May 2022

The perception that the world is destined to be evil and dominated by evil forces is not consistent with scriptures. It is also not consistent with observation. Infact, if the world belonged to the devils and Satan is indeed the god of this world, then they are doing a bad job. The greatest influence that changed the course of the world were of Christian origin. The scientific revolution, the industrial age, and today’s technology driven world has Christian fingerprints all over. A major feature of today’s world is the university system. The university system was created by Christians. We must continue to watch the world and influence it for God. We are the ones that can steer the world towards a better future.

Jesus said he had overcome the world (John 16:33). He taught that God loves the world a great deal and wants the world saved, delivered and healed (John 3:16 – 17). There is overwhelming evidence that followers of Jesus have indeed overcome the world. Christians have wielded great influence over the world. John Knox prayed, and the results caused Queen Mary to say that she feared the prayers of John Knox more than she feared all the armies of Scotland. Reducing the power of God to the confines of evangelism and church planting is not a crime. However, it is a missed opportunity.

“Little children, you are from God and have overcome them, for he who is in you is greater than he who is in the world” (1 John 4:4 ESV). The power we wield is stronger than whatever is out there. That is why we can exercise authority and dominate any sphere of the human experience that we choose. Your experience in the world is the outcome of the interplay of all the forces present within the system. Our mission here is to “watch the world” and steer it towards a better future. You have to start by loving the world like God does. Loving the world enables you to see the world with all its problems. With love in place, you will be able to channel superior wisdom and power to tackle the issues raging in your world.

I grew up with the idea that the devil runs the world. The biggest companies in the world were run by people who had sold their souls to the devil. That the devil is the god of technology. The world is bad and full of evil. The only righteous course of action was to die and seek escape to heaven. This ideology is terrible as it makes no sense at all. If the world was enemy territory, the most productive thing to do was for God to rapture us immediately to heaven after conversion. The world is not run by the devil, the world is dominated by the ideology of the people within that world.

If you think Satan is the god of this world, please consider these questions. First, is it possible for a good proportion of your world to become born-again Christians? Second, what would happen to your world if most of the people were on the Lord’s side? Pastors and evangelists insist a good proportion of the world can be converted to Christianity. However, they insist Satan would still have control over the world. This highlights a critical flaw in their thinking. When you study the gospels, you find that the mission of Jesus was more of discipleship and socio-economic transformation than mere evangelism and church planting.

Take some time to study the world and you would discover that Christianity is a major influence in the world today. Christians played a major role in creating a world that is just and peaceful. You will discover a lot of Christians running global organizations that are making the world a better place. You might even discover some billionaires like Folorunsho Alakija, David Green and Do Won Chang that are public about their religious beliefs. Your first instinct would be to think they compromised their faith in order to succeed, but you would be wrong. Like the biblical Abraham, you can be righteous and wealthy at the same time. The world belongs to whoever is willing to put in the work.

In 1874, Alexander Graham Bell spent the summer with his parents in Brantford, Ontario. He was twenty-seven years old, and employed as a speech therapist in Boston. But his real interest was solving the puzzle of what he then called the “harmonic telegraph.” In Boston, he had studied hard, tinkered obsessively with tuning forks and electromagnetic coils. He continued his work in Brantford. One day, Bell went for a walk on a bluff overlooking the Grand River, near his parents’ house. As he mulled over everything he had discovered about sound, he had an epiphany. At that moment, Bell knew the answer to the puzzle of the harmonic telegraph. It took another two years of work, and then, on March 10, 1876 the telephone was born. 

Many people desire to enjoy the pleasures of discovery and invention. Nikola Tesla said it best, “I do not think there is any thrill that can go through the human heart like that felt by the inventor as he sees some creation of the brain unfolding to success… Such emotions make a man forget food, sleep, friends, love, everything.” There have been so many scientific discoveries and technological inventions from so many people over the centuries. A range of diverse people. Every race, tribe, skin colour and nationality has displayed creativity and inventiveness. There are no spiritual or physical characteristics that exclude anyone from discovery and invention. 

You can tap into the power of discovery and invention if you can seek out and master the principles. Using Alexander Graham Bell as a case study, we can identify some steps to take. You need to identify a problem you want to solve, you have to read and learn all you can about it, and then take out time to think and meditate on the problem. Be ready to invest a lot of time into such pursuits. The bible says that “The spirit of man is the lamp of the Lord, searching all his innermost parts” (Proverbs 20:27 ESV). You cannot think and meditate productively when there is nothing in your “innermost parts” for the lamp of the Lord to light up.

