Years ago, the Lord regularly used me to prophesy with unction in congregational settings. My heart would pound. The Lord’s presence would roll over me, and my breathing would become labored while I prophesied. During that time, when I was alone in prayer in my bedroom, something unusual happened. Unction fell on me as if I were to utter a corporate word. Then I received the word:
Tell them, all those who desire to build a holy habitation for My Presence to dwell, tell them this: I live with the broken and contrite of heart. Tell them to learn from me what it means to be lowly.
Two Scripture references came to mind. The first:
“For thus says the high and exalted One who lives forever, whose name is Holy, ‘I dwell {on} a high and holy place, and {also} with the contrite and lowly of spirit in order to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite.’” (Isaiah 57:15, NASB)
The word in Hebrew for contrite used in this Scripture, according to Strong’s Expository Dictionary, means: “to crush into powder-like chalk; to be penitent.” According to Webster’s Dictionary, penitent means “to feel sorrow for misdeeds or sins.” The Lord lives with those who’ve allowed Him to crush them into powder—a place where true repentance can come forth, so He can revive them and live through them.
The second Scripture:
“Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.” (Matthew 11:28-30, NKJV)
The Greek word for rest here, according to Strong’s Concordance, means “refreshing, take ease, rest.” The Complete Word Study Dictionary: New Testament says it means: “inward tranquility while one performs necessary labor.”
According to the last definition, one of the ways to know if you are moving in the rest of God is an awareness of a spiritual refreshing that envelopes you even though you are hard at work. If you are doing your own works in your strength, you will be heavily laden, weighed down, irritable, and anxiety-ridden.
Jesus instructed us to learn from Him lowliness, which is humility. When we look at the life of Jesus to learn from Him, we see that Jesus only did what the Father was doing. “Therefore Jesus answered and was saying to them, ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, unless it is something He sees the Father doing’” (John 5:19, NASU).
Humility is surrendering your heavily-laden works unto the Lord. You then press into God through prayer and meditation and grab hold of the works He created for you before the foundation of the world.
“For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.” (Ephesians 2:7-10, NASU)
