Ambitious
Rivalry
[An Advanced Study]
You should remember as workers of Absolute
Bible Study that all teachings placed under the category of ‘Advanced Study’
could also be placed under the category of Dealing With The Adversary. The difference is that Advanced Studies may
be slightly more difficult to understand by the person somewhat new to the
Word. The more you have your mind
renewed to God’s Word, the greater understanding you will have. In other words, God will only teach you
what you need to know and what He knows that you will understand. A key to reading your Bible is to read
through the parts you do not understand and simply keep reading. There will come a time in your life,
depending on your commitment, that God will open up the eyes of your
understanding and you will then understand the section that you previously
could not
understand.
For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work. –
James 3: 16
This will be the foundational Scripture
which will lay the groundwork for this teaching. Let’s work it.
How dangerous is envy? Oh, some will say that it’s not so bad. Envy led to the first murder ever committed. Because Cain was envious of
his brother Abel, he slew him. I would
say we cleared up any confusion about the implications of envy.
Strife is an easy one. This is in reference to hostility between and
among people. Surely, we are all
familiar with this in almost every facet of our lives. But what is the end result? This same Scripture simply spells it out for
us. The result is confusion and every
evil work. And this type of confusion is
well-organized in a fashion that can
deceive even the very elect.
For there shall arise false
Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch
that, if it were possible, they
shall deceive even the very elect. – Matthew 24: 24
Envy and strife are the results of ambitious rivalry devil spirits and they run
rampant. Of course, it appears like
plain old competition, but that is the deception. Most people today will do almost anything to
get ‘ahead’ in their career, social status, and especially financial
success. They will hurt people, cause
confusion and every evil work. This is
why there is so much confusion in the world today. II Corinthians 4: 4 tells us that the god of
this world is the devil. Until Christ
comes back, he runs this world. The only
thing that defeats him is the rightly divided Word. Don’t even try any other way. Believe me, I tried it all. I am not afraid of the god of this world and
he knows it. He brings people to my
neighborhood that reflect the greatest of his strength and yet the God in
Christ in me defeats him every time. I
actually look forward to taking him on – it gives me something to do that I
find exciting and stimulating. What good
is the power of God if you do not use it?
But don’t get carried away with that attitude. Keep it in balance and perspective. Remember, it’s God’s power – simply believe
and act upon it.
Humble yourselves in the sight
of the Lord, and he shall lift you up. – James 4: 10
Now, we need to ask ourselves what is one of the underlying reasons, in its least common denominator, as to the cause of ambitious rivalry? Let’s take a look at something very important and relevant in the Book of Ezekiel. In this section, God is referring to Lucifer and the origin and reason for his fall. The first word of this Scripture can also be referring to the circumstances of Adam, but remember, it is the adversary that is the subject matter.
Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that
thou wast created, till iniquity was found in thee. By the multitude of thy merchandise they have
filled the midst of thee with violence, and thou hast sinned: therefore I will cast thee as profane out of
the mountain of God: and I will destroy
thee, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire. –
Ezekiel 28: 15, 16
Now watch carefully the next verse. This is the main cause of ambitious rivalry
which possesses and controls business people, the complete professional arena
including law enforcement, religion and especially politics, right down to the
shelf stocker on third shift in the department store. We will later go through some actual
examples.
Thine heart wast lifted up
because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy
brightness: I [God]
will cast thee to the ground, I will lay thee before
kings, that they may behold thee. Thou
hast defiled thy sanctuaries by the multitude of thine iniquities, by the
iniquity of thy traffick; therefore will I bring forth a fire from the midst of
thee, it shall devour thee, and I will bring thee to ashes upon the earth in
the sight of all them that behold thee.
All they that know thee among the people shall be astonished at
thee: thou shalt be a terror, and never shalt thou be any more. – Ezekiel 28: 17 – 19
How was Lucifer lifted up and why? Lucifer was quite outstanding in appearance
at first. The Word says that he had
beauty and brightness. Ladies, have you
ever met a really handsome man who was in love with himself? And men, have you ever met a stunning woman
that had a miserable and cocky attitude?
This is the same type of situation here.
Lucifer’s strong points went to his head and his wisdom was
corrupted. So he turned on God and told
God that he would rise above Him.
Mistake.
Many people, especially in different
careers, seem to have an advantage. Some
come from prosperous families and are able to get better educations. Some people are physically more attractive than
others. Yes, I can go on and on. But God Almighty looks on the heart and we
are to imitate Him and to look on the heart also.
Now here is quite a controversial
subject – prejudice. Do you know how
many acts of violence were done as a result of prejudice?!! They may be countless. This is the result of one race believing they
are better than, and more intelligent than another race. Now from a spiritual point of view, you tell
me where this influence and mind control originates? Lucifer loves to afflict people with PRIDE because that is how he fell. Pride is basically fear. And yet it contributes to a very high
percentage of problems in the world today.
Ambitious rivalry is fed by pride.
