Our three main enemies to the spiritual life, and we've looked at them previously, and I'm sure you know them by now, they are the world, the flesh, and the devil. And we're going to be looking at those in a lot more detail in the weeks to come. But tonight, I want to start with the world system.

What is the world system? Well, the scriptures tell us that the world is under the control of Satan, our enemy. How do I know that? Because when Satan came to tempt Jesus in the wilderness, one of the things that he did was to offer Jesus control of all the kingdoms of this world. If Jesus would bow down and worship him.

Now, he couldn't have made that offer unless he had that control. Satan has full control of every area in this world. Now, he's not like God.

He's not an omnipresent spirit. Satan cannot be everywhere at the same time. So he has set up a structure in this world that enables him to control from the top and pass his authority downwards to others who have been appointed over different areas in this world.

Right at the top, he has appointed his chief leader, the one who right now stands as the God of this world. Thought it before, elsewhere, Satan tries to copy the Trinity. And so he's set up three.

We have the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Well, Satan has Lucifer himself. And then he has a person known as Apollyon.

You'll read about him in Revelation. He's the general of Satan's armies. And then there's a third one, which I like to call Pharaoh.

As God has revealed him to me in the spirit, he looks like the Pharaoh of Egypt. And in the scriptures, Egypt is always a picture of the world and Pharaoh, a picture of the leader of this world. So Satan has appointed the spiritual Pharaoh, his highest level authority to be over this world system.

And then he's arranged the world in divisions. Satan has divided this whole world into continents, countries, provinces, cities, communities, probably even suburbs. And each one of them has appointed over them a high-level demon.

Now the scripture shows that there are four levels of demons. Three of them operate in this world. And the upper level are the princes which rule.

Now Satan has appointed a prince to be in control of each one of these divisions in this world. So if you are living in Africa, there is a prince over Africa. If you are living in South Africa, there's a prince over South Africa.

If you're in Gauteng, there is a prince of Gauteng. You're in Kempton Park where we are, there is a prince over Kempton Park. And no doubt, even Idli, in the suburb which we stay, probably has its own prince.

Satan's got it all set up that he can control this world, which he has full authority to do. And that only came about when Adam handed it over to him in the Garden of Eden. Now how should we view this world system? Well, firstly, it's the source of most of our natural problems in life.

Out there in the world, it is, as they say, a dog-eat-dog. Each person competing with one another, tearing one another down. Well, you would expect that, wouldn't you? Because this is the spirit of Lucifer.

This is the spirit of Satan. This is his nature, to exalt himself and to tear everybody else down. He dominates and controls and grabs everything for himself.

That's what he tried to do when he tried to rise up and usurp the throne of God. And that same nature is in all of his leaders. Everyone in this world under the control of these demon forces is seeking their own selfish goals.

As we go out into this world and we face this pressure, it can produce fear, it can produce anger, and many other negative emotions inside of us. What do we do as believers? Well, the Lord offered us a solution. And in John chapter 16 and verse 33, Jesus spoke these words.

He said, These things I have spoken to you in order that in me you might have continual inner peace. In the world, you will continually have pressure. But cheer up.

I have already overcome overcome the world. Not only is the world the source of most of our problems in life, it is also the source of temptations to sin. Sin is part of the very nature of every demon power.

And their main goal is to stir up in human beings all the desires of the flesh. And if you're a believer, all the more he wants to stir those up to get you to sin, because he knows that that sin is going to affect your relationship with God, and it's going to make you less effective in the Lord. Well, what are the desires of the flesh? The desire to have things, the desire for sex, and the desire to be recognized and lifted up.

Everybody's pushing to stand up and be noticed. John describes it this way in 1 John chapter 2 and verse 16. For everything that is in the world system, the cravings of the sinful human nature, and the cravings of the eyes, and the boasting in the physical life, does not come from the Father, but it comes from the world system.

Now, how do we approach this as believers? What does the scripture teach us that we should do to live lives of victory and to overcome in this world? Well, some people have approached this in different ways and introduced doctrines which have become quite widely spread in the body of Christ. Now, there are many different teachings, but I would like to zero in on just a couple tonight, because I want to warn you, many believers are not even aware of these doctrines, but unfortunately, many believers have been programmed with the thinking in these doctrines and are totally sold on it, and it's affecting the way that they serve God, and the way that they do their ministry, and the way they conduct their lives. The first teaching which I want to address is known as the Seven Mountains Teaching, or the Seven Mountains Mandate, different names that are given to it.

