Fight the Good Fight of Faith

How we believe and what influences our belief system has been conditioned by our childhood experiences, education, what we watch, hear and read from the mass media, and various other external influences such as our politics and religion. As we get older, the previously held belief system has been overly simplistic and lacked depth, often changing.

As we acquire new information, we begin to question the established standard seriously. The latest data is examined under the old paradigm. If it disagrees with our belief system, then it is discarded, even though it can be verified as truth. This action is dangerous and places the believer in a precarious situation.

There comes a time in our life that all of us resist letting go of old beliefs. Then there are times when we are excited to explore new ways of thinking. It should be noted that I have no desire to make you believe anything. I am only interested in challenging you to expand your belief system to accept what is truth. To prepare you to engage an enemy that is seeking to destroy your soul is my only intent.

There are times when our belief system conflicts. As a child in Sunday school, we were taught to love "everyone in the world." But as we grow older on a general level, we may believe that all humanity is to be shown, love. Yet, on a personal level, we may feel entirely justified at times in being angry and upset at individuals who are hateful and evil, and you have no love for these people. Some may go so far as to justify killing, not that they would be guilty of the act, but would condone others acting. We have no problem making sense of what may appear "illogical" even when it conflicts with our belief system.

By choosing to be honest, the inconsistencies within us and the world become increasingly apparent, thus allowing us a more excellent choice in dealing with them. We naturally grow more open and better able to understand and integrate conflicting beliefs on various levels. By choosing to identify, understand, and transform the inconsistencies within ourselves, they can become potent teachers inviting us to expand our awareness if we allow them.

The more soundly we believe those beliefs will shape something, the more likely our lives. The more deeply we know something to be accurate, the more likely we will see and experience the world in terms of that truth. That is why it is essential to, Study to show thyself approved—rightly dividing the word of God.

Yet this does not necessarily mean that what is suitable for one person, no matter how deeply it is experienced, will be valid for others. Perception is reality. Through their interpretation of what happens to them throughout life, each person develops their version of the truth, which has varying amounts of overlap with what others believe to be reality. We may feel something to be accurate and honest, but our emotional experiences can be different.  The more honest we are to ourselves and the spiritual world around us, the more consciously we can make choices. And the more honest we are in expanding our knowledge and beliefs, the more powerfully we can face the enemy of our soul.

The believer must recognize that they are in a battle. Not knowing the spiritual conflict that is raging around the believer is why so many defeated Christians. This is the primary fact that allows one to prepare for battle and face an enemy that can only be seen with spiritual eyes. Ignorance is a Christian's greatest weakness. Keep Christians ignorant, and they will be no threat to Satan. One of the other most important things to know is that the two kingdoms conflict. This is the source of all spiritual battles that we face. There is the kingdom of darkness and the kingdom of Light. These are the kingdoms of Satan and the LORD, respectively. In his letter to the church at Rome, Paul admonishes the saints to put on the armor of Light. Christians are in a war against the kingdom of darkness, and our weapons are spiritual.

This spiritual warfare has existed since the beginning of time. The fall of Adam and Eve was the first event in the conflict between man and the highly advanced culture of evil. These evil beings did not come with physical weapons but came offering man the ability to become a god. The enemy of man created emotional confusion about the commandment given to Adam and Eve concerning the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. The enemy of all humanity used the weapon of doubt and confusion to get Eve to question the truth of God's command. The serpent convinced Eve she would not die but instead become a god. That uncertainty about obeying the commandments of God has continued to the present. 

This battle with evil spiritual influences and power has infiltrated every aspect of our society. The most powerful and secret organizations within our nation have fallen under the control of the seed of Satan. Government leaders have sold the very soul of America for power and money promised by the devil's minions. As Christians, we have allowed the principalities of darkness to divide the cause of Christ. We have allowed Satan to get us side-tracked from the mission of Jesus Christ. We have enabled the ongoing-idiotic philosophical disputes of how we are to find salvation (through grace or faith) and serve the LORD (the priesthood of the believer or only specific individuals are called to minister), how we are to carry out the Gospel message (a paid ministry or all are ministers). All these disputes have distracted us from our mission. Satan has kept Christians continuously occupied with quarreling like two adolescent boys trying to prove the strongest. In writing to the church at Corinth, Paul was concerned about the division that was taking place. He begged the Christians to stop being divided into different groups. Christ cannot be separated into separate groups. To do this is to allow Satan to win.

As the faithful followers of Christ take part in this division, Satan is sitting back laughing at us. The enemy knows that as long as we are divided, we are weak. The strategy used by Satan is to keep Christians in constant arguments over issues that have nothing to do with our salvation. We allow Satan to plant the seed of discontent and division when we are not focused on the Gospel's message. That message exposes the darkness of evil so men and women can be brought into the Light of Jesus Christ.

