Why God Resists Some

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BLC

Banned
Feb 28, 2009
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#1
… 'God resisteth the proud but giveth grace to the humble' (James 4:6, 1Pt 5:5).

A proud Christian cannot receive grace because they are being resisted by God. God is against them. But I thought that God is always for us. Isn't that what (Romans 8:31) says? How can God be against us if He is for us? When God can not give the believer grace because of pride, that believer is being resisted by God and will not be able to grow on continue in the faith until God has dealt with the pride that is in the heart. What some believers do, instead of humbling themselves and receive grace, is find another way to serve God that is acceptable to others. Usually this form of service is one that they have lifted themselves up into, to be seen and patronized by others, but because they are being resisted by God they have no fruit.

They use all the right words and ethics, they will make you feel good and may have some marginal success through the interest of others, but they are striving in the flesh to make something happen. They get bored and discouraged when things are not happening or when things do not go their way. They will either blame others or find some excuse why God did not bless it. Later on they have to try something new, something different to stimulate their flesh. This becomes a cycle in their life that can go on for years. All their endeavors are forms of sublimation of doing good, in the name of God, without the power of God's grace. This can even happen right on the mission field.

Another indication of pride being in the heart is when they hear a message from God's word that truly convicts them, they resist it by being negative or rationalize it away by saying it was for someone else and not them. What they have done is refuse the very message that God had sent to get them to humble themselves so that He could give them grace and get them back on track to bless them. Now, by refusing God's conviction, they have compounded trouble in their soul. Satan, who is seeking whom he may devour (1Pt 5:8) sees the trouble that the believer is having in their soul. He sees the believer being resisted by God because of pride, and takes advantage by developing a strategy to sift that believer (Lk 22:31).

He knows the believer needs doctrine so he gives them some of his doctrine (1Tim 4:1). It's good doctrine, it's reasonable, it's comforting, it's easy and very stimulating for the flesh because it requires no cross. It does not require faith or any effort and it makes you feel right at home with yourself. He does it this way to make it easy for them to give place to it (Eph 4:27). Now he has gotten little leaven into the soul (Gal 5:8,9, Mt 16:11,12, John 8:44) and it won't be long before the whole lump is leavened. What does that leaven look like? It looks like a form of godliness that denies the power of God's grace (2Tim 3:5). They are not necessarily immoral or living in any outward form of sin. They are still outwardly good people and proclaim a love for God but pride is on the throne of their heart and they have given place to doctrines of devils that minister righteousness that is not from God (2Cor 11:14,15) but has a form of God which is idolatry (1Cor 10:12-14).
 

wattie

Senior Member
Feb 24, 2009
2,987
1,014
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New Zealand
#2
Well.. ya.. when someone is prideful.. they arent giving any room for the Holy Spirit to work in them.. but if this is a saved person... the grace that made them saved always remains.

His grace for a saved person goes beyond works and emotions to a faithful commitment by Him to stay with us through and through.

So He will discipline and rebuke.. but never remove His faithful commitment to us.. his unconditional love and grace from us.

I don think you mean that this grace can be removed though.. right?
 

BLC

Banned
Feb 28, 2009
711
4
0
#3
Well.. ya.. when someone is prideful.. they arent giving any room for the Holy Spirit to work in them.. but if this is a saved person... the grace that made them saved always remains.

His grace for a saved person goes beyond works and emotions to a faithful commitment by Him to stay with us through and through.

So He will discipline and rebuke.. but never remove His faithful commitment to us.. his unconditional love and grace from us.

I don think you mean that this grace can be removed though.. right?
Those are good points. God does not take away any of the grace that has been given to the believer who received it by faith. However, pride in the heart will keep us from growing in grace (2Pt 3:18) and keep us from the exceeding riches of His grace (Eph 2:7). God sets Himself against the believer who continues in pride. Pride stops the believer from receiving anything from God by faith. Pride nullifies faith and substitutes faith with emotions and contrived intellectualism. What that means is that the believer has stopped growing in grace and knowledge of Christ, in their experience, and the natural mind of Adam has taken over to fulfill the desires of the flesh and of the mind (Eph 2:3). The desires of the flesh and mind do not have to be evil things but things that require no faith and no need for grace. These things gradually take over and occupy the believer robbing them of fellowship and communion with the living God. This is when God has to bring in the discipline and chastisement to humble the believer and purge out the leaven of pride and restore the believer to fellowship through grace and mercy because of unconditional love.
 

BLC

Banned
Feb 28, 2009
711
4
0
#5
God has no desire to resist the proud anymore than He is willing that any should perish (2Pt 3:9). He is gracious, full of compassion and plenteous in mercy (Ps 86:15). He desires the same for the unjust as He does for the just, making the sun to rise on the evil and the good and sending the rain to fall upon them both (Mt 5:45). God is just and He rewards those that diligently seek Him (Heb 11:6). The believer that exalts themself will not be rewarded with grace but the one who humbles themself will be exalted by grace (Lk 14:11). He that humbles himself before the Lord shall be lifted up (James 4:6).

The believer that is confident and lives in the authority of the word of God has been exalted by grace. The believer that lives and believes the promises of God has been exalted by grace through faith in those promises. The believer that grace has exalted has been raised up far above the prince and power of the air that works in the children of disobedience. They have been raised far above depression and nervous tension that occupies the emotions. They are not living from the dust of the earth but have been raised to live above the dust. The believer is seated together in heavenly places in Christ (Eph 1:19,20). That is the position where God's grace put the believer and grace is the only thing that will allow them to experience that life from above.

Set your affection on things above and not on things of the earth (Col 3:2). As a believer who has been resurrected with Christ (Eph 2:6) and made to sit together with Him, that believer can live from above while still in their body on the earth below. God's wisdom comes from above and the wisdom from below is earthly, sensual and devilish (James 3:15-17). As we walk in wisdom from above our life is from above, our thinking is from above, our emotions are from above, our joy is from above and we seek those things from above (Col 3:1). So, why should we be resisted by God through pride when we can humble ourselves and receive grace and live a life from above?

Will there be valleys, yes; will there be trials and tribulation, yes; will there be times of darkness, yes; but in all those things we can live by faith and derive our life from above to reveal God's grace below. That is living in victory, that is being more than a conquerer (Rom 8:37), that is God always causing us to triumph in all things (2Cor 2:14). No matter what state we are in, if we humble ourselves before the mighty hand of God He will lift us up by His grace to experience all that He is from above, who is sitting at the right hand of God.
 
D

doubleedge

Guest
#6
Pride is of the ego (self)!!! The fallen one had an ego problem... & so do his fruits!!! Believers who exalt "THEMSELVES" are anti-christs!!! God will seat everyone in their proper chair (Luke 14:8)... but The Throne of Thrones belongs to The King of Kings. False miracles are performed, & false teachings are taught by those who exalt themselves!!! God resists them because they claim for themselves what is His!!!
 
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