Spiritual Insights For 2023 & Beyond (Part 6) Indispensable Humility - Nancy Wheatley

​Throughout Scripture we see God reveal to his people His plans and highlight certain focuses for the coming season of time. Each year, we pray and seek the Lord for His guidance, insights, and direction for the upcoming year. This series is an overview of some of the prophetic insights God is highlighting to the AeroNova spiritual family for the year 2023 and beyond.
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No matter what storms may be raging around us, what the Lord requires of us doesn’t change. The times my change but the responsibility of the people of God to put on display the character of God never changes. And putting God’s nature on display is established on a foundation of humility.

Full transcript generated by ai (please excuse errors):





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​I just want to start by praying because the word that the Lord has given me to share today I really it's a different kind of a word for me kind of the this is not a, I'm standing up here as an expert to tell you something that I'm great at. This is very much a work in progress and something that is very much fresh bread. It's what the Lord has been speaking to me. And so my my hope and prayer is that it will be meaningful to you too, but it's really not about what anything that I have to say. So let me pray. Holy Spirit, you are here. And you are with our friends online. And you are with those who will hear this. days or weeks or months or years down the road. And Holy Spirit. We are asking you to move in our hearts and in our minds. We are asking you Holy Spirit to glorify Jesus. glorify Jesus in our midst, glorify Jesus in the earth and glorify Jesus in the attitude of our hearts. And the way we receive this word this morning. Holy Spirit, I so freely acknowledge that my words will not make a dime of difference in anyone's life, including my own. But when your Spirit reveals when your spirit peels back the layers of the accretion of self and sin and pride and we are laid bare before you then that's something you can work with. And so, Come Holy Spirit. Come Holy Spirit. So here's what I've been mulling over in light of the times in which we are living, what kind of people ought we to be? There's so much going on. I've been sort of putting puzzle pieces together. Those of you who are on our Erin Nova prayer streams, you may have seen some of these but you know, it's different things. But when you start hearing the Lord saying the same thing, from different voices that aren't connected to each other, it's time to sit up and pay attention. And Jennifer Domingo's gave a word I don't remember if it was on the era Nova one or just on the the mills, prayer Council one but talking about the flood, the flood of evil around us. And then when I was listening to Dutch sheets and give him 15 This week, he talked about the flood, the flood of evil, what feels like an overwhelming flood of evil around us. And, you know, if you listen to the news, there's a lot going on. There's Chinese surveillance balloons and wars and rumors of wars. There's so much going on. The enemy has come after our Youth With A Vengeance. And if we just look at the evidence of our eyes, it sure looks like he's scoring some pretty big hits. In light of the times in which we are living, what kind of people are we to be? What is our response to be So for all of my time in the Lord and in the accidental ministry that I have found myself in my lane has always been spiritual formation. And I found myself kind of sitting with the Lord in that, you know, doing inner healing and spiritual formation and talking about how we, how we allow ourselves to be formed by the Holy Spirit into the image of Christ. And I was I just found myself going, Lord, in light of everything that's going on around us, like, is that even important now? Is that what I should be focusing on? Because it feels like, maybe we should just all ditch everything else and work on saving the last, maybe our whole focus should just be on bringing the last into the kingdom because it feels like time is short, I don't know. But I got this confirming word. And I'm going to I just share just a part of it with you that confirmed what I had been sensing the Lord saying to me, this is part of a prophetic word that was released from Francis Franjo pain. If you don't follow his ministry, he's great. This came out in I'm in January. And this is an I had printed it back when I first got it, stuck it in my Bible and forgot about it. And then recently, I it fell out of my Bible, just like that just did. And and I went, what is that? And I picked it up to read it. And I went, Oh, this is exactly what I've been asking the Lord about. This is just part of what he says. In spite of increasing tensions around the world. The Holy Spirit says For many, this next year will be a year of release. While we must absolutely intercede for our nations, we must also refuse to become fearful or restrained by the pressures of the world around us. The constrictions experienced by this age, are not death throes. But birth pains. They are not part of what restricts us, but releases us. Do not focus on the fearful things around you. The threats of terrorism or