Ephesians 2:1 – And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;

Ephesians 2:2 – Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:

Ephesians 2:3 – Among whom also we all had our conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others.

Hello readers, new blog today, and we are talking about the prince of the power of the air mentioned in Ephesians 2:2, which I hope you read for yourself and surrounding verses. The Bible gives us light for these dark times which we navigate by faith. Abraham navigated by faith in the hope of the promises and truth of God’s word… which didn’t make him ashamed, and so should we walk in these same steps of Abraham our father.

Today we need to get a hold of some Ephesians 2 truths which will help to settle and establish our hearts in the time and hour we live in. Sometimes we despair because our thinking is not right. The disciples despaired when Jesus got betrayed and arrested and killed because their thinking was not right. They got things wrong, and it caused them to despair. They were despairing in the time of when the Father glorified his Son with a glory that will last for all eternity, providing eternal salvation and redemption for his people.

Of course, we know that Satan is the prince and god (little g!) of this world for the Bible says so, and this verse is not just referring to him, but the principalities and powers that are and prevail in this world currently, spiritual forces with great power which we wrestle against as believers because we belong to a different kingdom. Our different kingdom, a kingdom that this world knows not will one day will triumph entirely over this evil world. We are like Rahab living in Jericho, a doomed city and kingdom, living on the hope of the promise based on deliverance indicated by the scarlet thread of promised redemption.

We are at an interesting (to say the least!) time in history. Currently there are a lot of disappointed and heartbroken and angry and upset people. Understandably so. They are so because of the state of the nation, the way the lies and deceit seem to be winning… people devastated by figures who they had put their hope in who sold out and betrayed them. Of course we know I am talking about Donald Trump and the state of America, a nation that was so long a light of the nations, but that has been gathering pace in her freefall from grace.

America has set the pace for the rest of the world for the last couple hundred years. It was a nation founded on principles of God’s word, that provided for freedom, liberty, prosperity and influence as God’s word promised to his nation Israel those many thousand years ago. Whenever Israel obeyed God, Israel was the head of the nations. The problem is they went the way of the other corrupt, wicked, vile nations, copying their ways, and so often they were the tail. Of course, America is not Israel, but the key to her shining light has been her ties to the Lord God. However as pulpits have failed, as Christians lost their salt and light, as the faith and common salvation was traded in for something much poorer, that light has been slowly put out. We know that darkness is enveloping this dark world as the prince of this world desires to exalt his throne above the stars of God.

Why are things the way they are? Well we all live in this world. But Satan is the god of this world. People of this world walk and talk and think like they do because they are under his power and his influence. In amongst these great verses on salvation in Ephesians 2 we must realize some great truths. Jesus said we would know the truth and the truth would make us free. There are many things the Bible says about Satan, how he is the father of lies, how he only speaks lies, how he is a deceiver… and this world bears all characteristics of the spiritual forces which rule it.

What makes people think and do what they think and do… it is because they are spiritually controlled just as much as Pharaoh controlled those Hebrews in Egypt in Exodus. Even if you do not know it, you are under Satan’s power if you are unsaved and in rebellion. Once you rebel, you are under Satan’s power, that’s why rebellion is as the sin of witchcraft. So while you think you’ve found freedom in doing what you want to do, while you think you are enlightened and woke, while you think you are moral and your cause is just and you are good… you’re just following the piped piper of the devil to your doom… and you’re too dumb to even see it. As an ox to the slaughter. Satan blinds the minds of those who believe not, and you are so blind, you’re groping in the darkness.

I noticed this verse in the Bible the other day. Jeremiah 5:31 – The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so: and what will ye do in the end thereof? What a verse. Bearing rule by their means… that’s like Christians today… they’ve thrown God’s word out, what they do is just according to what they feel and think. But what struck me was… “my people love to have it so”. You see, you go into this world and tell people God’s word and you’ll realize people love to have it so. They love their rejection and rebellion and their ways and philosophies and thoughts and life. They love it. How can you help someone like that?

I have often wondered why did God order Israel to destroy all those nations in the promised land? it’s a question people like to use to try and make God out to be in moral contradiction of himself… even though the questionnaire is the one who is morally bankrupt. But anyway, as you go along in life you see God’s great wisdom and how I am an idiot. God gave those nations four hundred years to repent and straighten up. They were wicked, vile, abominable nations. And they were so corrupt, there was nothing to be done but get rid of them and start afresh. When something is so corrupted and can’t be fixed… just like that incurable wound of Isaiah… you get rid of it and start again. Our society has rapidly gotten to that point, everything’s so twisted and upside down, what can be done. And that’s what the last part of the verse says. What will ye do in the end thereof? Ask yourself that? What are you going to do in the end when you stand before God after a life of sin and refusal and rebellion and pride and lust? What are you going to do when the judgment and wrath of God is poured out on this nation… you think Israel understood that question when the Babylonians came in killing, raping, destroying, looting, robbing everything? Why do we only learn when it’s too late.

