Paul tells the believers at Ephesus exactly what the true condition of Mankind is. Note my blue highlights.
Eph 2:1 To you Gentiles also, who were dead through your offences and sins,
Eph 2:2 which were once habitual to you while you walked in the ways of this world and obeyed the Prince of the powers of the air, the spirits that are now at work in the hearts of the sons of disobedience–to you God has given Life.
Eph 2:3 Among them all of us also formerly passed our lives, governed by the inclinations of our lower natures, indulging the cravings of those natures and of our own thoughts, and were in our original state deserving of anger like all others. (Francis Weymouth)
Paul says it clearly. The disobedient –are those who have not believed into Jesus Christ. That is what we all were once. Disobedient sinners by nature. But what I want to bring to our attention is the explicit truth presented here. People are deceived. We are not alone in our sinful choices. We are being acted upon by another being. Paul says we were obeying a Prince.
This Prince was mentioned by Jesus just before He was arrested in Gethsemane.
John 14:30 In future I shall not talk much with you, for the Prince of this world is coming. And yet in me he has nothing;
We know that it was Judas leading a troop of soldiers and others to arrest Jesus, so where is this “Prince” Jesus mentions?
John 13:27 Then, after Judas had received the piece of bread, Satan entered into him. “Lose no time about it,” said Jesus to him.
Satan; the Adversary; The Accuser ; The Great Red Dragon; the Serpent of old, the fallen angel known as Lucifer who deceives the whole world ENTERED JUDAS. Thus as Judas was coming, so it is true that The Prince of this world was coming, being carried inside the body of Judas his willing slave. This is the reality of being human. TAKE NOTE!
Humans have been made to CONTAIN another person alongside ourselves, joined as one.
Judas through his own deceit and pride gave opportunity to Satan to come into him in order to be the Patsy in the greatest criminal act in history.
So having established that the Prince of this world is Satan, look again at what Paul tells us in Ephesians 2:2.
Eph 2:2 which were once habitual to you while you walked in the ways of this world and obeyed the Prince of the powers(exousia) of the air, the spirits that are now at work in the hearts of the sons of disobedience–to you God has given Life. (Weymouth)
Paul tells us that this Prince is not alone. He is the Prince of the powers(plural)of the air. Now most versions have Prince of the power of the air. I have struggled with that for a while. How can one singular being–The Prince -Satan be at work in the hearts of the disobedient? Francis Weymouth is right to make it plural. For in Chapter 6 –the well known Spiritual warfare description that Paul gives he makes “exousia” plural there.
Eph 6:11 Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
Eph 6:12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers,(exousia) against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. (KJV)
In the Kingdom of darkness there is a hierarchy of authority. The Devil is the Prince of this world and under his authority are Principalities, Powers, Rulers and Spiritual hosts of wickedness. It is clear in Paul’s mind that human beings are NOT ALONE in their actions. It is not just flesh and blood standing in front of you when you face a crowd to preach the gospel. It is not just flesh and blood in front of you when you meet another fellow human being. But it is a human being in whom powers–exousia- are at work.
Paul goes even further and in more detail. These powers are at work, energising the disobedient/unbelievers/unrighteous in their HEARTS. These Powers are persons. Satan is the Prince of the “powers of the air”. Human beings without Christ Jesus in their hearts have another person dwelling in their hearts instead. That is the teaching of the Bible.
In indigenous culture here in Australia it is customary for parents doing cultural things to choose a totem for their new born child. It may be a bird or other animal from their Dreamtime story. They may choose Magpie, and so at birth the spirit of magpie enters the child to live there. This is well documented. The aboriginal people understand the spiritual realm and the hierarchy. The yare enslaved by these spirits. But westerners, thinking themselves to be better than indigenous peoples ALSO are inhabited by spirit powers according to Paul.
We all were like this. Paul says “we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others”. Eph 2:3 Our nature was that of BEING ONE WITH A POWER OF THE AIR. That was our nature.
