Prophetic Insight - 3rd June, 2024
Pride Month
Millions celebrate Pride Month in June as a time to honour and celebrate the courage, resilience and progress of the LGBTQI+ community, a movement which is rapidly gaining traction.
The first Pride marches in New York, Los Angeles and Chicago happened on June 28th, 1970, the first anniversary of the Stonewall riots or uprising, dependant upon the preferred term.
This incident happened in the early hours of June 28th, 1969 when the police raided the Stonewall Inn, one of the most popular gay bars in New York City.
The Stonewall Inn Raid
The raid sparked a riot among patrons and neighbourhood residents as police roughly hauled people out of the bar, leading to 6 days of protests and violent clashes with law enforcement.
Throughout the state, homosexuality was considered a criminal offense and same-sex relationships were not legalised until 10 years later in 1980.
The criminalisation of homosexuality lead many gay establishments to operate without a liquor license, providing an open door for raids and police brutality.
Righteous & Sinful Pride
Let's look at the word pride in order to get an understanding of what it means. There are two types of pride, pride that glorifies God and the pride of man.
Pride that is rooted in righteousness results in the fruit of the Spirt which is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control (Galatians 5:23).
Pride that is rooted in sin results in acts of the flesh which are sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like (Galatians 5:19-21).
Pride That Glorifies God
Righteous pride can be defined as taking joy in something without conceit; that is, without believing that we are better than another.
Pride can also be used as a tool in ministry to arouse people into a state where they are able to listen to the truth in order to be reconciled with God (Romans 11:13-14).
We must only boast in the Lord (1 Corinthians 1:31) and pride that glorifies God includes the pride of Jacob which is the inheritance of land that God gave to the people of Israel when he made them into a nation (Psalm 47:4).
The Sinful Pride of Man
Sinful pride is anything which attempts to place oneself above God including exalting ourselves by believing that our achievements are the result of our own power and strength, forgetting that it is God who gives us the ability to produce wealth (Deuteronomy 8:17-18).
Pride is a haughty spirit before a fall and it goes before destruction (Proverbs 16:18). With pride comes disgrace (Proverbs 11:2) and it brings a person low (Proverbs 29:23).
The wicked wear pride as their necklace and clothe themselves with violence (Psalm 73:6), for the pride of the heart deceives (Obadiah 1:3).
Changing The Face of Pride
Pride is an integral cultural concept within the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and Intersex community.
It represents solidarity, collectivity and identity as well as resistance to discrimination and violence.
This is the very opposite of the true nature and meaning of pride, which has been twisted.
A Celebration of Sin
Pride that glorifies God and brings glory to His name is the only pride that is to be celebrated.
The pride that is glorified during Pride festivals is rooted in sin and bearing in mind that God hates sin, and sin separates us from God (Isaiah 59:2), it is not something that should be celebrated.
Furthermore, it is our duty to correct, rebuke and encourage - with great patience and careful instruction (2 Timothy 4:2), so we will not share in guilt (Leviticus 19:17-18).
The Way & The Truth & The Life
The celebration of sinful pleasures and lustful desires is a carnal way of life which falls far short of the exemplary spiritual bar we should be aiming for.
Jesus is the way and the truth and the life (John 14:6). He is God in the flesh, came as a lamb without blemish or defect (1 Peter 1:19) and we are to follow his perfect example.
We are to be made holy through being cleansed with the washing with water through the word, to be presented to Jesus as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless (Ephesians 5:25-27).
The Rainbow Is A Sign of The Covenant Between God & All Life
The rainbow is a sign of the everlasting covenant that God established with Noah, between Himself and all life on earth, that never again will all life be destroyed by the waters of a flood.
Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, God will see it and remember (Genesis 9:8-17).
God's covenants with man are two-way streets, and require us to follow His righteous and just laws and decrees.
Mis-use of The Rainbow
The re-purposing of such a sacred symbol as the rainbow is akin to spitting in God's face.
It cannot be used to celebrate sinful acts of the flesh, and a unity that should never be.
