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The New Testament is replete with information regarding the world and the world system. Yet, there is some confusion and lack of knowledge as to what "the world" is and how it relates to our lives as believers. Many seem to think that living like the world only refers to our style of dress and our musical preferences. It is much, much, much more indeed. It is my prayer that this particular message provides some basic yet strong insight into understanding "the world" and our dominion over it through Christ.
What is the world?
There are two Greek words in the New Testament that refer to the world. One of those words is where we get our English word cosmos referring to the planets or planetary bodies and its inhabitants. The other is where we get our word eon or age referring to a certain time frame in which a group of people live. What I want to convey in this message is the simple fact that in Christ Jesus we have dominion over both the physical world (Genesis 1:26-28) and the age in which we live (Romans 12:2).
Second Corinthians 4:4 says that satan is the god of this world. "In Whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them." How did satan get this position, title and all of the power and authority that comes with it? Adam gave it to him (Luke 4:5-6). We know that God the Father would not have given it to him. When the Father gave Adam the world, he became the "god of the world". When Adam disobeyed the Word of the Father, he gave satan his God-given position and all of the authority that comes with it. Consequently, satan became the new "god of the world".
Before the "fall of man", the world was where Adam and his wife and Adam's order of things expressed and or manifested themselves. This "Adamic" place of expression of course was governed by faith in the Word of God, the angels and perpetual Holy Spirit involvement. There was no fear only faith. There was no death or anything that looked like disease.
Satan comes into the garden and preaches "faith" to Adams wife (she is called Eve after the fall-Genesis 3:20). Adam listens to the voice of his wife instead of the voice of God (Genesis 3:17) which is outright rebellion and spiritual betrayal.
Adam and his wife are now born again to death. Instead of eternal life (the nature of God), they now have the nature of their new father satan (Ephesians 3:1-3). Their first act associated with their "new birth" is to eat of the tree. Eating of the tree (an act of unrighteousness) is their first corresponding action associated with their believing in the word of satan. They have their first "act of faith" related to their union with satan.
The World: Satan's place of expression
Satan is now the god of this world. The world becomes satan's place of expression. Before their rebellion, the world was where Adam and his wife expressed themselves and their union with the Father. They lived and walked in light, love and faith. Angels involved themselves with Adam and all he did. The Holy Spirit, and a multitude of angels helped Adam and his wife in each and every detail of their existence. Now, with satan being the god of the world, Adams first report to God is "I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself" (Genesis 3:10). Fear is the "faith" of satan. Satan filled circumstances now rule Adam's life. Where once there was righteousness and life, there is now hostility, death and unrighteousness. Satan is Adam's new father and master and the world is Adam's enemy.
Man's new relationship with the world
Everything about the world has become "anti-Adam". The curse becomes the power and driving force in the world (Genesis 3:17-19, Galatians 3:13). Life was dethroned and death reigned (Romans 5:12-14). Everything in the world and from the world exudes death and hostility toward God's former son. First John 5: 19 says that "the whole world lieth in wickedness". Death and destruction is interwoven in the fabric of Adam's relationship with the world. He can no longer trust it nor be sustained by it without great, great effort (Genesis 3:18-19). The place created by the Father for Adam to flourish and thrive is now an instrument of satan. It overcomes Adam at every turn. It keeps out the Father, the Holy Spirit and the angels of God. Where once it supported righteousness and faith, it now has become a cistern of un-holiness, sickness, death and disease. It's course is now a course of destruction and death fueled by its master satan (Ephesians 2:2).
Before the fall of man, the world supported man's faith in God. Angels worked with Adam in all he did. The Holy Spirit moved in conjunction with Adam's faith filled words and together they created (Genesis 2:19-20). Laws of faith and believing, love and righteousness prevailed and permeated everything. Now with satan as the new god of the world, fallen angels ( Luke 10:17-19) and demons (Ephesians 6:12) worked with Adam's fear filled words perpetuating death and destruction. Laws of fear, unbelief toward God, hate and unrighteousness controlled the course of everything (Psalm 82:5, Ephesians 2:2).
