In a previous article (No 270) I listed the 3 main enemies to the mental health of humans as being the World, the Flesh and the Devil. Believers are asked to renounce them as a means of coming out from under their negative and damaging influence. How do these enemies seek to influence us, and how can we gain victory over them? We begin with the first enemy, the “world’.

The following is the [micro] Summary of the more detailed macro version which I will hopefully post soon.

SUMMARY:
1). Every person ever born is a creature in this physical world.
2). Humans rebelled against God so God sent His Son into the world to save the people of the world.
3). The response of those in the world varied. Some in the world chose to reject Gods’ salvation in Christ. The Bible sees them as still belonging to the [unbelieving] world.
Others in the world chose to believe in Jesus and received Him as Saviour. They still live in the world but as John declares, they are “not of the world.” They are now “in Christ” [in a living personal relationship with Christ] as they live in the world.
4). The [unbelieving] world, influenced by Satan and the powers of darkness, is antagonistic to God and to the people of God. The unregenerate “world” is spiritually blind, deaf and dead and cannot understand spiritual realities or people of the Spirit.
5). Victory over the world is possible by recognising our identity in Christ and acting on it in the ways suggested in section [B] above. {To be found in the forthcoming macro version.]
6). It is the truth that is known to believers by the illumination of the Holy Spirit AND acted on in the power of the same Holy Spirit, that brings freedom and victory over the world to the people of God.

Blog No.278. Posted on http://www.jimholbeck.blog on Tuesday 1st May 2018