TV 1748 | Pulling Down Strongholds Part One

Well praise the Lord. I appreciate the Lord's presence this morning and I'm just trusting the Lord to order my thoughts this morning but I'll tell you what we almost could have played the men's service, the men's meeting this morning because virtually every thought that I had was was expressed there and so well by so many people. I'll tell you the Lord knows what he's doing doesn't he? He knows what we need and a lot of the songs and thoughts expressed this morning have to do with warfare and the fact that we've got an enemy don't we? And I believe the Lord wants us to know more about him and how to stand and how to live because he's called us to live in the midst of what you could describe as a prison planet. I'm thankful that the Lord came to let out the prisoners didn't he? And there's an answer for I don't care how deep in prison somebody is in sin, there's an answer. Jesus Christ can come and open that door. He has done everything necessary to fully defeat the enemy forever. Thank God. But the fact is we know from Scripture that Satan doesn't quit because we come to Christ. In fact he doubles his efforts and he knows how to attack every one of us. You know we all have weaknesses that we brought with us into the kingdom. We all have characteristics that are personal. We know how human nature works. We come into this world longing for love, longing for meaning, longing for a sense of purpose and belonging and what is life about. And of course we have what we wind up with all these desires. And so you know the devil has open access to the human nature and that's why this world is described as being under the power of darkness. There's a real power that is at work. But I'll tell you the more I go the more I realize that God wants to set his people free, to bring us to new levels of freedom. But if that's going to happen we're going to have to know some things and we're going to have to learn how to stand in faith and how to recognize the enemy when he works. Now you know obviously the devil can attack in many direct ways and he can tempt to sin. He could tempt people with pride. He can basically appeal to any aspect of human nature. And if we yield to him we are giving him power. We're giving him hold. We're handing over the reins in certain areas of our life

and most people don't even realize they're doing it. They're simply following you know whatever happens and whatever desires arise on the inside. But think about how Satan works. What is the main way that he approaches us? Well with lies and lies are what? They're words. They're thoughts. He comes by speaking. Think about that's how God works. He works by speaking. Thus saith the Lord and his words go out and they have power in them. Jesus said the words that I speak are our spirit and life. That's true of the devil too because when the devil speaks and that word is taken in on the inside and listened to there's a degree of his influence that comes in and there is a bondage that happens. And you know the Lord has kind of brought some things to my own needs in my own heart to light. Thank God. Thank God he does. But I believe with all my heart God wants us to to learn more about how he works and how the devil works so that we can stand up to him. Now you know a lot of well Christians obviously can be tempted with sin but I guess the areas I'm thinking most about are thoughts that just come into our minds. You know we don't even think about you know where does that thought come from? Every one of us has thoughts that occur to us all the time and we could imagine oh that's just me. Well maybe. But I'll tell you there's a devil who knows how to plant thoughts in our minds. And if we don't realize that and we're not aware of that then we're wide open targets because every one of us has personal personality weaknesses that the devil knows how to exploit. He's been studying us his whole life, his whole life, our whole lives. He's been around a while. But He knows exactly where my weaknesses are. And if I'm not aware of how He works, I'm going to listen to that and take it in and it's going to affect me. And if I listen long enough, I'm going to wind up in prison. And I'll tell you, how many believe God wants to set His people free? He didn't come to leave us in prison, and He didn't come to leave us with a miserable struggling life. He came to give us a peace with God, thank God.

I don't know how long I'm going to share what I have. I mean, you could go a gazillion directions with the thoughts that I've had, but I want to kind of focus on some really basic stuff. There's things that affect us all in one degree or another, some more than others. But all of us, all of us have thoughts that come into our minds that do not originate from God, do not originate from us. They originate from Satan, or whoever, whatever emissary He has assigned to work on us. God help us to recognize where those thoughts are coming from, because that's exactly how Satan approaches us, all right? Now think about the vulnerability we have as people who have come, and this kind of relates a little bit to things we've said lately. We've come into an awareness that we are sinners. We've come into an awareness if we have any truth at all, we know we come short. We know there are many needs in us, many things that are wrong. So if you were the devil, how would you approach somebody like that that wants to serve God? What does the Scripture say? What does the Scripture call him? The accuser of the brothers and sisters, in this case, in every case. The Lord knows exactly how to help us in this if we will listen. But I'll tell you, the devil is the accuser. And what does he do? What does that mean in real life? Every one of us has thoughts come to our minds that will remind us what we are and what we've done. Some of it will look into the past, and we'll look back, how could I have been like that? How could I have done that? Oh God, I'm so empty, I'm so ashamed, what do I do with that? Or we'll have a thought, an unclean thought. Am I the only one that ever has those? You know, and where did that come from?

