The prophet Micah, as he speaks in Chapter 6, verse 8, “...what is it that the Lord requires of you,” the prophet says, “but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly before our God?”  So, we just want to stir ourselves up and identify the little foxes in our life of self‑will, the little self‑will foxes.  The little things we do without God’s direction that are self‑indulgent, self‑promoting, and self‑gratifying.  Things that God would want us to have if He was the source and not self.  Should I say that again?  Things that God would want us to have if we would let Him provide it and not self.  We go out and get things on our own and call them “the blessings of God.”  Let’s make sure God is blessing us; amen?  Is this originating from Him?  Is this for His glory?  It has to be by Him and for Him if, in fact, we’re going to be living this true life of humility, a life that’s pleasing to God.  It’s so vital, so vital that that becomes a part of our lives.

Let’s turn over to James, Chapter 4, passages we’ve made reference to, that we’re familiar with.  But believe that the Lord would speak to us, and, as He does, that our hearts would be open and longing to receive a greater revelation of ourselves.  Because we don’t know our own hearts.  God has to reveal our hearts through His Word, this engrafted word, which is able to bring us to the salvation of our souls.  James, Chapter 4, as the Spirit of God is speaking to us, here.  He talks about the reason we don’t have certain things is because we’re asking amiss.  He said, “You have not because you ask not and when you do ask, you ask amiss.  The desire is to consume things on ourselves, on our own lust.”  He calls that spiritual adultery, verse 4, “Ye adulterers and adulteresses, know ye not that the friendship of the world is enmity with God? whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.”  These powerful words that just pierce into our souls.  Now, when he’s talking about the world, here, and carnality, he’s talking about the things that we’re pursuing for self‑gratification, for self‑exaltation.  You’re asking amiss.  You’re desiring to consume these things upon your own lust.  Humble yourself and ask what God would have you obtain; amen?  We’ll see as we go on in the study that there seems to be, so often, boasting of our accomplishments.  If they’re not being verbally boasted of, or vaunted, it’s done in other ways so that we can remind people of who we are, how successful we are, and how different we are as the elite.  It even goes over into spiritual things, as we look at the Corinthian church.

In Chapter 8 of 1 Corinthians he says, “Now listen.  Concerning things that are offered unto idols, we know that we have knowledge, but knowledge puffs up.  Love edifies.”  He goes down in this particular passage and says, “If a man thinks he knows anything, he knows nothing yet as he ought to know.”  Paul’s trying to get across to these particular Corinthians the fact that, as he goes on into the teaching and it pertains to the different callings and gifts, he said, “What do you have that was not given unto you?  And if it’s a gift unto you, why do you then boast on it?”  Amen?  It’s amazing how often, though we may not verbalize it, when God begins to use us in spiritual things, we might get a word of knowledge.  We might lay hands on somebody and they get healed, how all of a sudden, we start thinking we’re somebody.  You don’t verbalize it.  It may not be something you dwell on, but there are these little, “You know, God’s using me.  I can hear from God.”  These are all great things but the fact is, Paul’s saying, “Listen, this is a gift of God’s grace to you,” amen?  It doesn’t make you great, it glorifies God.  If we ever get off of that as the primary thought, then God’s going to oppose us.