What Has Pride Afforded You?

Hey, people of God. A week ago today, I was just confessing some things to the Lord and just airing out my heart to him concerning some things that I was seeing in the body of Christ. And I just asked the Lord to reveal to me what is the root of this, like what are you at work to do so that I know how to pray in agreement with you. I think it's very important that when we pray that we pray in agreement with God. Otherwise, our prayers can be very amiss, and we will think that we're praying the will of God, and we're wondering why certain things aren't breaking and coming to pass. And it's because we're not praying God's will, right? We go into prayer with what we want or even our opinion. And because social media is so easily accessible, we have these knee-jerk reactions and we react to everything emotionally instead of submitting ourselves to God and then reacting. That's something that I have practiced a lot, especially this year, and disciplined myself enough to do through the guidance and leading of the Holy Spirit. And I believe that that's something that every believer should put into practice, which is discipline. Disciplining yourself under the leading of the Holy Spirit to not have knee-jerk reactions to everything you see, um, because that's— that shows that we lack self-control, and one of the fruit of the Spirit is self-control, right? But the word of the Lord that God gave me was that he is calling his church to fall out of love with everything That pride has afforded them. There are people who have built platforms here on YouTube and everywhere else, people who have established ministries that was built on the foundation of control, built on the foundation of pride. And before I go any further into the details of what this word means and what God revealed to me, I'm gonna give you scripture because I'm not a fan of just giving you my opinion. but not having Bible to support my beliefs. I believe it's very important that we study to show ourselves approved unto God, okay, not to man, but to God. That before we share prophetic words and all of these things, that we make sure we have heard from the Lord, that we become the first partaker of that word. Because that's where we get into trouble, where we think that the word is for everybody else and we don't even consider if it's for us too. Before we give it. Okay, anyway, but Revelation chapter 3, verse 17 through 18, it says, for you say, I am rich, I have prospered, and I need nothing, not realizing that you are wretched, pitiable, poor, blind, and naked. I counsel you to buy from me gold refined by fire so So that you may be rich, and white garments so that you may clothe yourself and the shame of your nakedness may not be seen, and salve to anoint your eyes so that you may see. One of the things that God revealed to me in reference to this word of how he is calling his church to fall out of love with the things that pride has afforded them is that pride is not always loud. It is not always, um, in your face. It is not always aggressive or overly ambitious. Pride can also be you thinking that because you've broken through a certain place in prayer, or you've been praying for something for years and then God finally break you through, or you've been doing something for so long and you've gotten used to things, you think that there is no need for you to go even deeper. You think that you have no need for God anymore. It's like, okay, God, you broke me through in this place in prayer. You did this specific thing for me, but I don't need you no more because this is really what I wanted. You grew the platform. You did this. You did that. You broke me through in a certain area. You sent me help. You did all these things. I no longer need to pray with the fervency I was praying before. I no longer need to come to you with the things I used to come to you about before. There's no more for me to know about God. This is pride. And for some of us, we have fallen more in love with the breakthrough than we have with the one who breaks us through. And I'm not saying that because that's a catchphrase. I'm saying that because it is the truth. You fall more in love with what pride, what you getting complacent has afforded you, what being in control has afforded you, that you think that there is no need for God anymore. This is pride too. And here is God saying in Revelation 3:17-18, you say that you're rich, you say that you've prospered and that you need nothing, not realizing that you are— your current state without the Lord, you are still Wretched. You're still pitiable. You're still poor. You're still blind and naked. This is what the Lord is saying about you. You, you get to such a point where you believe, well, I've reached a certain age, I've reached a certain point, I don't need God anymore. This is pride. And at the point where you stop needing God, you stop desiring God, you stop being hungry after the things of the Lord, you stop being thirsty, is when pride begins to make your life affordable. Where you start to build and establish and release things built on the foundation of pride, because you think I don't have a need for God anymore. He gave me what it is that I've been begging him for finally after all these years. I don't need God. And the other part of that is maybe you never actually built anything on the foundation of the Lord in the first place because you've been in control so long. You've built your life around what you can control, not realizing that your life is not your own, not realizing that your life belongs to God. But you took on the reins of what you think your life ought to look like, of what you think your life ought to be, of what you think how things should go, and you never considered or asked God. What do you want me to do? How do you want me to build? What do you want me to say? What do you want me to sing about? What do you want me to release? What do you want me? How do you want me to function? And you've been in control so long that you don't even recognize the voice of the Holy Spirit, that conviction that comes in and tells you, uh uh