© 11 Colin Melbourne
The Meek Shall Inherit
And let the peace of God rule in your hearts… Col. 3:15a KJV
Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly… Col. 3:16a KJV
Believers make a remarkable discovery the day they receive Christ as Lord and Saviour.
They have come to know He is Almighty, the Creator of all things, that He not only exists, but loves them without measure, and has chosen to live in their hearts by faith.
We receive the LORD Jesus Christ into our heart, and He leads us in every aspect of life by His Spirit. Jn. 1:11-13, Rom. 8:14.
But even more astonishing than this gracious redemption, and care, is His humility.
I am Gentle and Humble in Heart
We find the LORD is more humble than us.
He shows greater humility towards us, than we do towards Him.
We don’t tell Him how to run things. No, of course not. But we learn that, despite being all-powerful, and omniscient, He doesn’t impose His Will on us. He could, and we’d often prefer a job-list of daily commands to follow, so we can tick them off as we go: But He doesn’t, and He won’t. He is Life, not religion.
Notice in Col. 3:15-16 the Holy Spirit instructs us to;
let the peace of God rule in your hearts
and to…
let the word of Christ dwell in you richly
Have you contemplated the word “let”? It applies not only to His peace and His word, but to His Spirit generally. He asks us to “let” His Spirit govern us; let, allow, invite, permit, give way.
The Almighty One, El Shaddai, asks if we’ll let Him reign in us!
Such humility melts my heart.
I Knew Something was Wrong
More so, when you experience the reality of it in your daily walk.
You bustle ahead with your plan and daily routine, then, experiencing a slight twinge in your spirit, you check with His Spirit, and realise you elbowed the Lord in the ribs.
Lord forgive us for being head-strong, and precipitous, instead of allowing you to rule in our hearts.
Jesus doesn’t want robots, automatons who do His bidding, so He gives us constant freedom of choice.
It’s always up to us.
If we were dominated by Him, He couldn’t take pleasure in us, or reward us, could He?
So He’s as gentle, and humble as a dove, letting us decide when we really want to follow His Will, or our own.
The first hint of less than our wholehearted acquiescence causes Him to quietly back off, and yield the driver’s seat.
Check today, in your heart, and you’ll see how sensitive His Spirit is to our will.
From Red Mist to the Red Sea
You recall, in Numbers chapter 12, Moses was endorsed as the most humble man on Earth. God spoke with him face to face because of his faithfulness and humility.
This is a beautiful testimony, no wonder his visage shone with Glory, but it took God eighty years to hone Moses to that humble state.
He grew up in the Egyptian Pharaoh’s palace amongst the rich and famous, but when he found out he was a Jew, Moses made a choice. Naturally, seeing his kinfolk in slavery, he felt duty bound to help set them free. The next time he spotted an Egyptian brutalizing a Hebrew slave, he killed the Arab and tried to hide his body.
Moses thought his hothead anger was helping the LORD protect His people. But the next day he realized he’d blown it. The Jews resented him, and Pharaoh, his step-father, wanted to bring him to justice. So Moses ran away and hid for forty years as a shepherd in Midian.
One day a Princess’ son living in a palace: The next, a fugitive murderer sleeping rough in the hills.
He acted in presumption, in the flesh. Moses needed another forty years to learn the difference between flesh and Spirit. Once he became humble and weak, God made him truly mighty in word and deed.
New Creations: Not Old Sinners
We are under the New Covenant of the New Creation, so we don’t have to wait 40 years to become humble and weak in ourselves, do we?
Our flesh-man, our sinful nature, has already been crucified with Christ, put to death, so we reckon it dead and powerless now. Rom. 6:6-11, Gal. 2:19-20, 5:24, Col. 3:3.
Because we are new creatures, made alive in Christ, we can overcome the world, and all flesh, by faith in the word and Spirit of God inside us. 2 Co. 5:17, Eph. 2:4-5, 1 Jn. 2:13-14, 5:4-5.
Humble Yourselves Under His Mighty Hand
So will you resolve with me to humble yourself before God, and let Him rule in your heart constantly? 1 Pe. 5:6.
No less than three times God reminds New Covenant believers, Heb. 4:7b, 3:7-8,15 KJV;
To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts.
Hardened hearts produce clogged spiritual ears. God wants us tender-hearted and attentive to His Spirit’s leading.
In practice, this means we don’t simply do what we’ve always done, or think we should do.
No, we will take time to wait, and check in our hearts to see what Father wants us to do, and say, in every detail of life. This is far more than prayer, it is fellowship with His Spirit, walking in the light of His revelation moment by moment. Nothing less than Living in the Presence of God.
Will you repent with me, and determine to become so humble before God that you will no longer act independently of Him?
I think, He’d like that, don’t you?
© 11 Colin Melbourne
You were Created for Divine Life