Winning the war part 2

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

Winning the war

John 10:10 tells us that the enemy of our souls seeks “only to steal, kill, and destroy”. His intent is to devastate us - not to give us a bad day but literally to destroy us. We are probably familiar with this verse but perhaps we don’t let the reality of it sink in. He wants to destroy us.

Maybe we do know that. But are we aware of his tactics, how he goes about accomplishing his mission? Today we will take a look at some of his schemes and some ways we can thwart his efforts.

First, where does he operate? How does he get to us? We know from 2 Corinthians 4:4 that he gets to unbelievers by way of deceit: The god of this age [that is, Satan] has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God .

SO how does he get to us believers? Aren’t we who are in Christ protected? Eternally speaking, yes we are. Jesus says that nothing can snatch us from His hand (John 10:28) and that nothing can separate us from the love of God (Romans 8:38,39). Hooray and hallelujah! Does that mean we are free and clear? Eternally speaking, yes, but while we are still on earth, Satan strives to destroy any part of our lives that he can. Our testimony, our joy, our peace, and yes, even our physical lives.

Gulp.

How does he do that to those of us in Christ? By the same method - deceit. But I am afraid that just as Eve was deceived by the serpent’s cunning, your minds may somehow be led astray from your sincere and pure devotion to Christ (II Corinthians 11:3) He causes us to doubt God’s goodness to us by getting to our minds.

Our minds are incredibly powerful. Amazingly so. Even for those of us who feel ours is fading and fallible! Our minds host the capacity for great good - creativity, problem solving, positive influence, on and on. Our minds also are capable of great harm - harboring toxic thoughts which spawn great evil. And we who follow Christ must be vigilantly aware that the enemy of our souls is completely aware of this dual capacity!

Undoubtedly, he has many ways to influence our thoughts but today I am focusing on one way that Scripture says he “gets in our head”. Once in our head, 2 Corinthians 10:4 tells us that he literally builds a fortress from which he operates his mission of destruction. Perhaps you are saying - WAIT! Satan cannot possess a believer! This cannot be true! Let’s take a look at that verse…

For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds.

We will look at the weapons later - for now, let’s focus on that word “strongholds”. That describes a place of enemy occupation, from where he antagonizes the occupant. Spiritually speaking, this means that he hangs out in our head and influences first our thoughts and ultimately our feelings and behaviors. This verse makes it clear that these strongholds exist and that we must strive to avail ourselves of the divine power necessary to wipe them out.

We will get to that in a minute. For now, let’s explore how the enemy is able to build that fortress - that stronghold - in the first place.

Verse 5 of that same passage enlightens us: We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, It tells us how we fight this war but first look at what allowed the enemy access: arguments and opinions that try to seem bigger than the truth of who God is (“lofty” - because NOTHING is bigger than God!) What might some of those thoughts and arguments and opinions be? Maybe you are thinking of other religions or idealogies that proclaim salvation by a way other than Jesus. Maybe this verse makes you think of evolution or self-help psychology. Certainly those can be “lofty opinions raised against the knowledge of God” but the thoughts that occur to me are closer to home. Thoughts such as “I can’t do this. It’s too hard.” or “I deserve better than this”. Maybe envy like “why doesn’t something good like that happen to me?” or hurt “after all I’ve done for them, how could they treat me like this?” A response to wounding like “I always knew she never liked me” or an assumption that does not give the other person the benefit of the doubt. A critical spirit that manifests itself in thoughts such as “I know better than they do” or resentment that sounds like “why am I the one who always has to do…”. I don’t know about you but these are much more familiar temptations in my mind than Islam or Darwin!

Thus, the enemy gains admission to our mind. By the allowing of our thoughts to not obey Christ. By our ignorant acceptance that anything could be bigger than the truth of God’s love for us. And our neglect and/or unwillingness to employ the weapons He supplies us to destroy the efforts of the enemy to deceive us. In short, we fail to make our thoughts bow to the truth of Christ’s authority and love.

Well, per usual, I’ve gone on longer than I initially intended. SO we will close here for today and next time we will look at specific ways to use those tools and one specific thing to be on guard against.

Tks for reading!

Barney lied

Barney lied.  If you raised your kids singing with the lovable purple dinosaur, you may need an adjustment in your thinking.  Because his song “Everyone is special” is not truth.  By definition, everyone cannot be special!

Before you assault me for cartoon heresy, let me assure you that I believe God’s Word teaches us that everyone is VALUABLE.  But not special.  “Special” is defined as “ better, greater or otherwise different from what is usual. “  Therefore it is impossible for every person to be special! Every person is indeed valuable , being made in the image of God, and therein worthy of dignity, respect and love. But “special” – no, we are not all special.  We must reject that notion because it inevitably leads us to think that we (or our children) are the exception to the rule.  Think about where that kind of thinking leads!

