Escaping the Spiders "Web"

I pray that the Spirit of the Lord guard this post against the enemies eyes, that he may be blinded towards the light and the knowledge of the Holy One and His plan for redemption. May the Holy Spirit breathe on this, and on everyone that reads these words, and call out those who are chosen in His body, the Body of Christ. In the Holy name of Jesus I pray.  Amen




What is the Internet? What does it do to us as human beings? Where is it taking the world?

The World Wide "Web"

From the Computing Dictionary:


Internet definition networking
(Note: capital "I"). The Internet is the largest internet (with asmall "i") in the world. It is a three level hierarchy composed of backbone networks, mid-level networks, and stub networks. These include commercial (.com or .co), university (.ac or .edu) and other research networks (.org, .net) and military (.mil) networks and span many different physical networks around the world with various protocols, chiefly the Internet Protocol. Until the advent of the World-Wide Web in 1990, the Internet was almost entirely unknown outside universities and corporate research departments and was accessed mostly via command line interfaces such as telnet and FTP. Since then it has grown to become an almost-ubiquitous aspect of modern information systems, becoming highly commercial and a widely accepted medium for all sort of customer relations such as advertising, brand building, and online sales and services. Its original spirit of cooperation and freedom have, to a great extent, survived this explosive transformation with the result that the vast majority ofinformation available on the Internet is free of charge. While the web (primarily in the form of HTML and HTTP) is the best known aspect of the Internet, there are many other protocols in use, supporting applications such as electronic mail, Usenet, chat, remote login, and file transfer.

The Internet is simply this: knowledge. It is an entirely different world that we choose to delve into every time we turn the computer on and enter "www." into the url box. It is the World Wide Web. That implies a few different things though does it not? A spider makes a web, with the intent of catching its prey, which could be a fly or a small animal. A web is an offensive weapon. It is a trap. I find it interesting that Proverbs states this about a spider:


The spider taketh hold with her hands, and is in kings' palaces. (Proverbs 30:28, KJV)


Strangely enough, what are Christians called but kings and priest of the Lord?


And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth. (Revelation 5:10, KJV)


Who is this Spider and what are his intentions for weaving this web of information and knowledge?  Considering the Lord said:


The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you. (Luke 17:20-21, KJV)


We can therefore judge that Jesus was speaking of the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, and that is found within us. This Spider is therefore trying to weave his own web within our very souls. Why? This is his way of polluting the kingdom of God, and in a way, learn of the secrets of the kingdom. When we as Christians are not guarded with the armor of light, the protection of the Holy Spirit, this Spider through his own little hierarchical kingdom of minions, is able to slip in unawares. Remember people, we are at war with monsters (literal monsters, yes. Or maybe we can say "Spiders") and we need to know that he is trying to use us against our God, in order to gain victory over Him. This Spider, is Satan himself.

Now what is a website? It is simply apart of the web; a single strand of the entire whole. This is a website, and I am contributing to the expansion of the Internet. You yourself are getting an insight into my soul right now. Did you know that? What are words, especially written words, but the capturing of thoughts that are brought from the unseen world into tangible existence? You cannot see your thoughts, yet when you write them down, you can then see them. What an amazing thing! What a dangerous thing...I believe this is one of the ways or methods that a Christian can use to "take captive ones thoughts" as Paul states:

Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; (2 Corinthians 10:5, KJV)

The Internet and Facebook

I just recently saw the movie, "The Social Network", and it was quite a thought-provoking movie. It causes one to contemplate what it is worth to become successful. More importantly, it made me personally question whether it is okay to use something that was founded upon sinful intentions, and sinful means. I of course am speaking of Facebook. Anyone who is reading this right now knows what Facebook is, and if you don't, than you might just live in a cave. It is a popular thing. It is a world wide network that links people together on a single interface, allowing them to showcase themselves to all the world. It is vanity central; it is pride boulevard; it is a gossip factory. It is the Tower of Babel. A tower made up of people's faces, coming together in one voice, and in one accord, with one purpose in mind: to meet each other. It is a cesspool of Sin, where vanity, pride, gossip, lies, gluttony, lasciviousness reign freely. But shall I stop there? No, Facebook itself is not the Tower of Babel, it is simply an entity of the tower itself, perhaps a wing, or a level. What else has literally brought all people together, connecting the world onto one grid of space, but the Internet?

The Internet is truly the Tower of Babel recreated, in a digital world. If you truly understand the nature of atoms and their relationship to matter, you will note that the physical world is nothing more than a digital image, a digital sphere in itself. There is something more real out there than we are, and it lives in a different dimension, one that we cannot see. Remember, the Internet runs over airwaves on an electric grid, and who controls the air?

Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: (Ephesians 2:2, KJV)

Always remember who the god of this world is: Satan. Beelzebub is one of Satan's names in the Bible. It is popularly translated as "Lord of the Flies" but should be translated more literally as "Lord of things that FLY". He controls the air. Have you ever wondered who controls the Internet? Think hard on this; what did the Internet do to us as a people, as a species? It has changed the way we communicate, the way we interact, and I believe there is a demonic or satanic purpose behind it. 

