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Category Archives: Pride

Sermon 132 – The Love of Position

15 Sep

Good correction is an instruction that advises you that you’re doing something wrong. It’s an instruction designed to get you back on the right track when you’ve inadvertently stepped in the wrong direction with wrong analysis.

Pride, however, perceives and thus receives correction as a suggestion that “I’m bad”. Our pride turns correction into a ‘good and bad’ scenario, when it should be a ‘right and wrong’ issue.

Why does it do this?

Because pride is only interested in position, position, position. That’s all it ultimately cares about. You can camouflage your pride with as much exterior niceness as you like but underneath it all is the love of position, and this is the thing that Jesus came to save you from … the love of position. All pride is concerned about is … “I want to be above you”. Pride pretends to love its neighbour but in the depths of its heart it hates it when one’s neighbour gets an advantage over it.

Pride hates exposure, so it does anything it can to hide itself. The consequence of this hidden evil in us, is the solidifying of this evil by lying to ourselves that we are good, and thus the Evil One traps us in his web and manipulates us to unwittingly serve his will against God. Then, instead of breaking free from our sin at the point of correction, we reinforce the lie that we are good.

Lie to escape exposure

If correction is bad, why do we routinely lie to escape exposure of our wrong, and why do we routinely fear the embarrassment of the exposure? Obviously, because we’re too proud and selfish to let others think we are wrong. We don’t want to look bad, so we work our butt-off to show we are good, but our real objective is to avoid exposure of any bad, at all costs. We argue within ourselves that the more good we are the more the correction must be wrong. The ‘good-er’ we are the further from salvation we unknowingly wander, believing our own lie that our goodness is evidence of God in us. But, it’s all our own deception fuelled by our own evil pride.

Don’t tell me what to do

When you argue ‘good vs bad’ it’s simply an indicator of your pride. This means that the real underlying issue is the selfish belief … “I’m good, so don’t tell me I’m bad”. But, what this really means is … “you won’t tell me what’s right or wrong, I’ll decide, and you won’t tell me what to do; I’ll fix the issue myself, my way. Mind your own business”. It’s only at the point of correction that this spirit is exposed, and it’s at that point that one’s pride can be loosed from the demonic. Sadly, few surrender; most defend their pride. They still serve and worship God their way, but they’re not saved.

Pride doesn’t think it’s proud

Because pride can’t see its pride, it needs correction to expose it. The problem is, it’s so focussed on looking good, it sees any correction as rejection and a put-down, thus it constantly misses the door of salvation that God places before it.

Fake Goodness is Satanism

Pride won’t be told it’s wrong. In fact, pride won’t be told. Thus, pride is the practice of disrespect of authority, and the practice of incorrigibility. Thus, your pride protects you from being correctible, and thus pride is the root cause of fakeness and de-salvation.

Pride is always trying to show and re-affirm its goodness. Pride thinks it’s good, so it can’t handle any suggestion that it’s done anything wrong, because it hates feeling bad and looking bad. What pride doesn’t realise is that the more good you think you are, or the more you act that you are good, the more demonic influence Satan has over you. It’s really the spirit of Satan operating through you. The practice of pride is really the practice of Satanism. That’s why God hates it. That’s why it’s so hard to eliminate it from your spirit. This lying deception was inherited from Satan via Eve’s and Adam’s sin and refusal to repent. Pride is a direct inheritance from Satan. Retain your pride and serve God as much as you like. It will all be a waste of time and effort, just like Judas.

Fake Goodness (F.G.) retaliates

Fake goodness retaliates with blame for not letting them explain why they did what they did. F.G. shifts the responsibility so its own bad is not exposed. F.G. is focussed on what you think of me and can’t handle being thought less of. F.G. is just camouflaged pride. As I’ve already said, the more good you think you are, the more proud you are, and the more fake you are.

Only God is good, Luke 18:19

The rich young ruler indirectly asked Jesus to confirm to him that he was good. Doing good was his recipe for looking good in the eyes of his peers. Jesus made it clear; the answer is give up your position. Like most people it was too much to ask. So, if you think you are good then the truth is you’re just full of yourself, not God, and that’s what pride is. Consequently, pride judges others’ badness in the light of one’s own assumed goodness. This judgment actually verifies that you are not good (James 4:11), but pride can’t see it, so it bacterially flourishes and continues to be practiced indiscriminately.

Like the rich young ruler, once you find something that gives you value and supports your position in the eyes of others, it’s even more difficult to let your pride go and find God. The support becomes too valuable to you.

Feelings

Pride makes its judgments on its feelings. Pride believes if you make me feel bad, then you’re the baddie. Pride is always trying to show its goodness. Position by any means is all it cares about.

Do

The real reason we do things is to prove our self-worth in the eyes of others, and that’s why we can’t give up what’s of value to us, because these skills, or money, or successes, or popularity are the proof of our value. Instead of sacrificing them, we compromise to keep them and unwittingly instead, sacrifice the precious gift of salvation.

It’s not DO. It’s not FIX. Rather, it’s DIE to your pride. That means, openly expose you’re wrong and face the fear and the temptation to lie and blame. That’s the only way to free yourself from Satan’s evil spirits.

Good doesn’t cut it

The woman caught in adultery wasn’t good. Rahab wasn’t good. Samson wasn’t good. The thief on the cross wasn’t good. David wasn’t good; he murdered. Prostitutes are not good. The five foolish virgins were good. Good is not the requirement; exposing your pride is the requirement.

Jesus didn’t write-off the thief on the cross for being bad; He invited him into His kingdom at the point of his confession of wrong to a loving Saviour. He knew he was bad. He couldn’t fix the bad or the wrong, but he could face his embarrassment and give up his charade of toughness and lower his resistant position.

Pharisee and Tax Collector

In Luke 18:9, Jesus shares a parable about those who trust in their own goodness, yet at the same time, hate. The Pharisee spoke to his own mind about how good he was, whereas, the publican simply exposed his wrong and was saved. The Pharisee proved his goodness was a lie by passing judgment on the publican, in the light of his own goodness, and immediately confirmed his arrogant pride.

Good is always in your own mind

Good is never in the mind of a Christian. Like Christ, a Christian’s focus is serving the will of his Master, not in justifying why the Master should love him or do his bidding.  The Holy Spirit doesn’t pride Himself in His own goodness; He serves the will of the Father. The goodness that flows from a Christian should be Christ, not one’s own self-manufactured ability and fake purity. Fake purity is just piety, not love.

Pride vs. Humility

In simplicity, pride is calling someone a fool; whereas, humility comes via repentance, and repentance is seeing that you’re the fool. If you’ve never really seen your own folly, then your salvation is in vain. “Sorry” is an arrangement of convenient escape, but “repentance” is when you see your own folly, and without that revelation your pride is not broken. All that’s happened is, like Eve, you’ve talked yourself into believing in your own wisdom being right. But, clearly Eve’s wisdom wasn’t right, or she would’ve seen she was wrong.

Why does God advise against pride?

Pride is the fruit of the tree in the middle of the Garden. Pride tastes good, and pride looks good. It never looks bad. That’s so Satan can use it to manipulate you into thinking that you’re right (Genesis 3:5,6). But, the reason God advises against it is because pride will always end up hurting you. That’s why Satan sells it to you; to hurt you.

