Category: Life as a Christian

The Devil’s Dividing Strategies

In many countries of the world there is civil unrest.  It consists of ethnic divisions, social injustices, white privilege, black discrimination, liberals, conservatives, democracy, socialism, communism, doctrinally divided churches, diverse forms of marriage, et cetera. 

Divisions is the work of the devil to cause dissent and unrest.  

  • Jesus explained the principle to the Pharisees, ‘Every kingdom divided against itself will be ruined, and every city or household divided against itself will not stand.’ 1 
  • That is evident in the results of those divisions.  Prime ministers, presidents, governments and laws come and go as people’s fancies and opinions change and cause divisions.  Hostility erupts in many cases.  
  • Vicious attacks in the press and the social media often spew forth hatred and retaliation.  ‘Divide and rule,’ is the motto of the devil. 
  • In the meantime, God accepts applications for people to join His eternal Kingdom.  What measures does He take to ensure the Kingdom will be trouble free and last eternally? 

God’s brilliant design:

#  Unity under Jesus  

While the devil scatters, Jesus unites. 

  • God unifies all things in His Kingdom under Jesus, ‘…to bring all things in heaven and on earth together under one head, even Christ.’ 2 
  • ‘And God placed all things under His feet and appointed Him to be head over everything for the church….’ 3
  • That means the applicants for citizenship will be unified under Jesus.  God’s people will have only one Leader. 

#  Love and obey Jesus  

Love unifies all the citizens under Jesus.

  • It is written, ‘This is how God showed His love among us: He sent His One and Only Son in the world that we might live through Him.’  The King loves His people. 4 
  • This exceptional love of the Lord Most High for His people makes the difference, ’We love because He first loved us.’ 5 
  • The greatest command is, ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’ 6 
  • Love will hold God’s Kingdom together.  It is in stark contrast to what we experience in most nations today.  

#  A special Counsellor  

We have one Counsellor, the Holy Spirit who teaches the same basic principles of the Kingdom. 

  • ‘…the Holy Spirit… will guide you into all truth.’ 7   
  • One Spirit, one Lord, one God, one Kingdom, one Nation.  All God’s people are taught by one very Special Teacher, the Holy Spirit. 

#  Total freedom to reject God  

  • God gives all people the opportunity to reject the Kingdom-of-God-citizen-requirements. 
  • God never forces anybody.  So people choose to become citizens of God’s Kingdom and children of God.  They choose to be filled with the Holy Spirit and decide to love and respect the Godhead eternally.  It is a matter of the will. 
  • That means God gives all people the opportunity to exercise their free will to love or reject the Lord.  Divisive elements are free to choose to align themselves with the opposite kingdom of darkness. 

 

Conclusion

Those who submit to God do not become robots.  They remain individuals with their own strong points and gifts, but they will be united in their love for the Lord and will obey and serve Him.  No one in God’s Kingdom will ever cause divisions, since it was a free will choice.  Led by the Holy Spirit, all God’s people will love and revere Him.

References

  1. Matthew 12:25  
  2. Ephesians 1:10  
  3. Ephesians 1:22  
  4. 1 John 4:9   
  5. 1 John 4:19 
  6. Mark 12:30  
  7. John 16:13

What’s in it for us?

Jesus said that when He comes again, he will sit on His throne in heavenly glory and say to the blessed ones, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the Kingdom prepared since the creation of the world.’ 1

#  Our inheritance

  • It is amazing that God planned everything from the beginning.  
  • The first part of the plan was the creation of the physical universe.  He finished it in 6 days and then rested (it was not because He was tired, but because He was finished).
  • The second part of the plan was fulfilled when Jesus died on the Cross and said, ‘It is finished’ 2 and sat down at His Father’s right hand in heaven. 3
  • We want to give attention to the third and final part of God’s magnificent plan, our inheritance (in between there are a few ‘necessary’ events which we want to discuss in future blogs).  
  • Jesus Himself guarantees our inheritance.  Yet, sometimes we wonder what the inheritance will be like?  We live in a hostile world ruled by the devil.  So life is not always that easy for the believer.  Our active enemy sometimes drives us to want to give up.  Take the example of Demas.  Paul reported about him, ‘…for Demas, because he loved this world, has deserted me and has gone….’ 4  That plainly means he gave up on God. 

