By Prophet Dewald Gouws
Two people can walk up to me after a service and say the exact same words: “Man of God, I honour you.” From the outside, they look identical. One is simply expressing love. The other is hoping that honour will open a door. The action is the same. The motive is completely different.
That is why I want to talk about the truth about the heart. We can fool the people around us. Sometimes we even fool ourselves. But we cannot fool God.
“The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is? But I, the LORD, search all hearts and examine secret motives.” — Jeremiah 17:9–10 (NLT)
God is not only interested in what we do. He is interested in why we do it.
Me, Myself and I
Think about the last group photo you looked at. Who did you look for first? Yourself. Our nature is focused on ourselves, and it takes the heart of Christ to think beyond that.
Paul saw this among the ministers around him: “I have no one else like Timothy, who genuinely cares about your welfare. All the others care only for themselves” (Philippians 2:20–21, NLT). Isaiah says it plainly: “All of us, like sheep, have strayed away. We have left God’s paths to follow our own” (Isaiah 53:6, NLT). Our own path, our own agenda, our own motives.
Same David, Different Hearts
Saul and Jonathan both loved David. After Goliath fell, the women sang that Saul had killed his thousands and David his ten thousands. Saul had no problem with David until he was compared. “So from that time on Saul kept a jealous eye on David” (1 Samuel 18:9, NLT).
Watch the progression. What started in Saul’s heart moved into his eyes, and the very next day there was a spear in his hand (1 Samuel 18:10–11). Jealousy never stays where it starts.
Jonathan, by right, was next in line for the throne. Yet “Jonathan made a solemn pact with David, because he loved him as he loved himself,” and handed him his robe, sword, bow and belt (1 Samuel 18:3–4, NLT). In Saul’s eyes, David was a competition. In Jonathan’s eyes, David was a privilege.
Pride also wears a quieter face. Insecurity and the fear of what others think still ask the same question at the root: “What about me?”
When God Says “Not Yet”
Perhaps you have watched others receive their breakthrough while you are still waiting. Sometimes God’s delay is His time to expose our motives. He will never give you what will destroy you, so He uses the waiting to deal with your heart. Don’t weep over it. Thank Him for showing you what He wants to change.
Celebrate People
Here is how you fight pride: celebrate the people who are being lifted up. When you fight them, you only expose your heart. Thank the person serving next to you. Ask a leader what you can do to help.
In your marriage, don’t wait for your spouse to change. Be the one who makes the coffee and says, “I’m sorry, I didn’t handle that well.” And when you ask forgiveness, don’t demand it back. That is between them and God.
When people honour you, receive it with thankfulness, then give it back to the King. Honour was never meant to sit with you. It is meant to flow through you.
Become Less
John the Baptist understood this: “He must become greater and greater, and I must become less and less” (John 3:30, NLT). Around the throne, the twenty-four elders lay their crowns before the One who sits on it (Revelation 4:10–11). Our position, our title, our ministry, our own ways: we lay them down, because it was never about us.
The less we make it about us, the more room God has to move. And when the breakthrough comes, like Gideon with his 300, you will be able to say it was by God and God alone.
So let this be your prayer this week: “Lord, search my heart. Show me where I have made it about me. Teach me to celebrate others, and let it be all about You.” Then trust Him to lift you up in His time.
