A Simple Prayer

Oh Lord,
I pray that Your eye’s will always be before my own.
That my feet may not stray from the straight and narrow road where You hold and lead me by my hand.
I pray that my heart will always know You wherever You may be.
In words or deeds
In thoughts or feelings
Will I know You, and You only.
In Your name, Jesus I pray
Amen

PULLING DOWN STRONGHOLDS…..BREAKING DOWN STRONGHOLDS

by Pastor Peter Tan

Turn to II Cor. 3 we have been talking about pulling down strongholds. Today we want to give some solutions on pulling down strongholds. Last week we saw how the transformation of the mind is related to the glorification of each one of us. How the renewal of the mind will transform each one of us.

II Cor. 3:17-18 Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.  We clearly understand all these verses where it says that we with unveiled face as we behold the glory of the Lord, we are being transformed into the same image. As we behold we are transformed. As we see the Lord so are we changed into His likeness. We have mentioned that the first condition before those things can take place is in the first phrase in verse 18 that it says we all with unveiled face. Now obviously if we have a veiled face we cannot see Him. If we cannot see Him we cannot be transformed into His image.  Seeing Him and being transformed into His image will take place. But the condition for seeing Him is that our faces must be unveiled. Paul was not talking about just our physical faces. He was talking about something deeper. Not a physical veil but a veil over the mind.

We know that from the preceding verses, Paul was referring to the Jews who were not born again. It says here in verse 14 But their minds were blinded. For until this day the same veil remains – he is now spiritualizing the Old Testament veil. In the Old Testament it was the physical veil over Moses’ face. Now he spiritualizes it and says now in the New Testament in all the synagogues during Paul’s time there is a spiritual veil that remains while the Old Testament is being read in all their synagogue. Bur he tells us the veil is taken away in Christ. Then verse 15 But even to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart.

How is the veil removed? Verse 16 Nevertheless when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away.  Now we are going to consider that how the veil is taken away and how the veil still can affect our heart and our mind if we don’t watch it. That is why the bible says to put on the new man. But many times we struggle with our old man. We don’t know how to put on the new man. There is a veil that prevents one from seeing the Lord. Now we are not necessarily talking about the gift of discerning of spirits and visions but we are talking about how every believer in their heart in their being can perceive and fellowship and relate to the Lord in their own way. As they perceive and see the Lord they will be transformed. The requirement as given to us in verse 18 is but we all, with unveiled face. We must take away that veil.

We have brought to you last week that the veil is the mind – the carnal mind, carnal thinking and all the various thought pattern. Last week we showed you how one tiny thought pattern can be multiplied and can be twisted and turned into a pattern until it becomes a very strong rope. We illustrated with some toilet rolls last week.  We showed you how we can turn toilet rolls into a rope so strong that you can’t break it.  All of us could easily just tear a piece of toilet roll. But last week we showed you how we could twist and turn it and form it into a pattern that is so strong and binding. The same way don’t ever despise thoughts that come to your heart and mind. Some of the wrong thoughts that seem like nothing is just like a piece of toilet paper. When it becomes a pattern and develops stronger, it becomes a stronghold. That stronghold becomes a veil of darkness over your heart and mind and keeps you from perceiving the truth. As long as we wear dark glasses we will see everything darkly.  If you wear polka dotted glasses you will see everyone with polka dots. No matter how much you try to wipe away the polka dot that you see outside you can’t unless you take out your glasses and realize that the polka dots were on your glasses. It is important for us to understand that it’s the conditioning of our mind that prevents the transformation.

Notice in chapter 3:14 how the veil was formed by the first sentence. But their minds were blinded. The word mind is the word noema, which is a normal word, used for thought life, thought pattern, the conscious mind. When the bible refers to your normal conscious mind it uses the word nous or noema. The general word for mind talks about thought life. But their thought life is set into a certain pattern that now forms a veil over their life and they can’t see clearly.

What causes the hardening? We will examine that because the opposite of that will be true. We will show you from the bible here in the book of Romans chapter one how the hardening takes place. He is talking in general about all people of the earth, all of creation, all of mankind. Rom. 1:19 because what may be known of God is manifest in them, for God has shown it to them.  He is talking about knowledge of God generally given to all mankind. Verse 20 For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse, because, although they know God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. Professing to be wise, they became fools, and changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man – and birds and four-footed animals and creeping things.  God couldn’t deal with them any more and surrendered them to their sin.

Notice what takes place in verse 21 although they knew God they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. What caused the hardening process? There is the word glorify and there is the word thankful. It’s important to see here that a grateful heart and a grateful mind is an important key to being free from strongholds. No matter how the strongholds came into your life, in your childhood, in your teenage time the key starts by being grateful. The key starts with thanksgiving. There are a lot of things we can thank God. For. many things we can give thanks with gratefulness, no matter how hard your life is, how difficult it is.

Do you know how people’s hearts become hardened? The bible tells us here though they knew God, they glorify Him not nor were thankful. It’s a very simple key to pull down strongholds. No matter how strong a person under oppression, suppressions, 20 years, 30 years, remember it doesn’t mean that if it is thirty years it takes thirty years to clear it off. It does not work that way. The woman with the issue of blood in the bible suffered thirty-eight years but Jesus in a moment cured her. We must learn how to position ourselves to receive His empowerment.

The first important key is thanksgiving. Give thanks with a grateful heart. Think about those who are bound by wrong thinking.  You can find that they have not been giving thanks. Why do two people go through the same situation and come out differently? They go through the same tribulation and come out differently.  One sees all the bad things and blames God and people. While the other no matter how difficult says, “I am thankful for this. I am thankful for that little thing.” They remain in the spirit of thanksgiving and they come out differently. The breakthrough in your life over strongholds begins with thanksgiving. You know how to thank God for big, big things. Try to find something in your life you can give thanks for. If somebody comes and say, “For the past ten years I have been suffering.” Don’t tell me for ten years they got nothing they could thank God for. But isn’t it strange that a person under a stronghold is so convinced that for ten years they have nothing to give thanks. I am not just talking about just thanking God, thanking those around you.

Your parents no matter how bad you think your parents have been surely you can find some good you could thank God for. Suppose you came from a terrible background where your parents didn’t know the Lord and they really did a lot of damage to you.  You say that I find hard to think of something to thank God for. Automatically as you are saying that, your heart had hardened.

Hardening of heart is caused by a lack of thanksgiving. Glorifying Him of course is about praise and worship. You can never enter His courts with praise unless you enter His gates with thanksgiving. It starts with thanksgiving. The psalmist said, “I will enter His gates with thanksgiving and into His court with praise.” It starts with praise, worship and thanksgiving – to God first and then to the people around us who have been blessings to us in some way. I don’t care if you think there is nothing I am sure there is something. You ask, “Pastor, what happens if I choose not to give thanks?” Automatically you are building a stronghold of evil. That is the hardening that you allow into your heart that will eat you up. If you are praying for something and you find yourself complaining you can be sure your prayers will never be answered.  If you are anxious for an answer to your prayer you can be sure they will be hindered. The best position for God to hear our prayers and for God to answer and meet the needs of our heart is to give thanks. Give thanks to God for whatever you are. If you are in a place and you are struggling with mortgage for your house or the rental of your house and sometimes you have difficulties in meeting the dues for even those areas and you are thinking of why, why. Wait, why not give thanks for that place? Why not remember to thank God for that place?  If your heart is full of thanksgiving the answer will come very fast. The financial need will be met very fast. Giving thanks is a very important key to a breakthrough over strongholds.

Lets turn to the book of Ephesians chapter 4. You never realize that thanksgiving can affect our mind. It does. Romans one tells very clearly.  Though they knew God they didn’t glorify Him as God and they were not thankful to Him therefore they became hardened. Their hearts became futile. Eph. 4:17 This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind.  So Paul is saying don’t walk like the way they walk in the futility of their mind. Now look at Rom. 1 again at the incident how their thoughts became futile. Rom.1: 21 because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in heir thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. A veil has formed, a stronghold has formed through the lack of thanksgiving.

Look at Eph.4: 17 it tells you the inner process of what took place in Rom.1. This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind. There is a stronghold over their lives by the enemy. Verse 18 having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their heart. Now Eph. 4:17-18 doesn’t mention thanksgiving. But when you put it together with Rom.1: 21. Rom.1: 21 tells us that their minds became futile through the lack of thanksgiving. But it didn’t mention the full hardening. It say the darkening but here in Eph. 4:17-18 it says there is a process of hardening of their heart because their understanding was darkened.  We know from Rom. 1: 21 that the problem is that they are not thanking God. As far as I know even if non-Christians or people who have not met the Lord if they in a general way begin to look up to the God of creation, God will do what He did to Cornelius where as he begin to sought God and love God and reach out to God give thanks to God and do things onto God. God brought him the gospel of salvation through Peter in the book of Acts 10. This explains why God can work with some people and why God can’t work with others.  Some people’s hearts have hardened. But some people’s hearts are softened because of constant thanksgiving to God and God can work in their lives.

One more scripture to prove to you it that it all ties up to the mind in Phil.4. We have never related thanksgiving to the mind in a direct sense. Phil.4: 6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God, and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. It says whatever is the problem that you are facing when you pray and supplicate to God you must remember to bring thanksgiving into the picture and when you bring it to God with gratefulness, with thanksgiving to Him, there will come a peace that guards your heart and your mind. The evil stronghold cannot form. Instead God’s peace will have a stronghold in your life. All these tie to the word thanksgiving.

The word thanksgiving comes from the Greek word eucharistia and the root word is from the word charis, which means grace.  Thanksgiving is referring to tapping on the grace of God. We need grace in this life. In fact it is by grace that mankind have been able to know God. Even in the Old Testament even though they were still operating under the law every one who came to know God came to know God through grace. As they tap on the grace of God then they came to know God. The difference in the new is that what was revealed to a few in the Old Testament is now common knowledge with the coming of Jesus Christ in the New Testament.  The message of grace is onto all. Giving thanks taps on the power of God’s grace in our life. So the first important key to breaking strongholds is thanksgiving.

Whenever you want to minister to people as they come for prayer whether here or in an evangelistic crusade or in a convention do you know what is the most important attitude to help people? Thanksgiving.  That is why in many of Kathryn Kuhlman’s miracle meetings, there is always the mystery of why some people are healed and some are not. Some really prayed very hard but some did not. That is one of the factors.  It’s always a mystery why some were healed and why some were not in the same meeting with the same power and the same Holy Spirit. Why were some healed and why were some not? Why allowed God to reach out to some easier than others? The mystery is solved. It is the conditioning of their mind at that point. If your mind is on your problem and partially blaming others and partially blaming God it causes a blockage. But when your mind is on God, how good God is, then the blockage is clearing up and God’s power can come through.

Some of those who were healed in Kathryn Kuhlman’s meetings said that when they come to the miracle crusade with problems in their life and then when they see others with worse problems then their hearts go out to them.  Instead of praying for themselves they started praying for others.  They started thanking God for who He is or what He is.  While they were doing that for others they got healed. You see the power of God is available anywhere, anyplace, any time. Right now in your seat you can receive the miraculous healing power of God. You don’t have to wait till convention comes. Or miracle service specially designed for the sick to be prayed for. The power of God is in your home as easily as it is here. It depends on our conditioning to Him. When we praise, glorify and worship Him we move ourselves into a position where His grace can flow to us. All the healing of God is based on His grace. All the power of God is based on His grace. All the gifts of God are based on His grace.  Eucharistia thanksgiving puts you in a position for grace. So the first key to pulling down strongholds is thanksgiving.

Whenever you minister to people with mental problems and difficult situations in their lives, the first area is to get them to start thanking God.  Sometimes they do it not from the heart because you told them to.  You are going to pray for them and it has to go deeper than that. Sometimes it takes time to soak in a person’s life.  It is not just empty word – thank you Lord, thank you Lord, I mean you could tell that its not coming from inside. But when something changes on the inside and they begin to look around everywhere with thanksgiving, they will start experiencing God’s providence in little ways. Like for example how do we continue to release finances into the body of Christ. Simple – thank God for whatever finances have come in. As you give thanks to God for all those things and you pray and worship God, more finances will come in to complete the lack or shortfall.

In many places sometimes people are so conscious of what they want they forgot to give thanks for what they already have.  Sometimes people are wanting for a big convention or something.  They want many people and not many people have signed up for the convention. They are looking around asking why all those people didn’t come.  Something is wrong and the Lord says if you really want to be blessed thank God for the people who are coming. In our twenty years of ministry, the first five years of our ministry were mainly traveling.  In some places, sometimes we get a well-known evangelist from overseas to conduct some services.  People had worked hard to organize the event. They rent a big hall that can seat ten thousand people and then only five hundred people showed up. It’s going to look very funny of course. If people don’t know how to concentrate on the Lord they could be blaming why the other nine thousand five hundred didn’t come instead of giving thanks for the five hundred. But if they spend their time complaining about the nine thousand five hundred, do you know even the five hundred would also run away? It is important to give thanks. Remember sometimes God is testing your heart.

Suppose you open a care group or a home group and you want ten people, you want fifteen people, you want twenty people.  You did everything that you can.  Only three people showed up. You are so upset at the rest who should show up but didn’t show up that you forgot to give thanks for the three.  By your acts and by your words and all your complaining even the three people would also run away. Next week, there’s no more coming to your home group. Learn to say, “Praise God I am glad you made it,” and give thanks for these three whom God brought to your meeting. Pour your life to them and give your heart to them and encourage them. After one whole month of meeting like that the three brought another three and you got six. Remember there is no short cut in a ministry, in spiritual growth or in any area. You start as you are.  Sometimes God tests you with the twos and threes. Why do you think He put that scripture there? Where two or three are gathered together in My name. It is because that’s where we start.

Some of us will say, “I will wait till my circumstances change then I give thanks.” Sorry your circumstances are not going to change. The sad news it’s going to grow worse by your attitude. Even that which is there is going to grow worse. Begin in a small way to give thanks. Just as we encourage people even if one person turned up, two or three turned up give thanks and do your best for the meeting.  This works in the same way as you learn how to break the strongholds. Don’t wait till big, big things happen before you start giving thanks. For all those everyday things, say, “Thank you God. Thank You for Your blessing. Thank you for help. Thank You O God for Your grace. Thank You O God for Your wisdom.”  Thank God for things you already have and more things will come. You could be in the sales area.  You are trying to make your sales and you got ten contacts. They are not the ones you want. You want other contacts. You are so fed up with all your problems you are not making full use of thanksgiving. Instead of thanking God for those that you have, you keep aiming for things that are in the future. In the end you even miss the future. We have to give thanks for where we are now. Start where we are giving thanks to God. Give thanks to God for your situation in your home. Find some areas you can thank God for. We are not talking about giving glory to God for things that He has not done. God didn’t send sickness, diseases. No matter how big your problems are or how small they are, there is always room to give thanks to God. Point No.1 is thanksgiving.

Point No.2 why thanksgiving? When you pull down strongholds we are fighting spiritual battles. One of the most important keys is learning how to fight the fight of faith. The fight of faith is not really your fight. It is learning how to enforce the fight that Jesus had completed.

