Jesus told us how to be truly blessed or happy. The world longs for happiness, but many people seek it through sinful pursuits. It is tragic the many ways people seek happiness by getting involved in activities that only bring it for a short time. In the long run, what they usually find is misery.

Developing the spiritual traits Jesus taught is like climbing a rugged mountain. As we ascend our spiritual mountain God is working in us by burning out our old nature and developing these first three characteristics that Jesus lists—being poor in spirit, mourning and meekness—which makes us conscious of a deep need we have. 

The development of these initial three characteristics causes us to hunger and thirst after righteousness. God promises to satisfy this hunger and thirst in that we “shall be filled.” The result of this filling develops the last three spiritual characteristics as we descend our spiritual mountain. We will become merciful, pure in heart, and peacemakers. After that, Jesus warns, we may be “persecuted because of righteousness” as Satan hates and wars against the development of these godly characteristics. In later chapters as we discuss the prophetic Scriptures of Satan overcoming Christians in these last days, keep in mind how the influence of our society has made it extremely difficult for these basic Christian characteristics to be developed. 

DEVELOPMENT OF CHRISTIAN CHARACTER 

God develops our Christian character in three steps: need, satisfaction and results. First, He makes us aware of our need; next, He fills that need as we hunger and thirst for righteousness; and finally, He satisfies our longing by developing in us the qualities of mercy, being pure in heart, and a peacemaker. He is the potter; we are the clay. We are dependent on Jesus to deliver us from who we are and to develop in us the characteristics of His Kingdom. 

We not only need Jesus for the salvation of our soul; we also need Him to deliver us from what we are. Jesus is everything, and everything is in Jesus. 

SPIRITUAL CHARACTERISTIC NUMBER ONE

“Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:3)

This heart characteristic is the keystone of all the other qualities. It deals with the process of emptying us of our old sinful nature so we can be filled with the power of God’s new nature. The extent to which we become poor in spirit affects how successfully we develop the subsequent traits, and each characteristic builds on the previous ones.

The characteristic of being poor in spirit deals with a person’s attitude toward self. The kingdom of this world promotes self-reliance, self-confidence, self-expression, self-exaltation and self-satisfaction. The world emphasizes personality, talent, looks, heritage, intelligence, wealth, power, etc. But the gospel raises up a higher standard that focuses on God-reliance, God-confidence, God-expression, God-exaltation and the desire to please God through obedience to His Word, His will and His way. It is a characteristic that is despised by the world.

Being poor in spirit does not mean suppressing one’s true personality, trying to appear humble, making great sacrifices, or fleeing from the difficulties of everyday life. That certainly was not the way of Jesus.

The Scriptures define poor in spirit: “The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise” (Psalm 51:17). “For this is what the high and lofty One says—he who lives forever, whose name is holy: I live in a high and holy place, but also with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite” (Isaiah 57:15).

The characteristic poor in spirit means:

 • We shall not rely on the fact that we belong to a given family.

• We shall not boast that we are a certain nationality.

• We shall not brag about our position in life, or any powers that

   may have been given to us.

• We shall not put confidence in the wealth we may have.

• We shall not flaunt our education.

• We shall not rely primarily on our personality, intelligence or special abilities.

• We shall not point to our morality and good behavior.

• We shall not build upon natural temperament.

To be poor in spirit is to be delivered from all that which promotes self. It is to know that within the flesh we are nothing, we have nothing, and we must look to God in utter dependence upon His grace and mercy. Within the flesh we are empty and hopeless, but He is the all-sufficient one.

How does one become poor in spirit? We do not begin by trying to do things to ourselves like sacrificing the flesh or suffering hardships. These only make us more conscious of ourselves and thus less poor in spirit. No, we must look to God. Our responsibility is to study God’s Word to learn what He expects from us, and then to set our face as a flint to live in obedience. As we look at Him we feel our absolute poverty and, like the apostles, we cry out, “Lord, increase our faith.”

The development of all these inner characteristics will evolve in us by the power of the Holy Spirit as we grow spiritually. They are characteristics of the Kingdom of God. You will see none of them are a part of our natural make-up.

 SPIRITUAL CHARACTERISTIC NUMBER TWO

“Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted” (Matthew 5:4)

This characteristic develops in us the honesty to see sin in ourselves and in the world as it really is. Christians are to be unlike the people of the world who try to shun mourning. Think of all the energy and money spent by the world system to blind people from this spiritual quality. As mourning becomes a part of our being, it causes us to see not only what sin does to people, but how it must stab God in the heart. I have heard it said that just the sin of using God’s name in vain takes place more than one billion times every day in our country.

There has been a defection in the church from teaching on the doctrine of sin. This shows how much the world has influenced us. In most any other aspect of life, we concentrate on those areas where we are weakest. If we have a health problem, we try to resolve it. If we play sports, we focus on those areas where our performance is poor. The same is true in business.

Spiritually, mankind’s weakness is sin! Why do we get so uptight talking about it? It doesn’t have to be in a negative condemning way, but for positive solutions. We have a spiritual problem because we are born with a sinful nature. That is who we are! We need to face this truth and talk about it! Otherwise we will not let God deal with those areas where we are weak.

Paul mourned over the sinful condition of his flesh and looked forward to that day when it would be redeemed. “But we ourselves, who have the first fruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies” (Romans 8:23).

Mourning applies not only to our own sins, but also to the sins of others and the state of society and the world. When this characteristic is developed, we will mourn over the immorality, the suffering and the evil deeds of mankind. True happiness and joy can only come after mourning. That is one of the paradoxes of the Christian life.

WATCH FOR PART 2 of “Spiritual Characteristics of the Kingdom of God” on June 7^th, 2010.

Tags: broken spirit, characteristics, contrite heart, Kingdom of God, Matthew 5, mourning, poor in spirit, righteousness, spiritual traits