Everyone is either a Pharisee or a Publican or a Publican Pharisee

This parable is not just a story; it’s an evaluation of the human spirit. You can have different levels of Pharisee or Publican, but everyone exists in these two categories at some level. Everyone is born arrogant. Everyone is born fearful. Everyone is born a liar. You can either protect these qualities and reinforce you link your Satan, or you can expose them. What you choose to do at the point of correction will either lead you to salvation or to hell.

Salvation is simple

All you have to do is expose yourself. All you have to do is own up that you were wrong. All you have to do is face the fear of looking bad in the eyes of others. God does the rest. The problem is, almost everyone resists their conscience by explaining away their sin by blaming the other person, or justifying why they really didn’t do anything that bad, and so the opportunity for salvation is lost and sacrificed to protect one’s pride. You have to sacrifice your pride to be saved. You have to sacrifice your pride to be freed from Satan.

Conclusion

Ultimately, it’s not an issue of right or wrong, or good or bad. It’s an issue of … will you stop your pride and take the correction and admit you were wrong, no blame and no excuses.

No exposure, no salvation

Behold I stand at the door and knock (Rev.3:20). When Jesus is knocking on your door, Satan is also standing there whispering fears and lies into your mind. If you truly want to be saved you will always have to face the fear of embarrassment or the fear of persecution, and the temptation to lie, and the temptation to blame to protect yourself. It’s actually the temptation from Satan to fear and lie, that confirms that Christ is the one addressing your conscience. The fear is the sign of Christ’s presence, not from Him, but from the enemy trying to manipulate you away from Him. In fact, if you don’t face fear at a point of salvation, then it’s not Jesus that’s knocking. Yes, like Samuel, you can be saved as a child, and like Peter, you can walk with Christ and think you’re saved, but, somewhere along the walk you will have to face the fear of your convictions in order to seal your salvation (Luke 22:32). All you have to do is open the door and let your sin be exposed and you’ll realize that the fear was a Satanic inhibitor to block you from being free.

 

Pastor Rick McCauley

 

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Posted by on September 15, 2018 in Pride

 

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Sermon 131 – The Inherent Evil of every Human Soul before God owns it

11 Aug

1. ME
I think … I’m Special, I’m Important, I’m Clever, I’m Skilful, I’m Intelligent, I’m GOOD
The problem is … only God is Good. So, the more GOOD you think you are, the more you love yourself, and the more you are your own god.

2. I WANT
… Security, Position, Superiority, Value, Favour, Happiness, to look good in the eyes of others eg. King Saul
I hate INFERIORITY
I WANT to do it MY way. Don’t TELL me what to do.

3. ENVY
I WANT what you’ve got = I should have it, how come you’ve got it? = love ME above my neighbour = HATE my neighbour
I lust after SUPERIORITY. I lust after HAPPY
I HATE you because … you’re more HAPPY, more SUCCESSFUL, more LOVED, more POPULAR
Defined in James 4:5 as ‘malignant grief ‘ towards your neighbour eg. King Saul vs David, Pharisees vs Jesus
Associated in James 3:15 with the world, perversion, and demonic

4. MANIPULATE
Subtle or deliberate TACTICS to gain self-advantage over others, so that I’m ELEVATED above my neighbour, so I have the POWER and CONTROL.

TACTICS = ∗Intimidation eg. King Saul, ∗Lie, ∗Money eg. Ananias & Sapphira Acts 5, ∗Help, ∗Generosity, ∗Sad eg. Ahab, ∗Complain (have a MOOD) until you get it, ∗say Sorry & expect sorry back, ∗Spite, ∗Exclude, ∗Ignore, ∗Pay-back, ∗Sex eg. Jezebel, ∗use Friends = those who serve my expectations, ∗act Perfect = fake niceness / humility, ∗drive a man to Adultery eg. Potiphar’s wife, ∗Pimp on them so I look good and they look bad

5. EVIL DEDUCTIONS
If you make me feel INFERIOR, then you’re evil
If you hurt my FEELINGS, then I have the right to hurt yours = Revenge, Matthew 7:12
If CORRECTION hurts my feelings, then you’re wrong
If you make me feel REJECTED, then you’re bad
When things go positive = God is blessing me
When things go negative = It’s your fault = Blame eg. Eve & Adam
When others are put-down = I’m better than you = Mock
When others fall = I told you so = I’m right, you’re wrong
FRIENDS = those who treat me right
If you’ve got a problem with me, then you’re the problem. If I have a problem with you, then you’re also the problem.

6. CONSEQUENCES
If you routinely practice any one of these above qualities, know that you are under the banner of the spirit of Anti-Christ and therefore, not saved.
Demonic Occupation eg. King Saul = lose your right mind
Incorrigible = Bastard, Hebrews 12:8
Sow and Reap
Disrespect Authority / Hate men, Genesis 3:16, 1 Timothy 2:11,12
Fear, Faithless, Temporary Pleasure, Wrong JUDGEMENT, Confusion, Hell, Hypocrisy James 3:17
Do what’s right in your own eyes, Judges 21:25, and come under God’s judgment
BLINDNESS = we know people hurt us, but we can’t see us doing it to them

7. SOLUTION
Wake-up to your sin and REPENT of it = give up your “I Want”, and TRUST God’s plan instead of imposing and demanding yours. You don’t have to fix yourself, you have to SEE yourself.

Godly sorrow works repentance to salvation, 2 Cor.7:10
Repent and be converted that your sins may be blotted out, Acts 3:19
I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ lives in me, and the life I now live, I live by the faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me, Galatians 2:20

Pastor Rick Ramsley

 

 
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Posted by on August 11, 2018 in Envy, Pride

 

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Sermon 130 – I think I’m a Good person

15 Jul

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 5th 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

 

 
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Posted by on July 15, 2018 in Pride

 

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Sermon 124 – Dance to my Tune

29 Apr

In Daniel chapter 4, we read the interpretation of Nebuchadnezzar’s dream about a huge tree cut down to the stump. Daniel warned the king that he was that tree and that he was about to be removed from his throne because he was puffed-up with his own pride. Even this warning did not soften his stubbornness. His pride could only see his pride and to him it looked like greatness and importance. The moment he declared that his kingdom was established by his own might, he lost his sanity and became an animal. By God’s grace he came to his right mind but only after seven years had passed and then he made this final statement in v.37 … now I, Nebuchadnezzar praise and extol the King of heaven, all whose works are truth, and His ways judgment: and those that walk in pride, He is able to abase.

The lie of our good gets good

This all happened whilst Nebuchadnezzar was compiling a list of the things that God had done for him (v.2). The problem was, the emphasis was on him, not God. So many of us believe the lie that the good things that happen to us are signs of how good we are and therefore, how much God loves and favours us. Our pride thinks that the good things are because of our goodness. Our pride might thank God but underneath we praise ourselves.

His pride could only see his pride, but to pride it looks like good

On a number of occasions, God had already revealed Himself to Nebuchadnezzar. The problem was, that every time God did something for Nebuchadnezzar, Nebuchadnezzar interpreted it as his own personal importance. Back further in chapter 2, Daniel not only interprets Nebuchadnezzar’s dream but he also recalled the dream he had forgotten. Nebuchadnezzar makes this declaration in v.47 … of a truth, your God is the God of gods, and a Lord of Kings, and a revealer of secrets. Yet, despite his proclamation, his heart remained full of his own importance. In fact, if God was giving him this information then surely he must be important (his pride would have suggested to him).