the portent of economic collapse. Focus steadfastly upon your transformation. Focus steadfastly upon your transformation. God is doing a quick and deep work. And this world is the perfect setting in which to manifest Christ likeness. Darkness provides the perfect contrast to the rising glory of the Lord within us. So look for my release, says the Lord, for this year it shall come powerfully. And suddenly no matter what is going on around us, no matter how the enemy is screaming, there has never been a better time for Christ's likeness. There has never been a better time to allow the Holy Spirit to search our hearts, and reveal to us any ways that we are thinking, feeling and living like the world, and not like the Lord. There has never been a better time to ask the Lord to reveal to us ways that our values are derived from the world and not from the kingdom. There has never been a better time to give real attention to the state of our hearts, even as the flood rages around us. Is this an important time for us to be sharing the gospel with those who will be eternally lost? If they don't receive the hope that can only be found in Christ? Yes, I think it is. But what do the last need from us? What does the Lord require of us? I don't think that has changed in 2000 years, no matter what storms may be raging around us, the times may change and this specific manifestations of evil may change. But the responsibility of the people of God to put on display the character of God never changes. And putting God's nature on display is established on a foundation of humility. Humility is the starting point. Without humility, our attempts at Christ's likeness As a nonstarter every one of the commands of Scripture begins in humility. Pride says, My way is right. Humility says, Only God is right. Pride says, I have rights and entitlements. Humility says, I am nothing and I deserve nothing but judgment. God alone is good. Pride says, me. Humility says, First God, then others. Pride demands honor. Humility, gives honor. The more the Lord has been speaking this to me, the more I have been seeing it undergirding everything in His Word. When you start looking for it, you see it everywhere. I'm reading through proverbs. It's the fear of the Lord. That's the beginning of wisdom. Proverbs gives all of this beautiful wisdom. But how many places in Proverbs does it say, wisdom is crying aloud. Wisdom is offering itself there is a way of wisdom and it is God's way. Only in humility, can we decide not to trust in our own understanding, but to trust in Him with all our hearts. When we acknowledge Him, in all our ways, he makes our path straight. It is humility, that allows us entrance into the way of wisdom. Look through the narratives of Scripture, in every case, where the people of God failed, lost and lost the plot. It was because there was something of pride that said, we trust in ourselves and not in God. Humility, lays it side, its own ability and its own inability. And says, If God says it, then we will follow him. It can feel like humility. For instance, when the the children of Israel refused to enter the promised land. It can feel like humility to look to our own inability and say, Oh, they're big, we're small. We can't possibly do what the Lord is telling us to do. That's not humility. That's pride because it's looking at ourselves and our own capacity. It is humility that says, God said, he will do this, and he can use anybody, even us. humility comes into agreement with God. Pry pride stands opposed to God. That's why the scriptures are laced with references to the fact that God opposes the proud. Why, because the proud oppose God. But He exalts the humble. He gives grace to the humble, because the humble see things as they truly are, that God is everything. And we are nothing except what he has ordained us to be. Andrew Murray, if you don't have it yet, Andrew Murray, who was a South African pastor, he lived in the late 1800s into the early 1900s. Such an anointing, for teaching and for explaining the ways of God. Everything that he's written is worth reading. He has a tiny book called humility. I think it's called humility, the beauty of holiness, you can get it for 99 cents on Kindle. It's just a thin little book, I think you can probably even find a free PDF if you don't have 99 cents. Please get it. Please read it. He says it's so much better than I ever could. But here's how he explains humility. Humility is the sense of entire nothingness. Which comes when we see how truly God is all and in which we make a way for God to be all when the creature that's us the created ones when the creature realizes that this is true, goodness, just him and consent To be the vessel in which the life and glory of God are at work and exhibit themselves, he sees that humility is simply acknowledging the truth of his position as the creature and yielding to God, His rightful place. Humility is the one thing most necessary to live as the people of God. So I want to look at a few passages of Scripture because I feel like, this is something that I don't know, like I said, The Lord's just been showing it to me, and I think he'll show it to you too. So if you have a Bible, please grab it. And if you don't, if you've got it on your phone, or whatever, we're gonna go to a couple of