destruction the heart of a man is haughty, and before honor is humility” (Proverbs 18:12).

Let your confession be what you have in Christ and not what you can do in your own power and ability.

Search the Scriptures and read biographies, and you discover that many great men and women of God have spent years doing insignificant tasks that God asked them to do. The Bible encourages us to not despise the day of small beginnings (Zechariah 4:10). When you prove yourself faithful to God in the little things, He will trust you with much. “He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much” (Luke 16:10).