Blessed are the poor in spirit

Step 1 / Principle 1 Application

·        We admitted that we were powerless over our addictions and compulsive behaviors, that our lives had become unmanageable.  “For I know that nothing good lives in me, this is, in my sinful nature.  For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out.”  Rom 7:18

·        Realize I am not God.  I admit that I am powerless to control my tendency to do the wrong thing and that my life is unmanageable.  “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven.”  Matthew 5:3

Blessed are the Poor in Spirit
What are the beatitudes? 
They are the beginning of Jesus’ most famous sermon as recorded in Matthew 5-7.  At that time God was making a major change (God never changes who He is, but He has changed how we approach Him).  Soon the Temple would go away – no more animal sacrifices for sin, soon Jesus would make the final, once-for-all sacrifice for sin so that now we have direct access to God, through our High Priest, Jesus.  Soon there would be no more Laws written on stone tablets because now God writes His instructions on the tablet of our heart and gives us His Holy Spirit to understand and embrace them.  The Holy Spirit guides us into Truth thru His Word, comforts, encourages, and strengthens us because trouble does come.

The sermon on the mount introduces much of this and people were amazed by what Jesus taught…and still are for that matter.  He said, there is no way we can meet God’s standard or have peace with God on our own.  He redefined murder as hating your brother, redefined adultery as just looking with lust, and redefined the expectation of love to include even your enemies.  There's no way we can meet these standards on our own.

The Beatitudes are the intro to Jesus’ amazing teaching and they have been paired up with our Eight Principles.

What is “poor in spirit”?
Poor in spirit sounds like a bad thing doesn’t it?  Why would God not what us to be very spiritual?  Well, “poor” is not a reference to how spiritual we are, but to how much of our spirituality is focused on self.  Thus “poor in spirit” simply means recognizing our own spiritual poverty; we have no good spirituality of our own.  Again, why is that bad; God explains it better than I do...

1 Cor 2:9-14
But as it is written: "Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him.”  But God has revealed them to us through His Spirit. For the Spirit searches all things, yes, the deep things of God.  For what man knows the things of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so no one knows the things of God except the Spirit of God.  Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we might know the things that have been freely given to us by God.  These things we also speak, not in words which man’s wisdom teaches but which the Holy Spirit teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.  But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

That is saying that any spiritualty we have on our own is not worth anything becuase it is human spirituality and not godly.  It cannot understand the things of God and so it is not only useless but counterproductive.  The human spirit that we have in us does not lead us to God nor does it know Him.  Being poor in spirit means recognizing that our spirit is deprived, weak, broken…given to seeking addiction.

John 3:6 says, "That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit."  We have no ability on our own to fight the spiritual battle of addiction because it is primarily a spiritual battle not a physical one, and our spirit is depirved, weak, and broken.

Ephesians 6:12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.  Our main battle is NOT against, alcohol, drugs, lust, relationships, hurts, habits, etc...it is a spiritual battle that requires God's help.

We must humble our spirit and admit, “I am not God, and I am powerless to control my tendency to do the wrong thing, my life is unmanageable.”  That's when we will be “Blessed (meaning 'favored by God') are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven” (Matthew 5:3).