It's not by might. And it's not by power. But
it's by my spirit. So it's not the greatness
of your army. It's not the greatness of your
politics. It's not the greatness of your economy.
It's the greatness of your God. God promises
in Joel 2 .28 to pour His Spirit out on all humanity.
Welcome to Global Outpouring, where we contend
for that promise outpouring, we equip for that
outpouring, so that we may engage in that very
outpouring. I'm Philip Buss. And I'm Sharon Buss.
Welcome to the podcast today. I think you're
going to really enjoy this one. This is a wonderful
subject that we have today. Jesus dealt with
it, and it's all through the scripture. Who is
greater? Here's a hint. Go low. We're so glad
that you've joined us today. Before we get started,
we want to encourage you, if you haven't already
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way to build community. So today we're going
to talk about this dispute that the disciples
had. And the Lord has just downloaded an amazing
multi -level look at what it means to be greater.
How do you know who's greater? What are the qualifications
for being greater? Well, it might surprise you.
It's not about the most smart. It's not about
the most qualified. I mean, the qualifications
are not what you might think. So let's just go
through this dispute that the disciples were
having. And it started in Mark 9, verses 33 to
37. The Passion Translation puts it well. Then
they came to Capernaum, and as soon as Jesus
was inside the house, he asked his disciples,
What were you arguing about on the way here?
Uh -oh. He was listening. No one said a word
because they had been arguing about which one
of them was the greatest. Jesus sat down, called
the twelve disciples to come around him and said
to them, If anyone wants to be first, he must
be content to be last and become a servant to
all. Then he had a child come and stand among
them. He wrapped the child in his arms and said
to them, Whosoever welcomes a little child in
my name welcomes me, and whosoever welcomes me
welcomes not only me, but the one who sent me.
So then the dispute continues in the next chapter.
You think that would have took the wind out of
their sails? You would think so, but apparently
they didn't get the message. Mark 10, 35 to 45.
And it's interesting that the Passion Translation
gives James his proper Hebrew name. Yaakov. Yeah,
Jacob. Jacob and John, sons of Zebedee, approached
Jesus and said, Teacher, will you do a favor
for us? What is it you're wanting me to do? I
mean, Jesus already knew. Of course. We want
to sit next to you when you come into your glory,
they said. One at your right hand and the other
on your left. Jesus said to them, You don't have
a clue what you're asking for. Are you prepared
to drink from the cup of suffering that I am
about to drink? And are you able to endure the
baptism into death that I am about to experience?
They replied, Yes, we are able. Jesus said to
them, You will certainly drink from the cup of
my sufferings and be immersed into my death,
but to have you sit in the position of highest
honor is not mine to decide. It is reserved for
those whom grace has prepared them to have it.
Now, the other ten disciples overheard this.
Oh, boy. And they became angry and began to criticize
Jacob and John. I can imagine Peter jumping in,
too, you know. Jesus gathered them all together
and said to them, Those recognized as rulers
of the people and those who are in top leadership
positions rule oppressively over their subjects.
But this is not the example you are to follow.
You are to lead by a different model. If you
want to be the greatest one, then live as one
called to serve others. The path of promotion
and prominence comes by having the heart of a
bond slave who serves everyone. For even the
Son of Man did not come expecting to be served
by everyone, but to serve everyone and to give
his life as the ransom price in exchange for
the salvation of many. Amen. Argument ended.
Yeah. For sure. And I think they were probably
still scratching their heads. And in another
gospel, it talks about Zebedee's wife, James
and John's or Jacob. It would really be Yaakov
and Yohanan. That would be their real Hebrew
names. It was their mother that would approach
Jesus. Ambitious mom. Yeah, good Jewish mom.