There is no such thing as human nature….as if the human is all alone inside himself. Humans are made to contain a spirit being. In fact we are created to CONTAIN ALL OF GOD!! We are meant to contain God in order to reveal God’s goodness to all creation. But man in his refusal to retain God in his knowledge exchanged the True God for a lesser god to empower them. These lesser gods are the powers of the air which Paul speaks of here.
These powers of the air dwelling in and working in the hearts of the unbelievers are there by the permission of the host…ie the human person. Even though the unbeliever is not aware they are joined with such a being, they will fight to stay one with that being when anyone comes trying to preach Jesus Christ to them.
Luke 11:21 When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace, his goods are in peace.
The palace is the Human being indwelt. The goods belong to the Power of the air who is the strong man holding the soul as a prisoner. The prisoner does not even know he is a prisoner, he thinks himself to be alone and just himself. He is not aware that another person, stronger than himself is a part of himself. He may be a good person or an evil person….it does not matter which he is…the thing to see is that it is not the human on his own, but two people joined inside as one….two sharing the same form. The Power of the air gets a host to express itself through and once that host dies it will find another.
Jesus says that the strong man’s goods are in peace. The goods which belong to the Strong Man is the human soul that the strong man is connected with. The strong man has no fear that his goods(the person)will escape his control –he goes on living through and living as that unbeliever. Whether as a “good person” or an “evil person”.
Luk 11:22 But when a stronger than he comes upon him and overcomes him, he takes from him all his armor in which he trusted, and divides his spoils.
But that peace evaporates when God sends someone who is joined with Jesus Christ in their heart to share His love with them. Now that person will feel threatened by the Christian’s advances. The love of Jesus Christ pouring out of them like rivers of living water threatens the Strong Man. He/it knows that if the host person(the human soul)chooses to believe and receive Jesus Christ then he must leave the host and find another. He has enjoyed his goods for years and does not want to leave. But he knows he must if the person believes into Jesus. The powers of the air must give way to the Son of God.
Jesus Christ comes into your heart to join Himself with your human fleshy heart through faith. He has already taken care of sins, already died for sins. He is risen and alive and ready to come dwell in your heart. You want Jesus to do that. But another, the Strong Man who lives in your heart does not want you to choose Jesus. He will do his best to steer your thoughts away from Jesus Christ. He will try to bring you together with other souls who are prisoners of the Powers of the air, who all share a love for sin, so that you will be hardened more and more against Christ. He will get you so enmeshed into your sin, justifying it to yourself that it is okay that you will hate what God loves and love what God hates. You will call evil good and good evil.
It will get to the point where you are totally depraved and a prisoner to the lusts of your flesh which is energised by the power of the air in your heart. Whether it is lust for power over others or lust for things to satisfy your heart. You are never going to be fulfilled and whole until you are joined in your heart with Jesus Christ. He promises that you will never thirst again when He comes in. And when He comes into you, the impostor god must leave!!
YOU NEED TO CALL UPON JESUS CHRIST!!
Jesus stands at the door of your heart knocking. Will you hear and open the door to your heart right now? I pray that the Power of the Air that has you as prisoner will be bound RIGHT NOW! I bind it’s power and command it to be silent! You can choose Jesus.
Jesus I need you!
Jesus come into my heart! Set me free Jesus! Come dwell in me—always….make me NEW….Make me your child!
All my sins have been forgiven when you died on the cross for me Jesus. God my Father raised you from death so you could come live in my heart, filling me full with yourself.
I believe you hear me and I thank you for coming to live in me. You are one spirit with my spirit Jesus. You have joined yourself with me in my heart. You say you will never leave me nor forsake me.
Amen!!
A more thorough talk on this by brother Fred Pruitt is found at https://thesingleeye.wordpress.com/2010/07/28/toward-a-divine-nature-understanding/
and also https://thesingleeye.wordpress.com/2010/10/21/shedding-the-consciousness-of-sin/
