In episode 57 of the No Doubt, No Fear, Only Believe podcast, host Greg Ryan centers the teaching on humility as essential to spiritual warfare and the Christian life. He reads a series of biblical passages (James 4:6, 2 Chronicles 7:14, Luke 14:11, Matthew 5:5, James 4:10, Proverbs 29:23, 1 Peter 5:5‑7) that emphasize meekness, submission, and the promise that God gives grace to the humble. Greg explains the paradox that exaltation comes through lowering oneself, urging listeners to approach God’s throne with reverence rather than pride. He contrasts the “fruit of the Spirit” (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self‑control) with the “works of the flesh” listed in Galatians, describing believers as “fruit inspectors” who assess spiritual health. Using Moses as an example of humility under trial, Greg encourages the audience to practice humility, avoid judgment, and rely on God’s grace, concluding with a weekend challenge to humble themselves before God.
Welcome to episode 57, John 1:1.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Spending time in the Word of God is the best way to spend time with God. Welcome to No Doubt, No Fear, Only Believe podcast, where we will encourage, inspire, and empower you to live your best life in Christ.
Here's Greg.
Welcome to episode 57. I'm gonna jump right in. We were talking about meekness and brokenness and humility, and so I want to do something a little bit different. I know I read a lot of scripture, but instead of— since I gave you my testimony and since I say that the word of God is powerful and that we need to be in it, I want to read some scripture to you on, on being humble. And as you're working out, or as you're driving, or whatever you're doing getting ready for work, I want you just to listen to what the word of God says, just a few verses on being humble. James 4:6, but he gives more grace. Therefore he says, God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. 2 Chronicles 7:14, If my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven and will forgive their sin and heal their land. Luke 14:11. For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted. Matthew 5:5. Blessed are the meek, they shall inherit the earth. James 4:10. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he will lift you up. Proverbs 29:23. A man's pride will bring him low, but the humble in spirit will retain honor. And last, 1 Peter 5:5-7. Likewise, you younger people, submit yourself to your elders. Yes, all of you be submissive to one another and be clothed with humility, For God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. Therefore humble yourself under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon him, for he cares for you. Well, that was a lot of scripture on being humble, but I think what I wanted you to hear— I wanted you to hear what God had to say about it instead of what I had to say about it. I just believe, I guess, an opposite, or it just doesn't make sense. God's ways are not our ways. But, you know, all the time we have to do something different than what in our mind or what the physical world would dictate. Like, in order to live in God's world, you must first die. In order to receive from God, you must first give. So in order to be exalted, in order to be pulled up and to raised up, you have to lower yourself. You have to be humble. I think God just wants you to hear that, and he wants you to know that he knows where you are. He knows where we are in our country. 2 Chronicles 7:14 is very popular scripture. You know, I see it as I'm driving through in people's yards where it says, "If my people will humble themselves and pray." We have to humble ourselves in order to be used by God. God is not going to use us if we walk, bust through the door, tell God, "Here I am. Now let me tell you what I'm going to do." God's not going to answer anything like that. In fact, he's probably going to tell you to go, get, go back through that door and try it again, young man. That's what he would tell me if I come busting through the door, his throne of grace. Can you imagine when it says, "Come boldly," into the throne room and you just bust in and you just say, "God, here I am. It's a good thing I made it 'cause this world is going to hell in a handcart." You know, God is not gonna take too kindly to that kind of entry into his throne room of grace. If you will humble yourself, if you come in, and that don't mean you gotta just get low and, you know, grovel or crawl because He is Father God. I mean, He knows your heart better than you do. When somebody talks about being selfless, they're not thinking less of themselves. They just think of themselves less. The picture that I started with in these lessons on spiritual warfare were Moses— and they are kind of running together, and they probably are with you too— but when Moses— Moses did not try to defend himself when the people came against Moses, you know, all the Israelis, all the Israelites, you know, they were complaining, they were murmuring, they were, they were backed by— they were just, they just got on to Moses. And Moses never defended himself. He just let them do that. But God heard everything, and God defended Moses. And if you'll read in Exodus and, and some of the things that that God did in Numbers 2. God doesn't take too kindly to you messing with his kids. I want to encourage you, so instead of judging someone, I think what we should— I, my pastor from way back said that we're, we're not to judge people, but we can be fruit inspectors because we are supposed to grow the fruits of the Spirit, and that is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. So those things, you can— you don't judge somebody and, you know, look at them and go, well, I don't think he's got gentleness. You can be a fruit inspector. You can inspect someone's fruit, and a good tree is not going to have bad fruit, and a bad tree is not going to have good fruit. So if it's got the good fruit, you can be pretty confident that that person is a Christian and that person will eventually, you know, that now everybody's got their own self-interest and we're not perfect, but if, if someone is trying to work in the fruits of the Spirit, they're going to be a whole lot more open to helping you than someone that's working in works of the flesh, which are in Galatians. You can, you can find the works of the flesh And I'll just read them. Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are adultery, fornication, uncleanliness, lewdness, idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousy, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies, envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like, of which I tell you beforehand, just as I've told you in the past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. So the kingdom of God— and we've talked about that way back in previous episodes— but the kingdom of God is God's way of doing things. God doesn't do things with the works of the flesh. God gets things done by the fruits of the Spirit and with love and joy and peace and patience. But anyway, I feel like I'm kind of rambling. I want to get done with this. We'll be a little quicker. I want to thank you for being a part of this. I want you to just kind of mull over humility and humbleness over the weekend and see how that applies to you and see if you are in that, if you are humbling yourself before God. And I want to encourage you this weekend to humble yourself before God and worship him and praise him and tell him you are glad that he is your Father. Well, that's enough. I appreciate you being here. Have a great weekend, and I'll talk to you next week.
Thanks for listening to the No Doubt, No Fear, Only Believe podcast at www.nodoubtonlybelieve.com.
