| 27 August, 2000 | Spiritual Strongholds | 2 Corinthians 10:3-6 |
Now if you're an eight or ten year old kid with a sandbox and
army men, you get down at one end and build a fort, and the other
kid gets down at his end, and he builds a fort.
You put your army men, and the little guns, and the little trucks
in place, and then you get out your squirt guns, water pistols,
and have a war.
You have to get down low, like you're shooting from your fort
at his, and you try to knock his army men over, and he tries to
build his walls up so that you can't hit them.
After a while, if you shoot enough water, the sand washes away,
and the walls of the other kid's fort start to collapse, and you
can break down his strong hold. Or maybe he could break down yours.
Now it's 45 years later, and I don't have a sandbox any more,
but I find in God's Word that I still have strong holds that need
to be knocked down.
And so do you. Maybe you don't know it, but you also have
strong holds that God needs to pull down. And they aren't in the
sandbox either.
Turn to 2nd Corinthians 10, and verse 3; " For though we
walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh:
:4 (For the weapons of our warfare are not
carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)
:5 Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalts
itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity
every thought to the obedience of Christ;
:6 And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when
your obedience is fulfilled."
Some of you here today have never been involved in a physical
war. That's good. But every Christian here today is involved in
a spiritual war that has a physical dimension.
And wether you like it or not, I am prepared to stand up here
as your pastor and tell every one of you, that you, - and
I, are not doing as well as we might.
There is a spiritual war going on, God is for you, the devil is
against you, your mind, my mind is the battleground, and we have
a problem.
The problem is that there are places in the battle ground of your
mind where the enemy has established a fortress, a strong hold,
a place where the enemy is able to hold and maintain his position,
and keep you from getting the victory. Now that's a real problem.
You may not realize that that's your problem. Or you may be aware
that you have a problem, but you don't know what to do about it.
God knows that you have a problem, and His Word tells you what
to do about it.
The verses that we just got done reading; verse 3 tells us; "For
though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh:"
Before we can get on with God's way of dealing with our problem,
we have to understand what the problem is. The world, and it's
worldly wisdom, is not much help.
When Satan gets a spiritual stronghold in us, it's a spiritual
problem with emotional, or psychological, or physical roots.
It does no good to try and fix with the problem with carnal tools,
worldly tools, because the world can only understand the emotional,
psychological or physical part of man, it cannot correctly grasp
the spiritual side of the problem.
Christians are beings with a body, soul, and spirit, but the world
does not correctly understand the spiritual side
of man, and consequently, human psychology falls very far short
of understanding the true nature of man.
It doesn't take long to realize that trying to use worldly tools
to fix a spiritual problem is not going to work.
I have fooled around with engines all my life, I used to make
a living working in a motorcycle shop, so I know a little bit
about how engines work.
Last week, I took the boat in to a professional, because it had
a problem in the electronic ignition, and I "no habla electronics."
For me to try and diagnose the electronic ignition on that boat
is like asking a worldly psychologist to diagnose a spiritual
problem.
It's like using a hammer to work on a stereo; it's not going to
get anything fixed. It's just going to cause other problems.
Even though we walk in the flesh, we cannot win any victories
against Satan, or our own fleshly nature by using the weapons
of the flesh.
That's what God is telling us; "Though we walk in the flesh,
we do not war after the flesh, we do not war in the fashion of
the flesh, not according to the flesh, for the weapons of
our warfare are not carnal."
The weapons that God gives us are not worldly, they are not anything
that the world or the flesh can understand or use.
We don't win against Satan, our flesh, bad habits, problems in
our lives by using worldly tools, or worldly weapons.
We don't need more information, better public relations, a nicer
neighborhood, a new car, or the latest Southern Gospel CD, we
need what the second half of this verse tells us about:
Weapons that are mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds.
We need to have spiritual power to pull down the
spiritual strongholds that Satan has set up in our
lives.
Something that I think we all recognize, is that Christians do
not automatically have all their problems solved when they come
to Christ.
Just because a person gets born again does not automatically fix
all their mental problems, all their emotional problems, or all
their various bad habits. It can take a while.
Did you ever know someone that was totally, utterly obnoxious
and then they got saved? A few years later you could really see
how they had grown in grace; they were only half as obnoxious
as they used to be, right?
