2016 – The Lessons of Humility
2016 – The Lessons of Humility
Seeking Out Pure And Fresh Wells
“When pride comes, then comes disgrace, But with humility comes wisdom,” Proverbs 11:2.
Many powerful men and women who were in elevated and highly visible positions of leadership politically, spiritually and in the sport and entertainment fields in 2015 were uncovered as frauds and vile abusers during the past year of what appeared to be a virulent year of repeated and embarrassing exposures.
The LORD is again FIRMLY warning many out in these arenas, large and small, that there is still an opportunity for you to redeem the time. The falsifying of your claimed insights from God to manipulate financial support, fame, notoriety and honor for good deeds will no longer be tolerated and will in fact be double-stamped with the seal of “deceiver and thief” if the appeals for connived support are not stopped. God is not behind what you have demanded in His Name.
Some in ministry and Non-profit organizations have satisfied themselves upon the offerings of widows and those who foolishly gave on impulse, due to your slick emotional pleas and contrived media images and heart-tugging background musical interludes. They have robbed and stolen from others whom God has anointed and blessed in smaller settings and their cries for help and assistance have not gone unheard from the Heart of heaven.
Sustain and Be a Foundation for the Small but Fresh Wells
The Holy Spirit would have the body of Christ soberly hear the following words.
“There will be a fresh wave of conviction to “Sustain and Strengthen the Foundations of those who have been Fresh and Pure wells to drink from and connect with” and there will be a trending back towards smaller, steady and steadfast ministries and servants who have faithfully plowed and served in seasons of loss, lack, and persecution. Don’t withhold!
You must not muzzle the servants who have been plowing, and you will be judged for feigned ignorance towards their needs and my conviction to, “send them out” to do My work.
To those who feel as if they are, “more graced or more anointed” and who think that they have a “special and more unique” calling that needs a preeminent opportunity to instruct and be seen, beware of the pride of life, the lust for power and the wares of selfish ambition.
“Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility, value others above yourselves,” Philippians 2:3.
You will be found upon the trash heap of loss and sorrow if you grasp and hold tightly to what was never really yours to begin with. It is mine.
If you cannot accept the terms of what I request, you will be known as a divider, weak, egotistical and immature.
Again, I will not bless your intentions or your ambitions. You rob the Body of authentic Kingdom service by remaining secretive, self-promoting and destructive to My purposes.
“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom and the knowledge of the holy one understands,” Proverbs 9:10.
When the Soul Goes Through Humbling Experiences
We all know that there are times when the soul goes through humbling experiences. Perhaps in the past you had strength, calm, security and confidence, and then all of that suddenly gets stripped and your soul sees itself and it’s true state of desperate need.
If you are alert you will recognize that the LORD is opening our eyes to secret pride in 2016. That internal thinking that all of our achievement is of our own doing and not purely a gift from above.
Yes, these times come so it will never occur to us again that we are stronger in spirit than anyone else! If we look up on any other person as weaker, it is only because we have not been taken through the purging fire of God completely.
Perhaps this is what’s happening to someone we know, and it’s no business of ours to preen our feathers of “goodness” while they are being refined and challenged. On the other side of that coin, God wants for us to have an open and humble spirit, realizing that if we were in their position we may not handle the circumstances as well, and might do worse.
In 2016 This Humbling Process Is in God’s Hands
It is his way of raising in your heart a new love for all of mankind. In the past you may have judged others either for their pride, or for being in personal difficulties.
Even worse, you may have seen others who are lukewarm or weak in their faith and compared it with your own strong devotion and enthusiasm for God.
God is merciful and he shows us all of our own places of emptiness. Allowing us to go through humbling experiences is how He knocks this out of the seat of our own “judgment” which is His seat alone!
He wants us to keep our eyes on our own response to what we know He wants us to do so that we remain in a place of simple obedience to Him.
We Are on a Humble Spiritual Road in 2016
David stood in the presence of wicked men (2 Samuel 16:5-6, 9-10) and there he was wondering why the LORD put up with their evil behavior while he was going through such anguish in his own life! But he still prayed and said, “I will watch my ways so I may not sin with my tongue. I will keep my mouth shut as if it were tied with ropes, while the sinful are near me,” Psalm 39:1.
When David finally saw how limited and small that his own viewpoint was, he continued to say, “I remained silent and I wasn’t about to open my mouth because you LORD are the one who allowed this!”
This is a humble condition much like David’s that the LORD will bring our souls to as we are on a humble spiritual road in 2016. He says to you and I that He longs to help you to be submitted to His hand alone, obedient to His voice alone! We are not to resist Him!
We are not really serving Him and our brothers and sisters if we’ve taken the high seat above them. When the LORD begins to work this way of tenderness in our hearts we must listen to what He says no matter what or WHOM He allows to bring the message through. In the past, arrogance has been the measuring stick where many would only receive teaching and correction from someone THEY thought was worthy to DARE speak to them! Those days are over.
“If you have jealousy in your heart and fight to have many things, do not be proud of it. Do not lie against the truth,” James 3:14.
In 2016 We Must Have Ears That Are Open to His Voice Alone
We can enjoy the extreme value of knowing that we must be under the direction of our matchless LORD.
Remember that He may use anyone at all, however unpleasing to the eye, unintelligent or not so affluent! When you see they may be able to teach you and direct you on your way, it is because of the attraction and Divine beauty they have in their lives from honoring the LORD. It’s that they are truly humble, not simply by saying it – but by literally BEING humble.
Heeding Another Voice of Promise and Promotion
The LORD has impressed me to share that some have heeded another voice, one who would put them up, on the pinnacle of the world and promise them all power and wealth if they but just bow down . The LORD wants you to know, (although I tremble at even delivering this), that many have already bent one knee downward to hopefully obtain a bit of blessing from “both sides.”
