As I said in the previous chapter, winds come, having many different characteristics. The nature of the wind determines whether the wind is a force to be used beneficially, or a tool of destruction. The Ruach HaKadesh was referred to as a wind by our master Yahshua Ha Mesheiach in the gospel of John 3:8 (KJV) “The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.” We know the wind Yahshua was talking about was, and is today, the invaluable wind (the Ruach HaKadesh). This wind brings life and freedom to all those that will let Him lead them. So we see that this wind is one of constructive force. The Ruach HaKadesh wind blows in many benefits, just as the fall wind blows away the leaves. Nobody knows where the fall wind originates or where it terminates; but we can see the effects of the wind. Just as surely as the wind moves the leaves, the Ruach HaKadesh moves the spiritual man. The Ruach HaKadesh brings healing in on it’s wings; also it brings first discipline, then prosperity, peace, joy and a sound mind. Acts 2:2 (KJV) obviously refers to the Ruach HaKadesh as a wind, “And suddenly there came a sound from heaven as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting.” All through the Bible there is undeniable evidence that the lives of the people who came in contact with this wind were forever changed. The reconstructive, empowering force of this wind was, and is today, world changing. In John 20:22 (KJV) Yahshua gave us instruction to receive the Ruach HaKadesh, and demonstrated that it was the wind (Ruach HaKadesh – the kadosh breath of Yahveh), the life giving force.” And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the Ruach Ha Kadesh.”In the kingdom the Ruach HaKadesh is as a strong tail wind is to an airplane in flight. Your air speed indicator may show 60 knots (nautical air miles per hour) when in truth you are going 170 knots per hour. This is a pleasant helpful wind; that will be talked about more in later in this book.
However, there are other winds that effect our lives and they are not always as favorable. As a matter of fact, they are very destructive! The mission of these winds is to rob, kill, and destroy.
I want to talk to you about one specific wind: a wind that comes dispatched from Satan himself. It is the same wind that blew him out of Heaven. Understand, that Satan was next in power to YHVH; so powerful was he, that he thought he could dethrone the creator of the entire universe the Almighty YHVH. This wind destroys all logic and is easily one of the most destructive forces on earth. It is called pride. The first characteristic of pride I would like to discuss is presumptuousness. Probably the most disconcerting element of pride is the tendency to make biased presumptions and, in my opinion, the most devastating of all the components of pride.
Those who are controlled by the spirit of pride seem to have a common identifying mark. All seem to be of the opinion that they can determine the intents and purposes of others people’s hearts. The trait of presuming another person’s intents is not only foolish but very divisive. Such a practice is the cause of much anger and resentment between people. The practice of presuming what the other person is thinking or feeling is motivated by an attitude of self- exaltation. The individual has exalted themselves to an equal status with our Sovereign. In truth, only He can discern the intents and purposes of the heart.
Years ago a young man came into my office to counsel, and as he sat down he said, “Preacher I need help.” My reply to him was; “I will be glad to help you if I can. What seems to be bothering you?”
“My temper,” he replied.
I said to him, “you don’t have a temper.”
“Oh, preacher, you don’t know! I seem to lose my temper all the time and I just have to stop reacting in this manner!”
Once again I responded, “You, don’t have a temper; the devil has the temper. If you are losing control to anger, you are losing control to the devil.” I stated further to him “that the cause for anger is always an improper attitude.” He then began relating some incidents when he had lost control. In every incident as he related he defined the other person’s intent, and what the other party had purposed in his heart to accomplish.
Can you see that the possibilities for misunderstanding and misjudging the other party in this situation are almost limitless? Now, think about what happens if both parties are operating with this same spirit of pride. The possibilities of an emotional outbreak increase drastically. This young man had exalted himself to the position of judge, and he was judging the intents and purposes of the other person’s heart. Of course he was not qualified therefore his judgments were not true or just. The worst part of the whole thing was that he was trying to equate his judgments with YHVH’s judgments – becoming a judge of the other person rather than baring with the other in love.