The world is in a transition season. We are questioning institutions and customs. Old ideas are scrutinized and evaluated to determine their relevance to a modern world. One of the most scrutinized institutions in our days is the institution of marriage. There seems not to be any role for marriages and proper families in today’s world. The 61-year-old Mayor of New York City has had a long-term partner he is not married to. We used to have a world where it would be awkward to talk about the Mayor of a major city and their 58-year-old girlfriend. There was a prestige and legitimacy that getting married and staying married granted you as a public office holder. Are those days gone for good?

Apostle Paul once wrote, “A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behavior…” (1 Timothy 3:1-7). He must have had a good reason for insisting bishops must be married to one wife. The family is the fundamental unit of society. A society that does not have family as a top priority does not have a future. The breakdown in family values across nations of the world have been marked by a rise in various social vices. That is why our Mayor should have a wife and children. Leaders should reflect and reinforce the positive values we want in our world. A top ranking leader involved in a long-term relationship but without committing to marriage should be condemned.

God, family and work were the kind of core values leaders used to live by. Serving God and building a family are activities that require dedication and commitment. You had to think it through and commit to something bigger than you. It was not enough to be talented or gifted, you had to acknowledge God and commit to your family above your work. When we displace God in society and toss “family” to the wind. It never ends well. Trust me when I say that we prefer a future where girls aspire to become mothers over a future where progressive thinking is when a man has four children from three “baby mamas”.

Some thinkers introduced a two-tier understanding of heaven and earth. They held that God exists, but that he lives in a distant realm called heaven, where he looks down at the human world moving along, on earth. They paint a picture of a cold, dispassionate and indifferent God. However, that is not the God of the bible. The Holy Bible points us to a loving Creator-God that is obsessed with improving the human condition. God wants to improve the quality of life right here, right now on earth. Heaven is not some far off headquarters out of touch with the world. We channel the grace from heaven to the earth every day.

We pray “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven.” The will of God for the earth exists and it is rich, beautiful and fulfilling. Rapture to heaven is not the only thing on offer. God cares about sicknesses. He cares about unemployment, discrimination and all forms of injustice (James 2:15-16, Psalms 82: 2-4). God cares about people living an unfulfilled life. God cares when we fail to live out the essence of our lives on earth (Isaiah 65:20). God loves the world a lot.

You need to stop thinking the world is evil and lost. That is similar to a student insisting the upcoming examinations are rigged. You have the love, grace, wisdom and power to wrestle your world away from the devils. Your world can be healed and delivered by your decision to act. The devils run the world because the saints are avoiding to do the work required to steer the world. Every time you refused to take responsibility, you gave space to the devil. Every time you refused to join politics and run for a public office, you gave permission to the wicked ruler. When you refused to build a bigger and more influential business, you gave up the opportunity to advance your own values and beliefs.

God has a penchant for intervening in the affairs of men. God is not disconnected from the affairs of this world, and is only interested in the rapture of his saints to heaven. One can see the hand of God all over worldly affairs. The impression we have from the bible is that the Almighty God cares about how we are living our lives here on earth. And that he wants to steer the world towards righteousness, justice, and better fruitfulness. God cares about the earth, its resources and how the world is run.

“The sentence is by the decree of the watchers, the decision by the word of the holy ones, to the end that the living may know that the Most High rules the kingdom of men and gives it to whom he will and sets over it the lowliest of men.” (Daniel 4:17 ESV)

The will of God is a major influence on worldly affairs. God has power over the nations of the world and is able to enforce his will. A classic example is King Cyrus (Isaiah 45). Another great example can be found in the biblical book of Esther. God is never mentioned in that book, yet one can see God at work behind the scenes.

Benjamin Franklin, a founding father of the United States of America rebuked the delegates at the Constitutional Convention for neglecting prayer. He reminded them that “except the Lord build the House they labour in vain that build it.”. They were destined to fail in establishing their new country unless they prayed and allowed God to influence their work. He went on to suggest that prayers be offered to God every morning before their deliberations each day. Needless to remind the reader that they went on to form one of the most powerful nations the world has ever seen. God governs in the affairs of men and blessed is the person through whom the mandate of heaven advances.

“As long as I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” John 9:5 ESV

There is a need to better understand the world and its dynamics. The world is not light or dark of its own makeup. The world is rather driven by the aggregate of the people within the system. A dark, greedy world is a product of a system that is dominated by people driven by lust and corruption. A system dominated by people who love each other and display selflessness will reflect the light of heaven. It will be a beautiful world to behold.

God loves the world and wants the world saved, delivered, healed, and made whole (John 3: 16 – 17). He does this by positioning people under his influence in strategic places. The darkness in the world is generated by people under devilish influences. Every day, we see these two ideologies play out before us. Human beings have been determined to be free moral agents. With the choice to align with God or not. Your world can reflect the light of heaven, the greed of men, or the horrors of hell. It depends on which faction wields the most influence over it.