Good Jewish mama. This is my boys. She's holding
out her baby. This is my son, the doctor. She
has plans. And I just think it's really interesting
that Jesus brings it home to them that he came
to serve. And if you remember, I think there's
been more than one. podcast, more than one episode
that we have done with Dean Braxton. And after
we had this message from Dean Braxton about serving
in heaven, that serving is the number one thing,
that when you meet one another in heaven, you
don't say, hi, how are you? You say, how can
I serve you? And I don't know if you can hear
that, but we just had a clap of thunder. God
was just saying, yep, yep, that's it. You got
it. Service is the number one thing. That is
the qualifier for prominence. It's the qualifier
for who is the greatest. It's the opposite of
the business world. Oh, yeah. Yeah, the business
world you have to sell yourself. I mean, well,
you kind of do both ways, however you might think
of that. But, you know, the people who are looking
for people to put in high positions are looking
for people who know how to tell that they can
do it. And here's all my qualifications. And
I've done this and I've done that. And I'm educated
in this and I'm educated in that. And they overlook
the guy that probably has all of those same qualifications.
But doesn't boast. And I'm going to interject
something here. Sure. This is kind of funny.
This is a book that someone gave me. And it's
a comic strip that I never enjoyed. Not that
I enjoy comic strips. But it's called Dogbert's
Management Handbook. And it's Dilbert. You know,
it's an office. And, you know, who knows, maybe
the British thing, the office. was an offshoot
of something like that. That wasn't British.
No, that's not, but the original Office was British.
And then they did a remake in the U .S. Oh, really?
I didn't know that. Yeah, that's what I found
out. So anyway, in this book, and it's very well
detailed in all kinds of things, and it does
the total opposite of what you're really supposed
to do according to the kingdom of God. Right.
I mean, this is how you get ahead. This is how
you treat your employees. This is the world way
of... I'm not recommending you go buy out there,
but The Dilbert Principle is another book. It's
the same author that wrote the title of this
one is Dogbert's Management Handbook. Yeah, it's
by Scott Adams. If you want to look at something
that this is not the way the kingdom of God operates.
Right. And I just had to throw that in because
this is the way the world thinks. Right. I've
got to get ahead. And even though everybody talks
to themselves, they're very nice. You know, and
then this and that. But they secretly, if you're
in a higher position, somebody wants your job.
Yeah. It reminds me of how your dad kept getting
bumped. Yeah. The way his job was set up that
you could put in for somebody else's job and
bump somebody. Seniority. Yeah. They could bid
for your job and get it. Then you had to knock
somebody else off. It's terrible. Very poor management.
Terrible. It's really sad. So anyway, Jesus was
trying to get his disciples to understand the
idea of service because that's the heavenly principle.
And he came to serve and not to be served, but
he came to give his life as a ransom. He came
to be our redeemer. Then he was going to pay
the price for us. That's service. Yes. Greater
love has no man than this, that he lays down
his life for his friends. Yeah. So fast forward
to the Last Supper. By this time, Jesus has really
kind of given Peter a lot of clues that he really
is going to be the one that is going to be spokesman
for the move after he leaves. Jesus probably
didn't outwardly say that. No. But it wasn't
until the day of Pentecost when it actually happened.
Right. But he had given Peter some clues. You
know, Jesus said, who do men say that I am? And
Peter had the answer. Yeah. Thou art the Christ,
the Son of God. And Jesus said, on this, I'm
going to build my church. And so, you know, there
were clues along the way that Peter was going
to be designated as the guy that was going to
stand up and preach on that day when the Holy
Spirit was poured out. Peter the Rock. Peter
the Rock. But if you remember, that's a long
time ago now, but episode 139. It was called
Whatever Your Blunder, It's Forgivable, There's
Hope. And we went through all of Peter's blunders
that he did right there at the last. All the
known blunders. The known blunders, the ones
that are written in the book where he, you know,
he just keeps doing everything wrong. He's making
the wrong choices. So there's hope for all of
us when we've made a wrong choice. God says,
do it this way and we do it that way. And so
Jesus gives Peter an opportunity. at the Last
Supper by where he posted him. You know, he probably
came in and said, you sit here, you sit here,
you sit here, you sit here, you sit here. And
the last of all was Peter. Peter, you sit over
there. And that over there place, I won't go
into the details like I did on that podcast on
episode 139. If you want to hear more, go back
to that one. But the place that Peter was put
was the place of the servant. And if you didn't
have servants to wash your feet when you came
in for the dinner, then the guy in that last
seat is supposed to wash everybody's feet. And
Peter didn't do it. You know, he was thinking,
I'm not going to do that. That's beneath me.
No, no, no, no. Especially when you've been getting
these keys along the way. Right, right, right.