Oh God, is that me? Is that really what I am? And just what happens is, and the issue is, is not the fact that thoughts come into our minds, but what do we do with them? And every one of us has ways of harboring those thoughts and thinking about them and allowing them to sit there and percolate in our minds, and they affect us more than we dare to realize. I guess the thought I was trying to recall a minute ago was referred to in our men's meeting this morning. Most of you who can remember Brother Thomas will remember him using this illustration. He said, a bird may land on your head. You can't stop that. But now if he goes and begins to gather straw and come back and build a nest, you can stop that. See, there's not one of us here who can stop the devil from just dropping a thought in our minds. But if we embrace that in some sense and feel like I've got to deal with this, we are going to get in a bad spot fast. Because the devil will just absolutely pour on the pressure, and he will add distress and fear. All of those things come with this. Just an illustration of how he works and how the Lord works by contrast. I think I've used this illustration or this example in the past, but most of you know who John Bunyan is. He was the author of Pilgrim's Progress. He was a pilgrim minister way back in the day when there was some life in what they had and they were not part of the official church, and he was actually put in prison because he wouldn't agree to be part of the official church. The Lord used him in great ways, but his testimony of coming to the Lord is really something because it didn't happen.

some little, you know, quick experience and it's over. It was a long period of time when he became aware of his need and then a thought would come to his mind and he'd begin to go over and over it again and just get in such a state where it was just 24 hours a day, every waking moment, oh God, is there any hope? Is there, where am I at? What do I do with this? Is this really what I am? It just went on and on and on and he would struggle and cry out and then, so the picture you see is the devil's just talking, talking, talking, talking. The devil's a chatterbox. If we listen, he will have plenty to say and it won't, any of it, be edifying or helpful. And then his testimony is that all of a sudden, a thought would come and it was a different voice and it was peaceable. Sometimes it wasn't even a whole sentence, just a short little thing and then, boom, the light would turn on and all of that stuff, he would hear it and he'd believe it. See, that's pretty important. We better recognize the Lord's voice and believe it if we want to experience the freedom for which Jesus died and the blood was shed on that cross we were singing about. So anyway, he would believe that and be set free and all of a sudden, hope would come because the other voice was taking away hope,

was filling him with fear and anxiety and what do I do? And all of a sudden, there was a voice that just gave rest and peace and hope. And then he would go through the same cycle and I don't know how many cycles this went through before the Lord helped him to see, wait a minute, I'm listening to the wrong voice, Jesus died for me and I'm believing in what he says, I'm believing the word of God and that's the end of it. And look what the Lord did with that man, what he went through, the Lord allowed him to go through that, number one, to share with us and with everyone who ever read that testimony, the reality of the world we live in and I'll tell you the fact that there are multiple voices that will come into our minds and come into our hearts, God help us, there isn't a person here who doesn't wrestle with fear in some area of your life, not one, if it's not one thing, it's not another, it's another, where does that come from? God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and sound mind or self-control, depending on the translation, the same thought. I hope that God can help me, I know he's helping me, I'm gonna say it more positively, the Lord's helping me to recognize that if I have a thought and my reaction to that thought is to be afraid, that thought didn't come from God, that's pretty simple. But how many of us can just say that as a doctrine, as a belief and it actually make a difference in our lives?

