Some of the best rebukes or reminders I receive come from books.  Sometimes the rebukes are just easier to receive because no one sees you wince and there is no alter call – just a lingering conviction that you have begun to forget the most important things.  Its easy to be busy doing good things but not the most important things. The most critical thing in good relationships is communication.  Our relationship with God is no different. The people I know who spend the most time in intimate prayer are also the ones who hear God most clearly and who are anointed with the most power.  Have you noticed that most of the great intercessors you know are probably women?  I think it is because women are more relational by nature than men,  Thy know the value of communication.  It’s harder for men.  When it comes to Christian men, God probably feels like a frustrated wife wanting her husband to talk to her rather than working on projects or watching football. Men love to work for God but it’s harder for them to spend extended time in prayer with him.  Jesus was a man but he spent hours in prayer on many occasions.  It made all the difference for him and it can make all the difference for us.

In speaking about Jesus and the “money changers” in the temple, Jim Cymbala writes, “The first century money-changers were in the temple, but they didn’t have the spirit of the temple. They may have played a legitimate role in assisting people to worship, but they were out of sync with the whole purpose of the Lord’s house. ‘The atmosphere of my Father’s house,’ Jesus seemed to say, ‘is to be prayer.  The aroma around my Father must be that of people opening their hearts in worship and supplication.  This is not just to make a buck.  This is a house for calling on the Lord.’… The feature that is supposed to distinguish Christian churches, Christian people, and Christian gatherings is the aroma of prayer. It doesn’t matter what your tradition of my tradition is.  The house is not ours anyway; it is the Father’s.  Does the Bible ever say anywhere…’My house shall be called a house of preaching? Does it ever say, ‘My house shall be called a house of music?’ Of course not. The Bible does say, ‘My house shall be called a house of pray for all nations.’  These things (preaching and music) are fine … but they must never override prayer as the defining mark of God’s dwelling. The honest truth is that I have seen God do more in people’s lives during ten minutes of real prayer than in ten of my sermons” (Jim Cymbala, Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire, p.71).

It’s true.  The Biblical record is that Pentecost was launched by a prayer meeting. Jesus walked on water after a night alone speaking to the Father. When his disciples failed at casting out a demon, Jesus told them that prayer and fasting were necessary to cast out that kind of spirit.  Paul calls on us to pray without ceasing. When Paul tried to preach without ceasing a young man fell out of an upper story window and had to be brought back to life by prayer. Peter received a vision that opened up the gospel to the Gentiles when he was on a roof praying. When believers gathered to pray in Acts 4, the place where they were meeting was shaken, they were filled with the Holy Spirit and spoke the word boldly.

Biblically, prayer moves heaven not great sermons or wonderful worship unless the worship is lifted up as prayer. All of those are essential to the life of the church put to be anointed with life changing power; they must be bathed in prayer.  Very few churches truly have prayer meetings any more.  We have conferences, worship nights, sports ministries, support groups, and even community service events but rarely do we gather to pray fervently. Perhaps, that is the primary reason we lack power in the American church and even in our individual lives.  “My house shall be called a house of prayer!”  How amazing would it be if every believer could say that about their own home as well as their church. Just a reminder from pastor Cymbala, but a very important one. May we ramp up our prayer life today and be blessed.

In his classic book, Mere Christianity, the British author C.S. Lewis (Chronicles of Narnia) tells the story of an “old, hard-bitten officer” in the Royal Air Force who stood up at a lecture Lewis was giving about Christian doctrines and said, ”I’ve no use for all that stuff.  But mind you I’m a religious man too.  I know there’s a God. I’ve felt him; out alone in the desert at night; the tremendous mystery.  And that’s why I just don’t believe your little dogmas and formulas about him. To anyone who’s met the real thing they all seem so petty, so pedantic, and unreal!” Here was a man who had experienced God in a profound way and who felt that studying the word and understanding doctrines about God was unnecessary and, perhaps, boring.  Whenever he wanted to connect with God he could just go to the desert.  That was enough.

If you have read this blog very long you know that I believe God wants us to experience him – not just read about him.  But there is a danger in basing your understanding of God primarily on experiences rather than the word and diligent study.  It takes both. I like Lewis’ analogy to explain the need for both experience and study.

“If a man has once looked at the Atlantic from a beach, and then goes and looks at a map of the Atlantic, he also will be turning from something real to something less real: turning from real waves to a bit of colored paper.  But here comes the point. The map is admittedly only colored paper, but there are two things you have to remember about it.  In the first place, it is based on what hundreds and thousands of people have found out by sailing the real Atlantic.  In that way it has behind it masses of experience just as real as the one you could have from the beach; only, while yours would be a single isolated glimpse, the map fits all those experiences together.  In the second place, it you want to go anywhere, the map is absolutely necessary. As long as you are content with walks on the beach, your own glimpses are far more fun than looking at a map.  But the map is going to be more use than walks on the beach if you want to get to America.  Now, theology is like the map.  Merely learning and thinking about the Christian doctrines, if you stop there, is less real and less exciting than the sort of thing my friend got in the desert. Doctrines are not God: they are only a kind of map. But that map is based on the experiences of hundreds of people who really were in touch with God…And secondly, if you want to get any further, you must use the map. You see what happened to that man in the desert may have been real, and was certainly exciting, but nothing comes of it.  It leads nowhere.” (C.S. Lewis, Mere Christianity, p. 135-136)

Lewis goes on to make the point that if all you ever do is look at the map without going to sea, then the map is useless.  However, if you go to sea without the map, you are in dangerous waters indeed.  I think that is especially true for the deep waters of experiencing God.  Many believers have simply studied the map (the Bible) for years without going out on the waters of risk and the miraculous.  Others however have plunged into the exciting waters of miracles and experiences with God without a map.