I have said that this is an Advanced Study
and targets only the believer who has matured in the Word of God and stood for
year after year regardless of persecution and tribulation from the world. Before we move on to one or more of some real
life examples of ambitious rivalry, we are going to look at a Scripture in
Ephesians that, when taken literally, will change your life. I never mean to scare anyone, but if the
rightly divided Word does that, it is because you have not yet sufficiently
renewed your mind.
For we wrestle not against
flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers
of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places [from
on high]. – Ephesians 6: 12
If you work this Scripture, you will gain
great and valuable spiritual insight into spiritual matters. In the first place, these principalities and
powers are literally ‘the world rulers of the darkness of this age’. This consists of the devil and all his devil
spirits. But remember, the Christ in you
is greater. Turn to I John 4: 4 and
study and learn that verse by heart. You
are going to need it if you are going to stand against the god of this
world. Your understanding and believing
of I John 4: 4 will make the enemy’s attack just a big roar with no bite.
Notice how many times the word “against” is
used in the verse. This is the figure of
speech Anaphora or Like Sentence Beginnings and is used to emphasize the fact
that our conflict is spiritual. The
importance of understanding this cannot be emphasized enough. Satan is after the Word of God – the only
thing that can defeat him. If you know
and apply and especially teach that Word, then the adversary will do everything
in his power to hinder you. It’s the Word
of God that defeats the adversary, not anything that we can do by ourselves. It’s the Word that we know that matters.
Now this is what you need to remember:
It’s ALWAYS a spiritual conflict. It is ALL SPIRITUAL.
YOU COMPETE
AGAINST PEOPLE INFLUENCED BY DEVIL SPIRITS.
Think this through logically. If a person does not live by what the Scriptures say, there are only two (2) influences – two (2) ways to go. That person is then influenced by the god of this world and that god controls his or her actions. You have to be very sharp spiritually to recognize this in your everyday living.
Ambitious rivalry on this spiritual plane
disguises itself in many ways. ‘People’
may say “Oh, that’s only competition”.
Competition minus evil intentions and methods is a very healthy
thing. But when people approach this
subject from the standpoint of ambitious rivalry, it becomes devilish and
harmful – contradicting the Scriptures.
It’s source is the god of this world who always tries to hide his
actions and make them appear socially acceptable. Those who don’t know the Word of God rightly
divided are blind to his deception. How
hard I tried to help so many people with God’s Word and yet they chose not to
believe. I had to turn my head away
because I did not want to see the destruction that I knew they would bring upon
themselves.
As a dog returneth to his
vomit, so a fool returneth to his
folly. – Proverbs 26: 11
A person that was witnessed to with me
decided, by his own free will, not to pursue the situation that introduced me
to the Bible. He eventually lost his
wife and children, his business, lives alone and works at a job that he
hates. Being a very good friend at one
time, I tried again to help him. We
spoke once on the phone to set up a meeting and I never heard back from
him. He was always someone who loved
himself a bit too much. He was the macho
ladies man and he was deceived into believing that he would lose his social
status if he turned to the Bible. What
is this? Remember?……. PRIDE. This pride eventually destroyed his
life. It caused him to give place to
ambitious rivalry and other devilish influences.
A woman moved in my neighborhood and kept
calling the police on me even if I was working on my driveway with a
floodlight. I knew it was Satan and I
kept going at her defending myself. This
woman had to always prove to herself that she was better and more powerful that
everyone else. Actually she is insane
based on my knowledge and experience working in a State Mental Hospital. Her actions were influenced by ambitious
rivalry devil spirits among many others.
The police, in time, saw that it was this woman that was harassing me –
not the other way around. Here was a
person that I never even spoke to and didn’t even know her name. Now this is when the adversary is getting
desperate. She eventually made a total
fool out of herself and took a major stroke.
No, I didn’t rejoice in such iniquity, but NO ONE and I mean NO ONE
messes with a Son of God. The wheels of
God grind slowly, but they grind finely.
Look above at Proverbs 26: 11 again and read it, ok? (This same woman started to smoke
again!). A fool returns to their
folly. Can you believe it?
My point is that you will always come out a
winner when you stand on the Word of God.
Rooted and built up in him,
and stablished in the faith, as ye have been taught, abounding therein with
thanksgiving. Beware lest any man spoil
you through philosophy [doctrine] and
vain deceit [ego], after the tradition of
men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ. –
Colossians 2: 7, 8
When I first got involved in God’s Word, I
used to attend home fellowships that were taught by my fellowship coordinator
who happened to be the Branch Leader of 40 people who were visiting my area for
one year. This brilliant woman of God,
oftentimes, would bring up actual examples of what happened to her, and
incorporate them into her teachings. I
would always listen up since this was such an effective method of teaching and
means of getting the point across. Since
then, I too, often use this teaching technique because of it’s effectiveness in
holding a listener’s attention.
Ambitious rivalry and how it can take it’s
toll is clearly reflected in the following true story.
