God Gives Grace to the Humble…

…but resists the proud.

I meet so many people that say they want to be healed, they need me to pray for them, but then as I try to counsel or minister, they then begin to tell me how they expect God will heal them and exactly how I should minister to them.

When it was time for some deep healing to be done in my heart, God sent me to a minister that did not have the best character. I could see many things they needed healing from, and a pastor’s wife said to me later, “why would you go to them?” Well, at the time I did question God about it and He said to me, “I am the one healing you, not them. So keep your eyes on me.”  That was a good lesson for me…and great wisdom. A lesson in true humility. And God was right, it was in those times when I was with this person, that Jesus himself came and ministered to me. I was healed of so much, and my eyes were opened more to the spirit realm.

When I start to counsel a person, oftentimes I will give them homework. I will push them a little, to see if they will comply. It is my way of “testing” them. I do not want to waste my time, if they are not willing to invest in themselves, then there is no reason for me to. Sometimes they come back and want to critique me about how I am counseling them, or they won’t do the homework I give them, I know right then, it isn’t gonna work. It will just get worse. They are looking at me, and not Jesus. They don’t really want to change, so they will pick me apart, and create me out to be evil so they can continue to be a victim. When people I am trying to help began to attack me, it exposes their hearts and shows me they are not ready.

These are the same people that have story after story about how they have gone here and there for ministry, but have NEVER gotten healed. They seem to forget that they are the common denominator in the equation.
When people tell me how they expect to be healed, and how Jesus is going to do it. I think that’s just ultimately prideful…and, honestly I doubt they will ever get healed if they continue to think that way. Getting healed takes a lot of humility.  Humility to do it like God says, to look at your past, and walk through the painful places.

One time I was ministering to a person, and it was going really well but then she started crying and said “I have to pray, I have to pray!!!” So I said, pray, and I listened, well the the whole prayer was about how she knew Jesus was just gonna miraculously heal her and it was coming one day soon. It would come like lightning. She would not have to suffer through it. When she got done I said to her “you’re not ready to be healed.”
She was taken back because was one of those that had story and story of how she went to this person for healing and that person for healing and this person….but she never got healed.  After I heard her prayer I understood why.    She was resisting it and she was telling God how she intended to be healed.  It was a fortress built to protect her from doing the work.   Isn’t He still the potter and aren’t we still the clay? But it seems sometimes people forget that, especially in the charismatic church…and especially people that are wounded.

God resists the proud but he gives grace to the humble.

Wounded people set themselves up as a victim, like they have no power, and they just have to wait for God to heal them. Sit by the pool hoping someone will put them in it. But I believe you have to be proactive in your healing. You have to pray, fast, knock on doors, seek your healing, and be willing to be ministered to by whosoever God sends you to in any way He chooses. You also need to do the work when counselors, ministers, preachers give you homework. You need to pick up your mat and walk.

When I wanted my healing, I read every book I could get my hands on… And learned all I could about how to get healed. Many are not ready to “be made whole” and most don’t want to do whatever work might be required. The church has aided in the debilitation of believers by carrying them, feeding them, nursing them, etc. Giving them prophesy after prophesy of how God is going to miraculously intervene on their behalf.

The other day, I was praying for someone, and I saw them,  lying on their back as an adult with their legs in the air, waiting and wanting someone to come change their diaper; how tragic, but how true for some. They want to stay a baby, so much so, they do not even want to take responsibility for themselves.  This person was in their 40’s and still  living with their mother.  They had no job, but was physically able to work.  They even tried to ask me for money.  I stopped them right away and said, I do not support people that can work but choose not to.

I want help to people that are wounded, and because I’m called to be a mother, I also try to help people grow up. I attempt to teach them how to take care of themselves, and be able to stand on their own two feet, to be an adult. But I have learned, I cannot minister to someone that is stuck in this place, or is prideful. I would be wasting my time. Sometimes I think people, like that person, are in such humble circumstances because God’s trying to humble them so He CAN heal them.

Naaman the leper is such a good example from the bible. He was a leader, and was used to people under his authority. He was upset when Elisha did not come to him personally, but he had just sent word through someone telling Naaman to dip in the waters 7 times.

Naaman was so offended, upset with Elisha, he almost left, but the people around him encouraged him to give it a go. To stay humble and submitted.  So Naaman did as the prophet said, he dipped in this dirty water 7 times…AND then miraculously, he WAS healed from the leprosy, and praised God.

Leprosy is symbolic of rebellion in the bible. Rebellion is always rooted in pride. Naaman had to be humbled, before he would be healed.

