How to be a Friend of God

Who Is This Jesus? How to be a friend of God

Table of Contents:

“This is how much God loved the world: He gave his Son, his one and only Son. And this is why: so that no one need be destroyed; by believing in him, anyone can have a whole and lasting life. God didn’t go to all the trouble of sending his Son merely to point an accusing finger, telling the world how bad it was. He came to help, to put the world right again…” John 3:16-18, Message

What is the Purpose of Life?

The Bible says that your heavenly Father has a plan for each of our individual lives1. To fulfill that plan is nothing less than ultimate success in life. But we need to hear Him, so that He can lead us into His plan for our lives. But to do that, we need to be connected to Him through a personal loving relationship. See Father’s Love Letter.

God loves you with an everlasting love and wants to bless you and fellowship with you!

But Christ proved God’s passionate love for us by dying in our place while we were still lost and ungodly! (Romans 5:8, TPT)

Why should you care? Well, because deep down you know you are accountable to God because God has placed the desire for love and eternity in every heart.

God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart (Ecc. 3:11, NLT)

Jesus also claimed to be I AM, the one and only Living God.

Listen To

Let’s go back to the beginning …

In the book of Genesis [Genesis 1:1], we discover: In the beginning, God created everything—time and space, the whole world, everything.

In the book of John [John 1:1], we discover: In the beginning, the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

What is “the Word”? This semantic is used to describe God’s self-expression. God spoke of Himself, and thus, “the Word”. So we can see here that God was not impersonal in tossing together the universe; His personality was right there all along, deliberately and carefully crafting the world from the beginning.

In Genesis [ch. 1-3], we learn that God created humankind in His image, but humankind “ate from the tree of knowledge of good and evil”. Many believe that the fruit of this tree was literal, a physical tree bearing physical fruit that they physically ate from. But this is also a symbolic reference to having a genuine conscience and experiencing the sensation of guilt which we experience when we have moral free will. God gave humankind the ability to understand right from wrong (good and evil), and to disobey what we know in our heart is wrong, which is to have moral free will, but then told us not to “eat” of it—to not exercise that moral free will—or we would “surely die”. So through knowledge of good and evil (as opposed to knowledge of God) and disobeying God’s Laws, we defy God, our Creator, who defines objective morality and this is called “sin”, and the consequence of doing this is our own mortality.

Rolling our own morality (going against our own conscience, trying to justify it) leads to mortality (eventual death). We start doing this when we are children, the moment we deliberately disobey our parents and know that it is wrong, and this grieves the spirit of God, so all of us have lost direct fellowship with Him and the life He gives by His presence, the tree of life, so we are all prone to die, because He is the giver of life.

“Why does it lead to mortality? Isn’t all life on Earth mortal?” We were made in God’s image. Moral free will leads to death because God designed the universe, thus defines objective morality, and He cannot be untrue to Himself. That would make Him inconsistent with His perfectly consistent self. So the result is that He, who would have otherwise given humankind immortality by His own Word, tragically cut off direct fellowship with humankind. The book of Genesis called the eternal life He gives “the tree of life”.

God is both holy (spiritually clean) and infinite. Therefore, He is infinitely holy! Consequently, even the smallest sin is infinitely offensive to Him. Thus, the Bible teaches that even the smallest sin is enough to eternally separate man from God. God cannot allow sin in His presence. But Genesis also says [Genesis 3:15] that God planned a way out for us, that from humanity would be born someone who would be stricken while at the same time would “crush” the deceiver’s head. This was a promise to the human beings who first sinned, that someone born from their lineage would come who would suffer mortality but at the same time defeat the deceiver and even death itself on behalf of humankind.

In fact, throughout the rest of the book of Genesis, and throughout the Old Testament, God promised a savior, a mighty warrior, who would defeat the enemy who deceived us. He promised a messiah.

“But why would He do that? Why would He set us up to fail, only to have to save us? Why didn’t He just keep us from the tree of knowledge of good and evil?”

God planned everything all along from the beginning for several reasons. He did it to tell an interesting story. He did it to glorify Himself. But mostly to what matters from humanity’s perspective, He did it so that we can choose whether or not to worship Him. If we didn’t have moral free will—that is, if we didn’t have access to the tree of knowledge of good and evil—then we would essentially be “robots”, mere animals, reacting to stimuli against the world around us.

Back to John [ch. 1], remember where we learn that “the Word” was with God and “the Word” was God, “now the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.”

So this is a really short snapshot of something profound. God came to us humans by coming to us as a human to “fix” the problem we had from the very beginning. Jesus is He—Son of God, Son of Man.

