He Must Increase, I Must Decrease: Part 1

What if a deeper faith is not about doing more, but about letting Christ become more? In August 2025 Pastor Linda Reese began a series on one sentence spoken by a man who was watching his own crowd walk away.

He must increase, but I must decrease.

John 3:30 (KJV)

A preacher who turned people away

John was baptising in the Jordan and crowds were coming, but Pastor Linda pointed out that he would not baptise just anybody. He asked people whether they actually believed, and he sent hypocrites home to repent first. He also knew exactly how small his own part was: “I indeed baptize you with water unto repentance … he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost, and with fire” (Matthew 3:11).

The man who was glad to get smaller

She set it at the Jordan. Jesus went down into the water, the Spirit of God came down in the form of a dove, and a voice said this is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased (Matthew 3:16–17). Pastor Linda stopped to note what had just happened: at that one moment the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit were all revealed at once. And the man doing the baptising was Jesus’ own cousin.

There is a detail here she did not want missed. John hesitated to baptise Jesus at all, because he felt unworthy to do it. “Sometimes we feel like we’re not worthy to come in front of Christ,” she said, “but we should never feel that way. God is outstretched arms waiting on us.”

John’s purpose in this world was to lift up Jesus rather than himself, and she said plainly that this is our purpose too.

Which means not taking the credit

Her application was sharper than it first sounds. If you pray for someone and they are healed, do not take the credit for it. Other people were praying as well, and you have no idea whose prayer it was, or whether it was all of them together. “We didn’t do the healing. God did the healing. And God needs to get the glory.”

Faithful to the end of it

John did not die comfortable. He stood up to a king, told him plainly he was in the wrong, and lost his head for it (Matthew 14:1–12). Pastor Linda would not let the room pity him. He lived a victorious life. The king could take his head from his body and could do nothing at all to his soul. He is with Jesus now.

An exchange, not a diet

This is not about thinking less of yourself or trying harder to be humble. It is an exchange, and the two halves move together: for Christ to increase, self has to decrease. “Christ must have His way more and more. I must have my way less and less.”

She listed where it actually lands, and the list is uncomfortably ordinary: your personality, your conduct, your words, your thoughts, your attitudes, your actions. The whole person. “He is the head of the body, the church … that in all things he might have the preeminence” (Colossians 1:18). In everything, she said. He should be able to rule and to overrule.

Where to start this week

Start small and specific. Take one decision you would normally make on your own, and bring it to God first. That is what decreasing looks like on a Tuesday.

The series continues in Part 2: The Fruit of Surrender and Part 3. Related: What Is Prayer?.

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