Fasting Prayer Focus

Pride

Most of the time people are shocked to learn from God that they have pride in their heart that they need to get rid of. One of the main reasons for this shock is because we always think of pride as something that other people have issues with and not us. When you’re sitting in a church service or reading a bible passage, it’s pride that tells you to skip the Holy Spirit’s surgery on your own heart, because you don’t need it and instead draft a mental blog post or plan a potential conversation for the people who “really need to hear this, because they are the ones with the problem.”

Pride is extremely sneaky and it hides in our heart in ways that it goes completely undetected until God exposes it. It deceives and it is a very stubborn demon that tends to show up in almost every known demonic cluster. It can make you feel self-important and self-righteous or it can make you feel as though the world is out to get you. "When someone is affected by this spirit, it destroys covenant relationships. This spirit breaks up marriages, business partnerships, friendships, and, worst of all, churches."

Pride makes you think you don't need anyone, that you can do everything on your own or you’ll find yourself thinking that things just “aren’t fair!” You’ll also find yourself thinking, “Why should I have to do this? Someone else could just as easily do this, so why should I do it!?” It leads you to see people as resources to leverage and use to achieve your own ends. Pride keeps you from experiencing the intimacy of relationship, collaboration and exchanging of thought and ideas. It keeps you from seeing the value in others. Pride will lead you to compete rather than collaborate. You will have a "me vs. the world" mentality.

For prideful people, honoring covenant is not possible. They do not see the blessings of walking in covenant. With covenant, you have to be willing to compromise, to give and take, to hear and sometimes act on behalf of another. Pride hardens the hearts of those it possesses, causing them to reject covenant—even covenant with God. People controlled by pride do not value others; therefore they cannot honor others by keeping their word to them. Marriages, friendships and families are the types of coventantal relationships that fall apart because one party is subject to pride.

When people are consumed by pride, they have a way of closing themselves off and unknowingly hiding behind that pride. Proud people can hinder the flow of the Holy Spirit and block prayer and prayer ministry, because humility is the key to operating and flowing in the power of The Holy Spirit. Pride causes us to lean to our own understanding, which is very limited. We cut God's infinite wisdom and unlimited strength and provision out of the picture, and we set ourselves up for failure and burnout, among other things.

Most of the people who have this powerful spirit operating in their lives never get delivered because one of its main jobs is to block deliverance and keep the person blind to its attacks.

Seven Symptoms of Pride

Fault-Finding

While pride causes us to filter out the evil we see in ourselves, it also causes us to filter out God’s goodness in others. We sift them, letting only their faults fall into our perception of them. The spiritually proud person shows it in his finding fault with other saints. . . . The eminently humble Christian has so much to do at home and sees so much evil in his own that he is not apt to be very busy with other hearts.

A Harsh Spirit

Those who have the sickness of pride in their hearts speak of others’ sins with contempt, irritation, frustration, or judgment. Pride is crouching inside our belittling of the struggles of others. It’s cowering in our jokes about the ‘craziness’ of our spouse. It may even be lurking in the prayers we throw upward for our friends that are — subtly or not — tainted with exasperated irritation. “Christians who are but fellow-worms ought at least to treat one another with as much humility and gentleness as Christ treats them.”

Superficiality

When pride lives in our hearts, we’re far more concerned with others’ perceptions of us than the reality of our hearts. We fight the sins that have an impact on how others view us, and make peace with the ones that no one sees. We have great success in the areas of holiness that have highly visible accountability, but little concern for the disciplines that happen in secret.

Defensiveness

Those who stand in the strength of Christ’s righteousness alone find a confident hiding place from the attacks of men and Satan alike. True humility is not knocked off balance and thrown into a defensive posture by challenge or rebuke, but instead continues in doing good, entrusting the soul to our faithful Creator. Edwards says, “For the humble Christian, the more the world is against him, the more silent and still he will be, unless it is in his prayer closet, and there he will not be still.”