The problem doesn’t stop here; this is just the tip of the iceberg. Once the spirit of pride takes root in you and the trait of presumption is fully manifested, it knows no boundaries. The opportunity for one to judge what people are thinking, the purposes and even the intents of their hearts, gives an illusion of great power. The illusion of this kind of power is much like a narcotic; once the person starts indulging, there is an awful addiction loosed – an insatiable desire to have more and more of that feeling of power. Now it is no longer sufficient to limit his judgments to intents and purposes of their heart, he must broaden his scope and begin handing down decisions as to the worth of those intents and purposes.
The problem with the audacious nature making judgments about other peoples worth is this: it always starts out with the hypothesis that their worth is directly related to the ideals and the perceptions of the person motivated by the prideful spirit. Obviously, nobody ever measures up to the standards that have been set for him, by one who possesses a prideful spirit. When one considers the impertinent nature that is influencing all these evaluations, it is impossible for the judgments to be true. Therefore in the illusion other people can never measure up. This is the sole purpose of the prideful spirit. If nobody comes up to the false standard, then it provides the person with proof of superiority. If the other party should come to close to making the mark that has been set for him, then the standards must be altered so it causes him to fall short. The point of the delusion is to cause the prideful person to become aware of the other person’s shortcomings so he can judge him to be worth less, and judge himself to be worth more. As you can see, the product of this judgment is to presume that others are totally and eternally inferior.
From here the root has taken hold and has branched out into all areas. The person is now out of control. The jurisdiction has been enlarged to judging people’s abilities, (that is) if they don’t dry the dishes the way he dries the dishes, then they are not doing it right. Even more detrimental is the judgment of people’s thinking. The presumptuous nature demands that people think as he does, and have the same opinions as he has. If for some reason the person doesn’t agree with him, then pride demands that he judge the other person’s opinion worthless.
You can readily see how devastating the presumptuous attitude can be in the church. This attitude breeds division and resentment which causes strife among the brethren. Proverbs 8:13 (KJV) states “The fear of the LORD is to hate evil: pride, and arrogances, and the evil way, and the perverse mouth, do I hate.” The proverb tells us what the Sovereign’s attitude toward pride is, and what our attitude toward pride should be. The problem is this: with the presumptuous nature in tact, there is so much judging of others that there is no room is left for integrity; the honest judging of attitudes and actions. Where there is no integrity there can be no ability to look objectively at one’s own life and attitudes, and make an honest evaluation of values or the quality of principals and ideals. The lack of integrity is extremely destructive in many areas of life. A prime example of the detrimental effect is to witness how it destroys relationships or at best causes them to be strained. A strained relationship is impossible to develop fully, therefore, when one is motivated by pride they become destitute of deep and meaningful relationships.
The relationship that is harmed most of all is the relationship between him and his heavenly Father. If he is operating in the behaviors YHVH hates, then his relationship with YHVH is going to be strained. If his relationship with the Sovereign is strained, it cannot reach its full potential. Of all the relationships in his life, the relationship with YHVH needs to reach its full capacity-it will be most eternally costly if it doesn’t.
When there is a deficiency of integrity, not only is he unable to see his own deficiencies, neither is he able to receive instruction that would correct shortcomings. This is probably the biggest cause for the “shop – till – you drop” attitude in people looking for a church to affiliate with. Many times people would rather be involved in a church that is so large that nobody pays any particular attention to their character deficiencies; therefore, they do not have to deal with uncomfortable personal instruction that would require them to take an objective look at their attitudes or behaviors.
Integrity is a disciplined thing that is desirable and it is greatly desired by so many. It is a trait that everybody likes to talk about and wave around as if it were a banner. But the truth remains unchanged: that this desirable trait is steeped with discipline, honesty and honor. This trait can only be acquired after paying the very high price in commitment, self – denial and justice. In today’s society the price seems much too high for many to acquire. Integrity is much like a savings account: it seems many times a person is required to put a large amount into it for the benefits he receives. The reason he invests in a savings account is to do his best to insure that his future will be the best that he can possibly make it. The reason he would invest the time and effort into developing the quality of integrity in his life is to help secure the future. He must have integrity if he is ever going to develop a sincere relationship that is in right standing with Father God.
