2 CORINTHIANS 10: 3-6
THE DESTRUCTION OF SPIRITUAL FORTRESSES
There is a spiritual battle. The principal battlefield where this fierce conflict is being waged is in the mind of man. The greatest battles are not fought with guns and bombs or by combat soldiers on the battlefields of this world; they are fought in the minds of people. The mind is the oldest, most common battlefield known to the human race. Ever since God provided Adam and Eve clear instructions on how to live joyful, successful lives, a fierce battle has been raging over who will control man's thinking, God or Satan.
The first objective of the spiritual warrior is to capture his mind for God (CIM). & that is what I want to help you do today. I want to help you capture your mind for God.
God wants us to fully know Him and to tear down anything that holds us and others back from fully knowing Him. Old patterns of thinking and behavior keep us from right thinking and from right doing so that we are not actively involved in the ministry of God as He would have us be. Do you have beliefs, thoughts or actions that lessen or weaken your service to God? Do things, persons, or situations cause you anxiety or frustration? Are you hindered in your personal prayer life and in the coherency of your Bible reading? If so you need to listen intently to the Bible’s description of how to obtain victory through spiritual battle. Here God teaches how to tear down debilitating old habits and thought patterns that assail and thwart us when we attempt to move closer to God. May we learn what the weapons of our warfare can accomplish and put them into obedient service for the eternal glory of God.
I. A SPIRITUAL BATTLE, 3.
II. SPIRITUAL WEAPONS FOR DESTROYING FORTRESSES, 4.
III. THE [SPIRITUAL] STRONGHOLD OF OBEDIENCE TO CHRIST, 5.
IV. SPIRITUAL VICTORY, 6.
A distinction is drawn between existence in this world and living for this world or age. People wanted to judged Paul as if all his action and abilities were focused on himself and his place in this life. But that was not the case, his energies and interests were focused on Christ, not himself. This world focused people were waging a fleshly fight, but we are informed in verse 3 that it is impossible to win a spiritual battle with fleshly ability or weapons. “For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh,”
The Corinthians were being lead by fleshly thinking [and judged Paul’s ministry by outward appearances]. They lived and evaluated things according to the flesh and not according to the Spirit, so they completely missed the power of the Spirit that was available to them.
Paul however followed a different direction in life. He may live in a fleshy body like every other person subject to its laws and limitation that are common to all human flesh, but he would not let his old way of living before he came to know Christ direct his life. Though Paul lived in a body of flesh, he would not walk after the pattern of the flesh or according to the natural man, but he walked in the Spirit depending on God.
The follower of Christ cannot allow his conduct to be controlled by the considerations of expediency and self seeking which are characteristic of his lost condition when he walked according to the flesh or in the way of this world. Paul’s strength was not found in the flesh. He refused to develop and use the fleshly weapons on which natural man depends. Paul’s weapon’s were spiritual.
He knew how to wage spiritual war. The term war (στρατος) is literally “lead an army.” The Apostle Paul states that though he does not fight according to the flesh, he does fight, he even admits that he leads a spiritual army to war. This war was not against flesh and blood though (Eph. 6:10ff). His foes were the devil and his demonic agents. He warred against the power of darkness. Thus Paul used spiritual weapons because you cannot win spiritual battles with fleshly weapons. We too must put on the full armor of God and fight with spiritual weapons. Again, our Christian life is not merely a walk but also a warfare (1 Tim. 1:18; 2 Tim. 2: 3f, 4:7; 2 Cor. 6:7).
II. SPIRITUAL WEAPONS FOR DESTROYING FORTRESSES, 4.
The thought of spiritual war is more fully developed in verse 4. “ for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction (tearing down) of fortresses (strongholds).”
Any one can use fleshly weapons but few in Christian circles can use spiritual weapons. A Christian who engages in warfare or a campaign must have the weapons with which to fight. The armor of the Christian warrior is given in Ephesians 6:11-18. It is spiritual armor. The armor of King Saul, though splendid in the eyes of men, cannot overcome the spiritual giants who come against us. These are not flesh and blood foes and attempting to withstand them with fleshly weapons makes them laugh at our great folly.
