Perfect Love: The Remedy for Being Prideful, Puffed Up, & Power Hungry
Knowledge [alone] makes [people self-righteously] arrogant, but love [that unselfishly seeks the best for others] builds up and encourages others to grow [in wisdom].
1 CORINTHIANS 8:1 (b)
Pursuit
As someone who is naturally inquisitive and enjoys learning and studying, exposure to modern deliverance practices and their benefits increased my fascination. What started as an innocent pursuit of knowledge quickly became a self-ambitious, puffed-up, and power-hungry quest for information. I unknowingly became fueled by pride. The teachings on deliverance, prayer, and fasting helped me grow in knowledge of the spiritual world. Yet instead of being led by the Holy Spirit so that I could steward the wisdom with love and humility, the pride in increased bitterness, cynicism, criticism, and self-righteous judgment. Satan was able to take full advantage of my immaturity and ignorance. It was not until Jesus encouraged me to meditate on His perfect love that I recognized how religious, legalistic, and pharisaical I had become. I was reminded that Perfect love, placed in the heart by the Holy Spirit, provides the wisdom to use knowledge to build others up.
The teachings on deliverance discussed the spiritual world- especially the kingdom of darkness- in more depth and detail than I had been exposed to at the time. I learned that certain blessings could only be obtained by engaging in warfare with the kingdom of darkness. When I reflect, I was not a “babe” in Christ. Yet, there was a lot of spiritual, emotional, and mental growth that needed to take place in me before I could handle the information I exposed myself to. I was growing through a lot and in a desperate place. There were “blessings”, mainly material, that I knew God promised me and had yet to receive. I became eager to learn and apply deliverance practices, such as warfare prayers and fasting, to receive those blessings. At one point, I believe the Holy Spirit was helping me to win the battle. Yet due to the defects in my character, Satan, being the calculating and deceptive legalist he is, was able to capitalize on my ignorance and battle fatigue. As I reflect, I recognize that the doctrine of deliverance and its practices, including warfare prayers and fasting, became my “get-blessed-quick plan”. I believed that things were going to happen on my time and terms. However, the pride caused me to overlook the process of obtaining God’s promises. I lost sight of the fact that when knowledge is acquired through the leading of the Holy Spirit, He will also help to ensure that it is applied with a heart posture of love, humility, wisdom, and moderation. Once the pride infiltrated my heart, I went from having a heart posture of love to a posture of performance.
Puffed Up
Looking at my experience from a spiritual perspective, the pride caused me to be puffed up because I had taken on the mind of Satan/the flesh as mentioned in Romans 8:5-11. From a mental health perspective, the pride increased thoughts influenced by the common cognitive distortions. Cognitive distortions, as defined by Therapist Aid,“Cognitive distortions are irrational thoughts that shape how you see the world, how you feel, and how you act.” Everyone has cognitive distortions that must be “pulled down,” as mentioned in 2 Corinthians 5:10. For me, because pride and desire blinded my mind, I noticed an increase in Magnification and minimization, Magical thinking, and Personalization - to name a few. These distortions reshaped my belief system and fueled negative spiritual experiences. Three thoughts became the core of my thinking: “I can control the timeline of my breakthrough,” “I must share the knowledge I have with everyone, as it is my responsibility to ensure they get ‘saved and delivered”, and “I am more special and important than others because of the knowledge that I have.” I blindly became like the verses mentioned in the PHILLIPS version of 1 Corinthians 13:1-3, which says, “If I speak with the eloquence of men and of angels, but have no love, I become no more than blaring brass or crashing cymbal. If I have the gift of foretelling the future and hold in my mind not only all human knowledge but the very secrets of God, and if I also have that absolute faith which can move mountains, but have no love, I amount to nothing at all. If I dispose of all that I possess, yes, even if I give my own body to be burned, but have no love, I achieve precisely nothing.”
Presence
When God allowed my eyes to be opened to His truth, I was hit with the painful reality of all the damage that being puffed up with the pride of knowledge had caused. Relationships were lost, connections destroyed, clarity was drained, and I felt void of purpose. Much like the Apostle Peter, who became filled with pride at the last supper with Jesus and swore to “never” betray or turn away from Him. (Read Matt. 26:31-35,) Peter genuinely believed in his heart and eagerness that he would never betray Jesus. Once he did, the scriptures say that he wept bitterly. In my experience, I experienced such an intimate height in God that I began to believe that I was above correction and character development. Much like Peter, I was eager to prove that I would never stray from Jesus or misrepresent Him to others. However, I did not take the time to listen when the Holy Spirit was forewarning me about the character flaws that left me open to attacks from the enemy. In reflection, just like Peter, Satan had asked to sift me as wheat. And he DID. Recently, I have been reminded that Jesus has also prayed for my return.
Perfect Love
As I mentioned previously, I am still on the journey of recovery from the fall of being puffed up and prideful. Normally, I would include an antidote and formula that demonstrates the Perfect Love of Jesus and facilitates healing or restoration. However, this post is different. This time, the goal is to expose the dangers of pursuing knowledge without the guidance of the Holy Spirit and His perfect love as the motivating force of the heart. Overall, I have learned that it is VITAL to be led by the Holy Spirit. Only He can and will help you and me to use knowledge in a way that glorifies Him and encourages others. That is true deliverance. Blessings, spiritual or natural, flow from operating with a heart posture of perfect love.
Ps- there is a Pt 2 to this post. Taking my time in sharing this testimony as it’s A LOT!
With Love,
Riva
With Love,
Riva
Share some of your reflections on Love in the comment section below.
SALVATION
I’d like to believe that everyone who reads this blog has a personal relationship with Jesus, but if you have yet to make it official and have stumbled upon this blog, know that you can establish that relationship and receive all of His Awesome Promises in a few easy steps.
Pray (speak out loud with your mouth) the Salvation Prayer based on the scripture listed below.
Connect with a local church to deepen your spiritual journey and foster community.
Read Your Bible as often as possible. Click here to discover helpful scriptures and Bible plans to read.
Scriptural Reference
9 that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. 11 For the Scripture says, “Whoever believes on Him will not be put to shame.”
ROMAN 10:9-11
Prayer
LORD JESUS, I CONFESS MY SINS AND ASK FOR YOUR FORGIVENESS. I BELIEVE THAT YOU ARE THE SON OF GOD AND DIED ON THE CROSS FOR ME AND THEN ROSE IN THREE DAYS. PLEASE COME INTO MY HEART AS MY LORD AND SAVIOR. TAKE COMPLETE CONTROL OF MY LIFE AND HELP ME TO WALK IN YOUR FOOTSTEPS DAILY BY THE POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. THANK YOU, LORD, FOR SAVING ME AND FOR ANSWERING MY PRAYER. IN JESUS’ NAME. AMEN
