Bringing down strongholds in our life
Introduction-
I cannot let go of one of the text from last week- Jesus desiring for us to climb to a higher level of commitment and to see greater things done in our life. Wouldn’t that be a great journey?
Matthew 5. (Message)- “When Jesus saw his ministry drawing huge crowds, he climbed a hillside. Those who were apprenticed to him, the committed, climbed with him. Arriving at a quiet place, he sat down and taught his climbing companions.”
I am going to ask you to climb with Jesus this morning- I want to talk about spiritual warfare. I want to address the strongholds that are in our lives that keep us from being and doing what God has for us.
I know some will struggle because it is a subject we do not like talking about.
There are so many people content to live short of the life that God intends for us. Who are not willing to exert the energy needed for us to get to where we need to be. We are doing godly things in our own strength instead of God’s strength. We are living below where the Lord intends for us because we are not willing to let go of the things that keep us down.
There are strongholds in our life that the Lord wants to break but we first have to let go of them.
We first have to acknowledge that we have a problem with that stronghold and desire it to be taken away.
Do whatever is needed for the Lord to give us victory.
Illustration-
If you are a man or women of God and you are seeking the Lord to do whatever is needed in your life to please God, you would be excited to have a preacher come to the pulpit and bring God’s word because even if the word steps on your toes, you are willing to make the changes in your life. If on the other hand, you are struggling in some areas of your life but are not willing to make those changes, that same preacher comes to town and you will shut him down because you are not willing to do what the Lord is telling you through that man or women of God.
THAT IS WHERE THE CHURCH AT CORNITH WAS WITH THE APOSTLE PAUL SHOWING UP IN OUR TEXT THIS MORNING.
2 Corinthians 10:1-6
Prayer-
Apostle Paul comes to the church at Corinth with the authority of being an apostle of the Lord, but also wanting to have the meekness and gentleness of Jesus. By definition “meekness is to be humble” like Jesus and gentleness “is not weakness but the boldness” of Jesus to bring the truth of God to them with the heart of compassion.
As I (Paul) come to you, I want you to sense Jesus, but the same Jesus that brings truth is coming to speak to your spiritual condition.
If you think those days were any different than today, you would be wrong- God is still trying to use men and women of God to bring down strongholds that defeat most believers.
“Though we live in this world, we do not wage war as the world does” - What does he mean?
There are two kingdoms- God’s kingdom and Satan’s kingdom- (Ever sense the fall of Satan from God’s kingdom, he has set out to destroy the people of God ( Fall of man in the garden) Ever sense you became a believer (Reversal of the fall of man), you are no longer of one kingdom and you belong to the other. Satan with his hatred for God hates God’s people and will do whatever he can to destroy not only the things of God but the people of God.
You can say you don’t believe that but that is the truth of God’s word and is backed up by scripture-
Jesus in his priestly prayer of John 17- (Talking to God the Father)
“My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. As you have sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world.”
We have to live in this world, but we as believers are no longer part of this world thinking.
We are to be different! We are to bring under captivity our thoughts and our actions to match those of Jesus Christ.
Meaning that anything that does not match up with the thought and actions of Christ must be eliminated from our lives-
We have Satan trying to trip us up and we have our own selfish desires that flare up and make us lose our focus on Christ.
We can blame the devil for a lot of things, but sometimes, it is our selfish actions that cause strongholds in our life that take us away from the Lord.
So quickly, what do I want us to see in these verses?
I want you to be able to define what a Stronghold is.
I want you be able to Identify the strongholds in your life
That you would allow the Lord to pull down the strongholds that are destructive in and for your life.
That you would allow God to build up the strongholds that come from Him.
What is a stronghold? – (Write Down) A stronghold is something that has a stronghold on your life! That folks is why I went to college-
A destructive stronghold is something that holds you and keeps you from doing what the Lord would want you to do.
A stronghold is a struggle with the enemy.
It can be a fleshly desire that goes against God’s word.
Catch this- A stronghold is a mindset that is against the things of God and that could be rulers, leaders, authorities or powers of this dark world.
Strongholds are lies that keep us from the truth.
A stronghold is a mindset, a thought process, value system that hinders our life.
Anything that competes with Jesus is a stronghold for a believer. (Repeat)
Ephesians 6;12
“For our struggles is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, and against the spiritual forces of evil”
Jesus knew the crowd around him did not understand what was happening when He began casting demons out of people and seeing people healed. In fact some thought it was demonic for him to heal and accused him of casting out demons by demons-
Luke 11:17-26 Read from the Bible
So we can see that a lot of things can be a stronghold in our lives if we let them.
