12 - SPIRITUAL PRIDE
Spiritual pride is the major, but often very subtle underlying root of much deception, and the fall of many once-promising ministries. A friend from America who has studied this subject recently told me that over the past 21 years, he has personally known of at least a dozen anointed men of God who have lost their anointings and ministries. He says that a number have even ended up dead or in prison. "To whom much is given, much is expected." To repeat Paul Billheimer’s words: "THE SANDS OF TIME ARE STREWN WITH THE WRECKS OF THE BROKEN LIVES OF MANY, WHO WERE ONCE MIGHTILY USED OF GOD, BUT WHO SUFFERED SHIPWRECK UPON THE ROCKS OF SPIRITUAL PRIDE." As the Scriptures declare, "PRIDE goeth before the downfall" (Proverbs 16:18). If Satan cannot destroy us from without, then he will destroy us from within.
It is usually through our THOUGHTS - through our MIND - that such attacks come, with temptations to pride disguised as our own thoughts and feelings, etc. The devil will happily take a long-term approach with such attacks, slowly building on what he has been feeding into our mind until he can sway us into making bad decisions and judgements - blinded by subtle pride in that one crucial area. His object is to get us to ’BELIEVE THE LIE’, and in that process this prideful deception travels from our mind down into our heart, where it is much harder to dislodge. Like a seed, it will then grow, and begin to manifest itself in our lives, until eventually, if it has not been dealt with, God may be forced to remove us from the ministry He has called us into. We are told in the Bible that we are to have the "mind of Christ", and that we are to bring "into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ" (2 Corinthians 10:5).
We are to be full of His Spirit, so that we may have A MIND CONTROLLED, a MIND DIRECTED, and a MIND FIXED ON GOD. I have found personally that such ’roots’ or strongholds of pride, or anything else in our lives, can be dealt with very effectively by RENOUNCING them, from the very depths of our heart and soul, in Jesus’ name, and casting them away from ourselves as hated things. (This applies to bad habits and any other form of ’stronghold’ also). "For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds" (2 Corinthians 10:4). We do not have to let the devil dominate any area of our lives in this way.
Obviously, those who are involved in powerful ministries are particularly susceptible to pride entering in, because of the amazing things that they see happening every day in their ministries, and the temptation to begin taking some of the glory for themselves, or to start to think that they are something ’special’ - forgetting that every gift they have is from God. Such pride can be incredibly subtle, and the devil delights in placing such ministries under as much ’pressure’ of this kind as he possibly can. However, it is important to remember that God will not allow us to be tempted more than we can bear. (1 Corinthians 10:13).
It is significant to note that William Branham was apparently still a truly humble man in many ways right up until the time of his death, and yet the devil managed to introduce subtle pride into his mind and heart in a couple of crucial areas. He presumed to become a teacher when this was obviously not his calling, and he eventually came to believe inflated "Elijah"-type revelations about himself and his ’special’ position, proclaiming these to his followers. As the apostle Paul wrote, we are not to think of ourselves "more highly than we ought to think" (Romans 12:3). Speaking of the fall of Lucifer, God said, "Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty; you corrupted your wisdom for the sake of your splendour." (Ezekiel 28:17).
It is also important to remember that it is often when we have won our greatest victories in God, that we are most susceptible to attacks from the enemy. As Paul wrote, "let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall." (1 Corinthians 10:12). We see this particularly in the life of John Alexander Dowie. It was when he had won through into a period of comparitive success and prosperity in his ministry that he apparently relaxed his guard, and became deceived into "BELIEVING THE LIE" that the devil was trying to sell him.
It is clear from the Scriptures that in the Last Days, there ARE to be ministries who will go forth in the ’spirit and power of Elijah’. However, as Gordon Lindsay wrote in his biography of Dowie, "HAD HE BEEN THE VERY ELIJAH, WHAT AN UNFORTUNATE MISTAKE WAS MADE, IN PROCLAIMING HIMSELF AS SUCH! John the Baptist was satisfied in declaring himself ’a voice crying in the wilderness’. When they asked John if he were Elijah, he said he was not. Yet Christ later said that he was! (Matthew 11:14) Jesus commended the humility of John who said, ’He must increase, but I must decrease’, and declared that none born of women was greater than he." (G. Lindsay, ’John Alexander Dowie’, pg 190). It is often when such DECLARATIONS of being a ’last-days apostle’ or an Elijah are made, that things begin to go off the rails. The devil’s first priority is to get us to ’BELIEVE A LIE’ (usually some inflated or prideful view of ourselves, or some excuse why a certain sin is ’OK for me’) or even to publicly declare an EXAGGERATED TRUTH, and then to ACT ON IT. After this, as the deception grows and our blindness in that area deepens, surely only disaster can result.
However, one of the alarming things about such deception is that THE GIFTS, THE POWER AND THE CALLING OF GOD already operating in one’s ministry up to that point will usually continue to operate just as powerfully, often right until death. "For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance" (Romans 11:29). In other words, God will usually not take away such giftings, even if a ministry falls into deception. And so, they will continue to exercise such power, often thinking that "all is well" and ignoring all warnings, until it is too late. A fatal, but oh- so-common mistake. And history is littered with with the shattered remains of such ministries, who refused to heed God’s writing on the wall until it was too late.