“No, I think we’ll do it my way.” The word no is always the answer that pride has to any question of authority or wisdom, pride is knowledge according to us. You have perhaps heard somewhere before or read in one of these previous letters to you, that when you think that God is wrong and you are right, then you are wrong. The pride of Satan was not just in his thinking that he could do better than God, but that he could be as God, that God was wrong. Not just incorrect in His actions of His creation, but in His plans for it, the manner that He had ordained for it to follow.
Pride says my way is right and your way is wrong, before it even determines within itself a better course of action, one must first find fault before pride can be established. By reason of his beauty, Lucifer determined within himself that the attributes that were given unto him by the Lord God, since they were his and thereby under his control, and hence were self-disciplining, no longer were under the direct authority of God. He no longer gave merit or glory to the One who gave these attributes to him but believed that since they were his they were his to command, to do with as he pleased with no regard to the giver. He found free will within himself and determined a course of action that no longer regarded anyone or anything but himself as the prime director of that free will. “I think I will do it my way” transformed into “I should be able to do it my way.” He in essence went from I think, to I should, to “I will be like the Most High.” (Isa. 14:14)
“Only by pride comes contention, but with the well advised is wisdom.” (Prov. 13:10) Think on this verse for a moment, if there were no pride, there would be no contention. Yet within that framework the sovereign majesty of God must not be left out, it is He who rules and reigns and our pride is the main hindrance to our following of that divine leadership. We think we should be able to do as we will because He has given, kind of oxymoronic when you think about it, isn’t it. Because of this pride contentions come, and with contentions comes war, any war, not just those on the battlefield between armies, but the war within ourselves to move away from that which is righteous and Holy, to move away from God.
One of the most incredible gifts that our Lord has bestowed on man is the ability to chose for ourselves, the indwelt, God given attribute of free will. For those that are His chosen servants, that free will should be based in the will of God and can only be found in the Word of God. For Satan and the lost, that pride “Compasses them about like a chain, violence covers them as a garment.” (Psalm 73:6) They know no peace, they know no rest, their hearts are continually seeking their own paths, and those paths lead only to destruction, but pride tells them it won’t. Free will my friends, is the most difficult battle we will ever fight, for we love our Lord and desire to serve Him, but we have as it were another master, one of our own choosing, and those free will choices that we make against Him daily are a burden that is very heavy to carry.
In a sense, free will should be determined by logical, deductive reasoning skills based on available facts, not on our mood for the day, not only on our emotions. When we allow our emotions to cloud our knowledge and right judgements of the truth, we enter into a debate that we can only lose, and one of the most purposeful weapons in the arsenal of Satan is our emotional state of mind. If we feel as if God is not treating us fairly, then pride says that it should be done our way, why do you think the heathen rage and imagine a vain thing. (Psalm 2:1) If our Lord is not answering our prayers as we would have Him to do, and we resist His will in the matter, we have begun moving on the slippery slope of pride.
Pride not only says “You are wrong,” but also “I am right,” even when it is wrong, pride is the epitome of hardening ones heart, whether it be towards God or our fellow man. If our wills do not freely conform to the will of Christ, then we have pride, when we chose our way and not His, when we decide that the path that we are on is the correct path and know full well that it is not, we have pride. I do not know if our adversary “invented” pride, or if he found it within himself and then gave himself up to it, but the same pride he has we carry within ourselves. Satan did not lay his hands upon Adam and Eve and give them the ability to have pride, it was not something that he transferred from himself into them, it was in them just as much as it was in him. Their free will chose a different path than the one God had set for them, that same free will that we have today. Pride says that because I have been given the ability to chose my own path, I should and in fact I will make that choice on my own, that my destiny is completely in my own hands, not the one who created me, once the creation is complete, the Creator should have no more control over His creation. Pride says I don’t need God.
One thing, perhaps the most important thing that Satan and all those who live in pride have forgotten is that we were not made with self-sustaining attributes, we are not eternal, even though all souls, and the angels created by or Lord will exist throughout all of eternity. The two choices that we have been given as to where we will spend this eternity should be reason enough to see that we are in fact very limited in our free will when it comes to that decision. The ownership of ourselves is the very root of all pride, it is a myth, and it was the realization of the truth of this lie within himself that caused our adversary to hate God, to hate Him who created him. “I should be able to do whatever I want to do with no consequences of a negative type whatsoever.” Sound a little like this world that we live in today? Shake hands with pride my friends, greet warmly he who first said, “I will be like the most High,” he is an excellent teacher and he has many willing students.