Lets turn to I Tim.6: 12 Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.  He says fight the good fight of faith. We know that Paul himself has fought a good fight. He has run the race. He has finished the race. What is the fight of faith? The fight of faith is not fighting the devil. Not exactly that. The difference between enforcing Jesus’ victory and you fighting the devil is a difference between day and night. Many Christians have been fighting the fight the wrong way. They are not fighting the good fight of faith. They are fighting the bad fight of fear. It is not the good fight of faith; it is the bad fight of fear. The good fight of faith is a different fight altogether.

The key is found in understanding what Jesus had done to the devil. When Jesus was going to the cross of Calvary Jesus mentioned something that was going to happen to Him. He was going to be hung on the cross and after three days He will rise from the dead. But He mentioned something is going to happen to the devil. He is not talking about after the tribulation period. He is talking about something happening when Jesus died on the cross found in Jn. 12. Jesus before He went to the cross said something here in verse 30-31 This voice did not come because of Me, but for your sake. Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be cast out. Some people think that Satan’s judgment will come. No, Satan has already been judged. His capture is coming but his judgment has been passed from that day at Calvary. You how sometimes a court proclaims a judgment. But the convict is still running loose. He is not captured yet. Jesus said now is the time of judgment.  If you read the context He is referring to the cross of Calvary. The prince of this world Satan is judged of course it goes down the line to all his cohorts. Jesus Christ on the cross of Calvary is doing something about the devil.

In Heb. 2:14 it tells us something that He has done to the devil. Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death he might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil.  Now notice when it took place. Not in the future. He says through death. Now when did Jesus die on the cross of Calvary? When Jesus died on the cross of Calvary He says during His death notice it is through His death not in the future. Jesus needs only to die once. Jesus is coming again but He doesn’t have to die again. Jesus had died once and for all for the sins of the world. Through His death and when was His death? Nearly two thousand years ago on the cross of Calvary.  Through His death He might destroy him who had the power of death. The word destroy means to reduce to zero. To reduce to nothing.  When did that take place at the cross? In the spirit world time is of no consequence. But the acts that are released by God through the spirit go backward in time and goes forward in time. He has destroyed the devil. Made him nothing at the cross.

I Jn. 3:8 tells us for this purpose the Son of God was manifest to destroy the works of the devil. Now is it future tense, past tense or present tense? Something happened to the devil that he is hiding from the world. Something happened to the devil that he does not want the Christians to know.  He had been destroyed. He doesn’t want the world to know. The devil hides that fact.

Col. 2:14 all the devil’s cohort something happened to them too. Having wiped out the handwriting of requirements that was against us, which was contrary to us.  He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. Having spoiled principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.   That was at the cross He triumphed over all.  At the cross nearly two thousand years ago Jesus Christ destroyed all the principalities and powers.  The word there is He spoiled them is a military word speaking about how you strip off all the goods etc off the person then you display them. He would lead them in triumph. When the Roman general goes for battle and wins, he will capture all the enemy, tie them up and they will be marching throughout the Roman roads and displaying their triumph. That was what Jesus did at the cross of Calvary.  He triumphs over the devil. That is the secret that Satan and demons try to hide. He has been destroyed – past tense – principalities powers and all the wicked rulers of darkness have lost all their power because when the head lost its power every thing else follows.

Now what is the fight of faith? The fight of faith is not you and I fighting the devil. It’s you and I taking the place where Jesus took.  Taking His victory and enforcing it on the enemy. Reminding the enemy in every way that it is done. It is not you and I that fight the devil because how do you fight a fight that has been won? You don’t. You give thanks. Can you see why thanksgiving comes in to pull down strongholds? If somebody were to tell you, you don’t have to do anything more. Everything has been done and completed for you all you have to do is go and take it. What would you say? Thank you. By saying thank you, you receive it and you go on. In the gospel of John, the last sentence that Jesus spoke on the cross was, “It is finished.” On the cross of Calvary two thousand years ago, Jesus’ last three words continue to vibrate throughout this universe. After He has taken some drink Jesus cried out Jn.19: 30 So when Jesus had received the sour wine, He said, “It is finished” Completed, the work is done, the enemy is destroyed all that the devil has done has been judged. The judge has taken the hammer and knocked his table declaring that it is finished. There is nothing that you and I can add to the finished work of Jesus. There is no more fight with the devil. There is the fight of faith. The fight is to hold on in faith to what Jesus had done.  The devil is a deceiver. The devil or demon tries to hide that secret. They pretend that they are not defeated.  They pretend that they still have power. To those who believe them they exercise power. To those who believe Jesus you are free because it is finished.

Now there is a slight mistranslation in the bible in the book of Eph. 6 I like to point out. It says in verse 12 some people sooner or later are going to quote verse 12 For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.  Now in verse 12 it looks like you and I are doing the wrestling. Do you know that in Eph.12: 6 the word we is not in the Greek. The word we as in we wrestle not with principalities powers etc is not found in the Greek. It should have been translated for the wrestling is not against flesh and blood. He didn’t say that you and I had to personally do it. It refers to the wrestling.  For the wrestling is not against flesh and blood. The word we is not in the Greek at all. It’s referring to the word the wrestling in a different manner. How do we wrestle? Eph. 6:11 tells us what we actually do. It’s not fighting the devil. It’s taking up what God has done. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. Do you know that the fight of faith is learning to stand in the place where Jesus stood? That’s all you do. If you say that is easy, then how come you are not doing it?  A lot of people are not standing. They are doing many other things except standing.  When you stand you got to stand on certain grounds. On the ground that Jesus Christ had defeated the devil and all his cohorts when He said it is finished. You stand on the fact that it is done. He may throw everything at you. You say no it is finished.  The circumstances come and disturb you and say, “It is not finished. Look at this thing here, look at that thing there. It is not finished.” You say, “No it is finished,” and you make the stand.  He repeats that again in verse 13.

See verse 12 is sandwiched by this verse on standing. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand. How many times did Paul mention about standing rather than wrestling?  Yet we focus more on the word wrestling rather than the word standing. How is it that when the word stand is repeated many, many times in this passage that we still don’t stand but want to wrestle instead? In verse 14 Stand therefore, Paul tells us. The word stand is repeated three times whereas the word wrestling in only mentioned one time and without the word we. We read the whole passage and we focus on wrestling rather than on standing. We are missing the point of what Paul is saying. He is saying that the important thing is to stand on the victory that Jesus bought for us with His precious blood. That’s the fight of faith.

Besides that the word fight in the book of I Tim.6 that we read earlier fight the good fight of faith. The word fight is the word agon, which refers more to the word race. It is primarily “a gathering” then, “a contest, conflict,” in a race but not so much as the word in physical fighting. There is another Greek word for physical fighting.  Fight the good fight of faith. It could have been translated run the good race of faith.  The same Greek word agon which is translated fight in I Tim.6 and in II Tim. 4 has also been translated in Heb. 12:1 as race. Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race (agon which is translated fight in I Tim. 6 here its translated race) that is set before us. The word agon talks more about the prayer aspects. Run the race and he is not talking about fighting. But he is talking about holding on to that position and you keep on moving. You keep on moving in a position that God has given you.

Do you ever contact the devil at all? If there is any contact you have with the devil at all it is when you raise up the name of Jesus, say in the name of Jesus come out. That’s all. The Holy Spirit does the actual work, angels do the actual work. Your part is to stand on the victory of God. The first key to pulling down stronghold is thanksgiving.

The second key is to see that it is finished. Whether you feel it or you don’t feel it is to take the position that it is finished. Now look at Heb. 12:2 looking unto Jesus the author and finisher. Do you know a lot of people cannot see Jesus as the finisher? They only see that He is the author. You can’t see the end product. But here it says looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith. Of every project. Of every race He gives you to run. Of every part of His will for your life. It is finished.  When you see that it is finished that the devil has been defeated your battle is different. It’s totally different. Remember what we are saying when something is finished what else can you do? Nothing, you only give thanks. That is why the two are connected. Whenever you are fighting spiritual forces you must not take the position that they have the power. The moment you take the position that they have power and the work is not finished yet, you will find that you are fighting the battle in your own strength. You must take the position that the battle is finished, the victory is won and you are giving thanks.

According to Phil. 4 when you pray with supplication and thanksgiving the peace of God which surpasses understanding will garrison your heart and your mind and you will stand firm. Having done all standing you will stand.  That’s why Rom. 16: 20 tells you that the God of peace will crush Satan under your feet.  When you stand you will experience the same thing.

In the Old Testament there is an interesting story that has significance for us today. In one of the battles a group of kings who rose up to fight against Joshua went hiding in caves. So Joshua’s army blocked up the caves. After they routed the enemy, they came back to the caves and got the kings out. It’s in the Old Testament in the book of Joshua. When all the kings came out Joshua asked his generals to put their feet on the kings’ necks. Now Joshua could see the revelation that God has given him the land. But all his generals must see the same revelation.

It is something for Jesus to feel the victory at the cross. When Jesus defeated and destroyed the devil, Jesus wants you to feel the victory with your own feeling.  For you and I to put Satan under our feet we need not fight with him any more.  We only claim the victory that is ours in Jesus Christ. That is why in the book of Rom. 7 when Paul described the struggles he went through about doing the things he does not willed to and not doing the things he willed to, in the end he gives thanks to God that through Christ he is free. Why look onto Jesus? That’s because the victory is completed. The devil has been destroyed.  The battle you see is finished.

One more scriptures before we act out what we are talking about in the book of Eph. 4:17 This I say, therefore, and testify in the Lord, that you should no longer walk as the rest of the Gentiles walk, in the futility of their mind, having their understanding darkened being alienated from the life of God. The word understanding is the word dianoia – having their dianoia darkened that they cannot see what God has done in Christ. But in Eph. 1:17-18 that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding (dianoia). Our dianoia is the seeing part of our mind, the inner eyes that see. Eph.4 among the Gentiles their eyes have been closed, blinded, darkened. But Eph.1 for Christians what are the eyes opened for? That you and I can keep seeing Jesus the author and finisher of our faith.

Lets say that this bible represents the completed works of Jesus. Lets say I am a Christian walking in my life struggling here and there. Once in a while I catch a glimpse of the revelation that it is done. The other time that the revelation that it is done is hidden in the back of my mind or somewhere but I forgot that it is finished.  Every time as a Christian I remember that it is finished I will be taking up my hands and lifting it right up. Whenever I forget that it is finished the devil will be disturbing me as a Christian, hindering me and making my life difficult. But whenever I remembered that it is finished, I lift up my hands, then the devil is going to drop down to the floor.  Lets have Pastor Kumar. Pastor Kumar pretends to be Jesus. He is going to knock Vega, who pretends to be the devil, down with this bible.  Vega is going to pretend to fall. That is supposed to have been done two thousand years ago. That took place at Calvary. Then Jesus Christ passes on that authority and the finished work to the disciples. Now the disciples have the revelation that the devil is defeated.  Whenever the disciples forgot that the work is finished and completely done, the devil is going to wake up and use up all kinds of tricks up his sleeve to disturb the disciples.

In the Acts of the Apostles, Peter said it was not their power or holiness but faith in Jesus that healed the lame man. Silver and gold have I none but such as I have give I thee. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise and walk. Why do you think we have to use the name of Jesus?  Every time you use the name of Jesus you are saying it is not you who cast out the devil. It is to you who do all the work. It is you employing and utilizing the finished work of Jesus on the sickness, on the disease, on the devil. They did all those things and stepped all over the devil. Through time the disciples passed on the same revelation from one generation to another. Paul had recorded it down in his letters. Here and there Christian tradition sets in and people slowly forgot about the finished work.  It is sealed up and Christians are struggling in their daily life. They try to move but the devil drags them. They try to wrestle with the devil but the devil is too strong.  It’s so difficult. Life is hard. Life is tough.  Sometimes the church fainted. In the dark ages Christianity have lost their bible and the revelation.  Finally Martin Luther found justification by faith. Now was justification by faith a new doctrine? No, it was in the bible for the past two thousand years. But Christians try to be saved but couldn’t be saved.  In the end they found they don’t have to try to be saved. Jesus died on the cross for me and all I have to do is to give thanks and accept what He has done.

The second point is standing on the finished work of Jesus. First point is give thanks. You see there is no meaning to thanksgiving if you still got to do the work. But there are two points in breaking down strongholds. One giving thanks for whatever reason. The second is to stand on the finished work of Jesus Christ. Remember no matter how difficult your life, how difficult your past, you begin right where you are with the finished work of Jesus. Thanksgiving should come first in your life. When you enter into the spirit of thanksgiving, your dianoia will be opened and you could see, you could feel, you could establish the finished work of Jesus.   That is when every stronghold in your life begins to shake and disappear.

PULLING DOWN STRONGHOLDS…..BINDING THE STRONG MAN

by Pastor Peter Tan

Lets turn to II Cor. 10:3-5 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds.

Pulling down strongholds is our job. Remember that pulling down strongholds belong to the church. It’s a job that belongs to the church. When you see Satan, demons or demonic power don’t be afraid of them.  You don’t have to cry for God to do the deliverance for you. God has given to the church of Jesus Christ authority and power over all devils, all demons, all sicknesses, diseases and over Satan himself.  He has crushed Satan under the feet of the church.  Authority belongs to the church to pull down strongholds.

Verse 5 casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.

We talked about bringing every thought to be subjected onto Jesus Christ. In our first two messages we introduced the subject of the thought realm. We mentioned how thoughts are like spiritual DNA, how the thought world and the thought realm are related to the spirit world. We have four points but we have given three in both messages.  We talked about how thoughts come in patterns or in groups.  We spoke about how there are certain conditions that are necessary for the thought patterns to grow and develop.

Thirdly we speak about we can alter and change that pattern through the area of visualizing.  We can change those wrong thoughts that Satan has corrupted.  We talked about how Satan tries to corrupt our spiritual DNA through implanting the wrong thought and how we overcome that through the realm of God’s word. When Heb. 4:12 mentions that the word of God is sharper than the two edged sword, it means that it discerns the intent and thoughts of our heart.  The Hebrew writer is talking about the word of God dealing with the hidden agenda, purposes, motives, and intentions in our life.

Now we want to look at especially at the area of transformation and how it will lead us to the fourth point where we talk about the energy of those thoughts being released.  The energy of those thoughts is released through the spoken words.

The first point we considered is that our thoughts form pattern. Then in point two, we saw how thought patterns need certain conditions to grow like a seed. A seed needs water, sunlight, and proper nutrition to grow. So there need to be a certain proper atmosphere for the thought to develop and we are talking of the right spiritual atmosphere and right human emotions of course. Thirdly we talked about how certain things can alter the pattern of the thought by visualizing and the realm of vision.

Now the fourth area is the release of the energy of our thoughts by means of the spoken word. Words are not just empty words. Jesus says in the book of Jn. 6 that His words are spirit and they are life. His words contain life. The bible does declare that man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God. Then Jesus turns around and said in Mk. 11:22-24 to have faith in God or more accurately, to have the God-kind of faith. He then implies that there is power in our spoken words if we do not doubt in our heart. That means the thought patterns in our heart are properly formed by the Word and think according to the Word.  If you don’t doubt and you speak the word of God that word contains the energy from the spirit realm. Now different amount of our words contain different amount of energy, depending on the first three points. So the fourth is releasing the energy of the thought through words.