No we need divinely powerful weapons. We need weapons that are made mighty by God. Paul’s attitude of humility is one weapon, since pride places us in the control of Satan. Spiritual weapons like the Word of God, prayer, love, peace, the Cross, the sinless life of Christ, the shed blood of the cross, obedience, surrender to His Lordship, the power of resurrection and the ascension are the weapons that defeat the enemy. As Jesus said in John 8:32, “You will know the truth and the truth will set you free.”
Only spiritual weapons are divinely empowered for over throwing the fortresses of evil. There is a temptation to meet a challenge of one who is in the flesh, who is under the sway of the evil one, with fleshly weapons of human wisdom and strength but that is not where true victory lies.
A “stronghold” is an entrenched pattern of though, ideology, value or behavior. It is a mind-set that causes us to accept as unchangeable situations that we know are contrary to the will of God. [Stronghold: NT:3794, ochuroma (okh-oó-rō-mah); from ochuróō remote derivative of NT:2192 (meaning to fortify, through the idea of holding safely); a castle (figuratively, argument)] So then it something we have fortified or built up in our lives and now think we cannot remove it. [Some strongholds are good: those built up by the Word of God are good, those against the word are harmful.]
[Developing a stronghold is like planting a tree. While it is still small it is easy to bend and mold, but that tree gets to be 25-30 years old it can’t be bent, the roots are deep and it becomes a major project to move.
One of the most basic of principles taught in the Bible is that of sowing and reaping. “Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting” (Galatians 6:7-8). It goes like this: sow an action, reap a habit and it has been shown to take about 21 days to tear down one and start another, better one.
We start with one cigarette, one drink, one cuss, and then it leads to another, and another. Eventually we have a full blown stronghold with all the repercussion that come with them! Like cancer, sorosis of the liver, diabetes. We did this to ourselves and we cannot, dare not blame the devil for it.]
This verse promises that those who find and learn how to use God’s spiritual weapons in the power of God’s Holy Spirit are empowered by God Himself for the destruction of strongholds, in their life, in the life of their loved ones, in their church and in their community in which they battle. When engaging the enemy with these weapons the church is assured of victory. The world scorns these weapons wanting to provoke you to use fleshly weapons and we often turn to human methods and are overcome by demonic forces. When Joshua and his army marched around Jericho for a week, the spectators thought them mad. But the weapon of obedience to God’s Word brought down the high walls and the enemy was conquered (Joshua 6:1-20). These spiritually powerful weapons are the ones the powers of darkness most vehemently fight against and keep us from knowing, remembering and using because they are the only weapons by which they and their work can be torn down!
So we have some negative strongholds in our lives and we need to get rid of them, but it won’t be easy. You may have some hard difficult work in front of you. Tearing down bastion in your life must often be done the way they were erected, brick by brick, or thought by thought. Can God deliver you? Yes, but you did this to yourself over time and it will usually takes time for us to get to the point of deliverance, so we must go through a continuous process to get to that point.
III. THE [SPIRITUAL] STRONGHOLD OF OBEDIENCE TO CHRIST, 5.
Verse five demonstrates the destructive and constructive capacity of God’s divinely empowered weapons. “We are destroying reasonings and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.”
The mind of man is here compared to an enemy's stronghold or fortress. Many evil and negative thoughts are housed in this fortress and need to be taken captive to the obedience of Christ. These reasonings are walls of resistance build up by worldly, fleshly and demonic influences in our minds and in the minds of others, and like the walls of Jericho must be pulled down from the proud hold over our way or pattern of thinking.
God’s spiritual weapons can destroy reasonings and things that stand against the knowledge of God. The indication is that there are reckonings, reasonings, speculations or thoughts that invade and lay siege to the mind. The Bible treats them as fortresses or strongholds that need to be destroyed. These strong mental attitudes or patterns rise like a fortress filled with enemy soldiers in our minds.