From the beginning, God set us up with the capacity for free will, along with the resulting curse of our mortality. But at the same time, God planned all along to fix the problem He set us up with and yet that we put ourselves in all along. God came to us, as one of us, as Jesus, and Jesus lived a perfect life, perfectly obedient to God the Father who contains the universe in Whom we live, and move, and have our being. And yet, despite being completely without fault, Jesus laid his life down and died on behalf of our own sin.

“Wait, God Himself came to humanity as a human, as Jesus!? What did Jesus do while he was here?”

What would our Creator and Designer do if He came in the flesh as one of us to walk among us? Surely he would demonstrate a full and rich understanding of his role, and he did. (Luke 2:39-52) He would demonstrate profound love for human beings, through countless miracles and kindheartedness, and he did, more than anyone could manage to document (John 21:25). He would teach humanity better ways of thinking of the universe they live in, better perspectives of their Creator (John 14:9), better worldviews and ways of living (Matthew 5-6), and better ways of thinking about our own selves. He would demonstrate setting captives free and give the world a new life of total and profound freedom—freedom to live without the bondage of sin, freedom to discover and explore eternity with God, freedom to know and love and be loved by God without the hindrances and futility of obeying organized religion.

Most importantly, he would come to do what He had promised. In an act of pure love for His creation, He would lay his life down for us, so that we and He can be friends.

Jesus Died for our Sins—Son of God, Son of Man

If you died tonight and stood before God, and He asked: “Why should I let you into My heaven?” what would you say? Do you know with absolute certainty that you would go to heaven?

Man has always sought a way to cross the barrier that separates him from God. He has tried to break through it by good works, loving your neighbor, sacraments, joining some particular church or denomination, etc. But the Bible teaches that no work of sinful man can ever tear down the barrier of sin that separates Holy God from sinful man.

Only God could possibly be capable of living a perfectly good life, a life that perfectly exudes a demonstration of obedience to God’s moral authority. But only a man—only a human being—can suffer the consequence of sin and make meaningful a substitution of the penalty of our own sins.

So God became a human and lived the perfect life but suffered death for our sins.

Unless we realize that we need SALVATION and that we cannot gain or buy eternal life by our own abilities, there is no way we can be saved apart from God’s free gift.

Because the Bible says everyone is a sinner: “There is no righteous, no not one; All have sinned…” (Romans 3:10, 23)
Because the wages of sin is death: “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” (Romans 6:23)
Because it takes only one lie to make a liar: “For whoever keeps the whole law, and yet stumbles at just one point is guilty of breaking all of it.” (James 2:10)
Because any sin torments: “There is no peace, says the Lord, for the wicked.” (Isaiah 48:22)
Because any sin separates you from your God: “But vyour iniquities have separated you from your God**; your sins have hidden his face from you, so that he will not hear.” (Isaiah 59:2)
Because we will surely perish: “I tell you, no! But unless you repent, you too will all perish.” (Luke 13:3)
Because any sin enslaves us: Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin.” (John 8:34)

Millions of people are in need of light and life. People are wounded, troubled, lost. We all need a true Savior! There is no real healing apart from “The True Healer.” There is no life apart from the “Life-Giver.” There is no savior apart from the “Savior of our Soul.”

Because of God’s immeasurable love for the perishing humanity, He gave us the PROVISION OF SALVATION. Jesus paid the full price of our sins. He did die for this lost world. He is not only offering “salvation for us but new and everlasting relationship with Him.”

God gave His one and only Son for the forgiveness of our sins.

Jesus died for the sinners: “But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” Romans 5:8
Jesus is our salvation: “Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to men by which we must be saved.” Acts 4:12, Matthew 1:21
Jesus is faithful to forgive us and to purify us: “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9
Jesus is the only way: Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:6
Jesus gave us eternal gift: “For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith – and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God – not by works, so that no one can boast.” Ephesians 2:8-9
Jesus came that we might have life − life in its abundance: Jesus said, “…I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.” John 10:10b
Jesus gave us power to become the children of God: “Yet to all who received Him, to those who believed in His name, he gave the right to become children of God.” John 1:12

The Grave Could Not Hold Him Down

Jesus is God who reached out to us by becoming one of us in the flesh; the grave was not powerful enough to hold him down. He did die in the flesh, but on the third day he resurrected from the dead.

This is all very well documented and had an incredibly large number of witnesses to prove it. (1 Corinthians 15:3-8)

Jesus is alive!

