Who's in Charge Here?
FRESH FRUIT
Check out my latest published book. After spending countless hours working up to its release, I’m proud to announce that it is now available as a paperback and ebook at https://
We know that we are from God, and the whole
world lies in the power of the evil one. (1 John 5:19)
As Christians, we are from God. Christ is our Lord and
King. His Holy Spirit leads and guides us, and we follow His words. We walk with
Him daily. When we have difficulty, we call to Him and He helps us. He teaches
us and directs our paths. God’s love is shown to us and we know whom we worship.
He is in charge of us.
But there are people who do not believe in God or
follow Christ. They think they oversee their own destinies, that they are not
ruled by God or anyone else. They are wrong. They are part of Satan’s
rebellion. Satan is in charge of them.
And the great dragon was thrown down, that
ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole
world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with
him. (Revelation 12:9)
Satan was cast down to
earth and he has been leading his revolution against God ever since. His pride
is so great that he makes himself equal with God, but he is not. He brings turmoil
and unrest to the world and causes those who do not know God to be disobedient.
Satan
is a deceiver and an accuser of man, and he is doing everything possible to
draw people into his rebellion against God, though most of his followers are
unaware of their own obedience to him. Humanity does not realize that deciding not to follow Christ is a decision to follow Satan.
In their case the god of this world has blinded
the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel
of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. (2 Corinthians 4:4)
God has given us free
will to decide whom we will serve. But Satan still leads astray those who do
not accept Christ’s gift of salvation. People follow him because they believe
his lies but he only has limited authority on earth because God is allowing it
for a time. That time will come to an end.
Jesus redeems those who
will accept Him and now waits for the final judgment day when Satan will be
banished once and for all. Christians have been delivered from Satan’s limited authority,
therefore Christ works all things for our good because we love Him. We pray for
God’s kingdom to come and for His will to be done on earth as it is in heaven.
He has delivered us from the domain of darkness
and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, (Colossians 1:13)
Satan’s rebellion is
overtaking the world. But he has no claim on us. He knows his time is coming to
an end soon and he is working overtime convincing the lost that sin will make
them happy and give them a great life. He is not a ruler, he is not equal to
God, but he is at work spreading disobedience and discord throughout the world.
Satan is a spirit at
work in the world. We can see that right
is now considered wrong and wrong is accepted as right. The world is blind to truth and
hate is considered righteous. Christians are mocked and those who do not
understand God’s great plan help spread Satan’s lies.
And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself
as an angel of light. (2 Corinthians 11:14)
We must remember that
Satan uses whatever he can to keep people from Christ. His lies are not easily recognizable.
Sometimes he uses good people to do good works on their own. Many good people
are lost because they believe they don’t need Christ. Those who achieve
financial success often believe only in themselves and the world looks at them
with envy.
Satan does not only use
evil and hatred. He uses loneliness, pride, good works, relationships, jobs, politics
and even church to deceive people into believing they don’t need God. Christ
came to destroy the works of the devil.
Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the
devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. (1 Peter 5:8)
Not only must we be
watchful for ourselves, but we must understand what is happening in the world.
We must understand Satan’s ways of deception and protect ourselves from joining
his rebellion against God even for a moment. Anything that disagrees with God’s
word, no matter how logical or righteous it may seem, is a lie of the spirit of
darkness in the world.
We know who has charge
of us, and we know who is deceiving the world. Our commission is to tell the
good news, explain the deceptions and bring people into the Kingdom of God. We
pray for His Kingdom to come at the final judgement and while we wait, we are
His Kingdom here on earth so it up to us to fight with all our strength against
Satan’s rebellion. We know the ending. We know Christ will win, but the question
is not ‘who is in charge, but whom do we serve?’.
Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the
devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of
God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. (1 John 3:8)
Prayer:
Our Father in heaven, we praise you for sending your Son to save us from our
sins and set us free from the deceptions that are overtaking the world. We
desire your eyes to see through so that we are not blinded by worldly logic. We
want to see clearly the lies of the devil. We want to see the deception so that
we can fight Your battle Lord. Give us strength to fight, words to explain,
love for all and hearts that can endure the evil all around us. Amen
Comments
Post a Comment