When we get saved we are what the Bible says “quickened”. What does that mean? It means to be made alive. When you are “cut to the quick”, it’s like in Acts where they were pricked in the heart by Peter’s sermon in Acts 2. Dead people don’t get offended or distressed or have emotions, quick refers to being alive. Before you are saved, you have no quickening. You are spiritually dead. We were all born that way. That’s why Jesus said we must be born again. We must be quickened. Where is this new life though? For when we get born again, nothing outside really changes does it? But inside, there is a new creature born inside us. That person is alive, and that person is made in the image of Christ,  that’s why our thinking, our speaking, our living… it all suddenly changes. That person is born from a different kingdom, that’s why in this world that person suddenly feels like an outsider, a stranger, a pilgrim… we don’t belong here… we are passing through this dead, dark world. It’s not a crime to be born a sinner, for we all are, the crime however is when you reject Jesus Christ, who came to save you from your sins and offers you salvation from them. Salvation is a quickening. So many people say they’re saved but have no “quickening”.

This  world, the reason it is the way it is, is because it’s not “quick”. It’s not alive spiritually. They do walk according to a spirit, but not according to the Holy Spirit of God. They don’t walk according to the Spirit of truth. That’s why they rather lies over truth. Ever wonder why people prefer lies and deception over the truth of God’s word? It’s because of this basic truth in Ephesians 2. They’re following the spirit of this world. This world is a kingdom, and the kingdom has a king… Satan. Jesus Christ said to Pilate, my kingdom is not of this world. When we get saved, it’s a kingdom change spiritually speaking. Physically we stay in this domain, but spiritually the Bible says we are seated in heavenly places in Christ. As with so many truths in the Bible, we take them by faith even when we ask like Nicodemus of the new birth… how can these things be? When we stop questioning and investigating and start accepting the truth of God’s word by faith… it’s life changing.

It really is so necessary to read the start of Exodus in conjunction with Ephesians 2, because that picture of the Hebrews as slaves in Egypt is really a picture of what our salvation is. The Hebrews were slaves of Pharaoh. He was their owner, make no mistake about that. He dictated their lives. They were occupied with his work from sun up to sun down. When you spend your life on this world, it’s service to the devil… no wonder you’re worn out and spent like they were. No wonder your life is crammed full of busyness and stuff… he sure made them busy and occupied… which was his plan. Make them so busy they don’t even think of leaving! Read Exodus and then you will further get what Ephesians 2 is saying… because before these Ephesians believers got saved, and us today also, we used to think and speak and do the way the devil wanted us to. We were under his POWER. If you’re not saved and born again, you’re walking according to the spirit of this world, and that is directly impacting how you think, what you believe, how you live, what you say and do. Satan CONTROLS you… and you love to have it so? But what are you going to do in the end thereof? This world doesn’t plan for death, they plan for it by not thinking about it, by living for now… because in the end thereof… it’s a trainwreck.

When you look at everything going on in the world today. The lies, the deception, the wickedness, the corruption, the evil… it’s just proof of the truth of what God’s word is so clearly saying. The people of this world walk according to the prince of this world. Why are so surprised when people of the world behave like they’re of the world in light of knowing what God’s word says? What we have today is a very necessary truth that will help us when trying to understand what on earth is going on in these days. The devil is going to try and wear believers out, but through the Bible and the promise and comfort of the Holy Spirit… we will endure to the end. When you get saved, your thinking and living is transformed, and suddenly you wonder how others can’t see what you see, or why they don’t think like you think, why they can’t understand. But you have to realize there’s a spirit at work in them, the spirit that was work in you before you got saved.

The Bible says the spirit works in the children of disobedience and it’s happening right now. When you disobey God, when you reject him, when you live in rebellion… the result is that you come under Satan’s influence and power in your life. People think they are free in living in sin, but no, they are just slaves of Satan, like those Hebrews were slaves of Pharaoh. Pharaoh controlled every aspect of Hebrew life, and look at the demands he placed on them, even to the murder of their own babies. You wonder why all this just utter lunacy is going on, all the horrible stuff… that’s what you get when you choose Satan’s influence in your life… and your logic, your thinking, your morality, your processing of information, your knowledge, it all comes from your father… the devil. He’s exercising his power over you, you’re a slave friend and you love to have it so.

