Jesus told his disciples that we are to be in the world, but not of the world. This daily devotion looks at how our thoughts help us focus on God instead of the world.
Nuggets
- The Holy Spirit is more powerful than Satan, meaning we can conquer Satan.
- Jesus chose us; we have to choose Him.
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One of the things we talk about all the time is how we are not to compromise with the worldview. God wants us to follow His laws and commandments, not accommodate what Satan’s followers want. (If we are not following God, we are following Satan.)
“Avoid entangling yourselves with the world. This clay will clog our minds, and a dirty happiness will engender but dirty thoughts” (Charnock, The Sinfulness and Cure of Thoughts)
Charnock warned us to not get caught up in this world. It will impede our growth on the Sanctification Road.
Let’s take a look at some verses that warn us to be in the world but not of the world.
Let's Put It into Context
We’ve been looking at Charnock’s sermon entitled The Sinfulness and Cure of Thoughts to show us how to cleanse, a.k.a. sanctify, our thought processes.
- Charnock has taught us that we cleanse our thoughts when we return to having a strong relationship with God. We can do that by studying the Scriptures, meditating on God, contemplating on His creation, and praising Him.
- In order to control evil thoughts, we need to address our pride.
Resource
Here is a running list of what we’ve discussed previously.
Holy Spirit versus Satan
“You are from God, little children, and you have conquered them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world. They are from the world. Therefore what they say is from the world, and the world listens to them.” (I Jn. 4: 4-5 CSB)
The Holy Spirit is more powerful than Satan, meaning we can conquer Satan.
Many worldview people think that goodness alone is sufficient. It isn’t. Tillotson reminded us that goodness comes from God’s doctrines.
Tillotson noted there is another benefit in following God’s doctrines. He wrote, “Besides the goodness of the doctrines which are from God, and the external confirmation of them by miracles, the Spirit of God doth likewise illuminate good men, and those who are desirous to know the truth, and hath promised to lead them into it, and to assist them in discerning between truth and falsehood (John 7:17).”
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If we believe that Jesus is God’s Son and ABCDed, we believe in His doctrines. We believe there is another world to which we are aspiring.
The ABCDs of Salvation
If you have not become a believer in Christ, please read through the
Plan of Salvation and prayerfully consider what God is asking you to do.
A – admit our sins
B – believe His Son Jesus is our Redeemer
C – confess God as Sovereign Lord
D – demonstrate that commitment by making any changes needed in our lives to
live the way in which God has called us
The Disciple’s Job Description
The Holy Spirit assists us in overcoming the temptations of this life. He is more powerful than Satan. Tillotson wrote, “He is more able and ready to assist men to good purposes than the devil is to tempt and help forward that which is evil.”
Resource
Why is the Holy Spirit more powerful than Satan? The Holy Spirit comes from Sovereign God. God’s sovereignty means He has supreme power, giving Him control over all things without accountability to a higher power.
Candlish believed one reason is because God created the world and fashioned it spiritually. He originally created Adam and Eve to be like Him. However, they committed the original sin and created within us a sinful nature.
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Glossary
After we have ABCDed, God abides within us through His Word. “Having purified your souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart, since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding word of God” (I Pet. 1: 22-23 ESV).
But God Himself does abide in us, too. “Jesus answered him, ‘If anyone loves me, he will keep my word, and my Father will love him, and we will come to him and make our home with him.’” (Jn. 14: 23 ESV).
We will come. Make our home with him. Jesus and God will both live within us — as well as the Holy Spirit.
Man, you would think there wouldn’t be enough room for Satan to get a toehold in.
Go back a second. Pierson looked at this and saw that Satan was acknowledged as a formidable foe.
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The verses say nothing about Satan being weak. It definitely doesn’t say he isn’t a threat.
What it says is God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit are greater than Satan. It doesn’t matter how formidable Satan is. He isn’t more powerful than Omnipotent God.
To read a related devotion, click the button below.
But what does all of that have to do with our thoughts? Edger wrote, “Evil, which is necessarily selfish, limits the objects of our thought and life to our own mean, narrow selves. It knows no large and noble objects or ends. Good embraces all things, all beings, all great and lofty ends.”
Resource
Ooo, baby. I bet the worldview people would argue that. But the worldview does limit the objects of our thoughts. It does try to keep the focus on us.
Yes, we can and do think of others. But how much time is spent on our jobs, our family, and ourselves? We set our goals, and most of them do have us as the center. Not others. Not God.
Satan will do everything in his power to keep our thoughts off God. We have to choose to think about God.
We can conquer our thoughts because the Holy Spirit that lives within us is more powerful than Satan.
