Self-righteousness is the belief that the self can produce righteousness. The fact is that every person who is following Jesus Christ is led and taught by the Holy Spirit moment by moment. When we listen and acknowledge Him, He imparts His faith, a Divinely inspired certainty that what He said is true. This certainty gives us access into His grace. His grace does the righteousness through us. True righteousness is a gift of God–it is God doing His works through us. Every other form of righteousness, whether Christian or non-Christian, is filth. It is self-righteousness.
God Confirms Revelation
God seems to always confirm His revelation from several sources. He speaks through Scripture. He speaks through archaeological artifacts. He speaks through His Creation. He speaks the same thing through brothers and sisters who are speaking by the Spirit. There’s a confirmation and God never contradicts Himself or causes confusion. It also seems that Scripture is the final word of confirmation. We must not add to His words, though.
Listening to ungodly counsel or thinking, speaking or acting in disobedience to the Holy Spirit would result in a loss of discernment. The conscience becomes seared instead of the spiritual senses being exercised and enhanced. Then, it’s harder to discern between the leading of God and the leading of the fleshly mind or even the leading of demons. It becomes more difficult to know the difference between godly counsel and ungodly counsel.
Ungodly Counsel
When Christians take to heart ungodly counsel, they begin to have more trouble discerning the leading of God. Then, human interpretations of Scripture creep in, and a downward spiral begins. Unfortunately, there is a lot of ungodly counsel from the “news,” from schools, from movies, from TV shows, from music, from museums, from parks, and from other false prophets.
When something is taken to heart, it’s added to the inner worldview of the person. Sometimes, conflicts arise in worldviews. This is neurotic. It’s known as internal inconsistency, and internal inconsistencies often persist for a lifetime. When God speaks, faith comes. Faith is certain, and is always based on what God is saying. At the same time, the inner worldview is giving a vision. Then decisions have to be made. Will you lean on your own understanding or acknowledge the utterance of God? Whichever you decide to follow becomes your master.
Darkness for Light
Here are the rules. The people who love evil can do evil. If you call that evil “evil” in a general statement, then those who love evil will search for something that is wrong with you personally. When they find something, they will become very judgmental and moralistic. Message control is everything to them. That’s because they love darkness and hate light. “Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness; that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!” Isaiah 5:20
