Confidence, Pride, and Humility

There have been a lot of sons and daughters of Yah speaking out lately. It seems that the Spirit is giving them boldness to speak the truth. Now, we also know, this will draw many who will challenge and even scoff  at the words spoken. And that's expected from those who the bible says don't understand spiritual matters because they are trying to understand with a natural mind. But what I have been shocked by are the many professing believers that will roll their eyes and scoff as well.

One thing I have noticed is what the truth will do among believers is separate those who are the "chaff" from the "wheat". There will be a difference in those who are, for whatever reason, lukewarm or not entirely confident in their faith. They may even be hypocritical (putting on the air of religion but living a different life). Sometimes jealousy will creep in and hardened hearts will develop against their own brother or sister in Christ. All the while the other believer is growing spiritually in Christ, gaining more knowledge, insight, boldness, and confidence.

Those are really disheartening actions from a people that should be encouraging Yah's truth - no matter who is speaking it. If Yah said it and it is the truth, so be it. And let all who have ears to hear, hear what the Spirit is saying, right? Unfortunately, it doesn't always work that way. And I believe one reason why is because we have a distorted view of what confidence, pride, and spiritual pride is. And that is what I want to explore in this blog.

Every born again believer will have some confidence and every Spirit filled believer will exhibit some type of boldness. These qualities are not apart from the power of Yah and His Son, but because of the power of Yah and His Son.

Such is the confidence that we have through Christ toward God. 5 Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God, 6 who has made us sufficient to be ministers of a new covenant, not of the letter but of the Spirit. For the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life. - 2 Corinthians 3:4-6

And this is the confidence that we have toward him, that if we ask anything according to his will he hears us. 15 And if we know that he hears us in whatever we ask, we know that we have the requests that we have asked of him. - 1 John 5:14-15

In the fear of the Lord one has strong confidence, and his children will have a refuge. - Proverbs 14:26

This was according to the eternal purpose that he has realized in Christ Jesus our Lord, 12 in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through our faith in him. - Ephesians 3:11-12

Indeed, in this case, what once had glory has come to have no glory at all, because of the glory that surpasses it. 11 For if what was being brought to an end came with glory, much more will what is permanent have glory. 12 Since we have such a hope, we are very bold... - 2 Corinthians 3:10-12

For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands, 7 for God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control. - 2 Timothy 1:6-7

Confidence in Christ is something that continues to build in the believer. The more they study, pray, go through different trials and temptations, and hear the voice of the Father, the more confident they become. That confidence leads to a boldness and a willingness to do the will of the Father no matter what.

Stephen, the apostle, stood before those who were picking up stones to kill him, looked into heaven and saw Christ at the right hand of the Father. He continued to preach with boldness and fervor even the more until he, with his last breath asked for forgiveness for those stoning him. Those who stoned him more than likely thought he was prideful for speaking the gospel and not conforming to their demands, but it wasn't pride. Stephen knew what he knew and wasn't afraid to share it (Read about Stephen's death in 6 and 7) even unto death.

And that is the confidence that every believer should have. Yah did not give us the spirit of fear! So many times He tells us to be bold, courageous, and to fear and fret not. There is work to do, we are storming the gates of hell, and a soldier in Christ should not be faint of heart.

Now, there will be some that will not understand this confidence. Instead, they will wrongly label this confidence as "spiritual pride" or "pride". However, in studying, I have discovered, there is the overarching "pride" - but within it, two subsets. Pride against Yah and pride against your fellow man. Let's see what the word says about the two types of pride. Yah gives a GREAT definition when He reminds His people in Deuteronomy not to fall into such foolishness.

Beware lest you say in your heart, ‘My power and the might of my hand have gotten me this wealth.’ 18 You shall remember the Lord your God, for it is he who gives you power to get wealth, that he may confirm his covenant that he swore to your fathers, as it is this day. - Deuteronomy 8:17-18

Also, great descriptions of pride against fellow men here:

Everyone who is arrogant in heart is an abomination to the Lord; be assured, he will not go unpunished. - Proverbs 16:5

For if anyone thinks he is something, when he is nothing, he deceives himself. - Galatians 6:3

Live in harmony with one another. Do not be haughty, but associate with the lowly. Never be wise in your own sight. - Romans 12:16

...do not be arrogant toward the branches. If you are, remember it is not you who support the root, but the root that supports you. Then you will say, “Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.” That is true. They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand fast through faith. So do not become proud, but fear. For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you. - Romans 11:18-21 

The Pharisee, standing by himself, prayed thus: ‘God, I thank you that I am not like other men, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even like this tax collector. 12 I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’... - Luke 18:11-12 

 Now, let's explore some verses that show pride against Yah....