different places. And I want to start in the Sermon on the Mount. Here's this foundational message of Jesus. And although he doesn't really, I didn't even check to see but depending on your translation, I don't know that he even uses the word humility. But what he gives us in this sermon is a picture, a composite picture of humility. I'm going to come back to the Beatitudes, which are at the beginning of chapter five, because they they are just such a composite portrait of humility. But consider just chapter five starting at verse 13, where Jesus talks about salt and light, salt, he was talking here, to the people of God, too, he wasn't saying that everybody is salt and light, he was saying that the people of God are salt in light, that the ones who have and walk in the commands of God are salt and light. Did you ever think about the fact that salt doesn't exist for itself? If you are starving, and all you have is some salt, you're in trouble. Salt serves the purpose of something else. Two of the main things we know about salt is that it preserves what? Something other than itself. If we as the people of God are supposed to be salt, what are we preserving? Not ourselves. We're preserving those who have yet to hear. We are preserving the opportunity for the light of the gospel to go forth. What else does salt do salt creates thirst. There's a reason why bars always have salty snacks in them. The more salted peanuts you eat, the more you're going to drink. The more potato chips you eat, the more you're gonna drink, salt creates thirst, in telling God's people that their salt Jesus is pointing to the fact that they don't exist for themselves, their lives and their relationship with God are supposed to create a thirst in other people to know God to know the God that they know, to live in the blessedness that they live in, because they walk in the commands of God. And their presence in the earth is to act as a preservative as the kingdom of God is being established. Likewise, Jesus points out that light doesn't exist for itself, put it under a bushel, and it's still giving light but it's useless. Light exists to give light to all who are in the house. Well, if the people of God exists to be light, then it's not for us to come and shine light on ourselves and, you know, sit around and have a flashlight party. It's so that we can be light. What does light do it reveals the sunlight here in Colorado is really bright. I love that. But not so much when that sunlight shines at a certain angle through the window and reveals just exactly how much dirt I have missed. It reveals it shows me my true condition. It also shows me the way we stumble in darkness. When there's light we can see. The light is not for us. It's for others. We exist to serve God's purposes in others. So let's keep going. Matthew five, verses 17 through 32. He's talking about him being the fulfillment of the law. He's talking about the way that we see murder the way we see adultery the way we see Divorce, all of what he's talking about here is humility before the law of God, it is not for us to say, well, the law of God might be that, but really, I'm gonna, I'm gonna push right up until I'm pushing the boundary. No, there is a humility before the law of God, even Jesus Himself, who is the embodiment of the law of God said, I didn't come to change any of it. I am here in submission to it to fulfill it. And then he shows us that humility before the law of God is what the people of God looked like. In verses 33 through 43, he talks about our words, using oaths, he talks about revenge, and the way that we handle having been hurt. And he talks about the way we're to interact with enemies, and all of it involves humility toward others. How are we to act when others have harmed us? Well, we're to love them, so that we can be like our Heavenly Father. We're not to insist on our own rights, we're not to say, you hit me so I can hit you back. We are to turn to them the other cheek were to give to them the tunic as well as the cloak. Why? Why would we do that that feels so counterintuitive. That's because our natures are soaked in sin and self. That's why that feels counterintuitive. He's giving us the guidance of How to Become like our Father in heaven. It's not like our fallen nature. He's pointing us to a different way. In chapter six. He talks about our spiritual practices. And he talks about humility in our spiritual practices, not doing them for others, to see our our holiness, but doing them in secret, with our Heavenly Father alone. Big because our life of holiness really only matters before him. Nobody else, everybody else grades on a curve. I can look better than somebody else and still be filthy in my pride. We do it before God alone, in verses 19 through 34, he talks about treasures in heaven, and about the way that we are to interact with our needs in life. And it's humility, in submitting to what God says has value. And it's humility in submitting to His provision for us. Did you notice that in the story of the children of Israel in the wilderness God provided for their needs, and they groused, they complained, they didn't like his provision. They felt like they deserve something better. That didn't go well for them. Jesus is pointing us to a way of humility that says God, what you