Self and Pride oppose the Spirit (Part 1)

by David Leach
(Temecula,Ca. USA)

February 14 (Andrew Murray’s devotional)

In the life of earnest Christians, of those who pursue and profess holiness, humility ought to be the chief mark of their uprightness. It is often said that it is not so . May not one reason be that in the teaching and example of the church, it has never been given the place of supreme importance it deserves?

And that this, again, is owing to the neglect of this truth, that strong as sin is as a motive to humility there is one of still wider and mightier influence, that which makes the angels, that which makes Jesus, that which makes the holiest of saints in heaven, so humble: that the first and chief mark of the relation of the creature, the secret of his blessedness, is the humility and nothingness which leaves God free to be all?...This humility is not a thing that will come of itself; it must be made the object of special desire, prayer, faith and practice....

Let us admit that there is nothing so natural in man, nothing so insidious and hidden from our sight, nothing so difficult and dangerous, as pride. Let us feel that nothing but a very determined and persevering waiting on God and Christ will discover how lacking we are in the grace of humility and how impotent to obtain what we seek...And let us believe that, when we are broken down under a sense of our pride, and our impotence to cast it out, Jesus Christ Himself will come to impart this grace to us.
(from Andrew Murray’s book) Humility

From the Book "The Power of the spirit" by William Law
First published ln-1761, re-published by Andrew Murray in 1896
Re-published by C L C n 1967 with a foreword by Norman Grubb

Eph 4:20-23 Christ, assuming that you have really heard Him and been taught by Him...Strip yourselves of your former nature, put off and discard your old un-renewed self which characterized your previous manner of life...And be constantly renewed in the spirit of your mind...Chapter Thirteen...Self and It's Pride...Oppose the Spirit

All the vices of fallen angels and men have their root in the proud atheism of self which has rejected God as its only life and power. Men are dead to God because they are living to self. Self-love, self-esteem, and self-seeking are the essence and the life of pride; and the Devil, the father of pride, is never absent from these passions, nor without an influence in them,

Without a death to self, there is no escape from Satan's power over us. Wherever self-abilities are allowed a share in Christian service or worship, there the satanic spirit of pride has its power in the Church. On the other hand, all the virtues of the heavenly life are the virtues of humility. Not a joy or glory or praise of the redeemed but has its birth in humility. It is humility alone that makes the impassable gulf between heaven and hell.

No angels are in heaven but because humility is in all their breath; no devils are in hell but because the fire of pride has corrupted their whole life. Humility places man in that posture before God of an open heart, thankfully receiving the inward breathings of divine life and light and love. Pride shuts every man up to himself, bringing a death to all that is of God. "God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble. Humble yourselves, therefore, under the mighty hand of God" (James 4:5).

Herein lies the great struggle for eternal life: pride and humility are the two master powers, the two kingdoms in strife for the eternal possession of man. Every son of Adam is in the service of self, regardless of education or position in life, until a humility that comes solely from heaven has become his redemption through the indwelling Christ. Until then, all will be done by the right hand only that the left hand may know it.

Nor can humility be cultivated through a sound head-knowledge of Scripture words and doctrines. The only true humility which the world has ever seen is that of the meek and lowly Lamb of God: and no man can have the least degree of this humility except from the redeeming life of Christ. He only fights the good fight of faith whose strife is that the self-idolatrous nature which he received from Adam may be brought to death through the power of the cross, that Christ's own supernatural humility may come to life within him.

The enemies to man's rising out of the fall of Adam are many. But the supreme enemy, called Antichrist, is self-exaltation. There has been much speculation to see where and what Antichrist is or by what marks he may be recognized. To know with certainty what he is not, one need only read this short description which Christ gives of Himself “ I can do nothing of myself...I came nor to do my own will...I seek not my own glory...I am meek and lowly of heart" (John 5:30, 8:50; Matt. 11:29).

Now if this be Christ, then self -exaltation, being in the highest and fullest opposition, must be that spirit of Antichrist that opposes and withstands the whole nature and Spirit of Christ. And although that particular man who is to be the ultimate embodiment of this spirit may not be yet upon the earth; nevertheless, no man need look any further than his own heart to find the same Antichrist which John said was "already in the world" (1 John 4:3) in his own day.

What therefore has everyone so much to fear, to renounce and abhor, as every inward breathing of self-exaltation, and every outward work that proceeds from it? Now at what things shall a man look to see that working of self from which pride gains its power to hinder the birth and life of the humble Jesus in his soul? Shall he call the pomp and vanities of the world the highest works of self-adoration? Shall he look at the thirst for riches and honor to see the pride that has the most of Antichrist in it?

By no means. These are shameful enough marks of the vain heart of man; yet, comparatively speaking, they are but the skin-deep follies of that pride which the fall of man has begotten and brought forth within him. To discover the deepest root and iron strength of pride and self-exaltation) one must enter into the secret chamber of man's soul, where the Spirit of God, who alone gives humility and meek submission, was denied through Adam's sin, thus bringing that death which came upon all men, for all have sinned.

Satan's own spirit of self-exaltation became the strong man that kept charge of the house, until a stronger than he should regain possession. Here in man's innermost being, self had its awful birth, and established its throne, reigning over a kingdom of secret pride, of which all outward pomp and vanities are but its childish, transitory playthings. "It is not those things from without that defile a man" (Mark 7:I5), said Christ, "but out of the heart comes all the evil of man's defilement" (Matt. I5:18).

The inward strong man of pride, the diabolical self, has his higher works within; he dwells in the strength of the heart, and here every power and faculty of the soul offers continual incense to him. Memory is the faithful repository of all the fine things that self has ever done, and lest any of them should be lost or forgotten, memory is continually setting them before self's eyes. Man's intellect has all the world before it, yet goes after nothing but as self sends it, ever seeking new projects to enlarge its dominion.

Imagination, as the last and truest support of self, lays unseen worlds at his feet, and crowns him with secret revenges and fancied honors. This is that satanic, natural self that must be denied and crucified, or there can be no disciple of Christ.