Open Heavens Daily Devotional Messages, By Pastor E.A Adeboye.

Open Heavens 11 August 2017: Friday daily devotional by Pastor E. A. Adeboye- Tricks of the devil I

Posted: 09 Aug 2017 12:17 PM PDT

TRICKS OF THE DEVIL I – Friday August 11^th 2017

Memorise: Pride goeth before destruction, and an haughty spirit before a fall. Proverbs 16:18

Read: Isaiah 14:12-16 (KJV)

^14:12How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!

^14:13For thou hast said in thine 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:

^14:14I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the most High.

^14:15Yet thou shalt be brought down to hell, to the sides of the pit.

^14:16They 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;

Bible in one year: 2^nd Kings 7-8, Ezekiel 23:1-21, Hymn: Sing hymn 7

MESSAGE:

A trick is a cunning act or scheme intended to deceive or outwit a person. One of the greatest tricks by which the devil deceives men today is to cause their hearts to be lifted up in pride. Through pride, the hearts of mankind have rebelled against the knowledge and authority of God. Pride comes with arrogance, pomp, presumption, conceit, self-satisfaction, boasting, high-mindedness and haughtiness. It is especially dangerous because of its silence and the stealth by which it operates. When pride is well seated in the heart and has taken full charge of a person, it becomes extremely difficult to pin down. However, we thank God because the light of God's word is bright enough to expose it in all its forms. To understand pride, we need to consider the first entity in whom pride was found: Satan. Isaiah 14:13-14 reveals the thoughts of his heart that made God depose him from his exalted position in Heaven:

"For thou hast said in thine 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."

A careful consideration of the above scripture shows that pride is basically a sin that has its roots in the attitude the heart. Hence, Proverbs 21:4 speaks of "a haughty look" and "a proud heart" as sin. Open Heavens 11 August 2017: Friday daily devotional by Pastor E. A. Adeboye- Tricks of the devil I. The first thing to watch out for in a man or woman with pride in their heart is the emphasis on their person in their speech. The speech of such people is normally laden with the personal pronoun 'I'. In a single short statement, Satan made reference to himself five times: "I will ascend, I will exalt my throne, I will sit, I will ascend above, and I will be like the most High." Secondly, the proud displays an unwarranted attitude of confidence and inordinate ambition, such as displayed by Satan. He was not satisfied with where God placed him, and he actually wanted to supplant God Himself. He was so confident of himself that he thought he could ascend into Heaven and exercise dominion over all the angels of God, all by himself.

However, pride cannot remain internalised and hidden. It often finds expressions: through speech (such as boasting), through looks and through behaviour, such as acts of impatience and contemptible treatment of others. The Bible highlights the inevitable downfall of a proud person, and we should learn from what happened to Satan (Proverbs 16:18, Ezekiel 28:16-19). The proud will not escape God's terrible judgement; therefore, be warned!

Prayer Point

Father, please expose every hidden tendency of pride and related attitudes in my life and completely destroy them, in Jesus' Name.

Open Heavens Daily Devotional guide was written by Pastor E.A. Adeboye, the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God, one of the largest evangelical Church in the world and also the President of Christ the Redeemer's Ministries.

iOpenHeavens is the electronic version of the Hard Copy. The Open Heavens devotional application is available across all mobile platforms and operating systems: iOS, Android, Blackberry, Nokia, Windows Mobile and PC.