As part of the sanctification process that God would like to start with each one of us – one of the things that God will be doing, through the power of the Holy Spirit, is to either take out or prevent certain types of negative qualities from entering into our personalities.

Without question, one of the major qualities that God will be moving in on very strongly to either prevent from being able to enter into us to any significant degree, or to literally knock it right out of us if it has moved too far up into our personalities is the negative quality of pride.

This cancerous, lethal, and destructive quality, probably more than any other negative quality, has brought down more kingdoms, toppled more empires, caused more wars, destroyed more marriages, ruined more friendships and led more criminals into our jail systems than all of the other negative qualities combined and put together.

The spirit of pride has to be the absolute king of all the negative and destructive qualities that can enter into our personalities – and no one is safe and immune from it. All Believers, young and old, super saint or not, have got to keep a sharp eye on this negative quality, and do everything they can not to let this spirit get a foothold and grip into their personalities and mindsets.

As you will see in the one of the Scripture verses I will list below – the spirit of pride will always come right before destruction and a major fall. Even unbelieving heathens are aware of this basic truth from our Bible.

The saying that "pride will come before the fall" is an universal truth understood by everyone. But as understood and hated as this quality is by most people – many still succumb to its enticing and seductive nature, and many end up losing everything as a result of the consequences of wallowing in it for too long of a period of time.

For the record, I believe that there is a good kind of pride and a bad kind of pride. Many Believers, after reading what some of the verses from the Bible has to say about this toxic quality, try and remove all sense of pride from them and their lives. As a result, they end up reducing a lot of their own natural joy in the Lord.

Webster’s dictionary, and some of the other different Bible dictionaries describe this good kind of pride as follows:

• Proper respect for one-self, self-respect
• A reasonable or justifiable self-respect
• Sense of one’s own dignity and self-worth
• Delight or satisfaction in one’s own or another’s achievements

If your child comes home and tells you that he has just received straight A’s on his report card – your first natural and instinctive response will be to want to tell them "how proud" you are of them and what they have just accomplished. If your husband comes home and tells you he has just received a nice promotion and pay raise at work for the good job he has been doing – again, your first natural response will be to want to tell him how proud you are of him and his efforts to try and make a better life for your and your family.

This is the good kind of pride. There is nothing wrong in having this good kind of pride for what your children may accomplish and for what you may accomplish in your own work for the Lord in this lifetime. I believe that God Himself wants you to have this good kind of pride for the blessings and opportunities He may bring your way.

If God has just blessed you with a nice new house, there is nothing wrong in being proud of that house and wanting to take good care of it. If God has blessed you with a wonderful marriage with a beautiful mate and beautiful children, there is nothing wrong in taking pride in all of them and what they may accomplish for the Lord in this life.

This good kind of pride that you may have in the actual work that you are doing for the Lord and with whatever blessings He may want to pass your way in this life all help to contribute to your own personal joy in the Lord. It helps to give you a nice sense of approval, and it also helps to motivate you to want to keep on pressing further on with the Lord in whatever He has called you to do for Him in this life.

However, as with anything else that may start out good – there is always the danger of possible excess. What starts out as a simple and a humble type of pride can start to grow into something much more deadly if a person does not properly keep on top of it.

One of the 9 fruits of the Holy Spirit is the fruit of self-control. Not only will you need to use your own self-control to help keep a proper grip and lid on this quality from getting out of control in your personality – but you will also need the self-control of the Holy Spirit Himself to help you keep proper control of it – especially those who are called by God to move into any type of leadership roles within His Body.

In the verses I will list below, you will see two key words being repeated several times. These two key words are the words "pride" or "proud" and the word "haughty."

Webster’s Dictionary, and several of the different Bible dictionaries describe the negative kind of pride as follows:

• An unduly high opinion of oneself
• Exaggerated self-esteem, conceit
• Haughty behavior resulting from arrogance
• An improper and excessive self-esteem known as conceit and arrogance
• A sin of attitude and of the heart and spirit
• A puffed up and inflated ego
• Boasting and high-mindedness
• A conceited sense of one’s superiority
• Highly exalted in attitude, opposite from the virtue of humility

All you have to do is compare the two different sets of definitions of the good kind of pride versus the bad kind of pride to see what the real differences are between the two of them.

What gets some Believers into major trouble with the Lord is falling and entering into the second category mentioned above. What can start out as a humble, justified, and reasonable kind of self-respect for one’s self and one’s own efforts and accomplishments in the Lord can quickly deteriorate and descend into the bad kind of pride where one starts to lose all sense of who he or she really is in the Lord.

The other key word that you will see listed in the verses below is the word "haughty." Here is what Webster’s and some of the other Bible dictionaries have to say about this negative quality:

• Showing great pride on oneself and disdain
• Contempt or scorn for others
• Proud, arrogant, supercilious (disdain or contemptuous)
• An arrogant spirit

As you will see in the Scripture verses below, the Lord is using some very intense and strong language when describing this negative quality. Not only does God call pride an actual sin in His sight, but He goes one step further and calls it an actual abomination!

As I have stated several times in some of my other articles, whenever God is using the word "abomination" to describe what He is thinking about something – He is using the most extreme and intense word that He possibly can to let all of us know, without any other possible interpretation, that we are to have no part of the activity He is describing as an abomination. We are to avoid it like the plague.

When God puts the qualities of pride and haughtiness in this abomination category – you know that He is giving all of us a very serious and major warning on this issue.

In the Scripture verse below where God is telling us that pride and a haughty spirit will come before destruction and a fall – He is giving all of us major revelation. The history of our world, and what we see on a daily basis throughout the entire world, are all showing us this piece of revelation in actual operation.

The history our world is littered with the casualties that this negative and demonic quality and mindset has caused. It literally, and I mean literally, has completely toppled and destroyed kingdoms, countries, nations, alliances, companies, marriages and good friendships.

Probably the greatest destruction and fall that has ever occurred coming from this one negative quality may end up being the story of how Satan fell from heaven. The Bible only gives us partial information about this story.

As you will see in the three Scripture verses I will list below on how Satan managed to get cast out of heaven – the quality of pride was definitely one of the main causes that led to his own personal downfall in the Lord.

And to think that he was then able to get one-third of the rest of the angels to get cast out of heaven right along with him! I repeat – one third of all the angels who were living with him in heaven were also cast out – and they have now all permanently lost their place in heaven for all of eternity!

There is no more saving grace for Satan and all of these fallen angels. And to think that all of them were born and created up in this perfect heavenly environment – and then to throw it all away – all because one angel thought he could literally overthrow God Almighty Himself. Not only has this got to be the height of pure arrogance and pride – but it also has to be the height of pure stupidity!

Repent, turn around, whether you are a cheating spouse, a liar, homosexual, a thief, there is a healing from God. None of these things are natural, there is healing with God.