Lay Down My Pride

I want to tell everyone about something that has been on my heart and have experienced first hand,

something that everyone should be careful not to experience.

When you are called to do something you are basically chosen to do a specific task, now if you are called to

do many different things, then you have to discern the timing and the season of each purpose. Just be careful

not to do what someone else is meant to do.

When you attempt to do what someone else is designed to do, you are doing something in your own

strength and energy, which is a sin and will frustrate you as well, because you are doing something that God never intended for you to do & are disobeying in your own purpose.

When you do something you are not called to do you will fail in a number of ways, first in health, then in life, then in purpose, lastly in spirit. You will find that you will get discouraged, frustrated, or even resentful. This also could effect those around you.

When you try and do things in your own will, you will find it very hard and frustrating and will often give up on your own purpose because of how much of your own energy you have wasted doing what you were not suppose to do.

In the next two stories I am going to tell you, they will explain everything I have just told you.

1 Samuel 15:1-35

1SAMUEL TOLD Saul, The Lord sent me to anoint you king over His people Israel. Now listen and heed the words of the Lord.

2Thus says the Lord of hosts, I have considered and will punish what Amalek did to Israel, how he set himself against him in the way when [Israel] came out of Egypt.

3Now go and smite Amalek and utterly destroy all they have; do not spare them, but kill both man and woman, infant and suckling, ox and sheep, camel and donkey.

4So Saul assembled the men and numbered them at Telaim--200,000 men on foot and 10,000 men of Judah.

5And Saul came to the city of Amalek and laid wait in the valley.

6Saul warned the Kenites, Go, depart, get down from among the Amalekites, lest I destroy you with them; for you showed kindness to all the Israelites when they came up out of Egypt. So the Kenites departed from among the Amalekites.

7Saul smote the Amalekites from Havilah as far as Shur, which is east of Egypt.

8And he took Agag king of the Amalekites alive, though he utterly destroyed all the rest of the people with the sword.

9Saul and the people spared Agag and the best of the sheep, oxen, fatlings, lambs, and all that was good, and would not utterly destroy them; but all that was undesirable or worthless they destroyed utterly.

10Then the word of the Lord came to Samuel, saying,

11I regret making Saul king, for he has turned back from following Me and has not performed My commands. And Samuel was grieved and angry [with Saul], and he cried to the Lord all night.

12When Samuel rose early to meet Saul in the morning, he was told, Saul came to Carmel, and behold, he set up for himself a monument or trophy [of his victory] and passed on and went down to Gilgal.

13And Samuel came to Saul, and Saul said to him, Blessed are you of the Lord. I have performed what the Lord ordered.

14And Samuel said, What then means this bleating of the sheep in my ears, and the lowing of the oxen which I hear?

15Saul said, They have brought them from the Amalekites; for the people spared the best of the sheep and oxen to sacrifice to the Lord your God, but the rest we have utterly destroyed.

16Then Samuel said to Saul, Stop! I will tell you what the Lord said to me tonight. Saul said to him, Say on.

17Samuel said, When you were small in your own sight, were you not made the head of the tribes of Israel, and the Lord anointed you king over Israel?

18And the Lord sent you on a mission and said, Go, utterly destroy the sinners, the Amalekites; and fight against them until they are consumed.

19Why then did you not obey the voice of the Lord, but swooped down upon the plunder and did evil in the Lord's sight?

20Saul said to Samuel, Yes, I have obeyed the voice of the Lord and have gone the way which the Lord sent me, and have brought Agag king of Amalek and have utterly destroyed the Amalekites.

21But the people took from the spoil sheep and oxen, the chief of the things to be utterly destroyed, to sacrifice to the Lord your God in Gilgal.

22Samuel said, Has the Lord as great a delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obeying the voice of the Lord? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.

23For rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft, and stubbornness is as idolatry and teraphim (household good luck images). Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, He also has rejected you from being king.

24And Saul said to Samuel, I have sinned; for I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord and your words, because I feared the people and obeyed their voice.

25Now, I pray you, pardon my sin and go back with me, that I may worship the Lord.

26And Samuel said to Saul, I will not return with you; for you have rejected the word of the Lord, and the Lord has rejected you from being king over Israel.

27And as Samuel turned to go away, Saul seized the skirt of Samuel's mantle, and it tore.

28And Samuel said to him, The Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from you this day and has given it to a neighbor of yours who is better than you.

29And also the Strength of Israel will not lie or repent; for He is not a man, that He should repent.

30Saul said, I have sinned; yet honor me now, I pray you, before the elders of my people and before Israel, and return with me, that I may worship the Lord your God.

31So Samuel turned back after Saul, and Saul worshiped the Lord.

32Then Samuel said, Bring here to me Agag king of the Amalekites. And Agag came to him cheerfully. And Agag said, Surely the bitterness of death is past.

33Samuel said, As your sword has made women childless, so shall your mother be childless among women. And Samuel hewed Agag in pieces before the Lord in Gilgal.

34Then Samuel went to Ramah, but Saul went up to his house in Gibeah of Saul.

35And Samuel came no more to see Saul until the day of his death, though Samuel grieved over Saul. And the Lord repented that He had made Saul king over Israel.

Now in this next story it will explain how if you do things in the Lords will, you will find the work effortless and fulfilling.

John 21:1-6

1AFTER THIS, Jesus let Himself be seen and revealed [Himself] again to the disciples, at the Sea of Tiberias. And He did it in this way:

2There were together Simon Peter, and Thomas, called the Twin, and Nathanael from Cana of Galilee, also the sons of Zebedee, and two others of His disciples.

3Simon Peter said to them, I am going fishing! They said to him, And we are coming with you! So they went out and got into the boat, and throughout that night they caught nothing.

4Morning was already breaking when Jesus came to the beach and stood there. However, the disciples did not know that it was Jesus.

5So Jesus said to them, [a]Boys (children), you do not have any meat (fish), do you? [Have you caught anything to eat along with your bread?] They answered Him, No!

6And He said to them, Cast the net on the right side of the boat and you will find [some]. So they cast the net, and now they were not able to haul it in for such a big catch (mass, quantity) of fish [was in it].

A lot of times when people try and do things in their own will it is because of their pride, they allow their pride (or others to pressure them) to tell them that it is their strength and work that gets them what they want.

But in truth when we lay down our pride and use our strength to love and praise God, He replenishes our strength and energy more than enough to get through the day and to fulfill our purpose’s in life.