Waging Spiritual Warfare
(Part 4)
2 Corinthians 10:3-5
For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;
To the pulling down of strong holds, Casting down imaginations, and every high thing…
· What are strongholds? One might have his or her own idea and opinion of what they are, but we must view it through God’s eyes or we will fall far short of what they are.
o Spiritual things must be seen through spiritual eyes, understood with spiritual minds, made possible only by the Spirit of God.
· How does the Bible define “strongholds”?
· The word “strongholds” speaks of a castle, stronghold, fortress, fastness, anything on which one relies.
o If left to just this definition, we are apt to say, okay, so what’s the big deal. But it goes even deeper!
· Strongholds in reference to the text in study are arguments and reasonings by which a disputant endeavours to fortify his opinion and defend it against his opponent.
· In simple terms, these strongholds are thoughts, arguments, and reasonings. We could call them “fiery darts of the enemy” (Ephesians 6:16), that the devil uses to bring confusion and either try to complicate, hinder or even destroy our faith and trust in God and all that He declares He is and has promised.
· But here is the interesting part, they target our minds! Who would ever have thought that this is where the enemy would find his greatest strength?
· You might say, “I find this hard to believe”. Your defense might be that it is trials of sickness, financial hardship, temptation, loneliness, but consider this. In all these things it is not so much the problem as it is what we believe and where we put our faith and trust in the midst of the problems.
· Let’s look at it this way, is not what you think, what you allow to capture your mind and heart, that will determine your outcome in all these situations and anything else that challenges your faith, trust and walk with God.
o We mentioned that the “fiery darts of the enemy” could well be included in the definition of these reasonings and arguments, and if you read Ephesians chapter 6 verse 16 you will see that it is “the shield of faith” that is used to quench these darts, all of them not some of them.
o Faith defends both your mind and your heart against the strongholds and imaginations of the enemy.
· Take careful notice when you are facing real trying times, and we all do, times that truly try both our faith and faithfulness toward God and what He has promised, there comes with those situations a bombardment of thoughts like:
o “Where is God now, He said ”He would never leave you?”
o “Didn’t He say He would heal you? You’ve been sick for weeks”!
o “You’ve been faithful to give your tithe and offerings, now look at you, your financially struggling.”
o “You had so many friends before, now look at you, all by yourself, nobody in this church cares about you. You were better off in the world and at least you had friends.”
o Get the point! The list is endless. No doubt you could add to the list of the things that run trough you mind, things that cloud your spiritual vision, reasonings that hinder your advancement in the Kingdom of God and temp you to simply give up and throw in the towel and do your own thing.
· These thoughts, reasonings, arguments, are what, in part, the bible calls strongholds. And they can distract or do serious damage and even destroy you if we do not understand what is going on and the power that God has given us and the faithfulness of what He has promised.
o Consider what Jesus said to Peter when he, out of sincere concern unknowingly spoke what could have been a stumbling block in the Lord’s divine purpose.
o Matthew 16:22-23 22 Then Peter took him, and began to rebuke him, saying, Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee. But he turned, and said unto Peter, Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence unto me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men.
§ The word “offense” here means a moveable stick, stumbling block, a trigger of a trap. Get the point yet?
o Read how satan tempted Jesus in Matthew chapter 4.
o Here’s one more verse to consider: Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world. 1 Peter 5:8-9
· These strongholds and imaginations attempt to exalt themselves (to be lifted up) against the “knowledge of God”.
· Rather then trying to define the Greek wording, consider how the following translations word them:
o … for smashing warped philosophies, tearing down barriers… (The Message)
o …to knock down the strongholds of human reasoning and destroy false arguments…(The NLT)
o …for the overthrow and destruction of [Inasmuch as we] refute arguments and theories and reasonings… (The Amplfied)
· It is the old good verses evil, light verses darkness, truth verses the lie thing.
· In this case it is true knowledge and understanding of what the bible declares about God and what He reveals to us. His character, power, faithfulness, of things lawful and unlawful for Christians. It includes moral wisdom, the kind of wisdom that causes us to live right and think right.
· The Word of God makes it very clear that the devil is against all that God is and that he is out to keep any he can from coming into a right and knowledgeable relationship with God and to destroy those who already have come to Him for everlasting life.
o John 10:10 The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.
o Who better to fight against the knowledge of God, then one who once held high office in His very kingdom and was close to Him. One who was in the very presence of the Lord of Glory. One who witnessed all that He had created even His greatest and most loving creation, mankind!
o This can be seen in small scale if you have ever encountered a once sincere spirit-filled believer that has fallen from grace. They can be some of the greatest foes to the faith. Their bitterness knows no end and if not avoided they can cause serious damage to someone’s walk buy sowing seeds of bitterness, faithlessness and unbelief. They twist the truth to satisfy their own rebellion just like the devil does (Strong statement? It is the truth).
· But no matter how the enemy seeks to conquer, no matter how deceptive or powerful he may be, no matter who or what he chooses to use, If we are the children of God the devil will not prevail. We have been promised that our weapons are “mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds;) Casting down imaginations”.
o Through our relationship with the Lord, we have been given spiritual authority to:
1. Pull down strongholds: Destroy and to demolish.
2. Cast down imaginations: Refute, take and throw down, destroy any subtle reasonings (of opponents).
3. We must take into consideration the seriousness of the matter at hand. The wordage used in this text reveal that we can not simply close our eyes and hope that we will not need to engage the enemy. We will engage him for he has waged war against the people of God whom he hates.
4. God has given us authority with it, we can and must pull and cast down every strong hold, every imagination and bring it into obedience to Christ.
And bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;
· “Bringing in captivity” is a metaphor that simply means to “capture ones mind.”
o The Amplified Bible reads this way; and we lead every thought and purpose away captive into the obedience of Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed One),
· Keep in mind that when we speak of bringing things into captivity to the obedience of Christ, that it means that we have the God given authority to accomplish that very thing.
· The imaginations and false reasoning that the enemy seeks to use to defeat us and lead us from the path of righteousness can not prevail against the authority of Christ anointing in us.
· We are without excuse when we fall prey to the wiles of the devil, not without forgiveness or reconciliation, just simply without excuse. The devil has no legal right no authority to defeat us, he can try us, not defeat us.
· If God has said we have authority, then that is what we have, if we lack the understanding or fail to use it that does not alter the truth of the matter.
· We need to seek the Lord for a greater revelation of what has already been made known to us.
· The church is not powerless, the child of God is not powerless at any level, just sadly misinformed, deceived or simply unwilling to walk in the truth.
Ephesians 3:20-21 Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in us, Unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. Amen.