provide for me is sufficient. I'm not going to strive for more. In chapter seven, he goes on to talk about not judging others, Oh, such a lesson in humility here. The way that we judge others will be the way that we are judged. That we have this tendency to look at others and say, You got something in your eye, and not even notice what's in our own. He's cautioning us here, that that is a dangerous way. So there is humility in the way that we judge others. And then in verses seven through 12, he talks about humility, in persevering prayer, in trusting the Father, and in all of our conduct toward others. Starting at verse 13, he talks about humility, and allowing God to define the narrow way that leads to life. How many people do you know in the church and out of it, who are defining their own way? Have you done it? I have. Instead of coming in humility, to say only what you say, is good God. Only you can give me the wisdom to know how to walk in this life that I have. Only you can tell me that I am not going to define my own good. I am not going to define my own righteousness. I'm not going to define what's best for me. I trust you God. So we need humility and allowing God to define the narrow way that leads to life because only those who accept the narrow way that he defines and limit themselves to walking on it. That's meekness. Only those who do the will of the Father, He says, in verses 21 through 23. And then in 24, through 27, only those who actually humbled themselves to do the will of the Father, actually inherit the kingdom. And he makes it so clear that there are going to be lots who say, Lord, Lord, we knew your name, we knew parts of your word we did good works in your name. And he's going to say, I never knew you. Because they didn't walk in the way of humility. They didn't actually do the will of the Father. That there are those who are building houses and their houses are built on sand. Because they're not building on the foundation of actually doing what God says to do. Humility is what allows us to come before the Lord and say, You search my heart, because left to my own devices, I will justify myself, I will give myself a passing grade, I will decide I'm doing just fine. Only humility comes in the fear of the Lord and says, God, show me my own heart. Show me the ways that I know your law and am justifying doing something different. God, I can't I am blind to my own self. Show me my heart. Let's look at a few more passages of Scripture. And I want us to remember as we do, that, these letters, they were written to people living in utterly pagan lands. Okay, we think we have it bad. These churches had been started in utterly pagan lands. They were written to the people of God, who were surrounded by complete spiritual darkness, where there had never been light. They had no hope of righteousness from their culture or from their government. They weren't looking to their culture or to their government to tell them what right look like. Their spiritual families were little beachheads of light, in the midst of total darkness. And yet, their lives were to be a testimony to the unbelieving world around them, that there is a living God. God was the one who was going to draw all men to Himself. But their lives were to be assault. Their lives were supposed to be creating a thirst in others to know this God, whose nature was replicated in the lives of those called by his name. Their lives were to be light, illuminating the things that needed to be clearly seen for what they were, and lighting the way to the only narrow way that leads to life. As I read these things, would you watch and listen, for evidences of humility. This is from Colossians three. I'm just I recommend that you spend some time in each of these chapters, I'm not going to read the whole thing. Colossians three, I'm going to start at verse five, put to death, there for whatever belongs to your earthly nature. In other words, there's nothing good in it. There's nothing worth saving in it. There is something in us that just needs to be put to death. It doesn't need to be justified. It doesn't need to be healed and that I'm speaking that as someone who is highly invested in the healing of the heart. There are wounds of the heart that God holds so tenderly. But our greatest wound is our sin nature. The greatest harm to us the greatest danger to us is our own pride soaked sin nature. And that does not need to be healed, it needs to be put to death. He explained some of the things that needs to be put to death. And he says you use to walk in these ways in the life you once lived. But now you must also rid yourself of all such things as these anger, rage, malice, slander, and filthy language from your lips. Do not lie to each other since you've taken off your old self with its practices and have put on the new self which is being renewed in knowledge in the image of its Creator. Y'all, we're supposed to look like God. We're supposed to look like God. We're not supposed to excuse our sin, we're supposed to kill it so that we can look like God. His kind of forgiveness, his kind of humility, his kind of servanthood, his kind of mercy, His kind of grace. Skipping down to verse 12, therefore is God's chosen people. Your holy, you set apart your dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Bear