“How you are fallen from heaven,O Day Star, (S)son of Dawn! How you are cut down to the ground, you who laid the nations low! 13 You said in your heart, ‘I will ascend to heaven; above the stars of God I will set my throne on high; I will sit on the mount of assembly in the far reaches of the north; 14 I will ascend above the  heights of the clouds; I will make myself like the Most High.’ - Isaiah 14:12-14

Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?”...4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” - Genesis 3:1,4-5

But a man named Ananias, with his wife Sapphira, sold a piece of property, 2 and with his wife's knowledge he kept back for himself some of the proceeds and brought only a part of it and laid it at the apostles' feet. 3 But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit and to keep back for yourself part of the proceeds of the land? 4 While it remained unsold, did it not remain your own? And after it was sold, was it not at your disposal? Why is it that you have contrived this deed in your heart? You have not lied to man but to God.” 5 When Ananias heard these words, he fell down and breathed his last. - Acts 5:1-5

Do you notice a key difference here? What I have discovered is that there is a vast difference between "fleshly pride"  and "Spiritual pride". Fleshly pride is to esteem or think of yourself more highly than another fellow human being. The bible calls it "puffing yourself up". Today's vernacular may call it "looking down on someone". It is to think you have attained such a high status on your own, under your own "hard work" and power. Fleshly pride is to forget Yah and to believe you have done it all on your own. I have noticed, in my experience, many people who have a lot of "things" whether tangible or intangible, or have (or have begun) to attain status often fall into pride. They forget that at the move of His hand, everything can be taken away, down to their very breath.

But Spiritual pride is something completely different. Spiritual pride is what made Lucifer fall and become satan. Spiritual pride is not to think of yourself more highly than another person, but to think of yourself more highly than Yahweh-God. Spiritual pride is satan inspired. Spiritual pride will keep you from being corrected because - "you know more than Yah" - therefore, you know more than the corrective word someone is trying to bring to you. Spiritual pride will make you make others question the truth of Yah's word - "But, did God really say that?". Spiritual pride will make you think you can get over, pull a fast one, and can outsmart the One that knows and sees all - Yah.

These things are vastly and completely different than confidence and boldness. With confidence and boldness you will:

• Speak the word of Yah
• Correct in the love and Spirit of Yah
• Judge in the righteousness of Yah 
• Stand against sin with the word and guidance of Yah
• Use His gifts for the glory of Yah 

And these things are not prideful or in the least bit Spiritually prideful.

Ok, so what about being humble? Humbleness doesn't mean being "mousy", being a "door mat" to others, debasing ourselves, or "loving someone in their sin".  Our humbleness makes us aware of those who still need salvation and more importantly, it keeps us realizing that we need HIM.

If we are not careful, we will also fall into what is also known as "false humility". False humility is akin to hypocrisy as described in the bible. It has much to do with appearance and image control, rather than substance. Often times, the two (appearance and substance) will contradict each other. We see it often when someone talks down on themselves, or thinks down on themselves as to seem more humble. We hear it with Christians who say things like:

"I'm just a sinner, no better than you"

 "Oh I'm just tryin to make it in..."

"I'm just a worm..."

To that I call HOGWASH! That is not being humble, that is pride clothed as humility. Yah does not call those who belong to Him those things. He calls us things like "ROYAL PRIESTS", "JUDGES OF ANGELS", "RIGHTEOUS", "HEIRS TO THE THRONE OF CHRIST", "SONS AND DAUGHTERS". Yes, He warns us not to think of ourselves more highly than we ought - apart from HIM. We can not claim these things on our own, but only through being grafted in by the gift of the sacrifice of Christ. The command to be humble was never meant to be used as a tool to berate ourselves for "humbleness sake". The Father tells us to come boldly to His throne asking for the things of Him. How can we go to a mighty God as "just a worm" or "just a sinner"? How do we fight and overcome a formidable enemy as "just a...."? REMEMBER WHO YOU ARE IN CHRIST!

So, these are things that where shown to me as I have been doing some serious reflection. I hope I was able to give you some encouragement. Being born again, you have confidence in Him and the gospel. Speak boldly. Those opposed, both unbelievers and professing believers, will be dealt with by Him. Their opinions don't matter so don't let that shake your faith. The Father says the one who obeys Him and does His will loves Him.

Correcting, judging, teaching, and guiding as long as it is done in truth of Yah and guided by His Spirit, is not being prideful. Remember, the word tells us to correct each other. This means, we will always know more and be able to teach another person in certain areas, just as another will always know more and be able to teach and guide us. Don't reject that. But, be careful lest your knowledge makes you start to think that you know more than Him, committing spiritual pride. Remember, we are nothing apart from Him, but we are everything, and can DO everything with Him...

