THE FUEL FOR PRIDE

A fuel is a substance that empowers or provides energy for combustion. Just like petrol or kerosene or gas can be used to power engines, stoves or cookers, there are certain circumstances that can power pride in the life of a victim of pride and these include: position of influence, possession, knowledge and a personal overestimation of the victim or the flattery of other people. 

POSITION OF INFLUENCE: we see a very clear example of this in the book of Esther in the life of Haman who was promoted for no apparent reason except on the ground of sentiments that perhaps he was a friend of the king. As soon as this happened, he became over bloated in his opinion of himself and expected everyone occupying a lesser position than him in the kingdom to bow to him. His passion to be acknowledged degenerated to the point of what can best be described as insanity because that is the only explanation that can be given for his obsession to wipe out the Jewish people as a whole because a Jew refused to bow to him. In Esther 3:1-6, we read:

      “After these things did king Ahasuerus promote Haman the son of Hammedatha the Agagite, and advanced him, and set his seat above all the princes that were with him.

And all the king's servants, that were in the king's gate, bowed, and reverenced Haman: for the king had so commanded concerning him. But Mordecai bowed not, nor did him reverence.

Then the king's servants, which were in the king's gate, said unto Mordecai, Why transgressest thou the king's commandment?

Now it came to pass, when they spake daily unto him, and he hearkened not unto them, that they told Haman, to see whether Mordecai's matters would stand: for he had told them that he was a Jew.

And when Haman saw that Mordecai bowed not, nor did him reverence, then was Haman full of wrath.

And he thought scorn to lay hands on Mordecai alone; for they had shewed him the people of Mordecai: wherefore Haman sought to destroy all the Jews that were throughout the whole kingdom of Ahasuerus, even the people of Mordecai.”

From this text of scripture we can observe that the rage resulting from pride can lead to a very destructive obsession. Hamman did not just stop at dealing with Mordecai but decided to exterminate the whole of the Jewish people. He also did not stop at handling the matter physically, he employed sorcery to carry out his diabolic plan. In Esther 3:7 we are told that on a daily basis for a whole year, Haman was consulting oracle to be able to get negative supernatural help to exterminate the Jews. The text reads:

“In the first month, that is, the month Nisan, in the twelfth year of king Ahasuerus, they cast Pur, that is, the lot, before Haman from day to day, and from month to month, to the twelfth month, that is, the month Adar.”

This is what is going on in some offices and as you read this book; you may even be a target of an unknown enemy whose pride has driven him or her to the point of obsession with your destruction. Such a person is willing to do anything to see you destroyed and if you let them, they would get you but you shall not be caught in their web in Jesus’ name! I believe this is why it was necessary for the Israelites to engage the force of a three day fast to combat the situation. Haman was not acting in human strength; his obsession drove him to engage evil terrestrial unseen forces. If you are experiencing this kind of thing in your place of work, school or anywhere you find yourself, it is no time to take things easy, also engage the force of the word of God and prayer and possibly fasting to combat it because pride is such a wicked spirit that it can drive a person to envy and eventually murder. Sadly, we see things like this happening even in families and you wonder at what point they lost the innocent childhood love they once shared.

I recently heard the story of one Pastor in my Country who was killed by another Pastor for winning a contract he desired and lost. Another story is told of a Pastor who was killed about four years ago at the time of writing this book for a similar reason. At the bottom line of every jealousy and envy is pride because both envy and jealousy are born out of a feeling of “why not me instead of this other person.” The reason for that is an over bloated self-image. 

In our text scripture we see that Haman got into this prideful situation as a result of being conferred with an office beyond his level of maturity. He became arrogant or should I say, his arrogance became amplified by his new office and it degenerated to an obsession to see the Jews exterminated and he destroyed himself and his family in the process. 

POSSESSION: It is often said that some people change and become very proud after becoming materially prosperous. I do not hold this stance because I see wealth or material prosperity as an amplifier of your person and interests. A proud person is proud whether he is rich or poor. However, when he is poor, he has to feign humility to enable him feed his stomach at least. As soon as that state is taken care of, the real person shows up. Usually, people who become proud because of possession get their possessions by questionable means in most cases; not all cases. Going back to our example of Haman in the book of Esther, it is not farfetched to observe that he was manipulating the king by sorcery because he did not approach the king until he got clearance of the date set by the evil terrestrial spirits he had trusted in for the destruction of the Jews. His success in persuading the king to sign such a wicked decree and the king’s decision to not see any of his wives for thirty days shows an unseen enemy working behind the scene. Even though Haman did not know that Esther was a Jew, the evil spirits knew and tried to play her out of the scene, but God checkmated them when the Jews engaged the spiritual force of a three day dry fast!