I was frustrated and disappointed this past year while attending a conference on healing that was hosted by a church I highly respect.  One of the speakers was teaching a session on healing and in a sentence or two made fun of people who thought you needed to anoint someone with oil before healing.  His attitude seemed to be that his experiences with God had taken him beyond all that.  Well, I believe people can be healed without anointing.  Most of us have seen that happen.  On the other hand, anointing with oil is a clear biblical teaching that should not be dismissed out of hand or treated as if only the immature would still use such archaic approaches to healing.  If it’s on the map there is a reason and we should not begin to assume we know more than the mapmaker.  John tells us that we must always test the spirits to see if they are from God. The first test is whether their directions line up with what’s on the map.

We are moving into a season where the Holy Spirit will not be the only spirit producing miracles and amazing spiritual experiences even in our churches.  If we have not studied the “map” diligently, we may be led off the map into dangerous waters.  Some of the old sailing maps would simply have a warning along the edge of unexplored territories that simply said, “There be monsters here.”  I’m not saying that God will not manifest in ways he has never done before. I think he may expand our understanding of the map so that it feels like new, unexplored territory.  But it will still be consistent with his ways, his character, and his Word.  An experienced sailor who has studied and trusted the “map” for years will know when new directions make absolutely no sense. At least he will sail with caution while keeping his eye on true north.

My encouragement today for those of us who love to experience God is that we also need to become serious students of the Word.  The psalmist declared, “I gain understanding from your precepts; therefore I hate every wrong path. Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path” (Ps.119:104-105).  Understanding gained from diligent study keeps us from taking wrong paths and ending up in waters where “there be monsters.” The light or understanding we gain from God’s word gives us light for the path ahead but also instructs us in our walk for immediate circumstances. His light not only keeps us on track but also keeps us from stumbling while on that track.

Without experiencing God we will not truly know him but without the map we won’t be sure that we have truly found him.  If you sail for America but end up in Calcutta, you have not had a successful journey regardless of the adventures you had along the way.  It was exciting, but you are still lost. As we begin this new year, most of us have probably determined to read more scripture.  That’s good.  But let me encourage you not just to read but to study and to meditate on what you are reading. Reading through the Bible in a year is praiseworthy, however, many of us read through materials in school just before a test but still failed the test.  Reading over something is not the same as study. To study is to read, consider, process, share the concepts with others and then test what we have learned.  Please add that to experiencing God this year and we will not only sail but arrive at our intended destination.  Be blessed!

Prophets Without Honor

When Jesus had finished these parables, he moved on from there. Coming to his hometown, he began teaching the people in their synagogue, and they were amazed. “Where did this man get this wisdom and these miraculous powers?” they asked.  “Isn’t this the carpenter’s son? Isn’t his mother’s name Mary, and aren’t his brothers James, Joseph, Simon and Judas? Aren’t all his sisters with us? Where then did this man get all these things?” And they took offense at him. But Jesus said to them, “Only in his hometown and in his own house is a prophet without honor.” And he did not do many miracles there because of their lack of faith. (Matt/13:53-57)

There is nothing more discouraging than trying to share your faith or your understanding of scripture with people who have known you in the past and discovering that you have little to no credibility with them. Sometimes it’s people who knew you before you encountered Christ.  Sometimes it is family members.  I’m not saying that you can never lead old friends, acquaintances, and family members to the Lord.  You can and many do, but on occasion you get no audience.

Jesus experienced the same thing.  In Matthew 13, Jesus revisited his hometown – Nazareth.  He began teaching in the synagogue and, at first, people were amazed and impressed. Matthew says, “They were amazed. Where did this man get this wisdom and these miraculous powers?’ they asked.”  But their amazement soon turned to resentment and rejection.  These were people who had known Jesus and his family before he left to begin a public ministry and declare that he was the Messiah.  Some of them remembered the scandal of Mary’s pregnancy.  Others remembered him working on their homes or building basic furniture for them.  They remembered Mary and Joseph and their children coming to synagogue and being taught. They may have even remembered Jesus playing practical jokes on friends or always having a runny nose as a kid.

Apparently they had heard great stories about miracles he was performing and witnessed his anointed teaching themselves.  But anointed teaching often challenges dearly held perspectives and “settled theology.” Remember the “Sermon on the Mount” in Matthew 5-7.  Jesus said in several places, “You have heard that is was said…but I say unto you.”  Many of the Jews had grown comfortable with their understanding of God and their view of the world.  The teachings of Jesus implied that there was something lacking in their view of God and how to have a relationship with him.  I’m certain that they at first began to feel uncomfortable with his teachings and then angry as his teaching challenged them.

