By Todd Horne

In 1 Corinthians 1:26-31, Paul is in the middle of a discussion about God's wisdom. But Paul threw down the proverbial gauntlet in the previous verse saying that "the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men."

If you are paying attention, you might think that there's not much else left to say. People who think they know more than God are sunk right then and there. Paul debunks them. Why waste any more God-given breath on the matter?

Yet, Paul does continue. Paul is not talking to non-believers. He is not trying to convert anyone here. He is talking straight to the heart of believers. Paul is attempting to sanitize believers and transform them into true disciples.

Pay attention. In these next six verses Paul teaches us one of the greatest truths of all: believers only have hope in victory if they are humble at heart because only then can they see things the way God sees them. There is no other way.

26 For consider your calling, brethren, that there were not many wise according to the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble;

31 so that, just as it is written, " LET HIM WHO BOASTS, BOAST IN THE LORD."

Some 2,000 years before Paul's message to the church at Corinth, the prophet Isaiah, writing in Isaiah 2, encourages believers by linking hope with humility as the key transforming power of God in the human heart. Isaiah links hope with humility because he knows that man, by nature, always uses the idol of self-advancement to stabilize ourselves. But Isaiah spends virtually his entire second chapter pointing out that in order to walk in the light of the Lord -- in order to replace our fallen nature-bred fear and pride with hope and humility we have to do more than just roll out of bed every morning and enter the fray of a world that stimulates itself with idols at every turn.

If he were writing in today's context as one of our contemporaries, Isaiah would tell us that as we come alive to God's promised future, which has nothing to do with corner offices, nice cars, and houses on hills or mountaintops, we dethrone our self-built, fleshly idols, and the Lord alone is exalted within us.

Isaiah looks from the beauty of the beginning, through the wreckage of history, all the way forward to the glory of the consummation of God's plan - the last days. Many believers in Christ think that we are living in those last days right now. One thing is certain: we are much closer to the last days now than we were when Isaiah penned his thoughts and related his vision. A case could also be made, and Paul certainly stated that this was his belief, that when Paul was writing his epistles and preaching to the Gentiles the countdown to the last days had begun in earnest. Another couple of things are also certain, too. God's plan and His ways have never changed, while man does not think, act or behave like God unless Jesus Christ resides in that heart.

When Isaiah forsees the last days, what does he see?

Isaiah sees the worship of God enthused over, while all the religions of man are humbled into nothing. In Isaiah’s day people located their shrines on hills and mountaintops, closer to Heaven. But God chose a measly little hilltop in the land of Israel to be the place where he should be worshiped. It wasn't impressive by the usual standards. And today the church is rarely impressive to man, which brings us right back to where we started -- 1 Corinthians 1:26. But in the latter days the nations will abandon their worldviews and ideologies and gladly give to the church as the world's leader in worship.

He is promising a worldwide miracle as the nations, far from being forced, gladly hurry to worship him and learn his ways. They set no preconditions. They are eager and open. This miracle has already begun. It started at Pentecost 2,000 years ago (Acts 2), it is going on today through Christian missions, and it will be consummated in the latter days with an overflowing river of conversions to Christ.

God Is Waiting For Us To Humble Ourselves By Confessing Our Sins To Him And To One Another Before He Will Heal Our Land

Editor's Note: In this first teaching letter, Derek Prince (1915-September 24, 2003) is writing specifically about his country, Britain, but it is clear that the message applies to all nations, all communities, and all individuals, as well.

Dear Friend,

British Christians are confronted by a grim, undeniable fact: our nation has come under
the judgment of God. For this there are many reasons, but they can be summed up in
one simple statement: We have committed the sin for which Esau was rejected – we
have despised our birthright (Heb. 12:15-17).

God judges us according to the measure of light we have received. Jesus told the Jews of
His day that their judgment would be much more severe than that of Sodom and
Gomorrah, because they had received a much greater revelation of truth.
(Matt. 11:20-24).

The same applies to Great Britain over the last three centuries. Few other nations have
had the same access to the Word of God that has been granted to the British people.
Through culture and tradition, through churches and evangelists, and through the printed
word, Britain has been blessed above all other nations with the knowledge of God’s
truth. Our judgment for rejecting it will be correspondingly severe.

Many Christians fail to realise that God’s judgement does not begin with the people of
the world, but with the people of God. Peter told the Christians of his day, “For the time
has come for judgment to begin at the house of God; and if it begins with us first, what will
be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God?” (1 Peter 4:17). These words
apply equally to the church in Britain today.

Of all the sins that could be charged against the contemporary church, it is sufficient to
focus on two: materialism and compromise.

In Luke 17:26-30 Jesus predicted that the period before His return would be like the
days of Noah and Lot. He mentioned specifically eight activities characteristic of those
days: eating, drinking, marrying, giving in marriage, buying, selling, building, planting.
Yet there is nothing specifically sinful in any of these activities. What, then, was the
problem?