“How can God die? That doesn’t make sense”

There is often confusion about how Jesus, who suffered death, is God, and yet God is I Am, the Creator and Container of all things. Jesus Christ is both God and man. Jesus suffered humanity’s penalty of sin on the cross and experienced death, and he experienced a separation from the presence of the Father who contains all of Heaven and Earth and time and space. This elaboration is why orthodox Christianity insists on identifying God as a Trinity—Father, Son, and Spirit—as the mystery that is God’s dispensation or manifestation of Himself to humanity in various forms and capacities is handily described as “three yet one”.

Gospel In Summary

The Gospel is this: The Designer, Creator, and King of the whole world and the universe has met with us, He has saved us through His work on the cross, He resurrected and is alive today, and we are now free to know Him!

The word “Gospel” means “good news.” It is the good news of how you can have a loving, personal relationship with God that gives meaning and purpose to this life, and, at the same time, gives you the certainty that you will spend eternity with Him in heaven.

So then when we come to God by faith and acknowledge our sins (our disobedience, our going our own way instead of His way), He is faithful and just to forgive us of our sins, and not only that but to cleanse us of all unrighteousness. He transforms our spirits into new creatures, and we immediately enter into His eternal life as we submit to His holy presence.

Receive God’s Love

But as many as received Him (Jesus) to them, He gave the right to become God’s children, to those who believe in Him (John 1:12).

The knowledge that God offers His love to you every hour of every day may not be new to you; what may be new is that you have to receive Him who is love or His loving forgiveness will not become yours. Generally, humanity gives and receives human love. That is because most people have not received God’s love. We cannot give something we do not have. It is vital in all of our lives that we receive God’s love so that we can love Him back and love those around us with His love. The essence of salvation is receiving God’s forgiveness, which is part of His love. So we begin by receiving His love. If we are born again, we have already received His loving forgiveness. At any time, we can open the door and ask Him to come in, even right now, you can simply tell Him that you want to know Him personally and live with Him forever, that you want to love and obey Him, that you know that Jesus paid the penalty for your sin on the cross and now offers you His loving forgiveness. Then out of simple faith in what God has said, open the door and receive Him. Receive His love, His forgiveness and the fullness of His Holy Spirit.

Now what?

In order to be saved, we must have faith. Faith is complete trust in something we can’t see but are certain of it because we believe it is true. Faith is not feelings or positive thinking. Faith is a gift from God.

“Now faith is the certainty of things hoped for, a proof of things not seen.” Hebrews 11:1

“And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for the one who comes to God must believe that He exists, and that He proves to be One who rewards those who seek Him.” Hebrews 11:6

The word “grace” means something which is given freely…without cost or obligation. You cannot purchase eternal life with good works, right living. Remember, God will offer it only as a gift to you if you truly want it! When man attempts to gain eternal life through his own works, he is no longer accepting God’s offer of eternal life as a free gift, that is, by “Grace.”

If you will humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, in His good time, He will lift you up (1 Peter 5:6)

Know that humility is also necessary to receive God’s love, to be lifted up by our heavenly Father. We must put aside the love and concern we have for ourselves to make room for the love of another. God’s love is all around us all the time. If we make room, He will surely come in. You may ask, “How can I control this ego of mine and humble myself so that I can receive God’s love?” Our ego doesn’t want to be dependent on anyone; it wants others to be dependent on us, so that we appear to be someone special. But there is only One who is not dependent on anyone and that is God. It is said that a humble person does not stoop smaller than he is; he stands at his real height seeing the reality of how small he is compared to God. When he humbles himself, he does not have to put on an act anymore because he has the real thing.

Humility causes us to begin to fit into God’s kingdom and into the purpose He has for our lives which is fellowship with Himself. In trusting humility, we can open the door of our hearts and receive God’s love through a real, personal, loving relationship (Revelation 3:20). Then, through the power of His love, we have the strength to overcome our old sinful nature and love Him back. Because He loves us first, we are able to do our part and complete an exchange of love.

True Christianity is a relationship

Jesus Christ did not say anything about religion in the Bible! His focus was on the kingdom of God and your relationship with Him as His Bride!

Being “Born Again” IS NOT a religion! It is an experience that God wants all who desire to know and serve Him to encounter.

What is the Church then? A Church is simply you, me, and others like us, who believe that Jesus is the son of God. To be a Christian is to be “of Christ “or to be a follower of Jesus. The word Christian is all inclusive. It needs no other word added to it for explanation or definition. Men have created denominations (churches) in order to separate and regulate those who profess to believe alike.

