Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. 11 Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. 12 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.
Relationships As we continue the message from last Sunday, we were looking at the enemies we face in life’s battles. The next area I want us to look at is our relationships.
33 Be not deceived: evil communications corrupt good manners. 34 Awake to righteousness, and sin not; for some have not the knowledge of God: I speak this to your shame. ICor.15:33-34
Do not be deceived: "Bad company ruins good morals." I Cor. 15:33 The first warning is about deception. We are not to be deceived into thinking what God is telling us is either not true or doesn’t apply in our situation. We are not to be deceived into believing this warning was meant for someone else. Why? Because that’s exactly the rationalization each of us makes regarding God’s Word whenever His Word won’t allow us to do what we want to do and what we think is right. After all, we want to follow our heart, and to our own heart be true. Yet we willingly forget God states our heart is “deceitful above all things and desperately wicked” (Jer. 17:9). So, to have the knowledge of God, our heart would be the last thing we would want to follow.
Yet we still do. Over and over again. And we never seem to learn. The second warning is about the essence of the deception. And it’s the lie that we can play with fire and not get burned. We can roll around in the mud with pigs and not get dirty. We can live like the world, think like the world, look like the world, value what the world values and crave the world’s love and acceptance and yet remain pure from the world. I mean, how stupid is that?
God tells us there is a one-way path when we associate with evil people. Just one way. And that way is from purity to defilement. From virtue to sin, from light to darkness, from worth and value to corruption and decay. It’s a one-way street that leads from holiness to depravity, and not the other way around. I am sure you have heard people justify their actions.
“But I know the Jesus in me will change their hearts if I just spend enough time with them and do the things they are doing.” You are deceived.
“But I love him/her And I know if we date or get married he will someday see Jesus in me and become a Christian. I just know it!” You’re are deceived.
“Hey, they’re my friends. I can hang with them and just not do what they are doing. You know, I can be a light in their darkness.” You’re deceived.
Choose friends carefully because guilt by association can have life-impacting consequences.
All humans have the desire to belong. At some point, most people will likely join a group, class, or club where they can meet other like-minded people. If you're a member of an organization, it's important to consider the quality of the people in this group. For better or worse, humans are at least partially judged by the people they associate with.
You've probably heard at least one of the following phrases:
"Birds of a feather flock together."
"Show me your friends, and I'll show you who you are."
In essence, both of these quotes affirm that human beings tend to surround themselves with people who are similar to them. What does this mean for the idea of "guilt by association?" Different people have different perspectives. Many individuals apply and abide by the assumptions of the association. There may even be legal ramifications to the friends we keep.
The association is applicable in real life because it's a valid principle in the legal and criminal justice system. Although each case and situation vary according to the circumstances and the individuals involved, there are many scenarios where people can be (and have been) held accountable for the actions of their connections, even if they did not break the law.
Non-believers never become Believers by osmosis. That takes a sovereign act of God. And you have been warned by the Lord not to be deceived into thinking “good morals or good character will redeem bad company.” In fact, the truth is just the opposite. Don’t be deceived into thinking this warning from God doesn’t apply in your case for whatever reason you conjure up in your mind to justify your disobedience. It’s just not going to happen. Why? Because God doesn’t lie.
Ephesians 1
Emotions Our bodies respond to different thoughts and emotions. The chemical processes in our bodies change depending on which types of emotions we are feeling. When an individual thinks about comfort and pleasure and feels hopeful about life, the Body transforms into a relaxed state where specific chemical changes occur, and healing can occur. When an individual is angry, different chemical reactions occur in their Body, creating stress on various, organs, especially the liver and pancreas. If these emotions continue for extended periods, illness can result. When we are physically weak, we are open to discouragement, doubt, and stress. This has a negative influence on our faith.
Looking at the letter to the Church at Ephesus, we see the authority given to us. God has given the believer authority and victory in both the natural and spiritual realm. Notice what it says in these verses, "What is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us that believe."
(Ephesians 1:19 KJV); "Far above all principality, and power, and might and dominion, and every name that is named" (Ephesians 1:21 KJV); "And hath put all things under His feet" (Ephesians 1:22 KJV). God gave all that authority to His Body, the Church (Ephesians 1:22-23). We are seated in heavenly places with Him (Ephesians 2:6), where he is head over all things (Ephesians 1:22-23).
Jesus has given this authority to us, His followers.