The problem was materialism. The people of those days had become so engrossed in
these materialistic activities that they were unaware of the impending judgment of
God on their carnal lifestyle. When judgment came, they were totally unprepared.
The same is true today of most professing Christians in Britain. If the final judgment of
God should suddenly usher in the return of Christ, they would be totally unprepared.
Like materialism, the sin of compromise often goes unrecognised. About two years ago,
while praying, I had a mental picture of the interior of a typical church building with
rows of pews, a platform, a pulpit, a piano and so on. But the whole building was
permeated with some kind of fog. The outlines of objects could be discerned, but nothing
was sharply defined. While I was wondering what the fog represented, God gave me
one clear word: compromise.

In the contemporary church, most of the main moral and doctrinal truths, so clearly
enunciated in the New Testament, have become blurred and ineffective. In 1 Corinthians
6:9-10 Paul wrote: “Do not be deceived. Neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers,
nor homosexuals, nor sodomites, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor
extortioners will inherit the kingdom of God.” Yet the church today is full of people who
commit these sins, but remain totally unconcerned. In fact, they often boast of such sins.
A church member lay in hospital, dying of AIDS, which he had contracted through
homosexuality. Then he received Christ and was given a New Testament. After reading
some way in the New Testament, he sent an urgent message to the person who had led
him to Christ: “Come and pray for me. I need deliverance. I never knew there was
anything wrong with my lifestyle.”

Sadly, the chief responsibility for the erosion and rejection of many of the cornerstones
of the Christian faith in this country lies not with the world but with the very leaders of
the church itself. It has become a regular occurrence to hear of bishops denying the
Virgin birth, ministers questioning the deity of Jesus and priests scorning the need for
salvation.

Perhaps the most tragic outworking of this self-destructive process has been in the spate
of “Inter-Faith” services held in Britain’s Cathedrals and Abbeys. Here we have seen an
Archbishop of Canterbury participating in the worship of foreign gods alongside leaders
of the Hindu, Buddhist, Muslim and Sikh faiths. Similar services have been attended on
at least one occasion by the Queen, who committed herself by her coronation oath to
the “Defence of the Faith”. God makes his feelings clear about such practices in Hosea
5:10 where he says: “Judah’s leaders are like those who move boundary stones. I will pour
out my wrath on them like a flood of water.”

Yet within the church there is still a remnant of sincere, devoted followers of Jesus. If we
are among that number, how does God require us to respond to the present crises?
One clear answer is given in 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.” The phrase, “My
people who are called by My name,” applies to all Christians who take the name of Christ
upon themselves.

For at least 30 years I have been teaching on this Scripture, but recently I was confronted
by a shocking realisation! God’s people in our day have never fulfilled the first condition.
We have never truly humbled ourselves. Our pride – both religious and racial –
remains as a barrier that holds back the answer to our prayers for ourselves and for our
nation.

Through the severe dealings of God in my own life, I have learned the most effective
way for us to humble ourselves. Very simply, it is by confessing our sins. If we regularly
and specifically confess our personal sins to God, it is impossible to approach Him with
an attitude of pride.

Furthermore, I have seen that God has only committed Himself to forgive us of the sins
we confess. “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to
cleanse us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). Unconfessed sins are unforgiven
sins. Thus the barrier of pride builds up a second barrier of unforgiven sin.
The Bible exhorts us to confess our sins not merely to God, but also to one another.
“Confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed”
(James 5:16). Confessing our sins to God deals with vertical pride; confessing to one
another deals with horizontal pride. We can hardly maintain an attitude of pride towards
someone to whom we have just confessed our personal sins.

This applies especially to the relationship between husbands and wives. Those who
regularly confess their sins to one another are not kept apart by a barrier of pride.
Furthermore, confession of sin is an essential prerequisite to effective intercession. Daniel
was one of the most righteous characters in the Bible, but when he set out to intercede
for his people Israel, he began by acknowledging his own share in their sin.
(Dan. 9:3-13).

I believe that God is waiting for us as British Christians to humble ourselves before Him
and one another by confessing our sins. Only after we have done that, can we move on
to claim the healing of our land.

But I must add a word of warning. Do not begin to indulge in morbid introspection! The
Holy Spirit is “the finger of God” (Matt. 12:28; Luke 11:20). Ask God to place His finger
on the sins you need to confess. He will do it with unerring accuracy, probably bringing
to light sins which you never recognised!

I have confined this analysis to the situation in Great Britain. Much of what I have said,
however, applies to other nations who are heirs to the Judeo-Christian inheritance and
to the church worldwide. May God help each of us to accept our personal responsibility!

Yours in the Master’s service
Derek Prince

Humility is that most evasive of character traits which, when we declare ourselves to have it, we’ve lost it… or have we?

"We long for God, but our sin stands in the way and seeks to deviate us from our goal of knowing God. But when we choose to follow our sinfulness, we put up a barrier between God and us. He wants us to trust Him implicitly, but we would rather go it on our own. Trusting Him makes us feel vulnerable and out of control. It rails against our pride."

