Having an overly high estimation of oneself is not a good thing; a realistic viewpoint of yourself is healthier. However, the problem is what is realistic?
Society allows us much latitude
in that respect. I have a distant cousin that on occasions, takes “time to love
herself.” That is vanity; “For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourishes
and cherishes it” (Ephes 5:29) Of course, “man” therein is generic; it applies
to women as well.
Vanity is “inflated pride in
oneself or one's appearance”
Lucifer had the classic case of over self-esteem:
Your pomp is brought down to the grave,
and the noise of thy viols, the worm, is spread under you, and the worms cover you.
How have you fallen from heaven, O
Lucifer, son of the morning! How have you cut down to the ground, which didst
weaken the nations, for you have said in your heart, “I will ascend into
heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will sit also upon the
mount of the congregation, in the sides of the north. I will ascend above the
heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.”
Yet you shall be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit. They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, and consider thee, saying, Is this the man that made the earth to tremble, that did shake kingdoms. (Isa 14:9-16)
Lucifer was pompous; that is
vanity. How so? It was his own voice that he relished… the very sound of his
own vocal cords.
The Word of God was insignificant
to him. That was an overly high estimation of himself. Lucifer had delusions of
grandeur, thinking that He was the Lord God. Rather than adore God, he adored
himself. Lucifer dreamed of importance
and indeed, as the next part of the chapter reveals, Lucifer will be the
Antichrist in the end. He will be like Christ in position and authority, but he
will still be the “Beast” (Rev 13:1-10).
Of course, the Beast will be just
a man, but he will rule and claim godhood himself as the “Beast” is within his
person. He shall be pompous like the mightier beasts: the lion or a dragon, for
instance.
“Pomp” is “a show of magnificence:
splendor. the pomp of a royal ceremony: showy display.” (ibid). The
current saying is “like a pig with lipstick.” The Beast will be a famous person
with Satan in him who parades as a person of great importance.
Nimrod, as king, wanted to make a
name for himself, so he sought to kill God (Gen 11:4) and the people were with
him. He was a great hunter, but God was Almighty. Nimrod was an Antichrist because
he estimated himself too highly. God destroyed his tower and diminished Nimrod.
God revealed the great narcissist to be the “worm” that he was.
In modern times, the most noted
case of high self-esteem was in the person of the little corporal Adolph
Hitler. He imagined himself to be great and of course his own race the almighty
ones. God using sane people cut him down. Like Judas, who God cut down by
having him suicide himself, Hitler suicided himself. He did make a name for
himself, did he not? His name is associated with hatred to this day. Hitler is
accused of being insane, but he had overestimated himself; he was just a little
corporal, but he reimagined himself as Caesar.
Hitler did not start out as a megalomaniac;
he became one. He first saw his elementary paintings as works of art. In
his own eyes, he was an artist. Soon, he saw himself as a great leader and
persuaded others that he was. People follow maniacs who others admire. The more
people that admired Hitler, the worse he became. Soon, most of those in Germany
thought of the “worm” Hitler as Fuehrer and followed him to destruction.
His insanity was contagious as he
made little people seem great. His advisers and officers were for the most part
little people in society when in German uniform made them important. Self-esteem
destroyed Germany and it may you as well!
People can have a realistic
perception of themselves. What is realistic? We are not God’s children, or “sons
of God.” Natural born “common men” are devils: “You are of your father the
devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do” (John 8:44). The Devil is the “Beast.”
We are all born sons of beasts, yet we think of ourselves as “sons of God.”
“We are all God’s children,” they say. God says different. We are “aliens” in God’s world. Paul refreshed the memory of the people:
Remember, that you being in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called “Uncircumcision” “by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands; that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world, but now in Christ Jesus you who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ” (Ephes 2:11-13)
Common men and women are neither
gods nor sons and daughters of God. They are alien beings, sons of beasts, in
God’s world.
Animals are castrated to remove the “beast” in them. Castration can make a wild pig tame with snip, snip where it counts. Circumcision was for the Jews; to tame them of the “Beast” within. God asked that they cut off their pride. God did not circumcise them, but the men did. God desired that the Beast in them be cut-off more precisely with circumcision of the heart, to wit:
Only the Lord had a delight in your fathers to love them, and He chose their seed after them, even you above all people, as it is this day. Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart and be no more stiff-necked for the Lord your God is God of gods, and Lord of lords, a great God, a mighty, and a terrible, which regards not persons. (Deut 10:15:17)
You are not God, nor will you
ever be! You might be able to circumcise the foreskin of your sexual apparatus,
but lust will remain. To cut off lust requires that the heart be circumcised. Like
the pig, the Great Vet does the castration, but unlike pigs, you must submit. Like
pigs, mankind fights castration of the heart until the last breath, but God’s “surgery”
is not painful at all but a relief to get rid of the burden of the flesh by
just sniping away at the hardness of the heart a little snip, snip at a time.
