When Jesus began to be known, John said, “Jesus must increase but I must decrease.” Today John probably would say that Jesus must become more prominent and I must become less prominent.

The words increase and decrease have meaning for every child of God—both externally and internally.

Externally, these words apply to believers in that people should see more of Jesus in their lives and less of the believers themselves.

Internally, these words apply to the faith of a believer. As a Christian grows spiritually, the faith he has in himself must decrease while his faith in Jesus must increase.

At times God forces this decrease and increase on believers by placing them in seemingly impossible circumstances. In such cases, they gladly look to the Lord, rather than themselves, to provide victory.

When a believer first experiences his union with Christ, God gives him a period of sovereign grace when for days the believer lives in almost complete faith in God and not himself. When the sovereign period is over, the believer begins to grow in the life of grace. Then the decrease and increase transformation appears in stages. One who continues to live out his oneness with Christ at any timecan look back over the past year and see how God has delivered him from having faith in himself to having a growing faith in God.

God wants all of His children to have the testimony of decrease and increase that Paul gave in Galatians 2:20.