That's why we are told to grow in grace, and in the knowledge
of our Lord Jesus Christ. There always needs to
be that growth process, and it's a school that we are in for the
rest of our lives. It never quits.
We need to continuously extend the authority of God over all the
chunks of occupied territory that Satan still has a claim on in
our lives.
Even though we praise God, and rejoice in our salvation, there
are still places in our lives where Satan has staked out an area
where God is not welcome.
Satan even has sentries posted in those areas, and that's how
you can tell where they are:
When the preacher starts to go there, something in your head cries
out; No! Wait! Stop! Halt! No trespassing!
Your wife, or your husband starts to go there, and the red flags
go up, and the Keep Out signs start waving.
Perhaps that's a spiritual stronghold that is still in the enemy's
control, the light of Christ has not yet shone in there?
Are you're wondering why it's taking you so long to become more
like Jesus?
It's because there is still territory in your mind and emotions
that is under enemy control.
When the nation of Israel came out of Egypt, they could have very
easily gone from Egypt to the promised land in less than two years,
but it took them 40 years, and the same thing is true of your
spiritual journey.
They didn't believe God. They didn't think He could do it for
them.
Who do you want to believe... God? ...Or the lies that Satan tells
you that God is unable to win the victory for you? It's your choice.
A strong hold is a military term for a castle or fortress where
the enemy has a base of operations; they can come and go as they
please. In our lives it can be mental, physical, emotional, or
genetic.
In the genetic realm it can be the result of something that you
got from your parents or grandparents that affects you physically
or mentally.
The Bible speaks of sin or a curse that affects a family or people
for several generations, today we know that children whose parents
were abusers are more likely to be abusers themselves.
Children whose parents were alcoholics or had mental problems
are more likely to have those same problems.
Satan can use that generational weakness to establish a stronghold
in a person's life.
Christ can break that pattern, that link to a generational sin,
but we need to cooperate with Him, instead of offering up that
territory to the enemy. Obviously, Satan will use whatever he
can find to build a stronghold for himself in your life.
Many times, the ground for a stronghold is laid when we are children.
Children learn more, quicker, when they are small than at any
other time in their life.
Did you ever consider that by the time a child is three years
old, it has learned how to walk, talk, eat, acquire basic social
skills, and it learns more, quicker, than at any other time in
it's life.
But during the childhood years, sometimes children learn things
that they shouldn't, and sometimes those things stay with them
from then on.
One of the things that draws us to Christ is His total, unconditional
love. Have any of you ever known total unconditional love
from any other person?
Unfortunately, much of the time what we get from other people
is rejection, and sometimes it starts with our parents.
"Why can't you be more like your brother?" "You
are so selfish." "Why are you always so thoughtless?"
"You broke our honeymoon vase; why do you always have to
be so clumsy?"
Parents mean well, but they're not perfect, sometimes they say
the wrong things. Sometimes it comes from brothers or sisters:
"They didn't want to have you, you were an accident."
"Dad likes me better than he likes you, because I'm the pretty
one, and you're stupid and funny looking."
Rejection. Hurt. Anger. Frustration. The emotions get out of balance,
the mental health is out of balance, and meanwhile, we still have
that old sin nature to deal with.
And in some area of our lives, the foundation gets laid down for
a spiritual stronghold.
Is there a problem area in your life that you are having trouble
dealing with?
Is there something that always seems to make you get very quickly
angry?
Is there something that seems to hurt your feelings very easily?
Do you have some pet peeve that just drives you wild, and realistically,
it's no big deal, but it is to you?
Do you readily find yourself disagreeing with other people?
Do you have some sort of addiction or compulsion in some area?
Are you very easily jealous, even though there's no reason?
Is there some aspect of your personality that you'd like to change,
but you just can't seem to?
Do you sometimes find yourself saying: "I don't know why
I did that, something just came over me."
If there is some aspect of your life or behavior that you know
needs changing, and you are stuck there, then that is where the
enemy has a spiritual stronghold.
Sometimes these things start when we are children, sometimes they
start when we are adults.
It is not sin to have an evil thought pass through your mind.
The world is full of evil all around us.
If you can see and hear, it is inevitable that something sinful
will pass through your mind from time to time when ever you are
conscious.
Sin comes when you take that thought and begin to consider it.