Let me point to a few scriptures before we illustrate the fourth point. II Cor. 3:17 Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.

The word transformed is the Greek word metamorphoomai. Metamorphoomai means to be changed. It is from the word where get metamorphosis as in the transformation from a caterpillar into a butterfly.  When we insert the word metamorphosis in place of the word transform, we read: But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord are being metamorphosized into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.

You see as we behold that same image of the Lord or as we see the glory of the Lord, we become what we see. There is something that must take place before we can see. It’s in the first part of that verse, But we all, with unveiled face. Obviously if we don’t get the first part correct we can never get the rest.  Paul illustrated the debilitating effect of the veil in the first couple of verses before this verse. How when the Israelites under the old covenant and even those Jews who still have not come to know Jesus hear the scriptures being read in the synagogue, something is covering their faces. Then Paul contrasted the unbelieving Jews with the believers by saying, “But we all, with unveiled face.” The word unveiled is not talking about the physical face. It’s talking about the mind. The context tells you that something is blocking their mind in verse 14. But their minds were blinded. Those are some strongholds to pull out from their minds before they can see the Lord and be metamorphosized into the same image of Jesus from glory to glory.

These wrong thought patterns and wrong thinking processes have become so much a part of their traditions and ungodly, unrenewed thinking that their minds had calcified, fossilized and hardened like cement inside them.  These wrong thinking habits need to be pulled down.  As long as they are not pulled down they are hardened. No matter how much scripture they read, nothing gets into their blockheads, so to speak.

In the verse But their minds were blinded, the word minds comes from the word noema, and noema has a meaning closer to the word thought pattern or thoughts. It says their minds were hardened. For until this day the same veil remains, unlifted in the reading of the Old Testament, because the veil is taken away in Christ. Only Christ can take away that veil. Then he turns around and say in verse 18 we all with unveiled face. So he talks about the light of Christ that comes and breaks through and gives us a new way of looking at things.

If you read II Cor. chapter 3 and 4 it all seems to be in the past tense. The veil is done away in Christ. It’s done away in Christ. But even chapter 3 tells you that there is a process. If we put everything together, what we see is that the process of our spiritual metamorphosis begins by turning to Christ.  It continues from glory to glory until we meet Him face to face.  Something started in our lives when we accepted Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior. And this something is the process of the renewal of the mind, the process of pulling down strongholds and putting on the mind of Christ.

Lets look over at the book of Romans chapter 12 and that ties the word metamorphoomai to the word mind. Rom. 12:1-2 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service.  Do not be conformed to this world, but be metamorphoomai, be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

When the bible talks about thoughts, it always uses the word noe or noema, which is the conscious mind. In the verse, by the renewing of your mind, the word renewing in the Greek is anakaino, which means to renew again. Which means once upon a time before the fall men had a wonderful clear mind. But after the fall because of sin nature we were corrupted in our spirit, soul and body. When Christ came into our lives, our spirit is born again. Our minds are being renewed.  Our bodies are put in a state of preservation until Jesus comes in the rapture and we are given a new body. So it says that you may be transformed by the renewing of your mind that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.

The same Greek word transformed obviously ties to II Cor. 3 where there is a transformation into the image of Christ and it depends on the thought realm. We have proven to you by connecting all these scriptures that transformation depends a lot upon the unveiled mind and pulling down the strongholds of our old thinking and putting on the mind of Christ. The mind and the thought is a powerful realm. It’s a realm that can bind or loose.  We need to be aware of that thought realm.

Let us have two illustrators, one standing on this side and one standing on that side. I have in my hand a toilet roll. This toilet roll for the time being represents the thought realm. When our thoughts are spoken or thought there is a power that is released.

Sadhu Sundar Singh in one of his books mentioned about how when you enter a place, you sometimes feel the thoughts of the previous people who have been there. We leave behind impressions of our thoughts in a place. The strength of these impressions depends on the strength and frequency of those thoughts. The quality and the quantity of the thoughts determine the impressions left behind. In the natural it is the same. After you have sat here in this auditorium, a dog can find out which particular seat you sat on by its sniffing. You leave behind a portion of your physical body odor.

In the spirit realm and in the soul realm we do leave behind an impression of the thought realm. After sometime it fades away just like after sometime other odors replace your body odor. Similar things happen in the soul realm and in the spirit realm. There are different degrees of our thoughts and as an illustration, they are symbolized by this piece of the toilet roll. Some of our thoughts are weak.  They are like this toilet roll paper just unrolled with nothing to strengthen it. Can you hold that side of the roll tightly and give a strong pull until it breaks? Some of our thoughts are very weak. They have no power in the spirit realm. Our words and our thoughts do affect the spirit world in a same way as demons do. Describing the spirit world is not easy. You see demons live in the spirit world. They don’t have bodies. They do have personalities, which imply they do have soul.  So demons are disembodied spirits and they don’t have a physical body. That is why they like to possess people to express themselves through.

Demons affect the physical world by throwing fiery darts.  How do you hear a temptation? How do you feel a temptation? In the thought realm. Temptation comes to you in the thought realm. Now look at us human beings from this point of view. We humans are spirit beings, we have a soul and we live in a physical body.  Our spirits and souls can think. When we think it also does affect the spirit world to a certain extend depending on how strong those thoughts are.

The majority of people’s thoughts are usually very weak. They depend on the first three points we covered earlier, that is, the pattern, the conditions, and the amount of visualizing involved. It will affect in the same measure of strength. Thoughts are just like toilet rolls that are unloosed. Let the two persons at the opposite ends of the unrolled toilet roll now turn it clockwise. Keep turning it until it form a spiral twist. What is happening is that the twisting of the unrolled toilet roll symbolizes your thoughts forming a consistent pattern. Whether they are good thoughts or bad thoughts, they are now becoming a consistent pattern. Some of our thoughts are weak and they don’t carry much strength.

When you confess, “By His stripes I am healed,” you don’t get healed because your mind is telling you that you are not healed. Your spiritual eyes are telling you that you are not healed. Your thoughts are telling you that you are not healed. Your heart doubts and you are not healed. Your words carry very little power. Don’t talk about removing mountains when you can’t even move a molehill. Sometimes our words are very weak and we wonder why our words are not so powerful.

Now let us twist and turn the toilet roll into a rope. Thought patterns are forming.  As the thought pattern forms, they develop into a stronghold. As the loose and weak thoughts increase in quantity, consistency and persistency, they become the main bastion of our thought life.  They can form strongholds in our life if they are bad thoughts. Or they can generate positive and tremendous transformation if these thoughts are based on the Word. When you have the right thought pattern according to the word of God and your mind is renewed you begin to be changed and transformed. On the opposite side you become more oppressed if your mind feeds on and dwells on negative, demonic and dark suggestions. Either way the principle works. As they keep turning the thoughts over and over again in their minds, they are forming into a pattern.

Someone once said that all habits start with the letter “t” which stands for thoughts.

You act on that thought and it becomes “ït.”

You act on it a second time, it becomes “bit.”

A third time, it becomes “abit.”

Doing it frequently, it becomes a “habit.” That habit is either your stronghold that keeps you in bondage or a spiritual strength that transforms you from glory to glory.

When the thought patterns are constantly replayed in one’s mind, they begin to gain strength. They are taking a foothold in your life. Just now you saw that the unturned toilet roll could easily be torn. Now they have turned it one round and this thought begins to form a more consistent pattern. As the toilet roll is turned a second turn again, it becomes stronger still. The thought begins to form a pattern.  The pattern builds upon itself and is now becoming like a rope. Two strains are being joined together.  It begins to form a consistent pattern. It has formed into a two strands rope. Then if you keep thinking of those thoughts again, the thoughts become a stronger pattern. A mere piece of toilet paper can be turned into a multi-stranded rope. Can you break this rope? We are talking about pulling down strongholds. A mere piece of toilet roll formed into a rope has gained such strength that it requires additional human strength to tear it.

Consider what would happen if we multiply that factor by one thousand? It will be almost impossible to break that rope made of toilet roll. That’s what happens when such a simple, powerless and weak thought becomes constant in quantity and sharper in quality. How do we measure quality? Quality is measured by vision. The sharper the image in your thought life, the greater the quality of your thoughts. According to those two it will build a stronghold in our life. Don’t ignore any weak thought. By its mere repetition, it becomes very strong. How important it is to think the right thought.

Lets look at II Cor. 10:4 For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled.

Now notice the words that the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but they are mighty in God for pulling down strongholds. What are those weapons? The bible reveals that our main weapon against the enemy is the spoken word of God.
Let us cross-reference to the book of II Cor. 3:17 Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.

Now he hasn’t finished his subject. In chapter 4 verse one therefore, since we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we do not lose heart. What ministry was Paul talking about? It is the ministry of unveiling the heart. The ministry of tearing down strongholds. The ministry of opening the hearts and minds of people to the Lord.

In verse 3-7 But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who are perishing, whose kind the god of this age had blinded, who do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them.  For we do not preach ourselves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your bondservants for Jesus’ sake. For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Verse 16-18 Therefore we do not lose heart. Even though our outward man is perishing, yet the inward man is being renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen.

Again, the realm of visualizing is connected to renewing the inward man. The inward man is being renewed day by day. How? By looking at the things which are not seen. Paul ties the daily renewal of the inward man to vision.  He is talking about the invisible realm – the realm of the thought, the realm of the spirit.  You notice in verse 18 the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal. Everything that is touchable, seeable, around us is built through the word of God. The word of God is the spoken mind of God. Heb. 11:1 tells us by faith we understand that the worlds were framed. They were formed in God’s mind first.  Then God spoke and released the pattern through the word. Now words are also in proportion to the thought patterns. That mean the quality of your word would be directly proportional to your thought life.

Turn to II Timothy where I show Paul speaking about the pattern of word. II Tim. 1:13 Hold fast the pattern of sound words which you have heard from me, in faith and love which are in Christ Jesus. He calls the words that he spoke a pattern. A certain combination of the words.  Of course those words that Paul spoke came from his thought life.  Those words form pattern. The pattern of our words is equal to the pattern of our thoughts.

The thought realm and the spoken word are directly related. Your tongue will speak whatever pattern is formed in your mind. When you speak forth the spoken word, it is just like turning two ropes together into a pattern. That represent as I mentioned the thought pattern becoming stronger. Do not be disheartened if you start in your Christian life being weak in your thought life. Your thoughts about Jesus are pretty weak.  Every day as you walk with God, you develop your consciousness of God’s presence. The thoughts that you think become clearer. You begin to understand the mind of Christ.  The word of God that you read every day begins to divide and discern the thoughts and intents of your heart.

Cross reference to the book of Heb. 4:12 For the word of God is living and powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.  These all form part of the pattern of thoughts that the word of God comes and cleanses.

We always talk about the word of God as a cleansing agent. What exactly does it cleanse? The first thing that it has is the effect on our lives. As the word of God has an effect on our lives, it begins to change our thought pattern – the way we think, the way we think about others, the way we think about God, the way we think about our job, circumstances and ministry.  Your thinking becomes more and more in line with the word of God.

To remove the wrong thoughts we need to identify which thoughts are wrong. How do you and I know which thought patterns are wrong?  Only the word of God can tell us. So when we all come to know the Lord we all were born again in our spirit but out minds were not renewed yet. There were a lot of wrong thoughts patterns as a result of our emotional state of being, past unrenewed thinking, childhood, teenage years, hurts in our past, terrible things we have gone through like the fears, turmoil, tribulation, traumas. These bad experiences may have left behind strong twisted patterns of thoughts in our life.

We have illustrated the thought pattern with one strand of toilet roll. But there are many more strands in our life. Some of them could be wrong thoughts, some are right. How do we know which are right? Spirit and soul are so tied up that we don’t know which thoughts are spirit and which are soul. That is where the word of God like a two edged sword comes in. The word of God is like a sword that divides the wrong thought pattern from the right thought pattern. All of us have inside each one of us seeds that are wrong. The enemy planted them before we were born again – fallacies, half truths, wrong models or paradigms of thinking, wounded emotional thinking or overly rational thinking that precludes the word of God or whatever it is. When we got born again the seed of God is planted in us and the mind of Christ begins to operate.  Suddenly we find that there is such a thing as right thinking and wrong thinking, or the bible thinking and satanic thinking. We found a raging battle and conflict in our life as Paul mentioned in Rom. 8.

There are two major points in this message – the first is how strongholds are formed. They are tied to the thought realm. Words and thoughts are linked together. Words are the visible part of the iceberg and thoughts are the invisible part of the iceberg. Now if you try to break a multi-stranded rope of toilet rolls, you will find it harder to do so. You can’t. Likewise, there reaches a point in our thought pattern where it gets more and more difficult to break. Some of your thoughts are in the beginning realm. Some of your thoughts are in the halfway stage towards obsession. The strongholds haven’t formed yet but some are in that dimension where they dominate your life. You can’t free yourself since you have been bound. Satan now has a stronghold on your life. It’s hard to break free.

So in our first main point we showed you how these thoughts are formed into strongholds. Don’t despise the small little thoughts. Think them long enough; visualize them long enough and they become like this tough multi-stranded rope made from fragile toilet paper. Now Rom. 8 shows us the pattern of the battle of our mind. The reason I read Rom. 8 to you is to show you how much our Christian life is tied up to our mind and our thinking. Christianity is not just a mind religion or thought religion. It’s a spiritual realm. But we are trying to be very practical in the developing of your spiritual life. Earlier I have read scriptures to show you that how much we are transformed depends on how renewed we are.  We can have our wrong thought patterns broken till they are cast off and lying around. If you tie a person’s hands together with this multi-stranded toilet roll, you will find that it is not be an easy rope to break.  That’s what happens in our life when those thoughts patterns become strong. The bible says we have a choice to pick.

Over the past two sessions I have shown how Paul says to think the right thoughts. Now here in Rom. 8: 5 For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.  Look the word there “set.” Now the word set implies that the pattern has formed. It says those who set their minds. The word set is talking about set form of thinking or a pattern of thinking. When your pattern of thinking is constantly set on the flesh, it will produce after its kind. When it’s in the Spirit as you saw in Rom. 8:6 For to be carnally minded is death, but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.  That’s important. Our main point one is how strongholds developed.

In sub-point 1A we will show you how strongholds develop and how transformation is related to our mind.  Under 1B we will talk about different degrees of the thought realm. There could be strongholds or there could be arguments. If you look at II Cor.10 there are different degrees of reasoning, arguments, strongholds and debate. These different degrees of thoughts combine to form patterns.

How do we break those strongholds? How do we take authority? Just imagine a person being bound by the multi-stranded twisted toilet paper. A stronghold has wrapped itself around his life. We only illustrated with one stronghold. Remember in some lives there could be more than one stronghold. If I keep wrapping a person up with many rolls of normal tissue paper without twisting the rolls several times beforehand, you could easily tear the papers apart. I am sure you can. Some strongholds are easy to break and some are tough. But if you now use the same unrolled toilet papers and twisted them several times, then put them together and twisted them again, you get a tough paper rope. The material is the same. You use this tough paper rope and bind somebody with it. Look it’s actually paper that is binding a person. It is not even steel wire. But that paper has got power now through forming a pattern. Now you see how important it is to prevent the wrong pattern of thinking from happening? It can keep you in bondage. It can make your life miserable.  It can drive you to a life of crime, sin, despair, suicide but yet, if you come to think of it, they are merely immaterial and invisible thoughts.