Pride prevents the individual from having a deep relationship with anyone, much less Father YHVH. By now, it seems to me it would be obvious that pride is always steeped in self motivation. The more readily identifiable fruit off of “the ole pride tree” is selfishness. Selfish people are always caught up in a spirit of pride. They find it almost impossible to automatically consider the benefit or the well being of someone other than themselves first. There is a very good rationalism for this condition: they are very self- focused. The first evaluation of any situation is how, and what effect it is going to have on his life. Every happening (event) in his life has a momentous impact; ether to the positive, or the negative. Always to the extreme end of the scale of the emotions: one end esthetically happy – the other miserably sad. There are no inconsequential events. It is like every thing that occurs in his life is examined under a magnifying glass, and every effect intensified to its fullest.
However, there is a flip side to this coin; everything that happens in another’s life is a different story. If it is not in his own life it is insignificant. Unless it is truly catastrophic in nature, it has very little lasting affect upon his demeanor. This attitude is accentuated when he has been the cause of the circumstance that impacted the other life. Then we see an uncanny ability to minimize the negative effects on the other’s life. However if they are positive and there is any credit passed, around we see the ability to maximize again. The process of maximizing however is misdirected. Instead of focusing on the good fortune of the other person, he wants to focus on the role he played in bringing about the positive effect.
Can you understand that his judgment is affected by whether it affects him positively or not? You may well say, “yes, but I don’t see what that has to do with pride.” Pride comes into play when the attitude is: my life and what happens in it is more important than what happens in your life. In effect what he is saying is this: “my life is more important than your life,” or “I am worth more and you are worth less.”
This type of fantasy is carried on in their relationship with Father YHVH. His focus is not on the Kingdom of YHVH or the effect the action has on the Kingdom but the effect the Kingdom is having on his life. Many times folks have their priorities on fulfillment of the desires of the flesh the pride of life. There entire Christian path that they are walking looks like a roller coaster ride. The cause of the instability in their life is unavoidable because they are focused on the impact of circumstances. If they could discipline themselves and focus on the Word instead of self then their Christian walk would become stable. This would mean prioritizing. In designating a higher priority to the Word of YHVH they could focus on their adherence to the statutes and commandments of the Creator rather than the effect of circumstances on their lives. This is nearly impossible for these people to place someone or something ahead of themselves in their priorities. This pertains to everything, whether it is Father YHVH or another person. This degree of change in focus requires a lot of effort on their part; not to mention the tons of commitment that is required. The difficulty is further accentuated by the inability to evaluate their motives and their actions with honesty and integrity in reference to the Word of YHVH. They want keep a record and murmur about every time YHVH refused to fulfill the desires of the flesh. These same people who keep this long and detailed record of how their desires weren’t met are quick to declare that sin has no effect in their lives. The grace of YHVH covers and wipes away every infraction against His Word. According to them the Most High is just hanging around waiting to exercise His capacity of forgiveness on them. Their concept seems to be, YHVH is not pleased when you commit sin, but He certainly does not expect you to be perfect. The concept is steeped in justification of actions and liberality. Their concept of grace is loaded up with the idea that the Sovereign is co-dependant with us. Although He forbids sin He never really expected us to abstain from sin only for it to be limited. Therefore YHVH’s grace covers our sins if we only sin in small amounts. They are quick to tell you all of their sins are thrown over YHVH’s shoulder into the sea of forgetfulness never to be brought to mind again. Let me say to you, YHVH hates sin. There is a vast difference in spontaneous sin and presumptuous (planned) sin. The heavenly Father is not going to be involved in a relationship with anyone who plans to practices sin. This is what I mean when I talk about people living in a spiritual fantasy; the reality of the Word has no effect on their behavior toward the Sovereign. A prime example of this attitude is when you hear some say: “The Lord and me, has got our own thing worked out.” This is the height of pride and fantasy. Note that the majority of the time they don’t even bother to put Yahshua first in conversation. The next thing is it is absurd to think Yahveh, creator of the whole universe is going to show such partiality to you by cutting you a special deal. When they read the Scripture stating Sovereign is no respecter of persons; it has no application to them. Can you see where fantasy comes in to play? More importantly can you discern whether it is in your life?
