It has now been ten days since the Lord spoke so clearly to me 2 Chronicles 7:14. “If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.” Honestly, the freedom that has come to me is astounding. Being responsible has its blessings, but it can also put a lot of undue pressure, stress, and strife into your life.
When the Lord speaks to me, I immediately begin practicing what He is saying in prayer. Prayer is my gym; it’s where I work out my salvation with fear and trembling. It’s my dressing room where I put on Christ and behold His image in the mirror of His word. So “Humble themselves, and pray…” is a marriage made in heaven. Humility is the garment of prayer, “And be clothed with humility, for ‘God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble’” (1 Peter 5:5b, NKJV).
I humble myself with words. With words, I admit my inability and acknowledge Christ’s all-sufficiency; but I already do that. No, “humble themselves and pray” from the Lord, meant more. It meant allowing the Holy Spirit to show iniquities. Iniquity is a big word that sounds nasty, and it is, but it’s not necessarily what we think. Iniquity is simply the “I will” of Man. The “I will” first found in Lucifer.
How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, you who weakened the nations! For you have said in your heart: ‘I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will sit on the mount of the congregation on the farthest sides of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.’ Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol, to the lowest depths of the Pit (Isaiah 14:12-14, NKJV).
There are five “I wills” in the heart of Lucifer. All about going higher, exalting above, sitting, and being like; but there is only one result. God brought him down. Pride goes up, and God brings down. Humility goes down, and God exalts. For ten days, I have been unpacking my soul, taking inventory of where responsibility was a response to pride. Yes, it has been freeing, and humbling too. I am not the Man I think I should be, but grace is coming where striving had been. Each confession of pride has lifted off a burden to perform and brought the kindness of God, and redemption through His blood the forgiveness of sins. Who would have thought?
