Tearing Down our Strong holds and renewing of our minds

[DeaconBob3]

Tearing Down our Strong holds and renewing of our minds Section 1

Introduction

1. Everyone who believes in Christ Jesus has obtained an equal
privilege of receiving whatsoever the Bible promises.
i. God is no respecter of persons.
ii. God does not decide the basis of His giving on a sliding scale of
who is and who is not, or even when one finally becomes worthy of
receiving what he has promised.
iii. A believer is worthy to receive simply because he or she is in His
Son, Jesus Christ.

2. But not everyone has received Wisdom, power, authority,
understanding, answers and peace immediately. Why?
i. It isn't, God withholding them, the devil's interference, nor our
parents, spouse, boss, friends or children holding us back.
ii. It is we, ourselves, which are opposing ourselves.
1. Opposing means to be at odds with; to be in disagreement with.
2. In Biblical Terms someone who opposes himself holds or hangs onto
beliefs that are in disagreement with the Word of God. Thus
blocking God's ability and willingness to bless us
3. Un-forgiveness, anger, bitterness, criticism, failure to trust God is
able, believing we are too sinful to be completely forgiven; all of
these are in disagreement with God's word.

3. Why do some believers seem to have so much spiritually and others
seem to have so little?
i. Church leaders explain:
1. God's gifts are dispensed when one meets certain "conditions," or
spiritual levels of service, prayer, study, etc……
2. But these are man's conditions, not God's!
3. These are false teachings based upon Man's work to earn favor!
ii. God has not made the manifestations of His promises contingent on
any of man's conditions.
1. The Lord doesn't realign His faithfulness to conform to man's
misconceptions of Him.
2. God is faithful to His promises.
iii. His faithfulness to His promises simply exists because He exists.
1. Man's works can in no way earn our way to His faithfulness
2. Our dedication to service, prayer, and study may make us better
people, but our dedication has nothing to do with increasing His
faithfulness to His Word.

3. God is faithful to all He has said, period!

4. A heart that has been able to receive from Him is a heart full of
Thanksgiving, understanding, love and worship.



"The Keys to the Kingdom" Matthew 16:19 and 18:18


The Truth will set you free:

1. We are in a time when so many are so leery of trusting today's headlines.

i. Who knows if we are getting fact or fiction? It's hard to tell.
ii. Does anyone mean what they are promising? Will anyone do what
they say?
iii. Nothing is what it seems. What is the truth? cries the world.

2. Christians know the truth!
i. Jesus died so we could be forgiven and go to heaven.
1. This is rock solid, life-giving truth.
ii. Many a Christian will make it all the way through life and home to
God on that truth alone.
1. They may not change the world or impact many lives, but that
truth is enough to get them out of spending an eternity in hell
a. Providing of course that they are not hit with any brutal or harsh
circumstances that have to be lived out or walked through while
here on earth.
iii. When life has a way of sending us circumstances that must be
lived through or walked through, the strongest Christians need
every bit of truth they can get.
iv. This study is about seeking for truth, whole truth, the deeper truth
that comes with a price but brings great reward.

3. Too many Christians quit seeking when surface truth brings them
temporary blessings or relief.
i. This "one dimensional" understanding costs little and requires little
growth
ii. Learning "whole truth" can bring growing pains!
1. But God always gives growth in stages we can handle.
iii. He has said, "Seek and ye shall find"
1. So our command to begin seeking and to keep seeking
2. Those who do will feel growing pains.
4. Remember your first pair of dress shoes Mom bought for you
i. They were shiny and a little big for your feet, but you could walk in
them
ii. After a while they began to pinch your toes and you needed a
larger size
iii. There was nothing wrong with the shoes. But your feet had grown
and you needed a larger size.
iv. This is the way it is with our knowledge of God's truths.
1. We are always seeking truth
2. We are always growing spiritually
3. So, God says, "You're ready for a size '2' understanding now and I
want you to increase your solid foods.

5. Baby Christians
i. Are fed on the sincere milk of the Word of God because they can
not chew anything. 1 Peter 2:2
ii. If we try feeding a baby on solid food, the stronger meat truths of
crucified flesh, dying to self and submission, he'll choke.
1. You'll have to thump him on the back and spiritually burp him
2. You feed them love, joy, answered prayer and guardian angels,
blessings and heaven.
3. But if he stays on this diet indefinitely, he will never be more than a
baby.

6. Mature Christians cannot survive on milk
i. They need and are trained to chew, swallow and digest meat
without choking.
1. Spoiled milk can make you sick but it will rarely kill you
2. If the baby Christian mishandles the Word it can make him sick but
will not lead unto spiritual death.
3. Spoiled meat on the other hand can kill you!
a. If the mature Christian mishandles the word of God to spoil it's true
meaning or misrepresenting God's standards, this can bring spiritual
death.
b. The meat of the Word must be handled with clean hands, pure
hearts and a renewed mind.