The Inter"net"

Once again, just like the world wide "web", the Inter"net" implies that it is catching something. The purpose of a net in the scriptures is to gather fish, which represents men:

Now when he had left speaking, he said unto Simon, Launch out into the deep, and let down your nets for a draught. And Simon answering said unto him, Master, we have toiled all the night, and have taken nothing: nevertheless at thy word I will let down the net. And when they had this done , they inclosed a great multitude of fishes: and their net brake . And they beckoned unto their partners, which were in the other ship, that they should come and help them. And they came , and filled both the ships, so that they began to sink . When Simon Peter saw it, he fell down at Jesus' knees, saying , Depart from me; for I am a sinful man, O Lord. For he was astonished , and all that were with him, at the draught of the fishes which they had taken : And so was also James, and John, the sons of Zebedee, which were partners with Simon. And Jesus said unto Simon, Fear not; from henceforth thou shalt catch men. And when they had brought their ships to lan

d, they forsook all, and followed him. (Luke 5:4-11, KJV)

The other day, after I watched "The Social Network", my Dad, brother and I got into a conversation concerning this very subject. We were puzzled as to what the meaning and purpose of the Internet was. A whole lot of good I believe has come out of from the Internet, for my family in particular. It has led to the discovery of SO MUCH information that we would have otherwise perhaps never come across without it. But (and that is a big BUT), it has led to a whole lot of evil in our lives as well (I will hit on this subject in particular sometime soon, but I have not been led to share my testimony concerning this just yet).

What is it that Jesus was saying to Peter, James and John? By forsaking all things and following Christ, they have left their nets and their ships behind. So how can they possibly catch men? It is, of course, in the spiritual sense that they will gather men into Christ. But Jesus uses these men to gather others into the kingdom of his Father. Therefore, in a spiritual way, Christ has become the true fisherman, and we have become His net. We are His tool in gathering others into His body. The net is only dropped where the fisherman wills it to be dropped. Before, the apostles were trying to fish on their own, and they were casting their nets without the guidance of the Lord. But at the word of our God, Jesus, they threw their nets on the other side, where he told them to throw it, and caught so many fish the boat and the net could even handle it. What a wonderful thing to be caught in the net of the Lord! 

Now I lead you back to the Inter"net". First of all, we know that Satan is the god, (little g) of this world, and the Prince of the air (Beelzebub). Thus, the one who controls the "net"is Satan. Who did you think controls it? God? Well if the Lord controls it and sanctioned pornography to be placed on the web than I think something is wrong. No, the Devil himself controls it, and there is a specific purpose behind this creation of his (and yes I know the Lord has ALL things in control, and ALL things work according to His purpose). 

When Paul states that we need to take captive our thoughts, there was a specific purpose for that. 

Your thoughts dwell within the realm of the soul. Remember, your physical body is simply a suit, your true body is the thing inside of you; that is your true being, your soul. When you fantasize or think sinful thoughts, you are coming into contact with something most of us just simply do not understand, which is demonic spiritual forces. And I mean every sinful thought has demonic influence behind it. So when you speak something out of your mouth, or write something down, it is the transference of your soul into the physical realm. If you speak out sinful thoughts, your Spirit is convoluted with demonic forces. What does this have to do with Satan and the Internet? Well, if the Internet is, in a very real sense, a digital Tower of Babel, what other goal could Satan have than to capture every thought of the human race? When Paul commands followers of Christ to take captive their thoughts, Satan certainly saw those words, and seized the opportunity himself. He is taking captive the thoughts of humanity as a whole! By gathering the thoughts and knowledge of all humans, he is catching humanity in a net. But why? I believe the simple answer is this: control and espionage. I will first touch on control.

On Facebook

The intent behind Facebook is to display your persona on the Internet for the world to see. Truly, we are displaying our souls in a digital framework, are we not? Do not forget, that every word spoken out your mouth leads to a conclusion; read the entirety of Proverbs and you will get what I am saying. Our basis of communication and expression has been morphed and manipulated by the Internet, especially by sites like MySpace and Facebook, not to mention Google (that will have to be saved for different post as well). Facebook in particular opens us up to demonic influence through the communicative evolution it has started. Because we sit at home on our computers and are able to look at people and say things to them without them seeing us physically, we feel more freedom to say things that we would never say in person. Posting "status's" of your life. What's the status? How stupid. How vain to think that people want to know something about us. How vain we are that we post pictures of ourselves and wish for people to look at us and desire to be our friends. What happened to the day when we sat down and talked with one another face to face? What ever happened to conversation? People say that it still exists, it has just been placed in a different medium, like the telephone, and now Facebook. 

