I observed a so-called Christian mother dominate her family, including her husband. She had the power of wealth, a sharp mind, and church position. You couldn’t argue any difference of opinion because her dictatorial nature would intimidate you. If she felt uncomfortable about anything then you were always the problem; It was futile to argue your defense. Over the years, the husband changed from soft-hearted to being callous. The elder daughter became domineering like the mother, and the youngest daughter withdrew into herself and lived in a fantasy-land where she hid from her pain. Everyone in that family firmly believed they were good and loved God, but the truth was, everyone was using their religion to hide their pride.

In her pain, the younger daughter appeared happy, carefree and nonchalant, but deep in the hurts of her heart, her pride was hiding from exposure. Satan had used the mother to trick her into preserving her pride and camouflaging it with fake happiness, but God used this daughter’s future husband to loving expose it, free her from it, and save her for eternity.

What % are you proud?

Most people think they’re not too bad and agree that they have some pride, but basically think they’re a good person.

If you were to draw a circle and place a line through it, where would you place the line relevant to the % of pride in your heart and the % of good? Most people think that they’re about 10-20% proud and therefore, 80-90% good, and that’s where everybody’s problem lies. That perspective is not what the Word of God teaches.

The lie … if you correct me, then I’m no good

Most people I counsel believe that if they’re corrected then they’re ‘no good’. But, what does that statement really mean? It actually means … you shouldn’t be correcting me like this because I think I’m a good person, and your correction makes me feel bad. They’re actually saying … I think I’m good, not bad, so I don’t agree with you, and I won’t take the correction, but I’ll pretend to and convince myself that I have submitted to your authority.

If that’s true, then we have a problem. In Hebrews 12:8, the Word of God declares … no correction, no salvation.

The Holy Spirit would not deduce, correction = I’m no good

So, what spirit is making that deduction in your heart? Obviously, it’s a Satanic voice that’s manipulating your pride to defend your position of unfairness.

Shift the blame

When your feelings are offended at a point of correction, then know that you’re full of pride, not 20%, but 100%. The feelings of objection and offense are the expression of your pride. The pride of a person’s inner heart TELLs the corrector that they are not fair and not right. They shift the blame and thus never face the responsibility of their pride. This is the same tactic as Satan vs God, so it’s obvious where its origin lies, and it’s obvious that shifting blame only reinforces Satan’s hold over you.

The person who uses the feeling of “no good” to protect their pride from being exposed, is unwittingly submitting themselves to the control of a lying spirit. Consequently, it may be an unconscious disrespect of authority, but ultimately, it’s pride that gets offended when it’s corrected. It’s one’s pride that deduces that … I’m a good person …, but that deduction is satanic.

Frustrated that I can’t stop it

Frustration is pride, not love. Pride gets frustrated that it can’t stop one’s mood. Pride gets offended that it‘s corrected. Pride thinks it knows better. People get annoyed and irritated that they’re always being corrected. To their thinking, correction is just another failure. This thinking is really just more evidence of the depth of one’s pride. Their pride is offended that they are corrected. It’s just pride to think that you should be corrected once, and never again for the same issue, and it’s because of that pride that the correction is repetitive. But, pride thinks it should be capable of stopping it, and that’s the problem … pride on pride.

The irony of pride

Pride doesn’t like to be corrected. It doesn’t like to be told it’s wrong. It doesn’t like to be put-down. It doesn’t like to be made to feel inferior. It wants to feel good about itself. It wants to feel superior, and there’s the exposure of the real problem … pride wants to feel above its neighbour. The irony is, that pride sits in pride telling everyone else how to stop their pride. It can’t see its own pride, it just sits in judgement of other’s pride. Thus, our pride becomes our own judgment against us, Matthew 7.

Humility

Humility doesn’t use the other person’s pride to make it feel better that it fell to its own pride. Humility doesn’t look to a 50:50 solution to resolve its wrong; it doesn’t say it’s wrong if you agree you’re wrong too. Humility owns 100% of its wrong and leaves the injustice to the Creator.

Only God is good

Jesus said Himself, that only God is good, Matthew 19:17. If you deduce that you are 80% good then you are really saying that you are God and directly contradicting the true God. Clearly, any belief that we are in any way good is just us proving that we are bad.