Jesus is a gentle Physician:
And when he had looked round about on them with anger, being grieved for the hardness of their hearts, He saith unto the man, “Stretch forth your hand” and he stretched it out: and his hand was restored whole as the other. (Mark 3:5)
Just reach out to Jesus and be
made whole with no effort on your part other than trusting Him. It is not your
hand that fixes all things but the Power of God in Jesus that can restore
either hand or heart. Circumcision is a softening of hardness of the heart… neither
you nor doctors can fix pride, but Jesus can!
Most people will deny that they
have pride. So, what is it? Exaggerated self-esteem. You are not to overly diminish
yourself because God values you. That is not an exaggeration. How much are you
worth? Judas was not worth thirty-pieces of silver. The value of the “Antichrist”
was very little. Then Judas solved his delusion, by playing God by killing
himself to absolve his own sins. That had no value to God, so God sacrificed Himself
because we are not gods and cannot do that!
Thinking that your own works can
save you is not only preposterous but insanity. Many mental cases believe that
they are either royalty or gods. That is crazy talk but too many think they can
save themselves by their own works. Sin is genetic, so forget that idea for
only God can change your genetic identity by His Power, not yours.
The concept of self-esteem is
even wrong. We naturally value ourselves. Judas felt so much pain for who he
was, that he killed himself to escape who he was. He did rid himself of Satan
inside, but it was to no avail. He failed to wait until the end of the day when
Jesus would take care of Satan Himself. Suicide is a futile attempt to play God
on yourself.
Those pretty young things that
stand in front of mirrors and take selfies have severe cases of pride. To be
honest, think about it, humans are ugly inside and beauty is superficial. We are
indeed like pigs wearing lipstick. Rather than adore God for His Glory, mankind
still glorifies themselves in all sorts of ways: we adorn ourselves with lavish
clothing, cosmetics, and even tattoos and piercings; yet we remain animals to
God unless he takes away the self-adoration.
The flesh is not for beautifying
but just for us to exist in this cruel world (Gen 3:21). However, we take our plain
“comforter” and make it a “coat of many colors.” We are not satisfied with what
God provides for us but what we provide for ourselves.
How can you adorn yourselves when
God stands there rigid just waiting for you to adore Him? God gave up His flesh
for us, why can we not give up our flesh for Him? Fleshes are the idols of
mankind. Man adores his own idol so much that they creep to the mirror like
Narcissus to admire themselves. God thinks that is disrespectful to Him, but to
some of us, it is weird to adore yourself rather than God. Rebirth should take
pride and nail it to the cross.
What is past is past. You cannot
undo what you have permanently done. God has the capacity to forget what you
have done (Heb 8:12) and looks only at what you are now willing to do. A good
reflection for God is you standing in front of a mirror and looking deep within
to see who you really are. What is truth? It is what you are inside. The
outside is a façade that fools even you.
Jesus was God inside. His flesh was just a manifestation. That same flesh with Satan within would have been the Beast — the Antichrist. It is not the outside that God sees but the soul within the person. It may be invisible, but it is the real you! James wrote this about that:
God resists the proud, but gives grace
unto the humble.. Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he
will flee from you.
Draw nigh to God, and He will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double minded. Be afflicted, and mourn, and weep; let your laughter be turned to mourning, and your joy to heaviness. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and he shall lift you up. (Jas 4:6-10)
What does God mean? Compare
yourself to Him. He can lift you up, but you cannot! The sight of your true
self in the mirror is resisting the Devil. The Devil, like in the original sin,
wants you only to see the outward appearance, not the beast within. That was
the delusion of Adam’s woman that made her the new kind, Eve. Her vision was
dimmed. She could no longer see the things now unseen, but just the things of
the flesh. The woman went from glorious to beastly because she no longer had
the capacity to see truth — what Lucifer was inside and what she herself had
become!
What has mankind become?
Self-adorers. Those who have not been born again focus on themselves. Many
Christians worry about where their flesh will go in the end but forget that
salvation is the soul (1 Pet 1:9). God will provide new incorruptible flesh for
those who have been “reseeded” by His genetics, so quit the worrying about your
flesh.
If death does not frighten you
the failure of the flesh is worse than the failure of the soul which too can
fail (Heb 6:6).
So, the condition of the flesh is
much ado about nothing. God values your beautiful soul more than your animalistic
flesh.
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