The first response of the flesh and a religious spirit when anyone suggests that a person’s approach to God or their understanding of his word has been lacking is to take offense and to accuse the teacher of self-righteousness and a “holier than thou” attitude.  That is exactly what happened to Jesus. Suddenly his teaching raised questions about the adequacy of their faith their understanding of the Torah.  It wasn’t long before some began whispering, “Who does he think he is?”  In their own minds, they rushed to discredit his teaching and even his miracles by discrediting him.  They simply recast him in the role of the boy who grew up in a home on the wrong side of the tracks in an ordinary working class family.  In that moment, they refused to see him as he was in the synagogue – the Anointed One of God – but would only see him as the person he used to be.  Few miracles were done that day because of their unbelief. We are also told that even his own brothers refused to believe who he was until after the resurrection.

There are a several lessons to be learned from this account.

1. Sometimes, we are not the one who should be talking to certain friends or family members about our faith or life changes they need to make – sinful lifestyles they need to abandon.  For whatever reason we are so familiar to them that our words carry little weight.  That is especially true when adult children try to speak into their parents’ lives. When the gospel is declared or when we call people to repentance the word carries authority – no matter how gently we say it.  Many parents can never give up their role of authority over children – even grown children – so they can’t receive anything from one of their children that has authority attached to it.  Close friends and siblings are often the same.  In those cases we need to simply ask God to influence them through other people.  Love them.  Pray for them.  Realize you may not be the one to speak to them about their lives.

2.  Sometimes we believe that if God would just do a miracle for our unbelieving friends or family members, they would immediately come to faith and give their lives to Jesus.  Sometimes a miracle and the kindness of God expressed through that miracle does create faith, but not always.  The Pharisees witnessed numerous astounding miracles but never came to faith.  The people of Nazareth heard of many of his miracles and saw a few, but took offense at Jesus rather than believing on him.  I love miracles and believe we should ask God for them everyday.  I’m just saying that miracles do not always open the door to faith. God knows what the key is to every person’s heart and we need to pray for that revelation when trying to reach any person for Jesus.

3.  We need to watch our own hearts when people come to us with a teaching, an insight or even a rebuke that doesn’t line up with what we have always believed.  Sometimes, when people challenge my theology or my motives, I can feel offense begin to rise up in me and something wants to dismiss immediately anything they have to say.  But God calls us to maintain a humble spirit, to be teachable, and to always seek truth.  Proverbs tells us that a wise man receives correction and is thankful for it.

How can we do less and how can we judge whom God will use to sharpen our understanding of his word and his ways or to call us to a heart correction?  Many in Nazareth missed the Son of God because they judged God’s messenger.  I’m certainly not saying to receive every new teaching or even every rebuke.  But consider them, pray about them, and be humble enough to receive those things from people you disapproved of in the past, from those who don’t have your education or income, or even those who seen a bit eccentric.  Remember John the Baptist – camel skin clothes, long hair, and a diet of locusts and honey.  Eccentric!  Be blessed today and be open to hearing from God from all kinds of people in your present or even from your past.

I am very concerned about our nation. I’m sure you are as well.  I’m not just concerned about the teetering economy, the decline in morality, or the continuing holocaust of abortions in America. I’m not just concerned about God being pushed out of our schools or a culture that is calling evil good and good evil. I’m not just concerned about the blatant corruption in government and lack of truth telling at all levels. If we had to live in the midst of that it would be difficult enough.  What I am most concerned about are the curses that these behaviors and attitudes are about to unleash on America.

A strong thread runs through scripture that is summarized in Paul’s letter to the church in Galatia.  “Do not be deceived.  God cannot be mocked.  A man reaps what he sows. The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction. The one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life” (Gal.6:7-8).  In the Old Testament there are huge sections on “blessing and cursing.”  In Deuteronomy 28, God gives an extensive list of blessings that will come upon Israel if they faithfully serve God and an extensive list of curses that will be released if they reject God.  Nations reap what they sow as well as individuals.

Those curses listed in Deuteronomy include economic disaster, sickly children and blighted crops. They include failure in everything they attempt, diseases that ravage the nation, drought or destructive weather patterns, defeat from enemies, confusion, a man’s hard work being harvested by strangers, oppression of all kinds, and aliens in the land rising up and ruling over native born citizens. These curses sound like the six o’clock news.

In the book of Job, Satan complained to God that he had put a hedge around Job so that Satan could not get at him (Job 1:9). What we see in that chapter is Satan wanting to destroy Job and his family.  God, however, in his goodness and mercy had been restraining the devil because Job was faithful.  When men or nations sow to the flesh long enough, God is compelled by his holiness and our free will (which also chooses our consequences) to turn these men or nations over to their own choices.  When that point is reached, God lifts the restraints and Satan has access to individuals or nations because they have aligned themselves with the enemy.

When curses flood into a person’s life or over a nation, these curses are not something God has conjured up but they are simply what Satan has been wanting to release on that nation, family, or person all along.  Because of God’s love for all men, he restrains the enemy and these disasters until man has sown so much destruction that it must be harvested.  The law of sowing and reaping then kicks in. Here is the sobering part.  The harvest is always greater than the planting.  An acorn produces much more than itself.  A kernel of corn produces dozens of ears of corn.  A man gets back even more than he put in.

That’s good news if you are sowing to the Spirit for God will give you more good things than you sowed.  But if you have been sowing to the flesh, the destruction will far outweigh the evil you have planted.  Many times the destructive results will affect generations.  Children will reap what their fathers sowed. The biblical principle is that the consequences of the sins of the fathers will be passed down to the third and fourth generations of children (Ex. 20:5).

