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The Dangers of a Worldly Attitude By Curtis Forbes Recently the Lord has been showing me several different things about the world system and how it operates and He has been teaching me to recognize it when it is in operation. One of the main things the Lord is showing me, is attitudes that people carry. I hear so many Christians and especially ministers say how that they are “set apart” from the world system but yet their attitude directly reflects the operation of the world system. The Word says in 1 Cor. 2:12 “Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.” The enemy hates the fact that we have been given the spirit of God and he hates the fact that we are able to receive things that are freely given to us from God, so he has devised a ingenious plan to stop the Kingdom of God from operating through us. He wants to disable us and render us useless so we will not be effective for Christ in the earth! We are not ignorant to the devices of the enemy lest he should get an advantage of us! (2 Cor. 2:11) The word says in Neh. 8:10b that “The joy of the Lord is our strength.” The enemy absolutely hates us having any strength from God! he will send people who are unhappy and even hateful to speak something contrary or hurtful, that will affect you in a negative way and will hopefully rob you of your joy and your peace. He hopes that you will then turn around and do the same thing to someone else… (the law of seed time and harvest is that everything reproduces after it’s own kind) But the word also says that charity (love) covers a multitude of sins. One very well known device that the enemy loves to use is sarcasm. Sarcasm is so prevalent in our society today it seems to be every where you turn. So many television programs and sitcoms actually celebrate it! The more sarcastic, the funnier it is and the more people love it. The world calls it “witty,” “sharp,” and “creative”. The word sarcasm actually derives from the word “sarx” which is the Greek word for “flesh”. In other words, when someone is sarcastic… they are in the flesh!!! The enemy absolutely loves this because it is such a subtle and effective tool to get people out of the spirit and to get them caught up in the spirit of this world . If we are in the flesh we are not in the spirit of God, and if we are not in the spirit of God - we are not receiving the things that are freely given to us from God. The enemy loves to get us out of the spirit of God and not only to render us ineffective in the world, but to cause us to be overcome by the world, ultimately hurting or offending someone else. One of the main operations of this world system is to undermine the love of God, the joy of the Lord, and the peace of God in our lives and then in the process, getting us to operate in strife and division. Sometimes it is so difficult not to respond harshly to someone who is in a hateful mood and just spouting-off, using cutting, offensive remarks… usually we want to come right back with something even sharper to quickly put them in their place and teach them a lesson or two lol. If we do that, then the enemy has won. That is exactly what he wants us to do! At that moment, we have stepped out of the spirit of God and we have stepped out of the love of God, we no longer are walking in the peace of God rendering us ineffective against the enemy! It really takes maturity, self control, and the wisdom of God to not only resist the temptation to cut someone right back, but to use the wisdom of God to respond in love recognizing the devices of the enemy and having the strength to be the peace maker! James 3:13 - 18 “Who is a wise man and endued with knowledge among you? let him shew out of a good conversation his works with meekness of wisdom. But if ye have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, glory not, and lie not against the truth. this wisdom descendeth not from above, but is earthly, sensual, devilish. For where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work. But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy. And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace.” The system of this world is so diametrically opposed to the love of God, the joy of the Lord and the peace of God. It is like oil and water they just do not mix. The things of God and the world system each have their roots in totally different sources and we will either love the one and hate the other - or we will love the other and hate the one! It is becoming easier and easier to tell the difference between the two! There is so much hurt, turmoil, anger, fear, rage and aggression in the world today, finding someone who operates in the peace of God is very rare. To be honest with you, I am constantly preparing my heart almost expecting people to respond contrary to peace! I absolutely love the beatitudes and the sermon on the mount, In Matt 5:9 it says “Blessed are the peacemakers: for they shall be called the children of God.” One of the reasons that the peacemakers are called the children of God is because they are so opposite to the system of this world, they are operating from a completely different mindset and their hope and strength comes from a whole different dimension. We may be in this world, but we are certainly not of it!!! We hear all kinds of awesome teachings about faith, the coming glory, and prosperity etc ...but we do not hardly ever hear anything about the importance of our attitudes. if we are going to see all of these great teachings work effectively in our lives we have got to watch our attitude towards one another and to be more mindful to the things of God; staying in the spirit of God, walking in the love of God. then we will Always be in position to receive the things of God that are freely given to us, not being deceived by the enemy and overcome by the world! “Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man” Col 4:6 Curtis Forbes
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