Presumption Before God

Humility approaches God with humble assurance in Christ Jesus. If either the “humble” or the “assurance” are missing in that equation, our hearts very well might be infected with pride. Some of us have no shortage of boldness before God, but if we’re not careful, we can forget that he is God. Edwards writes, “Some, in their great rejoicing before God, have not paid sufficient regard to that rule in Psalm 2:11 — ‘Worship the Lord with reverence, and rejoice with trembling.’” Others of us feel no confidence before God, which sounds like humility, but in reality it’s another symptom of pride. In those moments, we’re testifying that we believe our sins are greater than his grace. We doubt the power of Christ’s blood and we’re stuck staring at ourselves instead of Christ.

Desperation for Attention

Pride is hungry for attention, respect, and worship in all its forms. Maybe it sounds like shameless boasting about ourselves. Maybe it’s being unable to say “no” to anyone because we need to be needed. Maybe it looks like obsessively thirsting for marriage — or fantasizing about a better marriage — because you’re hungry to be adored. Maybe it looks like being haunted by your desire for the right car or the right house or the right title at work: all because you seek the glory that comes from men, not God.

Neglecting Others

Pride prefers some people over others. It honors those who the world deems worthy of honor, giving more weight to their words, their wants, and their needs. There’s a thrill that goes through me when people with “power” acknowledge me. We consciously or unconsciously pass over the weak, the inconvenient, and the unattractive, because they don’t seem to offer us much. Maybe more of us struggle with pride than we thought. There’s good news for the prideful. Confession of pride signals the beginning of the end for pride. It indicates the war is already being waged. For only when the Spirit of God is moving, already humbling us, can we remove the lenses of pride from our eyes and see ourselves clearly, identifying the sickness and seeking the cure. By God’s grace, we can turn once again to the glorious gospel in which we stand and make much of him even through identifying our pride in all its hiding places inside of us. Just as my concealed pride once moved me toward death, so the acknowledgement of my own pride moves me toward life by causing me to cling more fiercely to the righteousness of Christ.

Even if you think pride is not an area of challenge for you. True humility will cause you to humble yourself and allow God to search you anyway. Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting! (Psalm 139:23-24)

Other Signs that Pride is Present

• You have “pride” when God tells you to do something, and you do not obey. That could be from keeping his commandments, or just a small prompting from the Holy Spirit to do something. That is pride.

• You have pride, when you are rebellious. It could be from someone, in authority. You have a hard time submitting to authority, or even on an equal basis. Submitting to anyone.

• You may have pride or be dismissive, when someone shares their faith in God. You get turned off. You know what is right, from wrong, and you may hear the truth but there is something that just annoys you so much, that when someone expresses their faith you shut down, or you want to shut them down either way you choose to do your thing anyway. And dismiss truth. That is a characteristic of pride. This scripture is a strong warning to see the result, of having pride with a Christian. God protects His people. This shall they have for their pride, because they have reproached and magnified themselves against the people of the Lord of hosts. Zephaniah 2:10

• You have pride, when you won’t budge, you won’t compromise to be humble, or extend grace, in a matter. Even if you are right. Being right or wrong is irrelevant to you. You are not flexible. You want to control the end result (like the devil) and you will not forgive yourself, to even give a little compromise in any matter or to lighten up on your stance. You see, God extends grace to us, and He is always right. But do we do the same for others? Think about the example, in the Bible, when the man’s debt was forgiven, but when he went out into the world, he would not forgive, he did not extend that same grace, he had been given and he had the servant thrown into prison. That was pride.

• Pride is not admitting you are wrong. Or even the possibility that you could be wrong. You shut down communication. Not open to hear, not open to listen, not open, to receive. How sad…

• Pride is looking down on others, thinking you are better than someone else. Though, you have been forgiven, of sin. You look at others, and judge them. You forget the suffering you may have gone through, but you see yourself, as holier than thou. You have turned the righteousness, of God, into your own “self-righteousness.” And don’t think just because you are a Christian, that you cannot have pride. Because the enemy will target you specifically more so if you are not aware of the devils devices.