When your strongholds are too strong and you cannot set yourself free, the second thing to look at is the natural world – the world that you can see and touch.  I want to show you how and what takes place as your thought patterns are thought and spoken out.

Turn with me to Matt. 16:17-19 Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah, for flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.  I also say to you that you are Peter, and on this rock I will build My church, and the gates of Hades shall not prevail against it.  I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.

So we have one strong rope there. Suppose one holds the rope at one end and another holds the other end. The two persons represent the thought realm and the physical realm. What I want you to know is that the thought realm is real. You could feel the heaviness or the lightness of the person’s thought. Our thoughts affect the spirit realm as much as the spirit realm affects our thoughts. People never think that the spiritual law works both ways. If the spirit world can affect your thoughts, then remember that your thoughts can also affect the spirit world. The opposite is always true. The law of God works both ways.

Now we talk about binding and loosing. How can our thoughts bind or loose?  How the binding and loosing take place? It is released through the spoken word.  According to the strength of the spoken word the binding and loosing take place. Matt. 18 is a different category but yet it talks about the word of God.

Matt. 18:16 But if he will not hear, take with you one or two more, that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every word may be established. Here he is talking about judgment. But He says in verse 18 Assuredly, I say to you, whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.  Now He is talking about binding and loosing over a different category, a different matter, a different subject from Matt. 16 but the process is the same since the channel is through the spoken word.

When Jesus cast out demons He spoke out His command. It is the spoken word. Of course demons also sometimes come out by the anointing of God without words being spoken. One word from Him and demons flee. When the Jews try to claim that it’s from others Jesus says that before you spoil the goods you must bind the strongman. How does He achieve it? Through the power of the spoken word.

There are different types of thoughts and different types of words that we speak all the time. Let says that we are in the natural world here. We can’t see the thought realm. The thought realm is symbolized by what they are holding. It can bind or it can loose according to how much we have renewed in our mind and are metamorphoomai into the image of God. We are changed and we are renewed.

Lets suppose the devil shoots darts at a Christian. Different thoughts enter his mind. The devil begins by stirring up thoughts in his mind and the Christian would try to bind his thinking. At first the devil begins by planting a weak thought in him. Now the devil doesn’t necessarily start with a strong thought.  Those thoughts need to be added to your own emotion for them to gather strength. The devil must find something in you in order to find strength against you. Your greatest enemy is not the devil it is yourself. Jesus says that Satan has nothing in Him. Therefore Satan has no authority and power over Him. The devil attempts to do that in His life. But as long as there is no fear, doubts, sin or any fertile negative ground from inside giving the strength to the devil’s suggestions, they cannot take root and develop. However, if he yields to those thoughts and think those thought, those thoughts begins to form a pattern in his mind. Those thought patterns slowly develop into strongholds in his life until they become bondages.

Now it is possible at the same time to have good thoughts to repel and counteract the bad thoughts but if the good thoughts are smothered and overpowered, the bad thoughts rise up like a giant to keep him in bondage. How does he free himself? Remember binding and loosing is tied to the spoken word.  The spoken word is tied to the thought realm. So he would have to look into the thought and claim the word of God.

There is one possible way that the stronghold can be broken. When water is added to paper, what happens? Water is a symbol of the Word and the Holy Spirit. Lets say he attends church regularly and gets watered by the word.  As the water keeps coming it slowly begins to weaken the hold and break the stronghold. Then as more of the water of the word starts coming in, the Holy Spirit and the word begins to work in his life. So he gets free and he gets sent back to the enemy territory.

Now the devil is still prowling around him like a lion and throwing all manner of fiery darts, deception, thoughts and temptation at him.  He can’t see the demons. But he begins to soak in God’s word.  He begins to confess God’s word. The devil is still at his tricks and disturbing him. But the Christian begins to speak the words of God. As he begin to speak the word that represent the spirit realm the angels, or Holy Spirit start coming down. It could be, “The word of God is on my life. No fear, no evil shall come near my dwelling place.“ Some of the words that he speaks are weak because the thought patterns are not formed properly or strongly. If the pattern is not there, his thoughts are as weak as toilet paper.  When he tries to bind the enemy, the enemy keeps breaking them.

Initially, when you begin to take authority over the devil over your life, he keeps breaking free and he keeps disturbing you. But as the Christian begins to meditate he begins to understand the importance of constant thought patterns that are correct.  As he holds on to the word of God, he begins to feel the word of God in his life. When you could feel your thought they have become a pattern in your mind. You know sometimes a thought cannot be felt. But the time you could feel it, it has become very strong. It has affected your emotional realm. That’s like in the Hebrews when he says about those who see from afar and those who embrace, those who believe, those who confess. So he begins to get a pattern of strong words coming forth. He begins to see and visualize the word of God clearly and finally these thought patterns are coming out of his life. Out of his spirit come forth these thoughts.  They are strengthened and you can use them to untie your bondages and even the bondages of others.

Although the devil seems like he is bound but he is bound more in the territorial sense of the word. Everything that belong to you everything that your hand touches, the devil is not supposed to cross the blood covenant line. The devil cannot disturb him any more. He is affecting the enemy through his spoken word. What is happening is that the thoughts that you think are very important.

The question we ask you this morning is what kind of words is coming out of your mouth. Are they just like toilet paper tissue? Or are they like Paul’s words. Paul told Timothy to hold fast the pattern of sound words, which you have heard from me. That means when Paul speaks his words were like a strong pattern. There was power in his word. He has meditated over his word. He feels the word in his life burning strongly which is the word of God.  These words that we speak in the realm of the spirit begins to bind the enemy. This way in the spirit world either you are binding or you are being bound. Either you are pulling down strongholds or strongholds will be formed over your life.  That’s how in the spirit world the spoken word is so important. The power of the spoken word – that’s our main point two on binding the strongman depends on the quality of your thought pattern. It also depends on the frequency of your confession and how much you really believe your own words.

Lets look at Mk. 11 on removing the mountain. We only illustrated with one strand but in the spirit world the battle is constant over many areas. Some of our thoughts and confession are just like toilet rolls tissue with no strength, no pattern. They are weak and not powerful. They don’t affect the enemy at all. Nor do they knock down any stronghold.

In Mk. 11 it says there is something you do about your word. In verse 23 For assuredly, I say to you, whoever say to this mountain, “Be removed and be cast into the sea and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done. How many of the words you speak do you really believe it will come to past. Are they just loose words like toilet tissue? Are they well formed pattern of words like the way Paul spoke. He says to Timothy to hold fast the pattern of sound words, which you have heard.

When we understand this concept and these things that are taking place in the spirit world, we will then know how to pull down strongholds through the spoken word. It is important to apply these things in our life. Every morning and every evening everyday as often as you can make a declaration. No matter what you feel, whatever you are feeling, whatever you are thinking, when you wake up, verbalize your good thoughts. Say them out. Believe in what you say. You must say to the mountain.  As you speak forth those words, as you visualize those words, as you feel those words in your life taking a hold, they begin to gain more and more dominion in the spirit realm. It is important to write down the things God gave you. Write down the visions and dreams God gave you. Are you confessing those dreams and visions everyday? Are you speaking them over your life?

Now in the spirit world that is another dimension of the spoken word. It is also called blessing and cursing. We know how powerful the blessing is. What makes those words of blessings powerful? The anointing of the Spirit and the depth of those words. It makes it go far. We need to everyday get into the word of God. What we illustrated with just one strand, one pattern is a daily affair in our life. Which is why Paul says in Rom. 12:1 present your bodies as a living sacrifice holy and acceptable to Him. Now these are the basic procedures.

Rom. 12:1-2 I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. There are two points that we leave you with as a conclusion. No.1 present yourself. That talks about surrender to Jesus. You cannot overcome thoughts with thoughts. You need Jesus to come into your life. The light of Jesus must come in until all your consciousness is of Jesus. Don’t try to dream dreams of your own or see visions of your own or do things in the flesh or do thing out of covetousness or of greed. Before all those powers can be broken, you have to be surrendered to Jesus.

Now this is repeated several times in the scriptures. In the book of Rom. 7:23-25 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from the body of death? I thank God – through Jesus Christ our Lord! So then, with the mind I myself serve the law of God but with the flesh the law of sin.

Romans 8 complete the body part it’s preserved. But it says I serve the law of God. I thank God through Jesus Christ. A consciousness and surrender to Jesus is the first pre-requisite. It doesn’t matter if you have been born again. If Jesus is your Savior you need to learn how to make Him Lord.  Making Jesus Lord is not something you do once ten years ago when you accepted Christ. Making Jesus Lord is something we do everyday. The Lordship of Jesus is practiced out everyday, every morning, every evening. Everyday of your life you dedicate yourself to God. You surrender your spirit, soul, and body to God until all you want is Jesus. All you love is Jesus. Every part of your being is being yielded to Jesus. It is just like adding water to the bondages that the enemy tries to put on you. You see there are some strongholds you cannot break yourself. You need Jesus. You need the water of the word, the water of the Spirit to come.  As it washes you, the rolls of bondage is easily washed away by water. Just let it soak in longer and longer.  If you soak that toilet roll long enough, it will weaken.  It will be weakened to a state where you can break it. The first application is to surrender yourself and present your body as a living sacrifice to God.

Now lets look over at Exodus and see something taking place in Moses’ life even as he was being transformed. Now this is the physical illustration of the spiritual one in II Cor. 3 and it started with Moses.

Exodus 34:30 So when Aaron and all the children of Israel saw Moses, behold, the skin of his face shone, and they were afraid to come near him. The skin of his face was shining. It was a spiritual typology of what can happen.  If Moses’ skin was shining what was happening to Moses’ mind? You can see it in the verse before that. Look at verse 29 I think verse 29 is more powerful than verse 30. I mean verse 30 is powerful and verse 30 captures everyone. Wow his face shone like a bulb. The manifestation of the Spirit – the moves of the Spirit and all the works and gifts of the Spirit – captivate everyone. But I think verse 29 is even more powerful. Now it was so, when Moses came down from Mount Sinai (and the two tablets of the Testimony were in Moses’ hand when he came down from the mountain), that Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone while he talked with Him.  You know it is a miracle that Moses’ skin shines. But it is a greater miracle that Moses was not aware of it. How can he not be aware of it?

It is a miraculous thing that the blind see, the lame walk, cancer patients healed but you know the most glorious thing is when Jesus comes to the service. It’s a glorious thing when the Spirit touches us and we shake and roll. We laugh, we cry. But you know the most powerful thing is that you are conscious of God and God alone. You are so much in God that you are not even conscious of the side effects. Moses was so conscious of God and talking with God that he didn’t realize his face was shining. The greatest humility that you can reach is when you are not even conscious that you are humble. The greatest righteousness you can reach is that you are not even conscious of your righteousness but you are conscious of Him. The greatest power that you can reach is when you are not even conscious of your power but you are conscious of Him. If you want the higher power don’t stop where many other people stop.

We should No.1 be so totally surrendered to God that you are only conscious of God. You know what I do when I minister. I don’t try to visualize people falling under the power. People may do that and succeed to a certain extend. You know what you should do. I concentrate on the presence of God until all I want to do is just to be conscious of God. Until I lose consciousness of what I am doing.    Just do whatever the consciousness of God leads me.   Then you will reach the highest form of power.

That’s No.1 surrender to God until you are only conscious of Him. That’s what he means when he says present yourself as a living sacrifice. If you want to be a powerful song leader you don’t worship until you could feel the power behind your worship. Until you could feel the power of your voice. You could feel the effect on the congregation. No, you worship until you yourself got lost in His presence. Forget about trying to touch others. You just make sure you touch God and the other things will come. You will definitely touch others if you touch God. No.1 surrender until you are conscious only of God.  All you want is God and you are lost in God’s presence. Every move of God is wonderful but every move must bring you to a greater conscious of God.

I mean some get sidetracked by the manifestations rather than stay focused on the presence of God. John G. Lake had to correct a young man. When he prayed for people things happened but after awhile he was caught up with the manifestations. John G. Lake said, “You missed one thing.” John G. Lake could tell you that because John G. Lake had experienced powerful things. He said, “You took your mind off God.” We should never take our minds off God. If you really want to move deep into God, be really absorbed in God. When you worship God, when you love God, when you minister onto God, when you preach for God, when you do anything for God you want to be so absorbed in His presence that you forgot your face is shining; you forgot the power is released from your hands; your power is pouring out from your lips until you are not even conscious of the miracles, signs and wonders exploding all over the crowd. You are only conscious of God. That is the realm that will break every stronghold when Christ’s light comes and appears in your life.

No.2,  Rom. 12:2 the renewal of the mind.  We know what that renewal is. It is the part of letting the word of God dwelling richly in your life, in your emotion, in your spirit, in your word, in your vision. Just be so soaked in the word of God until every part of your being is in line with the word of God. What is the end result of verse two of Romans 12? Until you become the word made flesh. I could summarize the Christian life in this way. You are fully in God that you are lost in His presence.  The second point is God in you. God becomes so much in you.  The word becomes flesh. Everything that you are is the word. Everything you speak is the word. Everything think is the word. The word has become flesh. Your very flesh and bone become the manifestation of the living word. So the two points are related. We dwell in God and God is fully come into us.  The word made flesh – that’s renewal of the mind. When the two keys become powerful in your life all strongholds are under your feet.

PULLING DOWN STRONGHOLDS…..SPIRITUAL DNA

by Pastor Peter Tan

Last week we talked about pulling down strongholds and we have taken our text from II Cor. 10 where we mentioned about how pulling down strongholds has to do with overcoming the thought patterns that are formed in our minds. Our thought life as we all know is directly related to the spirit world. When Satan tempts you what you feel on your inside and in your intellect is the systematic thought processes. All temptations are in thought pattern. The realm of the thought is something very close to the spirit world. It is not totally the entire spirit world because there is a spirit world, a soul world and a natural world. We can go as far as to say that the thought world, the thought life and thought pattern are directly related to the spiritual world in some way.  Part of our thoughts is actually from the spirit world, whether from God, which is good, or from the enemy, which is bad. Last week we have showed how the devil deceive people by influencing their thought patterns.

For these couple of sessions we will try to define the realm of thought as it links up to the spirit world before we can move to the area of pulling down strongholds and what are involved in the pulling down of strongholds. Lets look in the book of Phil. 4. We need to show very clearly that the bible is interested in our thought pattern and thought life being established in the word of God. When you teach an area like that the first thing people think about is New Age, Mind control etc that are actually false deceptions from the enemy. But yet the bible does talk about the thought life. Just because the enemy uses money wrongly it doesn’t mean that we cannot use money correctly. Just because somebody has abused money it doesn’t mean that we don’t use money. Just because somebody has abused the use of cars, it doesn’t mean we don’t use cars. Just because the devil has abused the realm of the thought life it doesn’t mean that it’s not real and Christians should not cover and teach on this area. The bible does talk about our thought life and how we need to have a thought life trained and controlled by the word of God and by the Spirit of God.