The battle cry of all who seek self-appreciation is pride, it will make you believe that you are right, and it will teach you to hate God, and almost everyone around you. You will begin to see them as less than you are, that you have all the answers and that those who prove you wrong are not to be listened to, they are to be despised. Pride knows all, despises all, is better than all, hates all, is subservient to none, pride knows no master, it is the controller of its own destiny. Pride seeks nothing but its own, lifts up only itself, regards no one, and will know no true fear until the moment its feet touches the lake of fire. It detests love, for love says, “I need” and those filled with pride need nothing, it is overflowing with selfishness and vanity, it is full of itself. Pride is a beast that needs to fed daily, it has a voracious appetite, yet is never satisfied, it seeks all to admire it, yet there are never enough, it is free will that believes its will is truly free even from God Almighty. Pride needs nothing, but is never filled, it blinds the bearer of itself completely and encourages them to continue in the path that they do not see as destructive to themselves.
Our adversary is both the most brilliant created being ever and the most totally self-deceived one at the same time. Even though he has more than likely memorized the entire Word of God, he still searches for a loophole within it that will allow him victory. He who stood in the very presence of God believes that he can be like God, in fact still believes that he can usurp the authority of God and take His throne for himself. Pride infringes on all that it meets, knows no master but self, will recognize none as superior to itself, and those that it must come to recognize as greater that itself, it will hate. Satan must acknowledge and acquiesce to the will of God, and herein is where his hatred boils at its hottest. No one tells pride what to do, no one, and for Satan to have to realize and accept that the Lord God Almighty is Lord of all, this is when he hates the most, this is when the lion starts to roar.
Pride will attack anything that it feels threatened by, no exceptions, and since our adversary cannot directly attack the throne of Gods majestic power, he will take this hatred out on those whom the Lord God loves the most, His children, His chosen ones. He uses the falsehood of different religious organizations, the whispers directed into the ears of those who belong to Christ, the lies of the world that say, “You deserve.” Anything and everything within his power to deceive everyone into the belief that they are the most important person alive, and that they are to be counted as such, no matter what.
We are not told any of the facts in detail about the war in heaven, (Rev. 12:7) of how the battle was fought there, but this is almost always the inevitable result of pride, war. Pride creates lust, what it does not own it will take, if it cannot take what it wants, it will attempt to kill those who have what it desires. How many times did Satan attack in various ways the children of Israel in hopes to defeat Gods plan for the Messiah to be born, in how many ways does he try to hinder the children of God, the followers of Jesus Christ so that their efforts to lift up His glorious Name will be thwarted. Will not the antichrist bring all that he has to bear during the tribulation period, when Satan is loosed at the end of the thousand year reign, will not all the fury he has be unleashed in a final attempt to proclaim “I will.”
Pride is a liar, and is available to all that will seek it, it offers everything, but delivers nothing, its promises are hollow and without substance, it is compelling, savory and sweet, it promises god-like attributes, and it holds court with death.
I would ask you to contemplate something here that I am not aware has an answer in the Scriptures, did the Lord God create hell and the lake of fire before or after Satan sinned? It is not necessary for us to have an answer of course, but the question is relevant, for all who live in pride and open rebellion to Christ for the entirety of their lives will end up there.
Pride or submission, these are your choices, and by your own free will given unto you by God you are allowed to make the choice between the two. Our adversary chose poorly, you don’t have to. Pride does not understand in its totality the Sovereignty of our Holy God, it has been blinded to it. “Pride goes before destruction,” (Prov. 16:18) no ifs, ands or buts about it, it is the Word of God and His Word is truth. The fallen angels, Satan and his demonic horde, will get no second chance, (Jude 1:6) you get many, every single day. Pride came with our sin nature the day that we were born, it demands of us “My will” not His will, not the will of God. Its grip is like iron, and only the loving hands of Christ can free us from it.
You do not need our adversary Satan to help you to grow in it, we are quite good at that ourselves, but only by the grace and mercy of God, by seeking daily the face of the only One who conquered it, our Lord Jesus Christ, can you even begin to hope to keep it at bay. Being a submissive, willing and obedient servant to Christ, no matter the cost to self, is the enemy of pride.
Pride is a lie, remain in the truth, pride cannot exist in the truths of the Word of God and His Son, who is truth itself.