You turn it over and look at it like you would something in a
store that you are considering buying.
That's when temptation kicks in. The thought has become a temptation.
Then you make a choice; "I'm going to do it." The thought
has become a temptation, has become a choice, has become an action.
The thought has progressed from a thought to a sin.
Sometimes that sin is followed
by repentance, rejection of the action, and confession to God.
God gives restoration, and things are restored to a healthy spiritual
relationship.
Other times, the sinful action is repeated, the sin becomes a
habit. And the habit can become a stronghold. Satan can, and will,
use your sinful habit as a place to build a spiritual stronghold.
Why shouldn't he? You are consenting with him that you are opposed
to the will of God in this area of your life, he would be so glad
to help you along in your chosen direction. He'll even help you
build a fort.
Perhaps someone is wondering at this point; "Is this the
same thing as demon possession?" No.
Christians don't get demon possessed, but they can give the enemy
an area of operations, and eventually they can come under demonic
influence in that area, which naturally affects the rest of their
life.
A question for some of our military minded folks here: When you
allow the enemy to get entrenched in a position, what does that
mean?
Is it easier to defeat the enemy before he gets
entrenched in a position, or after he gets entrenched?
The Bible tells us that whatsoever is not of faith is of sin.
If you have something in your life that is doubtful, if you aren't
sure of it, be careful.
If you aren't sure that it is something that you want to live
with from now on, then don't be inviting it in, and fixing up
the spare room.
We should be able to take every aspect of our life before God
with perfect confidence.
A healthy Christian life should allow us to take our eating, TV
watching, conversations, love life, spending habits, whatever,
before God and be comfortable in His presence.
God made us like we are, and He said that His creation was very
good. And He knows that we need to eat, sleep, work, get married,
go potty, make love to our spouse, none of those things offend
Him in any way.
The key to having a good conscience is; are we conducting ourselves
according to the Owners Manual?
If we are, then we should be able to live confidently, comfortably
in the continuous presence of God.
If we are not being obedient to His Word, then our
conscience rightly ought to trouble us.
If our conscience keeps dragging us back to some particular
area, and that area is contrary to the Bible,
then possibly the enemy has established a spiritual stronghold
in that area of our lives.
So now we've established what a spiritual stronghold is, how it
gets started, and maybe how to avoid letting the enemy get one
set up:
How do we get rid of one after it's already in place?
We know from verse 4 that we need a mighty weapon from God to
pull the thing down, verse 5 gives us some instructions on what
form that weapon is to take.
Verse 5; "Casting down imaginations, and every high thing
that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing
into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;"
That is the weapon. That is the battle strategy. Don't miss
it!
In order to get the victory for Jesus in our minds and emotions,
we need to do four things:
1: Pull down the strong holds of the enemy
2: Cast down imaginations - I'll explain that in a minute
3: Cast down every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge
of God
4: And finally; bring every thought into captivity to the obedience
of Christ.
We have already decided that we want to pull down the stronghold,
the next step is to cast down imaginations.
The Greek word for imagination is logismos, from
which we get logical; a pondering or thinking, a reasoning that
is going on in your head, and in this context, this situation:
a thinking that is contrary to God.
Notice it is not the thinking or thought process that causes problems,
it is thinking contrary to Godly knowledge that
causes our problems.
God tells us that we are accepted in the beloved, His Son, Jesus
Christ. God's Word says it, we believe it, what's the problem?
When you were a little kid, your playmates laughed at you and
ran you off. You felt rejected; you've never
felt accepted in your life!
Your parents were too busy, or there was something you did, or
didn't do, that caused you to feel that you didn't measure up.
You felt rejected.
Now you read in the Word of God that you are accepted
in God's Beloved Son, but Satan has access to your mind,
and he is the master of the instant replay.
Satan will replay for you all the times that you were rejected,
all the times that some body hurt your feelings,
all the times that you felt like a useless jerk,
until you start to agree with him, and reject the truth that God
accepts you completely and unconditionally in His Beloved Son.
You read in His Word that God loves you and accepts you, but you
are still thinking; "I am a rejected person."
You have subconsciously exchanged the truth of God for a lie.
Maybe all those awful things really did happen to you, but Jesus
took all that stuff to the cross with Him.