Our nation is mocking God and sowing to the flesh in abundance.  Jesus said, “To whom much is given much is required” (Luke 12:48).  God has given much to America over the last 300 years.  America has not been ignorant of God, his Word, and his ways.  He has blessed us abundantly in our faithfulness but will discipline us abundantly in our rejection of him, his Word, and his ways.

Our hope is in the grace of God and his willingness to forgive and restore when godly sorrow and sincere repentance come from the heart of a man or a nation. But rather than righteousness and repentance flowing out of the church in America I am seeing compromise, going along to get along, a desire to be more acceptable to man in a perverse culture than to God in his holiness.  A few are declaring God’s truth and absorbing the ridicule and accusations of culture but more are being silent.

God’s judgment, which is the release of the enemy to have his way with men who have partnered with Satan, usually comes first in a slow stream giving men the opportunity to recognize what is happening and turn again to God.  Then the stream widens – disasters are greater and more frequent, and then if no repentance comes, God is forced by our own decisions to open the floodgate and let the enemy come in without restraint.  History is full of such lessons.  Curses are not vicious acts by a vengeful God, but rather the harvest of what we have insisted on planting year after year. God takes no pleasure in judging nations or men. His heart for us is to repent so that he can bless us again.  But it is still our choice.

Our sincere and constant intercession for our nation, its leaders, its people, and the church is still our hope and can be a powerful weapon to push back the enemy.  The authority of believers needs to be exercised on behalf of a nation and our nation evangelized by the love and power of God once again.   Even this struggle is not against flesh and blood but spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. We are in a state of war and we have been promised the victory – but only if we stand, only if we fight. My prayer is that more than ever before believers in America will rise and fight against the enemy and drive him out of this nation so that the goodness and blessing of God can flourish here again. I hope you will make a decision to go to war today against the dominion of darkness and not stop until the victory is secure. Be blessed today knowing that God goes before those who go in his name.

At the cross an all-encompassing exchange literally took place in the spiritual realm. Our condition was assigned to Christ and, by the grace of God, his condition was assigned to us.  Jesus took upon himself the penalty for sin (death and separation from God) that was pronounced in the Garden of Eden and the curse of the Law that condemned sinners.   Jesus not only took on the penalty of our sin but also gave to us eternal life and a secure relationship with God.

Jesus not only paid a debt we could not pay but lavished us with blessings that belonged to him. It was as if the prince himself left his palace and position, put on the rags of a prisoner, stepped into our cell, and as he did so he handed his royal garments and his keys to the palace to us. Of course, he leaves it to us to decide whether we will walk in royal robes and live in the palace or continue to wear the rags of a beggar while the keys of the kingdom rest unused in our pockets.

Here is a question.  “If the prince had indeed entered into your cell, exchanged clothes with you and handed you his keys to the palace…what thoughts or things might keep you from ever moving into the palace and enjoying the blessings assigned to a prince?  Many of us hesitate to receive all that Jesus has purchased for us with his blood. We continue to live as paupers when we have been invited to live as a prince.

By faith in what Jesus did for us we literally have moved from a position of…

• Sin to Righteousness.   God made him, who had no sin to be sin for us, that in him we might become the righteousness of God. (2 Cor. 5:21)

• Alienation to Adoption.   In love, He predestined us to be adopted as his sons in Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will… (Eph. 1:5)

• Slavery to Sonship.    Because you are sons, God sent the Spirit of his Son into our hearts, the Spirit who calls out “Abba, Father”.  So you are no longer a slave, but a son. (Gal. 4:6-7)

• Death to Life.  As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sin, in which you used to live… But because of his great love for us, God who is rich in mercy made us alive in Christ.  (Eph. 2:1, 5)

• Rejection to Acceptance.  Accept one another then, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God. (Rom. 15:7)

• Poverty to Riches. For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich.   (2 Cor. 8:9)

• Darkness to Light.  For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord.  (Eph. 5:8)

• Alienation from God to Citizenship in Heaven.  Remember that at that time, you were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world … you are no longer foreigners and aliens, but fellow citizens with God’s people.  (Eph. 2:12, 19)

• Cowardice to Courageousness.  For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. (2 Tim.1:7)

• Old to New.   Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation, the old has gone the new has come.  (2 Cor. 5:17)

• Cursed to Blessed.  Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us. (Gal. 3:13-14)

• Bondage to Freedom.  He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners.  (Luke 4:18)

• Condemnation to Justification.  Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit of life, set me free from the law of sin and death.  (Rom. 8:1)

• Weakness to Strength.  I can do everything through Him who gives me strength.  (Phil. 4:13)

• Ruled to Ruling.  You were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of the world and the ruler of the kingdom of the air. …And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms… (Eph. 2:1, 6)

Because of this exchange, we are able to approach the throne of grace with absolute confidence knowing that God’s help and mercy will be available to us (Heb. 4:16).  As we approach the Father to set us free from those things that hinder our life in Christ we can fully expect his help.  Because of Jesus we are no longer cursed, alienated sinners opposed to God. Instead we stand before him as his children with all the blessings of heaven available.  Feel free to ask for those blessings and expect them.  When you receive the blessings of Christ and operate in them, then Jesus receives everything he paid for and rejoices in you.   Remember who you are and be blessed roday.