Are you ready to be healed?
Are you willing to receive it any way the Lord sends it to you?
Would you dip 7 times in a dirty river if God asked you to?
Would you let someone less than perfect minister to you?
Are you willing for God to humble you so you can receive grace?
Can you put your “expectations” and “words” on the altar and be healed however God says?
Are you ready to take responsibility for your life, your healing and spiritual maturity?
Are you ready to stop blaming everyone else for your inability to get healed?

Pride is a Prison…Humility is the Key to set you Free

I have ministered to a lot of people over the years…seen God do amazing miracles…and I have learned a lot as well.  Most of the ministry I do, is one on one, and no one ever sees it.

I used to get burdens, where I would go into intercession for a long time. Praying and praying. I did not always know who it was…or why I was praying…but then the next day, I would be out and about, just living life and someone would come up to me, and boom.  The same feeling I had when I prayed at home would come on me.  BUT Still…I waited and asked God to have them ask me to pray for them IF it was HIS will.  They ALWAYS did!  AND they always got set free!!!!  Thank you Jesus!!!

Now, I still let them come to me and ask, even if I already have a burden for them, or have seen things about them by the spirit, and God already has me praying for them… That way, I know it is God’s will.

One time I had a friend, we were part of a fellowship together, and she wanted to be in leadership.  When I would get around her, I would “see” her dad molesting her when she was a little girl. Now, I did not go right away and tell her…nooooo…that would have been horrible.  I just prayed. One night, we were talking and she said, “I feel funny, all hot.” and I knew, by the spirit, God was going to show her.  So I just said to her, “I think God is about to show you something, just wait on Him.” Sure enough she started crying, and talking like a little girl, she was seeing what I had been seeing for a long time. And I was able to minister to her and she received deep healing.

And guess what, later, she attacked me and spoke evil about me to others…why did she do that? I will explain soon…

See, it is very important for me to let God do it, let Him lead me, let Him open the door.  Because I have seen so many people LORD over others.  Pushing themselves onto others. Trying to fix another. Praying with them without permission.  And God was never in it. Ever.  It is actually a form of spiritual abuse.  It is like they are trying PROVE how spiritual they are, trying to build a reputation for themselves and they are taking a dominant position over someone else.

Sometimes I go to meetings to paint. People will come up, WHILE I am painting, and tell me they have a word from God for me, or God told them to pray for me.  Sometimes they ask me to come off of the platform so they can give it to me, right then!  Ummmm…really? I do not know them, and I did not ask them to minister to me, AND I am in the middle of worshipping God, doing what God asked me to do. You know, it takes a lot of work to prepare for a meeting, pack my car up, drive and unpack, set up and then paint within a limited amount of time, and this person wants me to stop what I am doing right then, so I can get a word or ministry from them. Do you see the idiosyncrasy of that…?

But, they are SURE they have a word for me.  Can I tell you, that is highly unlikely?  I have people in my life that I go to for “words”.  People that I am in relationship with and trust.  People that I love, and they love me.  God would not have someone I do not know, come and interrupt me to give me a word when I am right in the middle of painting as He asked me to.

What would make someone do that? I think it is rooted in insecurity, that has made this person prideful. Making them try to prove how spiritual they are by forcing their gift on another.  So, not only do I not want these people ministering to me, I do not want to minister to them either.

Yes, I would rather minister to someone that is humble, grateful and loving than one that is proud, because they are usually the most ungrateful, and unloving.  See…they still have a reputation they are trying to maintain, trying to build so they have to stay guarded, and will not humble themselves completely. But if they have, been humble before you, as God had you minister to them, they may also feel the need to return and tear you apart later.  Like my friend I mentioned above…

Reminds me of Peter, when he said to Jesus…after he just watched Jesus wash the other disciple’s feet.

“Lord, are you going to wash MY feet?”

(like he was different than the others???)

Jesus replied, “You do not realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand.”

(Peter, please…trust me, you think you know everything, and you have arrived, but you do not, and you have not.   There is much to do in you yet.)

“No,” said Peter, “you shall never wash my feet.”

(Either Peter was saying, I am above that, beyond that, it is not necessary for ME… or He was saying,
You, Jesus, are too GREAT to wash my feet…but either way, seems to me, the root of it is Pride.  Jesus was being a humble servant to all of them.)

Jesus answered, “Unless I wash you, you have no part with me.”

(Jesus appeals to Peter’s pride, to get him to submit. Wisdom.)

“Then, Lord,” Simon Peter replied, “not just my feet but my hands and my head as well!”

