He Must INCREASE and I Must DECREASE

Imported from our Harvest Church Blogs
Original Blog Date: 03-08-2006

John's gospel is the only one to record this phrase, spoken by John the Baptist. If anyone understood this principle, it was John the Baptist. John literally gave his head, his life, for Christ. He lived his entire life preparing the way for the Lord.

Some men came to him and said "This Jesus, who you testified about..........well, People are coming to Him to be baptized now?!" John basically told them that the Bride (Christ's people) belong to the Bridgegroom (Christ), and that the friend of the bridegroom is full of joy upon hearing the bridegroom's voice. John said "That joy was now his, and is complete!".

He must INCREASE and we must DECREASE or as the NIV puts it: HE must become GREATER and WE must become less.

This is my prayer as I continue to grow in the knowledge of Jesus Christ and continue my journey in the Lord. I realize that for any thing to be done, for any great work to be accomplished, I must decrease, I must surrender totally to Him and He must become MORE involved, MORE relied upon, MORE focused upon. He must Increase.

Being on the praise team week after week, can sometimes be a struggle to remember this. We as a Praise Team must decrease, so that He can increase. We must forget about ourselves and what we want, and concentrate on what He wants, and focus upon Him.

Pride could have kept John from saying this. He could have thought to himself "I am the one who should be doing the baptizing". He didn't do that though. He knew who Christ was, and he knew his place in the kingdom of God. He humbled himself before God, and he let Christ increase and become more the focal point. He wasn't afraid that the people who once came to him, were now going to the one who was greater than him.

I think that as simple as this idea is, it's SO overlooked. We get to doing something in a church thinking that we're somebody and that things can't go on without us. The fact is, Christ DOES want to use you and will use you, but don't forget who you are and who is doing the work. Put it in proper perspective from the "Kingdom" view point. John knew who was doing the real work, even though he'd been baptizing and preaching for a long time and had become a VERY respected person in the region. As he put it "The One who comes from above is ABOVE ALL".

Remember King David and his sin of pridefully wanting to get a census of 'his' kingdom? He forgot just who it was that was doing the work and blessing him, and he and his people paid dearly for it. Afterward, his perspective was right again, and God could once again use him.

I hope we will all remember this and do our best to keep things in proper perspective.

He Must Increase and I must Decrease.

Romans 12:3
For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you.