"I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me." - Philippians 4:13

Magnified Perspective

Do you know what this is? I'll give you a hint....it's not what you might think. Pull back a little to get a better view. Now do you see it? No? Keep reading...

When you are too close, it's hard to get the broader view and to see that the reality of what you see is something vastly different than what you think you see.

Sometimes pulling back from things will give you a different perspective. I have always known that. I'm the kind of person that sees the big picture rather than the details (that's my husband's department! lol). Also, I am very visual. I have discovered how to recognize when I'm "in too deep" in a situation - it's usually if I can't "see" wide enough. I'm not going to lie, sometimes it takes me a minute to realize I'm in too deep. But, Yah has always been faithful to call my attention to this and begins to pull me back. When this happens, I am able to look at how all the details come together. This ability has served me well and I thank the Father that He has allowed me to have it.

In my spiritual walk lately I have pulled back to see the big picture. I once was in "way too deep" if you will. I focused on many things that ended up making me prideful, even arrogant. I zoomed in on how many "boxes" I could check off. In trying to become "more spiritual", I actually became more soulish. In my past surroundings, it was easy to do - sometimes even encouraged. After zooming out to see the big picture, I realized that if I had died in that moment, I don't think I would have entered the gates like I thought I would. Many believers make that mistake - zooming in, in order to start checking off boxes. It reminds me of this parable that Yahshua told:

Luke 18:10-15 New Living Translation (NLT)
10 “Two men went to the Temple to pray. One was a Pharisee, and the other was a despised tax collector. 11 The Pharisee stood by himself and prayed this prayer[a]: ‘I thank you, God, that I am not a sinner like everyone else. For I don’t cheat, I don’t sin, and I don’t commit adultery. I’m certainly not like that tax collector! 12 I fast twice a week, and I give you a tenth of my income.’
13 “But the tax collector stood at a distance and dared not even lift his eyes to heaven as he prayed. Instead, he beat his chest in sorrow, saying, ‘O God, be merciful to me, for I am a sinner.’ 14 I tell you, this sinner, not the Pharisee, returned home justified before God. For those who exalt themselves will be humbled, and those who humble themselves will be exalted.”

I was that Pharisee. I had the comfort and ability to pay too much attention to the "checked boxes". I didn't understand the wider view that Yah has for those who want to live by and through His Spirit. Somehow I had it in my mind that because I had so many boxes checked, that my walk lead me to be a "true believer". Did you get that? Being so far in, pride grew in me to actually put classifications on the level of "believer-ship"! There is no such thing to the Father. You are either a believer, or an unbeliever. There are no varying degrees.

After the Father allowed me to pull back, He showed me my fault so I could repent. How dare I have such a spiritual elitist attitude? Now, yes, those things that were checked were very relevant to my walk. I would say, the checked boxes would have been detrimental to me had I not nixed them from my life. But the Father did not make me aware of those things so that I could puff myself up. No! He made me aware so that those things would be written in my heart as a remembrance of how not to sin against Him and live by His Spirit. He did not show them to me so that I could compare myself to others and place myself in a different and elevated category.

Had I stayed deep in the situation I was in and not had the ability to pull back to see the bigger picture, I would have missed that completely!

Oh! And what you saw above? Yep, it's sand! Tiny grains of sand magnified and close up. Amazing. Yah's creativity never ceases to astonish me.....

What I learned yesterday....Chiropractic Care, Timing, Spoiled Brats

Sorry about not being able to get this done yesterday. It was pretty busy. No, we weren't out participating in MLK festivities...I have my own views on that that I'll be sharing later. But we were busy doing "family" stuff - doc appts, hanging out at the park, shopping for upcoming gardening projects. But with all the fun, I was able to squeeze in some thoughts about what I learned yesterday.

Chiropractic Lesson

So, I took my son to his first chiropractic care appointment. WOW what a wealth of info! Never knew how much our nervous system affects everything from our posture and muscles to how well our organs operate. We had a really nice science lesson yesterday. And I think I might even make an appointment to go get my "back cracked". She adjusted my son a little bit. It made my eyes bug out a bit in seeing it, but it didn't look painful. He loved it. But, he's weird like his momma LOL ;-)

What I learned yesterday: It seems that many physical illnesses and problems can be traced to misalignment of the spine. That causes pressure on the nerves with distorts the signal from the brain to an organ etc. If you have having muscle, skeletal, immune, or organ trouble, look into chiropractic care. It could be helpful....