In reality, all faith is individual. No person believes exactly like another person. We all have a unifying point of faith and brotherhood: the Lord Jesus. He calls us to love and respect each other, but never to believe exactly alike. A person who has accepted Jesus as his or her personal Savior has done so just like all other Christians throughout history. Those who willingly devote their lives to Him find that they are doing more than just following His directions; they find themselves developing a loving relationship with Him. They call upon Him as a friend in times of need and times of joy. He is their constant companion. Now, if you have felt that God has abandoned you and that probably everyone else is enjoying this relationship but not you – don’t despair. God has promised never to leave you.

The real church is about Jesus Christ, loosing yourself not finding self; and also practical love for others. It’s simple - live in God’s love and share it with others. You can find God’s love in the secret place (the prayer closet).

Now we get to know Jesus—yes, really!—and we obey Him!

We start out knowing Jesus by listening to Him and talking to Him. Each person must sort out what to say to Jesus for himself, but one might try praying something like this:

“Jesus, I’m so sorry that I have been going my own way and not Your way. But I thank You so much for loving me enough to come and die for my sins. And now I’m so happy that in resurrecting you are alive and well, and I want to know You. Please come into my life, change my heart and mind, and let me know you deeply. I recognize You as King, please teach me how to obey and love You.”

God is listening. He hears you. Not everyone will get knocked off their feet, but when you make a sincere attempt to reach out to God like in the example above, you will sense His presence immediately. What does “sensing” God’s presence mean? God created you as not just flesh but as a spirit. You will “sense” him in your spirit in the same way your flesh can “smell” someone. You may not sense anything profound at all. Sometimes His presence is a subtlety. Continue seeking Him and His presence with sincerity and humility, and you will find Him. The point is, we don’t try to please God by following our feelings, but instead we believe God’s word is true by faith.

God is triune

To know Jesus starts with having God’s spirit. Jesus is God in the flesh; he came and walked among us (John 1), but he went away up to the Father. He went away so that He could be with all of us at once through the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is God’s spirit who makes Himself a conduit between ourselves and the Father, and between ourselves and Jesus.

Receiving the presence of God’s spirit makes you born again. You become born in the spirit. You literally become a new creature. God’s spirit interacts with your spirit, and you become alive.

John 3:5 Jesus answered, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. 6 Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. 7 You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ 8 The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.” 2 Corinthians 5:17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new. 1 Corinthians 6:17 But whoever is united with the Lord is one with him in spirit.

As a result of having God’s spirit, He shows us daily how to live a holy life—that is, a life that pleases Him and that is free of sin.

Romans 7:15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do. 17 As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. 18 For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. 19 For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. 20 Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. 24 What a wretched man I am! Who will rescue me from this body that is subject to death?

Romans 8:1 Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2 because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. 5 Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. 6 The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace.7 The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. 8 Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God. 9 You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ. 12 Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation—but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it. 13 For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.

This means God supernaturally empowers us to live righteously, and, being now where He dwells, we must. God cannot live where there is unholiness, because He is holy. This is a relationship with God, He will remind you and teach you, you must listen. And the more you strive to listen to Him and to please Him, the more He will reveal Himself to you, and empower you to not only live a holy life but to do great things in His kingdom.

The Greatest Commandments

The Bible has been vetted and is recognized as a profound collection of writings that prove to be the written Word of God Himself.

The Bible is filled with lots of books, and among those books are lots of stories and laws and commands and more. Many of the laws and commands were written for a time and people of an entirely different era—ancient Israel.

But some of the commandments on the whole, specifically and especially the two greatest commandments [Mark 12:30-31; Matthew 22:36-40; Luke 10:27], apply to followers of Jesus:

Love God with all your heart, soul, and mind, and
Love your neighbor as yourself.

In fact, Jesus said, “All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” So, that’s it. That’s what we’re here for. That’s the basics of the King’s expectations of us. Love God, and love your neighbors. Period.

It’s important to know that obeying God does not save you. Only faith in Christ’s righteousness saves you. It’s still very important to have a living (useful) faith. A Spirit-filled faith that is alive will also want to love God naturally without compulsion. This is the kind of faith God accepts and allows you to prosper and grow in your Christian walk. If you are unsure if you have living faith, ask God for it and He will freely give you it!

What now? Discipleship

Matthew 21:16 Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. 17 When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. 18 Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. 19 Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20 and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”"

We follow those two greatest commandments—loving God and loving our neighbors—by imitating Jesus himself, and then teaching others to do the same. That is essentially what it means to be a “disciple”, or to be a Christian; it is to be someone who imitates Christ, or to be someone who imitates someone who imitates Christ [1 Corinthians 11:1].

How do I become an imitator of Christ?

Start by knowing God’s written word. There is so much extensive wisdom and knowledge about God, about human nature, and about God’s dealings with mankind and vice-versa. Take some time to learn how to study the Bible, and then do it, study it.

