Who's Controlling Your Narrative?

WHO’S CONTROLLING YOUR NARRATIVE

Controlling the narrative is the buzz phrase today. It is among the most prevalent phrases in society, business, politics, sports and life in general: "controlling the narrative."

Controlling the narrative is, telling it your way, before someone else gets to tell it — their way. Narratives can set a person on the wrong path or set them on the right path, depending on how the narrative is told and received.

For example, let’s say that you are taking a morning jog at the beach, and as you’re running along, you see a kid struggling to swim out in the water. You see a man swim out to try and save the young boy, but unfortunately he’s unsuccessful in saving the boy, and he swims back to shore. You are the only witness to the series of events. As people now swarm the scene, the narrative of this man’s life and what happened to the boy, the series of events are in your words, and your narrative of the events will and does affect people’s perception, whether true or false.

What if you say that they were swimming together and it looked like the man deliberately tried to drown the boy? Or what if you say he tried to save the boy from drowning in a heroic effort but came up short. Your narrative literally controls whether this man will be charged with murder, or in the local news for being lauded as a hero.

WHO’S CONTROLLING YOUR NARRATIVE

Whether you believe it or not, accept it or not, when it comes to life, humanity and the world, there are only two narratives at play and being told, God’s narrative and the world’s narrative, and the world’s narrative is influenced by the evil-one, and your living to one narrative or another whether you want to believe it, accept it or not.

Jesus said, “He that is not with me is against me: and he that gathereth not with me scattereth. Luke 11:23 / Matt. 12:30 – What Jesus emphatically means is, there is no neutrality. You are either a disciple/follower of Jesus or you are a disciple, albeit, maybe unaware, reluctant, and uncertain, but a follower nonetheless, of this world and its leader – satan, who narrates disobedience, doubt and unbelief to his followers.

1 John 5:19 says, We know that we are children of God, and that the whole world is under the control of the evil one.

2 Corinthians 4:4, calls satan "the god of this world"; Jesus calls him, "the prince of this world;" John 12:31; as well as, Ephesians 2:2, says satan is the "the prince of the power of the air." In all these passages they speak of Satan having influence and control over the world’s followers, who as my Brother Paul says, is the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that works in the children of disobedience. Now, the reference to power of the air, is a simple analogy, that means satan broadcast to the world his influence of doubt, unbelief and disobedience, and people follow the narrative broadcast by satan and his minions. It’s like a news broadcast sent through the airwaves for all people to hear. Those who tune it to the broadcast listen and many follow it.

I read this book almost 30 years ago, called the Prophet. And, the main protagonist was a news reporter who began as an atheist, but through a series of events, He came to the truth, and became a born again believer. As he grew in the truth, he began to realize the truth of the world being controlled by the prince of the power of the air through thoughts and opinions broadcast through the media. He thought to himself one day, “as a news reporter, if I were to go on the air and tell everyone that it’s been proven the color brown has been linked to people experiencing delusions, manic behavior, and other psychological disturbances, the very next day you would hear and see people reacting to the color brown in the manner he described, though it is completely a lie.” Well, that’s what it means in Eph. 2:2 “the prince of the power of the air”—he has been broadcasting his false narrative before the fall of man. First to the angels he fooled into following him in rebellion against God, then to the first man and woman God created, causing them to disobey God bringing sin into the world. This is why Jesus calls Satan a liar and the father of lies (John 8:44). But, before Jesus called Satan a liar and the father of lies, He actually said, Satan was a murder from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies” (John 8:44).