Satan has got power and he’s wielding it. Look at what people sincerely believe and think and hold to be true. They defend abortion, they’re pro gay marriage, they’re pro transgender, they’re for everything that is wrong and twisted and corrupt, and they’re against everything that is holy and righteous and just as good. But not just that, they will then make the Christians the bad guys.  Hey… isn’t that what Pharaoh did? He made the Hebrews the bad guys, that’s why he was saying we gotta kill them out. This world holds Christians as the reason for all the problems, they hold Christians and the Bible as the liability, this world is totally against truth. They embrace lies with open arms, they choose delusion and ignorance willingly.

All this kind of brings us to “the prince of the power of the air”. Maybe you can’t quite make sense of that phrase yet. But just think about it and meditate and ask God to show you. This phrase is referring to Satan’s influence and control in this world, and the way in which he controls and influences how we think, what we know and thus how we act. If you look at the flow of information, if you look at TV, radio, the media… Satan controls the “airwaves”. Where we have the Bible, Satan’s Bible is a bit different. You know how you might say one verse of the Bible and you’re accused of preaching. Well Satan has no shame in bombarding you with his propaganda, he preaches as well, he’s preaching 24/7, that’s why this world is so under his control right down to how people think. We have such great examples of this particularly today with the rise in censorship and loss of freedom of speech and the great manipulation in the flow of information.

In the air is information, communication, knowledge, news. Satan is controlling it. The amount of people under the power of the prince of the power of the air is staggering. How do people get to believing, and sincerely believing all their sin and rot is ok while God is the bad guy? How do they get to so sincerely condoning something like gay marriage and feeling like they’re the ones loving and moral and righteous in doing so? They’re under the power. As this world has become increasingly connected on technological platforms, controlling the information and passing the information has gotten so much more effective. This has lead to a rise in iniquity as the interconnectedness, just like at Babel… people really are all speaking the same language today. And you’re being demanded to speak the same language. The language I’m talking about isn’t English or Spanish or Italian… the language is the same belief system.

Donald Trump coined the term “fake news”, and it went viral. If you look at the demonizing him and the narrative that has been incessantly preached through almost every news outlet, all over facebook and twitter… look at how it’s controlled how people have thought. Donald Trump is not Jesus Christ, but you can’t help but see this whole situation and the similarities between it and Jesus Christ. There was a media in Jesus’ day. Can you guess who they were? The scribes and Pharisees. They were telling people what to believe, how to think and how to live. They had immense double standards, and they were hypocrites, and the people who rag on Donald Trump are more guilty of what they hold him guilty for than he is. But this whole thing, the last four years of a presidency that has had more of a God and truth consciousness than all others before him in my living memory… it bears testimony to the truth of Ephesians 2. It’s not just him, there are many Christians who have been demonizing, and shown in a certain light, and what people believe and say about people is just a function of what they’ve got through the air.

Satan does control the media. He controls the technology… I have been thinking about this blog and how I could be censored or classified as hate speech and taken down and nothing I could do about it. Satan wants complete monopoly of communication, of sharing of thoughts and opinions and ideas. Just like Pharaoh, don’t even think about going to serve the Lord, you’re so busy with all I’ve set you to do. We are not meant to be controlled by the prince of the power of the air… we are meant to take our cues, we are meant to form what we believe, we are meant to get what we know from God’s word. When you get in God’s word, you’ll see things differently to how they are portrayed on the air. For instance, fornication is the norm and fine on air, but in the Bible it’s not ok. The only solution you have to the power of the air is getting saved and abiding in the truth. You’re no match for Satan, for a power greater than you in your own strength, you need a greater power… and who has that power? Matthew 28:18 – And Jesus came and spake unto them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.

Satan is the father of lies and his lies have just swamped us. We know in Daniel and from what Jesus said of the end times that Satan is going to try and wear out the saints of God. Do you feel worn out? The dragon in Revelation 12 cast a great flood out of his mouth to try and carry the woman away. Do you feel flooded out? Are you feeling overwhelmed. Remember Jesus’ trial. All his followers, down to disciples, they were overwhelmed. And look at the trial, it was based on a completely false narrative, false accusations, false witnesses… it was all lies. And it was done on “moral” grounds! In the trial they made Jesus the bad guy, and they were the good guys. They were the guys wanting to honor God and the Romans apparently. It doesn’t matter who and what and how many certify lies as truth… the truth is still the truth and lies are still lies. Did Satan win though? It may have looked that way. Did the traitor win? Did the lies win? No, they didn’t. That should give us hope. God has got a plan in everything that’s going on in this world currently. That’s not a Christian cliché, for the Bible says he works all things together after the counsel of his own will.

