PRIDE WILL DESTROY YOU

Sun, 17 Sep 2017 07:43:39 +0000

BY Pastor Jasper Mutale

PRIDE causes people to try to control, manipulate or coerce others into doing their will and to take revenge by doing evil.  Idolatry has many disguises, but it is basically anything in your life that is more important than God.  Stubborn people have some form of idolatry controlling them. Pride is also disobedience against God.

The two roots of rejection and rebellion cause pride in one’s life and until one is helped from these roots of the past or present for example, Rejection:  will bring symptoms of fear, loneliness, timidity, fantasy, insecurity, and negative self-image, fear of rejection, jealousy, depression  .another example is Rebellion which  will bring outbursts of hatred, violence, bitterness, possessiveness, control of others, pride, self-willed, perversion, self-deception.

Rebellion refuses discipline because it sets limits and rebellion wants no boundaries, It creates a resistance to being taught as a result of the rebellion against authority and discipline.  It presents a passive aggressiveness, or resistance sometimes referred to as “a bit of silence.”

 Let’s be honest – we are all born rebellious, and have to be trained by our parents and teachers, using the rod and other disciplines, until we gain self-control.  Rebellion also develops out of heart – bad roots bring forth bad fruit.

 Satan aims his strongest attack at teenagers, as they are most vulnerable when they are becoming independent from parental restraints.  Rebellious music, clothes and peer pressure; as well as movies, discos, sex and hair styles, mould teenagers in a certain way that gives Satan the least line of resistance from them.  Rebellion means a total lack of submission to any kind of authority.  Its war cry is “do your own thing.”  Satan is now also aiming at the younger children and if they are not disciplined in a godly way from a very early age, the seeds of rebellion will have been sown.

 Rebellion causes riots, wars, demonstrations, strikes, soccer violence, strife, fights, confusion, etc.  Remember, to destroy the whole tree of rebellion you must kill the roots.  Pruning the fruit on the branches only brings more evil fruit and the condition gets worse and worse.  Jesus wants to set you free from everything that Satan is planning against you.  Submit yourself to the will of the Father in your life, trust Him to protect you and keep you safe from harm – He knows what is best for you.

 Repent of your rebellion; see it as God sees it – identical to witchcraft. Forgive your parents and all authority figures for whatever they did or said that made you rebellious – even if it was only your perception of it. Choose to adopt a heart attitude of submission to human authority and to God. Place your entire life in God’s hands and come into total submission to the Lordship of Jesus. Renounce all occultism activities and close those doors as an act of your will. Ask God to break the oppressions of rebellion off you.

 Rebellion is not a demon, it is the nature and condition of the heart. Until rebellion is dealt with, you will have various problems, e.g. lust, anger, hatred, inability to subject the flesh, etc.  For example, it doesn’t help to pray for somebody to be delivered from a bad temper, first deal with the root that causes the bad temper – rebellion.

When a child is disciplined without receiving love and acceptance, resentment, anger, bitterness and hatred will result, ending in rebellion.  Eph 6:4 (NIV) “Fathers, do not exasperate your children; instead, bring them up in the training of the Lord.”   Parental authority must go hand in hand with loving acceptance. The end time is referred to in Scripture as “the age of lawlessness” and the anti-Christ is called “the lawless one.”   2 Thess 2:3c,4 (LB)”There will be a time of great rebellion against God, and then the man of rebellion will come – the son of hell.  He will defy every god there is, and tear down every other object of adoration and worship.  He will go in and sit as God in the temple of God, claiming that he himself is God.”  So we can accept that a rebel is an enemy of God.

 The refusal of man to submit to the authority of God brings curses on any nation, the best is for each and every person to humble herself and himself before God.  Godlessness is living as though God does not exist. Rebellion against God will manifest itself in two ways: Firstly, refusing to read and obey God s Word; Secondly, rebellion against the marriage role. Liberty and restoration become ours when we deal with the problem of rebellion in full.  Do not allow any vestige of hostility or rebellion to remain in your heart.