You may say to me “I believe myself to have a reasonably objective survey as to the spiritual condition of my life”. My reply to you sir, would be; “this may very well be true; but I would ask you to focus your attention on, and to examine another area of your life”. There is an area of our world that always seems to be open to pride. This area is usually very private and not exposed to the outside world; it is called the marriage closet. It seems we have extreme difficulty getting around to going in and cleaning out that closet, and then throwing out what needs to be done away with.
My grandpa and granny Sandifer had a peculiar trait, or seemed so at the time, they hardly ever threw anything away. Consequently although they owned a big farm house and should have had plenty of room in their home; there was none. The problem being, neither one would turn loose of the things that they had collected over the years; worthless as they may be, they would not let go. Pride causes the same behavior in the marriage relationship. Both parties are holding onto a lot of emotional baggage that takes up room in their relationship and serve no purpose at all. As worthless as the baggage may be they wouldn’t let go for any reason. Much like the clutter of things in my grandparent’s home their marriage is greatly hindered by all the emotional clutter. There is so much garbage lying around nobody has any room to be at peace in the relationship. There is a certain amount of self worth that seems to be attached to all this emotional baggage. If they give up their baggage, then it’s like giving up their identity. The problem with all this thinking is there’s big pride issue involved. The human race has from the Garden of Eden had a problem keeping the importance of their identity in a proper prospective. Satan tempted Eve by indicating that her identity was lost in YHVH’s sovereignty. He told her if she would disobeyed YHVH and follow her own desires to eat the forbidden fruit then she would be like YHVH knowing good and evil. She would be on equal footing with the Most High. Therefore, Eve desired to be the same as YHVH. This concept was so very appealing to her, that she went for the bait hook, line and sinker. Can you see where her priorities were out of order? The most awesomely wonderful relationship with Yahveh, became broken the moment she committed the pride inspired and motivated act. By setting herself up as the ultimate authority in her life she rendered the relationship with the Almighty a vicious blow that it would be drastically changed for as long as she was on earth. The astounding thing to me is the rapid rate with which it spread to every human on earth. Adam climbed into the same trap right beside her and the whole world was infected with pride and an identity crisis. Note once the relationship with Yahveh had suffered this vicious blow of pride; no relationship on earth remained the same. Everything was changed even down to the way Eve was to give birth. Genesis 3:16 (KJV) “Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.”
Not only did things change drastically for Eve but also the relationship between Adam and the earth changed. The earth would no longer yield it self to Adam. The earth itself
from this time on would also rebel against Adam. Genesis 3:17 (KJV) “And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;” No longer would it produce food on it’s own instead it’s nature was changed to produce thorns and thistles. Genesis 3:18 (KJV) “Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field;” From this point on the only way he was going to eat bread was to toil and through hard labor subdue the ground and force it to yield the crop. Only by the sweat of Adam’s brow could he eat bread. It is obvious how from his choice the whole world was affected by the pride that motivated and was responsible for the fall from the perfect life of eternal bliss.
The stage was set for the human race. The character of the prideful man was openly displayed, for all to view. The perfect example of the nature of and the consequences of pride is demonstrated well in the life of Cain. Genesis 4:6 (KJV) tells us in no uncertain terms that Cain adopted an attitude when YHVH revealed His displeasure toward the sacrifice Cain brought. “And the LORD said unto Cain, Why art thou wroth? And why is thy countenance fallen?” Cain had the choice and pride influenced his life and caused him to ruin his relationship with YHVH by murdering his own brother. He could have brought the proper sacrifice; instead pride welled up inside him and he picked a fight with his brother, and that ended in murder.
Can you see where the destructive winds of pride influenced Cain and brought destruction in his life not only to Able but Cain also? Ponder this thought: do I have pride working against me? Beseech Father YHVH to reveal the destructive force of pride in your life. The storm is here take shelter in the Word of the Almighty.