So it's like Jesus never exactly said I was going
to be the greatest. But didn't they remember
what he just said? The servant is the greatest
of all. Now, apparently that wasn't in their
minds. They hadn't developed the mindset. And
that's what we want to get into here is the mindset
of you go low if you want to be great. If you
want to be first, you've got to be last. First,
you got to be last. That's the first thing. You
got to be last. The last shall be first. Yes,
the last shall be first and the first shall be
last. So Jesus was putting Peter, who had been
first along the way, he puts him in the last
place. And Peter was put out. Probably not happy.
And that's why he put up such a fuss when Jesus
came to wash his feet, because he knew he was
supposed to be the one to wash everybody's feet,
and he didn't do it. You know, that's why he
put up a fuss and said, no, no, you can't wash
my feet. And Jesus said, yeah, I got to wash
your feet. Or you have no part of me. You have
no part of me. Oh, well, then wash my head and
my hands too. No, no, Peter, just your feet.
That's all we need to do. So Peter, in the end,
after he made all those blunders and, you know,
cuts off the ear of the high priest's servant
and he denies Jesus and he's not there at the
cross like John is. And he's mortified with his
own behavior. But in the end, he is the one that
comes under the anointing to step up on the day
of Pentecost and preach this sermon that results
in 3 ,000 believers. So, you know, you have this
thing that Jesus was trying to teach, but he
was also expressing who he really is. So in Matthew
12, 39 to 42, It says, But he answered and said
to them, An evil and adulterous generation seeks
after a sign, and no sign will be given to it
except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For as
Jonah was three days and three nights in the
belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man
be three days and three nights in the heart of
the earth. The men of Nineveh will rise up in
the judgment with this generation and condemn
it because they repented at the preaching of
Jonah, and indeed a greater than Jonah is here.
The queen of the south will rise up in judgment
with this generation and condemn it, for she
came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom
of Solomon. And indeed, a greater than Solomon
is here. So Jesus was actually showing that he
is greater than Jonah and Solomon, you know,
greater than a king and greater than a prophet.
Hmm. Hmm. Yeah. Interesting. So you have this
statement that Jesus makes that, okay. you've
got these people in your history, but I'm actually
greater than they are. So he makes the statement
that he is. So let's move on. What does Exodus
18, 11 say? Now I know that the Lord is greater
than all the gods, for in the very thing in which
they behaved proudly, he was above them. Uh -huh.
So this is Exodus 18. So this is referring back
to all the gods of Egypt. That the people of
Egypt were placing their expectations on. And
in the Middle East in those days, in biblical
times in particular, it was understood that there
were certain gods over each region. And that's
why our father refers to himself and his people
refer to him as the God of Israel. The only one.
There's only one God of Israel. All the others
have multiple gods to get their job done. And,
for instance, as travelers would go from one
place to another, like the merchants, as these
merchants would be going on the trade routes,
as they would pass from one region to another,
they might actually invoke the gods of that area.
And they would recognize that the God of Israel
was different than everybody else. And his name
is... Yehovah. So it's clear from Exodus 18,
11, that he is greater than all the gods. It
just says Lord in most of our translations, but
his name is Yehovah. And then you have the scripture
in Isaiah 14, 12 to 15, talking, some of the
translations use the word Lucifer, but the Passion
uses a different translation. So would you read
Isaiah 14, 12 through 15 from the Passion Translation,
please? Look how you have fallen from your heavenly
place, O shining one, son of the dawn. You have
been cut down to the ground, you who conquered
nations. You said in your heart, I will ascend
into heaven and exalt my throne above the stars
of God. I will rule on the mountain of the congregation,
on the highest place of the sacred mountain.
I will rise past the tops of the clouds and rival
the Most High God. Yet down to the underworld
you go, into the depths of the pit. Amen. That's
where he belongs, and he's on his way there already.
From the moment God said, let there be light,
he was on his way there. Hallelujah. Hallelujah.
But I think it's fascinating and very eye -opening.
When you look at who is operating on the Temple
Mount now, There is some other entity that is
being worshipped besides Yehovah. That was his
temple place. And, you know, the sides of the
north indicates that this is the location that's
north of the city of David. That's very clear
from every time that is used in the scripture,
the expression, the sides of the north. It was
the Temple Mount. Yeah. The temple was built
there in Solomon's day, and it was taken down
in the Babylonian conquering, and then it was
rebuilt. And we'll talk about that in a minute.