For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. (2 Cor.10:3-6)

This is the fourth and last segment on Weapons of War which has been a brief look at Paul’s words about divine weapons in 2 Corinthians.  Learning what these divine weapons are and how to use them is crucial in overcoming the enemy, ministering God’s healing grace to wounded people, and setting people free in the name of Jesus.  There are actually many “weapons” or tools that God activates through his people that create faith, heal broken hearts, declare things that God will not do until his people announce them, rebuild shattered identities, and free people from the oppression of the enemy.  That oppression can take the form of fear, condemnation, illness, demonization, curses, addictions, etc.  God has a solution for each of those and most often provides that solution in partnership with his people.

Gifts of the Spirit are at the heart of these divine weapons.  Gifts of faith, mercy, prophecy, healings, wisdom, tongues, words of knowledge, worship, intercession, etc. can all be used to break the power of the enemy in a person’s life.  Some reveal truth and set people free from lies that the enemy planted decades ago.  Some break the power of demons and send them away so that the individual is no longer oppressed or harassed. Some reveal the love of God to a person’s heart and heal wounds that have festered for decades.  Others exercise the authority of heaven on the earth and set things in motion that will eventually bring salvation to the lost and revival to nations. We don’t have time to list them all or discuss them all here.  That would take an entire book.

However, if you hunger for such weapons or such spiritual gifts, then Paul says to earnestly desire those gifts.  Jesus says to ask, seek, and knock.  Peter quotes Amos who told us to go after such things by seeking the Holy Spirit and his baptism.  If you want to these things from God then let me encourage you to do the following.

1. Pray – Ask God for the gifts and understanding of how to use the gifts.  Jesus sent the Spirit so ask him for more of the Spirit.  Ask Jesus to baptize you in his Spirit as he sees fit.

2.  Pursue – Do not just ask for these gifts or anointings, go after them.  Spend time with people who minister in the gift or the weapon you desire.  Ask them to mentor you.  Read books.  Go to conferences. Get equipped with teaching, modeling, and impartations of the gifts from those who operate in them.  If you want the gift of intercessory prayer, hang around intercessors. If you want healing gifts, hang around those who see healing when they pray.  If you want prophetic gifts, find some prophets.

3.  Practice – When you begin to understand how gifts operate or how to ask God for certain things, then begin to practice using your gift.  This is where most people fail.  They believe that a spiritual gift should just operate in its fullness as soon as you receive it.  When people pray for healing, ask for tongues, attempt deliverance and don’t see great things happen they often give up and assume God is not giving them the gift. Spiritual gifts are like other skills and talents.  They must be practiced and developed.  You must be willing to play a lot of rounds of poor gold before you can begin to play great rounds of golf.  Practice.  Risk.  Seek more mentoring as you go.

4.  Persevere – Stick to it as long as the desire is in your heart.  Pray for it as long as the desire is in your heart.  Ask God to show you if there is anything in your life that is blocking the exercise of that gift.  If you find any kinks in the hose, straighten them out.

Go after the gifts.  Learn to use them as divine weapons.  Be blessed and bless others.

For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. (2 Cor.10:3-6)

Strongholds are beliefs or belief systems established deep within us that argue against and push back against God’s truth. Our deepest beliefs are written on our hearts. Those are our “core beliefs.”  These are written primarily through the power of experiences and typically trump and color our intellectual beliefs.  If these beliefs are contrary to God’s word, then they fall into the category of strongholds of the enemy.

Core beliefs can also be strongholds of truth where positive experiences have brought us to conclusions about self, God, or life that lineup with God’s truth.  When David was considering the possibility of facing Goliath in battle he referred to two previous formative experiences in his life.  When questioned about the wisdom of assaulting the Philistine champion, he said, “The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear will deliver me from the hand of this Philistine” (1 Sam.17:37).  During his days as a shepherd, David’s flocks had been assaulted by wild animals and he was forced to step in to defend and rescue his sheep.  He had overcome both a lion and a bear and had concluded that God had given him supernatural assistance both times.  As a result, he believed in his heart that God was with him and whenever he faced an enemy greater than himself, God would supernaturally give him the victory.  That truth was written on his heart because of past experiences and the logic of men could not dissuade him of that conviction.

When past experiences have resulted in conclusions contrary to God’s truth and when the enemy has reinforced those lies through the years, how can they be overcome?  The world would give us positive thoughts or mantras to repeat over and over so that our thought patterns might be modified. My experience with that approach is that it works – for a while. People can be buoyed by these new ways of thinking for a while but the power fades and any additional negative experiences put people back in the same old place. If demonic forces have been assigned to support the false belief system, their “inner voices” will certainly overcome the “new truth” they have been given by counselors or friends.

What it takes to overcome a stronghold established by an experience is not only the written word of God but a current experience to confirm that word and make it more compelling than Satan’s lies.  Experiences with God come in many forms.  Notice some of the experiences that created a new paradigm of faith for individuals in the New Testament.  Saul (the apostle Paul) was convinced of God’s truth about Jesus when he encountered Jesus on the road to Damascus and experienced several days of blindness.  After Peter had been told through a vision that God was accepting what had once been called unclean, Peter witnessed the Holy Spirit falling on the gentile Cornelius and his household so that Peter was finally convinced that God has accepted the gentile believers into the church.   Many Jews who had not believed in Jesus, suddenly became believers when Jesus called Lazarus out of his tomb. The list goes on.