By having God’s spirit within you. Jesus started his ministry off by being baptized and the Holy Spirit came upon him. We human beings are all spiritual creatures; we have a body and we have a soul, but our spirit, our essence, is what will live on forever. Without God’s spirit living within us, we are dead, we cannot live. God’s spirit is what teaches us His will, He is what gives us joy in difficult times, and God’s spirit is the same spirit that raised Jesus from the dead! The very notion of being “saved”, or being given eternal life, is identified by being reconciled with God, which ultimately means having God’s spirit. By having God’s spirit, we become a new creature, we are born again.

By understanding the intentions of Jesus through understanding His actions and His words. Jesus said and did many things, but he did none of it haphazardly, everything Jesus said or did was deliberate and profoundly intentional in the part it played or would play in the eternal scope of the whole universe. You cannot imitate Jesus if you have no idea what his objectives were. So study His words and His intentions carefully.

By doing everything that Jesus instructed his disciples to do. If you don’t know what those things are, you’re going to need to study. But we can always revert back again to the same fundamental principle, that Jesus said that all the law and prophets rest on two key commandments:

Love God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. And,
Love your neighbor as yourself.

But Jesus empowered his disciples through the Holy Spirit to lay hands on the sick and heal them, to cast out demons, and more. They were expected to do these things in love. It’s all always about love. Remember this, because it was reemphasized later in the New Testament especially by Paul, that nothing we do is meaningful or of any value without love.

If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. (1 Corinthians 13:12)

What is love? What does love really look like?

The English language has a poor comprehension of the word ‘love’, because it has many different meanings. In Greek, there are actually six different words that all translate to the word “love” in English, such as agape versus phileo. The “love” expected of us is elaborated by the servant Paul.

1 Corinthians 13 4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. 8 Love never fails.

If one will do as Christ commanded, one will discover eternal life or love and peace, of joy unimaginable, a place where the knowledge of good and evil is replaced with divine love. A place where all of your ego “issues” vanish, a place that is very real. We call it heaven. It is real, it is a place, and it is hidden, a secret, unknowable unless it is revealed by the Creator. Search it out for yourself through faith and obedience to Christ. Find Christ and you have discovered the country! Don’t just believe in it, or have faith it exists, Jesus commanded us to find it, for it is in Him, and Him alone. The knowledge of good and evil does not work well, and the story of humanity proves it does not work at all.

There is no fear in love [dread does not exist]. But perfect (complete, full-grown) love drives out fear, because fear involves [the expectation of divine] punishment, so the one who is afraid [of God’s judgment] is not perfected in love [has not grown into a sufficient understanding of God’s love] (1 John 4:18, Amp)

So while the disciples were trained to create disciples, and to teach, and to cast out demons, and to heal, the most important thing is that they were instructed to love, and to do all these things in that love.

By having regular, loving fellowship with the other disciples. We human beings here on Earth are the physical body of Jesus in his stead while He remains in Heaven, until he returns to rule and reign here on Earth. As the body of Christ, we are many body parts [1 Corinthians 12:12-31], and we must take our place in loving harmony with the other body parts.

By making more disciples. That is what Jesus did during his entire time of ministry on Earth. That is how Christianity—the fully realized structured kingdom of Jesus—came to be.

Recognizing Spiritual Warfare

Ephesians 6:12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

In the coming days Satan may begin an assault on you in an attempt to undermine your faith in Christ. (1 Peter 5:8; Ephesians 6:16; Matthew 13:3-23). Some of his specific goals are: (1) To plant seeds of doubt and despair in order to rob you of the peace, joy and assurance of your salvation. (2) To lead you astray in order to keep you from growing in the knowledge of the truth, and (3) To keep you from sharing your faith in Christ with others.

Through prayer and putting on the Armor of God daily, you can resist the Devil and win (Ephesians 6:10-18).

The entire backdrop to the original story of sin and how humanity needed a savior is a preemption of a higher authority in the spiritual realm that is dark, evil, and damaging to the heart and psyche of humans. Between the Creator who is God and humanity who was born in God’s image there are many unseen entities created by God as angelic hosts. These, too, had the option of free will and the capacity to rebel against God. Those that did so, the angelic beings that rebelled and remain in rebellion against God, are called “fallen angels”, “demonic spirits”, or “demons”. The highest power among the fallen angels is Lucifer, or Satan. He was one of the greatest angelic beings in heaven, but in thinking himself higher than he ought, he rebelled and was cast out of Heaven. Unlike humanity and the rest of physical life on Earth, God imposed no veil over the eyes of angelic beings—they have direct visibility to see God’s self-expression and the rest of the spiritual realm—but at the same time God gave them no plan of salvation. Instead, He gave rebellious angels limited freedom for a limited time to rule over the world, so that they may put humanity to the test. (Example, Job 1:6-12) It was a demonic angelic being, or Lucifer himself, that deceived humans from the beginning, as they ate from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. The Bible uses the metaphorical reference to “the serpent” in describing Satan.