But to see that there's somebody else being worshipped
there. And the people who are worshipping there,
I call them the Psalm 2 people. You need to read
Psalm 2. Why do the heathen rage? Imagine a vain
thing. Right. And they're all against the Lord's
anointed, right? It's a very anti -Christ religion.
So they're the ones that are worshiping there.
And when they do a terrorist action, they make
a statement in Arabic that declares that their
deity that they worship is greater. That thing
that they say means their deity is greater. So
they're trying to make a point that their guy
is higher, he's greater. He's the one who said,
I will exalt myself above the most high. Exalt
myself. And there he is. That's who's operating
there on the Temple Mount right now and exercising
all kinds of activity from Indonesia all the
way to West Africa. There's an amazing swath
of land that is under that oppression. It's an
oppression. Yeah. And they need deliverance.
And listen, we are not against Muslims. We're
not against Muslims. We love Muslims. But we
hate the chains of bondage that keep them. Of
the one they serve. Yeah, the one that they're
serving is the wrong one. I could go into more
details, but I won't take time now. That's probably
a subject for another podcast. In fact, we probably
covered it in another episode, and we'll put
that in the show notes too. So this other character
thinks that he's greater, and he's trying to
make all of his followers say that he's greater,
but he's not. But he's occupying a place that
belongs to our Father. Our God, Yehovah, our
Father, is not like the gods of the other nations
because they all want to occupy the high places.
And we know that our God is the highest. He is
the greatest. His word says he is, and we know
that he is because he keeps showing himself to
be greater and stronger than all these other
entities. But he chooses a place that's lower.
than the high places. If you haven't been to
Jerusalem, we encourage you to go, but you will
see that the Temple Mount is lower than the mountains
that are around Jerusalem. The Mount of Olives
is higher. What they call the Mount of Evil Counsel
is higher. There's another one called the Central
Mount, and it's kind of part of modern Jerusalem
now, but I don't think it was at the time. Whether
it's actually higher than the Temple Mount, I
don't know for sure. But the point is that the
place where he chose to put his name is lower.
And when the pilgrims would come from the north,
they would come up the other side of the Mount
of Olives and they'd get to the top and they'd
look down. on this beautiful view of the beautiful
temple of God, and they're looking down on it.
So it's another picture of how our Father and
Jesus, who is his expressed image, came as an
example of go low. If you want to be greatest,
you got to go low. Even our God goes low. And
the same thing is true at Shiloh. The platform
where the tabernacle was all those years, 360
some years, it is lower than the mountains round
about it. In fact, that's how they determined
what I'm calling proof positive. That's how the
archaeologists decided that this is truly Shiloh,
because the traditions that are written about
it is that when the people would come there to
sacrifice. that they would do their sacrifice
and then they would take their portion of meat
and they would eat it within view of the tabernacle.
They had to eat the sacrifice within view of
the tabernacle. That's really interesting. So
they've got these mountains around about it and
the archaeologists discovered that there was
all kinds of pottery shards all over everywhere
where you could see that platform. where the
tabernacle would have stood. Yeah. That was their
archaeological findings. A lot of times where
battles took place, they could tell by the bones
that remained of what they were eating. Right.
Because if it wasn't a kosher animal, it wasn't
an Israeli camp. Exactly. Exactly. And so any
bones that were there would have been kosher
animals. Yeah. Right? So the point is that our
Father goes low. He wants to be seen from above.
How amazing is that? How amazing is that? And
Dean Braxton was mentioning to us about what
it's like in heaven, that it's not how we would
think. It was something about how you can see
him from every viewpoint in heaven. Whether you're
above him or beneath him or beside him, you can
see him from every place because he's the center
of it all. But he's actually also the servant
of all. It's amazing. It's amazing. But, you
know, the evil spirits, they want the high places.
Think about Mount Olympus. Most of us have been
trained in Greek mythology. Well, Mount Olympus
is way up there above us, and that's the abode
of the gods. And today, you go into India and
Nepal and Tibet, and the Himalayas are considered
the abode of the gods. That's where the gods
hang out. And I had a revelation here recently.