How long will we allow the demons of this world to manipulate the actions of the followers of Jesus Christ? As Christians, we have remained silent because we are afraid that we will find the world retaliating against us if we speak the truth, and all we want is to be loved. Our silence will allow evil to spread, creating a society that has forgotten God.

Some once followed Christ but fell to the temptations of wealth. These often are the very leaders of the church that are the spiritual watchmen over our souls. They hide from the truth and cling even more greedily to the wealth they already have, robbing from the sick, weak, poor, and deluded followers. They drank the Kool-Aid of the Devil and bought the lie of health, wealth, and prosperity. Some have even gone so far as to say you can become a god. Again, Satan has used man's disobedience to separate him from God.

Here is the problem. Humanity is not about to be invaded. Humanity is not in the middle of an invasion. Humanity has been invaded! The attack has taken place and is almost in its final stages. Outstanding charges do not happen with thundering smoke, loud outbursts, or horrible and scary people. Overthrowing your enemy successfully occurs in secrecy. Individuals are deceived by offering them what they want. In the case of Eve, it was to become a god. For some, it is wealth, fame, power, beauty, and sex, or even world domination.

As American Christians are distracted by sports, entertainment, career choices, material possessions, and family issues, Satan and his minions are gradually changing our country over to an evil-dominated society. The new World Order that we hear so much about is not new. It is the same Old World Order that brought about the first flood of judgment on the earth in Genesis chapter one, and the second flood that brought judgment during the time of Noah, and it will be the same World Order that will soon bring the wrath of God again upon this evil world.

One message from the pits of Hell is that no devil or demon is fighting against humanity. We hear all sorts of lies coming from those evil beings who would influence our spiritual lives. They have spread myths of the creation of man from evolving from a single cell to being genetically designed by some alien race. They have tried to discredit the Bible, the deity of Jesus Christ, the Plan of Salvation, the Christian faith, and the judgment of God upon a wicked generation. We are children of the day and not of the night. We can see the signs of the coming judgment of God and must not be silent.

If we are to defeat the evil that is all around us, we must remember we are in a spiritual war against the forces of Satan and his demons. Our only hope is in Jesus Christ. So it is time to pull out our swords and put on the Armor of God, and face the battle that is before us with the spiritual weapons that God has given us. Every Christian should be warning those who are asleep and unaware of the coming events that will change the course of human history.

The moment a person accepts Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior and receives God's Holy Spirit, that person is instantly and translated from the kingdom of darkness of this world into the kingdom of God's Light by God's Holy Spirit of truth. The Apostle Paul describes this process as the "mystery" revealed, "Christ in you," the hope of glory.

Col 1:13 Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:

Col 1:27 to whom God was pleased to make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:

The believer is saved from the power and bondage of sin, the carnal nature, the devil, and supernaturally empowered with the Holy Spirit. The power of darkness is anything that blinds a person to the reality of sin. The power of darkness blinds a person to their need for salvation and from receiving God's gift of the Holy Spirit. The power of Satan blinds those who have not received the gift of salvation. By the conviction of the Holy, Spirit God draws the sinner towards Him by the Light that lightest everyone who comes into the world that leads to salvation in Christ by the cross. The people of the world reject the truth of Christ and are under the control or deception of the God of this world, which is the devil. Scripture states,

1 John 5:19 "We know that we are of God and the whole world lieth in the evil one."

2Co 4:4 in whom the God [devil] of this world hath blinded the minds of the unbelieving, that the Light of the Gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should not dawn upon them.

It's long been an axiom of military science and martial arts that wisdom begins with an honest evaluation of strength and weakness. There is nothing to gain by self-deception and self-delusion when it comes to gauging our capabilities and vulnerabilities.

Our success is based on five conditions:

Personal salvation - "Therefore if any man [be] in Christ, [he is] a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." (2 Corinthians 517)

Yielding to the Will of God, "Do not yield your members as instruments of unrighteousness to sin, but yield yourselves to God, as one alive from the dead, and your members as instruments of righteousness to God." (Romans 6:13)

Filled with the Spirit, - "But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his." (Romans 8:9)

Studying to be approved, "Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth. (2 Timothy 2:15)

Applying the Word of God, "Take heed unto thyself, and unto the doctrine; continue in them: for in doing this thou shalt both save thyself and them that hear thee." (1 Timothy 4:16)

 The believer that applies and acts upon this knowledge will be victorious in defeating the enemy of the soul. The believer that ignores this will suffer defeat. In writing to Timothy, Paul advised him to take heed to his own life and the doctrine or teachings of the scriptures; he was to learn how to apply the principles of spiritual warfare. By working to prepare ourselves to fight the good fight of faith, we obtain the ability to execute the principles of spiritual warfare.