God reveals Himself to us and many times He resolves our issues, but we conveniently interpret it as our own personal value because we still like our pride. We can worship Him and honour Him, but we’re not saved until our pride is broken. Until it’s broken, our pride is silently proud of itself.

Who is on your throne?

You may praise God but you’re not saved until your pride is broken. Our pride is our god until we let God smash our pride and replace it with the faith of the true God.

Anyone who thinks they’re important or special will never know God until their pride is broken. Pride can only see pride, but to pride it looks like ‘special’, or ‘important’, or ‘gifted’, or ‘greatness’, so it looks good, not bad. Everyone thinks they’re something special; it’s inherent in our sin, but there isn’t any access to heaven until this self-importance is smashed. The thing Jesus came to save us from is our pride.  Our pride is the expression of our sinful nature and it’s our inherent link to Satan. An eternal relationship with Jesus will not occur until our pride is removed from our throne.

Pride blocks what God has done

In Daniel chapter 3, Nebuchadnezzar built a golden statue of himself and demanded everyone bow and worship it whenever the music played. Three Jews refused, so in his anger, Nebuchadnezzar threw them into a fiery furnace, then in his amazement, watched as Shadrack, Meshach and Abednego simply walked through the furnace. Even his own soldiers had been killed by the radiating heat, but these three Jews were unscathed. In v.28, Nebuchadnezzar blesses the God of Shadrack, Meshach and Abednego and decrees that everybody must only worship their God. Yet, despite his own proclamation, he honoured God but with his pride still in place. If pride isn’t broken then your worship is in vain.

Dance to my tune

Pride is building a golden statue of ourselves and demanding that everyone bow down and worship it every time they hear the music. What’s the music we play? It’s the music of moodiness, or false humility, or intimidation to get people to recognise our value and do things we want them to do for us. It’s getting people to bow to our wants and wishes and reacting with anger, fear or sadness when they don’t. Our reactions prove which god we really serve … if you won’t dance to my tune then I’ll throw you into my furnace of spite, envy and hate, until you do what I want.

None of us think we do that because we cover it with our lies and fake niceness; but when the opportunity arises, we do play our music and expect others to dance to our tune, and if they won’t, then we treat them as enemies and justify our hatred as them being the ones who are unloving. It’s not Holy Spirit; it’s satanic, and until we’re cut down to size, there is no salvation. In fact, if God isn’t cutting you down to size then He knows you’re beyond breaking.

Pride twists your mind

In Daniel 2:49, at Daniel’s request, Nebuchadnezzar had elevated Shadrack, Meshach and Abednego over the affairs of Babylon, yet when Nebuchadnezzar demanded everyone bend and bow to his golden statue, he didn’t have any regard for his valued servants. It was as though he didn’t recognise them. The same mind lapse occurred with King Saul in 1 Samuel 17:55. David used to play the harp to settle his spirit as well as be Saul’s armour-bearer, but when David killed Goliath he couldn’t recall who he was.

When the mind is full of its own importance there’s no room for the value of others; everything centres around our own value. You can camouflage it with niceness, helps and generosity but when the opportunity arises we demand everyone to bow to our music and dance to our tune. It’s the music that reveals our true selves, not the generosity or kindness.

The higher you are the further you fall

Why Nebuchadnezzar and not King Saul? Only God knows the heart of man. You’ll see Nebuchadnezzar in heaven but you won’t see King Saul. Most of us refuse to be broken no matter what the burdens against us, preferring to blame others, or God, or mother nature, too proud to see our own pride in the picture, always justifying our own rightness.

How stubborn is our human pride!

God uses evil to break our pride

God allows evil circumstances to bring down our stubbornness, so to wish for no hassles or no problems is just selfish foolishness. It’s the hassles of life that breaks our pride. The good things of life promote our pride. In fact, God said that those that live Godly in Christ will suffer persecution. The hatred of others towards you because you love God is a healthy sign (though not necessarily full proof) that your pride is in the right place.

Don’t think you’re not a Nebuchadnezzar

Don’t think that the story of evil Nebuchadnezzar is not relevant to you. If it wasn’t personally relevant to you, it would just be an historical fact. It wouldn’t be in the Word of God unless it was universally relevant. Everyone has a flavour of Nebuchadnezzar. Most feed that flavour, the chosen confront it by God’s faith through the hardships of life. The good news is, it’s not your goodness that saves you, it’s your brokenness.

 

Pastor Jonathan Faranze

 

 
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Posted by on April 29, 2018 in Pride

 

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Sermon 123 – It’s Simple

21 Apr

If you’re into position, you’re NOT saved. It’s that simple.

Jesus made Himself of no reputation and took on Himself the form of a servant … Philippians 2

Jesus said … if any man will come after Me, let him DENY himself daily, carry his cross and follow Me. For whoever will save his life shall lose it.

Jesus said … no man is above His Master. If they called the Master of the house Beelzebub, don’t be surprised what they will call you.

‘Special’ is opposite Jesus

If you think you are special, if you think you have an important job to do for God or the country or the political system, if you think that God is blessing you because you’re special, if you think that God has given you special skills because you’re special, you’re NOT saved, you’re simply listening to satanic voices appealing to your pride.

 “I think I’m important” is the voice of Satan, not the Holy Spirit

Satan is the spirit that’s into position. Satan hates Jesus because he has a higher position. His whole objective is to take Jesus’ position and ultimately get the Father’s position. Satan’s into destroying your relationship position with Christ because he hates you having it when he can’t … we’re not fighting flesh and blood but principalities and powers (Ephesians 6).

Jesus pursues the exact opposite desire. If Jesus said … deny yourself daily, carry your cross and follow Him, but you believe you’re something special, don’t kid yourself; your thoughts are opposite to Christ. They are therefore thoughts from ANTI-Christ. They’re thoughts of PRIDE, not humility, and you’re faking your relationship with God.

Holy Spirit is not into position. A fully surrendered spirit to the Holy Spirit has no thoughts about position. He will be tempted with them, but he will not live in them.

Delusions of Grandeur

If you think you’re important or have an important job to do somewhere down the track, then you’ve been deluded by your own pride of grandeur. You won’t find Daniel employing this lie, nor Moses, nor Elijah, nor Jesus, nor Paul (once he gave up Saul). You will find King Saul deluded by his own grandeur, as well as Samson, Miriam, Peter, and Judas. The one’s who were saved for eternity, had to give up their position.

Position hates position

If you compare yourself to others, then you’re into position and if you’re into position, you’re into hate. You’ll hate people for being above you; you’ll hate it that you can’t do what others do, or can’t get what others have. Position hates; it can’t love, even though it pretends to love so it gets position.

The “I’m not special” lie

If you think you’re special, then you won’t want to be found out that you think that, because your spirit already knows that it is wrong, so most people will deny that they are special. Consequently, most people won’t admit that they think they’re special, but it’s a lie to cover-up your pride so you look like you’re humble. Generally speaking, everyone thinks they’re special, even the ones who are down and out and hurting and use their moodiness to manipulate you to make them feel sad for them.

However, the moment you compare yourself to someone in rank or skill or knowledge (2 Corinthians 10:12), or the moment you judge someone, or the moment you mock someone, or the moment you use moodiness to manipulate people to do what you want, then you’re automatically saying that you are more special than them. That’s position and you can’t have position without thinking you are special. That’s why God said the second great commandment is to love your neighbour as yourself. Competing for position is ant-Christ to God’s instructions.