#  Peter’s question

  • After Jesus commented on how hard it will be for the rich to enter the Kingdom of God, 5 Peter asked Jesus, ‘We have left everything to follow you!’ 6  He meant, ‘will we be rewarded for that?’ 
  • Jesus answered with a promise,  ‘I tell you the truth, …no one who has left home or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or fields for me and the Gospel, will fail to receive, …in the age to come, eternal life.’ 7  

#  Our reward

It is a consolation when we understand that we will inherit.  We are saved by grace and mercy, so we don’t deserve anything.  Yet our perfect Father is generous and wants to give us an inheritance.  He wants to reward us handsomely for our devotion and loyalty to Him, even if it is all His doing. 

Conclusion

Scripture is not comprehensive when it comes to our inheritance, the coming Kingdom of peace and happiness.  It is because God is concerned that we get there, not what we will get there.  Yet there are clues in the Bible.

References

  1. Matthew 25:31-34  
  2. John 19:30  
  3. Mark 14:62;  Acts 2:34-35  
  4. 2 Timothy 4:9  
  5. Mark 10:24-25  
  6. Mark 10:28  
  7. Mark 10:29

Do you make the mistake to believe the devil’s lies?

The world we live in today generally hates God.  It promotes material success, to live for yourself, do whatever pleases you and that you can disregard the Bible because it is full of mistakes.

Yet truth and reality as Jesus revealed it, includes the invisible world and life after death.  2 Corinthians 4:18b says, ‘…what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.’  In this blog we want to show that we don’t need to believe the devil’s lies about God and Scripture.

#  God has an enemy.

  • Most leaders, kings, presidents and prime ministers throughout history had enemies who tried to topple them and foment unrest.
  • God’s enemy is the devil, Satan, that ancient serpent that leads people astray with lies about the Bible, God and His eternal Kingdom. 1

#  Scripture reveals Satan’s character. 

  • Cain was the first human being who belonged to the devil.  He refused to listen to God, murdered his brother and went out from the presence of God. 2
  • ‘Satan rose up against Israel and incited David….’ 3
  • ‘For we wanted to come to you – certainly I, Paul, did, again and again – but Satan stopped us.’ 4
  • ‘Those who oppose him [the teacher of the truth] he must gently instruct, in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth, and that they come to their senses and escape from the trap of the devil [Satan], who has taken them captive to do his will.’ 5

#  Satan’s deceptions in the world

  • The devil has mounted a massive propaganda offensive to keep people away from the truth and convince them that God is an illusion.
  • He promotes other ‘gods’ like aliens and UFO’s, the church of the Jedi, Zen, alternative ‘spiritualities,’ witchcraft, or whatever.
  • He presents an alternative creation account to Genesis 1.  It is the ‘creation account’ of the world.  It explains that all things came from nothing and go to nothing.  Therefore there is nothing to live for since there is nothing after death.  What a massive lie!
  • The devil encourages the activity of atheists and other groups or organisations to hate a God they have never seen.

Conclusion

What we see in the world shows us that there is an invisible spirit who lies about God and Scripture.  People on their own cannot keep a war against the unseen God going for ages.  The world shows us what the Bible tells us, ‘As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.’ 6  The many ‘strange’ ideologies that people embrace should strengthen our faith that the Lord and His Revelation, the wonderful Bible, is truth.

References

  1. Revelation 12:9
  2. Genesis 4;1-16; 1 John 3:12
  3. 1 Chronicles 21:1
  4. 1 Thessalonians 2:18
  5. 2 Timothy 2:25-26
  6. Ephesians 2:1-2