The purpose of correction, is to put you back in your place

People argue that they’re willing to be corrected by righteous authority but not by unrighteous authority. But, that’s just pride speaking. That’s the argument of the spirit of fairness, not the Word of God. The Word of God says the opposite.

1 Peter 3 :21 & 22 states … it is better, if the will of God be so, that you suffer for well-doing than for evil doing, just like Jesus. This is reinforced in many places throughout the Bible, like 1 Peter 2:19 -23, and Matthew 5:10-12.

Unrighteous authority is of God

God owns everything and controls everything (Ephesians 1:21). Things go bad because of sin, but they can also go wrong because we love God. Satan hates the remnant and is out to destroy us. God uses both righteous and unrighteous authority to challenge and break your pride. No one likes correction, especially if it’s unjust, but that’s how it is if you want to be saved. When your feelings are offended at a point of unrighteous correction, then know that your feelings are telling you that you are full of pride, not 20%, but 100%.

We can see a bit of our pride, but like an iceberg, most of our pride lies hidden below the surface. If you’re going to be saved, you need both righteous and unrighteous authority to break your pride.  The daughter, in the family I mentioned, needed her unjust mother so God could eventually break through her unconscious hidden pride. Until you stop and trust God with correction, both just and unjust, you’re expressing trust in your own pride rather than in God’s plan.

The moment you tell any authority, righteous or unrighteous, to …  mind your own business or, you’re an idiot, you defy the 5^th commandment and unwittingly put yourself under demonic power. The more you practice that defiance the more power the demonic gains over you. President Trump may be wrong, but the people of America and Britain are exposing their rebellious disrespect. It will come back to roost. You won’t find Daniel practicing defiance against Nebuchadnezzar.

You see, the authority God places us under in families, school, workplace, government, church etc. is His planned pattern to shake up our pride. Our pride must be exposed for us to be saved, because pride is Satan’s territory and Satan’s door to our self-destruction, but it’s also God’s door to our salvation.

 Salvation requires you to let go and trust God with injustices against us

Until you let go and trust Him with injustices, you’ll never know the peace of God or His saving grace.

Joseph was unfairly corrected by his brothers and Potiphar. David was unfairly corrected by his brothers and King Saul. Daniel didn’t do anything wrong, but still had to suffer the injustice of evil against him. Samson was so full of himself he needed his eyes removed to see his pride. Even Jesus was unfairly corrected by his brothers and the Roman court. Jesus suffered to show us the way to break one’s pride. Position in Christ is always through the door of injustices; the door of bearing your cross. There’s no other pathway that God has ordained to break one’s pride.

Do vs die

The modern religious systems have taught the people to do good deeds. So, people do good to feel good about themselves and to look good to others. But, in 1 Corinthians 13, the Word of God says it’s a waste of time if it’s built on pride.

People ask me what do I do to stop my pride? I reply … the thief on the cross. There was nothing he could do. Do = fix the problem myself. That’s just pride trying to fix my pride. It can’t work. When you’re on a cross you’re either going to object and tell God to fix it, or give-in and ask God for His mercy. But before you can ask God for his mercy, you first have to see that you’re a thief. You have to see that you are not 20% proud and 80% good, but that your pride runs through every vein in your spirit. You have to see that you are 100% proud. Jesus didn’t come to save you from 20% pride, He came to save you from 100% of it. If you only offer Him 20% then you won’t be saved.

You never get rid of pride

You never get rid of your pride, so don’t try. Rather, a Christian takes responsibility for his pride and learns to daily die to pride through repentance, so the consequences of our sin remains covered by the precious saving blood of the Lord Jesus Christ. It’s Him that saves and keeps us, not us.

Our hurt feelings are an expression of our pride, but instead of seeing our pride, Satan blinds us to our pride so that we concentrate on fixing our hurt feelings, and fail to repent of our pride. If you think you’ve been treated unfairly, and submit to the voice of blaming the offender, or submit to the voice of “I may have done wrong but so have you”, you can’t repent, and if you don’t think you’re all that proud you’re not going to repent anyway. And if you don’t repent, then your salvation is in vain.

It’s mistreatment that gets you to heaven, not your goodness.

Pastor Rick Ramsley