Welcome back!
Last week, we looked at the mission and method of the enemy- he wants to destroy us. DESTROY
So remember this is serious. We need to be aware of his mission and his method - deceit. He tries to get us to doubt the Word of God - the goodness of God towards us - so that he can build a fortress inside our thought life and influence our behavior from that occupation. That is how he robs us of joy and peace . That is how he gets us to worry and fume and become fearful, depressed, embittered, and cold-hearted. That is the road to destruction.
Hopefully this motivates us to want to remedy this, to remove him from occupying our head! To do so, we must not only wage war - we must win. Praise His name that He has provided the weapons we need for victory! 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 tells us how : For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ,
Therein lies our mission - to destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, taking every thought captive to Christ. Perhaps you ask - what does that mean and how do we do that? We ask the Lord to show us any thoughts that stand in opposition to the true knowledge of God. Where are we believing lies about Him? What am I thinking that is untrue about my Father? To demolish the stronghold requires weapons and one of these is Scripture. Ephsians 6 tells us that His Word is the sword of the Spirit. When I have His Word in me, I give the Holy Spirit something to fight with! This means that I immerse myself in His Word, reading and meditating on it so He can reveal Himself to me. The goal of the Christian is to know God. And that cannot be accomplished without a commitment to His Word. As I learn who HE is, I see where I have yielded to lies about Him and His Word begins transforming me (continuously!) and replacing the lies I have believed with TRUTH. Another thing to do with our thoughts is to “take them captive to obey Christ” - what does this look like? It doesn’t mean that I push the thought out of my head - that doesn’t work even if I try! It means that when the lies come into my head (the what if’s and if only’s, etc) that I take control of them by subjecting them to the truth of God’s Word. I confront the thoughts and strip them of power by declaring what God says instead of what those thoughts are. 2 Thessalonians 2:13 says that His Word “performs its work in those who believe”. Get it in and let it work, sisters!
The passage in 2 Corinthains uses weaponS, plural, not singular. So if Scripture is one weapon, what is the other? 2 Corinthians doesn’t specify but I think we can find the answer in Ephesians 6. This familiar set of verses describes how Christ-followers can gain victory and numerous weapons are listed here. I want to focus on the only two offensive ones mentioned: and take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God, praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end, keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints, We just discussed the sword of the Spirit (the Word of God) but notice what is coupled with that mighty sword - PRAYER! Prayer is also a powerful tool that God affords us in the battle. Bundling these two weapons together - Scripture and prayer - is like strapping two sticks of dynamite together! In fact, verse 4 of the 2 Corinthians passage uses a specific word to describe the divine power available to destroy these fortresses: dunamis. It means power, strength, ability and is literally the word from which we get our word for dynamite!
One final thought on winning the war. We know the enemy’s mission is to destroy us. We know that his method is to influence our thoughts and deceive us. We explored the weapons and means for us to fight. But it is very helpful to know how he gets in to our heads to begin with so that we can stop this before it gets started.
In closing today, let’s look at two passages: Ephesians 6:26,27 26 Be angry and do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, 27 and give no opportunity to the devil. and Matthew 18:32-35 32 Then summoning him, his master *said to him, ‘You wicked slave, I forgave you all that debt because you pleaded with me. 33 Should you not also have had mercy on your fellow slave, in the same way that I had mercy on you?’ 34 And his master, moved with anger, handed him over to the torturers until he would repay all that was owed him. 35 My heavenly Father will also do the same to you, if each of you does not forgive his brother from your heart.”
These verses reveal to us the entry point and the result of letting the enemy in, giving him opportunity to erect a stronghold in our minds. We give the enemy access when we don’t resolve anger in a the right way, resulting in unforgiveness. And the result of that unforgiveness is emotional imprisonment, subjecting us to the torture of bitterness, anxiety, depression, fear, shame, etc.
Gulp.
Not loss of salvation but loss of the abundant life Christ wants for us - peace and joy and freedom to follow Him fully.
The key to unlock this emotional prison, to tear down this stronghold, is to forgive. To proclaim the truth of Who God is and to extend to others the mercy He shows us. It is usually hard work (when Jesus explained forgiveness to the disciples, they cried out for Him to increase their faith! Luke 17:4,5). But the cost of not forgiving is too high a price to pay!
Here are a couple of earlier posts that might be helpful as you purpose to walk in forgiveness… Living Letters — Suzanne Chambers June 3,2013 June 5,2013