TV 1749 | Pulling Down Strongholds Conclusion

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're 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 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. I am Jesus. 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. Do you think just maybe the Lord wants us to lift, wants to lift us out of that to where we can truly look to the Lord and believe He actually loves me? And all the things that the devil can point out in me that are weaknesses, are needs, even failures where I just, I messed up again. I just, oh, you know, he's going to be so tired of me trying to come to him for, what was he thinking? And the devil is just painting a false picture of the Lord and of us. And all we do is just lose heart and listen to his lies, and we're in a world of hurt. I would say by your silence, by your quietness, that I'm not the only one who experiences this. The truth is we all do. Sometimes it gets worse than others, but every one of us is affected by Satan's lies that are tailored to our particular needs. I mean, you could be a young lady and you just longed for love and you want to be valued in your life. You want someone to care about you and take care of you. Oh God, do you think the devil doesn't pull on that and use that to lead somebody astray? Whatever it is, the devil is going to pull our chain and work if we let him.

But Paul says we've got divine power. The reality is What have we got on our side? We've got the blood that was shed that cannot be undone. If Jesus paid it all, then I need to recognize that that includes me. Everything that's wrong with me, he has called me to put my faith in him. It's not in me. I know I can't fix me. I know the only help that I have is going to be him in me. In my eyes, when I'm in need, I need to be lifted to the Lord. Praise God. I've got a place to go. And not only the blood, the reality of what the blood stands for, but it's the Word of God. It is written. If we confess our sin, he is faithful and just to forgive our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. We have the privilege of standing there clean in God's eyes, but oh, the devil loves to get our eyes so focused here in some need that I've got to do something about. My God, help us. We demolish arguments and every pretension, every high thing, I think King James says, that sets itself up against the knowledge of God. The devil will come up with an alternative theology, but it's all designed to destroy our hope, to destroy our confidence, to cause us to look at self all the time and see what's wrong with us instead of what's right with him. God help us to put in practice what we know to be the truth. There are things that make every one of us anxious. And if we don't, I mean, we can talk about Ephesians or Philippians 4, 6, is it? Be anxious for nothing, put in everything. We can say, oh yes, that's wonderful and not do it and be anxious.

Is that what God has called us to, a life of anxiety and fear? Does He have peace? You know, Satan has his own version of wisdom, doesn't he? But God has wisdom too. The wisdom that is from above, pure, peaceable, gentle, easy to be entreated. There is such a difference between God's voice and the devil's. The devil can come and give you scripture and tell you true things about yourself if he's just going to look at you and your need. But here's the thing about how the devil talks. He will throw in a dart, a fiery arrow. He'll throw in a thought and it's believable because maybe he's talking about you and your weaknesses and you say, yeah, that's true. But he doesn't just tell us the facts, he interprets them. What does this mean? Oh, this must mean I don't even really know the Lord or I couldn't have had a thought like that. Well, the thought wasn't yours to begin with and your human nature hasn't improved a bit. We just need a new nature that we can learn to live by and grow into. We died on that cross. It's a fact of history in God's reckoning. God wants to teach us to reckon that and to see it and to live according to what God says and not what the devil says. When the devil comes, how does it make people feel? What does the voice of the devil do in our hearts, in our minds? Does it bring peace? If there's a thought, no matter how reasonable it sounds, but all it does is bring anxiety, fear, a sense that this is just something, I can't let this go. This is true and I've got to deal with it. And it brings distress. Did that come from God?

It's as simple as that, but oh, it's hard to recognize. Oh no, but it's true. No, it's not. God helped us not to learn how to recognize the difference between God's voice and the devil's. And we sing the song, How Lovely is the Voice of the Lord. The Lord can tell us about our needs. Everyone here who's come to the Lord, the Lord's had to at some point tell you about a need in your heart. But when He does, does it make you fall into a pit of fear and anxiety, like, I've got to do something? Or does it come with a sense of, I love you, I have the answer to your need, I just need you to ask me and trust me and believe me and put this thing in my hands. I've got it, I've taken care of it at the cross. There's love and it leads to peace. By the way, what happens when you, well as Peter says, cast your burdens on the Lord, but we bring our anxious thoughts to Him. There's some praying, there's some transferring of the burden to Him, and I don't care anymore, what's the result of that? Peace that passes all understanding shall do what? Keep or guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. That's what God has revealed that He desires for every single person that knows Him. To be able to enjoy an actual practical peace. It's not necessarily some exhilarating emotion all the time, but if our lives are full of stress because of thoughts, that ain't the Lord. And as soon as we can recognize that that's the issue, what are we listening to and how are we dealing with that? Anybody here not ever affected by this? I don't see any hands. Anybody who is?

Yeah. Yeah. But I'll tell you, God longs for His children to enjoy His peace. In the midst of our need, He comes with a hand of love that reaches out. He says, give me your heart. Give me the issues of your life. You don't know what to do? I know what to take. I know where to take you. I know how to handle you. Just give me your heart and I'll direct your steps one step at a time. Be anxious for nothing. I care. You look in the mirror and you see nothing but brokenness. The Lord sees that, but He sees it through the eyes of love. He sees it through the eyes of what His Son did on the cross. Praise God. Does it see everything? Yes, it does. God wants us to enjoy the peace and to be able to tell the difference. Look at so many scriptures. I'm not going to look at a whole lot of them, but Colossians 3, I think is the one I'm thinking about. Aha. It comes after Philippians, doesn't it? I thought they'd moved it for a minute. Anyway, a lot of practical instructions about being able to keep our minds fixed on Him and let the old stuff go and take on the new and be this kind of a person and it's all because of Him. But here in verse 15, it's an interesting scripture.

Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts. Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts. Now the word rule there is very much like an umpire or a referee. We're all familiar with sports contests where there's a referee and if someone has a foul, they can call it and they can recognize, hey, we're playing by the rules here. God has given us a referee if we understand it. And if there's a voice that's speaking to us and the fruit of that voice when we begin to meditate and think about it is not peace, foul, throw the penalty flag, whatever. If it's not the peace of God recognizing that, even if, like I say, even if God shows us a need, He does it in such a way that it leads to peace. We don't have to sit there and, oh God, what do I do? Or just, well, I guess this is the way it is. I'm just that, that's the person I am. I had that bad thought, it must be what I really am. You can go on so many rabbit trails that the devil knows how to exploit, but the truth gets really simple if we can grasp it. We need to recognize that the devil will speak to us, and when he does, his words generate fear, anxiety, strife, a feeling that I've got to fix this, I've got to do something to make this go away. Why do you think some people turn to drugs? For no reason? There's a pain that's in here, there's a need, there's a weakness, and they just got to figure out some way, any way to dull that. Alcohol would be the same way. Oh God, God wants to heal every heart. He wants to set, he came to set captives free. He came to open prison doors, not to put us in them. Satan will do everything in his power to bring us down to a place of fear, of bondage, of anxiety, all the things that we've said. But I'll tell you, if we've got Christ in our hearts, and we've put our hope in Him, you see, it's pretty obvious why we need to put our hope in Him, there ain't none here. But if Jesus has paid it all, my hope is in Him, I'm just going to step up, I'm going to believe what His Word says, I'm going to confess it. I mean, everything that I'm saying has been said in the men's meeting this morning. I'm just basically repeating.

Doctrinally, I haven't said anything new today, have I? We've heard this a gazillion times more or less, whatever a gazillion is. But I'll tell you, the more I go, the more I run into situations and awareness, the more my awareness grows of how much I need this. Because my head could be full of all this knowledge, but if I live in a place where the devil's talking to me, and I'm not recognizing it, I'm listening, and I'm trying to figure it out, and cogitate, and react to the thought, and deal with it, what's happening? The devil is just pouring in his influence and bringing me to a place of weakness and distraction. God has a place for us in this world to be a light, to reach out to others, and to bring them, I mean, we want this to be the Lord's house. We sang about it this morning. We want this to be a place where people in need can come and find love, not approval for their sin, but deliverance from it, and the spirit of love, and all that Christ did for us on the cross. But I want us to experience it more. In Monday morning, Tuesday morning, Thursday afternoon, in the middle of the night, no matter when a thought comes, to be able to say, wait a minute, I recognize you, devil. I don't have to listen to you. And not to get in the middle of a battle and say, I'm just going to push it down and forget about it, and pretend it isn't there, but to bring it out into the light and say, this is what God says, devil. Don't have to listen to you. Get thee behind me, Satan. Do we have that authority in Christ? But in order to use that authority, we better be able to recognize when it's needed. Let's ask God to help us, to give us greater discernment, to know how to evaluate when the devil is talking to us, no matter how reasonable it sounds, and when the Lord is talking to us. The Lord is not a ... what's the word? He doesn't jabber on and on and on. I couldn't, can't think of the word I was looking for, but anyway. But the Lord knows. Chatterbox, I guess, is the word I was looking for. The Lord is not a chatterbox. He can say a simple thing, and it has a profound power. What did He say when light was needed? Let there be light. Complicated, but real and powerful. The Word of God is just like that for us. If we believe it and stand on it and step out on it, God will

back it up because it's His Word. Praise God. To God be the glory. I think that's probably enough for ... you get the point across. But I'll tell you, God needs to teach us how to think. Every one of us. needs our minds transformed so that we can see ourselves, we can see the world, we can see the devil, we can see the Lord, most importantly, in a true light. And He will teach us and He will train us. And you're going to go through things where the Lord's going to allow the devil to talk to you. Jesus was sent to be tempted, but He's going to do it not to bring us down or to defeat us or make us anxious and fearful, but to teach us how to fight. To teach us to stand on His truth and get stronger and be in a position to help somebody else. Praise God. And if I fall on my face, then I get to really learn something. But you know what I learned? I learned that God loves me still. That He's provided, He knew all about that and He's provided for that and I don't have to be afraid. Praise God. God drives out all fear, doesn't He? There's no place for fear in His kingdom in that sense. I mean, the kind that I'm talking about. Yes, we fear the Lord. We respect Him. We take Him dead seriously. But I'm not afraid of Him. He's a loving Father who longs to share everything with me if I just put my whole hope in Him and trust in Him and believe His words. So let's learn how to discern and how to think His thoughts. How to see Him and see ourselves in the proper light. This is where I need. But I need Him to make that real in my heart, not just read words on a page. He's doing that and He will in our daily lives as we learn from Him. To Him be the glory. Praise God. This has been the Midnight Cry broadcast. If you would like a DVD or CD of today's message in its entirety, please request it by program number. While it is not required, a donation of $10 for DVDs and $5 for CDs is suggested to help with expenses. Also for those who request it, we will send you our quarterly publication, the Midnight Cry Messenger, free and postage paid. Send your requests to Midnight Cry Ministries, Post Office Box 685, Southern Pines, North Carolina, 28388. We invite you to join us again next week at the same time and may God richly bless you until then.