(and then Peter the fisherman, takes it, hook, line and sinker 🙂 )

Oh so much pride still in Peter…  Do you see the pride in all of that? Jesus knew that later, before the cock crowed, Peter would deny him and even curse as he did it.  See. Peter was still building and defending HIS reputation. He was insecure and still trying to prove, defend, guard, and exalt himself.

|So I understand why the word says,  “God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”

Some people will actually come back later after I minister to them, and thank me because I spent hours of my time with them. Thank me for loving them and letting God use me to set them free.  Some even bless me with gifts. Others, though…sadly…will turn and rend me to pieces.  People that I have carried in my heart for a long time, people that I have prayed for, loved, and even after God has used me to do amazing miracles in their life.

So I get this scripture too.

Do not sacrifice, give or waste what is holy and sacred on dogs or people that are unholy

(I would add prideful to that, since that was Satan’s biggest problem too  )

do not throw, cast or toss your pearls to swine, wild boars and pigs.

(pearls are the places of suffering God has used in your life to make you a vessel of healing)

Otherwise, if you do, they may haply trample the pearls under their feet, then turn and attack you rending and tearing you to pieces, running right through you.

(yes, oh sadly, how many times I have seen this one!)

I love how Elijah kept telling Elisha to go away. I am sure he had seen his share of people coming to him…pretending to be humble…pretending to have love…when their hearts were not pure towards him, or God.  But Elisha just said, as Ruth did to Naomi: “As surely as the LORD lives and as you live, I will not leave you.”

Elisha and Ruth were the real deal and God rewarded them for their faithfulness and humility.

Pride is a prison. We can’t see it in ourselves.

Peter did not see it when he said he would never deny Christ, but then he did that after the cock crowed and he and Jesus’ eyes met. And then that day when he jumped in the water and swam to Jesus,

and Jesus kept asking him, Do you love me?  Peter said yes…and each time, Jesus gave him another assignment. He was saying to Peter, yes, you will die for me one day, but you are not ready, these are the steps that you must take before you will be ready to die for me.  Each one required a new level of humility.

People that are chomping at the bit to be in ministry, but are not ready will oftentimes make the mistake of trying to force themselves into a position. That is why they love to be seen…praying, giving, prophesying, healing…etc.   They love to be noticed, applauded, seen as more important than others.  They love the praise of men, more than God.

They do not understand that the word says, what they do in secret will be rewarded by God, and not only that, but God will do it openly!

They will also be the ones that will attack you later, even after you have given them pearls.  Think about it, who hated Jesus the most? Wasn’t it the Pharisees?  They were all about their reputation.  They thought it was something that had to do with their works.

But when Jesus came to earth, “though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, that you through His poverty might become rich”. He chose to live among us the people He created and loved, to be able to identify with us, ultimately to die for our sin, and carry our sorrows and pain away.

Philippians 2:5-11 “Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.”

Jesus went from the highest place in the universe to the lowest one.  Jesus, being God, came in humility as a servant to rescue prideful men…men who had religion or no religion.  He had every right to use what was His by nature but He intentionally put it aside waiting for the Fathers command.  He waited on God!  He did not assert the power he had for a position that was rightfully His as the King of Kings;  He put it aside!  Jesus gained His victory on the cross through humility and being a servant.  Being a servant brought Him to this point of complete submission choosing suffering to accomplish the Father’s will.

If we have the same attitude, not striving for reputation, or position, to become famous, seen or known…God might exalt us, if He so chooses.  But that is HIS decision, not ours.  “Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God,  That He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you?”

Puffed up? Proud?

Remember…while knowledge makes us feel important, act arrogant, be prideful and puffed up, it is love or charity that strengthens, edifies and builds up the church.
1 Cor 8:1b

That means sometimes you can be right but completely wrong…all at the same time! God KNOWS everything, yet He humbled Himself and came here, and CHOSE to die for us!

Being puffed up is just insecurity manifested. Jesus did not have to prove Who He was…He was so secure…He was willing to be weak that we might be strong. To be judged wrong that we might be made right in Him! To die that we might live!

And remember…we are a family, there is no need to compete for God’s approval. He loves all of us the same, even the puffer fishes!

Love is not proud, it is secure enough to be humble.
Love is not arrogant, thinking more highly of herself and less of others that they think are weaker.
Love is not conceited, unwilling to associate with certain people because they are just not where “they” are.
Love is not puffed up, full of knowledge, a knowledge that has to correct everyone and prove how right they are.
Love is not vain, proud of his abilities, anointing, looks, eloquence, or wisdom, but gives God all the glory, knowing apart from Him, they are nothing.