Now, where did this doctrine originate? It started some years ago when two real great men of God got together. Those two men were Bill Bright, who was the founder of Campus Crusade for Christ, an amazing ministry that worked very much amongst students and young people, and then Lauren Cunningham, who started the Youth With A Mission, YWAM, which is a strongly evangelistic movement, also largely amongst young people that has reached out to the whole world. Tremendous ministries, tremendous men of God, and it is said that at one point, these two men came to meet together.

They'd been praying, and the Lord had placed something on both their hearts, which they felt they wanted to share with one another, and what they felt burdened about was that we as the church are not really having an effect on this world. We are running our own little agenda and just leaving the world instead of impacting the world and bringing change to bring this world to Christ, and so they said that we need to get more socially active and involved in the world system in order to bring the influence of the gospel, and to understand how to approach that, they together had a look at every different area of social activity that takes place in this world, and they came up with a list of seven different items. It's a nice number.

God's number seven is the number of perfection. What they come up with was not based on scripture. They did not use scripture to arrive at this.

They just analyzed life and the situation and concurred that these seven areas were areas that we as believers should be influencing somehow. What are these seven? Here they are. Education, religion, family, business, government and military, arts and entertainment, and the media.

Now, if you look up seven mountains online, you probably won't find Bill Bright and Lauren Cunningham mentioned anyway. I had to dig to look for it because I was already aware that these men started the original concept. You'll find some other big names in the charismatic movement out there, and I could give you names, but I don't like to use names.

I've used the names of these two brothers. The one has already left this world and is in the presence of God, Brother Bill Bright, and Lauren Cunningham is well into his retirement years, and so I feel I can mention these men, and I'm mentioning them positively. I do not like to mention names when I'm speaking negatively, but I could give you a list of names of people who've taken this original teaching and added to it and developed it further and blown it up into something far bigger than what those two brothers originally anticipated.

The idea is that each of these realms of society is a mountain that is being held captive by the enemy, and that we as the body of Christ, we need to do as they did in days gone by. We need to storm the mountain, and we need to take it for the Lord. We need to take the mountain and conquer it and put up God's flag on these mountains so that now God and the church of God are in control of these mountains rather than those in the world system.

So the idea behind the seven mountains teaching is that believers need to get involved in all of these areas of society. They need to become actively involved. They need to rise up, try and gain positions of authority and influence in these areas, and if we can get enough Christians in some of the higher places and some of the controlling authorities of these areas, we can start taking control and bringing these areas under the control of the kingdom of God.

Now here's where it begins to get somewhat dangerous. The scripture teaches that Jesus is coming to take his place as king in this world, that Satan will be bound and we will reign with Christ. It's known as the teaching of the millennium.

There are many different viewpoints on the millennium, and I'm not going to go into that tonight. What the seven mountains teaching tries to tell us is this, that we as the body of Christ must subdue and take control of all of these areas of this world now, and once we've done that, only then will Jesus be able to return, and when he comes, we will hand over to him what we have already conquered. So we're going to take control of government and the military, and I've seen many presidents rise up who claim to be believers, and many of them were, but I haven't yet seen that even a believer in the highest authority in a country as powerful as America could change the political system, it could change the world system.

The current president of America has been trying in his own human weakness, being a young believer in the Lord, to try and bring God back into society, and to give God place once again, and he's faced more opposition than any previous president. Well, if taking the mountains was possible, one would think we've succeeded, we finally took the political mountain, but we haven't, have we? Because there are enemies still fighting it. We do not have control.

How about the media? We don't even have slight control over the media. They still paint the pictures and tell the news the way they want it to be. Don't think that you can become a Christian journalist and rise up and change that system, because they would fire you, because your job is to tell lies, and to lead people astray, and to create impressions.

No believer can possibly function in that, and so it goes with all of these seven mountains. It sounds like a good idealistic idea, but it's not practical, and it's not what God intended. Now, mixed with that is a specific doctrine, which has taken off very strongly, particularly in charismatic circles, amongst what I call the new status quo.