You may have heard me say this on another episode,
but I had this experience where I felt like the
Lord was showing me that his presence was like
oxygen, that it's all around you and you can't
sense it with your five senses, but you can't
live without it. And that's what his presence
is like. So I asked Ivan Tuttle, is that true?
Have I got that? And he said, well, oxygen is
the presence of God. I said, really? And then
I asked Dean about it. He said, well, I guess
you could say that oxygen is the presence of
God, but I think it would be more accurate to
say that oxygen is the love of God. So if oxygen
is the presence or the love of God, and because
God is love, so his presence would be love. Yes.
When you go up into the high places, oxygen is
decreased. So his presence would be decreased.
That's really interesting. So they're more comfortable
there. Not so bothered by the presence of God.
Interesting thought. Yeah, it's amazing. So,
you know, Israel is also, because the God of
Israel is the greatest, what does that say about
Israel? Let's look at Deuteronomy 7, 17 through
21. Do you want to read that, Philip? If you
should say in your heart, these nations are greater
than I, how can I dispossess them? Yes. You shall
not be terrified of them, for the Lord your God,
the great and awesome God, is among you. So even
though the nations round about them are greater,
especially greater in their eyes. Yeah. You remember
what it was like when they sent the 12 spies.
And they came back and said, oh, it's a wonderful
land, but we can't go there because they have
giants. We're like grasshoppers to them. Yeah,
we are too small. They are great. And we are
small. We can't do this. And, you know, that
didn't go well for them. No. Didn't go well at
all for them. They had to march around in the
wilderness another 40 years. They lost their
opportunity to go into the promised land. From
one bad decision. Yep, yep. Because they were
looking at the greatness of the enemies with
their natural eyes instead of remembering the
greatness of their God. And he's the God of Israel,
so that makes Israel a great nation because they
have a great God, not because they're so superior,
and they are. Obviously, we've just seen that
recently about their superiority and what they
cleaned up in Iran recently. But even Prime Minister
Netanyahu said he commended all of the military
that were involved and all of the spies that
were involved. And the coordination was incredible
between them all. But he said that it was God
that helped them and gave them the victory. So
the God of Israel is still the God of Israel,
and thank God for a prime minister that's willing
to say so. But if you look at Deuteronomy 11,
22 and 23, what does that say? For if you carefully
keep all these commandments which I command you
to do, to love the Lord your God, to walk in
all his ways, and to hold fast to him, then the
Lord will drive out all these nations from before
you, and you will dispossess greater. And mightier
nations than yourselves. Precisely. So it doesn't
matter if we are smaller. It doesn't matter if
we are weaker. It doesn't matter what it looks
like. The idea is go low, take that lower place,
and magnify God rather than your enemy. That's
for sure. And David did that. So I don't know
that everybody on the planet knows the story
of David and Goliath, but a whole lot of people
do. And remember that he was the youngest among
his brothers. When Samuel went to anoint a king
out of Jesse's house, he looked at all these
good -looking boys, and he looked at the eldest,
and he said, surely this is God's anointed, and
God said, nope. Nope, not him. And he went down
the line, and God said no to all of them. And
so Samuel said to Jesse, well, are these all
your sons? Because God had told him, you'll find
the one I want to anoint among Jesse's sons.
Well, there's the youngest. The runt. Yeah, the
runt of the litter. That means the smallest of
the puppies or whatever litter of little animals
that has just been born. The runt is the little
one. And it's possible, it's not real clear,
but it's possible that David might have had a
different mother. than the rest of his brothers.
And so he really was a reject. He really wasn't
like everybody else. And, you know, he was a
redhead, I think. At least it says that he was
ruddy. And I'm pretty sure that that means he
was a redhead. And so he didn't look the same
as his brothers. He didn't sound the same. But
he had been hanging out there among the sheep
and worshiping God. Worshiping. Worshiping. The
shepherd, you know, he's out there among the
sheep and he recognizes that he's just like a
little lamb himself. And he's leaning on the
shepherd and trusting the shepherd to take care
of him and to do for him what he was doing for
his sheep. He had a relationship with God. So
now he's anointed. Yeah. I remember that time
we were at our house that we used to rent up
in the Galilee. Oh, yeah. And all of a sudden,
here's this. There's these flocks of sheep. Going
through the streets. Going through the streets.