Luke 9:1, 2 says, Then he called his twelve disciples together, and gave them power and authority over all devils, and to cure diseases. And he sent them to preach the kingdom of God and to heal the sick.
Mark 13:34 tells us, for the Son of man is as a man taking a far journey, who left his house, and gave authority to his servants, and to every man his work, and commanded the porter to watch.
And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature. ... And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover. Mark 16:15,17, 18.
Jesus has promised His authority to those who are His own. The problem is that we do not believe it, and therefore do not exercise it effectively.
Keeping with the warrior's allegory asked yourself this question, what happens when an army attempts to use its authority and finds that it is resisted? Does the commander shrug his shoulders and say, "Well, I guess that didn't work!" No, he turns up the heat of his authority. He pursues and subdues the enemy. Sometimes there is a stiff fight -- but the lawful authority wins in the end!
So, it is with our authority as believers. We need to understand that the infinitely powerful government of heaven backs us up. Jesus Himself is the one who has given us authority in His Name. Sometimes -- in fact, most of the time -- there is going to be a battle. Hell doesn't want to let go of its victims all that easily. We need to pursue, press in and insist on being obeyed. And from the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force.
Matthew 11:12. Sometimes the commander needs to use force. Sometimes the believer does, too, in the process of obtaining the desired answer.
There are some qualifications that we must meet to have rightful authority in Christ. Let's continue to look at parallels between the commander and the Christian.
1. The commander must be under authority himself, obedient to his superiors. He goes where he has been assigned, not outside his jurisdiction. We believers must be doing what Jesus has said, according to the Bible and His word to us as well. We cannot be out doing our own thing for our pleasure. A clean, submitted heart to the will of the LORD is imperative.
2. The commander must continue contacting his superiors and getting their direction as needed in difficult situations. We need to be in constant communication with our superior officer -- Jesus
3. The commander must know how to use his weapons, or his opponent will run roughshod over him and maybe kill him. We must be skillful in using our weapons -- the Blood of Jesus, the Name of Jesus, our faith. Primarily, we have to know the Word of God and use it properly. Appropriate the Word.
4. The commander must understand the law and not step outside its boundaries. He can't attack people if they are not the enemy. We must understand what Jesus has given us and what He has not. If it's in the Book, it's ours to use. If it's not clear in the Book, we're on shaky ground. We need to research from Genesis to Revelation to make sure we're getting it right. Know the Word.
Remember whose authority it is in which we operate. We have no control to come against the powers of darkness in our strength. We go against them in the Name of Jesus. It is His authority, not ours.
Attempting to execute authority for anything other than His plans, His will, His desires is presumption. It will most certainly fail --and may put us in grave danger as well. If something is important to you, you will go after it. The things God has promised us in His Word should be vitally important to us --enough so that we are prepared to take hold and struggle for them at any cost until we obtain them. Anything worth having is worth fighting for.
You people are not faithful to God! You should know that loving what the world has is the same as hating God. So anyone who wants to be friends with this evil world becomes God’s enemy. James 4:4
The World The devil and his angels lead the hostility against the people of God, and there are plenty of mortals willing to assist him. The "world forces of this darkness" work together with "the spiritual forces of wickedness" (Ephesians 6:12).
As we saw before, "The whole world lies in the evil one" (1John 5:19-20) so that many people of the world are among the enemies of Christ. There are those in the Synagogue of Satan that has dedicated their life to Satan. They have for generations down through history been faithful servants to the overthrow of everything God holds dear. Since the early 1900s, they have put their plan on fast-forward and are rushing to bring about a world controlled by Satan. They are the hidden power behind the world governments. They control every aspect of human conditions.
I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan. Rev.2:9
They go by many names, the Pilgrims Society, the Club of Rome, the Illuminati, Council on Foreign Relations, International Bankers, Bilderbergers, the Trilateral Commission, Kappa Beta Phi, but they are the Synagogue of Satan that Jesus spoke of to John in Revelation. They exercise excessive control over society by depopulating agendas and genetic engineering, controlling energy and commodities, education and the media, and ideological and psycho-political strategies to divide and rule on all fronts. These are the same people who are pushing us into a war with Russia, China and Syria. RIGHT NOW, Russia and the United States remain on a ten-second hair-trigger, where a mistaken blip on a screen could trigger war.