 A proud person will usually not admit that he is proud, but before we turn to the Lord we live in a world full of pride and learn to be proud.  The world speaks of “self-made” people; people who have “no pride;” people who have “too much pride,” etc.   We are proud also about our nationality, talents, abilities, family line, etc.  If you do not admit that you are proud and deal with it, it will cause a barrier between you and God.

 Jer 9:23 – 24 (NIV) “This is what the Lord says:  “let not the wise man boast of his wisdom or the strong man boast of his strength or the rich man boast of his riches,  but let him who boasts boast about this:  that he understands and knows Me, that I am the Lord, who exercises kindness, justice and righteousness on earth, for in these I delight,  declares the Lord.” Gal 6:14(NIV) “May I never boast except in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through which the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. “Job 4:6b (NIV) “God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.”

 Pride is not a demon, it is an attitude of the heart that gives place to the devil.  It is an image built to cover feelings of worthlessness and rejection.  Pride cannot be separated from rejection.  The bigger the hurt, the bigger the desire to hide it, and thus the bigger the image of pride that is formed and built. Pride has the power to literally stop the flow of God’s grace in our lives and also to limit how God can use us.

 Pride is an abomination to God. Prov 6:16, 17 (AMP) “These six things the Lord hates, indeed, seven are an abomination to Him:  A proud look (the spirit that makes one overestimate himself and underestimate others). Pride originates from a sense of worthlessness. The less self-worth a person has, the prouder he appears. A strong root of pride will grow out of a rejection vacuum, causing a rejected person to be proud.  Pride compensates for rejection, and builds its own self-image.

 If you suffer from rejection, you see someone who is worthless, unacceptable and unattractive.  Only a small percentage of people who feel rejected show it.  Most of us start building an image of pride at a very young age – creating a new person – one that we like, one that is acceptable to our self, and also (so we think) acceptable to others.  All you have to do is continually say how clever you are, how well you did at school, how important your family is, etc. and then those words create the desired impression.  Namedropping – using the names of important people that you know helps to build this false image.

The image of pride is built to cover rejection and worthlessness.  The image is two-dimensional – not real, but the person who created it believes in it and all his value comes from what he has created.  The image of pride is a god that must be appeased.  People even get themselves into debt, buying things they can’t afford, just to satisfy this god, it becomes idolatry.

The proud person feels wonderful when he is winning, or putting others down, and boasting about what he owns, or his achievements. (covers his feelings of inferiority and worthlessness). Pride wants the image to infallible.  The proud person finds it difficult to tolerate people around him who do not make him look “good” – irrespective of who the people are.  Pride never wants to be wrong – this produces an unteachable spirit.

 A perfectionist may well look excellent and sound good, but he is critical and has a hardness of character.  Another word for perfectionism is intolerance.  A perfectionist has a lack of love, is indifferent to the needs of others, insensitive, hasty in judgement, sharp in words, critical and impatient.  He sets himself standards far beyond the normal requirements because he must always achieve more, and by achieving these high standards he places himself above others and becomes critical of those who do not achieve as well.

 A competitive person is selfish, self-willed, self-exalted, ambitious and jealous.  He gets his feeling of self-worth from what other people think of him and so is constantly striving to excel above others – to be first, to be better, to be recognised.  It causes enmity, discontent, jealousy and envy between people – competition destroys relationships marriage, ministry, career, etc. Gal 5:26 (NIV) “Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.”

Gal 6:3 (NIV)”If anyone thinks he is something when he is nothing, he deceives himself.” 2  Cor 10:12 (NIV) “We do not dare to classify or compare ourselves with some who commend themselves.  When they measure themselves by themselves and compare themselves with themselves, they are not wise.”

 For fellowship contact me on 0966487131 or jasper.mutale@yahoo.com