uh. That's not of me. Because you can also— pride also makes you believe that your good intentions are being led by the Holy Spirit, and they're not. That's how deceptive pride is, where you will believe that everything you do is just God, it's just God, it's just God. But God is calling his church to fall out of love with what pride has afforded them. You don't know everything. There are still more things to see, more deeper places to grow in the Lord. The Bible consistently reminds us that the best is still yet to come. You have not seen everything there is to see in God. You have not. You have not seen everything there is to see in God. You have not. You don't know everything there is to know about the Lord. There's always going to be more to discover about God. God is calling his church to fall out of love with what pride has afforded them, and the way we get out is through repentance. Another thing the Lord revealed to me Is in James chapter 4, verse 1 through 6. It says, what causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? You desire and do not have, so you murder. You covet and cannot obtain, so you fight and quarrel. You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive because you ask wrongly to spend it on your passions. You adulterous people, do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. Or do you suppose it is to no purpose that the scripture says he yearns jealously over the Spirit that he has made to dwell in us? But he gives more grace Therefore, it says God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. One of the things that God also revealed to me about how he is calling his church to fall out of love with what pride has afforded them is this desire to be so worldly, to fit in with the world, to take on the mindset of the world instead of the mind of Christ. And we're wondering why we're always looking at people through the lens of social media, through the lens of YouTube, through the lens in our own life, and we're coveting what it is that they have. And all of these things are built on the backbone of your desire to be worldly. You want to try to be holy enough to get a breakthrough, but you also want to be worldly so that you can have what the world— what pride affords you. And God has this issue against the body of Christ where you are trying to fit in, you are trying to take on the culture, you're trying to be like the world, and then also at the same time in private say, well, how holy do I have to be? Do— does God really require me to live in holiness? Does he really require me to be saved? Does he really require me to live as Jesus did, to have the fruit of the Spirit, to have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit? Does Does he really require that? How much of it do I need? And then you try to mix it in with worldliness and think that God is going to bless it. But the truth is, it's not God who's blessing you. It is your pride that has afforded you the blessing. Because holiness and worldliness cannot fellowship together. You're wondering why you're always discontent, why you always feel like you all over the place. Why there's always a fight and a quarrel and a disagreement in you. And it's because that worldliness is still controlling and driving your life. Being in control is worldliness. It is pride. God is the one who's in control. You are only in control of yourself to the point of discipline under the leading of the Holy Spirit. That's what self-control is. Being led by the Spirit in how you react within yourself, with how you respond within yourself. God has this issue where he's calling us to fall out of love with what causes these quarrels, what causes these fights. And it says, is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? These worldly desires are at war. And you'll, you will think that you're going into prayer and you're praying the will of God when you're actually praying for God to bring to pass the things that you covet, that you see other people with. And you keep saying, God, give me, give me, give me, give me. God, give me, give me, give me. And God is just like, I'm not giving you that because I know that what you're asking for will make you become my enemy. And here's the thing, the enemy knows that if he can push you into such a place where you are so driven to chase after the things of these worldly passions, these things that you covet, he can walk you into such a place where— here's what will happen— because God isn't breaking you through in this worldliness and these passions that are worldly that you desire, and because you don't have patience Which is another fruit of the Spirit. You're not allowing God to work patience in you. You don't want to wait for God's best. What you will do, because it's taking too long, you feel like God is taking too long, the temptation from the enemy in that moment is, I know that you will be made an enemy of God if you fellowship with this worldliness that you really want, these worldly passions, so I'm gonna increase the amount of awareness that you have for how long it's taking God to come through, so you can take matters into your own hands and step into rebellion, so that you will ultimately become an enemy to God. And when we do that, we make ourselves— it doesn't say God makes you his enemy, it says you make yourself. It says, therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world Makes himself an enemy of God. So not in the making yourself a friend of the world. It's not in the making yourself a friend of the world. It's in this desire to be a friend that God finds offensive. You want to be a friend to the world. God finds that desire offensive. And it is that deep. So when you're going to God and you're praying to him to bring to pass these worldly passions, what you are saying and how God hears that desire is, make me your enemy, make me your enemy, God. And you may have good intentions. Again, your intentions may not be that I actually want to be an enemy to God. Maybe you are ignorant and you're not aware of these things, but just because you have the good intention doesn't mean that it's still okay