05/30/2026
There is a focus in this season on humility and integrity. There is a shift that the Lord is bringing within His Church (which is us, His people). If we aren’t careful and aren’t paying attention, we could miss it. I am not sure exactly when, where, or how we got away from what the Church is actually supposed to look like, but I imagine it started with the small foxes and began to spiral from there. This is not a judgment against the Church (His people), it is a cry to awaken to the truth we have strayed so far from. For decades we have focused on appearances and not on the heart. We have sought platforms, stages, validation, bigger and better things, more equipment,
being well known. We have focused on the way things look on the outside while ignoring the heart. While there is nothing inherently wrong with these things, the question is what are we willing to sacrifice to get them? At what point do things, validation from the world, and platforms, become an idol? It is in our face everyday in the world: the greed, the hunger that is almost predatory in nature, the desire for more, the desire to be known and noticed…the willingness to sacrifice morals, principles, truth, integrity for just a taste of anything. The willingness to overlook corruption as long as we appear good. The Church (His people) of today have begun to look very much like the world. We have drifted so far from the roots of what being a Christian actually looks like. The Apostles DIED for this thing that we treat as if it is just one more performance, one more day on the stage in the spotlight; one more time to prove how right we are over someone else (another denomination, another believer), one more time for us to be validated or noticed. It is modern day idolatry. We don’t have actual golden calves; but aren’t our stages, our validations, our push to be in positions, our stuff the same thing? If we want those things more than we want Jesus, they are idols.
Back when the Israelites were delivered out of Egypt, their jewelry and all the gold they took with them when they left were a good thing; actually it was even a God thing, a blessing to be used to help them be established in their promised land. They turned a gift from God that was meant to be a blessing into something that made them feel better and dishonored God. We do the same with our platforms and our things. The thing God meant to be a gift and blessing has been turned into something else entirely that makes us feel good about ourselves. We have taken gifts from God and used them in ways they were never intended.
There is a clash of kingdoms taking place right now. One is the real deal and one is the counterfeit. So often in our desire for more, we forget what we are even doing all of this for. The Lord is bringing us back to a place of making Him the one thing. Not a thing we do carries any value if we leave Him out of it. There is so much struggle in today’s world with competition, performance over intimacy, pride over integrity. Facades that look good on paper, the stage, or social media all the while the core is crumbling.
Some of the ways that we can maintain integrity and humility is by asking questions. For instance, Why am I doing this? What is the motive behind this random post on social media? Why am I here? Why am I leading worship? What do I want to “gain” from this? Do I have to be seen? Am I only saying this or giving this Word because I want people to know I hear the Lord or I want to feel important? Did the Lord tell me to share this? Is this the right time to share? Is this coming from a place of edification (the process of building up, improving, or enlightening a person's mind, morals, or spirit) or is it coming from a place of self righteousness (the belief that your own morals, actions, or beliefs are superior to those of others)? Motive matters and it is easy to get out of alignment. Heart posture is everything. More questions we can ask…Is this the right and just decision? Do I have any ill will toward anyone? Am I making this decision out of emotion or truth? Will it benefit the Kingdom? Is there any pride involved? These are just some of the questions we can ask in an attempt to evaluate our hearts before we make any decisions in life, because integrity (the unwavering alignment between your actions and your core moral principles) and humility (the quality of having a modest, accurate view of one's own importance, accompanied by a lack of arrogance) are two of the keys to the Kingdom.
No one gets it right all the time, but that is why heart posture is so important. If we take time to search our hearts daily and ask ourselves real questions before we move on anything, we can avoid acting out of pride or emotion. As His people, we are called to make decisions all the time that don’t line up with what the world would do. Do we obey? Sometimes our questions lead to really hard choices; things that come with a cost. Sometimes our questions reveal something in our own hearts that needs to be dealt with. Growth and change can’t come without truth and sometimes the truth is really ugly.
There has been a wrestling in this season with choosing integrity and humility like we have never seen before. Searching our hearts leads to purification and that is something that requires letting go of “me”. The things we want to do and say in this season can’t always be said and done and then sometimes we have to say and do things that aren’t well received. Pride is raging out of control and with pride comes self righteousness and the spirit of jezebel and leviathan. It is so easy to harden our hearts, to believe that we are always right, or cast judgments on others. It is also often easier not to say and do things we know we need to. We can avoid some issues if we make it a practice to ask questions daily and if we are actually willing to face the answer.
I think in this season for me facing the answers may be one of the hardest things. The Lord usually makes me live any words that I carry and I have never been super fond of correction (getting it or having to give it…tho I know both are very necessary) I don’t think most of us are fond of it, but we all require it sometimes. It is very easy to be in a place where we have fought against lies for so long that even when the Lord tries to bring legitimate correction we resist it. When the Lord starts dealing with roots, it can get really ugly. I personally believe that is why we see a lot of people that claim the name of Jesus but have no real sustainable fruit. Walking with Jesus is HARD and it confronts every ugly thing within ourselves. Submitting to correction requires letting go of control (something that jezebel and leviathan resist completely). It requires real evaluation and allowing ourselves to truly examine our motives. Then once we take a real look, we have to actually choose to do something about it. I believe often we only scratch the surface of what God has for us, because we won’t do the work. We often find Jesus, then stop there. We don’t submit to His cleansing and purging of our hearts, because it is painful and requires truth. A real walk with the Lord requires constant reflection, constant evaluation of our hearts. If we aren’t changing, then we have stopped growing.
Leaders are often the first to go stagnant. This happens for several reasons. Once we reach a certain status, we often fall into the trap of thinking we know best, so we begin to shut down any voice that says otherwise. Sometimes we are put in position too soon before the character work that is necessary to keep us in position has taken place. Leaders also pour often more than they get filled. This can lead to a disconnect in the Spirit. When we have a platform, it is so easy to fall into a routine that becomes performance. Leaders also often forget that they need growth and correction too. Our hearts become cold to truth and we resist anything that suggests we might not be doing this right or that we missed something somehow. We so easily become entrapped with the lie that if we are the leader we know best and that can lead to being unteachable. There is almost nothing scarier than being unteachable. True leaders are always learning, they serve, they take accountability, they remain seeking; because they know they can’t do any of this without Jesus. True leaders don’t need platforms. They recognize that time with the Lord and the oil carries the authority, not the stage. It is a wrestle to get there, a daily one. It requires a willingness to sacrifice everything. It requires a willingness to surrender daily. It is why we are currently seeing so many exposures of corruption in leadership. The cracks in our foundations are starting to show, because we have failed to surrender to the character development required to keep us in our places. The best leaders are usually the ones that have reached the place that they don’t want it. The Lord often doesn’t promote us until we don’t. Sometimes people are promoted in the wrong timing, because the enemy knows that he can bring a fall if we are put in positions too soon; hence what we see daily on social media.
The Lord is doing a deep work within His people. He has been offering us the invitation to go deep and examine ourselves and heal from our wounds, so that we can carry all that is before us. We are in a season where our natural consequences are catching up to us. The Lord is faithful to speak to us and call us to hear Him, but it is a choice. Kingdoms are crumbling where people are failing to heed His voice. So often now we see where those that have failed to surrender to the Lord, their deeds of darkness are coming to the light. We have had years and years of mercy and grace to respond. As I wrote this out last week, I felt such a grief for where we are as a body. I felt like there is a cry from the Father’s heart to humble ourselves and get back to the One thing. That is Him. The stages, the titles, the promotions….they all mean nothing if He isn’t at the core. I believe that the Church (His people) have lost sight of that and He is drawing us back to the core of what really matters. Will we heed His voice? Will we search our hearts and submit?
