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Home » Enemy Blueprints

Enemy Blueprints

Blog Series

Enemy Blueprints

Insights Into The World’s System

Insights Into The World’s System

The World vs. The Kingdom: 2 Competing Systems Of Order, Stability & Progress

Category: The Kingdom of God by Michael Fleming

My wife and I love to go to the mountains to hike. All of it is amazing and mind-blowing. But one of my favorite things are gushing rivers and waterfalls. There’s an endless supply of water. There’s more than enough for everyone in the world to be satisfied. Another thing I think about is how every river I come across starts somewhere. The flowing water is evidence of a source. “The world” is a planned system In Watchman Nee’s book Love Not The World, he gives a breakdown of the Greek word used to talk about “the world” (kosmos) used …

The World vs. The Kingdom: 2 Competing Systems Of Order, Stability & ProgressRead More

Why It’s Critical To Take The World’s System Very Seriously

Category: The Kingdom of God Tags: equality, individualism by Michael Fleming

What did Jesus talk about more than anything else? God’s Kingdom. No, not sin. He did talk about that, but it was in light of what it meant for entering and living in the Kingdom. He was bringing God’s government with God’s way of life to the earth. An incomplete gospel In individualistic cultures, it’s not uncommon to find the gospel that’s shared to also be individualistic.  It typically focuses on individual sin and individual destiny.  It presents God’s plan through the lens of how it affects people individually.  Its message is made up of something like – you are …

Why It’s Critical To Take The World’s System Very SeriouslyRead More

Here’s What You May Not Know About Salvation That Could Save You

Category: The Kingdom of God Tags: baptism, salvation by Michael Fleming

There’s more to salvation than you may have been taught.  Belief isn’t all it takes.  Now before you label me a heretic and cult leader, keep reading. According to the words of Jesus, there’s another element.  Here’s what Jesus said… Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to the whole creation. He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that disbelieveth shall be condemned (Mark 16:15–16). See the two elements there?  Element 1 is to be born again through trust in Christ and His work for you.  Yes, that’s all it takes to be …

Here’s What You May Not Know About Salvation That Could Save YouRead More

What People Who Lose Interest In The World’s System Have Seen

Category: Church Leadership by Michael Fleming

For many Christians, what the world offers is still very appealing.  So appealing that these things are their primary pursuits.  Where time, money and energy is spent reveals what people are focused on.  When the brunt of a person’s time, money and energy is spent pursuing increases in prestige, more money and additional comforts in life, it shows what’s most appealing to them.  This happens because it looks and feels like the opportunities being offered by the world are going to provide more value than the alternatives. For this to stop, something has to happen that makes the world unappealing.  …

What People Who Lose Interest In The World’s System Have SeenRead More

Jesus Didn’t Change The World. He Did This Instead.

Category: The Kingdom of God by Michael Fleming

The Greek word for church is ekklesia.  The meaning of this word goes beyond what you might think.  It doesn’t just mean a bunch of people that get together and worship the common God they believe in.  It means “called-out ones.”  This is significant because it communicates there’s a place to be called out from and another place to be called into.  It means the people who are a part of it have left somewhere and gone somewhere else.  Their location has changed. But their location has changed not because of anything they’ve done or because they themselves have traveled …

Jesus Didn’t Change The World. He Did This Instead.Read More

Why W.W.J.D. Is Not The Key To Overcoming The World

Category: The Kingdom of God by Michael Fleming

Do you remember when Christians used to wear the letters W.W.J.D. on bracelets and t-shirts?  This was a popular phrase among Christians back in the 1990s when it was like a personal motto to always be thinking “What would Jesus do?”  The prevailing thought was it was a great tool to get yourself to behave more in line with your beliefs.  The logic was that if you just thought about what Jesus would do in every situation, you’d be able to better execute what Jesus would do in every situation.  If someone made you really mad, you could just look at …