As the exception, we can live by our own rules because the rule common to all does not apply to us. We deserve different accommodations, treatment, and consideration from others because we are “special”. We should not be subjected to the same requirements as others and should be free to please ourselves regardless of the impact on those “not special” others. How deceitfully enticing it is to want to be our own god!  It is easy to see how chaos ensues from that!

 The lie perpetuated by Barney also leads us to be deceived about how tough we have it. We think our trials and tribulations are so unique that we deserve either pity or commendation. We are tempted to tell our story (perhaps even exaggerating the extent of our difficulty or at least being myopic in our perspective!)in hopes of eliciting either sympathy for how hard we have it or admiration for making it through . When the listener attempts to offer a more balanced view of the situation, we often protest with “you don’t really understand”. We spend much time and expend much energy defending our justification of how different (difficult) our story is and trying to garner the appropriate response. Being special is actually exhausting!

What does God’s Word say about such “special-ness”? That it doesn’t exist! I Corinthians 10:13 exhorts us “No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man”.  COMMON! Not special. The Greek word that we translate as “temptation” is “peirasmos” and comes from the word that means “experience”. Contextually, the word is telling us that whatever is happening to us has happened to plenty of other people and we need to not consider ourselves so special!

Instead of being deflating, this should instead encourage us. We are experiencing what numerous others have also experienced and the good news is that more than plenty of them survived! If they can do it, so can we. In the first epistle attributed to the Apostle Peter, he says in chapter 5 to resist the devil “knowing that the same experiences of suffering are being accomplished by your brethren who are in the world”.  This is followed by the glorious promise in verse 10 “And after you have suffered for a little while, the God of grace who called you to His eternal glory in Christ will Himself perfect, confirm, strengthen and establish you”.

No, we are not “special”. But we who are in Christ are indeed “set apart” and counted worthy to be strengthened and established and transformed by circumstances “specially” designed for our sanctification and His glory. Amen.

Being thankful...in all things...

Sometimes I surprise myself by being surprised that hard times come.  Duh, I should know that by now.  But I still get blindsided sometimes by the fact that life's not always easy.  My head surely knows better but my heart seems to expect that fairy tales happen in real life. All my wishes granted.  For me and all my family.  All the time.  Every day.  All day long.                                  Reality is that some things are hard.  It can be hard to be a Mom of toddlers.  It's also hard to parent adult children.  And it's hard to not be a Mom.   It's hard to adjust to a new job.  It's hard to persevere in the same job for a long time.  And it's hard to not have a job .Sometimes it's hard to get meals on the table.  It's hard to pay for all those meals.  And it's hard not to have anything to feed your family.  It's hard to be in relationships and have conflict.  It's hard to sustain relationships.  And it's hard not to have relationships.  It's hard to go through difficulties.  And it's  more painful than imaginable to watch someone you love go through tough times.

Yep, there are hard times that come into each of our lives.  Whatever race the Lord has marked out for us will have bumps and potholes and sometimes seemingly impassable brick walls.  If, however, we can learn to view them with His wisdom - that they are designed to bring us good - we will not only be less surprised when we happen upon them but we will even be able to run through them with joy.  Here's a verse that helps me:

I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship. Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect. Romans 12:1,2

If we have dedicated our lives to serving Christ, we are indeed "living sacrifices".  The way we live our lives is our offering - our worship - to Him.  The greatest part about this is not that we are committed to Christ but that He is committed to us.  He takes the responsibility of making us holy and acceptable to God, of transforming us from being like the world to being like Him.

A picture from the Old Testament helps me understand this..........when an animal was offered as a sacrifice to the Lord, the priest laid it out on the altar.  Of course it was dead, but sometimes it would slip and slide right off that hallowed place.  It was the priest's job to keep it there.  To hold it in place so that it could be consumed by the fire that made it a holy sacrifice to the Lord, the priest had long piercing meat forks that he plunged into the flesh if it should begin to slide.  A stab in the flesh would pull it back into its place on the altar and not allow it to slip off.

Those hard times we go through are like those forks in the hands of the priest.  Our flesh sometimes needs a poke - or a deep piercing - to keep us in the place of close proximity to the Father, to maintain our attitude of worship of and dependence upon Him.  To let us experience Who He is.

It hurts.  My flesh doesn't like being pricked. I'll bet yours doesn't either.

That financial crisis might really be a stab in fleshly materialism.  That heartbreak might be what it takes to keep us soft and tender.  Those constant demands of parenting might instead be piercing what remains of selfishness in our hearts.  The repeated thrusts out of our comfort zone are possibly the fork of the Priest pushing us out of complacency and into compassion for others.The only way for the offering to be holy and acceptable is if the priest keeps it in the place of sacrifice...and we need our minds transformed to see that as good and acceptable and perfect. And in this season of Thanksgiving, may we be faithful to praise Him, to thank Him IN ALL THINGS!