And the guy blows his little whistle, you know,
and they just follow him. They know the shepherd.
They trust the shepherd. Yep. I mean, they could
all outnumber him and beat him up, you know.
If that were their nature. If that was their
nature. But the sheep don't have a nature like
that. No. They're dependent. Again, it's another
picture of go low. Yeah. You're a sheep. You're
not a lion. You're not a wolf. You're a sheep.
Yeah. I remember the story of the house we were
at up in Vancouver, and the sheep crossed this
little bridge to go to their area. Before he
came back, he had painted it red. And the sheep
came, and they look at that bridge. It was the
same bridge, but it was different. It was painted
red. So instead of crossing the bridge, they
went through the water to get to the other side
instead of crossing the bridge. Yeah. Because
it was not familiar. They're not so bright. Not
so bright. Just not so bright. Yeah. So David
had this relationship with God and he was a worshiper.
Yeah. And he trusted his shepherd like the sheep
were trusting him. And then he had this experience
with dealing with a lion and a bear. So, you
know, he knew that God's going to take care of
him in the same way he's taking care of his sheep.
So he has this experience of dealing with the
lion and the bear, and now he's got the anointing.
Samuel has anointed him. So as he went to visit
his brothers on the battlefield and discovers
that there's no battle going on because there's
this challenge from Goliath, one of the giants,
you know. David had everything in him from all
those things I just described. He had everything
in him to be fearless because he could already
deal with a lion and a bear. That's pretty strong
stuff. Yeah, and this is probably, I would think
this would be more like a mountain lion. We think
of a lion like an African lion. Of course, it's
part of Africa. Yeah, I'm thinking it's probably
an African lion. Yeah, it very well could. It's
just the terrain was, there were forests and
woods back then. Right. So it'd be a regular
lion that has the big mane. It's true. Good question.
Yeah. So he wasn't only fearless because of his
experiences, but he was also incensed at this
giant who was taunting the armies of his God,
the armies of the God of Israel. Who are you?
Who do you think you are? Yeah. And he was probably
not even such a big guy compared to others. Now,
we know that Saul was head and shoulders above
everybody else. So we know that David was smaller
than him because he couldn't wear his armor and
he hadn't tried it anyway. So, you know, he's
a smaller guy. So you're looking at the small
guy. You're looking at the youngest guy. He was
just a youth in the eyes of Goliath. And Goliath
is cursing him by his gods. Oh, well, that just
incensed David, because David knows how great
his God is. He knows the stories of what happened
in Egypt. He knows the stories of what happened
when Joshua and the children of Israel were taking
over the land and possessing it. He knows these
things, and he knows how great God is, and that
the gods of the Philistines are nothing. Absolutely
nothing. Absolutely nothing. So here's the small
guy. going after the big guy. He's not even concerned
that he's the small guy. He is fully aware of
how great his God is. And that's what gave him
the victory. He didn't see a greater foe. He
saw a target he couldn't miss. Hallelujah. Yeah.
So here's another picture of something small
becoming great. And that is in Mark 4, 30 to
32. Then he said, To what shall we liken the
kingdom of God? Or with what parable shall we
picture it? It is like a mustard seed, which
when it is sown on the ground is smaller than
all the seeds of the earth. But when it is sown,
it grows up and becomes greater than all herbs
and shoots out large branches so that the birds
of the air may nest under its shade. Yeah. So
we have seen this plant. It's not the mustard
seed like you see in all the little necklaces
that have a mustard seed like you get when you
buy a package of mustard seed in the grocery
store. No, these are tiny. Tiny, tiny, tiny.
And I think we'll put a picture of that on the
graphic for this episode. Because I've got a
picture that we took in Israel of this tiny,
tiny... tiny bunch of little seeds that come
from a pod that comes from something that well
the one that we saw was quite small in comparison
but it was taller than you yeah and i've seen
pictures of this enormous bushy like plant i'm
not sure i would call it a tree but i would call
it at least An enormous bush. Yeah. Enormous.
Like, you see a picture of somebody standing
in front of it, and maybe we'll find a link to
one of those pictures and put that in the show
notes. A man standing underneath it, and the
thing is three or four times higher than him.
