Hudson Taylor, the great missionary-statesman to China, was speaking at a large church in Melbourne, Australia. The worship leader introduced him to the congregation in glowing and eloquent terms. He told all that Hudson had accomplished in China and then presented him as “our illustrious guest.” Hudson Taylor stood quietly for a moment, and began to speak, “Dear friends, I am the little servant of an illustrious Master.”

We discovered last week that revival is “the extraordinary movement of the Spirit of God in the hearts of God’s people producing extraordinary results.” Revival at its core is nothing more than experiencing God on a day-to-day basis. This means that Jesus has His rightful place in your life, your family, and every aspect of who you are and what you do. Revival is the abundant life that Jesus talks about in John 10:10 as the very reason He came to earth.

So, the question before us is this: are you experiencing God in your life? If so, how? In what ways? How do you know you are experiencing God? The question we are going to ask is this: what is the key that unlocks the door to experiencing God? Let’s see what the Bible says the key to revival and experiencing God is.

Isaiah 57:14-21.

What kind of person does God dwell with? Verse 15 says, “For this is what the high and lofty one says—he who lives forever; whose name is holy: I live in a high and holy place, but also with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite.” The KJV and NKJV has it “with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit.”

In Isaiah 6:5 Isaiah saw the awesome holiness of God and exclaimed, “Woe is me! I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips.”

Philippians 3:4b-6. The Apostle Paul had every reason to trumpet his pedigree, his education, his standing and status, along with his attitude and motivation.

Philippians 3:7-10. Here Paul takes all the high honors and the things of this world and counts them as rubbish. The Greek word for rubbish actually means ‘manure.’ His great desire is “to know Christ, the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of sharing in His suffering.”

The word for what these men experienced is humility. This is the key to revival. God cannot and will not revive a stubborn, unwilling heart. Without humility, we will never be able to know Jesus nor experience His presence in our lives. There are times when God allows situations in our lives to humble us. God at times uses our own sinfulness and foolishness to break us, to knock our knees out from under us, to put us down all with the intent of humbling us. Humility is the proper view of myself that leads me to admit my sin and acknowledge my need.

Sometimes it helps to understand a word or concept by looking at its opposite, or what humility is not. The opposite of humility is pride. Pride is having a better understanding of myself than is really true. Pride is thinking I can live my life without God and others. Pride is an unwillingness to admit my sin or acknowledge my need.

Now, how does pride show itself in our lives? The Bible teaches that pride is the root of all sin. The center of pride is ‘I’ and the center of sin is ‘I.’ Throughout the Bible sin reared its ugly head. Adam and Eve thought they knew better than God and so they ate the forbidden fruit. Sarah thought she knew better than God and so she offered her handmaid, Hagar, to Abraham to fulfill God’s promise of a child. Did you know that some of Hagar’s descendants flew airplanes into the Twin Towers killing some of the descendants of Sarah? Every time I decide to handle a situation myself without bringing God into it, I am responding to pride. There are many ‘fruits’ of pride. Here are some:

Gossip—gossip is fueled by the feeling that I am better than someone else. Every find yourself gossiping?

Contentious spirit—contention comes from feeling that I always know better, have a better plan, can do it better, etc so I contend/argue with others. Proverbs 13:10 says that contention comes only by pride.

Self-sufficiency—this springs from the thinking that I can handle life alone. It includes the pride of appearance, of abilities, of standing, and the like. 1 Corinthians 4:7 says that all of these are gifts from God.

Unforgiveness and bitterness—I am unwilling to forgive because I think people owe me something. I deserve better. And, ultimately any bitterness that develops, particularly against God, is because I think He has not given me what I deserve. Think about what you REALLY deserve from God!

Judgmental spirit—often misunderstand this as not making any value judgments, ergo we cannot speak to behavior, attitudes or actions that the Bible explicitly says is wrong.

Superiority over others—This is a sense that I am better than others. Sometimes this occurs when we look at ourselves as a cut above other people. Sometimes this occurs when, in order to lift ourselves up in our own eyes, we put others down beneath us.

Fear of people—this comes from the pride that wants to maintain my reputation before others so they will think well of me. Proverbs 29:25, “Fear of man will prove to be a snare, but whoever trusts the Lord is kept safe.”

An argumentative, headstrong, and stubborn spirit—This is the person who has an ‘attitude.’ One who will not listen to reason, who will not take sound advice and who rejects the gentle spirit. This needs no further explanation!

Unwillingness to let God have control—of money, of time, of mouth, of habits, of body, of leisure time, et al. Why? Because in my pride, I think I can do a better job with my life than God can.

Unwillingness to be honest about my sin—it’s not my fault. I didn’t do anything. It wasn’t me. Our first reaction is to claim the green light, even though it was yellow and turning red! We are quick to blame others and even quicker to excuse and defend ourselves. Why? Because in my pride I want to give a better impression than what is really true.

Do you suffer from the dis-ease of pride? Here is an easy way to assess whether or not you are proud. While it is certainly not a fool –proof method you can determine your pride-quotient by answering this question: how much do you pray? I said it is not fool-proof because Jesus condemned the Pharisees for praying to be “seen by men” which of course comes from pride! How much do you pray? And I am not talking about grace at mealtime, nor perfunctory and ritualistic prayers nor even necessarily at your devotional time. I am speaking of the awareness of God with you at all times and carrying on a running conversation with God. The point here is that if you go a couple days, a week, month, or year without praying, that is a clear indicator that you think you can live your life without God. The same is true with worship—both personal and corporate worship.

Pride, the source of all sin, keeps us from God. Isaiah 59:2 says, “But your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden his face from you so that He will not hear.”

What does God think about my pride? As we look at Scripture we discover that God has some very strong words about our pride. God knows that if we do not come to the posture of humility, we will never experience His best. God hates pride. He doesn’t tolerate it, nor excuse it, nor overlook it, or even dislike it. He loathes it! Proverbs 16:5, “The Lord detests all the proud of heart.” James 4:6, “Gods opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” Stephen Douglas, President of Campus Crusade for Christ, describes James 4:6 this way: Imagine every day lining up opposite a 300 lb NFL defensive lineman. His whole job all day long, every day, is to prevent you from doing what you want to do. He will hit you, hold you, push you down, step on you, kick you, bite you, scratch you, bruise you, and fall on you—all to stop you. You thought God was on your side. You are an (Philadelphia) Eagle, but God is a (Jacksonville) Jaguar! And here is the kicker—all along you thought you were winning! That’s exactly what pride does. It lulls us into a false sense of “I’m okay!” and then wham, we get hit! Wouldn’t it be better to have the Jaguar become an Eagle? Wouldn’t it be better to have God on your side inside of opposing you? It is pride that stops us.

The antidote for pride is humility. Jesus told the story in Luke18 about 2 men who went to the Temple to pray. One was a Pharisee and the other one was a tax-collector and a Roman collaborator. The Pharisee wrapped his robes around himself and said, “God, I thank you that I’m not like other men….unjust…like this tax collector. I fast and give tithes….” The other man recognized his need so greatly that he couldn’t even lift his eyes before God. He kept crying, “God, be merciful to me a sinner!” Which one went home right with God? Jesus said that it was the one who realized his sinfulness. Then Jesus said, “For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted.” (Luke 18:14)

Which are you?-- the proud or the humble? God resists the proud. Revival comes to those who are humble. Salvation comes to those who are humble. Heaven comes to those who are humble. It’s your call!

Thank You for Taking The Time to Read This Message.
May God Use These Words to Help You and Strengthen You.