Author: Theresa Harvard Johnson

Copyright 2014 Theresa Harvard Johnson

 

Believing in who God has called you to be is not necessarily being prideful or arrogant.

 

Walking in and walking out who God has called you to be is not prideful or arrogant.

 

Acknowledging who God has called you to be is not prideful or arrogant.

 

Pause.

 

First, let those three sentences sink into your spirit and saturate there.

 

Next, let’s take a look at some basic definitions of pride and arrogance. Pride is deep rooted self-admiration tied to one’s view of their own achievements, twisted personal power or even one’s own abilities, gifts and talents. It is literally stepping into a role in which a person becomes their own God. Arrogance is the elevation of pride that causes a person to feel and exhibit feelings of extreme self-importance in which they respond to others and the world out of a “god-like” mentality. They demand a level of service that is completely selfish and self-centered. (Psychology Today Magazine has an excellent article that distinguishes between the two entitled, The Key Difference Between Pride and Arrogance. See footnotes at the bottom of this article to explain other characteristics of this article.)[1]

(The video above is powerful. Please watch it! It is 4-minutes long. In addition, the focus of my blog post is on “Embracing Your Confident” as a means of accessing your authority and power in Messiah. It is from the perspective of confusing CONFIDENCE with arrogance and pride. I pray that this series encourages you.)

Copyright 2014 Theresa Harvard Johnson

A couple of weeks ago, the Lord began ministering to me about the power of confidence. It is through this confidence that you and I are able to access our authority in Yeshua and access POWER. Confidence works with faith. Confidence strengthens us in overcoming fear. The trouble is, so many of us have given our confidence away and exchanged it for false humility –the devaluing of the gifts of God that are within us, and causing the extraordinary “in you” to become common.

 

I had to repent for this – as I had walked this way for a very long time. In truth, it was an effort to lower who I was so that others might be more comfortable around me. It was the epitome of compromise, the very altar the Lord had called the ministry entrusted to me to destroy. It was an attempt on my part to people please, fit in. (If you want to take a look at the extreme side of this, read Luke 9:26.)

1 John 2:15-17 CJB says, “Do not love the world or the things of the world. If someone loves the world, then love for the Father is not in him; because all the things of the world – the desires of the old nature, the desires of the eyes, and the pretensions of life – are not from the Father but from the world. And the world is passing away, along with its desires. But whoever does God’s will remains forever.”

 

In this passage, the term “world” is referring to the world system or the ways of Babylon – not people. The phrase “things of the world” is speaking specifically toward the objects and influences that are valued inside this world system. Things that become the idols of men. The Apostle John infers that the act of clinging to the world system is proof that a person is living out of or from their old nature, the sin nature of the flesh. He is admonishing believers to turn away from this pull and commit to our Father in Heaven.