The Law of Divine Elevation

The Law of Divine Elevation¹

   Do you love a good puzzle? Well, I've got one for you. What is the meaning of real success? There are countless books on library shelves that attempt to answer that age old question. But even crime scene investigators, with their state-of-the-art techniques, would be hard pressed to solve this one.

   Psalm 75:6-7 tells us: “For not from the east or from the west and not from the wilderness comes lifting up; but it is from God who executes judgment putting down one and lifting up another” (RSV). This verse tells us that our focus should be to go deep in our relationship with God and trust God to open the doors of opportunity He wants us to enter.

   Of course, this goes against our human nature. We want things to happen our way, in our time. Our carnal nature tells us we must scratch and claw and do whatever it takes to get to the top. That is why we must define and then settle for nothing less than authentic success in both our ministries and our lives.

   It doesn't take much research to discover the secret to God's definition of success. In fact, the law of divine elevation is certainly not a mystery. Read James 4:10; Job 5:11; Luke 14:11; and Proverbs 3:34. All of these Scriptures point to one fact: we are not to be “the show.” That honor is reserved for the Lord only. As John the Baptist said, Christ “must become greater” and we “must become less” (John 3:30). Yet, the promised result of our humbling ourselves is phenomenal. God will promote us! I know of nothing more profound for any Christian to learn. The law of gravity says, “What goes up must come down.” The law of divine elevation says, “What comes down through humility will go up through Christ-like exaltation!”

   But how can we know for sure that we would really prefer the success God would bring us to the prosperity, power, and popularity society offers? The clues are found in the second half of 1 Peter 5:6: “in due time He may exalt you” (RSV).

Three Clues That Verify True Success

   Though I am not a professional investigator, I've always heard that a good starting point is to ask probing questions. So to get to the bottom of why God's success is true success, let's start by asking, “Why would God elevate us?” To find the answer, we need to carefully examine the word exalt. How did God respond to Jesus' humbling of Himself? Because Jesus willingly lowered Himself and became a servant, “God exalted Him to the highest place” (Philippians 2:9a).

   The same Greek root word that is used for the word exalted in this verse in Philippians is also used in 1 Peter 5:6, where God says He will exalt us. The word includes the idea of elevating above others. In other words, those who humble themselves before Him will receive the same kind of lifting up that Jesus experienced. The only difference is that He has, of course, been lifted up the highest, above all of us.

   Understanding that God elevates us in the same manner He does His Son, we now need to ask another “why” question: Why did God elevate Christ? The answer is simple: to bring glory to Himself. Obviously, therefore, God's intent in elevating us is the same as with His Son: to be glorified by our lives.

   So now we have Clue 1: We are elevated in order to bring God glory.

How is that evidence that God's success is best? Again, the answer is simple. We were created for God's glory. Therefore, glorifying Him brings us the most fulfillment possible. You might say that God's success strategy comes with a huge tag that reads, “Complete Satisfaction Guaranteed”!

   The next question we need to ask is, “How are we elevated?” Our key verse (1 Peter 5:6) clearly says that God lifts us up. Yet how often do we run out of patience as we wait for His uplifting? We want to forgo His plan and manipulate our circumstances. However, for God to elevate us to our highest possible level, we must be faithful at each stage of experience and opportunity. We can't expect God to trust us with great responsibility down the road if we don't properly handle the small, “less significant” tasks He assigns to us everyday.

1 This material is taken from DeWayne Moore's book, Pure Praise (Loveland, CO: Group Publishing, 2009), 96-97.