Ladies, are you proud?

"You are proud", the Holy Spirit told her one day. She was very shocked to hear this from Him. She said "Sweet Holy Spirit, You know how humble I am. I give to people, when people are in need of money, I give. I serve. Come on. I am not proud. He continued You are proud and I will teach you humility."

Some weeks back, those were the words that the Holy Spirit told me. One day, I was listening to one of my daddy's preaching, our founding Bishop Dag Heward Mills about Pride, Humility and Disloyalty and he said something that I now understand. He said 'It is very difficult to know whether you are proud or not" and he added " people who say they are humble watch them for they are likely to be proud'. As the Holy Spirit was telling me how proud I was and I was defending myself, my dad's voice came back to me. 

I just realized that chaley, the Spirit is always right and I am always wrong. I was giving to the Holy Spirit five reasons why I was seeing myself as a humble person. But ladies, how do you know you are humble? Do you say that you are humble because you have a soft voice, because you are always serving people, because you give your money to church, because you feel inferior to people. Inferiority or feeling inferior to someone else does not necessarily mean you are humble. I do not even think it is a sign of humility. Just like in any company, there is a certain hierarchy in all things. The fact that you see yourself as "inferior" to your pastor, or anyone above you is just a reality. The person is above you, this is a fact. It has nothing to do with you being humble. You may say " but Lala, what if then you refuse to submit to the person above you is this not pride or being proud?". No, this is being disobedient. The Word says we need to submit to the authorities!(Romans 13:1) so every time you refuse to not submit or obey you become disobedient...

Then the question is " so how do i know i became proud or i am proud?". This is what the Holy Spirit told me. He said one is proud when he thinks that because of his STATUS he cannot do certain things. Your status is what can makes you proud! The Bible says in Philipians 2:6 who, equal with God, did not consider it robbery, but made HIMSELF OF NO REPUTATION, taking the form of  a BONDSERVANT, ..........he Humbled himself.". You see Jesus is God. Jesus is equal with God says the Scripture. They may not have the same position but because they are united, they are equal. Neverthless, Jesus was never independent. Although, He was God when He came on earth He never said I  will not submit to the authority. Jesus paid taxes, He asked Peter to go and take a coin out of a fish mouth so the tax could be paid. Jesus was God and is God but He decided to obey and to humble himself. He made Himself of no reputation!

I do not come from a rich family but because of the way I grew up, the meals I will eat, I thought I was better than other people. I thought I could never meet with my sisters and brothers at church and eat with the bread and drink coke. I will think "why should I eat plain bread with coke? why me? no this is not be for me". Pride! Your status! The Holy Spirit saw it and He told me "Lala, you are proud and I will teach you humilty." What is your lifestyle? What is the reputation you think you have? If God had to ask you to become someone "low" in your eyes will you accept it or will you fight against it? Ask yourself those questions. What do you think is your status?

Some women think " I cannot marry this type of man, the way I am nooo this kind of man is not for me, he is not my type". is it? Thank you for showing us your pride. It is important for us to stop thinking like this. Pride makes God fighting with you. He resists to the proud!

I do not know what kind of work you are doing. You may be a very intelligent woman, you may come from a very rich family, you may be extremely beautiful, very rich. I do not know what you think is your status but please may your status not define your actions. Make yourself of no reputation! No reputation at all!

Vashti was disqualified because of pride. She was the queen, she thought because she was the queen she could just refuse to come and meet the King because he was merry. She thought her status would allow her to do whatever she wants to do. But she forgot that it was because of the King that she became a queen! Pride shows that you do not recognize from where your status or blessings come from. Remember your King! Just as He lifted you up, He is able to pull you down instantly. Don't take chances, decide to humble yourself, decide to acknowledge God's hands upon your life, decide to meet others at their level without making them feel uncomfortable, come down and be with them.

Pray for humility, pray not to be proud. As I said earlier, it is very difficult to see we are becoming proud. Do not let people tell you that you are humble because it will make you proud without you even noticing it. Are you shacking your head? you want people to praise you or you want God to be at peace with you? People say things based on what they see, God based on what is in our hearts. Which one matters to you?

I see you walking in humility! I see pride leaving you now, I see you making yourself of no reputation to allow Christ to use you in Jesus' name! Amen!

With much love,

Lala.