to God and that he's gonna bypass and overlook it. So for some of us, your prayers are offensive to God, and you probably have never heard that before, but it literally says in James chapter 4, verse 4, do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself Makes himself an enemy of God. Makes himself— it's not God that's making you his enemy, it's you that's making you yourself an enemy. And it is that deep. It is that deep. 2 Timothy 4:3-5 says, for the time is coming When people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears, they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, and will turn away from listening to the truth and wander off into myths. As for you, always be sober-minded, endure suffering, and do the work of an evangelist. Fulfill your ministry. Here's that word passions. Again, it says they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions. So when you feel like God is taking too long and you feel like God is not moving fast enough, and the enemy comes with the temptation for you to take matters into your own hands, so you walk yourself into rebellion so that you become an enemy against God because you want your worldly passions so bad. Here's this word passions again. What are these passions? Worldly pride, control, everything that lacks the fruit of the Spirit. So because God is not breaking you through fast enough like you want him to, when he doesn't have any plans to bring your worldly passions to pass at all, you take matters into your own hands and go be in control and move ahead of God, and you Make your life a mess. And so then what you'll do, which is what a lot of people are doing on social media and YouTube, you'll go find a prophet, an apostle, some type of teacher or something who will affirm your pursuit of worldly passions. And then when you get the passion that comes to pass because you can make things happen on your own outside of the realm of God, When you get it and you realize it's not all of what you thought it was, and you realize the weariness that comes from you pursuing worldly passions, then you want to say, well, it's the devil, it's the devil, it's the devil. No, it was you. The devil is actually not responsible for a lot of the things that we shift the blame to him for. He can influence you But you have more power over him than he has of you. Greater is he that is in you than the one that is in the world. Who is the one that is in the world? The devil. And if Jesus, God's word, says that greater is the Spirit, greater is God, greater is Jesus than who that's on the inside of you than the one that's in the world. Why can't these worldly passions be put to death? So you'll go and find a teacher, a prophet, an apostle, a prophetic word, or something to make you feel comfortable and enable you to pursue these worldly passions. And God is calling his church to fall out of love. With what pride has afforded them. If you built the platform on the backbone of pride, it's not too late to course correct, but you're gonna have to start over. You're gonna have to build it on the foundation of Christ. If whatever you obtained, you obtained it through worldly passions, you're gonna have to give it up. And I know that people within the church and the culture alike are teaching you that you can have both. You can have the world and you can have God. You can believe in God and love the world. You can do these things and fellowship with the world too. And a lot of us use that scripture out of context, and we're always using it to prove a point why people shouldn't be talking to people who not saved, who are in the world. who are practicing dark arts and all of these things in witchcraft, but that's actually not what God is talking about. Fellowshipping with the world is you pursuing your worldly passions instead of allowing God to put it to death. God knows what's best for us, and you will never be to such a place in your life where you have no need for God anymore. God is calling his church to fall out of love with what pride has afforded them. Your worldly passions got to be put to death. It's no good for you. And as I said in this video, you will get to such a place where you think. That what you're praying for is the will of God. But check. Ask God. Simply ask the Lord, is this your will? Why am I so desperate for this thing to happen? Where is this desperation coming from? Why do I love being in control? Am I in control? Are you in control, God? Has pride afforded me anything in my life? And whatever the Holy Spirit reveals when you ask that question, you go and you repent and you turn from your wicked ways, because the pursuit of worldliness is wicked. Trying to be in and of the world It's wicked. It's offensive to God. You make yourself an enemy to God when you are constantly pursuing your worldly passions. Are you in pursuit of God? Are you in pursuit of the passions and trying to place the name of God on them? Are you in pursuit of God? Have you built whatever it is that you're building on the foundation of God and his word, or have you built it on the back of your name? Have you established it on the name of Christ, in the name of Christ Jesus, or have you established whatever you're building On your own name, of your— on your own reputation? And that's why you feel the need to always prove yourself to people, and that's why you feel the need to always say certain things because you just want to prove a point or prove that people should be afraid of you and all of these things. Are you building it on your pursuit of worldly passions or on the name of Jesus Christ? Look around at everything in your life and ask yourself, what has pride afforded me? Ask the Holy Spirit, what has pride afforded me? And allow God to put those things to death. It's time to fall out of love. It's time to fall out of love with what pride has afforded you and fall in love with God who gives promises that are yes and amen. Amen. Not promises that, that are unstable. Fall in love with God. Fall in love with God. God is calling his church to fall out of love with the things that pride has afforded them. God bless you.