What’s our responsibility in all of this? That’s a great question. What can we do? We can feel so helpless, lost and powerless. But if you read Ephesians 2, and all around it… you shouldn’t be so. See, we need to get in the Bible and God guide our thinking through his word. We need to get our thinking right. Salvation is the key. Ephesians 2 is speaking about salvation. From true salvation flows forth everything else that comes from having salvation. A new way of thinking, and living… it comes from spiritual life that begins inside at the moment of an acknowledging of the truth unto repentance.

There was a guy called Lot who got caught up in a lot of things that completely robbed him of a life of faith and following God. He settled in a place called Sodom, he got caught up in its affairs and it’s wars even. He was taken captive when war broke out, and Abram needed to rescue him. We can get caught up in the wrong battles and wrong causes and miss why we’re here. So many believers need rescuing because they’re out of God’s word and God’s will… they’re caught up in this world… this world and a society which is spiritual Sodom.

Jesus came to a nation seeking national deliverance… but they needed spiritual deliverance. People got confused and even today are confused about the person and work of Jesus Christ. See, he was the king of the Jews, and they were looking for a king to set up their kingdom. Israel was under the Romans at the time, and they were hoping for national deliverance through Jesus Christ. You can imagine their confusion when suddenly he’s talking about being betrayed and crucified. Even after he ascended they were still concerned about when Israel was going to be restored as a nation. So we need to understand what God is doing in this world right now. And we are living in the time of the church, which is not a national entity, but a spiritual body of those who believe in Jesus Christ. Those believers are salt and light of the earth, and that’s we are meant to be. Nationally speaking, things are only going to be fixed when Jesus Christ, the king of the Jews, comes to rule and reign on this earth. Under sinful, fallen man, this world is going to provide disappointment until then unfortunately. National deliverance is coming, but it’s coming through looking upwards as Jesus said to, to the King of kings and Lord of lords.

Today, despite the conversational nature of this blog, we are trying to stay on topic about the prince of the power of the air. You know, when TV shows and radio and news go live they are said to be “on the air”. The air has power. Power to influence you more than you know. You see that so many people are controlled by what is on the air. If the Holy Spirit is likened to the rushing wind, and being born again is like the wind blowing and others not knowing where it’s coming from and where it’s going. Well there’s other spirits on air, the spirits in this world. The airwaves are jammed with ungodly, unBiblical stuff. Just flick on your TV, scroll through your newsfeed, reed comments section. Satan is in control of that, and it’s advancing sin at a rate not seen before. God said at Babel… nothing will be restrained from them which they have imagined to do. This connectedness which has given us a singularity of language in terms of what we know, how we think, the information we have to affirm from… this connectedness is advancing the iniquity in this world. In Revelation you see an unclean spirit go and gather kings to battle, you know spirits can move quickly on the air. When you are under the power of what’s on the air, you’re under Satan’s power.

Technology has given Satan a great ability to influence what people know, he can control and manipulate information, and in doing so he controls what you believe and how you think and how you speak and live. The Bible says my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. And so it is today. You know, that archaic old Bible is far more cutting edge than your technology still. That little bit of technology has just accelerated your dumbness and stupidity.

I had never really got the “prince of the power of the air” before… like, how does air have power? But this verse is referring to a truth that is so profound that is all about us, and so abundantly prevalent in the days we are in. I was thinking of how my blog one day could be classed as hate speech or whatever and censored, and nothing I can do about it. We’re abundantly seeing a loss of an ability to share what the Bible says as it’s seen as extreme, radical, dangerous, harmful. Of course it’s none of that, but we are living in a crooked and perverse nation that sees truth that way as it’s convenient to them.

Satan is controlling the air. And he’s controlling people. He controls public opinion, public perception. Humans are such sheep we generally go with what the masses are doing, or what we perceive the masses to be doing. It’s very rare that people don’t bow with the rest of those bowing. Look in Daniel, only three Hebrew boys who knew God’s word and determined to obey it above what they were told to do… only they didn’t bow. The technology isn’t evil in and of itself, but the rise of technology has connected humanity in a way not possible before, it’s lead to a rapid increase in evil. It’s literally gathering people together against Jesus Christ.