Genesis 3:1 Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?” 2 The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, 3 but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’” 4 “You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. 5 “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 14 So the Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, “Cursed are you above all livestock and all wild animals! You will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life. 15 And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike his heel.”

So the world we live in consists of physical beings that are seen with physical eyes and also spiritual beings that are unseen, and all of the spiritual beings serve God in one way or another, directly or indirectly. The angelic beings that remain true to God’s throne thrive in God’s presence, and serve Him in different ways, including by protecting, guiding, or comforting human beings. The angelic beings that are in rebellion are out only for themselves and their hierarchical order, and human beings make ideal hosts and outlets for their rebellion. They aim to steal the attention of people away from God’s plan and cause humans to deviate or to also rebel. They are constantly scouring the Earth looking for vulnerable, weak people to ensnare with lies, deception, physical injury and sickness, and destructive habits and behaviors. In many cases they possess human beings. In fact, weak humans make ideal hosts for demonic beings, in part because humans are so engaged with the created world, but also because demonic entities love exacerbating the rebellion of creation against the Creator.

But angelic beings are not equal to God, they are not above God, they are sons of God. This is to be taken quite literally; angels do not multiply, they have no mothers who bear them through pregnancy, they are or were created on a whim through the creative power of God’s own self-expression. Jesus, who is the self-expression and personality of God come in the flesh, cast out many demons from people while he walked on Earth in the flesh. Indeed, he instructed his disciples that he had given his disciples power over demonic forces.

For example, Luke 9:1 And He called the twelve together, and gave them power and authority over all the demons and to heal diseases. Luke 10:19 Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing will injure you. Some might argue that these words were apportioned for a time, specifically for the one or few outings they had, that month. Actually, the disciples were in training. One does not train for throwaway knowledge. These disciples were learning how to thrive under the jurisdiction and authority of the throne of God, because God was launching a new covenant with mankind. Ultimately, all power over all demonic forces must obey the throne of Jesus.

Matthew 28:18 And Jesus came and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me.

If nothing else, we can at least glean from this that Jesus can deliver us from anything, because He has authority over everything, and nothing is better than or greater than or more powerful than Himself. Therefore, if we intimately know Jesus and we have a complete and total dependence upon Him and our eyes are fixated upon Him, we should never be vulnerable to suffering successful attacks from demonic entities. Our responsibility in all of this, therefore, as Jesus’ own, is to pay attention to the spiritual realm and to spiritual forces, but to never allow our eyes to fall away from Jesus, and to call upon the authority of Jesus in the presence of evil.

The throne of Jesus can have immediate impact upon and relief from all manifestations of demonic activity, including perverted thinking, malice, hatred, extreme fear, destructive thrill-seeking, or harmful addictions such as drug addictions, alcohol addiction, pornography addiction, or other sexual addictions.

Experiencing True Freedom

God does not want you to spend the rest of your life miserable, sick, poor, struggling, suffering, in pain and bondage.

Many believers sincerely want to know God but struggle hearing His voice, obeying Him, or still haven’t found freedom from addiction, shame, the past, pain, religion. If you have been hurt or betrayed by others, even Christians, there is hope in Jesus alone. Although programs like Celebrate Recovery1 exist to help believers overcome sin, they are part of the solution. No one can do the work you have to do yourself. If you really love God but are still struggling, there is a recipe of success in the book of Romans. It’s important we don’t just pretend to do these but have a heart-felt conviction about it. Ask God to change your desires if you do not feel genuine.

For if you embrace the truth, it will release true freedom into your lives. (John 8:32, TPT)

Be honest with God. Confess your sins, ask for forgiveness and repent (turn away from them).
Renew your mind. Believe that the Word of God is true despite your feelings. Openly speak the truth. Realize only the Word of God can discern and correct between your soul (emotions), spirit (born again part) and mind/heart which all need to come into agreement with the Truth.
Go on a fast
Meet Jesus Christ at the cross. Identify yourself with Him at his crucifixion and resurrection. Die to your self daily (self is your fallen selfish nature).
Plead the blood of Jesus. Bind, cast, loose all demonic influence in the name of Jesus. (Matthew 18:18)
Ask for the baptism of the Holy Spirit.
Worship God in song.
Seek spiritual deliverance.
Don’t struggle alone. Find a pastor, prayer warrior, Bible-believing, Spirit-filled 5-fold ministry that practices the gifts of the Holy Spirit to help you. Some battles have deep spiritual roots.

