Reflections of Grace 18: Breaking Strongholds – Warfare, Part 2

Reflections of Grace 18: Breaking Strongholds - Warfare, Part 2 [ 11:03 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

2 Corinthians 10:5
“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.”

• Today we look at the part of the scripture that says, “we take every thought captive”
The phrase “we take captive” comes from the Greek and means ‘a prisoner, captive, to lead captive…by implication to subdue, bring into subjection. We are all looking for a quick fix, but God is after lasting change—lifestyle Christianity. To possess a steadfast mind is to practice a steadfast mind. You and I have been controlled and held prisoner by destructive negative and misleading thought for tool long. Through the power of the Holy Spirit, we can take our thoughts prisoner instead!
• The next part of that scripture says, “to make it obedient to Christ’…God wants us to be victors. We don’t’ become victors by conquering the enemy. We become victors through surrender to Christ. We don’t become victors by our independence from the enemy. We become victors by our dependence on God. Victorious lives flow from victorious thoughts. Thinking victorious thoughts comes from setting our focus on a victorious God.
We can be led astray by the cords of an evil yoke, or we can be led to victory by the cords of human kindness. This war is for freedom and the battle field is the mind. Joshua’s exhortation to the children of Israel was this, “Consecrate yourselves, for tomorrow the Lord will do amazing things among you” (Joshua 3:5) The wonders God wants to do in all our tomorrow are prepared for us in our todays.
Our potential is unlimited. We are the ones to limit ourselves. He has prepared us for this hour of great adventure and romance with Him, and to realize what our role is during this critical time in history.
I want to be a carrier of His glory, a living flame of fire.
The world is falling apart, but we who are wise will recognize the times and rise up as His messengers of hope and unlimited potential!

“We have this treasure in earthen vessels that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us” (2 Corinthians 4:7).

The glory, the treasure in us, is the Lord. We are weak vessels and yet the fire of God resides in us.
Look inside yourself today my friends. How much fire is radiating in your life for Him? Do you bring light into the darkness of your world?
• When we are in pain and stuck we many times will seek to embrace anything available that will make us feel better, again and again… Only to come up still empty.
• We just don’t want to feel pain. We try to fill ourselves with everything—people, food, work, ministry, anything–but the only One who can truly fill our every longing….and the hole in our hearts, is Jesus.
• In our terror of vulnerability we become controllers. We tuck our true selves away behind walls of control. Sometimes we keep things shallow and safe, but in doing so we long even more for a joy we don’t feel and can’t seem to attain, because the control we walk in so carefully robs us of deep relational encounters with God or man.
There are so many tools he gives us to fight this good fight of faith and to keep our shields up to ward off the fiery darts that Satan aims at us.

1. Pray the word. Put your name right in there as you pray. Or pray the word over your family or others you may be called to pray for until you see God’s intervention. Faith comes by hearing yourself speak truth!! An example: Psalms 91:1&2
2. Sing the word of God. I love singing my prayers. It slows down my mind. And many times, in the Spirit, I have heard Him singing back to me in my own voice in answer to my song. It is really beautiful.
3. Let the Holy Spirit pray through you. Just go with it and His leading in however He shows you to pray.
4. When the heat is turned up and I just can’t seem to pray anything, I just say the name of Jesus over and over. In Acts it says that there is no other name as powerful as the name of Jesus, and at the mention of that name every knee has to bow in both heaven and earth. So the way I see it, even if you can’t do anything else when you just say His name He is right there fighting for you.

Stay vigilant my friends!! We win!!

For more information about Dixie’s ministry, visit www.ReflectionsOfGraceHome.com

And for more encouraging and engaging podcasts and videos, check out the E-Squared Media Network at www.e2medianetwork.com