Religious pride. It's an energy of darkness that blinds and confuses people. It twists the words of truth and leaves you with a general feeling of 'ick' when you encounter it.
Religious pride is a form of fear that acts as a substitute for the true love, faith and grace that God gives to humanity.
In Matthew 16:6 Jesus specifically warned his disciples about the yeast (religious pride) of the Pharisees. He calls it a deception that substitutes the love and grace of God with the personal efforts of religious people. Religious pride deceives people into thinking that, "I'm better than my fellow man and I'm impressive to God because I know his laws.". Let's get into this important topic.
Leviathan, the king of the proud
It looks on every haughty being; it is king over all that are proud.
Job 41:34
Job chapter 41 describes leviathan, an ancient sea monster which I believe to be a symbol for the energy of pride: "It is the king over all that are proud. It has rows of scales that are his pride and they are tightly sealed together." (Job 41:15).
Religious pride stems from a place of fear. 1 John 4:18 tells us that, "There is no fear in love, but perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears punishment has not been perfected in love.". I believe leviathan is like the human ego, it thinks that fear is love. It has no comprehension of the unconditional love of the Spirit. When we consciously live from our heart instead of the ego, we can experience the perfect love of God which drives out fear. But religious pride behaves as an armor that blocks out any attempt of love and truth to penetrate to the persons heart:
"Each scale is so close to the next that no wind can come between them. They lock tightly together, one to the next; they cling together and cannot be separated." (Job 41:16-17). Wind is a symbol of the Spirit of God. Someone who is living with religious pride will not be sensitive to the movement of God's Spirit in the world. Leviathan's heart is said to be hard as rock, hard as a millstone (Job 41:24). Millstones were commonly made from granite, which is one of the hardest stones on planet earth! A hard heart is de-sensitized to the subtle voice of the Spirit. According to Ezekiel 36:26-27, only Yahuah has the power to remove religious pride from our hearts:
"I will give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit within you. I will remove the heart of stone from your body and give you a heart of flesh...and you will obey my statutes and carefully observe my regulations.".
The energy of religious pride is an obstacle that isn't worth your time trying to defeat. Ephesians 6:17 explains how the word of God is a sword used as a weapon to denounce the lies of the enemy. In the particular case of dealing with a person armored by religious pride, it simply won't be enough: "Whoever strikes it with a sword will have no effect, nor with the spear, arrow, or dart." (Job 41:26). There's nothing we as human beings can say to that person that will remove leviathan. Again, only Yahuah has the power to remove it. I believe it's best to declare the power of Christ over the religious person and trust that the Spirit will set them free. As we'll see next, sometimes God will have to humble the person before they choose to humble themselves.
Saul on the road to Damascus
As he was going along, approaching Damascus, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, "Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?"
Acts 9:4-5
Saul was a Pharisee who was murdering followers of the Way in the early days of the Christian church. According to his beliefs, Christians were guilty of heresy and blaspheming the name of God, and therefore deserved death. While on his way to Damascus to kill some more Christians, Jesus appeared to him in a vision. Jesus confronted Saul about persecuting him and his followers and told Saul to go to Damascus and wait for instruction. As soon as the vision ended Saul had become blind. I believe his encounter with the Son manifested Saul's true spiritual condition (blinded by pride), causing him to be made physically blind.
After the Son humbled Saul on the road, Saul humbled himself for three days through prayer and fasting. At the end of the three days a Christian named Ananias came to Saul to heal him of his blindness. Acts 9:18 records Ananias praying for Saul to receive the Spirit and: "Immediately something like scales fell from his eyes, and he could see..". I believe that those scales were the scales of leviathan - or religious pride, that God had removed so he could now see and understand the love and grace of Yahuah. Saul no longer was deceived into thinking he had it all figured out. He no longer thought he had all the answers concerning God. He was in a place of humility, no greater than his fellow man. I believe this is the true path of enlightenment: We are all one, and God has brought us salvation through his Son by grace, not our religious beliefs or works.
Conclusion
Religious pride is unfortunately a toxic energy that can rear it's ugly head from time to time. I believe humbling ourselves through meditation on the word of God in a spirit of unconditional love is a healthy way to keep ourselves from becoming prideful. It's safe to say that no matter where we are on the path of enlightenment, we don't have it all figured out yet. Let's choose to have some self awareness with the words and tone we use towards each other.
Are our words uplifting and encouraging? Or are they critical, un-loving and callous? People will let you know how your words make them feel if you have a heart to listen. Cheers friends.
Yeah!