"Why God Hates Pride"

In Ezekiel chapter 28, it talks about the fall of the Prince of Tyrus. It talks about him lifting himself up to call himself a god. Making himself out to be more than he is, exalting himself higher than God.

From verses 1 through 19 there are "hidden" descriptions of Satan. Verse two says, "...Because thine heart is lifted up (Proud), & thou hast said, I am a God, I sit in the seat of God, in the midst of the seas;...."

This is exactly the reason why Satan was cast out of Heaven. He began to have self-pride & boasting of himself. He allowed proudness to consume his heart. He exalted himself above all that was and is God.

Verse 13 through 15 describes just how beautiful God had created Lucifer. Verse 13 says, "...every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius (ruby), topaz, & the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, & the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, & the carbuncle (turquoise), & gold." It continues on in the same verse by saying that in the day that he was created, God gave him (Lucifer), a beautiful voice to sing. "...the workmanship of thy tabrets (timbrels) of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created."

In Bible times a tabret was the principal musical instrument of percussion. In other words it was the chief or most important element in worship. So based upon this information Lucifer was the highest ranking angel who lead musical worship in Heaven. He had been given a beautiful voice solely for the purpose of glorifying God. His voice when he sang was awesome. Until he began to allow pride into his heart. Verse 15, "Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee" (evil was found in him). Verse 17 tells us that his heart was lifted up because of his beauty. It says he corrupted his wisdom by reason of his brightness.

Can you imagine this? God creates Lucifer, the most beautiful angel, & gives him a voice that is so beautiful that every step he took it poured out beautiful praises to God. He then decides to get arrogant & puffed up in himself, thinking he no longer needed God or was better than God. So he decides to try and raise himself up as God to sit on the throne of God.

How stupid was that? He threw away everything that God had given him for a season of self-indulgence. He had power and authority given to him by God. He got power hungry & decided he no longer needed the Almighty.

The Bible says in Hebrews 11:25 that the pleasures of sin are for a season. Lucifer traded a life of joy & contentment for eternity, for the pleasures of sin for only a short while. He gave up EVERYTHING!!!

We are nothing in ourself. Without God we cannot do anything. It take Him working in us and for us. (Galatians 6:3)

In Proverbs 8:13 it says that the fear of the Lord is to hate evil. And it says that God hates pride, arrogancy, the evil way, and a froward (perverse) mouth.

Psalm 10:4 "The wicked, through the pride of his countenance, will not seek after God: God is not in all his thoughts." (Or all his thoughts are, There is no God.)

We can see from what happened to Lucifer that pride does come before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall. (Proverbs 16:18,19)

In Isaiah 14:12-15 it also talks about how Lucifer exalted himself but God brought him down. God hates pride because pride is giving ourself the credit for something that God has accomplished.

God wants to exalt us & to shine mightily through us but we have to allow Him to do it. It shouldn't be by anything we do because in ourself we really are nothing. Through our prayers, fasting, reading our Bible, sacrifices, obedience, and our love of God; He will in His due time reward us for our hard work & dedication to Him.

I would much rather be humbled and receive nothing in this life & be rewarded in Heaven than to be like Lucifer and lose it all for a few moments of sin and pleasure that is going to be punished for eternity.

Out With The Old & In With The New

In order to receive a gift from someone we must stretch forth our arms and grab it with our hands. But if our arms are full of stuff then we wouldn't be able to reach out & take the gift. Our arms would be so full we wouldn't have room to accept anything else. We, in order to accept the gift, would have to either lay down the stuff that we already have in our arms. Or we can just hang on to what we already have and pass on the gift that is being given to us.

The Lord has been speaking to me today about this. He says that in order for us to receive the gifts & blessings He has for us, we must first make room for them & get rid of the stuff (junk) that we are still holding onto.

The Bible says to "....let us lay aside every weight, & the sin which doth so easily beset us, & let us run with patience the race that is set before us." (Hebrews 12:1)
How are we gonna run any race with a bunch of weights on us? That would make no sense to carry a bunch of heavy rocks aroudn if we were to run in a race. We would want to be as light & free feeling as possible. And that is the same way with the Lord. How can He give us something if we are refusing to let go of all the junk? If we are still carrying around "weights", we can't accept anything else.

We need to do an inventory of what we are "collecting" or "carrying" in our house. We need to regularly go through & do a sweep of ourself. We should take out a spiritual mirror & really evaluate ourself. Are we lining up with God? Or are we in our flesh? Are we holding onto guilt, pain, sadness, worries, & frustrations? If we are carrying around unnecessary "stuff" we can't move forward into what God has for us. Philippians 3:13,14 says, ".....forgetting those things which are behind, & reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus."

It says to forget the things that are behind us & reach forward! It tells us to press toward, which means keep going ahead and not to look back! Why would we even wanna look back at our past? Sometimes it is good to look back and see how far God has brought us but as far as looking back and wanting to dwell in the past, or wanting to hold grudges and hurt feelings from the people of our past, we shouldn't be doing that.
The devil is going to try to keep you from what God wants you to have. He is going to try & get your emotions & mind in such a mess that we don't know if up is down & down is up. The devil is our adversary, his job is to destroy your life. He is going to try & lay all kinds of junk on you. That is why we need to do a regular check on where we are at.

When Satan comes to us to try to fill our mind with junk we need to get our minds on Jesus & what He wants to give us. Keep our heart, mind, & sight on the Lord. Set our minds on things above, not on things on the earth (Colossians 3:2).

Jesus wants to take out all of the "old" stuff out of us and fill us with "new" things. Jesus doesn't want us to look back, He wants us to look forward. We can't do that when we are holding stuff from our past and refusing to give it up. All we have to do is lay it down at His feet.

Isaiah 43:18,19

God wants to do a new thing. He wants to trade things that we are holding & exchange them for blessings. He wants to work inside of us to empty us of everything the world has formed us to be. He wants to completely empty us & then fill us up with His goodness, mercy, and love.