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Living abundantly Overcoming

1 John 2:15-17 – The world at war

Here is the revelation that is shaping my life today- I know my enemy and his ways.

1 John 2:15-17 TPT

[15] Don’t set the affections of your heart on this world or in loving the things of the world. The love of the Father and the love of the world are incompatible. [16] For all that the world can offer us-the gratification of our flesh, the allurement of the things of the world, and the obsession with status and importance-none of these things come from the Father but from the world. [17] This world and its desires are in the process of passing away, but those who love to do the will of God live forever.

 

Observation

The war is within. The world and its systems of operation seduce and deceive me to their ways and these are incompatible with the ways of God. If you do not understand the war you will just end up a casualty of war. You cannot fight an enemy you don’t understand.

 

The world has three all-time basic seductions to keep me from walking in the ways of God. You can see them at work in the Garden with Adam and Eve, and in the desert temptations of Jesus.

1. Self-importance – The world wants me to live to gratify the cravings of my flesh. It says that self is the centre of the universe and I should satisfy self. Its enticement is for me to put self before others, to live incompatible with the way of the Kingdom of God where others and God are more important than self.

2. Get things – It wants me to run after the consumption of things, “the allurement of the things of the world.” It sows the story of lack in me and then sends me out to satisfy the lack I feel. It’s all about the satisfaction of self. It tells me I deserve to have and so I walk over others in order to have. I live in this consumer-driven world and it wants me to sell my heart, my life, my passion, to the pursuit of its futile trinkets. It takes my heart from the pursuit of God and the ways of the Kingdom.

3. First place – The world wants me to be “obsessed with status and importance.” The way of the world is to push myself forward, to crave attention, the front seat, the place of highest position. It’s totally opposed to the servant call of the Kingdom of God. I cannot serve when I am obsessed with being served.

 

“None of these things come from the Father but from the world. This world and its desires are in the process of passing away.” The ways of the world are decaying, they are passing away. They will have no place in the new heavens and earth. The systems of the world created to oppose the glory and ways of God being realised in the lives of the people of God are passing away. Finally, my enemy will fall and I will shed my brokenness and the cravings that fester in my wounds. I will live free of the cravings of the flesh, the desire to consume and collect, and the passion for self-importance. Oh, what beauty awaits me in the future and is available for me today.

 


Application

I will live in a war zone, I will not be deceived. I will listen to my thoughts, knowing that I should not follow everything I think. I will weigh, in the presence of God, my thoughts to see if I am being deceived and seduced. I will take my thoughts captive and have them be shaped by the ways of God. I will not lose a war Jesus has already won for me.


Response

Thank you that you show me how the enemy works. You make it clear that your enemy wants my life to be shaped by him and you call me into your ways that I may know the beauty and boldness of the life you intended for me to live. Thank you that living in you brings life in all its fullness. I am not blindly wandering through life looking for the right path, you make it clear and invite and enable my walking upon it. I am blessed.

 


Meditation

Do you see areas in your life where the systems of the world are shaping you and robbing you of life in the Kingdom?


JOURNEY DEEPER
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