While praying through this series, I was reminded about the sin that did Lucifer in: Pride.

Now pride, in and of itself, is not necessarily a bad thing. There’s nothing wrong with being proud of your accomplishments, or of having met a goal you’d set for yourself. Pride becomes poisonous only when self-exaltation is involved.

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God is the Provider, the Healer, the Creator, and everything in between. He alone merits glory. When believers are consumed by pride, we are essentially trying to give glory to ourselves. If an anointed cherub who once abided in the presence of the Lord could be corrupted by pride (see Ezekiel 28:14–17), then we Christians are surely susceptible, so we must guard our hearts. Seek God in prayer and ask Him if there are any areas in your life in which you’ve been prideful.

I recently wrote an article on self-worship for this series, and I realized as I worked on it that the root of this sort of idolatry is pride. The Scriptures warn us about the dangers of being arrogant, haughty, and puffed up. In the following passage, we see the Lord warning His people as they are on the verge of possessing their inheritance, and we ought to expect that every believer will be tested in the same way:

When you have eaten and are satisfied, praise the LORD your God for the good land he has given you. Be careful that you do not forget the LORD your God, failing to observe his commands, his laws and his decrees that I am giving you this day. Otherwise, when you eat and are satisfied, when you build fine houses and settle down, and when your herds and flocks grow large and your silver and gold increase and all you have is multiplied, then your heart will become proud and you will forget the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery (Deuteronomy 8:10–14 NIV).

In that passage the Lord is prepared to give His people what He has promised, but the blessing comes with a warning: They were now neither slaves nor vagabonds in a wilderness; now, they were entering a land of great abundance. They were to enjoy that abundance, but the Lord’s word to them was: “Don’t forget about Me.”

What a word of wisdom for us. We all cry out to God as the Israelites did whenever we are afflicted or in the dry desert seasons of our lives. And yet, how often we forget about God once He does answer our prayers! Rather than remember Him with praise and thanksgiving, we too often act like greedy children putting in our next request. Or, even worse, we’re calling upon Him only at the next crisis. When God blesses you abundantly and all you see is increase, remember that He was with you also in the lack. When you are blessed by the Lord, remember that He was with you during your hardships. When you are at peace, think back on how He was with you when you were afflicted. When our hearts become lifted up in pride, how soon we forget everything He has done for us. God will allow you to be tested this way. Will you continue to praise God when He gives you what He has promised?

Another way that God allows us to be tested for pride is through the praises of men.

Fire tests the purity of silver and gold, but a person is tested by being praised (Proverbs 27:21 NLT).

Jesus rebuked the Pharisees for loving the praises of men more than the praises of God (see John 12:43). This is a heart test. We can receive praise and remain humble, or we can then become haughty in our own eyes. I would much rather receive praise from God than from men. 

Pride Creates Blindness

Unfortunately, Christians can be just like the self-righteous Pharisees. We rarely tend to see it, though. A wise man once said: “Pride is like bad breath; everyone knows you have it, except you.” If we could describe the Pharisees in one word, I’m sure proud would be it. They were full of themselves and their accomplishments. They knew the law better than anyone, but what good did that do them? They couldn’t even recognize the Messiah when He stood before them, and they missed their day of visitation. 

He also told this parable to some who trusted in themselves that they were righteous, and treated others with contempt: “Two men went up into the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector. 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. I fast twice a week; I give tithes of all that I get.’ But the tax collector, standing far off, would not even lift up his eyes to heaven, but beat his breast, saying, ‘God, be merciful to me, a sinner!’ I tell you, this man went down to his house justified, rather than the other. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted” (Luke 18:9–14).

This is a hard parable to take when you consider that we’ve often prayed and acted like Pharisees — thinking we are better than the lost, for whom Jesus died as He did for us. The Pharisees called out the sinners, which they loved to do, but they couldn’t see their own sinfulness. That is exactly what pride does. 

Pride Has Acquaintances

When someone is consumed by pride, it opens the door to more problems. Proud people will become unteachable, because they presume to know it all. They are highly critical of others. They won’t ask for help, because they are trusting in themselves for solutions. I have taken notice of people who are prideful and self-absorbed, and what I’ve seen is that there is no peace in any of their relationships. They are often at odds in their families, and they bicker often with other Christians, or in the workplace. Wherever they go, trouble seems to follow, but they are never at fault, because pride refuses accountability and will acknowledge no personal imperfections. This produces strife.