What is the new status quo? It's those who've now identified that we need to restore the fivefold ministries, and instead of just having pastors and evangelists and a bit of teachers, we're starting to see the prophets emerge, we're starting to see God restore the apostolic office to the church. And this group of people moving in to this restoration have now set up a new church system. And I want you to listen to that word, system, system.

We're speaking about the world system. Don't realize how influential the world system is, even in the church. Because even though folks are getting a revelation of getting into a new place in the Lord, and in ministry, and in the spirit, they're still caught in a system, systems of this world.

And so another doctrine which I want to expose and address is the doctrine known as Dominion Theology. Dominion Theology, and that lines up exactly with the seven mountains, because the Dominion Theology goes back to where God said to Adam and Eve, I'm giving you dominion and control over this earth. And so the teaching and the idea is that in Christ, that dominion which was given to Adam has been restored to us, and we must now subdue the earth as the church of God.

And as I said, hand it over to Jesus when he returns. Make sure that is another little doctrine which comes mixed with Judaism. And you've probably heard it mentioned, it's the doctrine of the remnant.

What's the remnant? Well, there are various views, and I'm going to teach on that separately, but I'm just going to mention to you the most common view that's happening in charismatic circles. The remnant is a small portion, and the idea that is amongst all believers, God is raising up a unique little group that stands out from the rest, that is spiritually superior to the rest. That's the apple of God's eye, his special ones.

And the remnant is the ones that God's going to bless and use to cause these things to happen. Some people go so far as to that when Jesus comes, he's only coming for the remnant, because they're the special ones who have committed themselves to God, and have been faithful, and have worked hard. Go back to the law, the works of the law.

They set themselves above everybody else, made themselves spiritually superior, because they have greater revelation. The charismatic movement, and the prophetic movement, and the so-called apostolic movement are riddled with this garbage. Be careful when you start getting involved in these circles.

You don't get sucked into it, and get led astray. In comes probably the most dangerous doctrine of all, and this is not a new one. It's been there for a long time.

It's called the doctrine of the manifestation of the sons of God. It's based on a scripture in Romans 8, verse 19, which says, for the anxious anticipation of the creation waits expectantly for the manifestation, or the unveiling of the sons of God. And the idea is that because of Calvary, and because we are born again, Jesus has reversed the curse that came when Adam gave this world away.

The idea is that by faith, and by the Spirit of God, we begin to rise up and overcome every thing that was caused by Adam's sin. Now, what were the things that were caused by Adam's sin? Well, one of them was the curse in this world. Another one of them was women's suffering in childbirth.

Another one of them was having to work nine to five to earn a living, and his struggle and battle. But I tell you what was the main thing that was introduced when Adam sinned. What did God say to them? In the day that you eat of that fruit, you shall surely die.

Death. Death was the greatest consequence of the sin of Adam. But now, taking this teaching, if we, by faith and by the power of the Spirit of God, can overcome the effects of Adam's sin and reverse them, we can recover from all of these things.

Women no longer need to suffer labor in childbirth. We don't have to battle financially. Prosperity is just going to fall upon us and come upon us without us making any effort.

But here is the stinger. These people get so far as believing that by faith we don't have to die. By faith we are now receiving the glorified body like Jesus had, which is incorruptible and eternal.

This is a big teaching, and I'm not going to go into much detail, but I can give you a very quick reason why they've missed it. You see, the Scripture teaches that salvation comes in three stages. A past tense, a present tense, and a future tense.

And that's a whole teaching which I've given elsewhere. When we accept the Lord as our Savior, by faith enter into the finished work of Calvary of what Jesus did for us, we will no longer face the consequences of our sin. We are delivered eternally from the guilt and the consequences of sin.

From then on, we go through a process in life whereby we are daily overcoming the power of sin that is still in us as a result of that forbidden fruit which they took. That's the present tense of salvation. And the future tense is when we finally are totally delivered completely from sin, when we become sinlessly perfect, and our bodies now are also redeemed.