Satan's Hierarchy over the world
Before the fall, Adam's faith in the Word of God ruled the world and all was in Godly order. Adam and his angels cooperated to promote and perpetuate the Will of the Father in all things. Now that satan ruled, satan's angels influenced an unwitting man as man grew more and more independent of the Word of God. Instead of being a master, man was now a puppet to the unseen forces and unseen rulers of the world. Ephesians 6:12 says "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".
Cain was influenced by the devil and spirits of selfishness, hate and murder to kill his own brother (Genesis 4:5-11, First John 4: 11-15). Daniel 10:13 talks of the prince of Persia withstanding an angel who brings Daniel understanding regarding the last days. The prince of Persia of course is a ruler over a certain region spiritually and geographically assigned by satan. Michael, one of the chief princes (Gabriel is the other one. Lucifer, now satan, was also a chief prince), assisted this angel in his assignment to Daniel. Jesus gives us a preview of satan and the world's eternal defeat in Saint John 12:31: "Now is the judgment of this world: now shall the prince of this world be cast out". Satan's dominion over Jesus and the believer is strongly indicated in John 14:30: "the prince of this world cometh, and hath nothing in me". First Corinthians 2:6-8 make mention of "the princes of this world" referring to the dethroned principalities and powers of this world. Colossians 2:15 says that these unseen evil powers and principalities were defeated and spoiled by our Lord Jesus Christ through His death, burial, resurrection from the dead and blood offering in the Holy of Holies (Hebrews 10:19). We now reign over these powers in Christ (Ephesians 1:18-23).
Circumstances and evil reports: Satan's voice in the world
As I mentioned previously, the world is now hostile toward man. It is now fused with satan and is his chief place of expression. What many believers should realize is the power satan exercises through circumstances to control people walking by their sight and not by their faith in the Word of God. If satan is the god of this world then the world is the carrier of satan's voice. Satan communicates fear through circumstances and evil reports. Circumstances and evil reports induce fear resulting in more satanic involvement and failure. The cycle repeats itself until faith in the Word of God removes the fear (I John 4:18, I John 5:4-5).
Jesus says in Saint John 10:27: "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me". The voice of Jesus is the Word of God (John 12:49-50). Satan also has a voice. It is circumstances and evil reports. The first evil report in scripture can be found in Genesis 3:10. Adam reports to God the following: "...I was afraid,...I was naked;...I hid myself". This results when we are not aware of the presence, provision and ability of the Father in our lives. Living independent of scripture will always result in an absence of the presence, provision and ability of the Father. In Genesis 3:11, the Father asks Adam a question: "Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?". The Father asks Adam the question who told you that you were naked. The circumstance told Adam that he was naked. Of course we know that the circumstance was a result of Adam's faith in the god of this world, satan. But, now the circumstance has become satan's voice. It communicates to Adam his nakedness and lack of provision. Consequently Adam brings back an evil report. He speaks to the Father what the world (which is now under satan's influence) has communicated to him perpetuating more circumstances. Confusion results. The circumstance is a child of his fear. Fears and circumstances go hand in hand. Fear is the devil's version of faith. Circumstances are the devil's version of Holy Spirit manifestations. Between the folds and layers of all circumstances you will find satan's voice. In every nook and cranny of problems you will find the voice of satan.
When believers are first born again, and even many who have been saved for years, they speak boldly about what the devil has told them. "The devil told me I will not make it" some have said. "The devil told me I was going to die" I have heard many say. I wondered one day at how easily believers can hear the devil's voice but they have to pray and pray and pray all night and still not hear what God is saying to them.
It occurred to me that satan's voice in the world is circumstances. You don't even have to be spiritual to hear it. A satan influenced world is the carrier and circumstances is the voice. Fear is the spark that sets it all in motion.
Many are familiar with Job and his troubles but many are not familiar with Job's statement of fear. Job 3:25 "For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me, and that which I was afraid of is come unto me." Job's circumstances were the children of his fears. The evil reports began to follow the circumstances. In Job 1:14-19, the evil reports were incessant. Satan's expression in the world toward Job was murder, destruction, stealing and a great wind. The evil report is the vehicle satan used to induce more fear.
