“The god of this World” – R. Nelson
BIBLE MEDITATION:
“Whose minds the god (Satan) of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest (otherwise) the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.” 2 Corinthians 4:4
ENCOURAGING WORD:
We often hear how the unbelievers of the world will try to spin the truth about who God is and what He stands for and what He opposes! They will say something ignorant like, “They are doing more good for God than the Christians are”. This would really get under my skin until I put it in perspective of who their god really is. We need to understand that they serve the god of this world and the scripture tell us above who the god of this world is…Satan, so in hindsight of their ignorance, they are right! Their god does oppose everything the Bible and the Christians stand for! The phrase “god of this world” (or “god of this age”) indicates that Satan is the major influence on the ideals, opinions, goals, hopes and views of the majority of people. His influence also encompasses the world’s philosophies, education, and commerce. The thoughts, ideas, speculations and false religions of the world are under his control and have sprung from his lies and deceptions.
All the way back to the Garden of Eden, we learn where God turned the world over to Satan because Adam and Eve chose to serve the serpent rather than God. Satan was a liar and deceiver from the beginning where we read in Genesis 3:1-3 where he deceived Eve into eating from the tree of good and evil, “Now the serpent was more cunning than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘you shall not eat of every tree of the garden’?” And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat the fruit of the trees of the garden; but of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall not eat it, nor shall you touch it, lest you die.” Ever since that event took place, man no longer could enjoy direct fellowship with God. Before man’s fall from grace, Adam and Eve enjoyed life in a perfect environment. From this point on is where sin entered into our world and God stepped aside. Man made his choice who he would serve. Here is what God said the Adam and Eve after the fall, Genesis 3:16 God said to the woman, “To the woman He said: “I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception; in pain you shall bring forth children; your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.” And to the man God said, Genesis 3:17-19, “Then to Adam He said, “Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat of it’: “Cursed is the ground for your sake; in toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for dust you are, And to dust you shall return.” All through history from that point on all the way to the present, we have been under the curse of sin and we have seen the results of what life is apart from God. There is unbelievable hatred among men because of Satan’s hatred toward mankind. He has turned the whole world against each other in hopes of destroying all of mankind. I’ve heard it said that you will become like to god you worship. If you serve Satan, you will become like Satan as most of the world has already chosen, if you chose Jesus Christ you will become like Jesus Christ, loving and caring toward your fellow man. In other words, you will spend eternity with the god that you worship! To put it in prospective, are you serving the world and all the evil therein, or are you serving Jesus Christ and following the scriptures of the Bible as your way of life.
In 1 Peter 5:8-10; we read, “Be sober, and be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world. But may the God of all grace, who called us to His eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after you have suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, and settle you.” Satan has had six thousand years to study man and he knows all of our weaknesses. Satan’s one and only objective is to destroy humanity and bring the world into total chaos. As a matter of fact, here is what Jesus said would happen if He didn’t return, Matthew 24:22; “And unless those days were shortened, no flesh would be saved; but for the elect’s sake those days will be shortened.” Satan’s main focus is to destroy every single Jew as we can see by past events. But have you noticed, nobody was able to accomplish that, not even Hitler. His second objective is to rid the world of Christianity. So far he has failed in both of those areas. A lot of Christians have been martyred for their faith, but there are still millions left here on earth to be caught up with the Lord in the clouds very soon. We read in the following verse where once God brought the Jews back into their homeland after being dispersed throughout the world for the last two thousand years that they would never be uprooted again. Here is verse from Amos 9:15, where God makes it perfectly clear that Israel will no longer be pulled up from their land, “I will plant them in their land, And no longer shall they be pulled up From the land I have given them,” Says the Lord your God.” We see once again how the horrors of anti-Semitism is rearing its ugly head toward the Jews. If you are of the belief that Israel is going to be overthrown by the Muslim nations, you are on the wrong side of God’s Word. Sure, they are planning to wipe Israel off the face of the earth, but I got news for them, they will lose five sixth of their armies and will be defeated by God Himself. So, if you are on the side of the evil tactics of Islam, you will very likely join them in their defeat! It is not a good idea to poke your figures in the eyes of God and go against His Holy people. Read Ezekiel, chapters 37-38 for more information about this war that is going to take place in the very near future
Now let’s bring things up to date. Unless you are totally blind you have seen the world falling apart like never before, why do you suppose that is. Well, I’ll tell you. It is because Satan has a very short window of opportunity left in which to accomplish his mission and to put it in terms most people can understand, he is doing everything in his power to bring death to all mankind because soon, he will have no power. We need to know and understand the following verse and put it into action every day that we have left, Ephesians 6:12-13; “For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.” If you have not received Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, then you are extremely vulnerable to the attacks of the evil one. If you want the only protection available to you, you need to call out to Jesus Christ and give Him control of your life. With this bit of wisdom, you need to understand that everything bad thing that has happened in your life, especially if you are not a believer, has been a result of Satan’s hatred toward you. You reject Jesus Christ and Satan still hates you. Why would anybody serve someone or something that hates them, think about it? We have kicked God out of our society so God has graciously stepped aside, so when something bad happens, know it is the god (Satan) of this world that you serve that is responsible for the evil in your life. Isn’t it amazing, you give Satan your soul and He still brings evil into your life? I’ve heard it said, (“I’d rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints, the sinners are much more fun.”) In case you are ignorant enough to believe this, let me be the first to tell you, there will be no laughing or partying in hell, as a matter of fact the one that you serve will be brought down the that same level as those that have chosen to follow him. There will however, be a lot of laughing and joy in heaven. We read in Isaiah 14:11-17; ““How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, you who weakened the nations! For you have said in your heart: ‘I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation on the farthest sides of the north; I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.’ Yet you shall be brought down to Sheol, to the lowest depths of the Pit. “Those who see you will gaze at you, and consider you, saying: ‘Is this the man who made the earth tremble, who shook kingdoms, who made the world as a wilderness and destroyed its cities, who did not open the house of his prisoners? ‘ Is this the god that you are backing and hoping to spend eternity with? If so, when you stand before God at the White Throne Judgement, don’t blame anybody but yourself as to where you end up, you made the choice, nobody made it for you.
