Who rules the world?

When it comes to the dark forces of this world (Ephesians 6:12), we need to know our enemy.

And it seems that Satan sometimes chooses the least path of resistance. Think of how He fooled Eve. He just needed to quietly whisper in her ear and pose a question that led to the fall of man.

Today, he doesn't even have to ask us anything. He just needs to bombard our online feeds with pictures and videos of things we don't have so we can question God's goodness.

And then he sits back and waits.

The world, then, it seems, is a place where envy and covetousness collide. It's a place where striving for what we want (or better yet, what we think we want) is a common goal, leaving us all depleted, exhausted, and void of Christ's peace.

If we can see the world for what it is–essentially the place where Satan rules (John 12:31, 14:30, 16:11, and 2 Corinthians 4:4)–we then know how to keep our eyes open to his deceptive ways within this world.

We no longer need to be afraid of the world because when we know the truth, we'll be able to conquer it through Jesus, our Lord.

So, what do we know about Satan, our adversary?

• 1 Peter 5:8: Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.

• 2 Corinthians 11:14: And no wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light.

• 1 John 3:8: Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil.

• 2 Corinthians 11:3: But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.

• 1 John 5:19: We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one.



• Genesis 3:1: Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?”

• 2 Corinthians 2:11: So that we would not be outwitted by Satan; for we are not ignorant of his designs.

He is cunning and is coming straight for the space where belief takes root–our minds. So our job? To protect them wholeheartedly and keep our eyes on Jesus.

In the next lesson, we'll take a look at several ways Satan tries to influence us in this current generation.