Get up and RUN from deception and self-indulgence, blatant lying and entitlement!
You can be sure that using people or spiritual metaphors or “things” just for what you can get out of them — the typical indicators of idolatry — will get you nowhere, and certainly nowhere near the Kingdom of Christ.
You have been taken in and spoiled by religious smooth talk. The LORD is furious with people who are full of religious sales talk but who really want nothing to do with Him.
You have groped your way through that murk once, but no longer. You’re out in the open now. The bright light of Christ makes your way plain.
God Moves Among the Outcasts
“Has not my hand made all these things, and so they came into being?” declares the LORD. These are the ones I look on with favor: Those who are humble and contrite in spirit, and who tremble at My word,” Isaiah 66:2.
You’ve probably never been stuck on a deserted island, but you may know pretty well how it feels. In a world of bad relationships and superficial relationships and broken relationships, a lot of people know the feeling of being emotionally cast aside, abandoned, and maybe even discarded. Because of some of what you’ve been through, you may feel like you’re the outcast.
Your days on that island may be almost over. In fact, it could be that all your failed or frustrating relationships have actually been preparing you to experience the central relationships you were being equipped and prepared for.
Anyone who has ever felt like an emotional outcast needs to hear the fabulous promise of Jesus Christ in this word for 2016 from the Word of God.
“Jesus says to all those who belong to Him, “I will not leave you as orphans. I WILL come to you,” John 14:18.
“This is the same Savior, who says, “Never will I leave you; never will I forsake you,” Hebrews. 13:5.
“He’s the One, who promised, “The one that comes to me, I will certainly not cast out,” John 6:37.
And from now on, that promise of Jesus can be all about you, “The one that comes to Me I will certainly not cast out,” John 6:37.
The LORD Would Say These Words to You and I in 2016
“You now understand the pain of betrayal, losses so great that you can no longer talk about them.You have ached in such agonizing despair that at times you have begged me to let you die.
Friends have turned and chosen to see you through blinded eyes of their own making and have refused to help you to find your footing again, thinking they are doing you a service by letting you grovel and weep in painful loss and sorrow.
They have competed for gain to their own egos and have self promoted at the expense of exchanging deeper relationships for ego stroking.
You have been reduced in the past season to identifying with those who were forced to make bricks for Pharaoh without straw.
I too was a man of sorrows and endured the shame in order to be formed, shaped and made ready for the moment of redemption.
And so shall it be with you. Redemption from the losses will come to those who choose obedience over pleasure, serving others over being the served one, and letting go of the dreams of greatness you cling too, no longer using my name or gifts as a calling card.”
The Call of the Moment in 2016
“Let the follies of your dim visions fall away,” says the Spirit of God!
“I have a more perfect way that I AM forming in you and for you. I have caused you to cease from striving, from worrying, and from being anxious.
You now rest up again my chest, waiting, trusting, wanting only ME.
You have become kinder, a better listener, a more trusted confidant.
I can work well with those attributes.
Just Watch Me in this Year.
I WILL Open the Way of Hope and shine Light on the pathway for those who have ceased from manipulating the moment.”
Seared or Fervent in 2016?
The Spirit clearly says that in later times some will abandon the faith and follow deceiving spirits and things taught by demons.
“Such teachings come through hypocritical liars, Whose consciences have been seared as with a hot iron,” 1 Timothy 4:2.
To have a seared or calloused conscience means to cause something to wither. To make (someone’s conscience, heart, or feelings) insensitive.
Without the willingness of heart to fall upon the rock of God’s word, allowing every strength and support of ours to be fully broken, the wicked heart of mankind will continue to allow the searing patterns of indifference and insensitivity to affect their choices and will permeate more and more of the moral and sacred places of society.
I have been impressed to warn believers that the increase of sexual lures and smutty language has begun to pay a toll much larger than they realize.
Mature and Solemn in 2016
Huge numbers of people are being brought to ruin because they are not thinking; thoughtlessly causing hurt or inconvenience to others is the devastation of thousands, and many a precious soul has been shattered through carelessness.
The LORD is asking you and I to “consider our ways,” and return to a walk with the Still Small Voice and begin a familiarity with him yet again. With conviction, it would be the most rewarding relationship you could fall into!
“But since we belong to the day, let us be sober,” 1 Thessalonians 5:8.
Prayer and Thankfulness in 2016
“Devote yourselves to prayer, being watchful and thankful,” Colossians 4:2.
As I finish this word and insights for the year, I will share the last whispers the LORD spoke clearly to me:
“Each day, upon waking, where does your heart and mind wander to?Is it the plans and lists of things you must accomplish for the day?
Is it the meal you are about to eat?
Is it worry and the bracing yourself for another grinding day of dealing with the pressures of life?
Return to those early awakening moments where you and I share in the dialog of My plans for you.
Each day you have to live and to give you have been given the opportunity to impact someone and to do a kindness or act of training for another.
Where has your thankful heart wandered? Without it, behaviors and moods of bitterness and drudgery will manifest and sour even the brightest flower of hope.
Return to the heart of the issue and clean away the rusty decay of grindstone thinking. Each day can be a fresh adventure into Kingdom purposes or, a continual repeating of a dreary existence.
Choose ever so wisely.”
“Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, Let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe,” Hebrews 12:28.
In His Shadow,
~ Mary Lindow ©
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” THE MESSENGER ” ~ Mary Lindow
www.marylindow.com
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Mary Lindow has a passion for encouraging others – all generations, careers or vocations to live expressing excellence through personal integrity, healthy accountability, and wise management of talents and skills. She’s a sought after keynote, inspirational, humorous speaker and teacher across the USA and internationally in Ministers & Spiritual leaders Conferences, and training seminars for various organizations.
Pardon us