Stop kidding yourself that you’re a Christian and get real with Christ

You won’t be saved until you get real and stop pretending. The Word of God declares that a genuine Christian lives content in whatever situation … good or bad (Philippians 4:11,12).  On the contrary, the modern Christian lives for good to get the benefits of good because they think they are special to God. It’s fake and it’s a lie.

Stop listening to the lies of the religious systems

If God gives you position, serve Him with gratitude. If He gives you poverty, serve Him with gratitude. You signed on for better or worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness or health, so learn to trust Him, whatever.

I’ve lost count how many Christians I’ve observed who are in it for position. When the crunch comes, they walk away and either give up or try another religious technique, always looking for the next level of spiritual experience, or else believing in the validity of their current feelings, pretending to be respectful, but all the time living in their own agenda and beliefs, conveniently turning a blind eye to the truth of their wounded resistance. These Christians are called, but not chosen.

It’s PRIDE that makes you susceptible to Satanic voices

It’s easy to blame someone else for our situation and hassles, but the fact is, it’s pride that blames and it’s our pride that makes us susceptible to judging others for our hassles. Pride think it’s everyone else’s fault. It’s our pride that wants position. It’s our pride that makes excuses for our hate … you like him more than me, or, those Christians are hypocrites so I’m not going to be a Christian.

Pride holds others in our debt

Our pride stores up credits against people. It accumulates debts that people owe you … if I help you then you have to help me, or, if I feel sorry for you then you have to feel sorry for me, or, if I apologise then I expect you to apologise too. God calls this holding people in debt, which is why the Lord’s prayer is … forgive us our debts as we forgive those who are indebted to us; but pride holds onto the debts, it can’t forgive and it can’t repent, and it won’t be forgiven by God.

Jesus said … He’s drawn to the humble and contrite in spirit; He resists the proud … James 4:6.

Pride hates correction

Pride is not quickly open to correction. Like King Saul in 1 Samuel 15, like Adam and Eve in the Garden, and like Cain vs Abel, pride defends itself from looking bad. Pride measures correction as rejection pain. It only concedes to the correction when it’s cornered and has to admit its error.

Pride uses moodiness to manipulate others to do what it wants, and the demonic spirits behind your pride stirs others to react inappropriately so that it can control you with guilt. Our pride is demonic. It needs to die.

Once you are susceptible to voices, it’s proof that you have upped your position and got proud about yourself

One of the ladies in our fellowship was hurting, emotionally. Everyone started to feel sorry for her; but what was really happening? The woman was hurting because she was envious of someone else’s position. She submitted to satanic voices of unfairness, and then in her pain, manipulated others to support her position. The other Christians thought it was a good thing to empathise with her, but they couldn’t see that they were inadvertently supporting a demonic spirit. Why couldn’t they see this? Because each one had fallen already to some previous pride that had elevated their own position.

It’s your own pride that deceives you. The hurts from other people are just doorways for Satan to trap you in your pride and focus on your rights, instead of trusting Christ in the hurt.

Christian Maturity

Everyone is susceptible to their pride, but a genuine Christian moves on to maturity in Christ and learns to sacrifice one’s selfish demand for position. God calls it ‘eating meat’ instead of ‘drinking milk’ (1 Corinthians 3). He calls it ‘growing up’ instead of staying a ‘baby’.

The solution

Give up your position.  Every Christian has a choice between being a Peter or a Judas. You may be a Christian like King Saul, but you won’t be saved until you give up your position-pride. God calls it … dying to yourself, and if you won’t listen, like King Saul and like Judas, time will run out for you.

 

Pastor Michael  Kasanzgi

 
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Posted by on April 21, 2018 in position, Pride

 

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Sermon 121 – Consequences

31 Mar

This week Steve Smith was dismissed from the captaincy of the Australian Cricket team. He confessed to condoning the tampering of the ball by one of the other players during the third test against South Africa. The whole of Australia couldn’t believe we would cheat to win a sporting game. At his first interview, Steve admitted his mistake but expected to retain his position. He had not weighed up the consequences of his actions. He hadn’t considered that all Australians would be appalled and disheartened. That his young fans would be offended and disapprove in unbelief. That he would go from hero to villain. That the South Africans would boo him onto the field. That the media companies would withdraw their financial support. That the fans would boycott the future matches. That he would forever be remembered for his error of judgment. That he would lose his captaincy and be banned from playing for 12 months.

Pride blocks

Pride blocks you seeing the consequences. It can’t appreciate what it’s got, it can only see what it wants and what it isn’t getting. Pride doesn’t think it’s doing anything that bad. It questions any correction by an authority. It blames and TELLS you how to behave for its own benefit. It won’t really accept that it’s done anything that bad. It hates anyone higher or more successful than itself. It thinks it’s right. It refuses to lower its position.

Pride thinks there’ll be no consequences; only good thigs will happen to me. Pride thinks God loves me, so He’ll look after me and never let anything bad to happen to me. It doesn’t serve Christ for Christ’s sake, it expects Christ to serve them.

The old demonic trick of make them look bad so we don’t

Pride is designed to trap you into reacting against its stubborn resistance so that it spiritually controls you. Once you play ball with someone’s pride you are trapped in your own pride. I suspect the demonic spirit behind South Africa goaded the Australian vice-captain to retaliate to mocking taunts, so that he tempted the captain to coerce with his plan of ball-tampering so that the team would get caught in its own pride. I’ve seen and experienced many times where a demonic power working through someone, goads the person to react against it’s unfair injustice and once the person has reacted to the bait it then has the power to point the finger at your weakness and divert the attention off themselves. Demons take control over you by tempting you to fall to your pride.

The Pastor and the Painter

Journalist, Cindy Wockner, has written a book titled, the Pastor and the Painter. It tells the biography of Andrew Chan and Myuran Sukumaran from the moment they were arrested for drug smuggling in Indonesia, to the moment they were executed for the crime some 10 years later. In a television interview, Cindy describes the initial character of the two offenders as arrogant and insolent and disrespectful, without any remorse for their behaviour and offence, and without any agreement that they’d done wrong. She then goes on to say that after being in jail for over 6 years they both came to accept they that had done wrong. It was that decision that changed them from within to become responsible and remorseful for what they had done. They both changed and became genuinely Christ-like in their behaviour.

The key was accepting that they were wrong instead of being flippant about their deeds. Even so, they paid the ultimate consequence for their insolence.

2 thieves on the cross

In Luke 23:39 we read the reactions of the malefactors on the crosses next to Christ. One thief was only concerned about getting out of his problem and TOLD Jesus how to behave and fix it for him. He objected to the consequences. Demonic spirits always TELL you and blame you for their problem even though it’s obvious they, themselves, created the problem. Notice that Jesus didn’t play ball with this thief. He wouldn’t let His Spirit get trapped into His pride by demonic temptation. The enemy was still working his temptations right up to the end.

The other thief stood up for Jesus and rebuked the arrogant thief. He lowered his pride, accepted that he deserved the punishment, opened his heart to Christ, and was immediately saved for eternity. Most people lie or say sorry to avoid the consequences. They’ll never find Christ. It’s lowering your pride that saves you; you’re not saved by being good.

