Dogtags and Pearls…the plain and the precious

In Part 1, we established from the scriptures that Satan is the god of this age, how he got that authority, and how Jesus came to get the authority back and has now delivered it again to men who have been born on the earth who will come out of the darkness and embrace the light of God..

The New Testament is full of references to the devil and how to deal with him, because we now have the ability, through our salvation and submission to Jesus, to reject his temptations and his activities. Just as Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil, the church has the same commission. First we destroy the works of the devil in our own lives. Then we can preach the gospel, set people free, pray for the sick, and make disciples of the nations. We are to demonstrate the reality of the spiritual realm just as Jesus did. He even said we are to raise the dead. He said we would do greater works than He did. Many of His people today do not believe these things are even possible. They reject what He has said we could do.

The Bible calls the devil, or Satan, the god of this age. That is god with a little “g”, not a capital G. The god of this world, the devil, or Satan, is a spiritual entity who blinds the minds of men so they cannot see the Truth. The god of this age does his main work in the thoughts of men. What we think and believe is what we become. What we think controls our actions. If we live our lives in his darkness, we have no compass, no guidance in life except for our own desires. The devil works invisibly (to the human eye) behind the scenes within people who do not know God.

2 Corinthians 4:4 says, “…whose minds the god of this age has blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.”

In the Book of Exodus, God brought His people out of Egyptian slavery to the banks of the Jordan River and said, “This land (the Promised Land) across the river is yours. I have already given it to you. Now go in and possess it.” (Paraphrased). But after they sent 12 leaders to go check out everything, to see if what God had said was true, ten of the men spread fear among the people with a report of giants in the land and only two had the faith to do what God said. There really were giants in Canaan, but God said the land had been given to Israel. Two of the Israelites, Joshua and Caleb, chose God’s word over what their eyes told them. They said, “We are well able to do it” because they had faith in what God said. Ten men spread fear to the whole nation; consequently the nation refused to go in and occupy the property that God had said was theirs. You can find the story in Numbers 13-14. The first generation that was miraculously delivered from Egypt never attained to the fullness of what God had for them.