In this next section I would like to look at the necessity of faith for God says without faith it is impossible to please Him. If that is what God says then we need to understand exactly what faith is and how it applies to our relationship with Him. These next episodes will give you some practical ways to apply faith to all you have learned so far. 

Good morning and welcome to another Lesson From The Tent. Today we will look back at lesson #2 and apply faith and believing to the question; why is life so difficult? 

If you remember, we learned that our life problems come from the domain of darkness(1) which refers to the freewill of Satan, all his demonic followers and the blindly ignorant freewill of us humans. Now we need to apply faith and believing to the truth that this domain of darkness world we live in is not our friend. In fact, it is our greatest enemy. Look what God says about this in the Bible. 

“For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.” (2)  

Typically, when life is difficult or downright rotten, we immediately assume the cause to be flesh and blood humans who are responsible for it. And that usually means a spouse, a neighbor, a friend, a boss, an employee, a teacher, the president, a political party, a race of people, a cultural system or the government. This list could go on and on, but all these things are part of the flesh and blood world and not the ultimate source of what we struggle with.  

What God says is behind all our difficulties are the 

 “rulers, and powers, and world forces of darkness, and the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.  

These cannot be seen by our human eyes therefore we must apply faith and recognize them as being real. And if you choose not to think like this, you may as well just punch the air, for you will never strike your enemy where it will do any good. You must first recognize who your real enemy is, by faith, if you want to battle with him. 

So, by faith, you must acknowledge what God said about the corrupted freewill of Satan, all his demonic angels and their influence over our blindly ignorant freewill. It is this domain of darkness influence that is behind all the difficulties of life. Once you recognize this then you can understand your need to be rescued from this insane evil world. 

I want you to pay great attention to what I am about to say ─ there is a strong connection between Satan, his demonic followers and all humans and that connection is the right we have to make our own choices.  

The decisions we make every day are far more influenced by our personal history that comes from the domain of darkness than they are by what is taking place at any particular moment. Our life experiences are kept in what the Bible refers to as our heart, which neuroscience calls the default mode network in our brain. Every choice we make is actually more influenced by our past experiences, which far too often are the result of life in the domain of darkness.  

Satan knows this, which is why it is imperative we understand that the domain of darkness is not our friend. It is his world so faith must recognize and be aware of this. If we don’t, we will just walk through life making decisions controlled by our blindly ignorant freewill. 

So, what does it look like to apply the believing actions of faith to God’s truth that Satan’s influence over our human freewill is our greatest enemy? The first thing we need to address is the arrogant lie that we are smart enough to control our lives. Think about this ─ intelligence is measured by how it compares to everyone else. So then, who are we measuring ourselves by? It is other blindly ignorant people, and that’s not a very smart way to determine intelligence! 

The only true measure of intelligence and also right and wrong is God and His word the Bible, because neither of these has ever been influenced by the domain of darkness. This is the only source of pure truth in this world. And this is where we must apply faith and believing. Listen to how God says we need to view the words of the Bible.  

“For this reason we also constantly thank God that when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but for what it really is, the word of God, which also performs its work in you who believe.” (4) 

That explains how you apply the believing actions of faith to the things we have been looking at. You must be fully assured and convinced that these truths are from God and not from men. Then, if you choose to obey God’s word you can know for sure that you are making a choice not the result of your blindly ignorant freewill. 

In lesson 11 we learned about the need to memorize and meditate on God’s truth so it can reside inside of us and then influence how we think and act. Let me ask you a question; what do you normally think about when your brain is free to mull over something? If your answer is, you don’t know, or you’re thinking about some issue of life, then your mind is most likely living in the domain of darkness world instead of gaining more wisdom from God’s word.  

And that brings us to another question ─ how do you fight against the effects of Satan, and the world forces of evil over your blindly ignorant freewill? The only way you fight this is to change the way you think, by increasing the amount of God’s truth residing in your brain. We all need a new source of wisdom to draw from and that is one of the great results of being transferred to the kingdom of God’s beloved Son – so, I hope with your decisions, you decide today to choose wisely. 

Well, that’s it for today and once again there is just one thing ─ the only hope you have of overcoming the influence of this dark world on your freewill is to relocate to the kingdom.  

I hope you will join us next week for part 2 of this lesson. 

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