Wow. Enormous. But it starts small. So you go
low, and you see yourself as the smallest. Maybe
you already see yourself as the smallest. And
you think, how can God use me? Well, if you see
yourself as the smallest, you are way ahead of
everybody else who thinks they're great. So I'm
thinking about the episode that we did a few
weeks ago with James Watini. You know, he started
out as this youngster that the only thing that
his mother called him was boy. And all his life
he's been called James or Jim. And when he turns
80, he discovers that that's not even his name,
that his name is different. But in the meantime,
God has done something with this young man that
was a child that was rejected. He was just rejected,
rejected, rejected, went through the foster care
system. Oh, it was terrible. And he found Jesus.
And Jesus turned him into this amazing, compassionate
man who sees himself low. He knows how to go
low because his God is so big. His relationship
with his father is so big. Awesome. Awesome.
So the whole point of this is go low. And don't
despise the day of small things. You may see
yourself as small. It's good if you see yourself
as small. And if you see yourself as big, it's
time to go low. Because pride will only take
you where you do not want to go. Humility will
take you where you want to go. You go low. I
mean, that's how you keep your head from being
shot off in a battle. You go low, right? You
crawl along the ground and you keep your head
down so you don't get shot. If you stand up,
boom, you're a casualty. This is where God wants
us to learn to go low and see ourselves as servants
of all. So in Zechariah 4 .10, it says, who has
despised the day of small things? And this is
right in that area of the scripture where it
says, it's not by might and it's not by power,
but it's by my spirit. So it's not the greatness
of your army. It's not the greatness of your
politics. It's not the greatness of your economy.
It's the greatness of your God. So you can start
small. The context of this is when they were
rebuilding the temple after they came back from
Babylon. And they're looking at this small thing.
The temple was much smaller that they built.
And then Herod embellished it and made it the
second temple that we see as being wonderful
and beautiful and great like Solomon's. But this
day of small things. Would you read that, the
New Living Translation? Do not despise these
small beginnings, for the Lord rejoices to see
the work begin, to see the plumb line in Zerubbabel's
hand. Yeah. So Zerubbabel was the governor at
the time, and he was given the charge to rebuild
the temple. And he started it and got stopped
for 16 years. So there's that day of small things.
All we've got here is a foundation. We didn't
get very far. And get mocked. Yeah. And there's
this discouragement. Yeah. Terrible discouragement.
Maybe you have been given words of greatness
of what you're going to be in God. And you haven't
seen it happen yet. You've had visions. You've
had dreams of what God's going to do with your
life. And it hasn't happened yet. But I'm telling
you, we are on the verge of an outpouring of
the Holy Spirit. Like it's never been seen on
the planet before. Every other outpouring we've
ever seen is an outpouring that is a picture
of what's coming. Bigger, greater, greater than
anything ever before because our God is so great.
Yes, amen. And so we are standing in this place
waiting for what's coming. And in the meantime,
we're learning, we're equipping with the mindset
of going low, of taking that place of humility,
of taking that place of servanthood, of taking
that place of keeping our eyes on the greatness
of our God. The task seems daunting. You know,
you look at the condition of the world and all
the things that are going on, the condition of
whatever nation you're in, and it's like, I can't
see how this could be. And yet our God is so
great. Yes. And he's just challenging us to look
at his greatness. see ourselves in the shadow
of his greatness and how he just really wants
to co -operate with us and use us in the days
to come. But he wants us to understand the importance
of going low, the importance of being humble.
So Father, we just thank you for this word reminding
us of the importance of your greatness, your
glory, your power. Your awesome miracles that
you've done over and over and the things that
you're about to do are even greater. Who's greater?
You are. And because we are your people, even
though we are small, you can use us to do great
things. Like you promised us, Jesus, that those
who believe in you would do your works and greater
works. We thank you for empowering us to do this
as we keep our eyes on you. In Jesus' name, amen.
Check out our website at globaloutpouring .org
to find out more information, read our blogs,
connect with us, and donate. You can also browse
our web store for life -changing anointed books.
Until next time, this is Sharon Buss. And I'm
Philip Buss. God bless you with His overwhelming,
loving presence.