This record has a lot of meaning to me and
yet it is an excellent example of ambitious rivalry – one of the best I can
think of. It involves the destruction of
a beautiful natural nature trail that was sacred to me, lots of money, and
months of construction work. All for
nothing! Of course, the main ingredient
was the competition of two Pennsylvania Counties as to who could outdo the
other. Let’s go to John 10: 10a
The thief cometh not, but for
to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: -- John 10:10a
That’s Satan’s ministry – three things –
and he uses men to carry out his dirty work.
In this case, his choice of action was ‘destroy’.
My dog and I found a nature trail that was
one of the most beautiful five mile trails I have ever seen. It was set in a rural setting surrounded by
farms and meadows. But it was the trail
itself that was majestic in an unexplainable way. This, at one time, was a railroad bed that
was used to haul coal from one part of PA to another. When the route was discontinued, they took up
the railroad ties and decided to leave the bed alone. It became a historic walking trail natural in
all its aspects. There was green grass
growing in the middle and along the sides.
The trees had a tendency to droop over the trail making the trail look
almost like a tunnel. The sunlight
trickled through the overhanging trees, but the shade dominated mostly all of
this beautiful black and green path that was about as wide as a small
road. The bed consisted of ground up
silt mixed with coal from the railroad cars that once traveled the path.
My dog and I walked this trail almost every
day and sometimes about 50 miles per week.
We did this for about seven (7) years.
The trail was blessed and we had some of the greatest times we have ever
had in our life. There were wildlife all
over and we met many nice people and made friends. Buddy was later 14 yrs. old and my vet told
me she never in her career saw a dog at 14 that did not have one bit of
arthritis in his body. When my foot
touched that trail, anything that could possibly be bothering me just seemed to
disappear. We would finish our walk every
day totally set free and in peace – God’s peace and it did pass all my
understanding.
And the peace of God, which
passeth all understanding, shall [absolutely] keep [guard] your
hearts and minds [thoughts] through [in]
Christ Jesus. – Philippians 4: 7
Past the five mile point was an extension
of this trail and it too was very beautiful and all natural. This was now in a different County. To make a long story quite short, this County
decided to widen the trail and completely redo it. They brought in heavy equipment and tore down
many trees and put a 6 inch high level of small gravel over the natural
trail. They ran this new trail for about
5 miles. To me, it was a disaster. They ruined the natural setting and instead
of it being God-made, it was now man-made.
Man and his machines destroyed it’s natural bed and most of the
surrounding trees and bushes. It became
a bicycle trail mainly. My dog and I
avoided it and were so thankful that we had our 5 miles of natural scenic
trail. Surely they would never destroy
this natural rail trail.
This trail was one of the few natural
trails left in this part of Pennsylvania.
No one in their right mind would even think of altering it in any
way. To my horror, about a year later,
rumors were surfacing that they were going to copy what the neighboring County
did to their part of the trail. I tried
to brush it off as hearsay. As time went
on the rumors worsened.
One evening, my dog Buddy and I went to the
beginning of the trail for a late walk.
It was just like a nightmare.
There were the heavy machinery in the parking lot. I could not believe what I was seeing. Slowly but surely, they destroyed our sacred
natural trail and built it up with a gravel bed. They cut down hundreds if not thousands of
overlapping trees and bulldozed the bushes.
They destroyed a historic site and why?
Because the neighboring County did the same and they were possessed to
compete with them by devil spirits of ambitious rivalry. And that is the God’s truth. The trail also turned into a haven for
bicycles and was uncomfortable to walk.
All the memories seemed to be gone as we tried to walk this new
trail. I was sickened to the point of
being nauseated. My dog and I had to
find a new trail and we did.
You have to look behind the scenes to see
what really happened here. A teaching
like this can only be understood by a mature believer walking on the Word. I only hope you will never forget this true story. My dog passed away about a year after this
took place. I struggled to go on and God
carried me.
This is how deadly and devastating
ambitious rivalry can be. I don’t see
how further extensive examples would have much profit. However, before going any further, I must
quote a Scripture in Timothy that, besides pride, is another major factor that
also feeds ambitious rivalry and that is not money. It is the LOVE of money which is the root of
all evil.
For the love of money is the
root [system] of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have
erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. –
I Timothy 6: 10
Saving this part for last, it is the love
of money which can open a person’s mind to devil spirits – especially devil
spirits of ambitious rivalry. Some
people will do almost anything to advance in their career. They will lie, cheat, steal and the list is
almost endless. Obviously, you have
heard of ‘sleeping with the boss’ to move up the corporate ladder. So moral depravity is now added to the
list. There are too many examples to
mention. What we’ve gone over should
suffice.
You should be able by now to be able to
recognize ambitious rivalry. If you do,
do whatever you can to counter the enemy’s moves. When I see this evil action, I try to avoid
it and get far away from it. Ask God what
to do and never forget this concluding Scripture, (the reference mentioned
previously) which I have repeated and taught maybe thousands of times. It will help you to stand up to your personal
adversary and defeat him every time.