Timing

While driving home after a long day, we happened to see a news camera man recording an MLK statue. That led to a pretty long discussion about idols and false perceptions. Now, I'm not a "conspiracy theorist" but I do believe in telling the WHOLE truth to my children. But this led me to this thought. Lately, I had been seeing a lot of posts about the reality of this man, as well as others who are held in "high esteem" both in the "black culture" and the "white culture" - I hate those terms, but it is what it is. I watched a movie over the weekend where they were talking about the faith of the founding fathers and one figure in particular that no one has heard of wrote a manuscript that told the whole truth about the movement that the "founding fathers" of America were pushing. BUT he never published it because he didn't want to taint the public's perception of who these men were. I find that in today's society as well. It's amazing how people will overlook the terrible faults of one person just because of one or two "great things" they've done. Don't get me wrong, I'm appreciative - but lets remember these are men to be thanked, not glorified and worshiped. And I see the necks and eyes rolling. "HOW DARE YOU TALK ABOUT DOCTA MARTIN LUTHA D' KANG LIKE THAT!!" Yeah, I see you. And that's exactly what I'm talking about. Which is why, I tell my children the whole truth. But, back to my point about timing...

What I learned yesterday: You can't give people the truth while they are in the throws of excitement. They are blinded by the emotion and festivities. It's best to do it when things simmer down and the excitement is long gone. Like now, it's a good time to bring out the truth of "holidays" that have passed....

Bratty Kids

Last thing. Bratty kids. I can't stand them. You know the kind, that demand things because they feel justified in having them. The kind that tell their parents what they want instead of asking? The kind that expect things just because they have told their parents that's what they want - and if it does happen, it spirals them into more brattiness because they assume that because they TOLD their parents what they wanted that's why they got it. They never take into account that maaaybe, just maybe, the parent just wanted to bless them with something despite their attitude - or maybe that the parent had already planned on getting that thing for them and it was already on the way before they "demanded" it.

I dealt with that yesterday. It sickened me. It broke my heart And thank God, it wasn't one of my kids...in fact, it wasn't a child at all. It was a grown man. And it wasn't his parent, it was Yahweh-God. See, many like him have fallen under the false thought, teaching, and assumption that they can command and demand things to happen - like God is a genie that is there to do their bidding. No, they don't believe in the scriptures where it plainly states that we are to ASK. No, they believe in commanding and demanding. I know you've seen it:

"In the name of Jesus I decree and declare..." "It WILL be so, in Jesus' name..." "I SPEAK it right now!"

No where in God's word does He say we are to do this. In everything, we are to ask and petition. Asking requires humbleness....this decreeing and declaring is just the opposite. Yes, we are to be bold when coming before our Father - but that is a holy boldness with reverence of WHO we are approaching. He never gave us permission to boss Him around just because we use His name. He defintely never gave us the power to "speak" stuff into existence. That's just a ridiculous thought altogether.

Let's quick look at some examples...

Hebrews 5:7-9

New Living Translation (NLT)

7 While Jesus was here on earth, he offered prayers and pleadings, with a loud cry and tears, to the one who could rescue him from death. And God heard his prayers because of his deep reverence for God. 8 Even though Jesus was God’s Son, he learned obedience from the things he suffered. 9 In this way, God qualified him as a perfect High Priest, and he became the source of eternal salvation for all those who obey him.

And then when you get a chance, read John 17. Even Jesus Himself never commanded God to do anything in this prayer. In His daily life and in His prayer life, He speech was consistent - "if it be Your will" "the will of My Father"....Hebrews says His prayers were answered because of his deep reverence for God. He never came demanding, decreeing, or commanding anything from Him.

Now, let's look at something else....

Isaiah 14:13-14

New Living Translation (NLT)

13 For you said to yourself,‘I will ascend to heaven and set my throne above God’s stars. I will preside on the mountain of the gods far away in the north. 14 I will climb to the highest heavens and be like the Most High.’

There's no asking there. Sounds like a lot of "declaring and decreeing" doesn't it? Sounds kind of prideful doesn't it? Sounds like they want to take God's place doesn't it? And who is doing this talking? Satan himself. Yes...THIS is what declaring and decreeing boils down to. The same trickery that he used in the garden - to be like God, to take over His will.

What I learned today: There are many who will fall away and hearts turn cold because they don't realize they entertain the teaching of demons. Declaring and decreeing have no place in a humble heart. I recognize I am the clay and my Father in heaven is the potter. His will is what matters. I ask, He listens and answers and what He wills to happen, will happen. Anything more is deception by the evil one.....