Pulling Down Strongholds
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2 Corinthians 10:3
3 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. 4 For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, 5 casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, 6 and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled.
Spiritual Warfare Part 2
Misconceptions about Spiritual Warfare
Spiritual warfare is not restricted to Demonic possession. It includes demonic possession but is not limited to it.
Spiritual warfare is not about healing or being free from sickness. Divine healing is a different subject. Although the devil’s attack can manifest in the physical, being free from or fighting known diseases is not Spiritual warfare.
No - Fighting the Corona Virus is not spiritual warfare. God can heal people who have contracted it but there are physical steps that you can do to avoid it, like washing your hands constantly or avoiding countries where the disease is rampant. Spiritual warfare is fought in the spiritual realm.
Spiritual Warfare is not against people. Although people may be used by the enemy to perpetuate his evil stance against you and the church as a whole, our real enemy is not a human being.
Satan works behind the scenes influencing someone to carry out his agenda against 1) The church and 2) The plan of God.
When people think of the most evil human being who ever lived, what name comes to your mind? Adolf Hitler. He may had seem to just be a mad man with dreams of world conquest and the actual war that was fought by America and the European allies was a just war that stopped him.
You see from a spiritual , evil as he was, Satan influenced him to carry out his hatred against who the Bible calls the apple of God’s eyes - The Jewish people. It was not only a war against global rule or German imperialism, what the allies found out late was that it was actually a rescue mission. Eventually 6 million Jews died in the Nazi holocaust.
Outline of Study - to show where we are going in our study.. how I organized this sermon series.
Christianity 101 lesson 7 - Foes of the faith. Image
•Enemies of Our Faith
•Flesh
•The World System
•Satan
The Three Battlegrounds, by Francis Frangipane but I have modified it in my own study and according to relevance to our own context.
Battlegrounds of Spiritual Warfare (Image)
•The Mind
•The Church
•The World
Battleground One (The Mind) IMage
The Mind
•Pride
•Uncrucified Thought Process
•Unforgiveness
•Fear
•Defeat
Battleground Two (The World System)
The World System
•The Economic System
•Secularism
•New World Order
•The Spirit of the Antichrist
Battleground Three (The Church)
The Church
Stronghold of Intercessory Prayer ()
Warfare through Worship
The Gift of Discernment
The Jezebel Spirit (identifying) - needs an Ahab
One truth that I want to reiterate today.
Satan is a defeated Foe. Jesus had won the ultimate victory!
On the cross Jesus had declared - “It is finished. Your sins have been paid for. Mission accomplished.”
Satan remains desperate because he knows his time is short. And the kind of warfare that he wages is a guerrilla warfare to annoy you, the Christian in your process of sanctification.
Satan’s aim in spiritual warfare:
Destroy your testimony.
Keep you from being used by God.
Make you walk away from the faith.
I want to set a recurring theme in our study on Spiritual Warfare:
Satan is terrified of Jesus Christ. We can only have complete Spiritual Victory when Jesus has complete presence and rule in our hearts.
(repeat this)
Today we will do a deep dive with our focus on the Battleground of the Mind.
4 For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds,
3 For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. 4 For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds.
2
2 Corinthians 10:3-4
Recap of the word Stronghold.
Image of the Word Stronghold here.
Picture Illustration of a stronghold.
Strongholds are the spiritual fortresses where Satan and his legions hide and are protected.
Going back to our slide of the Battleground of the Mind.
Pride is the Original Sin and is the foundation on which the strongholds in our mind are built.
The apostle Paul continues:
5 casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ,
5 Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness.
2 Corinthians 10:5
High thing means lofty opinions.
It can be a lofty opinion about one’s self. It is a kind of thought process that becomes a demonic stronghold which gives the devil a secure place in someone’s thought life.
You may think you have most of your life in order but if you have that small stronghold in your thought process where the Devil is secure and can roam around, you will not have victory.
Our spiritual defense is only as good as its weakest point. No matter how fortified your defense is it only takes a small breach on the wall where satan can enter for the whole defense to collapse.
Going back to our slide.
These are the strongholds where Satan dwells in the Christian’s life and keep him from winning the victory.
Uncrucified thought process.
Unforgiveness
Fear
Defeat
I preached last week that Pulling down these strongholds in a Christian’s mind begins with repentance.
It starts with the acknowledgement that you are a sinner and true righteousness comes from Jesus.
A Christian should acknowledge that “I am a sinner” (repeat) “Saved only by the grace of God”.