So yes, while we are in the “21st century” and our technology is so great… our society has gone so far backwards boys are raised where they are told they can be girls if they want. See, we’re so advanced we don’t even know what gender we are anymore. Talk about being under the power of something. Even beasts of the field aren’t as confused and stupid as we are now. It goes to show the strong spiritual element, because in nature things follow a law and order instilled by God. There’s real spiritual power at play, you see devils so much in the gospels… you know they haven’t disappeared right? Ephesians 2 is all about power, what power are you under? You know the gospel of Jesus Christ is the power of God unto salvation. When you tell people God’s word, the gospel… that has power to save someone and deliver them from the power they are under, the power of Satan, who is the god of this world, who has blinded the minds of unbelievers. We need to stick to where the greater power is, as the power of the air can make us despair, lose hope, lose sight.

If something has power as the Bible says it does, well we need a greater power to beat another power right? And Jesus talked about this. Mark 3:27 – No man can enter into a strong man’s house, and spoil his goods, except he will first bind the strong man; and then he will spoil his house. Jesus Christ has greater power. Jesus Christ has all power… let’s remember that. A sword has power in the hand of a soldier, and so we have power and authority when we hold God’s word in our hand to do battle and fight the fight of faith with against the spirit of this world. The power we have in this world as believers is not with a physical sword, it’s not with numbers of men behind us… it’s a greater power and in fact the greatest power available, the word of God, truth. How do you do battle with lies? With TRUTH.

We can get caught in the wrong thinking and the wrong battle and that’s why we despair. Jesus’ disciples were despairing when he got betrayed and arrested and crucified. Because their thinking was wrong. Peter got himself a sword and they were ready to fight for their king. But Jesus hadn’t come to lead a rebellion against the Romans. John 18:36 – Jesus answered, My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the Jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence. Jesus wasn’t of this world, he didn’t have a worldly cause, he’d come to save us out of this world. One day he will possess the kingdoms of this world, but it wasn’t his time, and that wasn’t his fight. So we’ve gotta know our fight. We have to have the right cause, a Biblical cause. The cause is salvation of souls, of our own first and of others. That’s what’s going to change where our nation is going. We need to get the right idea of who Jesus is, and what his work is here in this world currently, that’ll help set us straight. You can imagine how defeated the disciples felt when Jesus was arrested and crucified. But in that defeat was the greatest victory ever won, the victory in the real battle that they didn’t even really get.

Ephesians goes on to say we sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. The ages to come belong to us! We were saved by God who loved us so much he gave his Son to die for us. He delivered us from sins, saved us from them, and in Christ we have a new walk, a new life that arises from a quickening within. We don’t have our new body yet, we are still in this sinful world, but our purpose is to give glory to him, to show forth his praises who has called us out of darkness into his light. Ephesians, just like the whole Bible has truths for the time and hour that we live in. This world has always been rotten, many Christians have already died in faith, died trusting in the promise of salvation and future glory. Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of creation. Jesus didn’t pray for this world, he prayed for those God would save out of it. This world is judged and condemned, this is the day of salvation, and that’s what’s this life is about.

In light of all we’ve said, consider this verse for each of us… Ephesians 1:18 – The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints. We need that. The Holy Spirit is the answer to the spirit of the world… that spirit that works in the children of disobedience. But if you’ve obeyed the gospel, if you believed it, you have the Holy Spirit. Trust him, because Christ is far above all principality and power… he’s building his church… and he’s coming back to sort it all out and to root out all the transgressors. Jesus didn’t commit himself to man, so we shouldn’t either.

Stick to Jesus Christ, abide in him, stay in the truth… he has all power, and far greater than the prince of the power of the air. Stop coming under Satan’s fear and influence and power and control… we need to live where we really are… in heavenly places with Christ Jesus. That’s our future, this world has no continuing city for us… but we have the promise of the world to come, a world where Jesus is on the throne, and where righteousness and truth prevails forever. May God bless you and keep your heart today… trust in his word, even if you don’t get it, reckon it to be so, because it is the word of truth. Remember, all aspects of life and existence according to the prince of the power of the air… it’s not the truth… God’s word is the truth. Many people have a truth according to them, but it all cedes to the infallible, incorruptible, eternal truth of God’s word which will remain when everything else is ashes. Trust in the Lord today, he has all the power, he will save you, he will quicken you, and he will change your life.

Philippians 3:20 – For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ:

Luke 21:28 – And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh.

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