The atmosphere that you live in is designed to either get you closer to the Lord or move you farther apart from Him. Examine all the words that come at you, either good or evil. The good words are easy to accept. Evil words are designed to get you in the flesh so you don’t live in the spirit. Peter wrote not to repay evil with evil, or insult with insult. The purpose is to make you like the rest of the world. We are not to be like them, but the enemy wants us to be like them and accept what the world has to offer.
1 Peter 3:9 not returning evil for evil or reviling for reviling, but on the contrary blessing, knowing that you were called to this, that you may inherit a blessing.
1 Peter 4:3 For we have spent enough of our past lifetime in doing the will of the Gentiles—when we walked in lewdness, lusts, drunkenness, revelries, drinking parties, and abominable idolatries. 4 In regard to these, they think it strange that you do not run with them in the same flood of dissipation, speaking evil of you.
The Word of God, Jesus, never changes, so we shouldn’t either. We are not to flow with every wind of doctrine that comes at you. If the doctrine from any church is not life and it is more abundantly in the spirit, then it’s not of God. Over the years I have noticed that lies get mixed in with the truth. People accept it not knowing a lie is there. Then they believe the lie as truth. Let me give you an example. Say a prayer and you are going to heaven seems right to a man, but it is far from the truth. Those who preach this message use Romans 10:9 as an example. When you read the Bible in chronological order Acts 16 is just before Romans 10. Paul writes Romans after Acts 19. In Acts 16, the jailer asks Paul, “What must I do to be saved?” Paul answers as we would today, “Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved.” Paul shares the gospel and does something contrary to what the church teaches today. The church says to say a prayer, but Paul baptizes the jailer and his whole family. Who do you think did what was right, the church today, or Paul?
Ephesians 4:14 that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting,
Romans 10:9 that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; 10 for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.
Acts 16:29 Then he called for a light, ran in, and fell down trembling before Paul and Silas. 30 And he brought them out and said, “Sirs, what must I do to be saved?” 31 So they said, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved, you and your household.” 32 Then they spoke the word of the Lord to him and to all who were in his house. 33 And he took them the same hour of the night and washed their stripes. And immediately he and all his family were baptized. 34 Now when he had brought them into his house, he set food before them; and he rejoiced, having believed in God with all his household.
The atmosphere around you, whether at work or play is to change your mind regarding Jesus as Lord and savior. When you begin to live differently, not only does your mind change, your heart does as well. The enemy is not after your mind, he is after your heart. Out of the heart, the mouth speaks. Changing your heart changes your life and how you live. James wrote this about the tongue being like a rudder of a ship. Your life is the ship and what comes out of you determines the way you will live your life.
Romans 12:1 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. 2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
Proverbs 18:21 Death and life are in the power of the tongue,
And those who love it will eat its fruit.
James 3:4 Look also at ships: although they are so large and are driven by fierce winds, they are turned by a very small rudder wherever the pilot desires. 5 Even so the tongue is a little member and boasts great things. See how great a forest a little fire kindles! 6 And the tongue is a fire, a world of iniquity. The tongue is so set among our members that it defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of nature; and it is set on fire by hell. 7 For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and creature of the sea, is tamed and has been tamed by mankind. 8 But no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. 9 With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the similitude of God. 10 Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so. 11 Does a spring send forth fresh water and bitter from the same opening?
With all that I have mentioned to you, I hope you have some understanding that the enemy is the prince of the air. He has principalities and powers all around to change the atmosphere where you live to get you to see from a different eye of the world and move you away from Jesus. Be blessed, my friends
Ephesians 2:1 And you He made alive, who were dead in trespasses and sins, 2 in which you once walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit who now works in the sons of disobedience, 3 among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. 4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6 and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, 7 that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. 8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, 9 not of works, lest anyone should boast. 10 For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.