The World is a Much Smaller Place

Think what the Internet has done to us...think of what technology as a whole has done to us. Certainly it has made the world a smaller place, a less mysterious place. If I have a family member that lives half-way across the world, and I lived in the 1700's, then that would seem like a literal world away. But, in the age of Skype and Facebook, it is like they are right in the room with me. The world is truly a smaller place! More importantly though, the world is becoming one. The "Inter"net also implies interconnectedness. Think of a net once again...a net has links of strings or ropes, that are connected together and each serve an overall purpose in gathering in, or catching more fish, and holding them in. We are all becoming a part of Satan's "net", and quickly it is making us one. By becoming one net, the lord of darkness is able to control us easier. Especially when we are addicted to such technology. Have you noticed something about our culture, especially that of the America, where people are now literally addicted to their phones, computers, ipads, ipods, etc...? There is a reason for this: first of all, mind control. When you control what people are looking at, and it is filtered through a net, the Inter"net", you don't have to worry about them acting out of order. But more importantly when you have them addicted to anything, especially knowledge or "news", then he is able to enter our souls through any addiction and can implant anything he wills. But how does a Christian work through all this?

Finding Our Way Through the "Web"

Now on the point of Satan's form of espionage against the kingdom of Heaven, we are led back to the Spider and its web trying to weave deception and lies in the souls of Christians themselves; how do we combat this? If Satan is trying gain the thoughts of all humans, he does not necessarily have to concern himself with those who are in his side already. Keep your friends close and your enemies closer. This is what Satan has done with those who are born again. He is especially trying to gain the thoughts of Christians, so as to learn the secrets of the kingdom of God! That means we have a responsibility as Christians to have discernment on what, and what not to reveal on such a public device. I present to you a few Proverbs from Solomon, the last being the most important:

In the multitude of words there wanteth not sin: but he that refraineth his lips is wise. The tongue of the just is as choice silver: the heart of the wicked is little worth. The blessings of the Lord, it maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow to it. It is as sport to a fool to do mischief: but a man of understanding hath wisdom. (Proverbs 10:19-23, KJV)

A talebearer revealeth secrets: but he that is of a faithful spirit concealeth the matter. (Proverbs 11:13, KJV)

Most, if not all people who have experienced the Internet have been caught already, in some form or another, in the web of lies and deceit it presents. But Christians, who are born again and have been baptized in the Holy Spirit, are to have wisdom concerning these things. Therefore, we are to not reveal every thought that comes out of our mouths, or else we be seen in God's eyes as a talebearer, unworthy to be trusted with information. There are many, many people who peek into sites, and may gain wisdom from certain information that I, or fellow brothers and sisters in Christ may present, but there are also many lurkers who seek to destroy the kingdom of God. Have you ever wondered why the Lord states:

Give not that which is holy unto dogs, neither cast ye your pearls before swine, lest they trample them under their feet, and turn again and rend you. (Matthew 7:6, KJV)

A young babe in Christ the other day was experiencing such an incident where he felt that the Lord was saying to him, "do not cast pearls to swine, for you are then feeding the devil". How brilliant young Christians can be! We are certainly feeding the dogs and pigs (devils) by casting wisdom to them. By revealing to the enemy the secrets of the Lord, you are then allowing him to make his next move against the kingdom of God, and against you yourself. Think of that. 

Conclusion

We as Christians must be more careful. I am as guilty as anyone when it comes to the improper use of the Internet. You are seeing a soul who has once been caught in it, and is now freed from the "net" or "web" the Spider (Satan) has weaved for me, and that is only by the Power of the Holy Spirit! Thank You Jesus! I have a Facebook account, and I have gossiped on it, to my shame. I have a Facebook account, and I have had pride and vanity in wanting people to see my page, to my shame. Shall I get rid of it? I don't know, if the Lord leads me to then yes, of course I will. Shall I never, ever get on the Internet, or ever post on this blog again? If the Lord leads me to then yes, of course I will. But, at the moment, I believe the Lord is calling for us to save those who are caught in the "net" or "web" right now. We live in this world, yet we are not of this world. I quote Andrew Murray, that brilliant Christian man:

"When the Lord Jesus was here upon earth, what was it that distinguished His disciples from other people? He took them away from their fish-nets, and from their homes, and He gathered them about Himself, and they knew Jesus."

I wish to gather people away from the net of the world, and have them gathered unto Christ Jesus himself! I wish to see them saved! This blog is perhaps my way of entering the "net" to bring many of you who are addicted or caught in it, out of it! I can only pray in the name of Jesus that His will be done, and that at least one would be saved. We can no longer feed the Spider by getting caught in it ourselves, and tossing him wisdom that he thrives off of. We must have discernment. Remember, we are kings and priests, and the spider desires to hear the secrets of the King himself!

Behold, I send you forth as sheep in the midst of wolves: be ye therefore wise as serpents, and as harmless as doves. (Matthew 10:16, KJV)

Be Blessed in Christ Jesus!