You have been crucified to the world, the world has been crucified
to you, and when Satan tries to instant replay your old memories,
manipulate your imagination, pull the tape. Cast
it down.
Satan has access to your imagination and he replays that stuff
over and over in your head to undermine what God says, you need
to learn to recognize when he is playing with your head, and turn
him off. Cast it down.
Confess it to God that it was once true, but Jesus took it to
the cross, and it is under the blood, it is part of your old man
that is dead, buried with Jesus in baptism.
It has no claim on you now, and you don't need to claim it either.
And when Satan tries to replay it; confess it to God as old history,
and reject it.
It is dead now, it has no more claim on the person you once were,
because that person is dead; you're not that person any more.
You are a new creature in Christ; what do you care what went on
back then? Turn and walk away, and ask God to help you do it.
We are to bring every thought into captivity unto the obedience
of Christ.
Thank God for revealing His truth, thank Him for overcoming the
world, the flesh, and the devil, and ask Him to take your
thought life captive for Himself.
When Satan starts to run those instant replays of how your wife
hurt your feelings,
how your husband was thoughtless,
how your mother was a witch,
how your father mistreated you,
remember that the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, and in
the name of Jesus reject what the enemy says. Ask
God to throw it down.
Confess to God that the things in your head are not what He says,
and ask for the healing of your memories, and for the renewing
of your mind.
If that strong hold and that imagination is the result of some
sin in your life, same thing.
Confess it to God that it is contrary to what He says, ask Him
to take authority over it, and deliver you from it, and then turn
around and get away from it as fast as you can. Don't look back.
Remember Lot's wife.
God has chosen to operate His creation in such a way that when
we act in faith on what He tells us, that is when He releases
His power to change things.
Obviously God is all powerful, he is sovereign, and He could do
anything He wants any way He wants, but He has chosen to act in
response to our faith.
When we fail to call on Him in faith, then we deprive ourselves,
and who knows who else, of a tremendous exercise of God's power.
Call on Him in faith, and let Him get the victory for you.
The next thing you want to do is bring every thought into captivity
to the obedience of Christ on an ongoing basis.
You still have your old memory banks, so you still have a potential
for Satan to take those old memories and do the instant replay
thing on you again when you're guard's down.
Get into the habit of recognizing Satan's techniques for what
they are.
When one of those old lies, sins, behaviors comes up, recognize
it for what it is, an imagination contrary to God,
and turn against it.
Claim it for Christ, remind yourself that Christ has already defeated
it, and cast it down again before it has a chance to get entrenched
against you.
And if Satan replays it and you find yourself agreeing with it,
count it as sin, and confess it as a sin of unbelief.
God will take care of it. God is in the business of forgiving
sin.
Remember Jesus telling the story of the man who had the evil spirit
cast out, and then the man failed to replace the evil with something
good?
The premises stayed vacant, and after a while the evil spirit
came back and found the place sitting there with a "Vacancy"
sign on.
What did he do? He moved back in and brought all his friends along.
When you pull down strongholds, don't leave things vacant; replace
lies with truth. Remind yourself that you are accepted in
Jesus.
Remind yourself that you are in Him, and He is in
you, begin a new system, a new habit of thinking.
Replace the old with the new, replace the false with the true.
What God says is true; believe it, trust it.
If you are having an up day, or having a down day, believe it
anyway. God is true wether our emotions think so or not, don't
base your faith on your emotions.
Faith is not an act of the emotions, it is an act of the will.
When we respond to God's Word in faith, then God responds to His
Word acted on by us.
The important thing is not how much faith we have, it is that
God responds to His Word. God honors His Word.
If we respond to God's Word in faith, God will honor His Word
and act on it.
Jesus said; "You shall know the truth, and the truth shall
set you free." Acting in faith on God's Word will set us
free from the spiritual strongholds that the enemy has set up
within us.
Just as in other areas of our Christian life, it may take a while
to recover all the captured territory.
Joshua was faithful to lead the Israelites into Canaan, he was
a good soldier, but there still came a time when the Lord told
him; "You are old and stricken in years, and there still
remains very much land to be possessed."
The people had gotten lazy, they had gotten involved in other
things, displacing the enemy was no longer that high on their
list of priorities.
