There is a beauty radiating from anyone projecting a spirit of humility.  Even though it is spiritual, it will manifest itself in obvious natural ways and when it is not there… that is obvious as well.   
Humility is synonymous with meekness and this is not well understood by far too many who have managed to escape from the shameful city.  There are manners in the heavenly society and they are holy.  We have no excuse to fail to abide in all of the mannerisms of holiness, especially with regards to the brethren.  By the way, women are brethren too!

We all want to be and profess to be… humble before God.  And for the most part we all think of ourselves that way.  On the other hand, God requires us all to be humble one to another.  This turns out to be a completely different story than being humble before God.  It is, however, evident that far too many of us have not opened the door of humility and entered into it, while others are in and out of it as it pleases them.

If we do not humble ourselves before the brethren, we are not humble before God; that is the way it works!  What does this mean in real time?  It absolutely means that when we stray from our heavenly manners GOD will resist us!  We do not have to make a complete ass of ourselves in the presence of our fellow travelers to offend the Lord.  We can do it with our attitude, never uttering a word.  Lucifer became Satan by an evil thought.  Think about it, God looks on our heart… always. If you are ill mannered in heavenly places, when you pray, will God resist you? When you have needs, will he supply them?  Who am I to say how or what God will or will not do but this is sure: God is not mocked and what he says he will do we can depended upon. Nevertheless, there is mercy for the repentant.  Do not fail to let every brother be precious in our sight and suffer long with their short comings and do not sin against them in the heart, for God will not fail to see it.  

I mention humility a lot in my writing because over the years I have seen the problems that arise out of the lack of it.  Even those who consider themselves “old warriors” who are newly out of the mud, need to humble down and receive a different and renewed orientation in the freedom of the Spirit.  And above all and for all who are now free, do not be cock-sure about what you think you know because you have been severely influenced by what you were entangled in.  Here is a scripture that most of us should be familiar with but simply for the power of the Word to be made manifest at this point, let’s revisit this old familiar passage:

Likewise, ye younger, submit yourselves unto the elder. Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble. -1Pe 5:5. 

Elders are ordinary believers with experience and understanding in the Lord.  Many do not cast a long shadow or speak with elegance.  Many are not brilliant or intellectually accomplished and many are not actually elderly in the natural sense. The point most always missed is that submission is a REQUIRED part of the process!  And it is especially important for the young in the Lord to BE SUBJECT to an elder.  I might also point out that the young are not always young in years; if you have just come out of years in the religious establishment this applies to you as well.  Many years or a few years in the shameful city has layered its influence upon ALL that dwell there and we need help with that influence, even if we do not see it.  Just because God has revealed enough truth to make possible for one’s escape does not equal a perfect balance in the freedom of which you are unfamiliar.  And some dare to be subtly arrogant about this, thinking more of what they think they know than they should.  Shame!

We shed our arrogance and pride to accomplish an entrance before God into the freedom of the Spirit.  We are also to submit to one another, no matter who we are. This is not a small thing and we do transgress against the Lord by resisting this requirement.  Let us all be very careful how we treat the Lord through each other, especially, when we do not agree on something.  Be careful!  When an elder speaks to one who is younger in Christ and that individual does not see the point or thinks the elder is wrong, they should not resist.   This must be… even if the elder IS wrong!   This understanding is about the Royal Manors of God’s Love, all of which is voluntary.  If we resist the elder’s admonition, we resist the Lord and this is a very shameful thing.  The elder may be entreated concerning your questions, as he is apt to teach.  If the elder is wrong or mistaken, then the younger is due an apology. The younger will then reciprocate with forgiveness.

For those new to the wilderness, it is unwise to wrestle to the ground everything that is presented to you, as if it must be all understood completely and immediately.  Patience is a godly mannerism and it holds hands with trust. It normally takes some time to gain orientation.  We trusted God to lead us out of the religious system and we overcame fear to do it so we must also trust those that God has led us to, who add to and strengthen us for our individual journeys.

Fear of being deceived is one of the spirits that hovers over those in the nasty old institutions. This spirit clings to an escapee of religion as long as it is not resisted.  When we resist the spirit of fear, the resistance repels the evil spirit and we can grow in peace.  Therefore, trust those that God has led you to and resist all that is not God.

The relationship of the young to the elder will change in due season. Nevertheless we are all subject one to another as the Lord leads us.  In the freedom of the Spirit the young are not perpetually children, as they are in religious circles.   Among the liberated there is no clergy/laity dividing line; we are all priest in the Royal Family.  This does not equal democracy: we are all servants of the Lord and this means that HE owns us all.  We, on the other hand, do not own ourselves or anyone else.  This should be obvious to us all but then why do so many think that we are free to do whatever we want to do?  We can (if we so choose) do whatever we want but then we cannot call Jesus Lord because if we call the shots, we have made ourselves lord.   All of this to say again that God has rules and these rules MUST govern our lives.  Some rules are subtle… seek them out!  It’s part of your job.

 We all come to the Lord under humility, as it is the gate to the grace of God.   Love is put on as a garment and love houses humility.  No one is holy if their garment is soiled.  We can actually have deep knowledge and a whole trunk load of other superficial good works but without a clean garment, do not think that an individual will be accounted worthy to escape the nasties of God’s judgment.  Lack of humility is a big stain on anyone’s garment. Stains make us unholy.  And guess what, without holiness we will not see the Lord. Therefore, take these commandments of our Lord seriously.

If an individual does not embrace true humility, they become an open window, through which the Devil can fly in and out of doing his dastardly deeds.  Humility is a commandment, it is not an option.  Jesus commanded us to love one another and as you can also see, love is the first facet listed concerning the fruit of the Spirit.  The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance.  -Gal 5:22.  These facets form a single item under the heading of love (as you can see) and this list of items shows what is being generated when the manifestation of love is in action. These manifestations are very obvious!  If we do these nine things consistently we do not have to wear out the world’s three cheapest words… it will be evident.

 If ye love me, keep my commandments. - John 14:15.  Jesus gets tired of hearing people say they love him when they do not keep his commandments.  The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance.  -Gal 5:22.  These nine spiritual items are the commandments of Jesus and there are many more.   If any of us imagines that they can get by without keeping these commandments and we live each day thinking that God simply ignores the breaking of these statutes, we are sadly mistaken and we should be ashamed of ourselves and repent.  Repent means we resolve to stop, change, go the other way… forever.

There is, nevertheless, a balance that must be mentioned here and that is: there is a time for all things.  Sometimes people must be dealt with by an elder or elders for the good of all and this may not be gentle.  These are usually those who refuse to conform to the law of love and are found to be influenced of the Devil to bring about mischief.  Elders have the authority in these situations.

These nine words describing the fruit of the Spirit is part of a formula which changes us into His likeness (on the inside) where it counts. Why are there so many personality problems where they should not be?  It is because these nine items and others are not taken to heart seriously but superficially, especially humility. Longsuffering would most likely be the next in line on the list of the most easily forgotten. But all of these manners are necessary to our salvation.  We can’t just claim faith and think that we are complete.  We have to will these things to be and we have to resolve to put them ALL on every day.  And if we have to fight with ourselves, let us fight to win and not give up.  There is no excuse; we can accomplish anything if we focus on the Lord, including binding those evil, ungodly attitudes manifesting themselves within our flesh to be used by the evil one.  

Jaytee Bee