The Old Testament prophet Micah says:

He has shown you, O man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of you, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God?

With this he hits upon the central truth that effects our lives as Christians: what does the Lord want from me?
Of the three things mentioned, we want to hone in on the last one – to walk humbly with our God.

This is as much a challenge as it is a requirement from the Lord . But why is it so hard to walk humbly with our God?
Before we answer that we must state that it is actually impossible to walk with God unless we walk humbly. You don’t live proudly and walk humbly at the same time.

With this in mind we want to look at two Scriptures:
John 15: 1-5
Philippians 4:13

Four things face us in our struggle to walk humbly….

1. The desire to be independent from God.
2. The unwillingness to believe that we are actually helpless.
3. The reluctance to accept the goodness of God.
4. The uncertainty of the fact that we can do all things through Christ “who continually infuses strength into us”. (M. Lloyd Jones)


Stumbling Block No. 1
The desire to be independent from God.

Right from the word “go”, mankind has struggled with this. It was at the heart of the Fall. It was the thing that Satan aimed at when he tempted Adam and Eve: “You would be like gods.” In our struggle with sin, we struggle with dependence on God. It is like the cry of the French atheistic philosopher Jean Paul Sartre who said: “That God does not exist, I cannot deny. That my whole being cries out for God, I cannot forget.” We long for God, but our sin stands in the way and seeks to deviate us from our goal of knowing God. But when we choose to follow our sinfulness, we put up a barrier between God and us. He wants us to trust Him implicitly, but we would rather go it on our own. Trusting Him makes us feel vulnerable and out of control. It rails against our pride.

Stumbling Block No.2
The unwillingness to believe that we are actually helpless.

When we cry “I can’t do anything!!” we really mean it. It comes from an sense of inadequacy and frustration that we are not sufficient to meet a certain task. However, far from being a declaration of true humility, it shows an unwillingness to face the reality of our weaknesses. We so desperately want to be “good enough.” To accept our helplessness is the first step in becoming realistic about ourselves.
“I sometimes think that the very essence of the whole Christian position and the secret of a successful spiritual life is just to realize two things…
I must have complete, absolute confidence in God and no confidence in myself.” (Lloyd-Jones)

Stumbling Block No. 3
The reluctance to accept the goodness of God.

Like so many of our sinful traits, the reluctance to accept the goodness of God reflects the Eden experience of Adam and Eve. In the Garden the serpent sought to create doubt in the minds of his listeners about the character of God. Ever since, sin has been characterized by a distorted view of God. Our lack of faith in Him often comes from a lack of knowledge of Him and this is fed by a distorted view of the Father. Sometimes He is seen as an angry ogre, sometimes a distant judge, sometimes a disinterested all-powerful being (“If God really loved me He wouldn’t let this happen”). We still listen very intently to the Serpent!

Stumbling Block No. 4
The uncertainty of the fact that we can do all things through Christ “who continually infuses strength into us”.

If something is outside of our experience it is usually hard to come to terms with. If it goes against our grain to accept that “Apart from Him we can do nothing”, it is just as hard to believe that “We can do all things through Christ who strengthens us” – simply because one experience depends upon the other. There is no way we will be able to do “all things” if we are not committed in the first place to depending on Him! We need to put the two side by side – I can do nothing apart from Him, I can do all things with Him. If we try to do it any other way, we will come up short.

Clearing Away the Rubble…

1. The only way to clear away the stumbling block of independence from God is by:-
a) Worshipping – when we are filled with a sense of wonder in the presence of the Lord there is no room for ourselves. We become childlike in our faith.
b) Praying – Jesus set the example of dependency on the Father (Mark 2). At the beginning of a busy day He would get away on His own and pray to His Father.

2. The only way to clear away the stumbling block of unwillingness to
believe that we are actually helpless is by:-
a) Resolving in our hearts the fact that we are really, when it gets down to the naked truth, nothing but unworthy sinners before an awesomely holy God.
b) Realizing that “My grace is sufficient for you: for my strength is made perfect in weakness.”(2Cor 9:6)

3. The only way to clear away the stumbling block of our reluctance to accept the goodness of God is by:-
a) Intimacy with God – getting to know Him on a deeper level and learning to trust Him implicitly.
b) Listening – to the Word of God and to the Spirit of God.

4. The only way to clear away the stumbling block of our uncertainty of the fact that we can do all things through Christ “who continually infuses strength into us”, is by:-
a) Committing ourselves to leaning on Him and not our own
understanding (Proverbs 3:5)
c) Allowing our hearts to be governed by the greater principles of His will, and giving up our own small ambitions. We don’t need His strength to do those things which are not important to Him. The original context of Philippians 4:13 is learning to cope with everything that life throws at us. Let’s learn to live life to the max - in His strength.

“Come to me all of you who are weary and burdened down, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my burden is easy and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30