with one another and forgive one another. If any of you has a grievance against someone, forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity. Remember, little points of light living in great darkness, and what is His command to them live in this way, live, humility soaked lives, in all your interactions with one another, be clothed in humility, because that is how other people are going to see your God. The way that we interact with God and with one another, and with the unbelieving world, is how they will see the God we claim to know. Let's go to Ephesians chapter four. Just a few verses at the beginning, where Paul again is read writing to a group of people in a completely pagan land, steeped in the occult, darkness. And he says, as a prisoner for the Lord, then I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble, and gentle, be patient, bearing with one another in love, make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. He goes on if we and I'm not going to spend the time to do it now. But if you were to skip over to verse 17, he goes through from there through well, really through the rest of five and the beginning of six. There is such a practical list here of what humility looks like. You can't live as the Gentiles do. That's not the way you learned Christ, you have got to be different than the world you see around you. So put off falsehood, in your anger, do not sin. Don't let unwholesome talk come out of your mouth. He goes on to talk about following God's example putting on the new man that's created to look like God. Chapter Five, Verse eight, he says, You were once darkness, but now your light in the Lord and you have to live as children of light. So find out what pleases the Lord. What pleases the Lord. Evidently, humility is what pleases the Lord. Look at Romans chapter 12. Where Paul talks about living as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God, what would it look like to live as a sacrifice? I think it would look like a life of humility. I think it would look like offering ourselves completely unto God, and being willing to take on the nature of Christ to live as a servant of others. He gives us some examples here. He says, in verse three, for by the grace given me I say to every one of you, do not think of yourself more highly than you ought. But rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you. For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function. So in Christ we though many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. We are not our own. We belong to Christ. And because we belong to Christ, we belong to one another in In a very organic way. And so he goes on then starting in verse nine, to talk about, well, first he says, whatever gifts you have, they're not for you. They're for the rest of the body of Christ. So give them generously don't withhold them, we need them. And then he goes on starting in verse nine to talk about what humility in action, a life of service in action looks like in practicalities. It sacrificial living, it's an explanation of what he was just saying, to to live as a sacrifice. It's not insisting on my own rights. It's not insisting on my own good. It's not insisting on my own way, it is living as one who belongs to others. Last I want to go back to Matthew five, to the Beatitudes. Here, Jesus gives this very unexpected picture of blessedness. It's not really what we want to hear. Because in our flesh nature, we want the easy road to be the blessed road. And he gives us such a counterintuitive picture of what being blessed looks like. But if our goal is to live as pleasing to the Lord, we probably should pay attention to this. I feel as though this is one of those passages that we could spend lots and lots of time in and never run out of practical, Rubber Meets road ways of being challenged to live as the people of God. But Jesus says that the poor in spirit are blessed. Guess what that is? It's humility. It's awareness of our spiritual poverty, that we bring absolutely nothing to God. There is not a single thing that we can bring to God and say, look at how good I am on my own. Look at the goodness I can produce from myself without any help from you know, it's a poverty of spirit that recognizes we bring absolutely nothing, any goodness we have was a gift from him. It was a gift from him in being created in His image. And it was a gift from him and redemption. Anything good in us is because of his nature in us. He says that blessed are those who mourn. When we are able to come before God and grieve all the ways that we personally and corporately have dishonored the goodness of God. Then we are coming to Him in humility saying, Wow, we've messed this up. Oh, and we will not do anything but continue to mess this up unless you intervene God. When we come before the Lord meek, meekness is being submitted to God's reign, bowing before him, saying, God, everything we are and everything we have, we give back to you because you deserve it all. I withhold nothing for myself. There's nothing that I want to keep to the side for me. It's all for you. When we come to Him hungering and thirsting for righteousness, dissatisfied with our own way, dissatisfied with the quote unquote, righteousness that we can come up with on our own, and