Now the Scripture is very clear that that's only going to happen when Jesus returns. It's only going to happen when the dead in Christ shall rise, and those that remain join them with the Lord, and we are transformed and our bodies are transformed, and from then we will be like Christ. Scripture says we will be like him for we shall see him as he is.

That is a future tense. It is only going to happen at the end of the era when Jesus returns. But now these people are saying, by faith I can enter into this now.

You know, you would think surely they can't believe that I won't die. You come across these people, you will find sooner or later they will introduce you to the idea that death has been conquered. Now this has been around a long time.

Right now in South Africa it is rampant. It is totally rampant. I see it virtually everywhere I go.

There are leaders in the body of Christ here in this country who are teaching and promoting this doctrine of demons, because that's what it is. The trouble is they don't realize it sometimes. A man that God used mightily, and again I'm not mentioning names, right here in South Africa, was a promoter of this doctrine.

God used this man mightily, phenomenally. He would just pull people out of wheelchairs. HIV was getting healed, cancer was getting healed, miracles were taking place in his church continuously.

This man knew the word. He was an amazing teacher of the word, but he preferred to call himself prophet, because it's an in thing to be a prophet these days. He would pray over handkerchiefs and things like that.

People would take it, they would get healed. Amazing how God used him. He was opposed, and he became arrogant.

The fact that he was right, and he began to promote this doctrine, implying that we don't have to die. We can continue living on for hundreds of years. So sad, because what a model this man was to the body of Christ.

At the moment he stepped over into that, and began to lead people astray. God had to step aside, and he himself came down with cancer. He struggled.

The amazing thing is, even while he was dying of cancer, he could still raise people out of wheelchairs, and perform signs and wonders, and miracles. But the best cancer treatments of this world didn't help him. He grew steadily worse.

Eventually that cancer took his life. So much for living forever. He didn't even live to be old.

Died at a fairly young stage of life by comparison. What a waste of a life. Folks, you hear this term, manifest sons of God.

Turn and run. Run. Because you'll get sucked up into it.

You'll start to believe it yourself, and you'll start to think, I'm superior. I'm the remnant. I'm not going to get sick.

I'm not going to die. You know what you're doing? You're saying, yeah, devil come. Here I am, open target.

That's what's going to happen to you. I don't want to major on all the negatives tonight, but I wanted to warn you, because these doctrines are really being promoted out there. And if you're not careful, and you're not aware of them, you could get drawn into them.

They sound very convincing. They use scripture to prove what they're teaching. It's a lie.

Now this world system is set up to influence us, to encourage us to live lives in the flesh, to encourage our natural bodily desires. And there's nothing wrong with those. But when they are come into control, they produce the works of the flesh.

The scripture says that no man shall inherit the kingdom of God, who's walking continually in the works of the flesh. And we don't even realize that the world is doing this to us, because we're living in the world. But we're not of this world.

We're not part of this world system. We're part of something very different. Let me just give you a few things that you know about already, because they're there, and you're being exposed to them daily, and you're probably being influenced by them.

The first one is social media. There are many different realms of social media. I'm going to single out the two main ones, Facebook and YouTube.

Facebook was originated by students, just to get them to know one another. Pretty soon it led to developing illicit relationships, and seducing, and all sorts of other things that take place. But today, Facebook's got a very good name.

And I dare say you have got your own Facebook page. In our early days in ministry, I didn't want to touch Facebook, because I could see how ungodly it was. But the Lord said to me, you need to use what is there in order to reach those that are being influenced by it.

If you are going to help people in Facebook, you're going to have to get in there and mingle with them. See, we're not to separate ourselves, so separate ourselves from the world that we don't mix with them. Otherwise, how can we win them to the Lord? And so we too use Facebook.

We try to use it for the glory of God. At the moment you start making friends on Facebook, you start to get feedback and some indication of what people out there are putting on their Facebook pages. Your news feed on Facebook gives you a selection of the kind of articles and publications that your friends are making.

Now, one would assume as a friend that your friends are also believers. At a ministry level, many of our friends are five-fold ministers and leaders, ministers in the body of Christ. But you just browse through your news feed on Facebook and see how little there is out there that is really promoting the kingdom of God and how much out there is promoting the world system.

