Pride - The Ability to Not Receive

Pride is something we all know is bad. We can probably use it in a sentence yet have never thought about what it actually is. Pride is not arrogance or confidence. Pride is not even a lack of humility. Pride is the original sin. Lucifer fell because his heart became haughty because of his beauty. Pride is being a a place so sure of who you are you begin to think you don’t need God. Pride is most easily birthed in a position of favor that God shows you. For the glory from His hand can be used to either give back to him, or to lift yourself up to a place of no longer needing Him. And that lifting is pride. In Matthew, Jesus just completed a miracle crusade of sorts. A huge crowd was gathering because of the demonstration of the power of the Holy Spirit. Jesus then withdrew to teach the disciples about what was going on and how it was happening. We know from scripture that anytime a demon is cast out and when someone is healed or receives something from the power of the Holy Spirit, that the kingdom of God has come upon that person. They are receiving something from the kingdom of heaven

1 Now when Jesus saw the crowds, He went up on the mountain; and after He sat down, His disciples came to Him. 2 And He opened His mouth and began to teach them, saying, 3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

Matthew 5:1-3

The kingdom of heaven is for those who are reduced to the point of begging in their spirit. That is actually what that word means in the Greek. It is the people who are so aware of their need for God that they lay down anything that they could hold strength in and cry out for Him! It is these people that receive so easily because there is nothing of pride in their spirit. It is the poor in spirit that receive from Jesus. They know they desperately need Him! Some of the strongest individuals in God, when perceived from the outside, were actually the most sensitive and weak on the inside. Pride guarantees you one thing. The absence of God and the presence of You. What a terrible place to be.