We need to be full of faith and humble. Some people, often conservative, are very humble, but lack faith. Others, often Pentecostal, are full of faith, but lack humility.

For example, a conservative may pray a quick prayer for breakthrough—he or she doesn't have faith for much more. But a Pentecostal may spend several hours claiming promises for healing, using techniques like the courts of heaven, specific words and actions, and proclaiming fasting and prayer and worship to get the breakthrough. They are full of faith.

Yet faith in what? Before we unpack what could be imbalanced here, I want to present the goal: people full of faith and humility. I have four biblical examples.

This article will focus on rebalancing for Pentecostals, but Conservatives and Charismatics (those from a conservative background but who also believe in the charismatic gifts for today: e.g. Anglican Charismatic, Baptist Charismatic, Reformed Charismatic and so on) should stick around to know how to they can help their brothers and sisters.

Faith and humility: examples

1. Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in their stand against worshipping King Neb

In Daniel 3:12, we see their faith:

"There are certain Jews whom you have appointed over the affairs of the province of Babylon: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. These men, O king, pay no attention to you; they do not serve your gods or worship the golden image that you have set up."

Then, being personally threatened by the King, they reply:

There is no question these men were full of faith. But, here is something a Pentecostal would almost never say: "But if not..." That is, 'but if God would not deliver us from the furnace'. I can hear the Pentecostal apologists already: "Wow: don't be so negative! Don't confess that over yourself!" But we know of course God does save them despite their negativity.

Let me capture this picture even more vividly. Imagine praying for healing and saying, "but if you won't heal"; or praying for a lost person, "but if you won't save them yet"; or praying for any breakthrough "but if you won't". It's not in the Pentecostal vocabularly! And that should be concerning because it was in Daniel's friend's. I am suggesting today that the missing ingredient is humility. More on that in a moment.

2. Jesus praying in the garden of Gethsemane, before the cross

Jesus was clearly full of faith, that is without question. Yet instead of claiming promises, even though he knows God's will, he prays for the possibility of a different way.

From everything Pentecostals are taught about prayer and spiritual warfare, you should never say "if" or doubt that something may be possible. You have to believe it's true and call it into existence.

Yet Jesus doubles down on this humble approach:

What is this spirit? It is one of humility. Whereas there may be times that Jesus needed to rebuke in authority—against demons, and people under the influence of the demonic—but when it comes to approaching God the Father, there is no one higher in authority. We come in humility.

3. Paul and Barnabas at Iconium, forced to flee

Here are Paul and Barnabas, preaching the Gospel and witnessing many signs and wonders from God:

"So they remained for a long time, speaking boldly for the Lord, who bore witness to the word of his grace, granting signs and wonders to be done by their hands." (Acts 14:3)

However, opposition arose:

"But the people of the city were divided; some sided with the Jews and some with the apostles. ⁵ When an attempt was made by both Gentiles and Jews, with their rulers, to mistreat them and to stone them, ⁶ they learned of it and fled to Lystra and Derbe, cities of Lycaonia, and to the surrounding country, ⁷ and there they continued to preach the gospel." (14:4-7)

Now, the thing is, Pentecostals are taught that all things are possible with God (which is true—but not according to your will) and to claim divine protection in Jesus' name for these situations. To claim the blood of Jesus. To forcefully pray against the evil. So why didn't Paul get that memo? What made Paul and Barnabas opt for fleeing? Why didn't they claim protection? One possibility is that the Holy Spirit told them to leave, though usually a passage gives some indication of this, but the text appears to indicate they fled immediately after learning of the murder plot. The simplest explanation appears to be that they humbled their desire for their own protection under Jesus' desire that the Gospel be spread to all the world.

The other reason this fits is because Paul humbly accepts the thorn.

4. Paul's thorn

Paul receives a thorn in the flesh, which he prays to God for him to remove it (2 Corinthians 12). However, God replies:

Paul has to accept this. If he were to continue to forcefully push to regain his health, he would actually risk making God angry for his lack of faith. Prayer can sometimes be a lack of faith! If God has told you "no", then you should believe him and stop praying against it!

Faith and humility: summary

So this humility that we take with our faith has the following characteristics. It is:

1. A humility in our requests to God, being open to the fact God might not do as we ask (Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in Daniel 3)

2. A humility to allow for God's will to override our will (Jesus in Matthew 26)

3. A humility to overlook our desires for God's desires (Paul and Barnabas in Acts 14)

4. A humility to accept less than perfection for a greater purpose (Paul's thorn in 2 Corinthians 12)

If we look up to these heroes of the faith in any way, we ought to recognise that the strength of their faith goes hand in hand with their humility. What can shake them if they can maintain—and thrive—in even the toughest of situations? Thus, there is great wisdom in the saying, "If it's God's will". In fact, after writing this, I found from a slightly different angle James came to this same conclusion:

James recognised that we don't know the future, and therefore we can't say with certainty what we'll do tomorrow—that would be an arrogant boast. This directly relates to praying in faith: it's only arrogance to say that you can know that the person you are praying for will get healed or see breakthrough, unless you've heard from God himself. But most assume that God wants the healing or breakthrough, and wants to achieve it any old way—without asking.