I don't need to watch the news. I just need to browse through my news feed on Facebook and all the people out there already told me what the devil is doing. Because that's what news is.

News is, here is what Satan is doing. This is what he did today. This is what he's planning to do.

And it's so easy to get caught up in it. You watch one little thing, there's a little video and you play it and then somehow they always catch you and snare you in. They'll ask you a question or make a statement.

You say, well, that looks interesting. Let me go have a look there. I spoke a couple of weeks ago on Satan's agenda.

You want to see Satan's agenda? Go browse Facebook. You'll see Satan's agenda all the way through. You'll see exactly what he's doing in this world, what he's promoting.

You'll see the lying and killing and stealing and cheating. It's all there. You'll get caught up in political discussions and fights.

Right now in America, elections are going to be coming up soon and the opposing parties are each putting out their little ploy to try and win people over to them. And it's so easy to get caught up in that, to get angry about what people are doing, to get angry about what people are saying. Add to that the current racial upheaval that's taking place internationally and the liberation movements that are rising up to claim rights for specific groups and specific races.

Become part of that and it's a matter of time. Your anger is going to get stirred up or you'll start to sympathize with some of them and start to see things from their viewpoint. And you know what? By the time you finish, you are so caught in the world system that you don't even have an interest in looking at what God's doing.

That you don't have any time left to get in the word. You don't have any time to pray. You've filled your heart and your mind with the evil that is in this world.

YouTube uploads countless numbers of videos every day. People are uploading and although they have controls as to what is allowed and what is not allowed, a lot of the time most of what goes up there is promoting the world system. Once again you go in, oh there's an interesting video, let's watch it.

And as you watch it, it comes another list of similar things that you might be interested in. Oh that's an interesting one, let's go and look at that. I need to keep up to date my general knowledge of what's going on in the world.

Why do you need to know what's going on in the world? Should we not be more interested in what's going on in the same thing? And I found out the more I did it, the more my spiritual life began to dry up. My faith began to wane. The anointing of God just wasn't there anymore.

And I said, Lord, what's going on? Satan is getting a foothold in my life. Curses are beginning to manifest. My prayers don't work anymore.

The Lord said, turn off the world's input. Turn it off. He said, I'll give you better things in the spirit.

I'll give you better things in the word if you'll give me that time instead. But you know, we need some fun in life. We need some entertainment.

And you know what? God's not against that. But what's the entertainment of this world? Most of it is produced by Hollywood or similar organizations. And what are they promoting? What do you see in most movies? The three roots of the flesh, lust for things, lust for sex, hatred and killing and murder and strife and self-exaltation.

They're all there. And you know, we as believers watch this and we know that it's wrong, but we excuse it. We say, it's just a movie.

You know, I'm just chilling out. I'm just watching it for a bit of entertainment. How strong is your commitment? And when that movie begins to portray something that's totally contrary to the word of God, how often do you switch it off and say, that's it? I'm not going to watch that.

There are many believers who do. And I'm not saying you shouldn't watch movies. It's things we can learn from them.

We can see what the world is doing. Sometimes they stumble on principles that we could use. But at the end of that movie, what did you get? It can help you in your spiritual life.

And then we have sports, competitive sports. You know that people who buy channels for TV, usually they're higher paying channels. And the ones that people prefer are the ones that have more channels giving you sports activities.

What is a sport? A sport is I'm coming against an opponent and I'm going to beat them. I'm going to destroy them. It's totally competitive.

And some people get so stood up, they start shouting, kill him, kill him, hit him, kick him. Come on, guys. I'm not telling you anything new.

I'm not trying to condemn you. But you see, that's the world system. And we come to the realm of music.

Satan was in charge of music in heaven. Originally, he was the leader of the worship angels. Satan knows how to use music to manipulate.

And the music industry is so huge. And we get caught in, to listen to our favorite bands and groups in this world. And the more ungodly they are very often, the more famous they become.

Oh, you know, I don't follow the doctrine or the teaching. I just like this sound. There's so many genres of music now.

And each of those genres actually follows a category of influence. Again, how much time are you spending getting caught into that? See, we have music in the kingdom of God too. And unfortunately, the so-called Christian music of today is designed to copy and follow the famous worldly groups and bands out there.