We can experience God in many ways.  We can experience him by hearing him speak to us.  We can experience him by receiving a strong insight or revelation as we study his written word. We can experience him by prayers being answered in powerful or even “miraculous” ways.  We can experience him through an unexpected or miraculous healing, a prophetic word, or a word of knowledge.  We can experience him by feeling his presence or by receiving freedom through deliverance in the name of Jesus. We can experience him through angelic encounters, by experiencing the gift of tongues or through dreams or visions.  There are innumerable ways that we can experience God.  When we do experience him our core beliefs are impacted.

The most powerful moments of emotional healing come when we experience the personal touch of God – his love, his presence, his care, or his affirmation as a father.  Prayer invites and sets in motion those encounters. A whisper from God about his love for us and his delight in who we are can dramatically alter our self-image. God’s love for us expressed in healing or deliverance creates powerful paradigm shifts that release us from lies that have held us in bondage to fear, condemnation, rejection and loneliness.  The word of God gives meaning to these experiences but the experiences confirm the word of God deep in our hearts so that faith takes root. Then we can believe other promises of God even without direct experience with the promise.

Ultimately, the exercise of divine weapons reveals God to us and reveals his heart toward us.  That is what sets us free from the lies and oppression of the enemy. Truth that has been revealed to our hearts by the Spirit is much more powerful than truth communicated to our intellect through reading or teaching.  It absolutely takes both, but without experiencing God, life transformation is not as powerful or complete.  Even the written word of God has been given to point us to God so that we might experience him.

Ananias could have attempted a Torah study with Saul of Tarsus to convince him that Jesus was truly the Son of God.  He could have brought his best intellectual arguments and Saul would have argued back.  Saul’s intellectual resistance, however, was no match for a light brighter than the sun and a voice from heaven. Experience destroyed the strongholds in Saul’s heart and mind and he became the apostle Paul.  Divine weapons allow us to experience God so that we might willingly submit every thought to the Lordship of Jesus.  Divine weapons demonstrate that God exists, Jesus is Lord, and that God is good, knows us personally, and cares for us deeply.  They demonstrate that God is greater than Satan and that our ultimate victory is assured.  If a man can get all of that in his heart – count him in!   As the church begins to exercise all the divine weapons at our disposal, more people will be transformed, more people will love because they have been loved, and more unbelievers will run to Jesus.  Be blessed.

For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. (2 Cor.10:3-6)

As we continue to look at Paul’s concept of “divine weapons” in 2 Corinthians 10:3-6, I want to remind us that Paul begins this text with the assumption that followers of Jesus live in a state of war with the enemy – like it or not.  Since we live in a state of war we must cover ourselves with armor and wield weapons or be defeated and, perhaps, destroyed.  However, Paul is clear that we should put on the armor of God (divine armor) and carry weapons that are unlike the weapons of the world and that actually go beyond the reach of worldly weapons.

Paul states that in contrast to weapons of the world, we fight with weapons that are fueled by divine power so that they have the capacity to demolish strongholds.  So … what are these strongholds that can only be decimated by the power of God? I’m going to quote Dutch Sheets regarding the meaning of the word.

The word is “ochuroma,” coming from the root word “echo,” which means to “have” or “hold.” This word for “stronghold” (KJV) or “fortress” (NASB) is literally a place from which to hold something strongly. It is also the word for fort, a castle, or a prison… In essence, Satan has a place of strength within unbelievers from which he can hold onto them strongly.  (Dutch Sheets, Intercessory Prayer, p.183)

Sheets says that a stronghold is a place within unbelievers but strongholds can also exist within believers. Notice the nature of strongholds from the rest of this text.  Paul speaks about arguments, pretensions, knowledge, and thoughts. All of these are related to belief systems within us that argue or “push back” against God’s truth.  They are belief systems that bring us (or part of us) into agreement with Satan and out of alignment with God. When we agree with Satan we give him legal access to at least part of our life.

I like to compare Satan’s presence in the life of a believer to a house in which the manager of the house has rented out a room to the enemy.  Jesus is the owner of the home but he has made us stewards or managers over the house. We have the right to decide who visits the house and even who lives in the house.  As we come into agreement with Satan about certain areas of our life, in effect, we have rented out a room to him.  He doesn’t own the house but with a presence within the house, he can harass us and affect the entire environment or health within the home.

Satan’s great weapon has always been “the lie.”  His lies, if uncorrected, can create a belief system, a perspective, or a view of ourselves, God and others that lead us astray and that can keep us from experiencing freedom, healing, and effectiveness in the kingdom of God.  Most strongholds are beliefs that are rooted in experiences from our past rather than something that was taught to us … especially traumatic experiences.

Most of these beliefs are also rooted in our childhood.  Without being formally taught, we simply drew conclusions about ourselves, God, and life in general as a result of experiences.  For instance, an abused child will often come to the conclusion that there must be something terribly wrong or unacceptable about him/her for parents to treat them in such a way. Molested children carry a deep sense of shame or defectiveness about themselves because of the experiences they have had that were hidden in darkness. A child who experiences a traumatic loss or losses may come to believe that he/she will eventually lose everyone he/she loves.  Some abused children also come to the conclusion that even God doesn’t love them since he “allowed those things to happen” or that he may love them but he is powerless to protect them.  Children who grow up in homes where love is conditional may come to believe that all love is conditional and must be earned – even God’s love.