In Phil. 4:6-8 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Now look at those words the peace of God is supposed to affect two areas in our life, peace in our heart and peace in our mind. I know a lot of Christians who when they were born again say, “Pastor, I have peace in my heart.” But very few Christians say, “Pastor, I have peace in my mind.” But here you have a verse in the bible Phil.4: 7 that tells us that the peace of God would garrison your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. The word garrison is a Greek word that describes a soldier guarding and protecting a place. Of course peace must start in our heart. When we meet the Prince of Peace Jesus Christ of Nazareth peace comes into our heart. But peace must also be in our minds. Christians who are born again say they have peace in their heart because of Jesus. But less Christians are able to say they have peace in their mind. We have good news for you. It is God’s will that your mind receive peace.  Part of the process of our mind receiving peace is in pulling down of strongholds. If you are able to have the peace of God in your heart and in your mind, you will be a powerful Christian against the enemy. That is why he attacks people’s mind to prevent the peace of God from reigning there.

Lets read verse 8 Finally brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are just, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there is any virtue and if there is anything praiseworthy – meditate on these things.  The word meditate in the Greek is thinking on this thing. Obviously Paul advocates a certain measure of control over our thought life. The bible expects every Christian to have a control over their thought life.  That’s where you separate the spiritual giants from the spiritual dwarf by seeing what goes on in their thought life. How well able are you as a Christian through your spirit man to control your thought? Or do your thoughts torture you? Do your thought take advantage of you?  Are you oppressed in your thoughts? Or are you in control of your thoughts? The bible says we should be in control.

I Cor. 13 the famous passage in love and verse 4 Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil. Think of the last phrase in verse 5 thinks no evil. Now obviously that is talking about a measure of thought control. That the love of God in our heart enables us to have a measure of control over what we think. We do not think evil because of the love of God in our life. Obviously this restrain or refrain to think evil does not happen automatically in every born again Christian. Otherwise every Christian will be a fantastic believer.  If this restrain is not automatic it mean that there is a process by which we have to consciously yield and pull down strongholds until every thought is subject onto Jesus Christ. If it’s not automatic then it must be voluntary and needs our co-operation for the power of God to pull down strongholds in our lives. But that verse is very clear. If Paul says we are to think no evil it implies a measure of control that we all have over our thought life. Yet how many Christians do you know find thought control painful, difficult and almost “impossible”?  This result in the need to understand how to pull down strongholds.

I believe that last week I made mention of the subject. But I have not been able to convey perfectly and more clearly what the thought realm is like. Remember this is a series and that the ultimate solution that we will give is towards the end of the series. But we need to understand this thought realm that we are dealing with. I believe I got one more illustration, which we could use to try to illustrate the spirit world. Remember no illustration is perfect in the natural world because the spirit world is a realm that is powerful. That when Jesus tries to describe it He has to use parables to elaborate some of the things He experienced and see in the spirit world.  That’s what we are attempting to do. We could do our best and pray that the Spirit of God will give you the enlightenment as we speak on these words.  The word that we have to help us understand this thought realm is by using the illustration of three little words – DNA or deoxyribonucleic acid, the genetic code that gives rise to our biological constitution.

Our sermon this morning is on spiritual DNA. DNA is like a computer program that is placed into our cells instead of being placed on a hard disk or on a floppy diskette. Every living thing has cells. Looking at the physical world, we know that plants and animals have cells. We have cells.  Everyone of our cell contains a program that is not written in electromagnetic form, unlike computer programs. But these are written in chemical form. DNA is just a formulation of different molecules of acid that are arranged in double spiral rows.  Now as I hold in my hand lets presume that this is a carnation.  There are cells on every one. There are stem cells; there are flower cells that form this flower. Our bodies are made up of cells. Every single one of our cells has a program written in chemical form. That is called the DNA.  That tiny little program tells the plant what color the flower will be. How tall or how short the plant should be. How green the plant is to be. The type of structure of pattern the plant must become. All of us have DNA. All of us are related if we trace our roots to Noah. Eight souls came out of the ark. From those eight souls of Noah and his family the whole world was re-populated. So whether you like it or not that person sitting next to you is related to you. The person behind you is related to you. Of course it is a very, very distant relationship.

Now the biological characteristics present in the genetic pool of that eight souls have transmutated through time, diet, radiation and differentiation to produce all the different races of mankind. A slight deviation in your DNA tells your body to produce what color your eyes had to be. Whether you have straight hair or curly hair, dark skin or fair skin, whether you are short or tall – your biological characteristics are determined by those tiny little chromosomes called DNA. That is the program in your physical body. It is found in every cell in your body. Nowadays the use of DNA identification has become common language in legal, scientific, medical and family circles.  Criminologists, forensic experts, biologists use DNA to identify a host of circumstantial evidence like crime, paternity, genetic disorders. We can take one sample of your hair and scan its DNA and we can find whether it actually belongs to you or not.  Every one of us has a unique DNA. We have a common basic pattern but there is a slight difference so that every one of us is unique.

Now in the spirit world there is spiritual DNA. Let me illustrate the four points that I gave to you last week in a different way. We talked about thought pattern. Then secondly we talked about feelings and the formation of thoughts. Thirdly we talked about vision and the expansion of the thought realm. All these definitions can sound a bit confusing but I will redefine them this morning. Point one is the structure of spiritual DNA. The thought realm, which we considered and defined to be spiritual DNA, has a structure.   The structure is always in a certain pattern.  According to that pattern and structure it will produce after its kind.  If the DNA structure of this carnation tells it to be four feet in height it will grow to be about four feet in height. Thoughts are like spiritual DNA – they follow a certain pattern. If you want to change your life you must change your thought. Our spirit man is already changed when we were born again. But our thought pattern must change. In order to turn this carnation, which is orange in color to be yellowish, scientists conduct a process called genetic engineering by removing the gene that causes orange color and replacing it with a gene from another plant that causes the petals to be yellow. This involves gene splicing.  Likewise, we have to change the programming or the pattern in our spiritual DNA in order to change our personality and our life.

Remember Third John verse 2 Beloved. I pray that you may prosper in all things and be in health, just as your soul prospers. Unless your soul prosper, unless there is a change of thinking in our life there will be no change in your circumstances. Unless we change inwardly our outward circumstances do not change. It is the law of God. Change must come internally and spiritually first before the change can manifest on the outside. II Cor 4 tells us that the invisible things form the visible realm. Heb. 11 tells us by faith we know that the world was framed by the word of God. The things that are seen are made of things that are not seen. It is the law of God.  There is spiritual DNA in the thought patterns. The first point one about this spiritual DNA is that it has a  structure that will determine what it produces. It always comes in pattern, in groups. DNA always comes in groups.

Every plant has its own peculiar DNA. If I have a seed produced by a flower, you couldn’t tell from the seed what color it’s going to be, how tall it’s going to be or what kind of carnation it will turn out to be since there are many varieties. You can’t tell from a seed but yet in that seed is the future of the plant – its color, height and the species of carnation it will be. So the first point to note is the structure or constitution of our spiritual DNA that will determine our thought patterns.

Secondly it is the feeling and emotion contained in that thought patterns. It is like the ingredients of fine or coarse sand, coloring, plaster of paris etc that are mixed into the wet cement before it gets hardened. Before thought patterns in our life are crystallized, they are like stray DNA that hasn’t formed together into the double helical spirals yet.  Some thought patterns have become solidified and become a constant part of our life, for example, a certain prejudice against other races. Some thought patterns are still in the formation stages and are not completed yet.  Some other thought patterns are waiting to be birthed and formed by life’s experiences, readings, lectures, sermons, conversations etc. So there are patterns that are established and cemented in our life.  Our feelings have a role in that.

To understand better in point two we want to use the flower as an illustration. In point one is the structure of the seed. Point two would be the conditions required for the seed to grow. If I have an apple seed, I can keep it here on the platform for one year and it would not grow. It will remain the same.  Archeologists have discovered corn seeds and wheat grains in some old historical sites that are thousands of years old.  When they planted them in fertile ground under ideal soil conditions, the seeds germinated and grew into healthy plants even though they were dormant for nearly three thousand years. So the second point is the conditions for the formation of the DNA and growth of the DNA. I consider good biblical teaching to be essential to the formation of sound thought patterns. A good bible teacher would be able to nurture your spiritual DNA, which would in turn generate good and healthy thought patterns. I am talking about giving our thought patterns the proper conditions for growth. Lets assume that some of you gave me a good durian seed. I put the seed on this platform. I deny it of water, nutrition and sunlight. That seed will not grow. It needs a proper condition for it to grow. Now when that seed grows into this plant, it doesn’t change its DNA – it replicates itself and releases what it already programmed to be. So the second factor we are talking about is the ideal condition for the cementing of thoughts.  It requires that our feelings be involved with our thought to cement it into a firm growth pattern and it will produce after its kind. I call it thought pattern because new thoughts are assimilated into the old pattern and you think along the same way, except that the thought pattern is enhanced by further accoutrements.

You could be in Malaysia and you have a thought pattern “A”: Thought pattern “A” makes you do things in certain way, run your household in a certain way. Do a job or build your career in a certain way.  So you have a thought pattern “A”. Let says you are in Malaysia and you need the basic requirements of food, clothing, shelter and transportation.  You look for shelter, job, friends, entertainment, place of worship, recreation, eating places, banks etc. You are exposed to different types of employers, different situations, different country climate but you function in the same thought pattern.  We transport you to, say, a Western country like America. Since you still have thought pattern “A”, you will still function in the same way. You have new people, different cultures, different environment around you but you still function in the same way because of your pattern of thinking. You have not changed. You are the same person meeting with different people under different environment under different organization and still you do the same thing in the same pattern. So changing the outward condition does not change your thought pattern. Your thought pattern keeps reproducing according to that programming and that structure that is already there in the spiritual DNA of your thought patterns. The only way for you to change is that somehow something changes on your inside in your thought pattern and cracks your old thought pattern and makes you think in a new way. Even if you are in your old situation and having the same employer, same job, same situation, same family, same relationships and same people but the new thought pattern in you causes you to treat everything differently.

Something like that happened when we were born again. Suddenly you look at the world differently. When you were born again you were given a new thought pattern as a seed. You have a new way of looking at life. The environment may be the same but you are a new man. Therefore you look at everything differently. You still have the same old responsibilities, same job, same family, but you act, talk and behave differently now. So I am stressing that it is not a matter of changing the outward situation but it is a matter of changing the inward man. But after you have changed the inward man, even if you are in the old situation you will handle it in a new and different way. However, if your thought patterns are still the same and you change your outward environment, you will still make your new environment the same as your old environment. See change has to come from the inside out.

So under point two there are conditions by which the DNA will reproduce itself. All of us when we were born again have a spiritual programming and DNA in our life in our spirits.  Part of it comes forth if you give it the right condition, the right environment sunlight, water and it will reproduce that DNA pattern that will get stronger greater and more powerful. You know what Satan try to do in your life. He tries to prevent you from having the right condition so that you do not and you are not able to grow. So remember the first point about the spiritual DNA is the structure of the thought pattern. The second point is the conditions for the structure to grow.  It’s linked up to our feeling, our emotion for the growth of that thought pattern. You can be the most spiritual person on earth but if you have unforgiveness in your heart you stifle that spiritual growth in your heart. It is an unsuitable condition for spiritual growth. The wrong enemy’s thought pattern have been sown.

Third point last week we talk about vision. Now looking at it from the DNA point of view, the third point is in what I call the formation of the DNA. I need to illustrate this to differentiate between point two and point three. Point two is the conditions for the DNA to grow. You don’t change the DNA its already there but you provide it with the right conditions for the seed to grow. Now point three is like the flowering state of a plant. Point three is before the DNA is formed. When a husband and wife unite together to produce a child, half of the child’s chromosomes comes from the mother and the other half from the man.  23 chromosomes come from the man and 23 from the mother and these 46 chromosomes form a human being. Chromosomes are like groupings of this DNA. They form together a new human being who looks like the father and the mother put together. So there is a part of flowering and fertilization state before it is formed.

Now lets look at it from the plant of view.  Suppose I wanted this orange carnation to be white with orange. When this carnation blossoms the flowers are formed.  The time for pollination comes. I would take a white carnation and cross fertilize it with an orange carnation since the subsequent seeds would produce orange carnation, white carnation and whitish orange carnation. That is before the DNA is formed. So I am talking about the point three the formation of the spiritual DNA. Before the DNA is formed you can do some things about it, like cross-fertilization or genetic engineering. But after it is formed it is harder to change the DNA. Today in gene splicing scientists have short-circuited the process of pollination.  To get a new species of a plant, they perform gene splicing and in that way they short-circuit the process that may take years. They do in days what could take years. They short-circuit the process but the basic philosophy is the same thing. It’s altering the DNA. Except they alter it scientifically with tools that were not available long ago while the botanists tried to alter it by fertilization and pollination. So man tries to control his environment. You see it is possible through cross-pollination and through a careful monitoring of DNA formation to produce a super strain. Today the rice that you are eating is a product of many years of research so that the rice that is yielded could produce more metric tons per acre. Today they are producing more and more super strains of food to feed mankind. So what I am saying it is possible through careful manipulation. I am not going to talk about the moral part of it there is another sermon on it. I am just analyzing it as a pure scientist. That it is possible to produce and to alter a strain of a plant for better or for worse by controlling and manipulating its DNA.

Now point three is talking about the formation or manipulation of spiritual DNA. You can see now why point three is different from point two. Point two is only talking about conditions for growth. It is not talking about manipulation or changing the DNA. So one is talking about the growth of the DNA and the other is the changing of the DNA.   I emphasize here in point three that the area of vision is a powerful realm that God uses to change the spiritual DNA, the spiritual thought patterns that are going to affect our life. God is concerned about our spiritual DNA.  According to whatever is being manipulated for good or for bad we will make good history or bad history.

Let me show you in the book of Gen. 6:5 Then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.  And the Lord was sorry that He had made man on the earth, and He was grieved in His heart. Now He tells us that the thoughts and the intent of man’s heart were for evil. God saw the DNA of man and saw worse things coming. If you thought that the period before Noah was terrible God saw how terrible it was going to be.  God destroyed men before that evil could be birth forth. He saw the general direction of what it would produce.  How did men become that way? God never made men evil. Satan in the Garden of Eden did gene splicing. He put into men’s heart and thought the wrong vision and the wrong dream. The realm of dreams and visions are powerful. When you allow a wrong dream and the vision dominates your life, you are allowing Satan to do some spiritual gene splicing in your spiritual DNA. If Satan could just lock your life to one false vision and false dream, he has got you. He has altered your spiritual DNA. You know what happens when your spiritual DNA is altered?  You can give it the right condition. You can give it the right amount of nutrition, water and sunlight. But instead of producing good fruit you are going to keep producing bad fruit until that DNA is changed back. No amount of good soil, good sunlight and good water will change your DNA. It will only produce after its kind.  Satan has tried to steal, kill and destroy by using false dreams, false visions, false thoughts and false philosophy to do gene splicing with mankind.  He has altered man’s thinking so much that men’s thoughts in Gen. 6 was evil constantly.

