Lowliness to Holiness

The Holy Spirit means to expel from me that which keeps him from fully occupying my soul! And as my soul sees this, and “yields” and “obeys” and gives place to the Spirit, I am “being made holy” for THE HOLY ONE has more “place”, i.e., more of me that He dwells in. It is his dwelling place that makes me holy.

There must be room for him to take the place of self… to fill the broken place with Himself.

The lowly one is the home of The Holy One.

Let’s take a look at Isaiah 57:15…

“Thus saith the High and Lofty one that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy: I dwell in the High and Holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble heart, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.”

Friends, when your consciousness of sin, of weakness, of how much “self” reigns makes you fear that you can never be holy, The Holy One gives Himself.

His promise to dwell in you and me is our only hope. Then we can be content to “be low” … yet rejoice in the assurance that God does take possession and revives the hearts of his contrite ones.

So, what does contrite mean? It means “feeling or showing sorrow and remorse for a wrong that one has done.”

So, if you’re feeling shame or a desire to hide, please realize that this is exactly when the Lord desires for you to draw near to Him, so He can fill you with himself! It is when He is able to align you with his perfect will! It is when you will be brought to comfort of spirit, for He will be your comforter!

The more you run away from the Lord, the more your enemy can bring torment to you! Who wants THAT?!

I had a conversation with the Lord that I journaled over a year ago now. The Spirit of God led me back to it, and now I want to share it. For it helps my readers to “see spiritually” what this chapter is trying to convey. I will put the Lord’s words in bold and mine in italics:

I had prayed, “I do want to experience knowledge of your holiness and yes, be used to reveal it to others. Right now, my body does prevent me, for my own attitudes and appetites have broken down my walls. So, Lord, align me – and take from me “shame”, and the desire “to hide.”

Beth, is your hiding from me?

“No, Lord… I feel good with you.”

“The shame is not feeling good “in the world” – where I am seen as “wanting” in the area of self-discipline, beauty, conformity, etc. I am now a fat, old lady, with talent basically ‘spent’ and the reality is, I haven’t much to offer anyone at all.”

“Just me … as I am.”

So, Beth, why comfortable with me?

“Because you love me, Lord.”

But, if I was angry at you, would you be ‘comfortable’?

“Of course not, Lord!”

“I’d be tormented!”

So, if you, Beth, feel close… secure… desiring “us”… then who is bringing the torment?

I paused to think, to give Him answer…

“Wow, Lord – I guess it can’t be you!”

“It has to be Satan – or lies I received within.”

“Please reveal to me what truth will bring me to peace and truest joy!”

It was then, that I was shown the verse below, from Isaiah 57:15, which I began this chapter with:

“Thus saith the High and Lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy: I dwell in the High and Holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble heart, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.”

I realized that God’s holiness is His condescending love… to the humble…

In this conversation, to me.

His holiness is heart-reviving and life-giving!

I realized that AS I AM HUMBLE – AND HIS – God has His Home within me… But only so much as He, the new occupant, can expel what the space in my heart was filled with, and replace it with himself, can He really possess me. In other words, in my case, it was shame that had to be expelled. I was feeling bad about myself… because I had self on the brain, clearly! But because I did come to Him, the Lord was able to take possession of me, and revive the heart of me, his contrite one.

So, during this interchange, I discovered a couple things:

Lowliness – is taking the place that becomes me.

Holiness – is giving God the place that becomes Him.

Lowliness to Holiness – because it gives all the glory to God!

I drew a diagram in my journal that I will use as my graphic for this chapter. Here it is:

I hope you will take the time to study this graphic…so your mind’s eye can embrace what I am sharing. Paul’s text is II Cor 6:9-10, for the curious, and the scripture “he that humbleth himself shall be exalted” appears in the Bible in both Luke 14:11 and Matthew 23:12.

Now, let’s look at Jesus Christ our example! Okay?