yearning for the righteousness that can only be found in him. When we come to Him merciful because we are aware of the fact that without mercy, we would be without hope. And so in gratitude for the mercy we have received, extending that mercy to others, it's the least he expects of us. That's why there's so much in Scripture about forgiveness. Only when we are aware of what we've been forgiven. Will we have a true heart of forgiveness toward others, and then PURE IN HEART choosing the way of purity out of our love and desire for God? peacemakers giving oneself to extending the reign and rule of God, truly being a maker of shalom, to say, God, we want to see your Shalom brought into every situation, every situation that we come into contact with. We want to be the makers of peace, even if it costs us something, to be persecuted for righteousness sake, to consider oneself even one's own life of no account. As long as God is glorified. And His purpose is served. The Beatitudes are a composite picture of humility. And they are a window into the attitude of heart, mind and life that pleases God and allows his kingdom to be born in us. Andrew Murray said this, let us admit that there is nothing so natural to man, nothing so subtle and hidden from our sight, nothing so difficult and dangerous, as pride. Let us feel that nothing but a very determined and persevering waiting on God and Christ will discover how lacking we are in the grace of humility, and how inadequate we are to obtain what we seek. And then this is the key. Let us study the character of Christ, until our souls are filled with the love and admiration of his loneliness. And let us believe that when we are broken down under a sense of our pride, and our inability to cast it out, that Jesus Christ Himself will come to impart this grace to as part of his wondrous life within us. I want to end where we started, in light of the times in which we are living, what kind of people aren't we to be? Here's another quote from Andrew Murray, until a humility, which will rest in nothing less than the end and death of self, which gives up all the honor of men as Jesus did, to seek the honor that comes from God alone, which absolutely makes and counts itself. Nothing, that God may be all that the Lord alone may be exalted. Until such a humility is what we seek in Christ above our most important joy, and welcome, at any price. There is very little hope of a religion that will conquer the world. Here is a prayer that he suggests it's kind of a scary prayer. So there's a prayer. It's one of my bookmark here. And it's a prayer. I'm from St. Ignatius, and I started praying it a couple of months ago, and honestly, the first couple of times I prayed it, I was like, Okay, God, you're gonna have to work in my heart to even begin to mean these words. This is the prayer of St. Ignatius. Take Lord and receive all my liberty, my memory, my understanding, and my entire will. All I have and call my own. You have given all to me. To you, Lord, I return it. Everything is yours. Do with it, what you will give me only your love and your grace. That is enough for me. And then, Andrew Murray suggests, setting aside a month setting aside a month, and praying this with all the earnestness you can muster every day, and mean it. Pray that all of his great goodness, he would make known to you and take from your heart, every kind and form and degree of pride whether it be from evil spirits, or from your own corrupt nature, that he would awaken in you the deepest depth and truth of that humility, which can make you capable of his light and Holy Spirit. Reject every thought, but of waiting and praying in this manner from the bottom of your heart with such truth and earnestness, as people in torment, wish to pray and be delivered from it. Our pride is the main thing standing in between the people who need Jesus seeing Jesus and if we would be delivered from it. It will take some intention on our parts. So Father, we pray we pray I hope it's clear that this is not something that we will be delivered from accidentally. That pride is not something that we will trip and stumble and fall into the deliverance from. Humility is not something that is going to happen. Coincidentally as we go, God we are so mired in pride that we don't even see it. We partner with it, and we're not even aware of it. It's a toxin to us, and we take it in gleefully. And humility feels so often Lord like anathema to us. And our world is doing a really bang up job of trying to convince us that humility is stupidity and weakness. God we will not be delivered from this unless your spirit moves. And unless you open our eyes, and help us to hate everything that stinks of pride. Help us to hate it first and foremost in ourselves. Because we'll be honest, Lord, in our pride, we're already looking at other people. We're already looking at the world and pointing fingers at them and God, we need your help to look no further than ourselves and our own damaged hearts. Jesus, you are perfect humility. You came in humility to rescue a rebel race. You lived among us as a servant, and you serve us still. Holy Spirit, we ask your help. Make the servant nature of Christ real to us and in us that we might be the light and the salt that is needed in this hour. In Jesus name, amen.