What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battle within you? You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures. You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world means enmity against God? Therefore, anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. Or do you think Scripture says without reason that he jealously longs for the spirit he has caused to dwell in us? But he gives us more grace. That is why Scripture says: “God opposes the proud but shows favor to the humble (James 4:1–6 NIV).

Pride Precedes Destruction

Lucifer found this out firsthand (see Isaiah 14:12). Scripture warns us believers that the same thing can happen to us.

Pride goes before destruction, and haughtiness before a fall (Proverbs 16:18 NLT).

The Bible shares many stories of those who fell due to pride. Peter said that He would die for the Lord but then denied Him three times. Nebuchadnezzar was very proud of his kingdom, even though it was the Lord who allowed him any success. Saul was a proud Pharisee, highly educated and in his own mind better than the Christians he persecuted and had executed. Jonah was a proud prophet to Israel. So, when the Lord called him to preach to and warn wicked Nineveh, he fled. Each of these people received a humbling from the Lord. Peter wept bitterly after the rooster crowed that third time. Nebuchadnezzar lived like a wild animal before he regained the sanity to give praise to God. Saul was blinded for three days before he received his new name and calling. Jonah took a trip into the belly of a great fish before being vomited out. 

Humility Is the Remedy

In my article “Cleansing the Temple, Part 1: The Religious Spirit,” I shared my story of how I was proud like a Pharisee and how the Lord humbled me. It was not fun, but boy, I am thankful He did it. We all have that choice: We can either humble ourselves, or else be humbled, and having lived through it, I offer this advice to you: Recognize your pride and repent of it. Our will is the part of our soul that is hard to tame, but we are given the choice to worship God and to submit to Him. Before Lucifer fell, he said “I will” five times (see Isaiah 14;12–14). His will was to usurp God’s throne. We must be careful that we do not fall into the trap. The way to steer clear of pride is humility, and our perfect model for that is the Lord Jesus Christ.

Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too. You must have the same attitude that Christ Jesus had. Though he was God, he did not think of equality with God as something to cling to. Instead, he gave up his divine privileges; he took the humble position of a slave and was born as a human being. When he appeared in human form, he humbled himself in obedience to God and died a criminal’s death on a cross. Therefore, God elevated him to the place of highest honor and gave him the name above all other names, that at the name of Jesus, every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth, and every tongue declare that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father (Philippians 2:3–11 NLT).

Jesus literally humbled Himself to death for you and me. We are to have His character. This is the remedy for pride. We are to think of others as better than ourselves. We are not to be self-seeking, but rather to seek the welfare of others. We are servants of God, which means we are to serve one another as well. Jesus humbled Himself through obedience to God, and we are called to do the same. Submission is an act of obedience to God that we choose freely. The blessing attached to this sort of godly submission is that when we submit to God and resist the devil, the devil will flee.

Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you (James 4:7 NIV).

Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time (1 Peter 5:6 NIV).

When we humble ourselves and do things God’s way, He will exalt us at the right time.

If you want the Lord to cleanse you from pride, let’s pray:

Father, we praise You and exalt Your name. You alone are worthy of our praise. We invite Your Holy Spirit to expose anything in us that You find offensive. If there is hidden pride within us, reveal that. Forgive us for those times we have forgotten Your faithfulness. Forgive us for when we have been childishly ungrateful and demanding. And forgive us for being judgmental and pharisaical — esteeming ourselves as better than others, instead of esteeming others ahead of ourselves. We repent for every thought and action You have found offensive. Your word says that You hate haughtiness. Help us to hate what You hate. We humble ourselves under Your mighty hand so that, in due time, You may exalt us. Cleanse our hearts, remove any stoniness, and restore to us a heart of flesh that is sensitive to Your will, in Jesus’ name. 

This article is part of a series:

Cleansing the Temple, Part 4: Offense – Intercessors for America (ifapray.org)

Cleansing the Temple, Part 3: Compromise – Intercessors for America (ifapray.org)

Cleansing the Temple, Part 2: Self-Worship – Intercessors for America (ifapray.org)

Cleansing the Temple, Part 1: The Religious Spirit – Intercessors for America (ifapray.org)

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IFA contributing writer Gloria Robles is a passionate intercessor with a prophetic voice for today. For more from Gloria, go to Spotify or Anchor and listen to her podcast, Something To Share. Photo credit: ninjaMonkeyStudio/Getty Images.