How do you know whether your pride has been put in its place?

You’ll have your pride in its place when you take full responsibility for it as evidenced by not blaming someone else or defending your position. When you’re willing to take the consequences and punishment. Steve Smith humbled himself. The consequences opened up his eyes to his sin and caused him to lower his position and give up his pride. On the other hand, Barnaby Joyce (Australia’s ex-deputy Prime minister) refuses to accept the consequences. Mr. Joyce doesn’t think his private life is anyone else’s business. He’s wrong. When you’re in public office, everything is the public’s business. Let me ask … did Mr. Joyce deceive his wife by having an adulterous affair behind her back? The answer is obviously, yes. That means that Mr. Joyce is a deceiver. Now, if you are going to deceive your wife, then you are going to be deceptive in your parliamentary position and to the public in general. If you treat your marriage vows with deceit, then that’s how you’ll treat your parliamentary vows.

What you practice is who you are

Why are most people afraid to kill someone? I suggest, because they are afraid of the consequences. If God considers that envy and hatred is murder (1 John 3:15), then why are Christians casual about practicing it? I suggest, because they are not afraid of the consequences. They don’t think it can been seen so they deduce they can get away with it; besides everyone else is doing it. If you have little concern of God’s punishment, then you’ll be flippant about your pride.

Casual about the consequences, casual about Christ.

Modern society has banished corporal punishment. The problem with this philosophy is that when you remove discipline you teach the child that there are no serious consequences for doing wrong. Eventually, you breed defiance, rebellion and anarchy. Young people today won’t be told, and laws are changed to suit the casual wants.

One of the fruits of our modern society is casual divorce. The law gives you the legal right to disrespect your vows. These vows are made before God, for better for worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and health, till death us do part. There’s only two grounds for righteous divorce, and that’s adultery or death. Now if the country gives you the right to divorce because you don’t like your spouse anymore, then that country is defying the Word of God and encouraging you to be a vow-breaker. Therefore, that parliament itself, is a vow-breaker. No wonder no one trusts a politician; they just don’t realise that you vote into power what you are yourself.

Christians make a vow to God

You show what character of person you really are by how much you honour your marriage vows to Christ. If you’re casual about your marriage vows you’ll walk away from your relationship based on your moodiness and pride, and Satan wins. If you’re prepared to walk away from your marriage and defy your vows to God, then you’ll do the same with your vow to God to serve him as a Christian. A Christian makes a vow to God, his husband, for better for worse, for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health, till death do us part; but fake Christians object when things are worse or poor or sick. They’re not really committed to the vows; they’re truce-breakers; they’re liars, easily deceived by the enemy and deserters of the army, and unfortunately, our modern churches breed them in multiple numbers, by pretence and the prosperity lies.

The Ten Commandments stand behind your marriage vows to Christ

The fake modern church is casual about the ten commandments. They casually practice envy, hate and coveting; they lie to protect themselves; they shop, restaurant and sport on God’s sabbath; they merchandise their music; they practice immoral sex; they practice divorce; they practice adultery; they disrespect authority; they think themselves, special; they worship God and love the things of the world at the same time.

If you’re casual about His commandments, you’re casual about your vows and casual about your love for Christ. You can act committed like Mr. Joyce, but it’s all a lie. What you fail to realise is that the consequence of this casualness is hell, not heaven. If you’re casual about your vows then you’re not married to Christ. The relationship was never consummated.

I keep His commandments because I love Him, not because I fear Him; but I fear Him because I love Him.

 

Pastor Nick Clarence

 

 
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Posted by on March 31, 2018 in Pride

 

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Sermon 120 – Newton’s 3rd Law

17 Mar

Newton’s 3rd Law of physics states that … for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction. It’s not a premise or a theory; it’s law. That means, it’s not a possibility or a maybe; it’s a fact of the physical realm we live in. It happens in every instance of action, 100% of the time. Hit a tree at fast speed and your body will hit the windscreen with the same force unless you’re wearing a seat-belt.

What people fail to understand is that the laws of the physical realm are simply a reflection of the spiritual realm. In the spiritual realm the same law applies. You see it’s application in the physical realm so you can open your spiritual eyes and appreciate how the spiritual realm operates.

The Word of God states in Matthew 7:1 & 2 … judge not that you be not judged, for with what judgment you judge, you shall be judged and with what measure you mete, it shall be measured to you again. The Bible calls it sowing and reaping, but it’s simply the law of equal and opposite reaction.

Sow disrespect, you’ll get disrespected. Sow control over people, you’ll get controlled by a demon, and you won’t know it’s happening. Sow judgment and you’ll fall to the same thing you judged. Sow envy and you’ll reap hatred.

The key element that the Bible encourages is … humility

God gives grace to the humble. He resists the proud. God loves a contrite spirit. He hates pride because it’s from hell. Humility comes from heaven. Pride is a characteristic of Satan. Humility is a characteristic of Christ.  If you choose pride, God will resist your pride with an equal and opposite reaction … a haughty spirit precedes a fall. If you choose humility, Satan will resist it with an equal and opposite reaction, but the difference is God will be your strength, and the reward will be eternal.

Humility?

To understand humility, you need to understand pride. To walk humbly you need to block pride. Pride is triggered in two ways, and always via feelings. One way is by getting puffed up via good feelings eg. when you get a compliment or complete a task well. A voice says to you that you’re pretty good or clever or capable. The other way is via bad feelings eg. when someone says or does something to hurt your feelings. A voice says to you that it’s not fair or nice. Consequently, you can have puffed-up pride, but even more commonly, you can have hurt pride.

Humility is not an outward appearance; it’s an inner attitude of God’s strength to desist from sucking-up to your hurt pride or puffed-up pride. It’s learnt from recognising that your hurt feelings or good feelings are a satanic trap to get you to be proud so that Satan can apply the law of equal reaction against you.

There’s no way you can avoid good or bad feelings. It’s part of being human. You can pretend to block your feelings with coolness or macho-ness, but they’re still there; they’re just covered over.

Humility doesn’t mean you block your feelings with coolness. It means you feel it and go to God with your hurt and trust His solution, accepting that hurt is part of the solution to learning faith and trust.

Repentance and Forgiveness don’t happen until you give up your feelings

You can’t repent and hold onto hurt feelings, and you can’t forgive and hold onto hurt feelings. You have to give up your feelings and die to what you want before you can repent or forgive.

It’s not fair, I want good feelings

Most people say sorry or forgive so they can get their good feelings back. Their motive is selfish, so it never works. No one likes bad feelings and no one likes looking bad in the eyes of others. So we let the feelings of embarrassment dictate our spirit’s decision and end up suffering the reactions of our action.

Really, underneath all our feelings is just the human desire to be valued and favoured … to be special above others. In other words, we all like feeling superior and hate feeling inferior and we make our judgments based on this motivation. Sadly, that’s the pathway to hell, and God challenges this path with circumstances of life that are designed to re-evaluate the natural law.

Satan uses feelings to trap you in the natural law. Focussing on the feelings of unfairness or superior-ness [superiority is really motivated by past hurts and envy] traps you in the judgment of the person who has hurt you and results in an equal and opposite reaction that Satan can manipulate to make you act like the person you hate.