Stronghold of the Uncrucified Mind.
The uncrucified mind consists of sinful thought patterns that have not been surrendered to Jesus. These thought patterns manifest as sinful habits.
I talked about it last week - lying, a rebellious attitude, lust.
This kind of stronghold, the uncrucified mind believes that he or she is a sinner, that God saved him from the totality of his sins, but it is ok to leave these certain sins in his life.
He chooses to ignore these rough edges and checkered past that they still manifest and end up hurting others.
Instead of admitting “I am a sinner”, the Christian with an uncrucified thought life declares “I was a sinner” and moves on.
The uncrucified mind says:
“I was a sinner”.
Romans 12:
The Christian’s mind should be renewed:
Unforgiveness.
2 And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
Stronghold of Unforgiveness.
SOmeone once said that unforgiveness is like drinking a poisonous drink and wishing that someone else dies.
Unforgiveness is almost a toxic substance that remains in the soul that consumes the believer.
YEs there are people who have wronged you, there are people that have lied against you and attacked you. Remember, they are not your enemy. The enemy is the Devil the Father of lies. Don’t hate them, in fact love them even from a distance.
To the unforgiving mind, the mantra is: “I am less of a sinner”
I am sinner, but.... there is another person who is worse. than me”
The next stronghold in the Christian’s mind is fear.
What are Christians mostly afraid of? Fear of death, Fear of rejection, Fear of the unknown, fear of the future.. fear is sinful because it diminishes Who God is in your life. It diminishes what he has done in your life and ultimately, it nullifies the love of God and what he has done for you.
It is all in your mind.
God says from the Bible, “there is therefore now no condemnation, to those who are in Christ Jesus..
“God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory through Christ Jesus.”
“we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.”
God’s love is nullified only in your mind, but remember God loves you anyway. He does.
The greatest antidote to fear is the perfect love of God. Always remember that God loves You perfectly, unconditionally.
18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.
To the person who has fear as a stronghold, the mantra is “ I am only a sinner”.
This person has not been made perfect in love.
The last stronghold of the mind is defeat.
Stronghold of Defeat.
To the person with “Defeat” as a stronghold, the mantra is “I am just a sinner”.
It may sound the same as the previous mantra but this is more justifying why he cannot progress in the Christian life.
“I am just a sinner” means God don’t expect too much from me.
“I will always be a failure”
I will never amount to anything, having this thought process builds the walls, floors and ceilings - all the building materials for the stronghold of failure in your life.
Because you are loved and owned by God to say that you are a failure is to say that God has failed, in His ability, His love and His willingness to make you succeed.
Instead of “I am just a sinner” - say “yes I am a sinner, but I have been saved by grace and Jesus Christ is faithful to forgive me and to cleanse me from all unrighteousness.
Instead of “I am a failure” declare from the Bible “I can do all things through Christ WHo strengthens me”
Declare from the Bible “My Father in heaven, Who began a good work in me will be faithful to complete it until the day of the Lord Jesus”.
Pull down these strongholds in your minds!
Bring every thought captive into the obedience of Christ!
Call the worship team.
21 When a strong man, fully armed, guards his own palace, his goods are safe; 22 but when one stronger than he attacks him and overcomes him, he takes away his armor in which he trusted and divides his spoil.
Before our salvation, Satan was like a strongman, guarding the homestead of our souls, but when we were born again, someone much stronger the Lord Jesus Christ stripped him of his authority over us.
However, in the process of sanctification.. there remained in the Christian, little strongholds remain where Satan and his minions can occupy and remain unchallenged. Not possession..
Remember: Satan is terrified of Jesus Christ. We can only have complete Spiritual Victory when Jesus has complete presence and rule in our hearts.
What is that stronghold.?
Unpurified thought life.. I was a sinner..
Unforgiveness - I am less of a sinner than my brother.
Fear - I am only a sinner, You remain not perfected by the love of God.
Defeat - I am just a sinner and therefore remain a failure.
Prayer:
Father, I submit to you.
I submit every lofty thing in my mind that exalts itself against the knowledge of Christ.
By the power of your Holy Spirit, pull down every stronghold in the battleground of my mind.
By the power of your Holy Spirit. Take my every thought captive into the Obedience of Christ.
I surrender my thought life, purify it Lord.
I will not fear. Teach me to forgive.
And I declare: I am victorious in Christ.
In Jesus Mighty Name, Amen.