To Carry Revival: Pride Test

To be carriers of Kingdom revival, God's children must be clothed in humility. Pride will render us unable to carry the weight of God's great power and great glory in a way that expresses His heart to those in need of an encounter with the Almighty.

While true humility is a very broad thing, the contrasts between David and Saul will help illuminate some of what it means to have true humility (rather than false or religious humility...sick). The Spirit of God left Saul (1 Samuel 16:14) but remained on David for his entire life (1 Samuel 16:13). Why is this? Saul was afraid of how he appeared to others and he was afraid of what those whom he was leading thought of him (1 Samuel 15:24). He had the fear of man which brings a snare (Proverbs 29:25). When we are afraid of what people think, we are limited in our effectiveness in doing our Father's business. Noah's family would have been destroyed if he was afraid of what people thought of him. No one had ever seen rain let alone a flood, and he was building a massive boat because his God told him to. It is pride to value people's opinions above God's. This is what Saul did.

David, on the other hand, was not afraid of what people thought of him. He was far more concerned with God's reputation. When Goliath was defying God's chosen people, David rose up in the confidence of the Lord despite his lack of qualifications and slew the giant (1 Samuel 17:26-28). David's brother accused him of being prideful. Religion often mistakes confidence for pride. True humility is having confidence in God and walking accordingly. David committed murder and adultery, but the Spirit of God never left him, and he was arguably the most anointed king in Israel's history. This shows how dangerous the fear of man, one of most prominent forms of pride, really is. If a pastor was caught in adultery, he'd lose his job and rightly so, but there are thousand of pastor's who are being dictated by what others think and no one cares. The fear of man is the most tolerated sin in the church today.

Keep in mind that while David was not afraid of what people thought of him, he still refused to dishonor the king who was in a position that was rightfully David's. We should be careful to realize that although humility has no fear of what other's think, true humility expresses the heart of God. In David's case, he understood that Saul, although sinful, was God's chosen king. David refused to see him as anything less than that.

The humility required to be a carrier of lasting revival is made manifest by expressing the heart of God. Like David we must be confident in the word and strength of the Lord and not in our qualifications or reputations, but we must also realize that people, regardless of where they're at in life, are God's treasure.