God’s unpopular pathway to heaven

Jesus made Himself of no reputation and took on Himself the form of a servant. He humbled Himself to the Father’s will and became obedient unto death … Philippians 2:7,8

If you take the pathway least travelled and seek to walk humbly, you’ll cop an equal and opposite reaction from Satan, and God will save you for his eternal kingdom.

If you take the broad way, you’ll still cop an equal and opposite reaction from Satan, and you’ll end up in eternal hell.

No matter what you do you won’t avoid an equal and opposite reaction, but you can choose where you want to end up.

How do you stop your pride?

If you want to stop your pride so you walk the walk of Christ, you have to address your feelings. Pride enters through your feelings. It therefore, must exit through your feelings. You can’t just decide to stop your pride. You first must give up your hurt feelings or your superior feelings. You need to feel yourself do this. Just as you feel the hurt, you must feel the letting go of the hurt. It requires a decision of the mind, but ultimately, it’s actually a decision of the heart.

The mind calculates that the pain feelings or good feelings are part of the walk with Christ and despite the feelings, gives an instruction to one’s heart (spirit) to trust the Lord through the feelings. The heart then lets go the feelings and you feel it go. It doesn’t necessarily resolve the feelings straight away, but an inner confidence of faith is restored that Christ is in control of the situation.

The thief on the cross

The thief on the cross felt his anger and reacted with disrespect and arrogance towards Jesus and demanded He fix his problem. The other thief felt his sin and humbled himself. Humility isn’t based on goodness or badness; it’s feeling your sin and giving up the resistance to defend it.

The problem … you get what you practice

The Word of God declares in 2 Timothy 3, that in the last days people will be incontinent, that is they will not be able to control their feelings because they have allowed themselves to be disrespectful, envious of those that are good, trucebreakers, self-lovers, heady and high-minded, having a form of godliness but never able to come to the truth.

If you practice disrespect, manipulation, defiance, envy, compromise and bending of God’s laws, sexual evil, and don’t keep your word, there’ll be a point of incontinence where you won’t be able to return to self-control even if you want to.

If you don’t control your prideful emotions then you will lose control of your emotions and become incontinent. If you allow your selfish emotions to rule, then you will get an equal and opposite reaction of destruction that will separate you from God.

You need to wear a seatbelt if you don’t want the injury

Macho-ness doesn’t wear a seatbelt; it thinks it’ll never get hurt. Coolness doesn’t wear a seatbelt; it thinks it won’t feel the pain. Fear puts on the seatbelt but fails to buckle it up. It wants the freedom to choose. It looks like it’s wearing the seatbelt so it doesn’t get caught by the police and doesn’t get into trouble.

The seatbelt in the spiritual kingdom is … death. If you’re dead, the feelings are irrelevant. Death is not simple; it requires faith. It has to be learnt; it’s not automatic. It’s daily, not a once for all. It’s learnt through good and bad feelings and by observing the reactions when you fail to stop your actions. You learn it through your failures and your observations. It can only be done after you’ve surrendered to the will of the Father … John 5:30, but, even though the seatbelt restricts your freedoms and wants, the seatbelt means you won’t go through the windscreen; God is in control.

If any man will follow Me, let him deny himself and take up his hurt feelings and pain daily and follow Me. For whoever will save his life will lose it but whoever will lose his life for My sake, the same will save it …  Luke 9:23,24

 

Pastor Frank Chisholm

 

 

 
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Posted by on March 17, 2018 in Humility, Pride

 

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Sermon 105 – Demons love a Sugar Fix

02 Sep

Humans love sugar … chocolate, ice cream, coca cola, cakes, biscuits etc.

Sugar makes you feel good.

The problem is that when you eat too much sugar, the sugar is converted by your liver into fats. It’s the sugar that causing the western world’s obesity epidemic.

Demons love sugar too. They crave it. They manoeuvre wherever they can to get it. They fight over each other for it.

I’m not talking about the natural carbohydrate; I’m talking about “pride”. Pride is the sugar fix that demons get off on. Without pride, demons are lost. They might kill you like they did Jesus, but they can’t win. They can only have power over you through the door of your pride. This is the very reason why Jesus said in Luke 14 that a true disciple must die to themselves. Spiritual death really means that you have surrendered everything to the will of the Father, like Christ, and thus when you’re tempted to think you are special, or capable, or intelligent, or better or envious of your fellow-man, the Holy Spirit gives you the power to resist the selfish temptation to fall to your pride so that demons don’t have the upper hand in the battle against the kingdom of God.

Satanic currency

Satan hated the fact that Jesus was more favoured by the Father; thus he instigated the currency of pride. He sold this currency to humankind when he tempted Eve to reach for pride. She took it and it tasted like sugar, but it actually turned to fat. Once man fell to pride he inherently practiced fear, lying, blame and murder. Adam and Eve attacked each other with their words and Cain killed Abel. We’re all born under this satanic infection of sin and it’s a fight for our salvation to escape this disease of pride.

Jesus only

There’s only one escape from this disease and it’s only through the door of the blood of Jesus Christ. Jesus said … I am the Way, the Truth and the Life, no one comes to the Father but by Me (John 14:6); not Mary, not Mohammed, not Allah, only Jesus Christ. And that door can only be opened when you fully surrender to the will of the Father, not by words but by actions.

Jezebel

In 1 Kings 21 we read the story of King Ahab envying the vineyard of Naboth. Instead of being grateful for the garden he had, he wanted better. He inherited this disease from Eve who obviously did the same thing. He then went and had a big mood which was designed to manipulate others to feel sorry for him and to give him what he wanted. Sound familiar?

Jezebel, his wife, came to the rescue, and plotted a plan of perjury that resulted in Naboth being unjustly stoned. Ahab got what he wanted. But it backfired. Eventually God raised up Jehu who killed the sons of the king and finally Jezebel despite her attempts to woo him with her cosmetic face paint. Then Jehu also lost his way because he let his pride fill him with his own importance. Behind all this, demons were actively destroying God’s special human creation by simply activating their pride.

Satan hates God’s authority

Like Eve in the Garden and Jezebel in Jezreel, once a woman chooses pride she will be used by Satan to envy other women and destroy males. Generally, they’re not doing this deliberately or knowingly, they unwittingly become instruments of Satan even though they’re outwardly covered in goodness. Satan hates authority, so deep in the inherent spirit of a woman is the hatred of man’s position over them. The only way this hatred is retained in its proper box is if the man stands for righteousness on the principles of God’s commandments. If he falters to his pride he will also falter to the woman’s wishes instead of God’s will, and the woman will take the man to hell, just like Adam who was separated from God and the Garden.

It was the spirit behind Jezebel that stirred up Ahab (1Kings 21:25). Consequently, because Ahab chose pride he was subject to Jezebelic demons even though from his perspective nothing could touch him because he was the king. But that’s what pride does; it tricks you into your own deception of being your own king.

You only have to look at society, tattoos, nose rings and earrings, sex change operations, lesbianism, and sport to see that men are becoming woman and woman are becoming men. The Word of God declares that if men compromise the principles of the Word, then woman and children will rule over them (Isaiah 3:4,12). All Satan’s interested in is opposing God’s creative plan, reversing it and ultimately destroying it. Satan is winning, and he’s winning because the church is sick.