You can see how each of these belief systems oppose God’s truth and can get in the way of trusting God, believing his promises, loving others, or getting hold of grace.  Satan then reinforces these beliefs at every opportunity and may assign demonic spirits to continually reinforce and magnify those lies.  Beliefs established by experiences in our childhood, have typically been with us so long that we are unaware of the power they exert over us.  These beliefs or strongholds reside deep within us and “push back” against God’s truth.

When we believe one thing in our head and another in our hearts, we experience the presence of strongholds.  When out intellect argues against the truth of God’s word because it is not “rational” or “logical” we are experiencing strongholds. When demons are active in maintaining these false beliefs then we are dealing with spiritual strongholds.

Since there is a spiritual dimension that works to maintain the lies that Satan has crafted or reinforced, then only “weapons” that can touch the spiritual realm can be effective.  Weapons of the world don’t touch the spiritual realm and so must eventually fail.  Jesus said, “You will know the truth and the truth shall set you free.”  If truth sets us free, lies keep us in bondage. Strongholds (false belief systems) keep us in bondage in some part of our life and in some way affect every other part of our life. To demolish these belief systems that argue against God’s truth and that even pretend to be the truth requires the exercise of divine power.  We’ll talk about that tomorrow.  Be blessed.

At our church we are kicking off the winter round of Free Indeed which is the core of our Freedom Ministries.  It is an eight-week study of the transforming power of the gospel of the kingdom of heaven, who we are as followers of Jesus, and spiritual weapons that bring healing and freedom from the oppression of the enemy.  It’s followed by an experiential weekend of healing and deliverance.  We typically have sixty to eighty participants each time we offer Free Indeed. The curriculum used in Free Indeed was the core material from which Born to Be Free was written.

One of our key texts in the study is from Paul’s second letter to the Corinthian church.

For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. (2 Cor.10:3-6)

As we start off a new year I would like to spend several blog entries exploring this important passage.  Paul begins with a statement that simply assumes that Christians live in a state of war. Of course, this echoes his letter to the Ephesians in which he says that our struggle is not against flesh and blood but against spiritual forces of darkness against which we must take a stand.  In that text he suggests that we need to put on the armor of God every day because we exist in a state of war.

I’ve often mentioned the fact that Adam turned over the dominion God had given him to Satan but with the coming of the second Adam, the Messiah, the kingdom of God was re-established on the earth with a mandate to take back everything that had been stolen by the enemy.   The blood of Christ cancelled any legal claim that the enemy had on the earth so the only thing left was to forcibly evict him from the property.  When Jesus launched his own invasion of the earth, war broke out. We push back the lines of darkness primarily by rescuing captives and establishing the kingdom of God in their hearts.

Of course, Satan does not simply sit and watch his kingdom dissolve. He fights back.  The gates of hell will not prevail against Christ and his church but the enemy doesn’t go away quietly.  In this war, Satan engages every believer on an individual basis in an attempt to kill, steal and destroy.  Some days we hardly sense any interference from the enemy while on other days we experience a full-scale assault against us, our family, and the culture in which we live.  Make no mistake, you have parachuted into enemy territory and he is not only giving up ground grudgingly but is often trying to retake ground he has lost – even in your life.

To ignore the fact that, as a believer, you are at war is perilous.  At the beginning of World War II, certain European nations believed that they had made peace or were in a neutral position with Germany. They simply woke up one day to hear the roar of Nazi tanks in the city streets and the click of hobnail boots on their sidewalks. In there desire to avoid war they ignored the realities around them and rather than mobilize for war they simply woke up as prisoners of the Third Reich.

Paul, then, wants us all to know that we exist in a state if war and should live as soldiers who train, prepare, arm themselves, and take ground or defend ground as it is needed.  The most important things he says, however, is that the weapons of this world are ineffective against spiritual forces.  Jesus has made divine weapons available to us and those weapons are empowered by the same power that raised Jesus from the dead.

The church, in recent years, has too often tried to accomplish Christ’s mission on the earth with worldly weapons. The core of the mission is stated in Luke 4 which is quoted from Isaiah 61.  The mission is to preach good news, heal broken hearts, and set captives free. Many churches have accepted the mission but have armed themselves poorly to accomplish it.

First of all, it requires the anointing of the Holy Spirit.  Jesus said, “The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is upon me because he has anointed me to preach good news” (Isa.61:1). A huge chunk of the church has maintained a very limited view of the Holy Spirit and of his anointing on God’s people. In fact, much of the church has adopted a view that desires the Holy Spirit to act in the context of the ordinary rather than the extraordinary or the miraculous.  Instead of going to war with assault rifles and tanks, the church goes to war with BB guns.

In addition, in a effort to fulfill Christ’s mission of healing broken hearts and setting people free from bondage, the church has run to the self-help section of the bookstore and brought into the church weapons of the world – psychology, twelve-step programs, and counselors trained in secular schools.  Each of these offers a level of help and because there is some improvement the church has assumed that “some improvement” is God’s best. In many cases we have simply tried to anoint the weapons of the world with a prayer and some bible verses but that hardly does it.

Divine weapons require working from an entirely different paradigm and require very different strategies. The New Testament does not paint a picture of people coming to Christ and achieving “some improvement.”  What we see is rebirth, radical transformation, and new creations. That goes way beyond “some improvement.”  Divine weapons can take you there. Weapons of the world can only take you part of the way.

