From a sermon on Slander by Pastor John in 2006
The Spirit is teaching all of God’s children all the time, but if at any point along the way, we become proud of what we think we know, our growth in the knowledge of God will cease – until we regain our humility. Pride is the mother of spiritual blindness, but humility is the mother of learning. Humility makes us wise because it makes us willing to receive instruction. If you stop and think about it, you will realize that everything you know – even so small a thing as knowing how to tie your shoes – you learned by humbling yourself to someone who was teaching you, whether it be to God or to a person on earth.
Solomon said, “A wise man will hear” (Prov. 1:5), but it is the willingness to hear which enables someone to become wise. And, as Solomon repeatedly pointed out, it is the unwillingness to hear, that is, pride, which makes a person foolish (e.g., Prov. 1:7; 15:5; 23:9). When someone becomes proud, he cannot become wise for his heart will no longer receive instruction.
May God give us the humility to become wise by listening to the instruction of the Spirit of God, and by listening to the wisdom of those who have been taught by the Spirit before us!
Proverbs 1
5. A wise man will hear, and will increase learning, and a man of understanding shall attain unto wise counsels,
6. to understand a proverb, and the interpretation, the words of the wise, and their dark sayings.
7. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.
8. My son, hear the instruction of thy father, and forsake not the law of thy mother:
9. For they shall be an ornament of grace unto thy head, and chains about thy neck.