They manipulate the planet's food supply to achieve strategic objectives. Their utter disdain for humanity is becoming ever more apparent with each passing day. They seem to regard us as little more than beasts to do their bidding. Even though we outnumber them by millions, they contain us by controlling and regulating the necessities of life, population control through wars, abortions, and many other means.
There are two companies that control every aspect of our lives. They are Vanguard and BlackRock. The power of these two companies is beyond your imagination. Not only do they own a large part of the stocks of nearly all big companies but also the stocks of the investors in those companies. This gives them a complete monopoly.
Bloomberg calls BlackRock “The fourth branch of government”, because it’s the only private agency that closely works with the central banks. BlackRock lends money to the central bank but it’s also the advisor s well as developing the software the central bank uses.
In March of 2020, the mainstream financial press was quiet about the Federal Reserve’s appointment (March 24) of BlackRock to manage its massive corporate debt purchase program in response to the Covid-19 crisis. That silence might have a simple explanation: you don’t complain about your boss if you know what’s good for you.
BlackRock’s CEO Larry Fink is the most powerful man in the world, overseeing not just the Fed’s new (potentially $4.5 trillion) corporate slush-fund, but also managing $27 trillion of the global economy (even before the March appointment). The total global economy is $88 trillion. Today one-man controls over one-third of the world economy and influences governments to do his bidding.
Many BlackRock employees were in the White House with Bush, Obama Trump, and now Biden. Its CEO. and founder, Larry Fink can count on a warm welcome from leaders and politicians. BlackRock advises governments on monetary and financial policy through its consulting unit, BlackRock Solutions.
BlackRock has unprecedented access to the halls of power. Meeting calendars and phone logs have revealed almost 400 conversations between BlackRock executives and senior officials in the White House, Treasury and Federal Reserve since the financial crisis. Among other benefits, and despite its massive portfolio, BlackRock has avoided the same type of regulation put in place for other large financial institutions.
Vanguard and BlackRock hold a monopoly in all industries in the world and they have tremendous power with government. BlackRock is also the driving force behind climate change. Fink is already pushing investment away from companies that don’t fit with his own moralism, using his vast power over public companies to affect policy debates.
Why doesn’t everybody know this? Why aren’t there movies and documentaries about this? Why isn’t it in the news? Because 90% of the international media is owned by six media conglomerates who are controlled by Blackrock and Vanguard. These people are all members of the Synagogue of Satan and are working towards a world where there is no god but Satan.
So why do we stand idly by and let them feed their alcohol and drugs to our youth? Why are we allowing them to destroy our economies and our nations before our children ever have the chance to live their lives to the fullest course in what should be a good life? Our pathetic condition of apathy, non-awareness, and non-involvement has allowed them to get away with murder on a gigantic scale for centuries. By our irresponsibility and inaction, they have turned the streets of our cities into `no go` areas, where people fear for their lives and those of their loved ones. We have allowed their creation of a legal system that releases murderers, rapists, and pedophiles back onto the streets to repeat their vile deeds over and over again.
Yet, we stick our heads in the sand and deny what is happening around us. We can call those who have their eyes open conspiracy theorists and laugh about their paranoid warnings. Right now, every day in the news, these minions of Satan are in our face bringing about the destruction of all that God loves. This is Satan's last chance to take total control of planet earth. To do this, he must destroy every trance of a Holy and Righteous God. He must bring about the death of everyone who serves Jesus Christ. He is doing this right now with those who serve him, and you ask how do we recognize them? Well, Jesus said: "By their fruits, you will know them."
So just pick up a `newspaper, turn on the prime-time news, and wherever you see so-called `leaders of nations` justifying wars of aggression, mass slaughter, lies, deception, vice, atrocity, perversion, along with barefaced lies about overpopulation, climate change and a multitude of measures all designed to take away more of your personal liberty, all justified on the baseless grounds of National and or Global Security; That's them!
The scriptures say, There are no good people left. Everyone is planning to kill someone. Everyone is trying to trap their brother. People are good at doing bad things with both hands. Officials ask for bribes. Judges take money to change their decisions in court. Important leaders” do whatever they want to do. Even the best of them is as crooked as a tangled thornbush. The Day of Punishment Is Coming Your prophets said this day would come, and the day of your watchmen[a] has come. Now you will be punished. Now you will be confused! Don’t trust your neighbor or trust a friend! Don’t even speak freely with your wife. Your enemies will be the people in your own house. A son will not honor his father. A daughter will turn against her mother. A daughter-in-law will turn against her mother-in-law (Malachi 7:5-6).