Often, you'll see a Christian group rise up and they ask him, so what got you going? What influenced you? And they'll say, oh, you know, we were really influenced by the music of the Beatles or the Bee Gees or the Stones or some other group. It really influenced us and motivated us. And we we want to try and do the same thing.

And you see how the world system has seeped in to every part of our lives. You know, it's very difficult to avoid that happening. But here's the key.

How much time you spend in the world system and how much time you spend in the presence of God and promoting his kingdom. Now we are to live in victory in this world. The scripture says, 1 John 5 verse 4 says this, for everyone who has been born from God continually overcomes the world system.

And this is the victory that conquers the world system. It is our faith. It's our faith.

Now, as believers, we are supposed to keep ourselves separate from the world. How do we do that if we're in the world? Well, I'm going to tell you my opinion. And I failed in these things as much as anybody else.

God is very clear in his word. In 2 Corinthians 6, 17, he says, therefore, get out from among them and be separated from them, says the Lord, and stop holding on to what is impure. And I will accept you.

I know it's not easy. Let me ask you this question. What makes you look different to those who are in the world who do not know the Lord? If people were to compare the two of you, what makes you different? And this one is a bit more subtle.

Does the world love and accept you? And is that important to you? Is it important that you are being accepted by the world system? I want you to check your heart. And I want you to honestly see, what do you love more? Do you love spending time in his presence? Do you love learning more about him? Or do you love enjoying what the world offers? You don't have to become paranoid. If we're going to reach unbelievers, we must certainly interact with the world.

You see, but we should never look to the world to meet our needs. Jesus went to the parties. Jesus drank wine with them at their parties.

But he didn't go to have fun. He didn't go to enjoy and to get. He didn't go for them to accept him and be part of the in crowds.

He went to be an influence. If you can honestly say that you are getting involved in these things in the world for the purpose of being an influence to others, you can honestly answer that before the Lord, then it doesn't really matter what you get involved in. That's not the point.

Question is, why are you getting involved? Is it meeting your needs? Then you put something before the Lord. The Bible calls that idolatry. So here's my challenge to you.

Why don't you make up your mind to put the kingdom of God first in your life? If you do that, it will result in far more benefits than what you're getting from the world. And I want to end on a very well-known scripture, which I'm sure most of you can quote. It's in Matthew chapter 6 and verse 33, and it says, So seek after the kingdom of God first and his righteousness, and all these things also will be given to you.

Father, I thank you for your word. I hope it went as a sword and that it cut deep, but not that it cut to hurt, but that it cut to remove all the junk, the evil Satan has programmed into your people. Pray that their eyes will be opened to see the truth, that they will not be led astray by the cunning doctrines of men that are designed to lead them astray, to bring them into bondage.

I ask Lord that by your spirit, you bring a conviction each one that's heard this message. If they come to the place where they say, I admit it, I've been caught. I've been sidetracked.

I've allowed myself to be too involved in the world system and my spiritual life has suffered. You know what the Lord doesn't condemn you? As you reach out to him, they say, Lord, I'm sorry. Forgive me, Lord, for allowing these things to overwhelm me, for allowing the world to put fear in me, for allowing the world to fill me with hatred and anger.

Forgive me, Lord. Receive cleansing now of your blood. Set me free from these things.

And I ask you, Lord, to put a hunger and a desire in my heart to know you more, to know you better, and to promote your kingdom in this world. Here I am, Lord. Take me, as weak and frail as what I am, and use me for your glory.

You prayed that prayer now and really meant it. I believe the Lord is going to start opening some ways for you, but you can also expect him to start closing some doors. When suddenly the things that you like to do, you can't do them so easily anymore.

Don't get frustrated and angry. Stop and say, hang on, maybe the Lord's helping me in this. Maybe the Lord's caused this friendship that I had to end because that person kept drawing me into the world.

Allow God to take control of the circumstances of your life and bring change. Keep your eyes open for those new doors that he's going to open for you, for new people that he wants you to meet that will influence you for good. You begin to walk this highway of holiness that the scripture speaks about.

You can walk in total victory. You can begin to know the power in your life, that God can bless you and use you and grant you far more than this world could ever offer you, because that is what he promises you. In Jesus' name.

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