Read the Scriptures about the men and women who were used by God in a mighty way. They all had something in common. It was real to them what God said to Adam: “You are dust and to dust you will return.” They all had the revelation of their humble state before God. When we truly get this revelation of our humility, then God can bless us and use us because He is exalted by what He is able to accomplish through dust.

Listen Now:

Download Transcript

Show Notes:

The Scriptures repeatedly refer to our human nature as being dust. He formed us from the dust of the ground, and we did not form ourselves. Yet humanity, more than ever, believes that by our power and ability we have become what we are. We hold ourselves up as something and many times what we voice, even in our prayers, literally challenges God. And when we declare that we will humble ourselves, we are actually being arrogant because we are not acknowledging that we are already nothing but dust.

Instead of trying to humble ourselves, we need to acknowledge the humble state in which we exist before God. When Job realized he had instructed God, he repented in dust and ashes, and we also must be honest with ourselves. Are we as Christians instructing God rather than listening to His instruction? Do our doctrines tell God who He is and what He should be doing? Or are we listening and waiting on Him to tell us who He is and what we should be doing?

We have turned things upside down, and God is looking for us to correct ourselves. More times than we want to admit, we have stood up to God to tell Him how wrong He is, how differently He should be treating us or others, or what He should be doing in the world. We need to admit our arrogance and see the truth of our existence. When we exalt ourselves and say that our hands made us what we are, God cannot use us. When we remain as dust in His hands for Him to shape, He will move through us.

Key Verses:

• 2 Chronicles 7:13-14. “If … My people … humble themselves and … turn from their wicked ways.”
• Genesis 3:19. “For you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”
• Job 42:1-6. “Therefore I retract, and I repent in dust and ashes.”
• 2 Corinthians 3:18. “Beholding … the glory of the Lord, [we] are being transformed into the same image.”
• Leviticus 16:29. “You shall humble your souls.”
• Numbers 12:1-13. “Now the man Moses was very humble, more than any man who was on the face of the earth.”
• Luke 1:46-55. “He has … exalted those who were humble.”
• Isaiah 51:1. “Look to the … quarry from which you were dug.”
• Romans 12:2-3. “I say to everyone … not to think more highly of himself than he ought to think.”
• Ecclesiastes 3:18-20. “All came from the dust and all return to the dust.”
• Isaiah 6:5. “Then I said, ‘Woe is me, … for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts.’”
• Revelation 1:10-18. “When I saw Him, I fell at His feet like a dead man.”
• Daniel 10:4-10. “As soon as I heard the sound of his words, I fell … with my face to the ground.”
• Isaiah 64:8-9. “We are the clay, and You our potter; and all of us are the work of Your hand.”
• Isaiah 45:9-12. “Will the clay say to the potter, ‘What are you doing?’”
• Jeremiah 18:1-10. “Like the clay in the potter’s hand, so are you in My hand.”
• Romans 9:18-24. “The thing molded will not say to the molder, ‘Why did you make me like this,’ will it?”
• Isaiah 40:5-8. “All flesh is grass, and all its loveliness is like the flower of the field.”
• 1 Peter 1:23-25. “ALL FLESH IS LIKE GRASS, AND ALL ITS GLORY LIKE THE FLOWER OF GRASS.”
• Psalm 103:13-17. “He is mindful that we are but dust. As for man, his days are like grass.”
• James 1:9-11. “The rich man is to glory in his humiliation, because like flowering grass he will pass away.”
• Deuteronomy 8:2-17. “God has led you in the wilderness these forty years, that He might humble you.”
• James 4:9-10. “Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you.”
• 1 Peter 5:5-6. “Humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you at the proper time.”
• Zephaniah 2:3. “Seek the LORD, all you humble of the earth.”

Quotes:

• “I know we seem as humans to have accomplished many mighty things, but not in God’s eyes. In God’s eyes, we are dust.”
• “We have not yet seen Him face to face. We don’t know Him. And yet we act like we do. We need to be seeking to know Him, not proclaiming or pretending that we know Him.”
• “What He has formed from the dust He is able to use. But when we lose the perspective that we are dust and we lose the first perspective that He has formed us, we lose the ability for Him to use us any longer.”

Takeaways:

1. The fact that we declare we are humbling ourselves is proof of our arrogance. Our nature as the dust of the earth does not need to declare it is humble. Its existence is the definition of humility.
2. God is looking for us to have a revelation of our humility. We do not humble ourselves; we recognize that we exist in a humility that is beyond words. We truly are the dust of the ground.
3. We must cry out to God for a revelation of what we are. Otherwise, we attribute God’s work to ourselves and become those He can no longer use.
4. God will use us when we know and acknowledge that He dug us from the ground and formed us into something He is able to use.