Chapter Six: Life in a fallen world

The first problem is the addiction to approval and to affection for others. This is based on the fact that people love to share love with others and to feel a sense of community. There are three types of love that have been described in the Bible that are useful as an illustration. Phileo, or friendly love for fellow man is not a bad thing on its own. If it makes us a slave to others then we need to give it up and submit it to God until we can take it up again through His power. Agape is the love the Holy Spirit gives us. This love is also a belief and an understanding, it is a new desire to do good to our fellow man. Dwell on this love, let this love grow and motivate your actions. Let the compassion of Christ fill you.

Ps 119:32 I will run the way of thy commandments, when thou shalt enlarge my heart.

Pray and submit yourself to Christ and He will also develop humility and other graces in You. This is what you need to share with other people. The feelings of affection and camaraderie, if they are a hindrance to you, should die.

As far as your social standing is concerned as a Christian recognize and accept that you are assigned the lowest on earth. This is something that we are not used to, but even if God has graced you with the good things in life, internally prepare yourself to give all of these things up and train yourself to accept the least so that if God needs to take these things away from you, you will not contradict Him, so that if He tells you to sell all you have, you will be responsive to Him. This does not mean that you should take suggestions from the devil or accept a warped vision of reality, let God lead you to where you should be. God will decide where you should be placed in life.

Undoing the brainwashing

As I have stated before, it is a game that blocks out the spirit. Once you have fallen into the addictive pit of the system it is necessary to work to find your way out of the addiction. Like any other addiction you will have to pray to God to find ways to free yourself. God has power over addictive spirits. He will help you when you cannot help yourself. But in His word He has given you enough to untangle this web of deception. The principles in the Bible are not just to restrict you, but they are protections, and weapons against the dark powers in the world.

The demons generally can only strengthen your own passions. They are still yours to resist. If you fall into error pray for forgiveness as God requires. Do not believe any games that threaten you because of your actions. You are never responsible for the actions of others.Under God their decisions are their own. Never allow anyone to tell you that because of some unrelated action that you took they are now going to harm you or hinder you in some way.

When interacting with people around you if they feel they must take the higher place in the game, let them. Deny or restrain yourself. It is not something for a Christian to run after. It is not worth destroying your soul for these little trinkets.

If someone around you is doing something that will make others have a bad opinion of you forget it. They probably would never have judged you properly to begin with. You are judged honestly in the eyes of God and in your own mind. Remember that it is the devil's laughter that is behind their games and when you react you are only reacting to please him. Why should any of us live to please the devil?

We are called to be free in Christ.

Again I emphasize, take the words of Christ seriously. It is not worth losing your soul for something that will crumble to dust as soon as you take your heart out of it. It is not worth holding onto anything that brings the devil along with it. It is better to cut off associations and interactions that only lead your soul downward.