If the world belonged to the devils, then it would be illegal for God and his watchman to steer it towards any direction. That would amount to stealing territories from the devil. Which is absurd and ridiculous. God created the human beings that generate the world they live in. God continues to influence their world and raise watchmen that can steer it towards a better future. The dark world defined by greed and corruption is the result of Christians failing to function as a salt and light of the world. The world belongs to whoever is willing to put in the work. Why are you not willing to light up your world?

The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof, the world and those who dwell therein, for he has founded it upon the seas and established it upon the rivers. (Psalm 24:1‭-‬2 ESV)

It is time to protest and challenge the idea that the world belongs to “satan”. Our God founded the earth and created the human beings that created the system that is referred to as “the world”. The world is not the physical planet. The world refers to the ordered system in operation. The Bible makes it clear that God created the earth and God created human beings. God owns it all; the earth, the wealth of the earth, the world and the peoples.

Why exactly does the world belong to devils? What gives them the right? The common explanation is that Adam handed over control of the world to the devil when they sinned in the garden. However, there is very little scripture to support that claim. The punishment for the “original sin” does not include a declaration that the universe has been handed over to the devil. There is no decree of God anywhere in the bible that cancels the initial blessing for mankind to “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion” (Genesis 1:28). The punishment for Adam included hardship, but there was nothing about handing over the world to the devil.

The idea that the world belongs to the devil is not true. The dark world around us is not due to the powerful devil, it is because Christians have no interest in “worldly affairs”. Christians are happy to build a fortress in their churches as they await their escape to heaven. This course of action creates a vacuum for the devil to fill. The devils have no legal right to “have dominion” over the world, but then, darkness triumphs in the absence of light. Jesus made it clear that as long as he was around, he was the light of the world (John 9:5). A mission he hopes his true disciples would uphold in their days.

God loves the world. He loves the world so much that he charged his only-begotten Son to save it. It is interesting to note that Christians are the ones that hate the world. This is not surprising because the goal of most Christians is to die and escape to heaven. The time has come to enlighten those that call upon the name of the Lord, that God loves the world. He wants you to watch over your world and steer it towards a better future. You have the grace to fix businesses, government, culture, or economy. You can beautify your world.

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.” (John 3:16‭-‬17 ESV)

God sent his Son into the world in order that the world might be saved through him. The word saved here should not be simplified to only mean the preaching of salvation. It also means to deliver the world, to heal the world and make it whole. When the bible advises you to “love not the world”, it is a word of caution not to fit into the world and forget your role in fixing it.

It is never in doubt that God loves the world and that he is still interested in empowering people to steer the world towards where he wants. The biggest shifts in human history were made by people fired up inside with a light from heaven. You think of Martin Luther and the reformation. Isaac Newton and the scientific revolution. You think about how people with nothing personal at stake have chosen to fight for human rights, social justice and the collective progress of all. The Spirit of God does not kill people and send them to heaven. He rather empowers you right now to operate as an agent of heaven wherever you are.

Let us start from the basics by acknowledging the Almighty God in his fullness and glory. Basic Christian theology teaches us that the Almighty God is omniscience (all-knowing), omnipotence (all-powerful), omnificence (all-creating) and omnipresence (all-present). We also understand that we act as God’s agent in the physical world and channel God into our world. The question then is this; if we could do anything by God, what should we be doing? If God makes it possible to do anything, what should you be doing? Well, of everything our connection to God makes possible. The most productive use case for spirituality is knowledge creation. We would be better off if more people leverage their spirituality towards advancing knowledge.

Being spiritual enables us to serve as a vehicle for the grace of God upon the dark world around us. We can pray and seek out the power of God to solve any problem we have. However, you need to understand that no problem is solved until the knowledge to solve it is available. It is better to grow in knowledge and invent a drug that cures headaches rather than rely on praying away headaches every time. For every hundred cases of headaches, the drug produced by the wisdom of God will cure more people than the healing sought by the power of God. We have not solved a problem unless we have solved it by application of knowledge.

The bible declares: “wisdom is the principal thing”. Intelligence, knowledge and wisdom are ranked higher than power. While you might love the ability to manifest the raw power of God to your world. The best way to serve your world is through knowledge and inventing better techniques through your connection to God. There should be no conflict between science and religion because they are both streams flowing from the throne of grace. The biggest drivers of change in the world are better knowledge, science and technology. You cannot build a better world around the “power of God”. You build it around the “wisdom of God”. That is why for real solutions, use your spirituality to advance science and technology.