• Pride is being inferior, to someone. For example, you let someone intimidate you or even allow them to persecute you for not recognizing your own strengths. When you cannot see who God called you to be and you see others as more superior or better than you. God is not a respecter of persons. He loves us all the same. We are all, called to be his children. So you cannot relinquish your confidence, to someone, and lose yourself by being in denial of who you are in Christ. This is pride to not admit you need to boost your own confidence, in Him and by accepting yourself as someone’s stepping stone or punching bag. Either we choose to recognize and see He created us in his image, or we do not. Either we see His truth, and embrace it, or we do not, because pride, has blinded us. Self-esteem should not be from our own ability or our accomplishments but from Him for He created us in his image. He is the one that gave us the gift that we excel at, whatever it may be, that we do well at. If you are conceited to think it’s all you, this is pride.

• Pride can be present when we are jealous of others. Of their accomplishments, or their attributes, or even the way they look. A person with pride won’t reach out, they won’t try to be friendly or nice, because pride won’t let them and jealousy stops them. When you treat a person as though they don’t exist, that is pride. To get rid of pride we have to get rid of the defensive attitude, the guard, and be the person God created us to be.

• Pride is being very high minded, puffed up, overly arrogant and not reasonable to extend grace to yourself or others. It is so important to recognize pride so you can see it, take it to Christ, so it can be uprooted from your life. You need to know how it can stop you and hurt you. It is ok to have confidence, but you have to make sure that you have not allowed pride to get you out of balance. If you are being prideful, and not seeing who you can be in Christ, you can miss out on doing great things for God, and others. Don’t let pride stop the blessings of God in your life, stop you from meeting your potential or stop you from being the best you can be.

Prayer for Pride:

Father, deliver me from the captivity and power of pride and any stronghold that will hold me back from spiritual growth and health. Help me to forgive as I am commanded by You and help me to walk in the cleansing power of Jesus from all unrighteousness of the spirit of darkness. I choose to surrender myself over to Your Word and the power of Your Holy Spirit. Thank you for showing me that pride comes before destruction and a haughty spirit before a fall. I want neither of these, only Your truth.

I stand in the gap and repent for my ancestors on both sides of my family back over three, four, and seven and ten generations and even back over forty and one hundred generations for great pride and pride in all its forms.

Father I repent of any stiff necked pride and stubbornness (Acts 7:51) with rebellion; I repent of all religious and denominational pride, all ambitious pride and the iniquity of a critical spirit with cutting words and actions and even wanting and seeking vengeance. I also repent for any areas where I have not been willing to be told anything for I have thought that I knew it all and I repent of any haughtiness and loftiness.

I ask that where I have been listening but never hearing for You to change my heart and open my ears to understand Your Word and Your ways and I repent for not being teachable and for being judgmental. I repent of any over exaggerated opinion I’ve had of myself, any conceit, any haughty behavior, any arrogance and even where I have been overly delighted in my own achievements and thought very little of or looked down on others.

Father, I repent where I have become intolerant of others because I’ve felt that they lack my understanding, intelligence and capabilities and even where I have isolated myself because people are just not what I want them to be and they are just not like me. I repent where I have wanted to change others and have even taken their roles because I felt they are not as perfect as me. I repent of the fruits of suspicion and mistrust and self-deception and where I have become legalist reveal to me and bring to death this legalism. I even repent where I legally challenge people with scripture like being a lawyer knowingly and unknowingly.

Father, I repent where rejection has caused me to become a perfectionist and where I have become puffed up with pride and rebellion. I repent of any self-righteousness and where I have rejected those in the church and not obeyed Your command of love of the brethren and acceptance of the beloved and not walking in love. I repent also where I have justified my own rebellion and disobedience to Your Word and ways because of a stronghold of the transgression of pride.

I repent also of any pride of prosperity, my furniture, my belongings, my car, my income, my business, my career and even my calling and position in the church. Also the pride of my heritage, my ancestry, my parent’s lineage and achievements and even where they have instilled in me pride because of all this. Father, I repent of any hardness of heart and any stony heart because of pride.