Dumb and Dumber- The Curse of American Media

Back in 1933, film screenwriters first used the term “dumbing down” in revising the script so it would appeal to those of lower education or intelligence.  Since then there has been a continuation of the dumbing done process in the main stream media.  I stopped watching the news media a couple of years ago.  I found that often my intelligence was insulted by the talking heads of the news readers.  I would listen as they explained to me what I had just witnessed, with their bias slant and often misquotes. 

Our country has been infected by the dumbing down process to the point we have now a new term “fake news.”  If the public is preoccupied with the ignorant trash that is being spoon-fed everyday by television, movies, music, internet and video games what do we expect our culture to become?  We continually are being fed on a diet of senseless entertainment that all act just as effective as the most potent drug dulling the senses and the brain.

With so much entertainment as the modern-day opiate to the masses to divert people’s attention, these weapons of mass distraction efficiently render people oblivious to see what is really happening in the world. Compound that with the lowest common denominator appealing to the most indecent interests in sex, senseless materialism that manipulate consumers into spending money on false promises of sex, status, and happiness.  We are fed a constant barrage of entertainment that dually serves as propaganda along with the mesmerizing effects captivated by sports that also draw enormous amounts of money, and the globalist have us right where they want us – numbed and dumbed.

 Even the flicker rates of televisions, videos, computers, and cinema by design are all programmed to contain hidden properties that physically resonate and alter the human brain’s alpha wave state to induce a hypnotic, mesmerizing, trancelike state of mind. This literally drugs and distorts the cognitive processes of the mass audience being subliminally fed input that modify and shape values, moral and ethical messages and multiple autosuggestions that carry powerful binding effects on people’s unconscious minds and future behavior.

Most right-thinking people are agreed that physical effects aside, the content of the majority of TV programming today is designed to instill a social worldview and value system that is self-centric and is, in fact, the opposite of what a healthy and enduring society requires. Self-interest at any cost rules the day, and it is more and more evident that empathy for one’s fellow citizen and a sense of personal responsibility are rapidly vanishing along with the morality that all strong civilizations have known to be necessary for survival.

With the consolidation of mass media in recent years limited now to just a handful of globalist giant media corporations merging with national governments, a monopoly of thought, beliefs, perceptions of reality and core values are instilled into the masses and covertly maintained. The whole country has been influenced by the various forms of media as state sponsored propaganda by the globalist have absolute control over a deluded and hopelessly oblivious population. With the regulating effects of mass media these days possessing a global outreach that is unprecedented in recorded human history and people on this planet fast become programmed sheeple and unthinking robots under complete power and control of the globalist.

Jimmy Carter’s National Security Advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski for years stated the globalist agenda. He regularly came out with very matter-of-fact yet incredibly astute and even prophetic observations about the globalist agenda. In 1970, in his book Between Two Ages: America’s Role in the Technotronic Era, Brzezinski stated:

“The technotronic era involves the gradual appearance of a more controlled society. Such a society would be dominated by an elite, unrestrained by traditional values. Soon it will be possible to assert almost continuous surveillance over every citizen and maintain up-to-date, complete files containing even the most personal information about the citizen. These files will be subject to instantaneous retrieval by the authorities.”

Welcome to the twenty-first century. Brzezinski goes on to conclude that the American people will become brainwashed in giving up control of their lives to the elite that they will reach a point when they are so dumbed down and confused, they are unable to even think individually for themselves. So, they can only repeat that which is downloaded into them by the constant repetition of what is driven into their heads by the mainstream media outlets. In effect, people defer the task of cognitive assessment and analysis of what is most important and real to what is simply communicated and propagated to them by the media.

There is a war for the minds of the American people.  Every day the conditioning process takes place in the homes of the American people.  Satan, along with his globalist followers are doing everything they can to destroy faith in God, to ridicule Christianity, and turn mankind away from finding God.

There are some who are waking up to the reality of what is happening in the world today.  Yet, most Christians are choosing to remain asleep.  What is disconcerting to me is the number of those who were partially awake at one time but slipped back into the slumber of death.

Life, for most of us, is a battle.  We face problems day by day, and whether you're a Christian or not that is your life's experience: it is a battle. For the Christian, life is a spiritual war, a mental struggle. Time and time again throughout the Word of God, and especially in the New Testament, we are told that as Christians we have an enemy. In 1 Peter chapter 5 we are told by the apostle: 'Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour.' Paul the apostle in Ephesians chapter 6, because of his keen awareness of the devil as his adversary, and as the adversary of every child of God, tells us and them in Ephesus: 'Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles', the darts, '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. Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand'.