What are those mental bastions? The strongholds are more precisely defined as belonging to the will and intellect of man. They are reasonings within man that are opposed to the truth of God’s Word. The exalted proud mind, both conscious and subconscious, and the stone harden selfish will are the fountain of human actions as they determine our conduct. Attitudes patterns and thought patterns can be strongholds that effect our presuppositions and philosophies of all we do or don’t do. The proud human mind which sees the Cross of Christ as foolishness is an example (1 Cor.1:18) and obedience to Christ as a waste of time are strongholds but there are many more deceived reasonings within each of our minds where satan has built up his fortress within our way of thinking. By building these strongholds over our way of thinking, he controls our mind and if he controls our mind, he controls us.
The relationship between a thought and an act is expressed in this poem:
Sow a thought, reap a word; Sow a word, reap an act;
Sow an act, reap a habit; Sow a habit, reap a destiny.
It all begins with a thought. Since our thoughts are subject to sin, they too should be brought under the control of the Holy Spirit. How are you doing in your thought life?? Is it fully in line with the Word of God?
Hence, Christian warfare is aimed at pulling down these proud reasonings, these rationalizations of self-centered man. These proud bulwarks within each of us that stand against our knowledge of God. These strongholds have been repeatedly fortified by the lies of satan that we have believed and professing to be wise we have exchanged the truth of God for a lie (Rom. 1:18-25).
For us to break free from sinful thoughts, God must have first place in our life and in our manner of thinking. Fellowship with God is the best deterrent for wrong and deceived thinking [and impure thoughts]. We must fill our minds with truth, instead of the vain or eternally empty thinking of the way of the flesh or of way the world. The acceptance of the way of the world has caused billions to base their life on the thinking that their own way for themselves, for life, is better than God's way. We must firmly reject these lies and transform our way of thinking by receiving and meditating on the truth, on the Word of God. If the devil can get control of our minds, he has the control room of our lives. [ Backsliding begins in the mind with wrong thinking.]
So God’s spiritual weapons cast down imaginations, or carnal reasonings of the minds of natural men against God, His providences, and purposes and the methods of salvation and every truth of the Gospel. These are all disproved, silenced, and confounded, by the preaching of the Word, which though supposed foolishness and weakness, becomes wiser and stronger than men by God; and with which the wisdom of the wise is destroyed, and the understanding of the intelligent is brought to nothing. Every high opinion that exalts itself against the knowledge of God; every proud thought of the heart, every great swelling word of conceit, every arrogant look, and all the haughtiness of men, that have become a high towering of fortified reasonings and arguments advanced against the Gospel of Christ (or the knowledge of God), and into a better knowledge of Him can be torn down.
Some days MY COMPUTER helps me fly like an eagle. Other times, it bogs me down like a hippopotamus. On "eagle days" I'm grateful for my computer. But there are those hippo times when I regret the day I bought one.
A while back I had to contend with a man-made virus that invaded my computer. What bothers me most is that viruses are created maliciously. Bright people who live with a darkness in their lives want to make other people miserable. What's worse, I permitted the virus to enter my machine by opening what I thought was an innocent e-mail.
Sin resembles a computer virus. Satan wants to destroy Christians by infecting their minds. The Bible urges believers to bring "every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ" (2 Corinthians 10:5).
Just as we let a virus into our computers, we also let darkness into our lives when we open ourselves unthinkingly to the godless messages that permeate our culture. We let down our guard and hardly notice the sin that infects our minds.
But by admitting our sinfulness, reading God's Word, and praying, we can build a firewall, or barrier, to safeguard our minds. With the help of the Spirit, we'll keep our minds from becoming unwitting hosts for unwanted. You need to guard your thoughts as you would your wallet.
[Heavenly Father, I’m often careless with what I allow to enter my mind; By Your Spirit:. please help me to guard my mind. By Your grace, keep me from situations that wage war on my thought life.]