Jesus Chooses Us
“If the world hates you, understand that it hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own. However, because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of it, the world hates you” (Jn. 15: 18-19 CSB)
Jesus chose us; we have to choose Him.
We’ve talked about verse 19 a couple of times. It makes a good point that true disciples of Christ really don’t fit into this world.
Verse Commentary
I don’t know if we have specifically looked at verse 18. The sermons associated with it give us a definition of the world.
It isn’t just those who are obviously following Satan’s prompting and visibly breaking God’s laws and commandments. World is used to identify any who have not been regenerated — in other words, have not ABCDed.
This backs up the belief that, if we have not made a genuine profession of faith in God, we are still sinners. Not making a decision whether we will follow God or not is a decision to not follow Him.
That is kind of like the worldview says today about keeping silent. If we keep silent about some atrocity, we are condoning it.
If we don’t choose to follow God, we are in realty choosing to follow Satan.
Van Doren gave us a good snapshot of what it means to be a worldview person. We already knew this, but it is a good refresher.
- Worldview people follow Satan by living for the present instead of planning for eternity.
- They conduct their actions by what makes sense to them, not by God’s laws and commandments.
- That means they put more store on what mankind has said in its customs and opinion that what God has said.
Resource
But does any of the sermons say how our thoughts fit in? Well, sorta.
Jesus said He has chosen us out of the world. “However, because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of it, the world hates you” (Jn. 15: 19 CSB).
Thomas told us what it meant for Jesus to call us it of this world. He wrote, “Christ penetrates men with the idea of the true God. He draws the curtain of materialism and reveals the spiritual world. He destroys selfishness and constrains men with His own love. This work is represented by an emancipation, regeneration, resurrection, creation — and none of these words are too strong.”
Resource
- Regeneration is being changed from spiritually dead to spiritually alive and the internal requickening in us that God brings about through the work of the Holy Spirit to give us new character.
- Spiritual death is the separation from God that occurred as a consequence of Adam and Eve’s original sin. The spiritually alive are those who have ABCDed, so they are no longer separated from God.
Glossary
God frees us, changes us, revives us, and remakes us. But it starts with the idea of Him.
We get the concept of Who God is from Scriptures. We don’t get a full picture. He waits until we are His children to really start revealing Himself to us.
Glossary
This is why we say our belief is in our minds. We don’t have a visual of God. We just know Him in our hearts and minds.
If we focus our minds on Him, we don’t give Satan the toehold to get in.
Making the Connections
Satan is of the world. Paul called him the prince of this world. “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind” (Eph. 2: 1-3 ESV).
The Holy Spirit is part of the Trinity. That makes Him God.
To read a related devotion, click on the appropriate button below.
The Homilist reminded us that we can resist Satan. “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (Jas. 4: 7 ESV).
But we can also resist the Holy Spirit. “And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption” (Eph. 4: 30 ESV). We grieve the Holy Spirit by continuing to sin.
To read a related devotion, click the button below.
How Do We Apply This?
- If we are to overcome the power of Satan through God abiding in us through His Word, we have to be buried in His Word.
- We need to be totally seeking Him.
- We need to follow His doctrine as that is the seed that represents living principle, as Pierson called it.
Resource
Searching for and Seeking God
Hearing His Word (Rom. 10: 17).
Reading His Word (Rev. 1: 3).
Praying to Him (Heb. 4: 16).
Studying His Word (Ac. 17: 11).
Meditating on His Word (Ps. 1: 1-2).
Memorizing His Word (Ps. 119: 11).
The pull of the world is great. We won’t be able to counteract it ourselves. Only through the power of God with the Holy Spirit within us can we conquer Satan.
Father God. Once we invite You into our hearts and lives, You come to live within us. Only through Your power can we conquer Satan and break his hold on us. May we not be in the world but focused on You. Amen.
The Disciple’s Job Description
Complete Job Description
Individual Description
Job Duty #4
Proclaim the Gospel (Mark 16: 15)
Job Duty #6
Make Disciples (Matthew 28: 19-20)
Job Duty #1
Be a Living Sacrifice (Romans 12: 1-2)
Job Duty #2
Work Out Our Salvation (Philippians 2: 12)
Job Duty #3
Bring Him Glory (Matthew 5: 16)
Job Duty #4
Proclaim the Gospel (Mark 16: 15)
Job Duty #5
Love People (John 15: 12)
Job Duty #6
Make Disciples (Matthew 28: 19-20)
Job Duty #7
Other Duties as Assigned
(Ecclesiastes 3: 1)
What do you think?
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