Yes You Are Brainwashed

The world system has penetrated our minds to such an extent that we are blinded to it. In fact it is completely normal to us; we were born into it and lived in it all our lives. Like a fish who doesn't realize the concept of water. The things the world system values are the complete opposite of the things God values.

Luke 16:15
And He said to them, "...For what is highly esteemed among men is an abomination in the sight of God."

When Jesus spoke, everything He said was the opposite of conventional wisdom. It seemed like He was upside down, like He was crazy. The religious leaders even said He had a demon.

1 Cor 2:14
But the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; nor can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.

John 5:39
You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me.

John 1
5 And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

10 He was in the world, and the world was made through Him, and the world did not know Him. 11 He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him.

Jesus came to His own, and He was their promised savior and Messiah. But the leaders of the Jews rejected Him, because He represented the end of their rule and authority, their comfortable way of life, their power over the people. The religious scholars insisted that living in a cage was the only proper way to live and that Jesus was guilty of blasphemy because He offered a key and a way out of that cage. He was demolishing the cage. But the cage is the system of the world. Even a religious cage is still a system of the world which Satan is in charge of. A cage is a comfortable place for most people, because it is familiar and because it comports with the world's system that dictates what is socially acceptable.

We have to be careful of the way in which we read scripture. Even mainline Christian denominations study the scriptures because they think they will have eternal life, but they study them in exactly the same way as the Jewish teachers in Jesus's day. They study the New Testament as if it were the Old Testament, as a set of rules and regulations. A cage. A system. Something you are able to do yourself. A list of instructions.

If your religion is something you can do yourself, then it isn't what Jesus preached about. You can't do what Jesus said you need to do. Only Jesus was perfect, was capable of actually living sinlessly and actually following the whole of the law. And most importantly, only Jesus was virtuous enough to offer His own life as a ransom for many. Because Jesus was not only a good man or even a perfect man. Jesus was God in the flesh. The very God Who gave Moses the Law in the first place was the Man who fulfilled the law and gave His life as a substitute for ours and therefore was able to give us the righteousness of God in exchange for our sinfulness.

Jesus came to offer us an intimate relationship with God instead of a set of rules to follow. Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life. He didn't point to the way, He IS the way. Jesus said the truth shall make you free, and whom the Son sets free is free indeed. Jesus didn't just tell us the truth, He IS the truth. Jesus offers us His light to regenerate our darkened minds, which see everything upside down and according to the god of this world, who is a liar. Jesus IS the light. Jesus offers us eternal life, and to follow Him is to be regenerated into that new life. Jesus IS the life.

When we come to God, we will have our world turned right side up. We will have our whole paradigm, our entire worldview upended. Whenever God's light shines on us, our lies are being exposed. Our hearts determine the direction our mind will go; our love for Jesus will drive us to seek His face. One way we can ensure that we are letting God have His way with us is if we insist on remaining in His presence and force our minds to return to Him as often as we are distracted, until we are CHANGED. Until you have some significant lie exposed in your mind, you haven't really had a significant encounter with God yet. Until you are no longer the same person who came to God in prayer, you should remain in prayer and wait silently before Him.

Jesus said "why do you call me 'lord lord' but do not do the things which I say?"

It's because we have not been changed. It's because our priorities have not been set to the things that God loves.

Col 3:2
Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth.

I am reminded of the closing scene in Schindler's List, where Oskar Schindler, after the war, was being told he was a good man for saving so many people. But he cried instead and said he could have done more. His extravagant lifestyle could have bought the freedom of more people. I don't know if we'll have this kind of moment in death, where we realize that if our priorities had only been different we could have brought so many more souls to heaven with us. That's why Paul says "For I consider that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us." Romans 8:18.

And Phil 3:7 But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. 8 Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; 10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, 11 if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead.

12 Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. 13 Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, 14 I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

What is this resurrection from the dead Paul speaks of? It almost seems like he is calling back something he's taught them before or assumes they already know about, because he doesn't explain it. It is my belief that this describes the state in which the believer is so completely sold out to Christ that he no longer has a struggle as to who's will is being done. No more struggle with temptation or the desires of the flesh or of the ego--just being indwelt by Christ and completely given over to Him in every way. It is the state of truly being dead to self and alive to God.

How does one attain to this state?

Romans 12:1-2 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. 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.

How long does it take in the presence of God before your mind is renewed? Are you spending that much time in His presence every day? What takes precedence over spending this time with God?

Rev 12:11
And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death.

This last scripture paints a picture of the priorities of God's victorious saints. Contrast that with 2 Tim 3:5 "having a form of godliness but denying its power."

If you want the power of God in your life, you can't take half measures. God will not share the throne of your heart with anybody else. Our love for Jesus is the real marker for a believer. It will drive us into His arms under every circumstance. Jesus's love for us will draw us unto Himself. It will transform us into His image.