What We are Up Against

Scripture: But every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the antichrist, which you have heard is coming; even now it is already in the world. ... They are from the world. Therefore what they say is from the world, and the world listens to them. We are from God. Anyone who knows God listens to us; anyone who is not from God does not listen to us. This is how we know the Spirit of truth and the spirit of deception. 1 John 4:3,5-6

Observation: John is very clear about this idea of the "spirit of the antichrist" ... it is a spirit, attitude, and message that is opposed to the truth of Jesus' love and salvation. However, here is the fact about this conflict between the truth and the lies. The truth originates from God, and in order to listen to the truth someone must know God and be prepared to hear it. The lies are from the source of all lies, the world, and in order to listen and believe the lies a person must be of the world.

Well ... everyone begins 'of the world' and so everyone begins predisposed to listen to the lies.

Application: I have had this said to me in a way that makes be believe it may be revealed knowledge ... there is a special place in hell reserved for those who originated and now aggressively champion the gender confusion concepts of our modern day. John has made it even more clear as to why they deserve such punishment, for they are imbued by the spirit of the antichrist, the very spirit within the world that has one purpose, which is to attack and oppose Jesus.

And here is what we are up against, we being the Church who possess the truth about Jesus: Those in the world won't - perhaps can't - listen to us, for they reject God himself.

I have continued to see this circular challenge in the bible, and desire to understand it, which is that belief in Jesus is the way to salvation with Yahweh, but belief in Yahweh is the first step to believing in Jesus. Perhaps the truth is that it isn't really a circle, but a progression. The basic is that one must believe in the Lord God creator of the universe ... they don't necessarily have to believe what he can do, or understand his mercy and justice, or have faith in his goodness in their lives, or accept that he loves them unconditionally, but they just need to believe he exists. In this, they can now believe that he sent his son as a way to teach and introduce all his ideals. When they believe in Jesus as Messiah, they now have eternal life and a path to learn all the rest about God's love and wisdom and plans.

Yet meanwhile, here we sit, in the world John told us about. It is a world where the lies of the world itself infect the people who don't believe in God, and thus they won't listen to the truth about Jesus. Instead of finding hope and joy in the truth, they live in festering despair and mental illness and depression and anxiety, while reconstructing every aspect of their identity to align to the lies.

I may find some level of personal gratification knowing that judgment awaits those who have perpetrated these lies. However, meanwhile here on earth, trying to be faithful to the great commission, this is what we are up against.

Prayer: Lord, we have way too many people dying on the inside because they believe in the world, and don't know you. Oh, how can we overcome?! It is only by your grace that the chains of this cursed antichrist spirit can be broken, and I ask you to do that. May the truth come that frees those enslaved by these terrible lies about identity and gender, and may it be heard. Amen.