Not only can we pull down these centers of opposition against divine truth by the spiritually powerful weapons, we can also use them to capture or subdue every thought to the obedience of Christ. After storming and pulling down and destroying these lofty high towers we can take possession of prisoners. These rebellious thoughts, preconceptions, and intentions are made captives and brought into obedience to Christ. The obedience of Christ is the only stronghold that the enemy can not enter into and conquer therefore we so desperately need the fortress of obedience to Christ in our life. O that rebellion in our heart and mind might be quelled and that God’s divine and sovereign will might reign in its place! Paul recognized that we have to live in the world with its trouble and "in the flesh" with its frailties. But the real battle is spiritual. Satan's stronghold is our minds. He is ever seeking to capture our thoughts. God has not left us to the whims of the flesh or to Satan. We have been given the weapons we need to take “every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.” Obedience is possible because of what Christ has already done. Because the victory was won on the cross, we have the right to evict thoughts that come from the world, the flesh, and the devil.
IV. THE SPIRITUAL VICTORY FOUND IN COMPLETE OBEDIENCE, 6.
How do you know if you have torn down Satan’s strongholds in your life and are fortifying your life in obedience to Christ. Verse six explains the action of complete obedience. And we are ready to punish all disobedience, whenever your obedience is complete.
Once you have torn down know strongholds in your life, taken your will and thoughts captive for Christ and no longer running from God’s discipline, you become ready to punish all that is not of Christ in your life. There are always places in our life that as we grow in God’s truth we discover are still not in line with His Word. When these raise their ugly head we relentlessly jump on them for we realize what would happen if they again gained a beach-head in our life.
Bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; or taking captive our whole understanding; means our mind is so saturated with divine light, that it clearly sees Christ alone as the One True Savior, and so become obedient to Him as Lord. Complete obedience means we look to Him alone for life and salvation, and rely upon Him. We become desirous and willing to be saved by Him in His own way so we receive and embrace all His truths and doctrines with faith and love, and obey them from the heart. It means we cheerfully and willingly submit to all His commands and directions so that we by the grace of God are demolishing all the enemies strong holds and reasonings. Our heart and mind have captivated by Him and His love for us so that we want not other master of our soul than Him alone. Complete obedience means that we will not tolerate disobedience in our life.
“Sow to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy; break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the LORD, till He come and rain righteousness upon you” (Hosea 10:12). So seek the Lord till He comes and rain righteousness down on us.
[It is All About the Seed we plant (Luke 8:11). The soil is neutral; it will grow whatever seed you allow to be planted there. If you search the scriptures about the type of life you want to have, the kind of traits you want in your character, the type of relationships you want to have and pray those verses to God, meditate on them, chew them over and over in your mind. If thoughts come in contrary to them, cast them out! Get rid of them, they do not belong in your life. Do not let them take root.
You have by God’s grace and strength broke up the fallow ground. This ground will not be hard wayside where seed will not take root nor is it shallow where it cannot gain root. Neither will it have weeds to choke out the good seed if we keep it tended with diligence and repentance. Yank out those weeds by the roots while they are small and keep yourself growing in the right direction.]
CONCLUSION
Strongholds are self-inflicted bonds we placed on ourselves and need to be removed one by one. Just as it takes time to build strongholds, they need time to come down. It takes 21 days to make a habit, but in 21 days we can replace it with a new, God glorifying lifestyle, but we need to remember that we have to want to change; God will not go against our will.
Is anything in your mind usurping God’s place? Is anything keeping you from knowing God more fully, from following Him more closely, from serving Him more faithfully? If so it is a stronghold and must come down and God has give us the weapons to tear it down and destroy it. What thoughts come up against you when you attempt to apply yourself to Christian teachings? If your thinking is not consistent with obedience to Christ, you are being deceived by false teachers, pride or sin. For if you were wholly Christ’s you would cast out anything in your life not of Him. Tear down the strongholds and open your life more fully to being obedient to Christ. Fight the good fight of faith with divinely empowered weapons with Christ as your commander-in-chief.
In 2 Timothy 4:7-8 the Apostle Paul made some closing comments on his life. “I have fought the good fight, I have finished the course, I have kept the faith; (8) in the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day; and not only to me, but also to all who have loved His appearing (NAS)
You cannot love Him and not obey Him, if you think so you love Jesus and yet do not obey His Word, Satan has built a stronghold in your mind and heart (Jn. 15). Come today and lay hold of the grace you need to fight the spiritual fight of faith in and for the Lord Jesus Christ.
