YOU ARE NOT OF THIS WORLD

Jesus said even though you are in this world, you are not of this world (John 15:19). There are different kingdoms in this world namely the Ashanti Kingdom, Mali kingdom of old, the water or marine kingdom, the forest, Islamic, satanic kingdoms respectively. Space won’t permit me to name all the kingdoms of this world. However, one kingdom that is greater than all these kingdoms is the kingdom that every Believer belongs to. It’s called the Kingdom of God.

It’s a spiritual kingdom governed by a King called Jesus Christ. In this kingdom, our way of doing things, speaking, dressing, behaving in the midst of battles is entirely different from the way other kingdoms operate. This is the best kingdom in the entire universe. To be rooted in our kingdom, every believer needs to play a role. In other words, if you want to remain in it or come out of it and still believe you are still in it when you are not actually in it depends on you.

Oh yes, the Bible says in Deuteronomy 30:15 “Today, I am giving you a choice between life and death, between prosperity and disaster”. We can see here that whatever we do or become in life is dependent on the choice we make. These days, the devil takes a lot of believers out of the kingdom of God through a subtle way and it’s called worldliness. You may say why is it a sin? I have a good heart. I don’t smoke, fornicate, tell lies or do a bad thing. So why do you say worldliness is a powerful tool the enemy uses to disconnect us from God’s secure position? The enemy may not directly make you commit obvious sins because he knows you may not do that.

When you see a believer listening to worldly music and you question them, why do you do that? They tell you there’s nothing wrong with it. That’s true but remember every song is backed by a spirit whether you believe it or not. You may argue with me and that’s ok with me but God will help us understand.

There’s something we theologically call the law of atmosphere. You can create a godly or ungodly atmosphere by consistently listening to music that doesn’t glorify Jesus. You do that for at least a month and see whether you won’t erect an altar or not.

Many believers have attracted demons of lust, violence, depression etc to themselves through secular music. A young girl told me after listening to a particular secular music, she saw demons enter her room in her dreams to frighten and oppress her. It took prayers to set her free. These demons came from the music. If Christian music can attract angels or the Spirit of God, secular music too can do the opposite. Remember you aren’t of this world.

Elsewhere, you see some young women wear torn trousers and when you tell them it’s not right, they see you as an uncivilized person and even laugh at you. The God of this world has indeed “blinded their eyes“. When you consistently dress indecently, with time you will become “bold” and fight anyone who tries to tell you to dress well because you may think you are defending your womanhood. Is wearing torn clothes a sin? No! But they lead you somewhere. So from being bold and very prideful, you will start loving and following those who dress like you, learning their ways of life and you may even start watching their videos or listening to them passionately. Then you will gradually stop going to church or anything about church or God will start irritating you. Or you will go to church only when you feel like it.

Is that the Spirit of God? No, it isn’t! With time, you will become a fornicator or an adulterous person and convince yourself that everyone is like that including your spiritual leaders or pastors for “as a man thinks in his heart so is he”. Then you will begin to abort and from there you may lose your womb. At this stage, your eyes will open and you will know you have been deceived or fooled by the devil.

At this point, you may have tattooed yourself and followed ungodly people. I’m talking about Christians here and not those who were Christians before and later tattooed themselves. Now the sin is the effect of your dressing on yourself and others and not the clothing and that’s why the Bible says “shun or turn away from every form of evil” (Proverbs 3:7).

Mothers, parents, guardians, don’t give the devil a chance to strike you through your children or loved ones. Don’t sit there and say “oh they are young so leave them”. Please, don’t get me wrong for I personally love dressing well, I mean I love class and not indecency or ancient way of dressing.

A guy on the other hand, starts with a weird haircut which may not be a sin. From there, he starts smoking weed and from this level, he becomes a rapist or an armed robber and eventually loses his relationship with God and is shot under the bridge by the police and that becomes his end.

This could be because he left the kingdom of God through worldliness and entered a different kingdom that is obviously not of Jesus Christ. Only a few people may be worldly and still be in our kingdom. But believe you me, these people may not benefit entirely from their salvation because when the flesh dominates the spirit, you live as a carnal Christian. Don’t let the flesh control your spirit so that you become worldly. Draw closer to God through the word, prayer and fasting. If possible, be among believers for the Bible says “don’t forget the assembly of the saints”. If you do this you will come out from “among them” and be or remain in the kingdom of God.

For those of us who are out of the kingdom through worldliness, the good news is that we are never condemned but still loved by God. We can always come back to Him like the prodigal son, confess our sins and enter this marvelous kingdom of light for the Bible says “we were translated from the kingdom of darkness and brought into the marvelous kingdom of his dear Son, Jesus ( Colossians 1:13). I’m happy you have allowed this word of God to find expression in your life.

“Je vous aime tous et toutes”!

Dr. David Tobi Ogoudou