SPIRITUAL BELIEVERS
Let me be brief and avoid writing too many things which might distract us from the one principal feature and fact characterizing spiritual believers. That fact is: THEY SEE the spiritual truths, spiritual realities, spiritual world and also themselves. Since they SEE, they also LIVE the spiritual truths and spiritual realities.
They do not judge by what they read, hear or see outwardly, but by what they SEE IN SPIRIT. Therefore, they are able to judge righteously, walk by the Spirit and live by faith, as also Our Lord did. (Is. 11:1-5) Their SOUL is being cleansed, renewed, delivered and governed by the Spirit of the Lord. Also, their SPIRIT is being cleansed and perfected in whatever part it is still evil, dark or filthy. (2Cor. 7:1// Tit. 1:15// Heb. 10:22) They must hold the mystery of the faith (hidden truth) in a pure conscience. (1Tim. 3:9) How perfectly they are walking by the Spirit and living by faith or judging righteously is another matter altogether which depends solely on the degree of their deliverance and cleansing from the flesh in their soul.
Each such believer is on his/her own spiritual level of being perfected. This level depends on the length of time that that believer has been denying himself and taking up his cross and following the Lord (Mt. 16:24); how long he has been cleansing himself from all filthiness of flesh and spirit (2Cor. 7:1); how long he has been going on unto perfection, (Heb. 6:1) working out his own Salvation with fear and trembling. (Phil. 2:12) In summation, his level depends on the degree to which he has crucified his flesh with the affections and lusts thereof. (Gal. 5:24)
Now, why is this work of faith necessary before we can SEE in spirit? The Lord can never impart “spiritual seeing” to our flesh. It means that while our soul is, for example, under the influence of the spirit of pride, hate, fear, self-righteousness, stubbornness or any other evil or unacceptable spirit, it is unable to be at the same time under the spirit of revelation or wisdom! Pride is blind and stupid and it cannot dwell together with wisdom and receive any revelation of truth from God. We know that God resists the proud. (Jam. 4:6// 1Pet. 5:5) Also, we cannot receive any revelations while we speak or live contrary to the Word of God and we are shown this fact. Hence, to whatever degree the above works of faith of the believer and his cooperation with God have been accomplished, to that degree, depth, height and clarity he is able TO SEE IN SPIRIT. To see in spirit is a privilege of every born-again believer, but it is not a reality with every born-again believer.
Let us now consider the issue of PRIDE in more depth and reality because it is an extremely important and widespread problem in Christianity carrying with itself great dangers to our spiritual life, to our ministry and to our ultimate destiny! “EVERY ONE THAT IS PROUD IN HEART IS AN ABOMINATION TO THE LORD;” (Pr. 16:5a)
PRIDE is the chief reason why Our Lord had to die and kill this venom in Himself on His Cross where the Father gave Him a cup to drink (see more later) and laid on Him all our sins and deeds of darkness and evil. PRIDE IS THE CHIEF FEATURE OF THE CHARACTER OF SATAN which we inherited through Adam and Eve after their fall.
THERE IS NO MAN EVER BORN TO THIS WORLD WITHOUT PRIDE! It is only a question of how deep and strong it is in individual men. This pride is NATURAL and is found in every natural soul. A naturally humble and timid man also contains this pride in his natural soul, but it does not operate in his life in the same way as it does in an outwardly proud man. Therefore, it may be easy to observe outwardly proud or outwardly fearful men as these spirits are clearly “written” all over their countenance. On the other hand, such pride, fear or other spirits may be deeply hidden in man’s soul so that we will not see them easily unless we have the ability to see and judge the fruit of these spirits in the life of such men.
Our Lord desires to warn us of one particularly dangerous and venomous kind of pride – the SPIRITUAL PRIDE. We are not born with this kind of pride and thus it was not a part of our natural soul. We gain it progressively as we acquire greater knowledge of the Bible and religious topics, as we begin to teach others or preach to congregations or build ministries. We already know that intellectual knowledge in a natural soul puffs up that soul. (1Cor. 8:1) The more we are aware of our knowledge and “performance”, the more we are admired and even “worshipped” by ignorant believers, the more books we write, the larger the congregations, the greater and more impressive religious enterprises we run, the more gifts of the Spirit we use or minister to others, the more titles are attached to our names, the more pictures of us are published or hung on the walls of our ministries or institutions, THE GREATER THE SPIRITUAL PRIDE IN OUR SOULS! Are the leaders in the Church aware of this fact?
