There is plenty of material in the Bible for examples of pride.

The one God gave to me was to examine Job 41, for in there is the characteristics of Leviathan the serpent-crocodile creature, and it ends with, “He is king of all the children of PRIDE!”

¹“Can you draw out Leviathan with a hook, or snare his tongue with a line which you lower?
²Can you put a reed through his nose, or pierce his jaw with a hook?”

In other words, Pride is too tough skinned and strong to reason with. You can’t stop the boasting tongue, the issues of self-talk.

³“Will he make supplications to you? Will he speak softly to you?”

Will he plead with you? There is no humility or meekness, that speaks softly to you with understanding

⁴“Will he make a covenant with you? Will you take him as a servant forever?”

There is no servanthood as there was with Jesus washing the feet of His apostles with this kind. It will keep you from JOINING with others to covenant in doing the work of the Lord.

⁵“Will you play with him as with a bird? Or will you leash him for your maidens?”

To play with.

⁶“Will your companions make a banquet of him? Will they apportion him among the merchants?”

Pride is not tamable. Can’t play with a crocodile as with a dog. He is dangerous. You cannot rule over him.

⁷“Can you fill his skin with harpoons? Or his head with fishing spears?”

The person with pride is tough-skinned, and you cannot penetrate his mind once it is made up only wants to do things his/ her way. And stabs you make will bounce off.

⁸“Lay your hand on him. Remember the battle-never do it again.”

Once stung by pride, you won’t do it again.

⁹” Indeed any hope of overcoming him is vain. Shall not one be over-whelmed at the sight of him?”

You can’t convince them they could be wrong! Pride is full of it’s own opinion about things.

There is a fierce countenance, overpowering presence; don’t even feel they would condescend to your level to communicate with you sometimes.

¹⁰“No one is so fierce that he would dare stir him up. Who then is able to stand against Me?”

No one is as firm in disposition as the prideful, that would risk stirring his wrath, or to challenge him. This kind would dare to challenge and defy God Himself!

¹¹“Who has preceded Me that I should pay him? Everything under heaven is Mine!”

The arrogant dare to demand of God as if they could rule Him like a puppet, or as if God owed him. There is no fear of the LORD.

¹²” I will not conceal his limbs, his mighty power, or graceful proportions.”

The LORD does not conceal pride’s strength and power. Pride is the sin of Satan; his is powerful, and stealth, and sneaky. It should be well recognized.

¹³“Who can remove his outer coat? Who can approach him with a double bridle? ¹⁴ Who can open the doors of his face? With his terrible teeth all around?”

Who can penetrate his walls of defensiveness? Who can bridle his mouth? He is unteachable. He has powerful jaws whose words pierce your heart his words bite terribly.

¹⁵“His rows of scales are his pride, shut up tightly as with a seal.”

Again, pride is impenetrable. It is difficult to get close to them who are ruled by it.

¹⁶“One is so near another that no air can come between them.”

The scales, make it impossible for the wind of the spirit to even get through.

¹⁷“They are joined one to another, they stick together and cannot be parted.”

Will not take correction or change, Can’t pry into his soul; only God can penetrate them.

¹⁸“His sneezings flash forth light, and his eyes are like the eyelids of the morning. ¹⁹Out of his mouth go burning lights; Sparks of fire shoot out.
²⁰Smoke goes out of his nostrils, as from a boiling pot and burning rushes.
²¹His breathe kindles COALS, and a flame goes out of his mouth.”

This spirit is intimidating, will get into your face, is destructive, and angry with rage
behind it. it accompanies Jezebel, strife, witchcraft and God told me fear + pride make up Control.

²²“Strength dwell in his neck, and sorrow dances before him.”

It is stiff necked, unchanging, and it brings much sorrow to others.

²³“The folds of his flesh are joined together, they are firm on him and cannot be moved. ²⁴His heart is hard as stone, even as hard as the lower millstone.”

The LORD seems to emphasize the unchangeableness in his character indicative of stubbornness.

Then says his heart is hard as the lower millstone. The lower millstone is the one that does not move.

The upper moves on top of it to grind the olives or grain. This is a warning, that when our hearts feel apart from the Spirit of God, it could be pride that is keeping us away from His love.

²⁵“When he raises himself up, the mighty are afraid. Because of his crashings, they are beside themselves. ²⁶Though the sword reaches him it cannot avail, nor does spear, dart, or javelin.”

Even the strongest is intimidated by this spirit in a person. He strikes fear in the hearts of others.

Even the sword, the word of God seems to be of no effect; cannot reason with them. Need a light saber for this guy!

²⁷“He regards iron as straw and bronze as rotten wood. ²⁸The arrow cannot make him flee; slingstones become like stubble to him. ²⁹Darts are regarded as straw. He laughs at the threat of javelins. ³⁰His undersides are like sharp potsherds; he spreads pointed marks in the mire.”

This spirit is strong in evil. Nothing penetrates his heart. (That is where javelins are usually aimed). He is unaffected, and mocks and threatens.

³¹” He makes the deep boil like a pot; He makes the sea like a pot of ointment. ³²He leaves a shining wake behind him, one would think the deep had white hair.”

This spirit really stirs up trouble and strife. There is no end to the waves of trouble it can cause, especially when we respond in like kind, it just keeps going.

³³“On earth there is nothing like him, which is made without fear!”

In him is no proper FEAR of the LORD! And hence that is the lack we see in the Church today; a lack of the proper fear of the LORD.

³⁴“He beholds every high thing; He is king over all the children of Pride.”

In the prophetic pride will lift up self to be seen will brag of all their great visions and dreams, and higher revelation than others.

What they see and hear is better and more, and more “spiritual” than others. And you dare not give any insight as they will not receive it.

They will ‘name-drop’ and steal the words of other prophets to make themselves look good.

Hence the LORD has told me this is what always causes the rise of cults, especially in times of revival Jehovah’s witness and Mormon cults came about after the 1800’s great
awakening here and were based on someone’s revelation being better than others’.

Jesus said, “Learn of Me; for I AM meek and lowly in heart.” Matthew 11:29 KJV.

For pride to be reckoned with in our churches, then we must be ruthless with it in ourselves, and not make excuses, and rationalize anymore.

Pride is at the root, along with fear, of the CONTROL in the church.

Jezebel is the Harlot church. She is well described above. She indwells men and women. A religious spirit is of the same stuff.

James Ryle had a vision of a rhinocerus once, and God showed him that is representative of a religious spirit. It stomps out fires. And it too, is thick skinned.

The two enemies to true holiness are hypocrisy (pretense) and self-righteousness.

One thing that must change is our self attitudes if we expect to be able to disciple the youth. That critical and judgemental spirit of pride and religion, must go.

They need our LOVE, not our self-defensiveness. They will be used greatly in the days ahead to bring down the idols in our churches.

God will make them a threshing sledge as we have never seen!

They will show us what unity is all about!

I have seen this in them even as unbelievers. The LORD has called them His Showbread!

 

~ Priscilla Van Sutphin

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PRISCILLA VAN SUTPHIN is the founder of Upstream Ministries, California, online at www.upstreamca.org and blogtalkradio.com/ Upstream. Donate to Upstream: via secure Paypal by sending as gift to upstream.ca @me.com or send to: Upstream, PMB 545, 14311 Newport Blvd, Suite G, Tustin, CA 92780, USA.

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