What does God do? He gives us dreams and visions. Joel 2 and Acts 2 it tells us when the Spirit of God has come upon our flesh young men shall see visions old men shall dream dreams. Sons and daughters shall prophesy in the prophetic word has to do with point four, which we are not touching yet. The energy of DNA is point four. We are going to see here how in this point three that God tries to change us, He gives us a new heart and a new mind. He says when we are born again we are born with a fresh vision, a fresh dream, and a fresh purpose in life.  Our DNA that has been corrupted by original sin, wrong teaching, evil influence and the influence of fallen men is regenerated. You are born of the Spirit. You are a new man. What happens is that as II Cor. 5:17 says, “Behold, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation.” We were born in the Spirit world.  We now have the mind of Christ. In the Paraphrase Living Bible translation I Cor. 2 it says we have the mind of Christ. It says we have the thoughts of Christ. Now God changes us back when we are born again. The seed of God has now been placed in you. I Jn. 3:9 says, “Whoever is born of God does not commit sin; for his seed remains in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.” Remember a seed needs right conditions to grow.  If we fail to give it the right condition it will not grow. At the same time as we grow in God we can enhance whatever God has placed in our life. A seed is just a seed. It is not a plant, not a tree yet.  We need to give it the right condition.

That is why these three points I re-emphasize again No.1 to understand that thoughts are like seed. They come in groups. They come in patterns. They are like spiritual genetics. You just have to yield to one; it sucks you into a new group of thoughts. Don’t be deceived – thoughts don’t just come loose. They come in groups like seeds. If you yield to one it will pull you by its own gravitational force into his pattern of thinking. Yielding to one wrong thought can pull you into a series of it. That is why if you tell one lie you have to tell a number of lies to cover that one lie. That is why point two is important. We need to understand the conditions for that seed to grow. But we need to understand point three how we can expand and change further and further. Why must we change? There is a realm where God allows you freedom to grow in Him. I believe there are promises in the bible for those who want to go further that you can press on into God.

With background and understanding when you read Mk. 4 you have a different way of looking into it? Mk. 4:3 Listen! Behold, a sower went out to sow.  And it happened, as he sowed, that some seed fell by the wayside; and the birds of the air came and devoured it. Some fell on stony ground, where it did not have much earth; and immediately it sprang up because it had no depth of earth. But when the sun was up it was scorched, and because it had no root it withered away.  And some seed fell among thorns; and the thorns grew up and choked it, and it yielded no crop. But other seeds fell on good ground and yielded a crop that sprang up, increased and produced; some thirty fold, some sixty and some a hundred.

Now a seed is like a spiritual DNA. Jesus talked about the word of God as spiritual DNA. It says here in verse 4 that some of the seeds got eaten up, destroyed, devoured. God plants seeds in our life. According to Mk. 4 If I may re-phase this parable of Jesus – it is the story of the survival of the spiritual DNA that God placed into you and I. Spiritual DNA is the word of God and thought pattern. Some spiritual DNA drops by the wayside.  They got destroyed by the birds of the air, that is, by demon powers who came to steal it away from people. Satan prevents the revelations from coming into their lives.  Verse 5 some fell on stony ground where it did not have much earth and immediately it sprang up but because it had no depth verse 6 the sun scorched it. The sun is a friendly sun, not a hurtful sun. Yet the plant withered because it has no depth of earth and no nutrition and no water.  Plants love sunlight. But plants that are not properly rooted cannot stand sunlight because the sunlight kills their roots and they die. Isn’t seed NO.2 talking about the condition for the DNA to grow?  The conditions were not ideal because it doesn’t have the proper ground and nutrition. Therefore the conditions instead of helping it are killing it.

The third ground the seed that fall among the thorns.  The thorns choked it. The thorns represent worldly thought pattern, the cares of this life, and the deceitfulness of riches. I didn’t make it up. Jesus explained it that way. Look a Mk. 4:18-19 Now these are the ones sown among thorns; they are the ones who hear the word, and the cares of this world, the deceitfulness of riches, and the desires for other things entering in choke the word, and it becomes unfruitful.  It was impossible for the DNA it to come forth because of the thorns. What are the thorns – deceitfulness, riches, cares of this life and all those things are choking the word of God. Wrong thought pattern. When you mix with the people of the world remember they are running on their own DNA, their own thought pattern, and their own principles. Some are worldly, some unbiblical or unscriptural and some are anti-God. We need to get back to the word. We need to learn to reject some of those things. Otherwise when you accept a wrong teaching from the world or worldly principle into your life, it is a thorn in your spiritual DNA and your seed cannot grow. It is choked to death. Therefore we need an atmosphere for it to come forth, to grow forth so that we could be able to enforce and bring it into our lives.

Let me show some ideal conditions that can come. In the book of Acts 2:17 And it shall come to pass in the last days, says God, that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, Your young men shall see visions, your old men shall dream dreams.  And on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days; and they shall prophesy. We need the Holy Spirit to change our thought pattern. Just one dream and one vision from the Holy Spirit can change your life. But we need to yield to the Spirit of God.  Allow the Spirit of God to give you new dream and new vision. Right now some of your visions and dreams that God gave you, or some of the revelations that God gave you for your life and destiny are for the formation of the spiritual DNA in your life that is not completed yet. When God puts His seed in your life through the Holy Spirit, it is just like God pollinating our lives so that the right seed can grow. The right seed can be formed. Now the formation is only part of it. It’s under point three. It’s only part of it. But it’s an important part. The bible tells us in Heb. 8 and Heb. 10 that God wants to write His laws in our heart and in our mind. You need to give Him a chance to write them in your life through new visions and new dreams.

When you close your eyes what do you see? Do you see yourself as oppressed, poor, suffering, needy? You need to re-write your spiritual DNA. It’s too polluted. You close your eyes all you should see is the perfection of Jesus flowing into your life. You should see the new person that you should be. You are more than a conqueror in Him. Did you see the new person that God made you to be? That’s the question that the Spirit of God is asking you. Or is your vision so blur that you can’t see it.  Then you need the Holy Spirit to write over and over again.  Sometimes our ground is not soft enough for the Holy Spirit to write.  You need the water of the Holy Spirit to wash you and soften you so that you could see who you are in Christ.  I can guarantee you it is a good picture. Many Christians cannot see themselves the way God sees them. Do you know the first thing that should have happened when you were born again? You should have seen the way God sees you. God didn’t look at you as a despicable piece of dirt and good for nothing. God saw what He wanted you to be. What He created you to be. Although it’s much polluted, perverted and destroyed by the enemy but God could still see it because He created you.  God saw what you could become.  If you were the only one who was lost, the only sheep that was lost God would have sent His only begotten Son just for you.  If the whole world were saved and you were the only one who need to be saved God would still send His only begotten Son for you.

Maybe after you were born again, you didn’t stay long enough in God’s presence to see yourself the way God sees you. II Cor. 5:17 old things are passed away. But you didn’t see the other part. You only saw half of II Cor. 5:17 Therefore if any man be in Christ he is a new creation. Behold, old things are passed away all things are become new. You lost the other part. Say all things are become new. Maybe you didn’t see your new DNA or new genetic code that God placed in you.   I am asking you on behalf of the Spirit of God to receive the new vision and new dream He has for your life. See yourself the way God sees you. Don’t struggle against Him. Receive Him.

Few receive the way God sees us. When you close your eyes and pray can you see what God wants you to be? If your answer is yes, thank God for it. If your answer is no we are going to pray for you that you may see. Unless you see the way God wants you to be, the rest of your Christian life is in vain. You cannot change yourself. You cannot be what you wanted to be unless you catch hold of who God wants you to be.

Under point two – you must feel the way God feels for you. To see the way God sees is under vision that is point three. Point two is emotions.  God has feelings. In Gen. 6 we are told that God felt sorry. Do you know that if man felt sorry man would have repented?  But men hardened their hearts. The bible tells us that God felt sorry.

Secondly, we need to feel the way God feels for you and I. When you close your eyes and pray, you not only see what God wants you to be, you feel how He felt for you. Isn’t that what life is about?  When you relate to one another, isn’t it because of the feelings that we have one for another – the appreciation, the respect and the love that we feel for one another. What happens if right now you cannot feel what others feel for you? You will be lonely, rejected. You know what loneliness and rejection is. It is a lack of ability to feel what others feel for them.  I am talking about the good feeling. You see God gives everyone of us an ability to feel for one another. I am talking about emotional feelings. But the devil turn that until all you could feel are bad feelings of people. So you feel rejected.  You feel lonely. But you should turn it back to feel the good feeling of people. The ability to turn your emotion into the right area is only found in your prayer closet with God. Only God can do it.  When you are able to sense and feel the way God feels for you, then you can sense the good things that God has placed on other people’s life.  Feel for others as much as others feel for you.  When those are established the environment for the DNA to replicate itself is there.  You see in an environment of rejection, loneliness, hatred, strife, do you think church can grow. No, but in an environment of love, acceptance and encouragement we all grow. So we must get after the environment.  That environment the thought pattern could grow stronger and stronger.

The bible says Paul’s spirit was refreshed when he saw Timothy and the others coming. That’s what it means he draws the encouragement. Eph. 4: 16 says, “From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.”  The whole body grows.  You could only grow among good Christians, good fellowship, and good care group. You cannot grow alone. No.1 vision you get from the Holy Spirit.  Prophets and prophecies are only to confirm it. No.2 you need to be linked up with another person or a group of people for your own gifts to come forth and for your own ministry to come forth. God has made us so that we need one another. We need to be part of the care group, part of the fellowship, part of good Christians. Now the bible says in Ps. 1 that we need to be careful whom we fellowship with because it can destroy us or it can build us up. A lot of young teenagers have been led astray because they went with the wrong crowd. The right fellowship will give you the right spiritual bonding. Then you will receive, thirdly, which is an abundance of the right thought pattern for you to handle in life.

PULLING DOWN STRONGHOLDS…..THOUGHT PATTERNS

by Pastor Peter Tan

We have read from II Cor. 10, which I will read as our main text over this short series on Pulling Down Strongholds. Paul in talking about spiritual warfare spoke about a type of weapon, which you and I have.  It tells us what this weapon will do. In II Cor. 10:4-6 For the weapons of our warfare – we are in spiritual warfare with the enemy where Satan and his cohorts have built strongholds. But the kingdom of God is being established through your life and through my life altogether to the church  of Jesus Christ. It tells us that For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled.

The bible tells us that the end result of the weapons of our warfare is that every thought be subject to Christ. Now in the Greek where it says arguments, in some older translation it says reasoning. They are thought patterns that you and I have to wrestle with daily. Somehow thought patterns are not just simple psychological thoughts that we have been always considering. They have a dynamic spiritual effect. In fact there are four types or four dimensions of thought pattern in the thought world. You and I have been made spirit beings. We have a soul and we live in a body.  We know that Satan is a spirit being.  Demons are spirit beings. But when a temptation comes to your life isn’t it interesting that you feel it as a thought pattern? Why should the spirit world attacking the natural world cause an experience called a temptation or a flow of thought pattern that stirs wrong desires and emotions? That experience itself shows us that our thought life has an effect in the spirit world.  The reverse is true. The spirit world is constantly having an effect on our thought pattern, whether for good that is from God or for bad, which is from the devil. Our thoughts have energy. We are not talking about mind power, mental power, or mind over matter. We are talking about the spiritual world as it reaches into the natural world. There is a side effect in patterns of thoughts that you and I need to wrestle with.

The first thing that the devil did when he attacked Adam and Eve was to attack Eve in her thought life. He gave her wrong reasonings, wrong arguments in order to convince and persuade her to eat the tree of knowledge of good and evil. His attack through the serpent was in a thought realm.  Men and women of God of old have constantly taught us that the battleground is in the mind. It’s still the same from the apostle Paul’s time to our days, where the spirit and natural realm meets in the battle of the mind. We need to understand what strongholds refer to. From the context of II Cor. 10 strongholds refer to thought pattern. That is why in II Cor. 10 when Paul mentioned about pulling down strongholds, he describes it as casting down arguments that flow from the thought life, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God. Again he talks about every thought that goes against the knowledge of God. Then he goes on to mention about bringing every thought into captivity into the obedience of Christ. Again the word thought is mentioned. Until every single one of our thoughts are in obedience to Christ. Obviously the context tells us that strongholds have a direct relationship with thought patterns. The next thing that we need to do is to see some bible examples.

Lets turn to the book of Acts and we give you just a few examples, although there are many, to establish the some definitions of strongholds. Strongholds equal thought pattern. To establish a doctrine we need to have more than one verse. It has to be consistent throughout the bible.  Lets turn to Acts 5 and we will see a thought pattern that Satan used to deceive a person by the name of Ananias and Sapphira. Acts 5:1 But a certain man named Ananias, with Sapphira his wife, sold a possession. And he kept back part of the proceeds, his wife also being aware of it, and brought a certain part and laid it at the apostles’ feet. But Peter said, “Ananias, why has Satan filled your heart?” – I repeat that statement Satan was attacking the church. How does Satan attack? He doesn’t come to you and grab you physically. He grabs your mind. He grabs your thought pattern. He asked, “Why have you allowed Satan to fill your heart?“ Filled his heart with what? It says to lie to the Holy Spirit and keep back part of the price of the land for yourself? While it remained, was it not your own? And after it was sold, was it not in your own control? Why have you conceived this thing in your heart? You have not lied to men but to God.”

Peter said that Satan has filled his mind with a plan to keep part of the proceeds of the sale of their land and claim that the amount he has brought to the apostles is the whole sum. Ananias and Sapphira may not even have known it was Mr. Devil. But all he had in his experience was a thought pattern. He thought that it was a bright idea. Actually it was a black idea. It was from the enemy. His idea and his plan and his reasoning justify his own act. Did Ananias meet the devil himself?  The devil comes knocking at the door and says, “Mr. Ananias, can I come in please?” “Who are you?” “I am Mr. Devil.”  “O I have been expecting you.” No, the devil sent a missile in the form of a thought like a fiery dart at Ananias.  Ananias received it. He did not discern that the thought and idea was from the devil. It was a thought pattern. Strongholds are thought pattern. I am just showing the negative side.

I want to show the positive side later but let me show one more person in the book of Acts 8. To establish a doctrine we have to show some examples. This is a different man and his name is Simon. We need to understand his background so that we understand how strongholds are built in our life. All of us have a pattern of thought. If you look at your finger, your fingers have a pattern. I don’t believe in palmistry and those hocus-pocus. They are not true. However your hands have delicate pattern. Your thumb has little lines all along it. They are patterns in your hand. There are patterns of thought life that all of us have grown up with according to your background, knowledge and training. One of the most dangerous things is the failure to recognize how our thought pattern interchanges, the failure to discern our thought pattern from the past or to differentiate the thought pattern that is from God versus that from the enemy. The renewal of the mind involves a change of our thought pattern.

In the book of Acts 8 a man named Simon his background is given in verse 9. But there was a certain man called Simon, who previously practiced sorcery in the city and astonished the people of Samaria, claiming that he was someone great.  Now that was his thought pattern – he was a sorcerer, a knowledgeable person, and a manipulator.  He knows how to get attention. As a proud person, he wants to be someone great. These are all his thought patterns before he was born again. He was proud; he was into witchcraft, sorcery and moved in the occult.  His thought patterns follow certain areas.  He was someone who was used to entertainment; money is also one of his gods. All these are a part of his thought pattern. This was before he was born again.

