Attitudes For Revival: Poor In Spirit Series

I want to share with you eight keys attitudes for revival. I confess up front that this list is not original with me. I got it from the greatest revivalist who ever lived. He shared these insights at the beginning of his Sermon on the Mount. We often refer to these eight attitudes of heart as the Beatitudes.

OVERVIEW OF THE BEATITUDES

How do we posture ourselves to receive more of God? What heart attitudes attract the presence of God? How do we draw near to God in a way that he draws near to us? The promise in James 4:8 is: “Draw near to God and He will draw near to you.”i

The Bible is full of instruction on how to do that. When the Ark of the Covenant was captured by the Philistines in 1 Samuel 5, they drew near to God by drawing near to the Ark which represented God’s presence. But the result was judgment, not blessing.ii What would have happened to an Old Testament Jew who brashly walked into the Holy of Holies? He would have instantly died.

There is a right way and a wrong way to approach God. I have illustrated this with a couple of extreme cases. Certainly, we must come to God through the blood of Jesus. Christ alone gives the only acceptable access to God.iii But Christians may fail to enjoy intimacy with God simply because they do not understand how God’s kingdom operates. For example, “God resists the proud” (James 4:6). If we do not humble ourselves before God, we hinder our intimacy with God. “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Ps. 111:10). Without a deep regard for who God is, it is impossible to live close to him.

In the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus tells us how to walk with God and be blessed. In the Beatitudes he announces the attitudes of heart that attract the blessings of God. He declares to us the way God’s kingdom operates in contrast to the way the world operates. We must be careful about looking to the world for guidance on how to live our lives. Christ’s kingdom and the world’s kingdom operate out of entirely different principles and values. The world tells you to assert your will on others, and you will gain what you want. Jesus says, “Blessed are the meek, For they shall inherit the earth” (Matt. 5:5). The world tells you that popularity is an indication of blessing. The man who can tickle the ears and attract the favor of many is blessed. But Jesus says, “Woe to you when all men speak well of you, For so did their fathers to the false prophets” (Luke 6:26). Jesus says, “Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake” (Matt. 5:11). The principles of God’s kingdom seem paradoxical; they seem upside down because we have been so influenced by the god of this world.iv In truth, the values and principles of the world are upside down. In the Beatitudes Jesus sets thing right side up.

The Beatitudes are not telling us how to get saved. Jesus is declaring how those who are saved will operate under the influence of the Holy Spirit. Applications of these principles can be made evangelistically. For example, a person must humble himself and ask for God’s mercy in order to be saved. He must recognize his own moral bankruptcy and become as a little child (Mark 10:15). In that sense, he must be “poor in spirit” in his approach to God. The Pharisees of Jesus’s day refused to do that and did not enter into Christ’s kingdom. No one can enter the kingdom of God based on their own moral excellence. But we cannot develop the characteristics stated in the Beatitudes in order to be saved. Only the Holy Spirit can make us pure in heart. Only the Holy Spirit can develop compassion in our character so that we are truly merciful like Christ. Isaiah 64:6 says, “we are all like an unclean thing, And all our righteousnesses are like filthy rags.” Jesus did not give the Beatitudes so that we could gain heaven by our good works. He is declaring how believers are to operate in the kingdom. The new birth is a necessary prerequisite for living this way. We must receive a new nature through faith in Christ before we are able to function according to the Beatitudes. “You must be born again.”v

But once we have entered into God’s kingdom through the new birth, we are to cooperate with the Holy Spirit in the development of our character. Philippians 2:12-13 presents both sides of this coin. “Therefore, my beloved, as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling; 13 for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.” The divine side is stated in verse 13: “for it is God who works in you both to will and to do for His good pleasure.” Without that, progress is impossible. It is God working in us that makes sanctification possible. But God calls on us to cooperate with his will.vi “Without faith it is impossible to please [God].”vii So Philippians 2:12 states the human side of the coin this way: “work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.” God is working in us, as Christians, the qualities of character described in the Beatitudes. We are to cooperate with that process. That’s why we are studying the Beatitudes today. We want to know how God’s kingdom functions so that we can operate accordingly.