Jesus repeats this warning (Matthew 10:34-37).
He told His disciple to listen to Him because they would be like sheep among wolves. They were to be wise as a snake and harmless as a dove. They were to be careful who they trusted. He warned them that there are people who will arrest you and take you to be judged. They will whip you in their synagogues. You will be taken to stand before governors and kings. People will do this to you because you follow me. You will tell about me to those kings and governors and the non-Jewish people. When you are arrested, don't worry about what to say or how you should say it. At that time, you will be given the words to say. It will not be you speaking; the Spirit of your Father will be speaking through you.
Not only will neighbors and government officials turn against you so will family. Brothers will turn against their brothers and hand them over to be killed. Fathers will hand over their children to be killed. Children will fight against their parents and will have them killed. Everyone will hate you because you follow me. But the one who remains faithful to the end will be saved. When you are mistreated in one city, go to another town. I promise you that you will not finish going to all the cities before the Son of Man comes again. This does not happen to us all, but many Christians do taste the bitterness of it.
Disunity has always been a significant problem with God's people. Even the Old Testament records the civil wars and family fights among the people of Israel. Almost every local Church mentioned in the New Testament had divisions to contend with. The Corinthians were divided over human leaders, and some of the members were even suing each other (1 Cor. 1:10-13; 6:1-8). The Galatian saints were "biting and devouring" one another (see Gal. 5:15), and the saints in Ephesus and Colossae had to be reminded of the importance of Christian unity (Eph. 4:1-3; Col. 2:1-2). In the Church at Philippi, two women were at odds with each other and, as a result, were splitting the Church (Phil. 4:1-3).
Some of these problems stemmed from the backgrounds of the believers in the churches. The Jews, for example, were saved out of a strict legalistic environment that would be difficult to forget. The Gentiles never had to worry about diets and days. The first church council in history debated the relationship of the Christian to the law (Acts 15).
The believers in Rome were divided over special diets and special days. Some of the members thought it was a sin to eat meat, so they ate only vegetables. Other members thought it a sin not to observe the Jewish holy days. If each Christian had kept his preferences to himself, there would have been no problem, but they began to criticize and judge one another. The one group was sure the other group was not at all spiritual.
Unfortunately, we have similar problems today with many gray areas of life that are not right or wrong to every believer. Some activities we know are inappropriate because the Bible condemns them. Other activities we know are suitable because the Bible commands them. But when it comes to areas that are not clearly defined in Scripture, we find ourselves needing some other kind of guidance. Paul gave principles of this guidance. He explained how believers could disagree on nonessentials and still maintain unity in the Church. If it is not essential to your salvation, then it is not worth discord. However, some issues are critical to your salvation, and some will teach false doctrines. Paul seems to be referring to certain church members when he says, "I tell you even weeping, they are enemies of the cross of Christ" (Philippians 3:17-19).
In the controversy about eating meat sacrificed to idols, Paul shows how some Christians became the enemies of others: "By sinning against the brethren and wounding their conscience when it is weak, you sin against Christ" (1Corinthians 8:10-13).
James spoke of violent "quarrels and conflicts among" the brethren (James 4:1). These people will be the ones to turn you into government officials.
Our Selves As if there is not enough to contend with, we can sometimes be our own worst enemy. Paul describes this when he says, "I joyfully concur with the law of God in the inner man, but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the law of my mind, and making me a prisoner..." (Romans 7:22-23).
Of course, Christ can set us free from this enmity with ourselves, as Paul goes on to point out (Romans 7:24-25, 8:1-2).
The enemies of God are fighting a losing war: "Surely your enemies, Lord, surely your enemies will perish; all evildoers will be scattered" (Psalm 92:9). The final enemy of God to be eradicated is death: "For he must reign until he has put all his enemies under his feet. The last enemy to be destroyed is death" (1 Corinthians 15:25–26; see also 2 Timothy 1:10; Revelation 21:4).
Again, if you have felt at all like you are in a spiritual war, you are not alone. The question is, who controls you? Have you put on the armor of God for this conflict? Whose side are you on? You serve the LORD or you serve Satan. If you are unsaved you need to find a place where you call on the LORD and ask forgiveness and accept His gift of salvation.