In my next blog we will begin to discuss the concept of strongholds and how divine weapons bring down the enemy even when he has maintained a strong position in the past.  Be blessed and remember that He that is in us is greater than he that is in the world!

We often idealize biblical figures so that we forget their humanity.  We remember David for taking down Goliath but forget his human frailties that surfaced with Bathsheba or his unwillingness to discipline or deal with Absalom.  We remember Elijah taking on the prophets of Baal on Mt. Carmel but forget that he caved into fear and depression immediately after his victory when Jezebel threatened him. We think of the Apostle Paul as the greatest of the apostles, immovable in faith and writing great chapters about love (1 Cor. 13), but forget that in an ungracious moment he refused to give John Mark a second chance and forever parted ways with Barnabas  – the man who had accepted him into the fellowship of believers after Paul came to Christ.

Being human does not disqualify us from greatness in the kingdom of God, it simply reminds us of our desperate dependence on God to keep those “human moments” to a minimum and to maintain perspectives of faith when we face hardships.  Paul tells us that we “know in part and we prophecy in part” so that we are also operating in the dark at times.  We don’t always have everything revealed to us nor do we always fully understand what has been revealed. Our faith ebbs and flows at times to our own dismay but that is our reality. In Matthew 11, we find John the Baptist in one of those moments.

After Jesus had finished instructing his twelve disciples, he went on from there to teach and preach in the towns of Galilee. When John heard in prison what Christ was doing, he sent his disciples to ask him, “Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?” Jesus replied, “Go back and report to John what you hear and see: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor. Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me. (Mt.11:1-6).

I find it amazing that John the Baptist had a moment of doubt about Jesus being the promised Messiah. Mary, the mother of Jesus, was a relative of Elizabeth, the mother of John.  Luke tells us that John was about six months older than Jesus. When Mary had become pregnant with Jesus she visited Elizabeth who was carrying John in her womb.  Luke tells us, “When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit” (Lk.1:41).  Even in the womb John, by the Spirit, seemed to recognize who Jesus was.  Thirty years later, John was the one who declared that Jesus was the Lamb of God.  He was the one who had baptized Jesus and saw the Holy Spirit descend on Jesus in the form of a dove. John declared that Jesus was the anointed one of God, and that his own ministry had to decrease so that Jesus would increase in the eyes of the Jewish people.

And yet, after his imprisonment, he apparently began to wonder if Jesus were the Messiah or if another one was coming.  John was experiencing our humanity for he also “knew in part and prophesied in part.”  Apparently, John was beginning to doubt who Jesus was because things were not unfolding as he had anticipated.  Jesus frustrated many who believed that Messiah would come with overwhelming glory and power, moving quickly to overthrow Roman oppression and restore Israel to her greatness as in the days of David and Solomon.  But Jesus, although a great teacher and healer, seemed to be anything but a man pushing his way to the top to grab power and glory.  He seemed totally apolitical instead of being politically savvy.  He seemed to resist notoriety rather than embracing it.  He talked about loving enemies rather than destroying oppressors. He talked about turning the other cheek rather than organizing resistance against Rome.

As John languished in prison the “kingdom of God” wasn’t feeling so near or victorious.  And so he asked, “Are you really the one or did I miss it?”  Interestingly, Jesus didn’t send him a theological response or quote Old Testament prophecies that had been recently fulfilled in him.  He simply said, “Go back and report to John what you hear and see: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor.” On several occasions, Jesus himself had said that you can know a prophet by his fruits.  Words are easy; actions are more definitive.

Jesus pointed to the miraculous works of heaven that were flowing through his ministry to authenticate who he was.  He also pointed to Isaiah’s Messianic prophecy that John must have known by heart. “The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners” (Isa.61:1).  Jesus’ ministry of preaching, healing and deliverance fulfilled that prophetic word.  Messiah had come to bring heaven to earth.  The miraculous works of God confirmed that the kingdom had indeed come to earth and in doing so, confirmed that Jesus was and is the anointed one of God – the Christ.

Jesus often healed and delivered simply out of compassion. Many times he told those he had healed or delivered not to tell anyone who had done that for them.  But he also said that his miracles and the miracles of those who followed him were their credentials documenting their citizenship in heaven.  If John the Baptist needed that concrete evidence, then how much more will unbelievers need that evidence today in a world of empty promises and cynicism?  For the last few centuries, the church has offered theology and explanations of why God no longer acts like God rather than concrete experiences with the Creator. When people ask us if Jesus is really the Son of God and Savior of the world, we need to be able to respond as Jesus responded to John.  “The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor.”  After people experience God we can give them a theology for that experience to stand on.

Experiencing God is not found only in healing or deliverance.  His presence can simply overwhelm people with love or peace. His voice can penetrate unbelief or fear.  Angels can pull people from burning vehicles or he can open up new realities through dreams or visions. Prophetic words can disarm the agnostic and miracles of provision can confirm his care to those who felt alone and helpless. But all of those things are experiences with God.  If God had sent Moses to Egypt with a nicely framed theology instead of demonstrations of power on behalf the Hebrews, the Jewish people would still be serving Egyptians today.

As we pray for people to come to faith, pray that God will arrange an encounter with heaven that they cannot deny. Then share Jesus, the source of every heavenly encounter, with them.  Be blessed today and expect miracles. They point to Jesus.