When we talk about spiritual warfare most people tune out. They don’t want to think that someone would want to hold us down and destroy us spiritually. It is much easier to think that God loves us and won’t let anything happen to us. But as a believer, we know that we need to get spiritually smart about the things going on in our lives.
You cannot survive in a divided kingdom- (get all in)! A house divided does not stand!
It is by the authority of Jesus Christ that those demons had to come out of those people.
There is no controversy of who is in charge here- Jesus sent them to flight!
So how could and why would Satan cast out his own demons? - He would not- Jesus describes a strong person whose opponent tries to attack and overpower him and fails.
Jesus states that Satan is no match for Jesus Christ, who has taken away his armor and de-toothed the roaring lion and will plunder his domain.
Like a roaring lion- 1 Peter 5:8 “Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.”
Satan is a liar and the father of lies. He will try to imitate the things of God but twist them to take us out of focus on the things of God.
Victory comes when we change our way of thinking to the way of the Lord and our mindset is grounded on the word of God.
Illustration- (This is not mine, but very good to illustrate this point.)
You want to make a chocolate cake but you grabbed the pancake mix. No matter how much your desire to have chocolate cake, you cannot have it because you have grabbed and taken pancake mix. You can have the right intent but the content has to be right.
Success comes from having the right mindset and using the right ingredients to get the desired end product.
Whatever has a stronghold on you will guide the direction of your life.
Back to the text- very important
2 Corinthians 10: 3- 6 read from Bible!
We are fighting a spiritual battle- we cannot do it without the Lord!
We are needing weapons that are not carnal but mighty in the Lord!
God’s weapons bring down strongholds
Divine power demolishes strongholds- not only releases but destroys! Amen!
Here’s what the message Bible says of this verse-
“The world is unprincipled. It is dog-eat-dog out there! The world doesn’t fight fair. But we don’t live or fight our battles that way- never have and never will. The tools of our trade aren’t for marketing or manipulation, but they are for demolishing that entire massively corrupt culture. We use our powerful God- tools for smashing warped philosophies, tearing down barriers erected against the truth of God, fitting every loose thought and emotion and impulse into the structure of life shaped by Christ. Our tools are ready at hand for clearing the ground of every obstruction and building lives of obedience into maturity.”
We bring every thought, every image, every action that goes against God’s word and we bring it under the captivity of Christ.
The word captivity here is a Greek word meaning conquer- sword. We conquer in Christ and in God’s word, the Sword of the Spirit.
He desires to break the pattern of bad thinking! A negative person became negative because it is what they practiced until it become who they were. The way to break that stronghold is to change the pattern of thinking and begin to think positive thoughts- to become the person that you desire to be. With God’s help, the Spirit of God directs you in a right direction.
Proverb 23:7 “As a man thinks in his heart, so is he!”
Fear- False Expectation appearing real- again not my saying but good stuff!
Illustration-
My wife is obsessed with stink bugs! She can spot one from a mile away. You would swear that they were armor tanks ready to destroy. They look like something prehistoric but they cannot hurt us- in her defense they do have a smell and are kind of creepy. What if we approached strongholds or wrong thinking with that intensity- there is stinking thinking- boom! Destroyed, eliminated and taken out of our lives! FLESHED DOWN THE TOILET!
Last thought of how we get them out of our lives-
Luke 11:21- Jesus words not mine- red letter in your bible
“When a strongman, fully armed, guards his own house, his possessions are safe. When someone stronger attacks and overpowers him, he takes away the armor in which the man trusted and divides his plunder. Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.”
I am asking you this morning- do you want the strongholds out of your life?
You cannot do it by yourself. It is not about wishful thinking- it is by identifying the stronghold, asking the Lord to take it out of your life and remove it in the name of Jesus.
It is about taking those thoughts, those actions and images under the Lordship of Christ- the author and finisher of our faith.
It is about claiming the ownership of the things that have been stolen and demanding in the name of Jesus that they be returned to you.
It is not by manipulation, it is the pure power of Jesus Christ over the enemy of things in your life.
I am going to ask you this morning- do you want the strongholds out of your life and are you willing to keep bringing them under the lordship of Christ until you see victory?
If you would want that this morning, would you just raise your hand, I want to pray with you this morning.
When God tears down, He does it for our own good and He will always replace it with something better-
Prayer-