Believer's should listen to the Word and not the World
Saint John 4:4-6 makes a wonderful declaration: "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, and the world heareth them. We are of God: he that knoweth God heareth us; and he that is not of God heareth not us. Hereby know we the spirit of truth, and the spirit of error." Jesus told the religious leaders of his day in Saint John 8:37 that they were seeking to kill him because his word had no place in them . Jesus said in St. John chapter 8 verse 38 that he spoke what he had seen with his Father and they did that which they had seen with their father (satan). He also told them in St. John 8:43 that they could not understand his speech because they could not hear his word. Saint John 8:47 says that he that is of God hears God's words and that they couldn't hear God's Word because they were not of God.
The voice of God is the word of God. The voice of satan is the circumstances of the world. When we do not listen to the Word of God in all likelihood we are listening to the god of this world as he speaks through circumstances. Fears cause us to "tune in" to the devil's wavelength and circumstances results. Then we speak the circumstance which is known as an evil report. We thereby unwittingly perpetuate the world's dominance in our lives. When we are constantly speaking of our circumstances we are basically speaking satan's language. We are saying that the world, which is under the influence of satan, has dominion over us. Interestingly enough we then wonder why bad things just keep happening to us. All the while still speaking and glorifying the god of this world who is using our fears, faith in the evil report and circumstances to dominate us. In Mark 5:35 a circumstance has an accompanying evil report: "there came from the ruler of the synagogue's house certain which said, thy daughter is dead: why troublest thou the master any further?" This is the voice of the god of this world. Satan is speaking loudly through this circumstance. The evil report is used by the god of this world to induce fear. The world under the influence of satan has destroyed this man's daughter. What does Jesus do? Verse 36 of Mark 5 tells us: " When Jesus heard the word that was spoken, he saith (Jesus did not say the circumstance nor the evil report) unto the ruler of the synagogue, Be not afraid, only believe." What was the ruler of the synagogue to believe? He was to believe the Word of God regarding his daughter, not the god of this world speaking through the circumstance and evil report. We must do likewise.
Victory and Dominion over the world
Jesus said in Saint John 16:33 that the world is the source of tribulation, not God the Father. He also said in the same verse that the reason he was speaking the word of God to us was so that we can have peace in him while in the world. He also graphically declares: "be of good cheer; I have overcome the world".
We the god of this world begins to speak to you through some circumstance and evil report don't listen to him. And please don't give voice to what the circumstance is saying like Adam did. Don't quote the evil report. Isaiah 53:1 says "Who hath believed our report?" God has a good report. Speak that. In Genesis 3:17 God told Adam the penalty for listening to his wife's voice who was speaking through faith in the god of this world.
Psalm 112:7-8 says that the person trusting in the Lord will not be afraid of evil tidings (evil reports) because his heart is fixed and established. No matter what the children of Israel said in Numbers 13:30-33 and Numbers 14:6-24, Joshua and Caleb only spoke what the God of the Word said and not what the god of this world said. We must do likewise. Circumstances are under our feet. The world is under our feet. The god of this world has been judged and dethroned and made powerless. When we stop believing in the world's dominance in our lives we will realize as a manifest reality the joy of victory over the world.
We are not to love the world nor the things that are in the world (First John 2:15-17). We are commanded not to be conformed to this world but to be transformed by the renewing of our minds. Thereby proving what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God (Romans 12:1-3).
Fear and circumstances should not govern our lives. God has not given us a spirit of fear but of power and of love and of a sound mind (II Timothy 1:7). We should live by every word that proceeds from the mouth of our Father (Matthew 4:4). We should speak not the circumstances but the word of our Father (John 12:49-50, Joshua 1:8, John 3:11, Acts 4:20, Hebrews 13:5-6).
Our faith in the word of God is the victory that overcometh the world. If we have dominion over the god of this world, and we do, then we have victory over the circumstances and evil reports that are communicated to us through the world. When we stop believing in the world's dominance over our lives then we will experience the Word's dominance as a manifest reality in our lives. "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." First John 4:4
First John 5:4-5
"For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?"
It is my prayer that this particular topic will help you in your endeavors with GOD. Any comments can be directed to me via e-mail, phone or conventional mail. Thank-you.
