Being able to know and accept the calling and the gifting of myself, and not trying to be more than what God has made you, allows you to be able to be truthful to those that you’re involved with and be able to speak the truth in love.  Because of that, God has been, in these last days, opening doors into the lives of men who are some of the greatest, prominent Christians in our country today, Spirit-filled Christians.  All of a sudden, God is opening doors that are allowing us here, as a ministry—what God has shown us through all of these years—to be able to speak into the lives of others and hear them say, “That’s God.  We’re not hearing that today.  That’s the old path.  That’s what we need for this hour, praise God.”  Can you say, “Praise the Lord” for that?  Part of the reason they accept it is because we’re not in competition with them.  We’re not in competition.  The reality is: we’re not in their league.  How can you be in competition with somebody that is so much greater than you are?  You’re free to love and you’re free to speak the truth.  So, this is what we need in this hour and how the body should relate to one another as we understand this great call to humility.

We left off with Philippians, Chapter 2, verse 3 “Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory; but in lowliness of mind let each esteem other better than themselves.”  Colossians 3:12 says, “Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy…” holy, a blameless people “mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, and longsuffering.”  We talked about the need of putting this as garments upon ourselves.  Adorning ourselves in a meek spirit, a meek and quiet spirit.  That’s not just for women.  All of us should be meek and quiet in our spirit, quick to hear, slow to speak; amen?  We’re to be a people who come to God and are not asking amiss to consume it upon our own lusts, as we saw this morning in James.  A people who come with a true humility, for “God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace to the humble,” James 4:6 told us.  We looked at 1 Peter 5:5 and saw what we need so much to be successful; the grace of God.  Aren’t you thankful for the grace of God, the unmerited favor of God?  We don’t deserve anything He has blessed us with.  We especially don’t deserve His presence, and yet here He is, in our presence occupying our praises for the Lord inhabits the praises of His people, hallelujah.  So, we’ve come and set that environment.

Many of these men whom I’ve spoken to you of, and others who have come, I want to tell you, one of the things that affects them so greatly; they walk out of this place and they say, “The praise and worship like this, you can’t find it.”  It’s not a “worship experience.”  It’s not a “song service”; amen?  It’s worship, hallelujah.  God comes and occupies this place and refreshes our spirits and encourages our hearts.  We know that His ears are open to the cry of the righteous, hallelujah.  So, we pray with great confidence.  We ended with the sixth verse in 1 Peter 5, “Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time.”  We said years ago, we’ve made that phrase up as we were just sharing in service one time, “Due time is not you time,” right?  How many of us live on “you time” or I should say, our time?  “If God doesn’t do it in our time, in our way, then He has failed us.”  “If God doesn’t march to our drumbeat, then He has failed us somehow.”  I might remind you that God does not march to our drumbeat.  We are alert to His trumpet, the clarion voice of God that says, “This is the way, walk in it,” hallelujah.  Our ears are open to His cry.  Our ears are open to the voice of the Lord.  We humble ourselves and say, “Speak, Lord; here’s your servant.  Here am I, send me.”