We must remember that Jesus brought us a new covenant, and with that came a new life walking in the Spirit and battling in the Spirit. He now gives us the weapons and tools that we need to fight the enemy’s attacks and he expects us to use them! He wants us to become mighty warriors of God spiritually and to be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. (Ephesians 6:11)

Fulfill your calling, follow Jesus

God Is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him. We are most satisfied when we live for God’s glory alone. God’s glory is His eternal brilliance, goodness, love, wisdom, suffering, patience, power, etc…. The pursuit of discipleship and fellowship is the whole point of this. Just make sure you’ve asked yourself these things first:

Are you putting Him first? “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things (clothing, food, etc) will be added unto you.” (Matthew 6:33)

Have you denied yourself and stopped sinning? Sinning is the willful act of having moral free will, or doing things your way instead of obeying God. You will never get the most out of life unless you submit to Him and His authority.

Do you hold any grudges towards anyone? Are you actively loving God and your neighbor? The Bible says that God will not continue to forgive you of your sins if you’re holding unforgiveness towards someone else. Be at peace! Let it go! Love God, love your neighbor!

The Last Days

The story of mankind’s struggles with God is profound. What’s next to come? You are experiencing the final days of “last days” of this age. Jesus is coming back in the flesh very soon! The Bible gave us a lot of clues about when the end of this age will come, and those signs are all around us! This is very exciting! However, we must wake up

For as lightning that comes from the east is visible even in the west, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. Wherever there is a carcass, there the vultures will gather. ‘Immediately after the distress of those days ‘the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give its light; the stars will fall from the sky, and the heavenly bodies will be shaken.’ Then will appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven. And then all the peoples of the earth will mourn when they see the Son of Man coming on the clouds of heaven, with power and great glory. And he will send his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of the heavens to the other. Now learn this lesson from the fig tree: As soon as its twigs get tender and its leaves come out, you know that summer is near. Even so, when you see all these things, you know that it is near, right at the door. Truly I tell you, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away. (Matthew 24:27-34)

A Warning about The Mark of the Beast

At some point, the Bible seems to predict that managed communism will take over the world, and God’s people are instructed not to conform, but that this will result in much fleshly tragedy.

The second beast was given power to give breath to the image of the first beast, so that the image could speak and cause all who refused to worship the image to be killed. It also forced all people, great and small, rich and poor, free and slave, to receive a mark on their right hands or on their foreheads, so that they could not buy or sell unless they had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of its name. This calls for wisdom. Let the person who has insight calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man. That number is 666. (Revelation 13:15-18)

The most obvious takeaway from this is, do not allow yourself to be physically marked and brought into any sort of slavery to mankind, such as a smartwatch or an embedded chip that monitors your activity and pays you for labor not even if it becomes required by law in cooperation with vaccination tracking. Even getting a vaccination, chip or signing your name to a false contract could be seen by God as giving ownership over to Satan. Your sole dependency should be on God! If you believe in Jesus, you have been bought by the Blood of Jesus and you should never give yourself over to anything that attempts to claim ownership over you. But this also applies to receiving a “mark” in the spiritual realm, receiving a “mark” on the right hand (willful action) or forehead (mindset), or attending a false man-made religious system (such as worshiping the Earth for the sake of climate change). Do not cling to the world, religion or mankind’s systems of control, but instead cling to the kingdom of God and to the true King.

Then I saw another angel flying in midheaven, with an eternal gospel to preach to the inhabitants of the earth, to every nation and tribe and language and people; and he said with a loud voice, “Fear God [with awe and reverence], and give Him glory [and honor and praise in worship], because the hour of His judgment has come; [with all your heart] worship Him who created the heaven and the earth, the sea and the springs of water.” (Revelation 14:6-7, Amp)

Worship can also be obedience, allegiance, attention, even work. So, God takes who we give control/surrender and ownership over our life to very seriously. Only Jesus Christ of Nazareth, who is Lord and God is truly worthy of obedience, allegiance, praise, and affections!

What is the Mark of the Beast? ›

Aliens are Demons

It’s clear that in the last days, there will be much confusion and deception about what is really fact, true and what is false. People will call good evil and evil good. There will be a false light, a righteousness that seems right but lacking in power. The Antichrist will produce lying signs and wonders, manifestations.

