We’ve all been in conversations where someone doesn’t hear us correctly. We argue back and forth about what was truly said. The hearer doesn’t receive and understand what the communicator was saying.
Misunderstandings cause offense, discord and rejection. We suffer spiritual warfare at the hands of another person. The demonic realm most often activates through another human being causing them to sow discord into relationships.
Hearing and talking are one of the most common ways evil spirits attack us. We are partially responsible too by exuding behavior patterns, thoughts and habits that haven’t changed. We can’t blame everything on a demon, because everything is not demonic. Our own egotism, self-confidence and self-sufficiency can build up strongholds in our lives.
When in a conversation have you ever said, “I didn’t say that?” The person you are talking to argues back that you did, in fact, say that. You go back and forth about what was said and what they heard. There are times you think, Where did you get that from? That wasn’t even close to what I said.
The spirit of pride works to turn and twist communication channels. The person with pride doesn’t hear what the person said and meant. The words in their mind are twisted and turned before being received. This causes dissension and miscommunication. The person hearing the words is inflicted with a spirit of pride.
Examples of miscommunication and pride in relationships:
- “I’m going to order a pizza for dinner” (because you’re both tired and don’t want to cook.) The hearer receives, “I made my own decision what is for dinner, and I didn’t take your feelings into consideration and ask you what you were hungry for even though I was trying to help.” They are now offended, rejected and mad.
- “I’m going to the store and buy myself some socks and a few other things.” The hearer says, “Great! Can you pick me up some deodorant?” You agree but forget their deodorant. A person who is manifesting pride receives, “Your items were more important than I am,” leaving them angry and insecure.
- In extreme cases, you could say, “I am going to the store to get peanut butter,” and they hear, “I am making a PB&J.”
How pride and the strongman of Leviathan manifest miscommunication:
- Employer and employee relationships.
- When discussing what restaurant to go to.
- Deciding whose family’s turn it is to spend a particular holiday this year.
- Making decisions about which vehicle to purchase and discussing the pros and cons.
Pride is the hidden spirit in operation. Pride is a blinding spirit, and people who have pride don’t see they have it. There are surface things we know we are prideful about, such as the way we dress or the car we drive. However, we need to go beyond the surface and go deep to find the hidden pockets of pride that are causing us spiritual warfare, delaying our destiny and destroying our marriages.
How do you deal with a person with pride?
- Pray, “Holy Spirit, convict them.”
- Declare, “Holy Spirit, reveal and expose their pride to them.”
- Pray, “Jesus, in their quiet time with you, deliver them and bring their actions to the forefront of their mind for them to evaluate them and receive what you purchased on the cross for them.
- Command through declaring, “I command the spirit of pride to be bound and restricted in my time of interaction with them.”
- Pray, “Holy Spirit, show them their argumentative nature and lead them to repentance.”
How do you cope with the retribution you encounter as a result of their pride?
- Exude love. Be love at all times and in every action.
- Don’t argue back. When a person is struggling with a spirit of pride, you are talking to a demon, not the person.
- Love the person; dislike the principality operating through them.
“For our fight is not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, and against spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places” (Eph. 6:12).
Remember, you are not fighting and miscommunicating with the person you love but with an evil spirit. Love the person; dislike the principalities operating through them.
Don’t confront them about a spirit of pride unless the Lord leads you to approach them. When I had pride, I did not see it. I was a mature Christian. My husband would tell me, and I would deny it. It was only after my overseer approached me several times and my soul was in a place of self-evaluation and pressing into everything Jesus had for me that I was able to be delivered. My pride didn’t manifest like others’, so it prevented me from seeing it. Pride has many characteristics.
The power of prayer and the Holy Spirit-revelation is what the person needs. All else will lead to another debate, misunderstood conversation and time of emotional wounds for both parties involved. If we would all self-examine and seek the Lord, we could uproot these spirits that are attacking our lives.
Learn more about spiritual warfare, and learn how to receive and minister deliverance, in Kathy’s book, Discerning and Destroying the Works of Satan. {eoa}
Kathy DeGraw is a prophetic spiritual warfare strategist releasing the love and power of God, to ignite and activate people, release prophetic destinies and deliver people from the bondage of the enemy. She is the founder of Kathy DeGraw Ministries and Be Love Outreach. She is the author of several books, including Speak Out, Discerning and Destroying the Works of Satan, Identity Invasion, Who is Speaking? and Warfare Declarations. You can connect with Kathy on Facebook, facebook.com/kathydegraw or visit degrawministries.org.
Bill Wiese 
Paul McGuire 
Abby Trivett 