Who is it you have ridiculed and blasphemed? Against whom have you raised your voice and lifted your eyes in pride? Against the Holy One of Israel! (2 Kings 19:22 & Isaiah 37:23)
Pride Will Be Humbled
Pride takes people captive (Jeremiah 13:17), leads to our downfall (2 Chronicles 26:16) and God will break it down (Leviticus 26:19).
The arrogance of man will be humbled and human pride brought low; the Lord alone will be exalted in that day and the idols will disappear (Isaiah 2:11 & 17-18).
God will punish the world for its evil, the wicked for their sins. He will put an end to the arrogance of the haughty and will humble the pride of the ruthless (Isaiah 13:11).
Pride Leads To Our Downfall
God will put an end to the pride of the mighty, and their sanctuaries will be desecrated (Ezekiel 7:24), it will be overthrown like Sodom and Gomorrah (Isaiah 13:19).
Pride, arrogance, conceit and insolence are empty boasts (Isaiah 16:6 & Jeremiah 48:29), those who are far from God will perish; He destroys all who are unfaithful to Him (2 Corinthians 5).
God will bring down their pride despite the cleverness of their hands (Isaiah 25:11).
Humility Leads To Wisdom
Humility is the antidote to pride for with humility comes wisdom (Proverbs 11:2).
Where there is strife, there is pride, but wisdom is found in those who take advice (Proverbs 13:10).
James says that the rich should take pride in their humiliation—since they will pass away like a wild flower (James 1:10), for taking pride in God's correction can lead us to repentance.
Wisdom Hates Pride
Wisdom hates pride and arrogance, evil behaviour and perverse speech. Counsel and sound judgment are hers; she has insight and power.
Wisdom's fruit is better than fine gold; what she yields surpasses choice silver.
She walks in the way of righteousness, along the paths of justice, bestowing a rich inheritance on those who love her and making their treasuries full (Psalm 8:13-22).
Wisdom Calls Out
Wisdom calls out and understanding raises her voice, telling the simple to gain prudence and the foolish to set their hearts on it.
Wisdom opens her lips to speak what is right and her mouth speaks what is true for her lips detest wickedness. All the words of her mouth are just, none of them are crooked or perverse.
She urges us to choose her instruction instead of silver, knowledge rather than choice gold, for wisdom is more precious than rubies, and nothing you desire can compare with her (Psalm 8:1-12).
Pride & Ego
Our hearts become arrogant and hardened with pride and this results in being deposed and stripped of our glory (Daniel 5:20).
Ego edges God out. In his pride the wicked man does not seek him; in all his thoughts there is no room for God (Psalm 10:4).
Though the pride of the godless person reaches to the heavens and his head touches the clouds, he will perish forever, like his own dung; those who have seen him will say, ‘Where is he?’ (Job 20:6-7).
God Speaks To Us To Keep Us From Pride
For God does speak—now one way, now another—though no one perceives it.
In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls on people as they slumber in their beds, he may speak in their ears and terrify them with warnings, to turn them from wrongdoing and keep them from pride, to preserve them from the pit, their lives from perishing by the sword. (Job 33:14-18)
For the eyes of the Lord range throughout the earth to strengthen those whose hearts are fully committed to him (2 Chronicles 16:9).
Turning Back To God
We must be willing to see sin for what it is and be open to correction as whoever heeds discipline shows the way to life, but whoever ignores correction leads others astray (Proverbs 10:17)
Whoever loves discipline loves knowledge, but whoever hates correction is stupid (Proverbs 12:1).
We must repent of the pride in our heart (2 Chronicles 32:26) and turn back to God, those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again (2 Corinthians 5:15)
Walking By The Spirit Not The Flesh
So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh.
They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want (Galatians 5:16-18).
For everything in the world—the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life—comes not from the Father but from the world. (1 John 2:16)
Exalting God Not Man
We must seek to live in accordance with God's will, to become a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17), that we may be truly born again.
We must praise and exalt and glorify the King of heaven, because everything he does is right and all his ways are just (Daniel 4:37).
In God we make our boast all day long, and we will praise your name forever” (Psalm 44:11).
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The Truth About Gender & Sexuality
Please click the link below for a 3-part Word that follows on as part of this series.