See, God is trying to take the things that we know in our heads and have heard and make them real on Monday morning, not even Monday morning, how about 12 o'clock, we walk out the door and all of a sudden the demands of life and the thoughts and the patterns and the habits that we've learned to think, you see why the Lord says that we need to have our minds transformed? Because we don't learn to think right. So many of our mental habits that have to do with fear, and unbelief, and focus on us and all of our lack, all of that comes from the enemy. But we learn to think that way and you don't just flip a switch and it's gone. God has to work in us, he has to minister his truth in such a way that we begin to actually lift our eyes and believe it, then we can begin to wait a minute, say, wait a minute, devil, get behind me, Satan. I recognize where this is coming from. I don't have to listen to you. See, that's the thing that I see that we've got to learn how to recognize Satan's voice because it talks to every one of us. How many of you realize that? Satan has got spirits assigned, so not to be afraid because we have the Lord, but there are spirits that are assigned to every one of us. They study us just like you would study an enemy on a battlefield. They learn our characteristics. They learn our weaknesses. They plan how to attack and how to undermine our confidence so that instead of having the

rest that Jesus promised, rest for your soul. We're filled with fear, anxiety, uncertainty. Where do I really stand? Do I really know the Lord? It's gotten quiet, hasn't it? This affect anybody? Yeah. We learn to put on the happy face and pretend it's not there. And one of the things that we think will solve that is, well, I'm just going to push it down and pretend it isn't there, just going to ignore it. Does that work? That's kind of like taking a sore that's become infected. What happens if you just cover it over and bury it and hide it? Does that go away? The Lord wants to lift everything into the light, His light, so that we could see it for what it is. Folks, if there is a single person here who's standing before God is depending on what you do, then not one of us here has an ounce of hope before a holy God. That's the hope of the gospel. Did Jesus pay most of it and leave the rest up to me? He paid it all, all to Him I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain. He washed it white as snow. To His name be glory and praise. Praise the Lord. God wants us to learn how to fight. You know, there's a lot said about the armor of God and so much, everything was said was wonderful. But Lord, you guide my thoughts. There are scriptures that we know that probably need to just be, we need to be reminded of.

First Corinthians, or Second Corinthians 10, I believe this is the one I'm thinking of. Now, Paul was talking about his battle in ministry, because he would minister and God would bring people to the faith and they would found churches and begin to establish them in the faith. And then people would come in behind him, motivated by another spirit, and they would mess it up. And he'd have to come in and really try to fight for truth and for Christ to take over the church and be the head. So anyway, part of this is talking about his own ministry and the battle that he was fighting. But all of these principles trickle down to you and me every day, because that's how we've tended to apply it and that's right. Verse three, for though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. I need more than psychology and psychiatry. I need more than positive, happy thinking. I need to recognize what's really going on, that we are living in a world, that there's a spirit world around us, both good and bad. And we are here needing to interact with that. We are going to interact with it, whether we want to or not. But God wants us to know about it, not with fear, not to make us afraid, not to take away our hope, but to help us to be wise and aware. The weapons, Paul says, that we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. You know, the more we listen to the enemy and actually believe what he says, the stronger the hold gets. And so much of what ... When it comes to people coming to the Lord, one of the greatest attacks of the enemy is to paint such a picture of ourselves to ourselves, that we're struggling to have hope. If you look at yourself, you ain't going to find any hope. My eyes need to be there, based upon His promises. Thank God for the hope that we have.

But the more I think about me, the more I'm conscious of my ... of my needs, what does that do for me? If I'm just focused on that, I'm zeroed in on that, and that's all I can think about day and night, man, you can get in a bad place in a hurry. God help us. But we have divine power to demolish strongholds. We're the ones with the upper hand if we only knew it. We have the right to say it is written. Wasn't that Jesus' defense against the enemy when he came? And the devil, it's been said many times, the devil knows how to quote the Word. He'll tell you things that are true, but he always puts a spin on it so that it turns truth into a deception and an error, but oh, how he can disguise his lies. Paul warned this church here that the devil comes as a, well, Peter says a roaring lion, but here he says as an angel of light. Sounds good, it sounds right, you know, that's right, that's right, I am this, I am that. But what is his purpose? His purpose is to bring us into a place of weakness, of fear, unbelief. I wonder how many believers there are who reach a point where, or are at a point where they could speak a word of encouragement to somebody else because they know what's true, and yet they themselves are living in a state of fear, uncertainty, and unbelief.