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"In which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others."
(Ephesians 2:2-3)
Before God made us alive and brought us out of spiritual death, we walked according to this world. We followed the world's pattern of living: the partying, the rebellion, the adultery, the anger, the addictions, and I could go on and on. Before Christ, we lived in sin and were mastered by it.
We followed hard after Satan, the prince of the air. He was at work in us, just as he is at work in the lost today. The key characteristic of us following Satan and not God is disobedience. While living in disobedience to God's laws and commandments, we have no power to change our spiritual status. We need help.
In Ephesians 2:3, Paul goes on to describe the condition of lost souls: we satisfied our flesh, the lusts, and desires of the flesh and of the mind. We committed heinous and egregious sins in our bodies and in our minds. We acted out and thought about fulfilling the lusts that dominated us. The result of such ungodliness is the wrath of God being poured out on us. That was our outcome, our destiny... and who was to blame? Certainly not God but our own foolish selves.
Knowing what we know, the condition of our lost neighbors and friends, how they are dead in sins, following Satan, only concerned for the next fulfillment of the lusts of the flesh and the mind, who could possibly help them? Only God! He alone has the power to break the power of sin and invade the deadness and night with life and light!
In their book, B.L.E.S.S., Dave and Jon Ferguson (brothers who planted a church in Chicago), write about a man named Louie. He felt a nudge of the Holy Spirit to walk up to a stranger in the mall and tell him that God loves him. Louie rejected that impression from God and tried to avoid the man. Later that day, he saw the same man again in a different part of the mall! Louie was still hesitant and did not approach the man. Then, he saw the man a third time, and this time he decided to speak to the stranger. Louie said, "I don't want to seem weird or anything, but I feel like I'm supposed to tell you that God loves you." The stranger told Louie something remarkable. He told him that earlier that day, he was at the end of his rope and cried out to God, "If You are real, then show me that You love me." He then told Louie that he was the third random person to come up to him in the mall today and tell him that God loves him! He also said, "No one's ever said it to me once before, and now it's happened three times in one day." (See pages 38-39.)
Begin with prayer! Listen to God today, and let Him lead you to those He is drawing to Himself.
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