Satan is using every means to make crime and degrading vice popular. The mind is educated to familiarity with sin even our young children have a knowledge of sin that that rivals the experience of a hardened sinner of twenty years ago. The message of sexual immorality, murder, lying, theft, drugs, disrespect, violence are watched every day by our children in video games, internet videos, television, and in the reality of actual criminal action in the home.

Am I being narrow-minded in thinking we have failed this generation by allowing evil people to control the minds of our children?  We may be able to distinguish between the good and evil but are our children and grandchildren able to make that distinction? There are those who have an agenda when it comes to our children.  That plan includes the acceptance of ideas that are dangerous to the spiritual life of our children.  The moral and ethical issues that the church has failed to address today are being accepted as normal by this generation.  Issues like transhumanism, genetic modification, transgender identification, cybernetics, mind uploading, and artificial intelligence have moral and ethical issues but are accepted by this generation as essential to the betterment of mankind.  Everyone of these issues have devastating side-effects.  The most significant side-effect is that they all are an attempt to modify the original design of the Creator and as history has shown this never works for the benefit of man but brings about destruction and death.

Don’t be guilty of allowing others to dumb down what you know is harmful and destructive to our children and grandchildren.  During the time of Joshua, there was a generation that did not know the LORD.  We have today a generation that the majority have no knowledge of the LORD.  What is sad, they have no interest in learning about the LORD they have been influenced by those who have gained control of their minds through the various forms of media.  If we are to save this generation, we will need to convince them of the truth and that my friend will be a significant battle.

Christmas is Coming- So is the LORD.

In twenty-five days we will celebrate the birth of our LORD Jesus Christ.  There are many who see this celebration as a time of giving and receiving gifts, maxing out the credit cards, visiting family, sending greetings to friends we fail to visit during the year and take the kids to have pictures with Santa.  There will be some who will remember what the celebration is all about and keep Christ in Christmas.  Like the shepherds and angels on the night of Christ birth, they will honor him as the King of Kings and LORD of lords. 

Unlike those during the time of Jesus who were looking for the Messiah to come a deliver them from the oppressive hand of Roman, we look forward to the Second Coming of the LORD.   As we look around the world, our own country, state and even our cities and towns we see the decay of societies and cultures that display evil in the form of violence, hostility, aggression, sexual abuse, drug abuse, anarchy, and hypocritical dishonesty in every part of our lives. 

Everywhere you look there is a pathological insatiable desire to commit evil.  It has accelerated in the past twenty years to the point of unprecedented levels of cruelty and brutality.  The world has become calloused towards evil to the point we are no longer shocked at the number of murders, rapes, and injustices that take place.  What is sad about the condition of evil in the world is its growth appears to be exponential.

 No matter where you go, we cannot escape the fact that we are living in the time when we should be expecting the Second Coming of the LORD.  In the recent events of the sexual abuse of those in the  news media, entertainment, and government, one wonders how much lower our society will go before God brings even greater judgment upon on our nation? 

Much has been written by the “prophecy experts” on the End Times.  Their message is we are in the End Times but the Second Coming of the LORD is still in the future.  Not being a “prophecy expert,” the way I believe all Bible prophecy has been fulfilled except for the economic collapse of the economy as predicted by the Apostle James in chapter 5.  That prophecy is taking place right now as we see the financial collapse of country after country.  The warning has been given that the stock market will crash, and many will be left with nothing. 

Natural disasters are increasing, too, unexplained fish kills, whole flocks birds falling out of the sky for no reason, earthquakes in divers places and the Fukushima nuclear disaster of 2011 has been killing off the sea life in the Pacific Ocean, radiation has now reached the West Coast of the United States, that's just the tip of the iceberg. The Second Coming of the LORD could occur at any time.  I know there are those who believe there will be a great revival before the LORD returns but how do they explain, 2Th 2:3, "Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first . . ." So scripturally, not a revival, but a great apostasy comes before the return of the Lord and what do we see in this country today, a decline in those who genuinely serve the LORD. 

It should be the intent of every Christian to share with everyone the message that Jesus is coming again.  As you sing the song “Joy to The Word” hear the message, of the Second Coming of Jesus.

Joy to the World , the Lord is come!
Let earth receive her King;
Let every heart prepare Him room,
And Heaven and nature sing,
And Heaven and nature sing,
And Heaven, and Heaven, and nature sing.

Joy to the World, the Savior reigns!
Let men their songs employ;
While fields and floods, rocks, hills and plains
Repeat the sounding joy,
Repeat the sounding joy,
Repeat, repeat, the sounding joy.

No more let sins and sorrows grow,
Nor thorns infest the ground;
He comes to make His blessings flow
Far as the curse is found,
Far as the curse is found,
Far as, far as, the curse is found.

He rules the world with truth and grace,
And makes the nations prove
The glories of His righteousness,
And wonders of His love,
And wonders of His love,
And wonders, wonders, of His love.