The mind of spiritually proud believers is always SURE of its knowledge, understanding, ways and decisions. Everything is rationalized and reasoned away and the Word of God is reduced to the level of human reasoning. To deal with such a mind is not only difficult, it is outright impossible without the power of the Holy Spirit Himself. Just as our body may be in, what we call, a “devil’s grip”, so also our soul (mind, heart and will) may also be in such “devil’s grip” through the spiritual pride and its darkness. We are then unable to see simple facts in our mind, have any true perception of important matters in our heart or have power and ability to decide righteously and wisely in spiritual matters.
Why is this kind so dangerous? Believers with spiritual pride may behave as naturally humble people; they may display a “false humility” because even in their natural understanding they know that they ought to be humble. By this false humility they may easily deceive others as being holy and spiritual, while they are not. They may be sincere, honest, diligent, and zealous of good works, but their spiritual pride “colors their ministry” and greatly diminishes its spiritual value. So, why should we take an extra care and effort in dealing with this kind of pride?
SPIRITUAL PRIDE makes believers totally blind to themselves. They may see the natural pride in others, but they can’t see the spiritual pride in others, and certainly not in themselves!
SPIRITUAL PRIDE ALWAYS CAUSES SPIRITUAL BLINDNESS.
THE OLD TESTAMENT PHARISEES HAD BOTH KINDS OF PRIDE, THE NATURAL PRIDE BECAUSE OF THEIR POSITION AND ALSO THE SPIRITUAL PRIDE BECAUSE OF THEIR (NATURAL) KNOWLEDGE OF THE SCRIPTURES. THEREFORE, THEIR HATRED AND BITTERNESS TOWARD JESUS CHRIST, THEIR MESSIAH, WAS SO GREAT AND INCURABLE.
THE NEW TESTAMENT PHARISEES ARE THE SAME EVEN THOUGH THEY MAY SAY THEY ‘LOVE THE LORD’. IF OUR NATURAL PRIDE IS NOT DEALT WITH BEFORE WE ACQUIRE THE SPIRITUAL PRIDE, THEN WE ARE IN A VERY PITIFUL, DANGEROUS AND OFTEN INCURABLE STATE INDEED. IT IS OFTEN TOO LATE FOR SUCH BELIEVERS TO STRIVE TO ENTER THE STRAIGHT GATE AND TAKE UP THEIR CROSS AND DENY THEMSELVES. (LK. 13:24) CAN YOU SEE THIS FACT? TRUTHFULLY?
Spiritual pride blocks our spiritual vision but allows our intellectual faculty to function. The result is that any minister, who is affected by this kind of pride, is unable to discern spiritually what he is preaching or teaching. Yet, he may be very active and diligent in his intellectual religious activities including teaching, preaching or writing books. These believers are following a rule that…
WHATEVER I AGREE WITH, THAT IS TRUTH AND WHATEVER I DISAGREE WITH, THAT IS NOT TRUTH! BUT NO TRUE SERVANT OF GOD HAS THE RIGHT TO LIVE AND ACT BY SUCH A SPIRITUALLY PRIMITIVE AND SCRIPTURALLY TOTALLY WRONG RULE.
THE WORD OF GOD MUST “BOW TO THEIR INTELLECT”, RATHER THAN THEIR INTELLECT WOULD BOW TO THE WORD OF GOD! NO TRUE SERVANT OF GOD EVER ACTED THIS WAY AND ELEVATED HIS MENTAL KNOWLEDGE AND UNDERSTANDING ABOVE THE SPIRITUAL KNOWLEDGE OF THE WORD HIMSELF. (JN. 1:1// 1JN. 5:7) DO WE SEE THIS FACT?
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To be continued next week in chapter 3 – part 13
brother Hanola
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