Satan himself transforms himself into an angel of light. (2 Cor. 11:14)

Spiritualism, New Age movements, humanism all have their roots in demonic deception of self-worship and self-love. The New Age movement is part of the coming New World Order and may become an official “state” religion. This call will be further strengthened by UFO activity, with a supposed contact with aliens, so that we can be merged with an intergalactic civilization. The New Age Movement is seeking to bring all religions together to homogenize religions across the world and prepare them to receive the One World Church (Globalization of Religion)

In the Book of Enoch it says that the leader of the fallen angels was called Azazel, and he is often identified with Lucifer (the Lightbringer) or Lumiel (‘the light of God’).

The Galactic Federation of Light is the big push of the New Age Movement. Their story, these supposed masters are here to help humanity ascend to the next level. The Galactic Federation of Light is a deception of the evil side, and a part of the grand delusion, they serve both sides.

With one accord the so called ‘aliens’ are calling for a false love, false peace. The so called ‘love’ they are calling for is natural human love based on evolution. This is the grand delusion that Satan and demons disguised as aliens are going to deceive the world with. The mind is the last frontier that man thinks he can conquer. To prove it, God will allow Satan to throw every supernatural power he has at man to deceive them, because they rejected the only way to the truth there was; the strait gate and narrow way. The grand delusion is designed in such a way as to prove to man that he is a “god”. The fallen church will plunge headlong into this delusion, and in fact has already by and large embraced parts of it.

The only way to find freedom from the lies is to love the eternal Word of God and keep it in your heart. People, culture, society changes but God does not.

New Heaven and New Earth

When the final judgment has been completed following the 1,000-year peaceful reign of Jesus, the Bible says that God will roll up Earth and the heavens like a scroll, and a “new heaven and earth” will appear, with the “New Jerusalem” coming down out of heaven from God. God’s dwelling place will then be among His people on the new earth. His beautiful and eternal dwelling place is described in Revelation 21 and 22. Thus will begin a whole new chapter in this story God is writing. We have no idea what happens next, but we can be assured that we will spend eternity with our savior, ruling and reigning with Him as he continues to create and do new things!

How to be Prepared

If you have just decided to follow Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, find a local fellowship, get water baptized and receive the Holy Spirit.
Ask the Lord for understanding and wisdom as you read the Bible. Read your Bible. Listen to an audio bible.2 Memorize scripture.
Forgive everyone who has offended you, whether or not they ask for it. All of us, to one degree or another, fail to forgive those who, knowingly or unknowingly have hurt us. It is here that we must choose to go on in the new life God has given us. We must choose to continue to receive His forgiveness by becoming a forgiver ourselves (Matthew 6:14, 15). (See “The Bait of Satan” by John Bevere)
Get rid of all known sin. Pray for the conviction of the Holy Spirit of unknown sin, and receive God’s loving forgiveness.
Monitor any wrong thinking and continue to receive His loving forgiveness on a daily basis as the bedrock of your relationship.
Guard your mind, knowing that sin begins in the mind. Get prompt forgiveness for sinful thoughts especially those produced by anger or a critical attitude. Ask the Lord for His thoughts.
Turn away from the world. Be “in the world, but not of the world”.
Keep your mind “stayed on Him” by thanking Him in every circumstance of the day. Listen to hymns and spiritual songs when you can, and hum, whistle or sing chorus songs when you can.
Refuse to be moody or depressed by asking Jesus to raise His standard (the blood of the cross) against Satan and his demons and ask for His peace and His joy.
Pray that God will help you to receive His love and the filling of the Holy Spirit every day. Knowing that leads to union with our Lord; pray the prayer of Jesus–that you would be in union with Him as He is in union with the Father (John 17:19-26).
Commit the day into God’s hands every morning. Be aware of any thoughts or scripture that He may put in your mind. Spend time in meditation with the Lord asking Him about the affairs of the day and the things that are on your heart. Then clear your mind and listen for His “still small voice”. That may take time because of the resistance of the flesh. Our old sinful nature is very persistent, but we must be more persistent. Be aware that there are three persons that have access to our minds: God, the devil, and the flesh (ourselves). We must sort them out using the Bible as our guide.
Whenever you need answers to life’s many questions, ask the Lord to give you a word about your need.
Know that you never have to be lonely; Jesus is right there at the door knocking, waiting to fellowship with you and to lead you into fellowship with our heavenly Father. (Revelation 3:20)

Conclusion

All of this is expressed in one sentence in Galatians 5:6. It says; “Faith works through love”. If we want more faith, we must allow it to “work” through a loving relationship with our heavenly Father.