What's influencing you?

What is the biggest influence marking your life? Where do you see evidence of the marking? Do you know how it impacts the way you think, feel, and live life? 

We live in a world where “influence” is a literal commodity and with platforms like TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, Amazon or whatever other digital platform you like to engage with it’s easier than ever to see what or who is marking and shaping your life. I'm sure you've heard the saying "you are what you eat."

Well, thanks to algorithms tailor made to ensure users stay engaged as long as possible; we can find out pretty quickly what we’re "eating" - even if we’re not consciously aware of it! As a matter of fact, at times maybe you’ve felt like your digital feed may know you too well. Like when you watch one video or click on something, and suddenly your timeline is flooded with more of the same. Digital algorithms at heart, are curators. Their job is to serve you content you’re most likely to: click, watch, like, or share.

Perhaps you’ve never really reflected on this, but pause for a second and think about it. Why does it matter what's influencing your life? Should you care what your life is being marked by?

Well, in the bible, the word “mark” is deliberate, it denotes loyalty and ownership. It’s a good chance that the people, places, and things marking our lives, are the things we most often think about and devote our hearts to, and more than likely we can find indicators of them somewhere in our digital feeds. But the prophet Jeremiah, said “the heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure. Who can understand it?” 

I don’t know about you, but I can certainly think of many times in my life when my heart deceived me into doing or thinking about things that were not good for me. 

In Scripture, the heart and mind are often used interchangeably to represent a whole person. The heart is seen as the seat of emotions, desires, and will, while the mind is associated with intellect, reasoning, and understanding. Together, they form the core of a person's spiritual and moral life, so this makes it clear that the things we think about and do matter a great deal. 

No wonder Proverbs 4:23 advises, "Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it." This verse underscores the heart's central role in guiding one's life and actions, suggesting that the heart influences the mind's decisions and perceptions.

This aligns perfectly with the message we hear in James 1, where we’re told “Be doers of the word, and not hearers only. Otherwise, you are deceiving yourselves.

So what does the Lord tell us about how we should be marked? 

Deuteronomy 11:18 he says “Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as reminders on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Teach them to your children, speaking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.” Here, the Lord is instructing his people to embrace His words, internalize them deeply, let it guide their every action, and mark their ways of thinking.

Funny enough God was teaching us about neuroplasticity long before he prompted neuroscientists to coin the term. He was demonstrating that when Scripture owns the heart, fills the mind, directs the hands, and crowns the head, God’s people are equipped to live faithfully and shine His glory in every arena of life.

We see this again later in the Old Testament, in Ezekiel (9:4) the Lord instructs an angelic figure to “Go throughout the city of Jerusalem and put a mark on the foreheads of the men sighing and groaning over all the abominations committed there.” This mark serves as a sign of exemption from the coming judgment, similar to the blood on the doorposts during the Passover in Exodus 12. It also prefigures the sealing in Revelation 7, where God’s servants are marked for protection. 

In the New Testament we’re told in Ephesians 1:13 that during this age of Grace “When we believe in Jesus Christ as our savior, we are marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit,”

God’s mark of protection is starkly contrasted by the mark of the Antichrist in Revelation 13:16 who requires all people who are not marked by God to receive his mark on their right hand or on their forehead. 

With this context we know that the mark of someone's life determines their destiny and it’s identified by who they follow and whose ways they conform to. For this reason, in Romans 12:1-2 Paul says “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what is the good, pleasing, and perfect will of God.”

Now this might come as a surprise to some, because typically when we hear “the mark of the beast” we tend to have something completely different in mind. Yet based on the word of God people are marked by the way we live our lives and the things that rule our hearts and minds. 

In John, Jesus said, “If you love me, obey my commandments. He actually goes out of His way to promote the authority of the Law of God. He says he did not come to abolish the Law but to fulfil it, regardless of what the Pharisees accused Him of. In fact, Jesus continues His statement with a commendation for those who teach the Law accurately and hold it in reverence: In Matthew, he’s quoted saying “Therefore anyone who sets aside one of the least of these commands and teaches others accordingly will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven” (Matthew 5:19).

For believers, being marked by the Holy Spirit involves both moral and spiritual dimensions. It requires a commitment to live according to God's standards, as revealed in Scripture, and to seek the guidance of the Holy Spirit in applying these principles to daily life. The law serves as a mirror, reflecting God's holiness and our need for His grace. 

Many of those watching for the mark of the beast have their eye on neurolink chips and hand implants, which have already arrived and their mandated implementation is certainly well on the way; but truthfully all you have to do is look at how God marks people to understand how the antichrist will mark people. (learn more here)

There’s nothing that implies we’re standing in line to get brain surgery… it’s about who we follow and what we desire. We either follow the one who keeps and loves God’s law, or the one who rejects it and calls it bondage. 

Consider this, the fundamental belief of the literal Church of Satan is that Satan is a symbol of pride, liberty and individualism, and people are free to make their own decisions and live life on their own terms.

It’s alarming because it seems today that many professing Christians seem to believe that’s what Christianity is - the freedom to do as we will because we’ve been saved by grace. 

Let me be very clear, we are saved by grace, so that no one may boast. However, that grace isn't a license to persist on in our own will. In Titus we read, "For the grace of God has appeared that offers salvation to all people. It teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age. Through Christ saving grace and the power of the Holy Spirit we are enabled to say no to the temptations of this world that seek to ensnare us.

Yet, 2 Timothy 3 tells us to mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God— having a form of godliness but denying its power.

Have nothing to do with such people.

They are the kind who...are loaded down with sins and are swayed by all kinds of evil desires, always learning but never able to come to a knowledge of the truth.

My heart grieves every time I see Christian pastors, content creators, and book authors telling us passively or directly that God's instructions for how to live our best lives no longer apply or that they’ve shifted in some way.

It makes clear why Jeremiah says in the end the nations will go to God and say they were deceived because their fathers passed them down inherited lies. It's so important for us to read the Bible for ourselves so that we may test and discern what we’re hearing. All of these doctrines take real verses and twist them into a license to sin and have effectively caused the subtle falling away of the church. It all fits the entire scope of end times mechanics flawlessly. 

So, thinking back to where we started, reflecting on what your life is marked by. I’m curious, when is the last time you saw or engaged with biblically based content in your digital life? How often do you get served content teaching you more about Jesus or the Holy Spirit? 

If you answered rarely or never that probably means Christ isn’t having as big of an influence on your life as you may think. 

But, if you want to change your algorithm, if you want to change your "consumption diet" and ensure your life is marked by Christ, the best way to start is to dust off your bible and begin studying it daily and living it out so you can experience the life giving freedom of walking in obedience with the will of our Heavenly Father, and so you can ensure you are protected against the deception that is ensnaring this world. 

I’ll leave you with some words of encouragement from the Apostle Peter, prepare your minds for action. Be sober-minded. Set your hope fully on the grace to be given you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. As obedient children, do not conform to the passions of your former ignorance. But just as He who called you is holy, so be holy in all you do, for it is written: “Be holy, because I am holy.”

And remember the age-old Proverb, a righteous man may fall seven times, but he still gets up. 

God Bless!