PRIDE & SELFISH AMBITION
READ: Isaiah 14:12-17
How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How art thou cut down to the ground, which did weaken the nations! :-Isaiah 14:12
The original sin of Lucifer was pride and selfish ambition. He said, “I will” five times; he was exalting himself in pride. His pride led to his destruction. God responded to Lucifer’s proudly spoken “I will” statements. Almighty God released five “I will” statements to counteract each of Lucifer’s proud “I wills.”
When God spoke those statements, Lucifer’s reign as the shining one came to an end. He was cast to the ground and became nothing. Lucifer’s end came because of pride. Your end can also come because of pride. The church can also end because of pride. Pride does not just come before a fall. Pride comes before your destruction.
I have appointed thousands of pastors into the ministry. I have also had the unfortunate experience of dealing with difficulties, sin and rebellion. I can surely say every single one of these difficult cases involved pride. You will always find the element of pride somewhere. Usually, immoral people become proud in their sin and this gives them a false confidence to carry on going further and further into sin. It is this pride that often leads them to be discovered, unravelled and uncovered.
It is the pride of rebellious and disloyal men that gives them the confidence to attack authorities. It is pride that enables people to attack their fathers and speak to them as equals.
Proud people set aside ancient scriptures and re-evaluate teachings they themselves have taught. They will say, “Honour your father does not mean you should be blind to your father’s obvious errors.” Proud people say, “Touch not the Lord’s anointed is a scripture that is being misused and misunderstood by authority figures who are doing wrong things.”
Pride was the end of Lucifer and pride is usually the end of many in the ministry.