Learning how to live humbly before the King of Kings
The seventh mark of revival in your life is humility. This is, after all, perhaps the clearest sign of Christian life. The original sin was pride, and God’s plan of redemption was to undo sin’s consequences, restore relationship between Himself and mankind, and birth a new creation. Jesus himself said that unless we become like children, we would be unable to enter into his kingdom.
Philippians 2:7 tells us that Christ’s mission was to “humble himself taking the very nature of a servant”. To follow Jesus is to be like him – to be humble.
In times of Revival, God will restore what the church has lost. He will bring to the surface things, which have been neglected. It will sometimes come with a velocity and a force that is uncomfortable, but that is what happens when God shakes and refines. He will convict us of areas of our lives where we know we have been proud. But He will also expose and demonstrate how even our well-intentioned motives are sometimes selfish, too.
To be humble is to serve
To be humble is not to be weak or passive – it is to seek aggressively the nature of Jesus, and to serve radically those around you. You cannot genuinely serve Christ if your heart is proud, for your real motives will soon find you out. You cannot serve others if your secret desire is to be honoured, to be flattered or to be praised. And you cannot serve properly if you want your service to be recognised! Jesus urged us to act in such a way that even “our left hand does not know what our right hand Is doing” that is certain to remove all chance of seeking our own glory!
No place for pride
There is no room for arrogance or boasting in revival. We will find that the giftings God has given us will not pull us away from the Giver. The more God uses you, the more you will want to point to Him, and so protect His glory. There is no place for the assertion of self. Revival brings meekness and brokenness and a broken soul can find no pleasure in its own glory. Jesus said that a seed that falls to the ground and dies will bring forth much fruit. As we die to self and embrace the humility of Christ, we will discover the secret of life and godly joy.