What's wrong with a lack of humility?

My concern is that I see people's faith shaken to the core when they continuously pray for healing or breakthrough in some area and they don't receive it. Then, they become discouraged and even lose hope, and start to battle depression and anxiety along with everything else. I believe that's because they've been sold a lie that God always wants (so we don't have to ask) their healing and prosperity in every area of their life. But believing that God can do these things does not mean God always will in every situation.

My concern is that common Pentecostal teaching would have taught Jesus to rebuke the Devil and not go to the cross; taught countless persecuted Christians like Paul and Barnabas to claim protection—and die without spreading the Gospel; and taught Christians like Paul to not accept a thorn, or any of God's disciplines, because 'we're healed by the blood of Jesus'. Children who are not disciplined generally remain ratbags, so like Paul, we ought to humbly embrace discipline (Hebrews 12:3-11).

So what can we say then, about some common Pentecostal practices?

1. The practice of naming and claiming

The standard for finding a promise appears to be that if it's said in the Bible, it's therefore a promise for you right now. That's presumption. That's changing words to suit your agenda. When we're looking for objective promises that apply to ourselves, we need to learn a thing or two from our conservative brothers and sisters and do the hard yards of study. Objective truth requires objective means, such as working out the original context, in the original language and culture, before applying it to us today. Objective truth is a single meaning for everyone. This is different from subjective truth, such as what God wants you to do today, which requires subjective means such as asking the Spirit. Subjective truth is a different meaning for everyone, and the Spirit leads people down different paths. The alternative is to come to conclusion apart from the Bible, and then pick a verse that backs up your view. That's presumption.

Therefore, name what God has done in the past, but don't claim it. Ask for it, realising God might have a better plan.

I will go one step further. Claiming God's promises is presumptuously asserting your will over God's. It's proudly demanding your rights when you're talking to someone who has died to give you those rights. We may boldly come to the throne, because in the past you might have died for lack of holiness, but it is not the right spirit to demand or claim from God. Instead, asking for God to step in is humbling your will under God's. It allows for the possibility that God may have a better plan (because he probably does).

So you can name and claim your shame, or, name and ask for God's task.

2. The practice of copying what worked previously

Often, if others have had breakthrough through a particular person or a particular set of words or actions, the feeling is that that should be tried in other situations too. So, if some people found release from a particular cult by naming the spirits and calling them out, then this is copied for a person in a similar situation. That's faith in that person or those words and actions—not faith in God!

Contrast it with Jesus' varied approach to healing (or anything): he made a mud paste with dirt and spit (John 9); he cast out demon-possessed with a word (Matthew 8:28-32); he allowed a touch of his cloak to heal (Matthew 14:36); he laid hands on the sick (Luke 4:40); he said a word without even being near the sick person (Matthew 8:8). At times he could not heal (Mark 6:5).

The secret is not to trust the technique or the person of God, but to look to what God wants you to do afresh in each situation. The power is not in the technique or man or woman of God, but in God.

3. Not speaking negatively

While constantly being negative is likely to lead to a negative outcome, and focussing on the world is likely to lead you away from Jesus, we need to deal with reality. I found it a refreshing take to hear from some Pentecostals who rebuked people for lying about their reality as a way of remaining positive (people might say they're not sick when they actually are). They realised the raw truth coming from David's Psalms even while he put 100% faith in God (check out Psalm 3, 4, 6, 10, 13 and many more); that Jesus' raw and blood-soaked fear (praying before the cross) didn't dissuade him from doing the Father's will; that Paul's acceptance of his thorn didn't harm him, but kept him from becoming proud.

Therefore, speak life, focus on Jesus and his vision, and his will (not yours), but keep it grounded in reality. Realise lying is never positive, and speaking honestly with God and others is of great benefit. It helps us to maintain a strong faith in the face of difficult circumstances.

Summary and conclusion

It appears that the most faithful people in the Bible were in part so faithful because of their humility. This goes against current Pentecostal teaching which unfortunately often breeds pride and displays bad fruit in disappointment, lack of hope, and an embrace of deceitful talk. Mature Pentecostal teaching will practice honesty, humility, and submission of your will to God's will in every situation to bolster their faith. I observe that many of our more conservative brothers and sisters have a lot to teach about this character (the fruit of the Spirit). But these conservatives need to be taught a thing or three about faith. When we come together as the Body of Christ, we might just be able to balance each other out into a robust, resilient faith.