TeachingMarch 07, 2021

High-ways

His ways… are High-ways. They are the roads upon which the lowly travel. 

“As high as the heavens are above the earth so are My ways above your ways”

Isaiah 55:9

Imagine the journey of learning hand in Hand with Jesus of His comfort and compassion. (Com-”with” /Passion- “suffering”)How can such a word express the ultimate love of God? Because it IS the greatest love another man both needs and wants; a suffering love. This is the kind of love He offers you right now through His Spirit.

So many times in dealing with people, I can see by their lack of response they don’t get what I’m saying. I see a “blank look”.  So I realize how far away they are because they just don’t understand my terminology when speaking of God’s ways. It’s not that I am speaking in a sophisticated manner with big words and lofty ideas. Quite the opposite. My tone and words are in the realm of “nothingness” and this language is simply and deliberately not understood by those who do not want to walk this road.

I walk a highway. On this highway, I have walked for over 45 years. It is the highway of the cross. I know even this very word “cross” is not understood as a way in which to walk unless you walk it. But it has brought me to the lowlands where there is absolutely NOTHING. 

This “highway” is humility. Not false piety. It is the seeing of myself as dust and ashes. It is here on this road of nothingness that a man can choose to believe and thus begin to  “see” the Kingdom of the living Jesus(Jn.3:3). It is out of the ruins of our sinful ways that we realize the utter futility of all earthly striving. The only stimulus is pride and when that pride collapses we are left to see the nothingness. And when you truly see that you are nothing then there is nothing to be proud of. 

 

When I speak to people about this kind of humility I see instantly that the natural man is offended. He has no idea how to find this highway because all he travels on is the highway of mankind which is pride. This is quite a remarkable reality. 

 

How can a man  NOT find humility?!  It’s right there, in front of his nose. Duh! But it’s true.  The “highways” of humility are those that automatically lead to the revelation of God’s wisdom, truth, grace and ultimately His Son, the living Jesus. 

 

It’s not a way that is at all common to men. It’s not like just one description away. Like, if I can spend the time and vocabulary and articulation then, ahhh, finally, you will understand what I’m saying. No. You will never understand if you travel the highways of man.

Jesus says “I praise You, Father,….You have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent and have revealed them to infants…this is WELL PLEASING in your sight” (Matthew 11:25-26).

 

The highways of the Father are an entirely hidden way. You have to go down broken roads and evaluate “pot holes” of the past obstacles  in your mind and heart. Transparency is the map which  leads beyond all obstacles to the High-ways of the Spirit.  Most people who start out just refuse to travel in such a way. They don’t want to “lose face”. They hold on to what they have, afraid to let go of it. Unbelief. 

 

Truth is another highway of thinking that is just so far beyond the roads of men. Lies and pretense are so built into the psyche of men that they accept it as their truth. So the real truth is defined as non-truth. Truth is a painful road because it shows us the reality of who we are and who we are not. But truth, apart from the Spirit of truth, results in cynicism. Truth in the shadow of the Most High results in light and ultimately rebirth. 

 

I realized how blessed I am to have chosen to travel the roads of humility and truth, so long ago,  that today, these days, I instantly know “where“ they are. I know how to find them. I watch the majority of men travel the low roads of nothingness that lead to the low ways of constant failure, grief, blame, accusation, unbelief, pride, equating material wealth with spiritual blessing, and the selfishness and rebellion which all of it breeds. 

 

They are going nowhere. My friend, please listen to me,  one little choice can make a world of difference. The High-ways of the Almighty lead to high hopes and high times of wisdom and joy and the blessing that only comes from His hand in a lowliness of spirit. He makes them appear out of the ‘wilderness’ of our brokenness (Is.43:19). It is absolutely beautiful that God has chosen that a man does not have to be “somebody” but rather nobody.

It always amazes me that He chooses to reveal His High- ways to the rejected, the weak, the contrite, the crushed (Is.57:15/1Cor.1:27-28).

 

 Jesus says, “…I am lowly of heart” Matt.11:25-28. This is the ‘down to earth’ disposition in which He reaches out to introduce and teach of the manifold roads that unfold within us to the Father’s character.

 

When you step out beyond your weakness to draw your strength from His…

 this is when you find the “highways to Zion” are paved from within

(Ps.84:5).

His High-ways are inviting saying… “Come follow me”…

calling out to the lowliest of the lowly.

For to all who are contrite, 

He lifts upon the highest heights,

raising up the bowed down to lead them

 on the solid ground of His delight.

For in Jesus, God showed us His lowly,

His condescension pulls us closely,

and upon His High-ways…

our heart is filled to overflowing!

– (poem by Elizabeth)