Christ sanctified Himself in accepting the humiliation and injustice which evil men laid upon Him. The great school of humility, before God, is to accept the humbling of man. Isaiah 53 tells us of our humbled Lord, and that he took on that posture “for us”; Yet, this chapter also tells us that one day his humility is what will bring him the exaltation coming to Him! Hallelujah! Because Jesus emptied himself, the Spirit of God was able to fill every part of Him; He had the Spirit without measure! Amen! He was sinless and remained humbled. His “self” was crucified, in the garden, before he was crucified, on the cross. He was holy as the Father was holy. And we are to be holy, as He is holy! 1 Peter 1:15-16 says:

“As he which hath called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of conversation; because it is written, Be ye holy; for I am holy.”

The greatest definition I’ve ever come to know about humility is:

True Humility is realizing WHO I AM and WHO HE IS!

Think about it. When we feel “humbled” … and replace that with “who He is” …we have a “divine exchange” like no other! We can replace our weaknesses with God’s strength, so we are no longer paralyzed to do what God tells us to do!

Instead of being embarrassed by those weaknesses, or bound in condemnation not of God, we can replace these places within our souls, and ask God to become our all in all! He will take his rightful place and oust these things that are within us, which have been preventing Him full access, and giving us His Holiness! We can go forward once again! Because we know our great and powerful God is with us!

As I just typed great and powerful above… in my spirit, I heard the Spirit say, “yes, go there” … as my own mind went swiftly to the phrase “The great and powerful Oz!” (yep, from The Wizard of Oz, which most all the world has seen!) Can you each see, in your own mind’s eye, the big ole scary Wizard of Oz’s face and thundering voice on the wall in that big hall… and the smoke rising around him… and the extreme fear being put into Dorothy and all her companions, who were made to look at their weaknesses? That’s what I see…

But then I see that “someone” was “behind the curtain” pulling the strings to present an illusion, that others would fear him. Isn’t that what Satan does to us?

Satan has been pulling strings behind the scenes to make us so incredibly afraid of him and of our own weaknesses too! But’s it’s all illusion! If we give God access to us!

Satan is so small in comparison to Christ in Us, the Hope of Glory! (Col 1:27) So small in comparison to our great and awesome GOD! He’s “a little peon” pulling strings behind the scenes! Not wanting to be exposed! But he is exposed now! Let’s not let “that big liar” ruin our futures!

Don’t let him cause you to give up hope for the future! Or doubt that good things are in store for you!

Just as the Spirit of God turned my conversation around, and gave me hope, letting me know within that my feelings were “given to me” from “the man behind the curtain pulling strings” who was “filling me with lies”… Be aware, too, of the enemy’s working in your own heart and soul.

But the reality was, the Spirit of God wanted to come in and fill those places with Himself. So, He could make me holy with his holiness within me. He is doing that in me, and He will do the same in you!

Let’s close this chapter by having you do a little “assignment”, okay?

Talk to God and tell him every single humiliating thing that has happened to you, that still comes up to mess with your head and your confidence…i.e. that affects your soul: your mind, will and emotions. (Yeah, this may take some time.)

Write each of them down, and as you do so, pray for Christ to “replace that” with His Presence, His Healing, His Forgiveness, His Strength (whatever is applicable in your case for that thing you listed!).

I am not sure I communicated to you well enough about Lowliness leading to Holiness, so I am going to pray this prayer aloud FOR YOU, MY READER:

Father God,

You made me aware that the Holy Spirit wants to expel from me that which keeps him from fully occupying my soul. And I believe that as your children yield to this work of The Spirit, within them, by obeying, surrendering, and being alert, that they are “being made holy” for your Spirit is Holy. I ask that every reader understand. And I ask that they begin to “recognize” the enemy who is pulling the strings that bring fear upon them, paralyzing them by their weaknesses rather than them coming to you with these issues that can torment them. Work in hearts Lord. Change lives. And thank you for your presence within us! We acknowledge that, as you take the place of each area that the self, or the Enemy, has occupied, you will bring forth life, and freedom, and renewal. We will be Holy! For You are Holy! (1 Peter 1:16) I pray, also, that if anyone doesn’t know you God, reveal your son Jesus to them, letting them know He humbled his own self to die upon the cross, so his blood could purchase our redemption, and we could belong to you God, Our Father, for eternity.

Accept Jesus as Lord and Savior, and the The Spirit of God can dwell in you right now! May Holiness be ours as we give Him place!

In Jesus’ Name,

Amen