Humble yourself

By Odon Bulamba (4th May, 07 - summary only - Benedicte Bahjejian)


Before starting to speak about the gifts of the Holy Spirit and the gifts God has given each of us personally, we need to start talking about something which is very important: humility.

Rom 12:3 For by the grace given me, I say to everyone of you:
Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgement, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you.

Do not think that you are superior to others. If you do not humble yourself, even with the gifts God has given you, God will not be able to use you.

For example, what would you do if someone smacks you on the right cheek? Would you be willing to show your left one to be smacked another time? No, instead of that, you become more and more angry. And in your anger, you ask God day after day, ‘Please, God, kill this person!’
Humility is the hardest thing to have in order to serve God. If you are not humble, be sure that God will make you fail in the things you do. If you don’t have humility, ask God to teach you how to humble yourself.

Three quarters of Christians today fight and quarrel in the Church because they don’t have humility and as a consequence of that, there is no unity.
Ask yourself this question, ‘Am I humble?’ Your heart will tell you straight away that the answer is either yes or no. If you are not humble, repent now and change.
If you walk in humility, you will easily be able to avoid sin.

Why would I be superior to others?

All that you’ve got comes from God: your job, your family, your peace, joy, love etc. Why therefore glorify yourself when you see that you have a better-paid job than your brother, for example?

Be aware, knowledge is also a source of pride: the more you know, the more you can become proud, and then you’ll start to lift yourself up and compare yourself to others. You’ll criticize them and the consequence of all this is that the Holy Spirit will turn down his light in you and you won’t feel his presence as strong as before and the joy of the Holy Spirit will disappear in you.

You have received gifts, but don’t minimise the power of the Holy Spirit. If you are to teach in front of a crowd, do not rely on your own work or preparation, the Holy Spirit will at once tell you what you must say.

Rom 12:4 Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not have the same function

Thanks to the sheet of questions I gave you last time, you might have found what your gifts are. Maybe you found something completely different to what you thought it would be, or maybe you discovered that you have for example the gift of prophecy and you don’t think it is for you at all because you have never prophesied. Don’t be shocked.

There was a man, in the Bible who was blind (John 9:1-6), and all his life until Jesus came to see him, he remained blind. His disciples asked Jesus, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents that he was born blind?” But Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but this happened so that the work of God might be displayed in his life.”

It is the same for us, God has given us gifts since the day we were born, but has not displayed them until a certain time. He has kept them secret and reveals them to us now so that we will see His glory through the use of these gifts.

For example, you may have the gift of healing, but have never healed anyone. In His time God will use you to heal people.

Now, listen carefully, when God gives us gifts, He doesn’t come down on earth to show us how they work. He simply tells us, “ Now, move! Do the steps 1, 2 and 3 by yourself and then I will reveal my glory through you, and work with you.” Then, the results will mushroom in your life because God is with you and blesses you.

But don’t wait for your brothers and sisters to pray for you all the time in order to know how to use your gifts. It is like learning how to walk, the baby is able to walk at a certain age, but he has to take the first steps by himself to know and realise he has got this ability to walk. God doesn’t push us but He waits patiently for us to move. When you know you have gifts, it is now your responsibility to work on them, to use them, and even to pray for them.
If you don’t use them, you’ll lose them.

Moreover, don’t wait for people to all agree with you being a prophet for example, or having the gift of teaching, but rather be ready to receive insults, to be called names and even ‘son of Belzebul’ as the Jews called Jesus.

Pray now and ask that God will confirm that all the gifts we have found are really from him.