ACTION POINT:
All the chaos that is taking place in this world is the final countdown to the last days of Satan’s rule on earth. God has stepped aside and given Satan complete reign of the earth to those that have chosen to serve Satan instead of Jesus Christ. Keep this in mind, the things that are taking place in our world today are just a dress rehearsal of the real evil that is about to be poured out on a God rejecting world. That is the bad news, but there is great news. God has given us an out or an escape clause as we once again read in Luke 21:36; “Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man.” There is still hope and all you have to do is turn to Jesus Christ and submit your life over to Him and accept the most wonderful gift given to man, it’s called “GRACE” If you mean it from the bottom of your heart, God will hear from you and as He has said in 1 John 1:9; “If we confess our sins, He (God) is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” Please do not wait another day, we do not know what a day will bring! “Written To the glory of God, Inspired by the Holy Spirit!”
From Our Chaplin-R Fritz
The god of this World
We must understand that we will all make choices. The most important choice is which God we will serve, the one with a capital “G” in the Bible, the true living God or the one with little “g” in the Bible, signifying other gods or Satin. This choice is made every day in who we choose to serve. We will serve one or the other by choice or default. That choice could have everlasting consequences or everlasting life. Romans 12:2 says, “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” Our Lord knows what is best for us. We believe we know what is best for ourselves. We have to “trust” in our Lord. He loves every one of us. Jeremiah 29:11-13 says “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you an expected end. Then shall ye call upon me, and ye shall go and pray unto me, and I will hearken unto you. And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.” These verses talk about the Lord knowing what is best for you. If we pray and seek the Lord with all our hearts, we will find him. The mind is the battlefield where Satin works. He has been talking to people for thousands of years. We must understand that our thoughts come from 3 places God, Satin (god of this world) and ourselves. This is one of the most important things for people to understand, that our thoughts are not necessarily from ourselves. We need to pick and choose the thoughts from God and ourselves and get rid of the thoughts coming from Satin. You might ask, how do I do that? With the Holy Spirit, as thoughts come into your mind, you can dismiss the thoughts that you do not want.2 Corinthians 10:4-5 “(For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through the pulling down of strong holds;) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalted itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;” This gives you authority to bring “every” thought into obedience of Jesus Christ. The word of God cuts Satin and his demons down to the bone. Hebrews 4:12 says “For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.” This is saying that God’s word is sharper than a two-edged sword. Satin cannot read your mind like God can. He will try and manipulate your thoughts, to get you to speak or get you to act so he knows what you are thinking. I do not let him know what I am thinking. This is where the Holy Spirit comes in to help you to defeat Satin’s words and the thoughts, he wants you to believe those thoughts are yours. Ephesians 6:11-12 says “Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” This was one of the first verses the Holy Spirit showed me to use and who I was fighting in the spirit. I was not fighting people, I was fighting spirits, whether they were in people or in the air trying to irritate me or manipulate me. When we pray, we should be praying against spirits, spiritual wickedness and evil around us. When you are “Born again” we have the spiritual authority to command spirits to leave or to bind spirits. Matthew 18:18,20 says and Jesus talking “Verily I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall be bound in heaven: and whatsoever ye shall loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I in the midst of them.”
God (the living God) has characteristics that you can count on “Loving, Merciful, All knowing, All powerful, Always everywhere, Unchanging wisdom, Faithful, Just, Gracious, Holy, Glorious.” This is just a Partial list.
Satin (the counterfeit god) has characteristics “Hateful, Spiteful, Fearful, not all knowing, no power (power allowed by God), chaos, confusion, coward.” This is also a partial list.
When we see some of Satin’s characteristicsin ourselves or other people, we need to “Pray” or call out to God to help change our attitude or character. You need to understand if you see or feel Satin’s characteristics, he or his demons are around. You also must understand, if your one of God’s, Satin has limited power over you, only what God allows. As you can see, we have a lot of choices. I have given you “tools” to overcome Satin, tools I have used to overcome him. Therefore, we need the Holy Spirit, who can steer you to the “words” in the Bible, (the two-edged sword) to tear Satin apart. 1 John 4:2-6 says “Hereby know ye the Spirit of God: Every spirit that confessed that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: And every spirit that confessed that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God: And every spirit that confessed not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world. Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world. They are of the world: therefore, speak they of the world, and the world heareth them. We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error.” We need to test the spirits to see if they are from God or the spirit of antichrist. Greater is he that is you, than he that is in the world.