OLD MIND SETS:

1. When we come to Christ, we ALL come with old mind sets of
misinformation. If these are deeply set and resistant to renewal,
the believer can come dangerously close to mishandling God's Word.
i. Inside every one of us is a picture of God.
1. Formed by what we have read
2. What we have been taught
3. Our personal experiences
4. Our past memories and feelings
ii. We actually have two pictures of God
1. What we should believe about Him
2. What we actually do believe about Him

2. What we learn about God has to filter down through our minds
i. The beliefs - both right and wrong which already exist in our mind
1. This fact is not always understood by Christians, lay people, or
spiritual leadership.
2. Many in leadership believe scripturally correct teaching will
automatically clear up any wrong ideas someone might have about
God.
a. Theoretically, scripturally correct teaching on trust, love and faith
should enable anyone to trust and love God with complete faith.
b. And it usually will - eventually.
ii. The problem is this:
1. Even scripturally correct truth cannot always penetrate a soul filled
with strongholds.
2. God can sovereignly impart revelation knowledge anytime, but His
work of renewal always occurs within the framework of our minds,
wills, emotions, memories, experiences and beliefs.
a. God will not change, bypass or override our memories, experiences
and beliefs. (will not violate our free will)
b. He just keeps offering His love and truth until we finally become
willing to exchange our old beliefs and old ideas for them.
iii. An unrenewed mind (rigid in mind sets that have formed from wrong
sources) can distrust the most beautiful spiritual truth.
1. The Christian's mind is NOT automatically renewed at the point of
new birth!
2. This is why the mind needs to undergo a continuing process of transformation and
renewal by washing in the Word of God.
3. This is how we cooperate with God's plan for our lives and how we
cooperate with God's plan of salvation.

 

[DeaconBob3]

Strong Holds and Renewal - Part 2

SELF-ERECTED STRONGHOLDS:

1. Most minds come into salvation stubbornly filled with old attitude, wrong patterns of thinking and some pretty strange ideas.
i. Many of these old ideas and attitudes will be protected by self-erected strongholds.
1. The key to receiving renewal as fast as possible is to tear down the strongholds around the wrong mind sets.
2. Unfortunately, some Christians never accomplish this
a. They spend their entire lives trying to intermingle their concepts of God with His truth.
ii. Even Old Testament prophets were subject to hearing certain things through old mind sets.
1. God did not automatically create perfect, undistorted vessels to become His prophets.
2. He worked through people just like you and me.
iii. Consider Elijah the great prophet of fire
1. He fled to the desert to hide from Jezebel
2. He had just faced down hundreds of prophets of Bal on Mount Carmel
a. He had called down heavenly fire on the sacrifice and
b. Then fire upon the prophets of Bal
c. Yet something in him caused him to fall apart and run away from Jezebel's threat
d. He had an old mind set that defeated him when the right circumstances played out.
iv. Consider also Abraham, Isaac and Jacob; Moses and even Joshua, David and Solomon.
1. There are indications in the scriptures that these men also had issues that caused them to fall
2. Yet they ultimately overcame these and became
Great men of God.
2. Many Christians have formed their concept of God from old ideas and personal experiences rather than the truth, the Word of God.
i. God has revealed Himself in His Word.
ii. This is why some believers never seem to get past believing that God accepts us when they measure up and angrily turns away when we fail.
iii. No matter how discouraged we might be right now, we can be set free of old mind sets and distortions
1. Jesus gave all believers the Keys of the Kingdom (Matt 16:19 18:18
2. To tear down and strip away these distortions of the Truth.
a. Jesus knew that the devil would be after us
b. Jesus knew we needed the power of truth to overcome the enemy.

KEYS TO THE KINGDOM

1. Have a three fold purpose for using the Keys
i. To overcome our pasts
ii. To deal with our un-surrendered souls
iii. To deal with the devil to face our future.

2. We have a purpose once we are saved.
i. We are bought with the price that Christ paid with his death and resurrection
ii. We are here to show God's love to the World!
1. We are not here to be graded on how well we do as we face all life's tests
2. God is not keeping score.

3. Too many in the Church today see themselves in terms of their pasts, their upbringing, their shattered marriages, their lost jobs, their lack of money.

4. They do not see themselves in terms of their potential in Christ.
i. We need brothers and sisters who will say,
1. You need to see yourself as God sees you
2. I know a way to pray with you so you can.
ii. The world needs people who will say
1. You can turn your discouragement and hurt into an open doorway leading into Christ's arms and be healed.
iii. The Body of Christ needs people who will say
1. You cannot rate God's love or His promises by your un-answered prayers
a. The problem is not in God
b. It is in the manner in which we pray
c. And the manner in which we perceive God's responses to our prayers
2. We so often oppose ourselves
a. Let me help you to pray to agree that God is working right now to bring resolution, resources, and restoration to the situations you are trying to get through.
iv. Don't withhold love and compassion from those who are struggling.
1. Help them to work on loosing the "whatsoevers" in their lives
2. Help them to move into their position as New Creatures in Christ
a. Work with them in prayers of agreement if they let you
b. But, you can pray for God's will, purposes and truth in their lives even if they are unwilling to pray in agreement