I repent where I have refused subjection and dependence upon you because of rebellious pride. I repent where I have given honor and glory to myself instead of You because of pride. I repent of all mockery and scorn and foolishness, any proud looks of contempt and haughtiness and proud heart. I repent of all disrespect, dishonor to parents and elders and disrespect for authority with arrogance and all lying. I repent of envy, shame, strife, blasphemy and arguing. I repent of all greed, gluttony, slothfulness, idleness and all sexual sins of lust and those committed in drunkenness. I repent where I have compromised Your Word with Your instruction not to sin, to live righteously and for where I have compromised Your Word to follow after the lusts of the flesh and the ways of the world.

Father I ask you to bring to death the sin structures of any and all pride, stubbornness and rebellion in my life and help me to live a life of humility and love in this area of my life in agreement with You and Your word. Crucify the old man so that I can die to flesh and help me to live in newness of life as You continue to do a work within my heart so I do not continue to be ensnared by a stronghold of pride, rebellious pride and stubbornness.

I repent and renounce all fascination with the forbidden and even the supernatural. I repent where I have unknowingly allowed the stronghold of pride to counterfeit my life and the works and manifestations of Your Holy Spirit. Father where I have opened myself up to false tongues because of pride and any other religious spirits or evil spirits from the laying on of hands because pride has not allowed me to hear or see or speak even to slumber, Father, I ask for deliverance of all these spirits that have entered my life.

Father where I may have any of these specific spirits of pride: “Foot of Pride (Psalm 26:11); Rod of Pride (Proverbs 14:3); Crown of Pride (Isaiah 28:1, 3); Great Pride (Jeremiah 13:9); Pride of Life (1 John 2:16).” I repent right now and ask for deliverance. “Right now in the name of Jesus, I break the power and curse of Leviathan and all related spirits back to ten generations on both sides of the family and destroy any legal rights or ground which give evil spirits reason to operate. I destroy all these in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ.”

Father where any pride has brought in infirmity, disease, illness and sickness I ask for healing and deliverance and freedom from: depression, weariness, loneliness, emotional pain, oppression, fatigue and fatigue unto death, excessive tiredness, exhaustion, death suicide, schizophrenia, defeatism, dejection, despair, hopelessness, insomnia, morbidity, despair, despondency, discouragement.”

Father, as I humble myself before You, I thank You that the power of Leviathan is broken and I bind the seven heads being little pride, arrogant pride, spiritual pride, rationalization, justification, logic, pride in knowing and using these things and I also bind the spirit of error and spirits of the world and worldliness.

Father, I give You all praise and all honor because of who You are. Help me to clearly discern the idolatries of the spirit of darkness and to see how pride destroys even though the world sees such things as innocent and normal. I humble myself before you and Your truth. I know that You resist the proud just as you resist the devil. Help me to resist both and to walk in your strength. In human weakness I am made perfect in Your strength. Help me to remember this and to keep humility in my life before You. Through the sacrifice of Jesus, You offer abundant life and I am thankful. I know that my victory is in Jesus my Lord and Savior. Because I know pride and the deceptions of the spirit of darkness will keep me from enjoying the fullness of Your abundance, I renounce pride and all manifestations of the spirit of darkness in my life. I proclaim and receive Your promises as I operate in Your Purpose and thank you in the name of Jesus.

Overcoming Selfishness

We justify our own sin to ourselves and we want to be rid of its effects, we just don’t want to have to pay the price of letting the sin go out of our lives. Does this sound familiar?

Selfishness is a word that we are all too familiar with but I wonder how often we stop to think about what it actually means! Self–ish-ness … it’s about our tendency to put ourselves, our needs, our plans, our reputations before other people.

Problem is, we notice when other people are being selfish to us, we notice when they put themselves and their own interests before ours but we rarely notice when the shoe is on the other foot. We rarely notice when it’s us who are being selfish. In fact, for most of us, we never once thought of ourselves as being selfish when the reality is that ‘self’ is a lot of time all we are interested in.

How about you? How often do you think of yourself being selfish as opposed to other people being selfish towards you? That’s why selfishness is such an insidious sin. It rears its ugly head all too often without us ever really noticing that we are the ones being selfish. And this putting of self above and before other people, it takes so many different forms. Whenever my interests are more important to me than your interests, the easiest thing in the world is to put mine before yours and that … that’s what we call selfishness.