It is easy for us to go out and get the victory for Jesus in some
certain area of our lives, subdue the enemy in this area or that
area; we start feeling pretty good about ourselves.
Things are generally pretty comfortable, we are doing a lot better
than we used to, we are mature, grounded, things are under control.
Meanwhile, there are still pockets of resistance. Was it last
year that they found that Japanese soldier still hiding out in
the mountains somewhere, still didn't know the war was over?
It is easy for us to get satisfied with the victories that we
get, and then allow the enemy to leave pockets of resistance here
and there in our lives and thought patterns.
Galatians 5:1 tells us "Stand fast therefore in the liberty
wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again
with the yoke of bondage."
Paul is dealing with legalism in that passage, but the idea still
fits; once we get untangled and get away from the enemy's traps
and snares, we need to get them gone, or sooner or later we'll
end up stumbling into them again.
Romans 12:2 tells us; "Be not conformed to this world: but
be transformed by the renewing of your mind", and I think
this whole concept fits in perfectly with that verse.
The last verse in our passage today, 2 Corinthians 10:6, reads:
"And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when
your obedience is fulfilled."
This is one of those things that is easier to illustrate than
it is to explain.
The natives in tribal New Guinea had a custom of having certain
types of ritual songs and dances.
Sometimes they would work themselves up into a frenzy and the
ritual would culminate in what they called the "Murder Songs",
during which they shout before God the names of the people that
they wish to kill.
After Christianity came to the area, and the natives were converted,
they kept their customs and the ritual, but in the murder songs,
they no longer shouted the names of the people they hated, but
the names of their sins that they hated, and they called on God
to destroy those sins in them.
After their obedience had been fulfilled, they were ready to punish
and take revenge on their own disobedience.
Once we pull down the strongholds that are within us, will we
be tolerant and casual about those sins from now on?
Or will we be quick to come against them, take revenge on them,
take no prisoners; if they show up again?
I'm not talking here about dealing with some one else's strong
holds, I'm talking about keeping both the speck and the
log out of our own eye.
Will we be quick to take revenge on those things in our lives
once we are obedient to get rid of them? Or will we be careless,
and then maybe get entangled again?
God's Word is very simple, and very liberating: identify the problem.
Is there something in your life that is causing a problem, and
you are having trouble dealing with it?
Then it is a stronghold, and it needs to be pulled down.
The weapon you pull it down with is to cast down imaginations
and high things that are contrary to the knowledge of God.
Satan reruns, replays, and reinforces your thoughts of rejection,
hurts, and pet sins to keep you thinking and feeling contrary
to the truth of God.
Recognize that for what it is, confess it as sin, and turn from
it.
Call it what it is, a lie that denies the truth of God, and give
it to Jesus, bring your thought life into captivity to Christ,
tolerate none of your thoughts to be in rebellion against Him.
And then finally, once you start to make progress, don't let down,
don't get careless.
There will always be some land that remains to be possessed for
the Lord, be quick to take revenge when you have any mental or
emotional rebellion that pops up.
There will be many battles, many strongholds, plan on it, be consistent.
God has abounding grace for each of us and all of us, he knew
that things were going to be this way, and He has made provision
for our victory.
Call on Him early, call on Him often, He delights to help us be
clean and victorious before Him.
As we close today, I believe that many, if not all of us in here
today have strongholds that need to be pulled down.
I suspect that probably all of us have much territory that still
needs to be taken away from the enemy, and I want this to be an
opportunity to get it started.
Something about enemy strongholds; sometimes prisoners are kept
captive in them.
If the enemy has you captive today, he wants you to think that
you can't get out, but you can.
All you need to do to escape that stronghold is walk out of it;
come down here and confess that thing to God and ask Him to begin
today to deliver you from it.
What kind of stronghold has got you so captive so that you can't
come to God and have Him free you? It doesn't exist;
God is able to deliver you.
Specifically ask God to help you to pull down that stronghold
that has you bound.
Ask God to open your eyes to the lies of the devil and deliver
you from them, casting down false imaginations, and replacing
them with His unconditional love and acceptance.
Instead of Satan's strongholds, ask Him to take your thoughts
captive to Jesus Christ instead, and teach you about His abounding
grace and mercy.
And if you need to receive Jesus Christ for salvation, you let
me know, I would love to introduce you to our wonderful Savior.