THE NEW CREATURE PROCESS:
5. We are new creations in Christ when we become saved - Romans 10
i. All things have become new
ii. All old things have passed away
iii. This new creature we have become has the right to be free from the past
1. This truth involves a process of becoming by us and the Lord
2. But Satan hates to lose so he will do everything in his power to chip away at our new identity in Christ.
iv. As believers, we are new creatures in old, unresurrected bodies
1. We are still in the flesh
2. Having unsurrendered souls and born-again spirits
a. Indwelt by the Spirit of God
b. Which begins to change us and clean us up immediately
3. Our new spiritual nature begins to grow, the trouble begins
4. Our old nature, the flesh, is sharply aware that something has happened that could be totally disastrous to the free rein it has held in our lives and it responds vehemently
a. It is no wonder that a Christian can feel totally undone at times
v. Jesus provided the means for us to walk into renewal and restoration right here on earth while we were still in our mortal bodies.
1. Titus 3:5 "He saved us not because of the righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit."
2. Many have experienced the rebirth, but hold on tight to their old ways just in case the working out of their renewal gets delayed.
vi. Believers receive all of God's covenant rights that he has for His children, and that includes being able to override Satan and loose his bondages.
1. John 14:12 "The person who trusts me will not only do what I'm doing but even greater things, because I, on my way to the Father, am giving you the same work to do I've been doing. You can count on it."
2. 1 John 3:8 tells us that the reason Jesus appeared on earth was to destroy the devil's works, and He provided what we need to do the same thing.
vii. This is God's will (the above)
1. But we through our will have to make a choice to call our lives on earth into alignment and agreement with God's will in heaven.
2. God will not force us to do so
3. But, He will help us to do so
4. Philippians 2:13 "It is God Who is all the while effectually at work in you--energizing and creating in you the power and desire--both to will and to work for His good pleasure and satisfaction and delight"
5. This is God's Plan

A HOPE AND A FUTURE

1. Satan's plan is to drag us down
i. Weighting us down with lies and distortions unto breaking of your will
ii. Satan tries to convince us that we have no right to sonship with Jesus Christ.
iii. He strives to drag us under and prevent you from believing the God wh says,
1. "I know the plans I have for you.. plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future" Jeremiah 29:11
2. This Scripture holds the promise of being prospered, having hope and a future filled with God's good plans. Could anyone resist that?
3. Yes, everyday those who are afraid to believe that God would do that for them
4. Those who base their knowledge of God on the negative experiences of their lives

2. God's Plan is, through Christ, to Save us and to Set us Free
i. However we will not come to the fullness of our Freedom until we have torn down our strongholds and fully surrendered our souls to Christ.
ii. But how are we to do that?
1. Matthew 16:19 and 18:18 “The Keys to the Kingdom” and binding and loosing!
2. This is the "rest of the truth"
iii. Bind = deo in the Greek means to bind, be in bonds, knit, fasten, and wind.
1. It is related to "deomai" meaning to petition, beseech, make request and pray.
2. To bind means to obligate yourself to someone.
a. A really good thing to know when you want to corral your unsurrendered soul and make it submit to God's will.
b. This is the power of praying binding of our souls to our spirit and the Spirit of God!
i. We obligate ourselves to the Holy Spirit
ii. We agree to do God's will and grant power to the Spirit of God over us!
c. This shows that bind has a more complex meaning than just tying up evil spirits.
iv. Loose = "luo" in Greek
1. It means to loosen, break up, destroy, dissolve, unloose, melt and put off.
2. It is closely related to "rhegnumi" and "agnumi," which means to break, wreck, crack to sunder by separation of its parts, shatter to minute fragments, disrupt, lacerate, convulse, burst. Rend, and tear
3. Now these are words a prayer warrior can get into.


3. Summary
i. Every believer has an equal privilege and is worthy to receive from God because he or she is in Jesus Christ.
ii. God does not desire to withhold any good thing from us. The devil cannot keep any good thing from us. Only we can oppose our receiving.
iii. We can stop opposing ourselves by stripping off, tearing down and moving out the trappings of our old nature (our unsurrendered soul), enlarging our capacity to receive.
v. Every believer comes to Christ with certain mind sets of misinformation. The mind is not instantly renewed at the moment of new birth. “Be ye transformed by the renewing of your minds and washing by the Word of God.”
vi. Scripturally correct teaching will not automatically clear up wrong ideas. Truth can be twisted when it has to filter its way through a mind filled with strongholds.
vii. Elijah, the prophet of fire, had at least one wrong mind set and stronghold that caused him to run and hide when the right circumstance played out.
viii. Jesus has given us the keys to dealing with those strongholds. They are found in Matthew 16:19 and 18:18


From a Bible Study based on "Shattering your Stong holds" by Liberty Savard
and conducted by Pastor Robert Lehmann

 

[amanda 7]

your so right that our biggest enemy is ourselves i have really been struggling in that area for awhile now so thank you for what you wrote i think it will help and i can surely relate to what was written.:star:

 

[DeaconBob3]

I'm glad this helped you. If you want additional information or recommended reading material re-post or contact me by email

In His name
Regards

Bob