Faith levels

Obviously, God grants us different levels of faith, so some of us are able to address our pride better than others, but from my years of observation of people, most don’t even try; they don’t even know that they’re vulnerable to demons; they’re too busy coping with trying to look good in the eyes of others. Like Saul, they worship the true God but their real heart’s interest is in their own well-being and their position on the totem pole of the society they move amongst.

When you devalue the Ten Commandments you prosper pride and the demonic

You can’t stop the progression of pride without God’s Ten Commandments retaining the top shelf of respect. Respect for the Ten Commandments is the first bulwark against the enemy’s manoeuvring. Sadly, the modern church has fallen for the lie that the God of the Old Testament was hard and cruel, but the God of the New Testament is meek and gentle. Consequently, modern Christians have been duped into believing the grace lie that they can interpret God’s commandments according to how they feel at the time because the Commandments are implanted in their hearts when you become a Christian. The Word of God states that God is the same yesterday, today and forever; He never changes (Hebrews 12:8). So this teaching is just a lie designed to make the church look more acceptable to the world, and if you believe this lie then you are not a Christian; you’re a tare.

When it comes to the crunch, by far the majority of Christians practice family first at the cost of compromising the principles of God. If you say you love God, then obviously His principles over-rule all else, but the modern church displays its hypocrisy by being openly submitted to divorce and re-marriage, openly retailing with the world and sporting like the world on God’s holy day, openly endorsing women in the pulpit, not separating from wilful Christian sinners but rather falsely loving them in their sin (1 Corinthians 5:11-13), and turning a blind eye to the sin of homosexuality (Romans 1). The church is sick and dying.

Once you mix your Christian principles with the world

People have been so duped by their self-evaluated goodness they don’t even know what pride is. To most it’s a feeling of superiority which they believe they don’t experience. The truth is, pride is believing I’m special; pride is being jealous of what your neighbour has; pride is believing it’s not fair when you hurt my feelings; pride is taking on someone when they’ve said or done something unfairly offensive; pride is wanting a better deal and failing to see the garden God’s placed you in. It’s pride because it’s all about me and my feelings. It’s not faith in God’s will and plan. Pride is simply turning to myself instead of stopping the mood reaction and instead turning to the Father for His will in the matter.

Never take on a demon in your own strength

If you take on someone for hurting your feelings, or if you envy someone for having a better deal, you’ll unwittingly take on demons and you’ll end up with the same consequences of decay as that person (Matthew 7:1,2). We’re not fighting flesh and blood but principalities and powers, and the rulers of darkness and spiritual wickedness in high places (Ephesians 6:12). We’re up against gorilla warfare demons, not people. The demons use people to trick you into their snare. It’s pride to take on a demon in your own strength especially by using the Name of Jesus with your own self-elevated self-worthiness. Like Christ, who let Satan kill Him, demons are only submissive to the will of the Father. You’re wiser to wait on God and leave the outcome to God.

 

May God grant the strength of character for some men and women to stand against the swell.

 

Dr. Samuel Gourdone

 

 
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Posted by on September 2, 2016 in Pride

 

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Sermon 104 – The Rain Falls on the Just and the Unjust

15 Aug

ABC news radio recently announced the past discovery in the National Gallery of Australia of a stolen statue known as the dancing Shiva idol belonging to the Sripuranthan tribe in southern India.  Two years ago the Australian government had returned the idol to the Indian authorities but it was being held in police custody as evidence of the crime. The tribes people were now expressing their frustrations to the authorities. They wanted the idol returned to their temple because they believed that the idol brought them good luck. To their thinking, when the idol was with them the rains came and their crops prospered and life was happy.

It reminds me of the Jews burning incense to the queen of heaven, Jeremiah 44:16-19. They worshipped the Lord God and at the same time made cakes to the queen of heaven. They adopted whatever technique gave them the most apparent prosperity. Life was based on getting the best deal; it wasn’t based on trusting God. Consequently, their thinking was the fruit of their contaminated spirits and their behaviour was irrational, but not to them.

What’s idol worship?

Obviously, bowing to a statue is clearly idol worship, but does western society practice idol worship without recognising their contradictory behaviour?  ISIS thinks so.

There’s a difference between thinking that you’re good because things are going good and being thankful when things are going well. One is the love of self and the other is the love of God. If you say you’re a Christian, then one is using God as your idol for your own well-being and the other is serving God whatever the circumstances. They’re miles apart. Sadly, most Christians have been indoctrinated by our humanistic society to believe that they are worshiping God when in fact they’re just using Him for their own self-value.

David was thankful for things working out well, but if you read the Psalms & the Book of Samuel you’ll quickly recognise that most of his life was surviving the satanic hassles fired against him. Think about Saul’s hatred, Absalom’s rebellion, and the loss of Ziglag. Despite the conflicts, he retained a God confidence attitude, and fought his own selfishness. Everything was based on trusting God’s plan, not chasing the best for himself.

If you give self an inch, it will take a mile

The current motto supporting homosexuality is … Love is Love.

In other words, their argument is that any type of good feelings is love. As if sin is going to feel bad! Everyone knows that sin is not love, whether it feels good or not. Once you give sin licence, of course it won’t be able to stop itself, so evil just calls the sin ‘love’ so it can justify it. What rubbish! Humanism can talk itself into anything, because self is its idol. Homosexuality is just an excuse for more self-idol worship and anti-christ resistance to the will of God.

Christians are losing the war

Everyone is born under satanic influence with the desire to worship themselves.  It’s the pride of thinking that we are of importance. It’s heavily promoted by our humanistic society. In fact, in modern society no one’s allowed to fail; no one’s allowed to feel bad. But the truth is, our children are being manipulated into thinking of themselves first; to protect their rights; to love themselves first before their neighbour. The whole process of modern society is to devalue Christianity and negate God and His rules from inhibiting our selfish passions.

We’re all subjected to the temptation of thinking we’re pretty good when something goes our way, but it’s temptation, and if you’re saved you have to wake up to the trick and resist Satan, not by telling Satan to rack-off, but rather by not giving ground to your pride.

Whatever is not of faith, is sin, Romans 14:23

It’s this inherent satanic inspired self-love that has to die daily, by surrendering in faith to the will of God. You can camouflage this pride with good works or happy attitudes, but if it’s not of faith then the good works are just a smoke screen to get into the good books of others, to protect your self-value to be liked and not dis-liked.

Why does the rain fall on the just and the unjust? Matthew 5:45

So why does the rain fall on the unjust too? Because, if it just fell on the just, everyone would swap sides so they could get the deal, so how would you know who was fair-dinkum? Plus, the just would be full of their own importance over the unjust, and thus get lost in their selfishness.

The rain falls on the just and the unjust. So, if you think you’re just because it rains on your life, how does that prove that you are just? Thinking that you’re just actually suggests that you are full of your own importance, like the Pharisee vs the Publican in Luke 18:10, and therefore you’ve either fallen into the pit of self-elevation, or you are actually one of the unjust.

The just walk by faith, Galatians 3:11

The unjust think they deserve God’s goodness on them, but the just don’t think they deserve anything, they’re just grateful when it rains on them; they don’t bemoan when it rains on the unjust more; and they trust God when it doesn’t rain on them. Any other pattern in your behaviour and attitude is contrary to faith, and therefore is evidence of using God for your idol worship. We all face the temptation to have a mood when it doesn’t work to our advantage, but that’s the tempter’s strategy to trick us into our pride. Love doesn’t fall to pride, and if it does it repents.

