House of Hope Online

April 2, 2023

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This is an adaption of a word that the Lord gave me on Palm Sunday 2015. 

There is an important spiritual interaction between praise and pride and the antichrist spirit.  In order to praise our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, we must humble ourselves in His presence, and submit ourselves to God.  The Bible tells us if we do that, the devil will flee from us.

James 4:

6 But He gives a greater grace. Therefore [it] says, “GOD IS OPPOSED TO THE PROUD, BUT GIVES GRACE TO THE HUMBLE.”

 7 Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.

My wife, Nancy, and I did a podcast last week, entitled: “A Born-Again Marriage,” during which I told the story about my first exposure to a charismatic church where people were raising hands to the Lord, and the Spirit of God was moving.  I was very uncomfortable raising hands at that time.  I couldn’t bring myself to do it, and I rationalized that those who did were simply trying to look “holier than thou.”  Just then, the Lord spoke into my spirit that the raising of hands was a sign of humility, and it was actually my pride that was stopping me from doing so.  The devil was using pride to stop me from raising hands so he could keep me bound outside of God’s presence.  This was one of the first times I heard a word of the Lord in my spirit.  God said the people who raised hands were acknowledging that they worship a God that was a higher power.  When I learned that, I raised my hands and felt a lifting in my spirit.  There was freedom in acknowledging the supremacy of God, who is worthy to be praised. I learned what the scripture said: God gives grace to a humble spirit and is opposed to the proud.

For that reason, the antichrist spirit, or the devil, will do everything in his power to stop us from raising hands and humbling ourselves because he knows that when we do, we will be able to resist him (the devil), and he will have to flee.  How do we know he will just give up and flee?  Because the scripture says so clearly in verses 6 and 7: “GOD IS OPPOSED TO THE PROUD, BUT GIVES GRACE TO THE HUMBLE.” Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.  This is a spiritual principle, so you don’t need to worry about it – just humbly submit yourself to God and the devil must flee.  It’s a done deal.  The devil is prohibited from doing anything that God says he cannot do.

It is interesting that while I gave that testimony in last week’s podcast, I became distracted and struggled a little to stay on point.  God revealed to me that was spiritual warfare – Satan desperately wants to stop us from raising hands because there is no future for him in it.  He must flee once we submit to God.

And so, the story of Palm Sunday fascinates me because the devil reacted in a similar way back then.  The people were praising Jesus and the antichrist spirit moved to quell it.

The original Palm Sunday was a day when Jesus sent His disciples to another city to get a donkey, upon which Jesus rode down the descent of the Mount of Olives, while the people laid clothing and the branches of palm trees in the roadway and sang praises to Him as King.  It was fitting and just that Jesus be praised in this way, for it was a public acknowledgement of His Kingship, and represented fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy:

Zechariah 9:9 ¶ Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Zion! Shout [in triumph,] O daughter of Jerusalem! Behold, your king is coming to you; He is just and endowed with salvation, Humble, and mounted on a donkey, Even on a colt, the foal of a donkey.

I love the expression in that verse: “Behold, your king is coming to you.”  Back in the day we would talk about our “Come to Jesus” moment, but the truth is that Jesus comes to us.  Our King has such a humble spirit that he rides on a donkey, not in a glorious chariot, and He comes to us in hopes that we will accept His love in our heart and become saved.  He pursues us by the Holy Spirit and wants to draw us into relationship.

You can see in the following account of Palm Sunday that the people began to praise Jesus, and the antichrist spirit rose up within the Pharisees to stop it.  They began plotting Jesus’ death in earnest on that day because Satan knew his grip and control over the pride of the people would end if they accepted Christ.

The story of Palm Sunday is known as “The Triumphal Entry” in the Bible, and it is covered in all four Gospels.  I have reprinted below the version found in Luke 19:

Luke 19:

 29 And it came about that when He approached Bethphage and Bethany, near the mount that is called Olivet, He sent two of the disciples,

 30 saying, “Go into the village opposite (you,) in which as you enter you will find a colt tied, on which no one has yet ever sat, untie it, and bring it (here).

 31 And if anyone asks you, ‘Why are you untying it?’ thus you shall speak, ‘the Lord has need of it.’”

 32 And those who were sent went away and found it just as He had told them.

 33 And as they were untying the colt, its owners said to them, “Why are you untying the colt?”

 34 And they said, “The Lord has need of it.”

 35 And they brought it to Jesus, and they threw their garments on the colt, and put Jesus [on it.]

 36 And as He was going, they were spreading their garments in the road.

 37 And as He was now approaching, near the descent of the Mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to praise God joyfully with a loud voice for all the miracles which they had seen,

 38 saying, “BLESSED IS THE KING WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD; Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!”

 39 And some of the Pharisees in the multitude said to Him, “Teacher, rebuke Your disciples.”

 40 And He answered and said, “I tell you, if these become silent, the stones will cry out!”

It is significant that the Pharisees wanted to quiet the praise.  The fleshly nature of man does not want to humbly praise the Lord, just as I did not want to raise my hands back in the day.  Our fleshly nature seeks praise for ourselves, and resists lifting up the Lord.  It takes a miraculous move of the Holy Spirit to draw us out of our natural, fleshly, self-centered nature into a humble spirit capable of praising the Lord.

