“Your life is vitally important and very significant in My eyes. However, it is too important in your own eyes. You need to let go of things. You need to give away more than you keep. You need to care more for others than you do for yourself. Decrease and allow Jesus to increase in you. Become less and allow Me to make you more significant.”
Matthew 10:29-31 NIV
29) “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground apart from the will of your Father.
30) And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered.
31) So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows.”
Matthew 19:21 NIV
Jesus answered, “If you want to be perfect, go, sell your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven.”
Luke 12:48b AMP
For everyone to whom much is given, of him shall much be required; and of him to whom men entrust much, they will require and demand all the more.
Luke 9:23-25 AMP
23) And He said to all, If any person wills to come after Me, let him deny himself [disown himself, forget, lose sight of himself and his own interests, refuse and give up himself] and take up his cross daily and follow Me [cleave steadfastly to Me, conform wholly to My example in living and, if need be, in dying also].
24) For whoever would preserve his life and save it will lose and destroy it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, he will preserve and save it [from the penalty of eternal death].
25) For what does it profit a man, if he gains the whole world and ruins or forfeits (loses) himself?
Recognizing their acceptance with God, their heritage, their rights, and their privileges (which come via the work on the cross,) but esteeming others more significantly than themselves or their own needs, people walking with the heart of an advocate are wonderfully free. Jealousy, loss of reputation, perceptions of others, fear, and pride have no hold on them.
They are the leaders who serve, the advocates of their accusers, the servants of those who wrong them; and the comforters of those who are against them. Because they are confident and comfortable in their position with God, there is no negative response when falsely accused, no need to be right when wronged; and no desire to be lifted up in any way.
As John the Baptist desired to decrease so that Jesus could increase, those living for the good of others ardently choose that others increase in their walk with the Lord. They are motivated to do something, anything, so that it might happen.
Any desire to see “more of Jesus” in someone else is the spirit of advocacy in action as it thrives and pours itself out to address the need. It is the catalyst to any form of outreach – the desire that the lost or hurting be brought back into fellowship with the Father, for His sake as well as for the sake of the individual. The rally cry, “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do,” transcends the corridors of time, and exists as if fresh from the lips of Jesus in the hearts of those who are poor in spirit, thriving in the spirit of advocacy.
Teach me to become less, Lord,
Jim Corbett