TWO CONTRASTING CONCEPTS — A deeper look:
What we think is who we are in the present, and what we become in the future.
As we learned in Part One, there are two systems of thought; two power systems; two contrasting realities — Good and Evil. And each power system has a powerful leader: Satan leads an Army of demons (fallen angels). Christ leads an Army of Angels.
We must know the enemy. Knowing one’s enemy is one of the first rules of war, and we are in a spiritual war, upon which the balance of everything rides.
Satan is man’s worst and most powerful adversary. Satan cannot indwell believers (because WE are the Tabernacle from the Old Testament; WE are the Sanctuary from the New Testament as we represent ourselves to God as our own individual believer-priest), but Satan does influence our thinking. He uses the world, and the flesh to tempt and gain advantage over all of mankind.
Note: Satan does not target individual believers. He is not omnipresent and cannot be everywhere at once as God can. He has his legions of demons to carry out his work for him.
Satan knows our human nature better than we do — how to scare us, how to manipulate us, how to tempt us, how to lie and lead us astray slowly … ever so slowly — and we scarcely know how to defend against him. This is primarily due to the lack of teaching from our Church pulpits and even our Seminaries. Without deeper teaching of God’s Word, the believer remains weak and vulnerable to temptations and spends most of his/her life in a near-constant state of sin. Carnality is a term in the New Testament that expresses the fact that a believer out of fellowship with the Holy Spirit, thinks and acts just like the unbeliever. (Be sure to check out the “Terms and Definitions“ section for explanations of theological terms).
There is a system designed by God for every believer. Satan has his sinister system as well.
Satan, has tremendous power and influence over mankind and Satan and his demons exploit our human weaknesses by the temptations of life in the devil’s world.
Our wrong decisions can entangle us in a web of sin, misery, and satanic deceit. By contrast, our divinely inspired decisions can give us victory in the Christian Life.
The Holy Spirit uses The Word of God to open our spiritual eyes to the realities of Good and Evil … Truth and Deception. Here at WOTM, we counteract Satan’s influence over man, by teaching GOD’S TRUTHS in a world of UNTRUTH.
Satan’s world (the world which we live in today) is designed to keep us away from God, off balance, discouraged, and deceived by counterfeit lifestyles and temporary happiness (fixes and escapes, such as drugs and alcohol and over-eating and gambling, etc.).
Man is weak, God is strong.
Here are three sources of Divine Power that can conquer/overcome any adversity in life:
—God sent His Son Jesus Christ to redeem mankind from sin, and slavery to sin.
—God sent the Holy Spirit for guidance and protection.
—God gave the world the Holy Bible.
These three power sources are God’s Plan for victory in life — for all mankind.
Faith in Christ and the instantaneous baptism of the Holy Spirit places the new believer into union with Christ.
Two systems of thinking — one choice — Good or Evil?
We all live in the devil’s world, but anyone can chose Christ and be saved from the world’s power and God’s coming wrath.
Choose where you want to live, but be prepared to live with your decision. Choose this day whom you will follow.
“As for me and my household, we will follow the Lord.”
“Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved.”
A CLOSING THOUGHT:
The real you is revealed by the thought content of your soul-thinking. Therefore, because all of us are influenced by the details of life, our reaction to every situation determines who we are and who we become. Our thinking determines our action and re-actions.
The world is influenced by worldly things. As believers, we need to be influenced by spiritual things.
In order to combat evil we must do good — live good — golden rule. We have spiritual ammunition — Bible Doctrine. In this world, the dramas of life’s circumstances can dramatically affect our human viewpoints, our decisions. You can have victory in life by accepting Jesus Christ as your Savior. If you will, God has a Plan for you to be a victorious person IN CHRIST.
Human (worldly) viewpoint is in conflict with divine viewpoint (Isaiah 55:8). “For as a man thinks in his heart — so is he.
Happy Studying in Fields of Grace.