Then he saw Philip preaching the gospel of the kingdom. The bible says in verse 13 Then Simon himself also believed; and when he was baptized he continued with Philip, and was amazed, seeing the miracles and signs, which were done. So he was born again and baptized in water. Now here he was born again baptized in the Spirit, amazed at the works of God but the old thought pattern that he had was still operating partially in his life. The born again experience is instantaneous but the renewal of the mind is a process. Unknown to himself and unknown to many others he had a stronghold. See, strongholds are a pattern of thoughts. He had a certain way of thinking. He lived his life in a certain way. All these things came from strongholds in his life in his background. So when he began to see how through the apostles’ hand the Holy Spirit was given, he offered them money.  He said in verse 19 Give me this power also, that anyone on whom I lay hands may receive the Holy Spirit. He was used to a certain way of thinking that resulted in a certain form of action. That is from his old life.

Peter said in verse 20 Your money perish with you, because you thought – you thought indicates a thought pattern, a way of thinking – that the gift of God could be purchased with money. Verse 21 he says your heart is not right. Look at verse 22 Repent therefore of this your wickedness, and pray God if perhaps the thought of your heart may be forgiven you. Peter is talking about thought life. This person named Simon the magician had a wrong thought pattern from his non-Christian life. After he was born again he is used to a pattern of thinking that was wrong in God’s eyes. Peter says he has to repent for the wrong thinking. Verse 23 For I see that you are poisoned by bitterness and bound by iniquity. The wrong thought pattern had literally tied him up so that he could not do the right thing.

I wonder as we are sitting in the presence of God what thought pattern some of you have with you. There is a thought pattern that all of us wear in our soul. Our physical body wears clothes. Our spirit being wears spiritual garment. Our soul wears thoughts.  Thought patterns are like clothing that we wear on our mind.  It influences how you think. How you relate to others. How you evaluate new things. Look at Simon the magician – his old thought pattern caused him to evaluate something new wrongly. It was like seeing through a colored glass.  He saw the wrong color. Not because what he saw was wrong but because what he saw was colored by his thought pattern. He saw the power of God, the Holy Spirit and the apostles, Peter and John ministering under the power of the Spirit and his old colored glasses told him that such power could be purchased with money.

One of the things that God had been speaking is to pull down strongholds. Unless we pull down strongholds of thought pattern in our life we can never be free to really worship God. To really serve God. To really love God. To really do the works of God. Thoughts come in pattern.  Thoughts come in groups and assemble themselves into a pattern.  When it has formed into a pattern it has a certain influence and power of its own. It becomes either a stronghold to bind you or a strong God’s hold to keep you free from sin.  You are used to that new form of thinking, a holy way of thinking, a holy way of conducting your life, and you don’t feel the temptation that others feel. The strong fortress of God’s way of thinking protects you. It can work for evil and it can work for good but there is a pattern of thoughts that constitutes a stronghold that every believer will have to wrestle with.  Satan seeks to build tremendous strongholds in the minds of everybody.

In our lives God is dealing with us to deal with the stronghold.  So we established point No.1 that strongholds equal patterns of thoughts.  Under this main point we describe a little bit. One of our descriptions is thoughts come in groups.  The groups come in different types of patterns. We have also established the fact that we wear our thoughts. Wherever you go whatever you are doing your thought pattern affects you. These thought patterns operate in your life when your mind is in free gear. Free gear means you are not consciously thinking of something whether of your work or of concentrating on certain subject. Your mind is just free. When your mind is left free, it will always go into the thought pattern that you are used to.  If you are a negative person and you left it free it will keep flowing in a negative cycle. Most people move into free gear when they are in the bathroom. As they are taking a bath they will be whistling and singing their bathroom operas. That’s where many choir members are trained. But if they are having a wrong thought pattern from their early life as they are bathing they keep thinking about what others has said about them. “That person said this about me.” These thought patterns keep rolling whenever they engage free gear. Their thought patterns like a source of gravity pull all their thoughts down. Pull their thinking in a certain direction. Negativism is a thought pattern. Worry is a thought pattern. Every time you got free time you worry. The first word that comes about it is what about this problem. “What about my future?” It’s a constant thought pattern.  Those thoughts must be broken. The strongholds must be pulled down or you will never have victory in your Christian life. We need to be made aware of those patterns of thoughts.

Now there are four dimensions in which the thought move into. Let me give you the four dimensions in Heb. 11:13 talking about those who live by faith. These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen (No.1 see) them afar off were (No.2) assured of them, (No.3) embraced them and (No.4) confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. Now the process of faith has four dimensions. No.l having seen them from afar. No.2 assured of them, No.3 embraced them. No.4 confessed them. Faith is born in the spirit world. But from the spirit world it must travel into the natural world to substantiate those things that are hoped for into those things that are seen. Part of the process faith is not just a mental conditioning it’s a spiritual attribute. But it involves a mental conditioning of your mind as part of the process to actualize what God wants you to birth forth in the natural world. We are going to look at it from the thought pattern view. There are these four areas we will touch on them as we go along. We may be able to touch on two or three of them at the moment.

Although we listed the order as see first, assured second, third is embraced and forth is confess, but I like to point to the word assured first. There are four different dimensions for the existence of thought. One is where it’s already formed. The pattern is already created.  That is in the area of assurance. On the positive side when you are assured of something, it is when you believe something. The word assurance is tied to the word believe. When you say that you believe certain things and it’s a part of your life principle, a part of your philosophy, apart of your being, you are saying that, that thought pattern is a part of you. The way of thinking is the way of faith. It exists as a fixed condition, a certain way in which you look at things or a certain way in which you approach certain things. What you believe is very important.  If you believe that it’s not possible like the ten spies it will not be possible for you. If you believe that it is possible like Joshua and Caleb it becomes possible for you. Now there is a long road to lead a person to what we believe. As we sit here in this auditorium, we all have similar beliefs on major doctrinal issues but when it comes to some specific teachings, we may have divergent views.  This is a result of what we believe. “Believed,” “assured,” are words that describe the first dimension of established thought. So the first dimension is the established thought pattern.

Some thought patterns could be established wrongly from your life before you were born again. But they are thought patterns that you are used to.  Your way of thinking has become a part of your personality and your character. For example in my life I seldom think about other people. I think more about God. If I think about other people it’s more on the positive side. But some people think that others keep thinking about others. Or maybe in your life you keep thinking of people. Probably about seventy percent of the time I think about God and the ministry. I don’t have time to think about individuals. But when I focus my mind to do a certain task or train a certain individual then only at that time do I think about that individual. Otherwise if that has nothing to do with the ministry work I wouldn’t think about that individual. I do pray for the church. I do pray for individuals. But that is intercession. But that is more your spirit lifting up people. But sometimes other people keep thinking, “I wonder what Bro. So-and-so is thinking about me.” Their entire mind is occupied in the wrong thought pattern.  The sad thing is this they think that it is real.  Established thought patterns feel real. But sometimes people are caught in a fantasy of their own creation. Experientially they feel that is real and remember what you believe you start looking for them.  You can find evidences to substantiate your own fantasy.

As a pastor I have counseled many people. One interesting part of counseling is boy-girl relationships. Sister So-and-so said, “Pastor, I think brother So-and-so is in love with me.”  I said, “How do you know?” She said, “Well, the other day when I was sitting in church I caught him looking at me three times. Although the auditorium is very big from the front he looked right back at me. I even saw his eye open bigger.” But then later I asked bro. So-and-so, “Brother, in your heart are you thinking of any particular lady at the moment that we could pray for you?”  Bro. So-and-so said, “Not quite but I am familiar with several.” I said, “By the way on that particular Sunday, were you showing any interest in anybody?”  Now this never happened – this is a fictitious story that I cooked up for illustration purposes.  If it sounds like your story it has nothing to do with you. So bro. So-and-so says, “On that particular Sunday, no, nobody in particular.” “Were you looking behind at any person three times?” “Actually I thought I heard a sound and I was looking back at the sound room.” “Was it three times?” “Yes, three times.”  That poor sister was thinking that he was interested in her.

When you believe certain things you will find evidences to substantiate those things.  Accidental thing that has nothing in relation to what your evidences are. Not every girl who drops a handkerchief is waiting for the knight in shining armor to pick it up and give it to her. Bow his knees and plead, “Will your marry me?” She may actually drop her handkerchief accidentally. Not every man who is friendly to a sister or who just invites her out for lunch mean that he is now becoming serious with her. I know that there are some special lunches that are different from others but just because a boy asks you what you are doing for lunch doesn’t mean he has special feelings for you. We have this group fellowship here let’s go along. Sometimes it is but many times its not. It’s just a friendly way of fellowshipping. But if we believe what we believe and that belief is from a wrong thought pattern it becomes a fantasy in our life and we will begin to see things that are actually not there. Therefore what we believe is important.

The first dimension of thought pattern is the word assured. I call them established thought. As we look at established thought, comes the next question. The reason why I go on to this point is because after covering point one, you are beginning now to think about your life and your own fantasy. Sometimes a person has what I call a persecution complex. They think that somebody is talking about them all the time. Or they think that somebody is persecuting them all the time.  Even if they think on those things why don’t they think that somebody could be talking highly about them? Why think somebody is talking evil about him or her. It’s called a persecution complex. They always think that others are talking bad about them. People can live such fantasy. These are all thought patterns that God’s Spirit wants to deal with. They will destroy our lives unless we destroy them.

It is not because the Israelites cannot cross into the land of Canaan. It is because they were obsessed by a wrong thought pattern. They were as capable as Caleb and Joshua. Caleb and Joshua were not physically more able than them. The difference is the ten spies had a different thought pattern. They were looking for the wrong thing.  They found the wrong thing. They were looking for an excuse not to do the job.  They said,  “Yes, we were like grass hoppers.” They found the reason not to do what they were supposed to do.

Looking at the first dimension of established thought pattern under the word assured or believe, whatever you believe right now in your life can be right or can be wrong. As you grow in God maybe ninety percent of what you believe is correct. We have to examine what we believe based on the bible. As we grow in our Christian life we find that some of the things that we used to believe were not scriptural and we change them and adapt them to the bible. As God reveal His word we began to grow in greater accuracy for Him and in Him. In our life right now everything that you believe is a thought pattern. That means if ninety percent of your belief right now is scriptural ninety percent of your thought pattern is correct. That means that ten percent is incorrect.  The ten percent of what you believe that is incorrect is right now torturing your life and making your life miserable, causing fantasy, causing mistakes, and causing misjudgment, and not having a proper balance in your life. That ten percent could actually rob you.

When we look at point one your next question is, “Pastor, how do I break the cycle of what I believe that is wrong?” That’s where point two and three come in because there are two areas that we need to look at in this thought pattern. No.1 is established thoughts. Now there are two ways by which thoughts become established.  They form point two and point three. Later we will look at the energy of thought, which is point four. There are two ways in which thoughts become established. No.1 through emotions. No.2 through visions. Now you notice the word in Heb. 12 it says and embraced them. The word embrace speaks about the emotional aspect of your faith. There is feeling in what you believe. What we believe produces feeling. What we feel produces thoughts.

Which came first, the chicken or the egg? It’s a question that has been asked for a long time. The world doesn’t have the bible. The world doesn’t believe in God. The world doesn’t believe in the revealed word of God. So up to now in the world they still do not have an answer. In fact if the world becomes too scientific they will think that everything formed from an embryo so they will say it formed from an egg cell. But the bible says God created and we have the answer: the chicken came before the egg. Isn’t it wonderful to be able to answer a question that men have not answered for a long time? So when people ask, “Which came first – the chicken or the egg?” “The chicken.” “How do you know?” “Genesis chapter one.” The chicken came before the egg. Chicken laid eggs and other chicken come from the eggs. So it’s continuing process.

Now we know that when you have emotional feeling, your emotional feeling will produce thought.  When you have a thought pattern your thought pattern produce emotions back. Both are affecting one and other. Your emotions affect your thought. I mean if you are in love you possibly think of your loved one more often than normal. It creates a thought pattern in your life. We should love Jesus first and most in our life. The opposite is true. When you have an established thought pattern, it produces feelings for good or for bad. If you have a melancholic thought pattern that always feel that loneliness in your life from the time you are small, when you are free that thought pattern would drag you down to feel lonely. On the other hand, if you have a very cheerful outgoing personality, when you are free you always think interesting and humorous thoughts. That’s the pattern by which you think that have gripped your life. Some people are always very cheerful because they are thinking of happy thoughts all the time. It produces good feeling and well being in them. So we do know that feelings produce thought pattern.

Thought pattern also produces feeling. Which comes first? Here is an interesting point. In the bible it is definitely shown that when feelings come it moves you to a new direction of assembling those thoughts. I have studied the brain structure. Although we could say that we have developed the ability to exert control from the secondary brain over our primary brain, yet in our brain structure the primal brain still supersedes the external cortex. Just one incident in our life that is good or that is bad can affect your entire life. Why because that one incident produces and establishes a system of thought pattern.

Lets look at the negative side. Lets say a very traumatic experience happened to you. You feel hurt, backstabbed, wounded, and it actually happened. Something painful has registered in your soul. What happened?  That emotional experience hardened the flexible thoughts that are around. See thoughts are constantly being hardened, like cement hardening, into established pattern.  When cement is mixed with water and sand and exposed to air, it hardens.  When our thoughts that are free and loose are exposed to emotional experience they hardened and form a pattern of established thought. So our feelings are important. Guard our emotions carefully. When you have the wrong emotional experience they will create and establish a certain thought pattern around you.  Then as you yield to that thought pattern for fifteen years, it becomes a part of your character and life. Unforgiveness becomes a part of your temperament.

On the positive side is when you have great emotional experiences with God.  God touches you and releases you in the move of laughter. As you weep before God and cry, you feel the presence of God in your life. All these great emotional experience you have in God are forming the right thought pattern in your life.  Sometimes for a long period of time when nothing has changed, suddenly a person experiences an emotional outburst of holy laughter and then he is changed. You know why? A wrong thought pattern has clammed them down emotionally. Suddenly it cracked opened as they experience that experience in God. You can’t theologize laughter. If you theologize too much you lose the laughter.  I mean think about the theology of laughter. Ha, ha, ha, means that you are normal. Ho, ho, ho, theologically means you are slightly more expressive.  Hee, hee, hee, is when you are looking over a situation. There is no such thing. Some people laugh ho, ho, some ha, ha, ha, some hee ho, hee, ho. It is an emotional kind of experience and not a theology. Lets not try to theologize something that belongs to our emotion. You theologize it too much your lose your emotion.

But what we want to say is that spiritual experience does have an effect emotionally on our life.  There are emotional experiences that we have in God. Sometimes as you worship God tears run down your eyes.  You feel like you want to burst out in tears before God but you look around and everybody is looking so you hold back. Next time let go. Don’t hold back. You say, “Pastor, if I let go, my mascara will melt and stain the carpet with pink and green and black droplets.” Use waterproof makeup next time. Let go or when you are coming forward to the front and you are being prayed for and the Holy Spirit is giving you an emotional experience, yield to it. Let me tell you we are not against emotional experience, provided the emotional experience is in line with God.