“Then Jesus said to His disciples, ‘If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me. For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it.'” (Matthew 16:24-25 NKJV)

As Christians walking with the Lord, are we dying to “self” and fulfilling the desire of God to become more Christ-like? Or, are we those who are being dragged by the current of the world, and have lost our desire to please our Heavenly Father? It’s important to recognize that there are only two paths in which we can direct our lives as believers. One is the path that makes us more like Jesus. The other is the one that make us less like Him. There is no option to be in the middle. There is no such thing as passive Christianity. Either we are winning the battle against “self”, or we are being defeated by it. It’s that simple.

Many Christians today see churches as businesses that are designed to accommodate their desires and Christianity as a way to get their needs met. They say things like, “Well, I don’t like the type of music they play for worship.” Or, “They don’t give me enough attention, I feel ignored there.” Or, “The seats they have are uncomfortable.” This type of Christianity is not about pleasing God, and becoming a servant in the body of Christ. Instead, it’s centered on how can God please the believer, and what can the church do for them.

If we are going to overcome selfishness and become selfless we will have to live in the Spirit and die to self. A life filled with the Spirit is the key to living a selfless and Christ-centered life. We must choose each day to do so. The Bible says in Galatians 5:16-17, “Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.”

Prayer for selfishness:

Father please forgive me for every area where I have been a selfish person. Every day my flesh is confronted with decisions and I know that often times I justify my reasoning for what I choose to do. I do what benefits me and if it is inconvenient or outside of my desire, I don’t always want to do it. Holy Spirit, search my heart and like a heat-seeking missile, Father, I ask that you lock onto the areas of my heart that are still concerned with my own selfish desires and remove them and replace them with Your desires. Lord, I want to be truly selfless so I ask that You would eradicate selfishness in me. Holy Spirit, help me to daily submit myself to you. Only with your help, Father can I lead a life that honors you and honors others above myself. Please help me not to be selfish. Help me to not only put others first, but to do it with a joyful heart. Change me Father. Remove any selfish ways in me and give me a heart and mind that is focused on You and Your love in Jesus’ name. Also Father fill me with Godly wisdom and love so that there is no room for selfishness in Jesus’ name Amen

Prayers for Revival and Spiritual Awakening at Miracleland Church

1. Ask God to bring deep conviction of sin, spiritual brokenness, a spirit of humility, a holy fear of God and genuine repentance among the members of Miracleland Church. (2 Chronicles 7:14-15; James 4:6)

2. Pray for deep cleansing, genuine repentance, and spiritual power to engulf pastors and leaders. (Hebrews 9:14, Ephesians 6:14-20) (Come against a spirit of discouragement.)

3. Pray for God to bestow spiritual hunger in the members and draw them to fervent intercession. (Philippians 2:13

4. Pray that God will bring loving unity at Miracleland and a deep harmony between our members. (John 13:35)(Psalms 133:1)

5. Pray for God to fill the members of Miracleland with a true passion to see people saved. (Romans 10:1-2) (Romans 9:1-3)

6. Ask God to deal with any unforgiveness, resentment or bitterness among the members of Miracleland Church (Ephesians 4:30-32).

7. Pray that God will convict and save any deceived, unregenerate church members (Matthew 7:21-23; 2 Corinthians 13:5-6; Matthew 28:18-20; 2 Corinthians 5:10).

8. Ask God to reveal any obstacles that could hinder Miracleland from experiencing genuine revival and pray for its removal. (Psalm 139:23)

9. Pray that God will pour out His Spirit like a mighty purifying flood at Miracleland. (James 4:2)

10. Pray for a mighty move of conviction and salvation upon the South Park, Sunnyside and surrounding communities. (1 Timothy 2:1-2)

11. Ask God for mercy on Miracleland Church and the community for any lukewarmness, materialism and sin. (Daniel 9:18-19)

12. Specifically pray for God to pour out His Spirit in a fashion even greater than He did in America in 1858 and Wales in 1904. (Ten percent of Wales’ population was saved in five months!) (Mark 11:22-24; John 14:13-14)