A person who believes that God has no right over their life will reveal this through an attitude that prioritizes everything for their own satisfaction (James 4:1-4). Such a person becomes a friend of the world; they are traitors against God. The world is the bait Satan uses to ensnare humans so that they will not devote themselves to God (Luke 4:5-8). And this is indeed the reality today: many people feel entitled to their own lives and then fill themselves with all kinds of desires without considering God, the One who owns their lives.
One thing we often forget is that we come from nothing. It is God who brought us into existence—who brought forth a person called “me.”
This must always be remembered: we exist from non-existence (creatio ex nihilo). Therefore, we actually have no right over our own lives, for the life we possess belongs to the God who created it. If we truly grasp this reality, we will not resist living wholly in His will and plan.
In creating every individual, God certainly has a purpose. It is God’s agenda we must care about, not our own. A person who continually indulges his desires is someone who feels entitled to his own agenda. Such a person is essentially a rebel—living to fulfill activities that originate from his own plans. We must realize that we have no right to exist. Only if we could bring ourselves into existence would we have the right to desire whatever we want. But because we cannot make ourselves exist, and God is the One who created us, God has full rights over our lives.
Therefore, we must boldly say: “God doesn’t exist for me; I exist for the Lord.” God is not for me; I exist for Him. A true believer will learn not to feel entitled to any desire outside the Father’s will. He will continually pray: “Not my will, but Yours be done. Not my kingdom come, but Your Kingdom. Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.”
A person redeemed by the blood of Jesus Christ has no right to possess any spirit or passion of the world, except the spirit and love of the Lord Jesus Christ. The body we live in must be driven by the desire or spirit of Jesus (Gal. 2:19-20). If we bring the passion of the Son of God into ourselves—absorbing His life-breath—we make Him present in our lives. Conversely, if we do not, we are in fact removing God from our lives. That is why, for those who truly serve God’s will, God becomes very real, but for those who refuse to serve Him, God seems to be absent.
Satan tempted Jesus Himself to adopt the wrong spirit—the spirit of the world. Satan showed Him the beauty of the world to ensnare Him, but Jesus rejected it. That rejection meant He refused to worship Satan. And just as He overcame, we too must overcome. Therefore, Jesus is called the Source of Salvation who serves as our example (Heb. 5:7–9). It is in this context that we understand why we must have the mind and attitude of Christ (Phil. 2:5-7): to have the mind and attitude of Christ means to live in His desire, not the passion of the world.