The Pharisees were the church rulers of the time.  They had great knowledge of the scriptures but lacked the lovingkindness and heart of God.  They represented the religious spirit of the day, i.e., those who tried to teach that salvation was not a gift from God but instead had to be earned by perfect compliance with religious rules.  The Pharisees thought highly of themselves as church leaders and wanted to be respected as such.  Jesus was very critical of this teaching, and more importantly, the heart motive of the Pharisees.  Look at what Jesus said in Matthew 23:

Matthew 23:

 10 “And do not be called leaders; for One is your Leader, [that is,] Christ.

 11 “But the greatest among you shall be your servant.

 12 “And whoever exalts himself shall be humbled; and whoever humbles himself shall be exalted.

 13 ¶ “But woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you shut off the kingdom of heaven from men; for you do not enter in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in.

 14 [“Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, because you devour widows’ houses, even while for a pretense you make long prayers; therefore you shall receive greater condemnation.]

• Jesus taught that the Pharisee spirit, or the religious spirit of today, is very demonic because it prevented salvation.  The heart of the Pharisees would not “enter in” to the heart of God, or the love of the Gospel.  Therefore, its leadership resulted in taking advantage of the people, especially the needy ones, such as widows.
• Jesus taught in verse 12 above that we should not exalt ourselves as leaders, but instead, we should walk as humble servants of the Lord.
• Who is the greatest among us?  He or she who is a humble servant is the greatest among us, according to our Lord and Savior.

But the Pharisee spirit was more than an egotistical attitude.  It was also the antichrist spirit that hated when the name of the Lord was praised.  It was this very hatred that led to the torture and death of Jesus.  The plotting of His death began shortly after the miracle of Palm Sunday and, I believe, it was a direct result of the jealousy within the Pharisees.  This spirit of jealousy can be seen in John’s version of Palm Sunday:

John 12:

 12 ¶ On the next day the great multitude who had come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem,

 13 took the branches of the palm trees, and went out to meet Him, and [began] to cry out, “Hosanna! BLESSED IS HE WHO COMES IN THE NAME OF THE LORD, even the King of Israel.”

 14 And Jesus, finding a young donkey, sat on it; as it is written,

 15 “FEAR NOT, DAUGHTER OF ZION; BEHOLD, YOUR KING IS COMING, SEATED ON A DONKEY’S COLT.”

 16 These things His disciples did not understand at the first; but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things were written of Him, and that they had done these things to Him.

 17 And so the multitude who were with Him when He called Lazarus out of the tomb, and raised him from the dead, were bearing Him witness.

 18 For this cause also the multitude went and met Him, because they heard that He had performed this sign.

 19 The Pharisees therefore said to one another, “You see that you are not doing any good; look, the world has gone after Him.”

What the Pharisees are saying in verse 19 represents spiritual warfare capable of murder.  The Book of James warns us of the danger of pride, jealousy and selfish ambition:

James 3:

 14 But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, do not be arrogant and [so] lie against the truth.

1. This wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly, natural, demonic.
2. For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil thing.

Unfortunately, I have seen church leaders so focused on “leading” others that a jealous spirit rises up when the move of the Holy Spirit comes forth.  Why? Because they sense a lack of control when the Holy Spirit moves.  This is the same lack of control that the Pharisees felt when Jesus was lifted up by the people on Palm Sunday.  They knew the people were following Jesus.  Their jealousy and selfish ambition drew them into arrogance and caused them to lie against the truth (Jesus).  Arrogance is a manifestation of pride.  James tells us that such logic is earthly, natural, and demonic.  Note he says “natural” and “demonic.”  So, it was natural for the Pharisees to feel the way they did.  It is our fleshly nature that leads us into the demonic.

Finally, James warns in verse 16 that if jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder and every evil thing.  In the case of the Pharisees, every evil thing included a plot to torture and murder our Lord.  The message for us is this: we must ask the Holy Spirit to search our hearts, and if there be any jealousy within it, or any selfish ambition, that He would make us aware of it, and remove it from us.

For me, the message of Palm Sunday is that fruitfulness comes only when our selfish desires die.  Until we humble ourselves in the presence of God and praise Him, we simply cannot accomplish anything of eternal value.  Here is what Jesus said shortly after being praised by the multitude on Palm Sunday:

John 12:

  24 “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains by itself alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit.

Of course, Jesus was referring to Himself as the grain of wheat that must fall into the earth and die.  He knew His death would culminate in resurrection and the fruitfulness of many salvations.  But He was also speaking to us.  If we hope to be fruitful, we must die to our fleshly desire to be fruitful.  A good starting point is humbly praising and worshipping Jesus through the raising of hands.  Anything we do must be done to glorify the Lord and not ourselves.  This includes our desire to lead others as Christians.  We must acknowledge that we are as capable of sin as any other, and our ability to overcome sin is embedded in, and due to, the presence of the Holy Spirit.  Paul writes that we must walk in the Spirit to overcome the deeds of the flesh.

Father, we thank you for the miracle of Palm Sunday and the realization that the grain of wheat in us must die in order to produce fruit.  Help us to have a humble spirit and guard our hearts from jealousy and selfish ambition.  We lay our branches down, raise our hands up, and express our adoration of Jesus on this Palm Sunday, and we praise the King who comes in the name of the Lord.  Amen.