Think of it this way … the unjust have 70 or so years; the just have eternity. There’s no need for envy.

Why resist the temptation to think we’re something?

That’s simple … we’re all born in sin and therefore fully susceptible to demonic influence. Our pride opens the door to these familiar spirits (Isaiah 8:19) that will work against you and against the will of God.

I’ve lost count of the character changes I’ve observed when people open their heart to their pride. Recently, I was counselling a Christian man who felt the pride of his daughter’s achievements. I could sense there was pride in his picture because the outward manner of his children, including the daughter, began to show signs of superior self-value and say and do things that were out of character. I drew his attention to the fact that his children were showing the same unhealthy characteristics of their self-centered grandfather.  I pointed out to this man that his pride had opened the door to the spirits operating behind his family chain. When he looked he thankfully could see what I was pointing out to him. He recognised his healthy joy had turned to unhealthy pride. Instead of being thankful for the Lord’s rain, he had succumbed to the pride that he was the one who had done it for his daughter. He repented and his children’s attitude reverted back to normal behaviour.

We’re not fighting flesh and blood but principalities and powers, Ephesians 6

Demons attack and tempt in order to activate your pride. Don’t worry about the demons, rather, keep a check on your pride. It’s the thing that will kill you.

God doesn’t stop your pride; you’re responsible to do it.

 

Pastor Greg Saunders

 
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Posted by on August 15, 2016 in Pride, Thankfulness

 

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Sermon 102 – The SEE-SAW Christian

25 Jun

 

[A see-saw is an English term for a plank with a central fulcrum with a person on either end who each extends their legs alternately to make the plank go up and down.]

I’ve met so many people who say they are Christian because they think they are good, yet are actually not; it’s overwhelming.

I was counselling a young Christian woman who had rejected the approaches of a Christian man. They had been courting for some months so I asked her why she had rejected him and her response was ‘he wanted to kiss me’. Now, in our modern society, one would generally misinterpret her information as the male doing the wrong thing, but knowing the man and her own family history, I dug deeper. The truth was she didn’t like the man telling her what to do so she made it sound like he was abusing her. She was lying so she could get her own way.

What was really happening?

The young woman had decided that she was ‘good’, not because she put Christ first, but, on the basis that her sister had run away from a committed Christian man who was challenging her willingness to be a help-mate rather than a potential wife who wouldn’t be told. The young woman had watched and criticised her sister for not being submissive like she herself would have been.

Her deduction was … I’m good because I would not have done what you did.

So many Christian people judge their goodness on the basis of someone else’s errors of judgment. It’s the see-saw principle …. When you’re down, I’m up. If you judge your goodness on the basis of comparing yourself to someone else’s error, the Bible says your good is bad (2 Corinthians 10:12; Galatians 6:4). It is never the love of God to ever think you are better than someone because they are in error themselves. The Pharisee judged himself as good because he compared himself to the publican, but Jesus rejected his deduction (Luke 18:9).

The see-saw Christian

The see-saw Christian loves being up, hates being down, and envies those who are up. These people are not genuine Christians, they’re fake wheat (tares). They look like they’re Christian and act like they’re Christian, but they routinely elevate themselves above others when others are down. They hide it well and won’t let you see it, but if you are spiritual you will eventually sense its pattern. Tares draw nigh unto God with their mouth and honour God with their lips, but their heart is far from Him (Matthew 15:8).

Demons win when you’re self-centred

What the young woman was ignorant of was the spiritual fact that putting yourself up above your neighbour actually results in your spirit being dictated over by a demon. Once you are under the power of a demon you’re blinded to the truth and can only see your own truth. To this woman, her sister was wrong so that made her superior to her sister. The real truth was that she wasn’t good at all, she was simply bloated with her own fake goodness, and having an inflated mood. People hate deflated feelings so they selfishly strive for inflated feelings at the cost of others.

Why do we automatically think we’re good or better, when others are corrected or proved wrong?

The real truth behind it all is that the human spirit doesn’t want others to tell it what to do. It loves to tell others what to do because it thinks it knows what’s right; it hates being told. That’s because we inherited this evil trait from Adam and Eve. The corrupted gift that Satan sold to Eve was simply … ‘you will know what’s right, so don’t let others tell you what to do.’ That’s what Satan believes and that’s what he wants you to believe.

The human spirit can’t handle being down; it absolutely envies anyone else that is up and secretly wants for their position, and when it is up it boasts of it upness over you.

The real issue is ‘control’

I’m good, actually equals … ‘you can’t tell me what to do because you have your own errors.’ The Lord said there is none good but God, so the moment you deduce you’re good, you made yourself god, and that’s exactly what Satan wants you to think.

You succumb to the same error as the one you judge

The moment the young woman judged her sister’s error, she came under the influence of the demonic and eventually ended up doing the same thing as her sister. The satanic kingdom was laughing.

More bad deductions follow bloated upness

In her bloated upness, this woman deduced from my counsel that she had taken on the bad character of her sister and that it wasn’t really her that had the problem and therefore all she had to do was repent and everything would be back to normal; but, she was wrong again. Everyone’s own old nature is evil; it’s stubborn, it’s selfish, it’s arrogant, it’s envious, and it loves to see others down so it is up.

When she acted like her sister, it wasn’t because she had become her sister, but rather that she had opened up her old nature and Satan’s common characteristics were exposed. Our old nature is under the control of Satan; our new nature is under the control of the Holy Spirit. It’s not our nature that’s new, it’s His in us, and the only way you can operate in new nature is through the death of your old. It’s simply your choice … you first or God first.

How to break the power of the demonic

If the Holy Spirit indwells you, your envy of others will not routinely over-power you, and the temptation to be up will not routinely over-power you. You will be willing to be a nobody for the sake of Jesus Christ, and once you’re willing to be a nobody and don’t have to be special or prove your goodness over others, the demonic will lose its power over you. That’s why Jesus advised us to love our neighbour as ourselves and why Christ died on the cross, not only to offer us salvation for our sin, but also to show us the pattern of freedom from the power of the demonic.

Down wins

See-saws only work when the two people help each other and work together. The fact of the matter is that the person on the down side has power over the person on the up side.  The person on the down side can stop the see-saw; the person on the up side, can’t. The up person is really at the mercy of the down person. Once you choose to be a nobody by unconditional surrender to the will of God, you actually gain the power and that’s the only way Satan can’t touch you (1 John 5:18).

The up woman

The will of God declares that the man is to rule over the woman (Genesis 3:16). Modern Christianity rejects this law because it believes what the world believes. The church is the world parading as fake goodness. The demonic is setting the course for the church and the world and the church is not fighting back because it’s lost its saltiness. The church is just being adaptable to the world’s standards and calling it love and understanding, because we are all under grace. No woman will ever be free from the demonic while ever her heart tells her husband he is not the boss of her, and if the man doesn’t righteously stand against women’s resistance to man, the woman will take him to hell, just like Eve opened the door for Adam to be separated from God.

 

We’re not fighting flesh and blood but principalities and powers, and the rulers of the darkness of this world, and spiritual wickedness in high places … Ephesians 6:12, and the fight starts within before its ever external. You can only ever beat the demonic when your spirit is first dead to your selfishness by faith in Jesus Christ alone.

 

Pastor Raymond Whitney

 

 

 
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Posted by on June 25, 2016 in Elevation, Pride

 

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