How can you have Christianity without emotion? Think about living a life without emotion. Lets say you tell your family, “From now onwards, our family will not display emotion anymore because we have grown spiritually. We are now the redeemed family. Redeemed from the curse of the law. Redeemed by the blood of the Lord.  We will have no more emotion.  We are now spirit beings.  We walk about like spirit beings.  We conduct ourselves like spirit beings. Emotions are of the devil. We are now higher than those carnal human beings who still need emotion. We are the super breeds.” You know what? When you come home from work your wife says, “Hello dear, lunch is now on the table. You will please proceed to your table.” “Thank you, dear, I am coming now.” Your daughter and son come back from the school and say, “Father, we are here to inform you that we are back. We will not hug you because such emotional display is of the devil and we will not tolerate them in our family. Just to report that we are back. Thank you. God bless you.” Think about a family without emotion. It’s dull. It’s not the way God made it. Think about Christianity without emotion. Now emotions are fine the only difference is we do not base our theology on emotion. Emotions are to be enjoyed and experienced.

When we worship God we must have emotions. When we say to God, Ï love You,” we must have emotions. We all need emotions. God made us with emotions. The devil has been abusing our emotions. But God originally made emotions.  We need to let go. When you worship God sometimes you are so excited you want to shout onto God. But then you look around because one of the ushers is looking at you very fiercely. Tell the usher to smile more.  You look around and you don’t have to shut up in case they kick you out of the church for shouting. Let me tell you right now in the Olympic games people are screaming. Then the moment people come near to the church they keep silent saying this is a holy place. Where is the excitement? I mean if heaven is like that, in heaven we all walk on tiptoes.  We don’t want to disturb God. No, God wants you to enjoy His creation. That’s the way God wants you to be. When you worship God you get excited. Tell everybody that Jesus Christ is Lord. We need to worship God and allow our emotions to be part of the worship of God.  Some of those breakthroughs are important to break down old cemented thoughts and to create new thoughts and new thought patterns. That’s point two the embrace, where you hold those thoughts together.

Secondly the thought realm has feelings.  Feeling can control the thought realm and later on whatever your thoughts are, they produce feelings because they have been locked into them. We do know that feelings can be locked up.  Feelings work by locking up a pattern in your life.  Some of us are so locked up emotionally by an emotional experience of the past that we keep on having that same experiences emotionally produced by that established thought pattern that was not of God. You need a new experience. God is an experience.  When you have good experiences and store up good emotional feelings in your thought patterns, you will never be the same. Every time you allow yourself to experience those good experiences, they re-establish the thought pattern. I am not saying that there is only one thought pattern in our life. All of us are creative human beings and we have lots of thought patterns locked up as a part of our character. As you grow more you have more and more thought patterns stored up in you.  All the thought patterns come together and produce one main personality and that is you. But in line with the ongoing process feelings are important.  As we allow the right experience to harness and establish the thoughts we will lock into our minds the experience of God. There are certain experiences that only God gives you.  It changes you eternally. Sometimes when you talk about those lovely experiences in God you can pull back those wonderful emotional experiences.  Those emotional experiences locked them in. So thought can be established.  Feelings are the establisher of thought.

The third dimension of established thought is sight or seeing. Vision is the expander of thought – it expands and gives wings to your thoughts to travel into uncharted horizons. If feelings are the establisher to establish thoughts, then sight or vision is the expander. Feelings are like a lasso. To have a good experience you lasso in your good feelings like you lasso in a bull or a horse or it becomes a part of your life. But vision is like an expander. It pushes you further than you have gone in your thinking. My friend you can theologize a vision faster than you can theologize a true intellectual argument. You can see faster than you can think. That is why vision is in that dimension.

Let me illustrate with different things here in the world around us. Lets talk about water, water vapor and ice. Point one established thought is like ice. When ice, which is H2O, solidifies, it takes a certain shape. It’s very hard to change the shape. Have you tried cutting a block of ice? It’s not easy.  You could throw metal into the ice. Long ago in World War II, they were experimenting with an ice shield.  If they were to shoot a cannonball into that ice shield, that cannonball would become a part of that shield. It wouldn’t even destroy that shield. We know that huge icebergs have destroyed man-made ships. Think about the many big giant ships that have sunk. It is caused by huge block of ice that we call iceberg. They are powerful established thought pattern.  Feelings are like water. Water will take the shape of whatever container you put it in. If you put water into a square container and freeze it and remove that container it will remain square. If you take water and you put it in a round container and freeze it, it will remain circular. It retains its solidness after it freezes. But before it’s frozen it is fluid.  You need to contain it properly.

That is why feelings are a part of God’s creation of us as human being. But we need to have feelings contained by the word of God. Whenever the feelings are wrong feelings remember this – all wrong feelings are a perversion of a right feeling that God gave you. Satan has never been able to create. He has only been able to pervert. Fear is not created. Fear is faith in reverse gear, faith in the negative thing. Hate is opposite from like and also love although we say the opposite of love is self. But lets look at it from the emotional point of view.  When you hate someone what happens? You think about that person often.  Like you cannot get that person out of your life. That person is torturing you. Now that is a very negative and opposite of loving somebody. That somebody becomes a constant imparter into your life. It becomes a constant encouragement. All you have to do is think about that person and you feel encouraged. Satan has perverted it. Do not despair if you have the wrong emotions in your life.  It is the twisting of the right emotion into the wrong area.

So feelings are like water. It flows and finds its own level. We need to contain it with the word of God. Whenever there is a wrong feeling that comes by men and you feel hurt, quickly run to the word of God. Run to the blood of the Lamb. Cleanse it, forgive and exercise love.  The agape love of God will produce all the other fruit. Do you notice that the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, song-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, temperance and that is Gal. 5:22-23. When you tie it to I Cor. 13 you find that all the areas there love rejoices, love is patience, you find all the fruit of the Spirit is tied to one word love.  So we guard our emotions so that only the emotion that is in line with the agape love of God will be allowed to remain. When it’s in line with the word of God, it will then form the right thought pattern.

The third dimension of established thought is the expansion of thought in terms of seeing. It is like a cloud. Water vapor rises up as tiny droplets of water and gathers together to form clouds. If you were to reach out and touch a cloud you can’t. You can’t feel it. You can see it but you can’t feel it. You cannot catch a cloud with your hand. Your hand passes through the cloud. The cloud and the water vapor represent the thought life in the form of cloud. Thought life in the form of ice is the first dimension of established thought. Thought life in the form of water is feeling and is the second dimension of established thought. Thought life in the form of cloud is sight or vision and is the third dimension. It’s very interesting to see thoughts in the form of vision.

Right now if you have a business and you are thinking of expanding the business you may need many ideas, many plans, many sub-steps towards that goal. But it takes you just a few seconds to visualize and see the results. That’s how powerful vision is. Vision will pull out just like this speaker here in front of me. It is solid. Lets pretend it’s a piece of ice. Once upon a time this solid speaker here was water. It has been crystallized to the right experience into this square block. Now it is formed in that state we want to bring it higher. We want to enlarge it. We want to lift it up higher. That is vision. It brings you beyond your feeling.  You only depend on feeling to establish your thought but you are limited. The word of God and love will establish it. But we need to go beyond into the higher dimension of God.

Paul says in the book of Colossians 3:1 If then you were raised with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God. Set your mind on things above, not on things on the earth. Set your mind on things above. We need to go beyond this earthly life into the other life, spiritual life to be able to see the realm of God. Set our mind on the things above. How do we set our mind on the things above? How do we rise above the gravitational pull of this earth? In the world people revolve their life around food, clothing, shelter, luxury and earthly materialism. We need to rise above those areas. It is possible through vision to rise above those areas.

The illustrators will be walking around with two posters. The first poster is a photograph. Many of you probably have seen the photograph of the earth taken from the moon. Now this photograph is taken from 6.2 kilometers from the earth. No human being has gone that far. It was taken by a satellite on its way to Mars and Jupiter. The satellite turned back and photographed the earth and the moon. It was far enough to catch the earth and moon in one photograph. Physically you and I can never take that photograph of this earth. As long as you remain on this earth you can never have that kind of photograph. You can stand on the North Pole, South Pole or anywhere on the earth, you cannot photograph the moon and the earth together in that way. You can take part of the slant of the earth and the moon in the background. But you cannot take the whole earth and the whole moon. But that photograph taken from 6.2 kilometers from the earth captured the earth and the moon together.

In vision you can go beyond your situation. You can go beyond your limitations. If you want to fly, close your eyes now and you can see yourself flying. Men have always visualized before they invented. Man has always visualized first before he invented.  It’s when that vision is born that man began to put things together to crystallize and to create.  That vision in your thought life is important. Vision is to cause you to go beyond your life and yourself, your family and your kinsfolk.  Go beyond into the dimension that no man has gone before. To be able to catch something from the spirit realm of God. Crystallize it and bring it to the planet earth and be able to bless mankind.

The second poster is a picture of the Milky Way galaxy. There are trillions of galaxies throughout the universe. The solar system with all its nine planets is a part of this single galaxy called the Milky Way. Scientists have now recognized that it is not the biggest galaxy. It seems big to us because of our smallness. That picture of the galaxy is roughly from a point of about a hundred and fifty thousand light years away from where we are. A light year is the distance it takes light to travel in one year.  In one second light travels a hundred and eighty thousands miles. How many seconds are there in a year? That is a picture taken from about a hundred fifty thousand light years.  Now the first poster was a photograph. The second poster cannot be a photograph because to take that photograph you would have to send a rocket a hundred and fifty thousand light years away. Which is equal to hundred and fifty thousand earth years.  Man has not been able to travel at the speed of light. Man has been able to travel at a speed of about one tenth of the speed of light. So to travel a hundred and fifty thousand light years at our present technology and speed times, that would mean that you have to travel for one million five hundred thousand years. By the time you send the rocket to take that photograph,  the planet earth civilization has gone through one million five hundred thousand years. The people who invented that rocket would no longer be alive. Obviously no human being could travel to that distance and back.

Thank God in the spirit world we can travel at the speed of thought. How then did we have that picture? A computer was used to paint that picture after the positions and distance of the stars were noted and calculated.  Scientists gathered together to work with an artist. So that that picture is as accurate as a photograph.  All the stars in that picture of the galaxy are in their exact scientific position. It is painted like a photograph of the Milky Way. It is a photograph that you and I can never take. That picture took them about six months to one year to collaborate. All the calculations had to be put in. They did it within one earthly year. It would have taken one million five hundred thousand years to take that photograph. We are somewhere on the fringe of the Milky Way. Now that is just to expand your thoughts. Imagine we have in our hand a picture that no man has photograph but we are able to produce it as a photograph accurate right to the calculations possible. How is it done? Through knowledge and through the imagination.  In the same way, vision is a powerful area. The bible concentrates on vision a lot. Vision is a powerful realm, which can help you to go beyond yourself, beyond all your limitations. Feelings are important to crystallize thoughts. But vision is important as it helps you go beyond yourself, beyond your limitations.

I like to close by looking at Mk. 11 to show you that all those processes are there. Jesus talked about the faith that will move mountain. Let me show the four forces working. We know that faith is a spirit attribute and not just a mental condition. However the spirit attribute does involve a mental renewal of the mind.   That’s where the breaking down the strongholds is. In verse 22 So Jesus answered and said to them, “Have faith in God. For assuredly, I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, “Be removed and be cast into the sea,” and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that those things he says will be done, he will have whatever he says. Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray believe that you receive them, and you will have them. And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him, that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses. But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in heaven forgive your trespasses.

Now first of all look at verse 23 Does not doubt in his heart but believe. Doesn’t that talk about established thought? Whatever you believe and becomes a part of your life is a set of established thought pattern. That’s why faith has not worked in many people. They are not established in God’s thought pattern. We need to believe correctly. Believe in line with the word of God.  Our philosophy, our principles, and our whole life system, must be built upon the word. If your belief is not in line with the word change it.  When it’s in line with the word you have established the thought pattern.

Second area is the feelings and emotions it says in verse 24 whatever things you ask. Now the word ask is the Greek word aiteo, which is, whatever things you desire. Desire is a feeling. You haven’t quantified what it is. You haven’t theorized what it is. But the desire is there. It is linked up to your feeling. Now it’s in your spirit but it effects your emotion.  That’s where you find point two. Obviously if you don’t feel and desire for something you will not have the stamina to go through. Belief is one area. But the feelings for it and the desire for it must be there, then only you can go through.

Thirdly the area of vision. It tells us in verse 23.whoever says to this mountain, “Be removed and be cast into the sea.”  And does not doubt in his heart. The word heart is used and the attribute of the heart is a visual area. One more verse in verse 24 whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you received them, and you will have them. The Greek is the past perfect tense. Believe that you have received them. You must be able to see that you already have them. There is a visual area. Now believe that you have received are tied to the book of Romans chapter 4 and gives you an example of Abraham. Rom.4: 20 He did not waver at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strengthened in faith, giving glory to God, and being fully convinced that what He had promised He was also able to perform. If you read the story of Abraham you find that before Abraham’s belief was established, he still doubted sometimes. You know what God did? He got him to see. He says, “Abraham, look at the stars. Can you count them? Your children will be like the stars. Abraham your children will be like the dust of the ground. Abraham look North, South, East, West, look as far as you can. I give you the land.” What was God doing? Before Abraham’s thoughts were established, sometimes even before his feelings have developed God had him to see vision. So that is why vision is important. It starts in that area.

At first what you see doesn’t produce feeling. You just see it in God but slowly it consumes you. Now the correct order when it comes to faith is see, believe, embrace, and confess. But according to thought pattern that we have analyzed we have reversed and looked at it differently. Established thought is already there because in our life we already have established thoughts. Then there are liquid thoughts like water and we need to form them carefully. Then there are thoughts that are like cloud we can see but we can’t touch. You know what produces water? When the vapors are gathering together into clouds, one day the clouds become so heavy that the water starts coming down. That’s rain. So you substantiate what you see into tangible realm. My friends as you begin to see the things of God and allow your thoughts to rise above you into the heavenly places, the cloud begins gathering in your life.  One day it will pour down like rain.  As it rain, it forms water.  You can gather that water and you can solidify it into block of ice for your life – thought pattern. The times between ice changing into water and water into ice and the times between water changing into water vapor and water vapor changing into water are chaotic sessions. It looks chaotic when there are thunderstorms and lightning. Or when water vapor evaporates and form cloud above. Or when the big pieces of ice melt and form ice berg. Those in between area look chaotic. But out of the chaos God forms the world. God forms you and I. There are many loose forms coming but there is only one gravitational force that should pull all our thoughts together – the name is the name Jesus Christ.

Every head bow and every eye close. Even right now there are strongholds to pull down right where we are. Sometimes the stronghold of sickness comes from the thought pattern. Sometimes it comes from the stronghold of brokenness because of thought pattern that have gripped you. The Spirit of God is hovering above us.  Sometimes your life looks chaotic. When the Spirit of God moves, He hovers over the chaos.   Sometimes the water vapor is condensing into water.  Sometimes the water is changing into ice. Sometimes it is the reverse – the ice wrong thought pattern is changing back into water. But God knows your life. Is there stronghold in your life that God has to break? Stronghold in your life that the Spirit of God has to break? Stronghold in your life that need to be pulled down?