Why W.W.J.D. Is Not The Key To Overcoming The WorldRead More

What It Means To Seek First The Kingdom Of God

Category: The Kingdom of God Tags: dominion, power, the world's system, worry by Michael Fleming

Human beings go about satisfying their needs in a certain order of importance.  In general, they prioritize certain needs first and then take care of other needs in light of those they hold most important.  Naturally, the top priorities are more basic needs like food, water, clothing and shelter.  When it comes to making decisions with what we’ll do with our time, money and energy; these tend to get taken care of before becoming motivated to satisfy other needs like emotional and spiritual ones.  This idea has been given a label in psychology called “Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs.”  Basically, he …

What It Means To Seek First The Kingdom Of GodRead More

A Level Of Spiritual Maturity You’ll Never Grow To In This World

Category: The Kingdom of God by Michael Fleming

The world’s system violates the design of God’s creation and is constantly pulling on us to get us to buy in.  It’s set up for us to pursue purpose, significance and belonging with wisdom that is contrary to the wisdom of God.  When we live by the wisdom of the world, we are kept from experiencing how Wisdom designed life to flourish. One of the biggest mistakes that gets repeated over and over and over and over again in churches all around the world is violating God’s relational design of mutuality.  Whether it’s marriage, family, friends or acquaintances; from Genesis …

A Level Of Spiritual Maturity You’ll Never Grow To In This WorldRead More

You Are God’s Masterpiece. But Satan Has One Too.

Category: The Kingdom of God Tags: christian community, dominion, power by Michael Fleming

A work of art is labeled a masterpiece when it is widely considered to be among the greatest works of an artist’s career.  Most famous artists have at least one of their works identified as such.  But did you know God also created one?  Take a look at what Paul wrote in Ephesians 2:10… For we are God’s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago. Before Michelangelo conceived of what he would do with the Sistine Chapel or da Vinci thought about the Mona Lisa, …

You Are God’s Masterpiece. But Satan Has One Too.Read More

The One Thing God Needs Your Church To Accomplish More Than Anything

Category: The Kingdom of God Tags: dominion, forgiveness, responsibility by Michael Fleming

I know, I know. God doesn’t need anything. But actually He does. Agape Love needs a counterpart. The Bible doesn’t start in Genesis 3 (the Fall). There are 2 chapters before it. (Thank you Captain Obvious.) But the experience in most churches would make you think Genesis 3 was the very beginning of the Bible. The thing you hear the most about is your sin and guilt, God’s plan to forgive you of it, Jesus being the fulfillment of the plan, you escaping the consequences of sin and your call to follow Jesus by trying to behave the way God …

The One Thing God Needs Your Church To Accomplish More Than AnythingRead More

Is God In Control Of Your Church’s Money? Here’s What To Look For.

Category: The Kingdom of God Tags: control, Holy Spirit, money, the world's system by Michael Fleming

We always hear people say “God is in control” when life’s circumstances get challenging or maybe when the future is foggy and it isn’t clear how situations will play out.  But God being in control doesn’t mean we don’t have a role to play.  If we claim God is in control and then don’t work together with Him as His partners to make wise decisions, we are deceived.  He doesn’t want to be in control by Himself.  If He did, he would have made robots instead of humans.  But that’s not the nature of Agape Love.  By His Spirit, He …

Is God In Control Of Your Church’s Money? Here’s What To Look For.Read More

10 Truths That Help Churches Live Out Christianity In The World

Category: The Kingdom of God by Michael Fleming

1. The source that conceived of our ways of operating matters A church’s source of order, stability and progress matters.  It’s the difference between life and death, and between oneness and division.  That is not an exaggeration.  Your ways of operating determine what you’re progressing toward.  Throughout the story of Scripture, we’re shown that the world’s system has a source.  Just like you see the water flowing in the river and know it came from some source upstream, the world’s system came from somewhere.  It’s not just how humans randomly chose to do things after the Fall.  There’s a source …

10 Truths That Help Churches Live Out Christianity In The WorldRead More

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