Haman’s possession fuelled pride is seen in his offer of a lot of money into the king’s treasury to carry out the king’s decree born out of his manipulation of the king by sorcery and fair speech. In Esther 3:9, we read:

“If it please the king, let it be written that they may be destroyed: and I will pay ten thousand talents of silver to the hands of those that have the charge of the business, to bring it into the king's treasuries.”

From this text we can see how far a man can be driven by pride. He was willing to spend so much money to fulfill his lust to see the Jews destroyed because Mordecai refused to massage his ego! He ended up destroying himself and his possession could not save him then because God got involved!  

A good example of this from the bible is Lucifer whose heart was lifted up in pride because of the beauty and musical grace bestowed on him by the Lord and he decided to leave his place as an angel to compete with the most high who created him. This was the introduction of evil and so he became known as the devil. We see this account in Ezekiel 28:13-17 thus:

“Thou hast been in Eden the garden of God; every precious stone was thy covering, the sardius, topaz, and the diamond, the beryl, the onyx, and the jasper, the sapphire, the emerald, and the carbuncle, and gold: the workmanship of thy tabrets and of thy pipes was prepared in thee in the day that thou wast created.

Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth; and I have set thee so: thou wast upon the holy mountain of God; thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire.

Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee.

By the multitude of thy merchandise they have filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned: therefore I will cast thee as profane out of the mountain of God: and I will destroy thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire.

Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness: I will cast thee to the ground, I will lay thee before kings, that they may behold thee.” (emphasis mine).

From the last verse in our quoted text here, we see that Lucifer became prideful as a result of his beauty. Beauty is a possession which is a gift from God. Lucifer should not have forgotten the source and purpose of the beauty he had received. He got carried away as many get carried away these days forgetting that everything within time is for a season. Once the season passes, they become irrelevant. Being proud because of possession is taking a stance that your possessions are greater than you. Physical beauty will pass away with use (the normal wear and tear) and then what becomes of you after that? If you get married to a person for their good looks for instance, you will quickly realize that good looks do not sustain a marriage when their character does not measure up. As time goes on, you will not even notice how good looking they are any more, so do not dehumanize yourself by exalting possession over people in your life. 

KNOWLEDGE: In 1Cor.8:1 Apostle Paul makes us understand that one can become arrogant as a result of having much knowledge and that for knowledge to bring about adding value to others, it must be tampered with love. The text reads:

“… we know that we all have knowledge. Knowledge puffeth up, but charity edifieth.”

People who are prideful as a result of what they know usually manifest this trait in impatience with people less knowledgeable and anger and jealousy at people more knowledgeable. This is why it is very important to walk in love because the first manifestation of love as we are taught by 1Cor.13:4 is patience followed by kindness. So love subdues the pride that results from knowledge because by its very nature, love must be patient and kind.

AN OVER BLOATED SELF-IMAGE: This is the very definition of pride. This can result from self-deceit or the flattery of sycophants around the victim. A leader for instance; who surrounds himself with sycophants would likely fall into this class of prideful people. People like this do not like to hear the truth; they want to hear what they erroneously believe to be the truth. In the book of 1Kings 12 we see a good example of this in the story of Rehoboam the son of Solomon who succeeded Solomon as king over Israel and Judah. On his coronation ceremony, the people requested that he lightened the burden placed on them by Solomon and he gave them time to come back for his decision on that. I believe this was a straight forward matter where he could have made a decision on the spot if he wanted to be reasonable. Yet he delayed because he did not really want to do the right thing but needed to engage group psychology for his folly. This explains why he turned down the wise counsel of his father’s advisers and chose to pitch his tent with the counsel of the young ignorant men like himself. The result was that he lost ten of the twelve tribes of Israel to Jeroboam. Israel was never the same after that dumb decision of this prideful ignorant young king.

He overestimated himself when he believed the flattery of his friends that he was tougher than his father when in actual fact, he was a very weak leader who needed the support of his friends to make a dumb decision.

If you are not yet born again, you will easily fall into pride as that is your nature, but you can change that nature now by saying this prayer below and the Holy Spirit will take you up from there and you will be born again by the Spirit and receive the nature of God which cannot be trapped by pride. 

 If you just said this prayer, congratulations, you are now born again. I would like to send you a free e copy of our Believers' Guide to Growth to enable you understand your new life and learn how to grow into maturity in the faith. Please contact me and let me know you need this resource material at flourishinggirl@gmail.com.