The Pride of Life

As we continue to prepare for and anticipate the Kingdom Move of God, we want to understand that just like Movements get started, they can also be stopped. This is my concern for the coming Kingdom Move that God has ordained for the earth. If we as the people of God are not careful, we can unwittingly find ourselves stopping the Move unintentionally. How so? By operating in the Pride of Life. The spirit of pride and the Pride of Life is one of the most deadliest things to a Move of God and true Movement of the Spirit of God. If you look at the various Moves of God that have taken place historically, many of them (if not most) at some point came to a close. How does the Move of an Eternal God just come to a screeching halt? Because of the pride of man. The thing about Pride is that it's not something that we hear preached about often. (Maybe because we as preachers can be some of the biggest proponents thereof) We talk about sins of immorality and what not, but Pride is the killer, especially of a Move of God, individually as well as collectively. We need to make sure that we aren't operating, even subconsciously, in the Pride of Life.

Let's first define Pride. Pride is a spirit that can unknowingly make you compete with the position of God. The reason I define it that way is because when you're operating in Pride, there's something that you feel that you're entitled to for which you're willing to impose your self upon others to get. This is why Pride can be so subtle and insidious. A lot of times when we're operating in Pride we feel like we're justified in how we feel; that's why it's hard a lot of times to overtly detect it unless you've developed a sensitivity to how the spirit of pride manifests itself, particularly through your own personality. If we're not careful, the spirit of Pride can undermine everything that God wants to accomplish and has ordained for your life.

Let's look at some examples of Pride. One is Jealousy. When you find yourself jealous or envious of someone, this grows out of the spirit of pride. This is one of the dangers that we must be guarded against with this Kingdom Move. God is going to move in Miracles, Signs and Wonders; and He's going to move through those who are spiritually conditioned and prepared. Well, if "Brother Johnson" is being used in a way that you're not, if you're operating in the Pride of Life, you're going to start wondering "why is Bro. Johnson being used like that and I'm not?  I'm just as spiritual and anointed as he is". See how that works. That's the Pride of Life. There are churches and ministries that right now just have a handful of people in attendance. But when the Movement begins to manifest, there won't be enough room to hold all of the people. There will be haters, instead of congratulators. This is Pride. We must get the focus off of ourselves if we're going to escape The Pride of Life.

The opposite of Pride is Humility. When you're walking in a Spirit of Humility you've forsaken the spirit of entitlement. This is the root of pride and what causes a lot of dissension and disagreement, particularly in the church. When you have to be right, when you have to have your way, when you must have the last word, when you flex because of your position or authority; all of this is Pride, and it gets in the way of God. Many marriages and churches have been broken up simply because of Pride. Jesus mastered Humility (Philippians 2). He expects us to do the same. The Bible says that God resists the proud but giveth grace to the humble (James 4). If you want God on your side and you want the Move of God to be sustained in your life, let the Spirit teach you how to forsake and refuse The Pride of Life.