Defeating the World
If the world hates you, you know that it hated Me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love its own. Yet because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. – John 15:18-19.
For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world-our faith. Who is he who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? – 1 John 5:4-5.
You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world. They are of the world. Therefore they speak as of the world, and the world hears them. – 1 John 4:4-5.
The battle has been joined in Warsaw, Ohio. For four years members of New Beginnings Church have been protesting the Foxhole strip club located about seven miles from the church. Church members and their pastor, Bill Dunfee show up at the strip club on weekends with signs, bullhorns, and video cameras; and they post photos of the strip club patron’s license plates online. Now Tommy George, the owner of the strip club, and some of his dancers have begun showing up for Sunday Services at New Beginnings. The dancers and Tommy do not actually go inside the church instead they hang around outside protesting in their “see-through shorts…toting super soakers.” At first Pastor Dunfee broadcasted the services outside but this only made the dancers dance in the street. Pastor Dunfee says about how the situation has affected the church members, “They have now seen the evil firsthand. This has just made us stronger.” The church is more determined than ever to see the strip club closed down.
The battle in Warsaw, Ohio is a visible reminder that there is a spiritual battle raging across Planet Earth. Usually, the battle rages only inside of the hearts and minds of people, but occasionally it does erupt into the kind of fixed battle that is very obvious and visible to everyone in Warsaw and beyond.
How do you defeat the world when the world shows up at your door demanding attention? How do you defeat the world when your attempts at defeating the world blows up in your face and just makes things worse?
First, we must remember that “He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.” You are not in the battle by yourself. It is not you and you alone against the world. It is you and the Lord God Almighty against the world.
Second, stop trying to defeat the world using your own wisdom and your own resources.
Third, begin depending upon God’s wisdom and God’s resources for the battle.
Fourth, pray in the name of Jesus as Jesus says that we should do in John 14:13, “And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son.”
Fifth, amplify the power of God by asking others to pray with you as Jesus says in Matthew 18:19, “I say to you that if two of you agree on earth concerning anything that they ask, it will be done for them by My Father in heaven.”
Sixth, continue to pray until the battle is won because Jesus says in Matthew 17:20, “I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.”
(It is not you and you alone against the world. It is you and the Lord God Almighty against the world.)