Levels of Humilty
Before there was an ascension, there was a descension.
Before the going up, there was a coming down.
Ephesians 4:9 reminds us that the same Jesus who ascended with all power and authority first had to come down. He left heaven. He took on flesh. He walked among us. And then He went even further.
Philippians 2 shows us that humility wasn’t one moment for Jesus. It was layered. He first emptied Himself to become human. Then He humbled Himself further and went to the cross. He possessed the fullness of all divine attributes and willingly laid it aside. Not because He had to. Because He chose to.
There were levels to His humility.
And I believe that is what is being lost in a lot of spaces today.
One of the definitions of humble in the Greek means to behave in an unassuming manner. That stopped me. Because in the garden of Gethsemane, Jesus looked so much like those around Him that Judas had to kiss Him on the cheek just to point Him out to the soldiers. He blended in. Not by accident. By character. That is what unassuming actually looks like, lived out in real life.
And if we are honest, that is not what we always see on display today.
Humility is not a one-time decision. It is a consistent choosing. Just because you were humble in one season does not mean it automatically carries into the next. It has to be chosen again. And again. At every level. The same way Jesus didn’t just humble Himself once, we cannot treat humility as something we did and are done with. It is something we have to keep returning to.
That is why Paul doesn’t point us to what Jesus did as a distant memory. He says have this same attitude in yourselves. Present tense. Ongoing. A daily posture, not a past achievement.
Somewhere between the breakthrough and the open door, between the answered prayer and the expanded platform, pride has a way of finding the cracks. Not always loudly. Sometimes it is subtle. A shift in how we carry ourselves. A gradual need to be seen, acknowledged, or credited. And before long, what started in humility begins operating in something else entirely.
The Spirit Filled Bible puts it this way. Christlike humility is manifested in the freedom of God’s Son to affirm the fullness of all God has placed in Him, without needing to flaunt, prove, or push it through self-advancement.
That is the model. Fully walking in what God placed in you, with nothing to prove and no one to impress.
The kingdom has always required descent before ascent. It required it of Jesus. It will require it of us too. But what I find so beautiful is that God never wastes the going down. Every act of humility, every quiet choosing, every moment you laid yourself down when no one was watching, He sees it. And just as He exalted Jesus for this reason, He is faithful to do the same for those who walk in genuine and consistent humility.
The descent is not a detour. It is part of the path.
Father, may we see the humility in Your descension. May we embrace and model what true humility looks like, not the world’s definition but the kingdom’s. Forgive us for every form of haughtiness, pride, and arrogance. Heal the broken places that feed on self-advancement. Holy Spirit, form and fashion our identity into the likeness of Christ. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
He’s speaking. I’m writing and listening.
The Golden Scribe | MaShani Allen
