It’s All In Your Mind

Dr. Creflo A. Dollar
Your mind holds tremendous creative ability. That’s why God gave you an imagination–so that you could create mental pictures, add faith to them and see those pictures manifest in your life.

Once you have an image in your mind of something you want to do or become, nothing can stop that image from coming to pass. Whatever you meditate on will become the blueprint for your reality. Too often, though, Christians suffer from “stinking thinking.” They give the devil control of their minds by meditating on thoughts that do not line up with the Word of God. Then they reap the results of the curse because their carnal mindset produces the fruit of the flesh described in Galatians 5:19-21.

To keep the devil from gaining a foothold in your life, you must develop a sound mind that is completely controlled and directed by the Holy Spirit. In other words, you must renew your mind with the Word of God. Romans 12:2 says, “And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” When you become born again, your spirit instantly changes; you are recreated in Christ Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:17). Yet your mind is not recreated. You must conform your thinking continually and on purpose; it is not an overnight, one-time event. Renewing your mind to God’s Word every day is vital. By reading the Scriptures and meditating on them thoroughly, your thinking will be transformed to line up with the mind of Christ. And when you have the mind of Christ, you can do anything!

When you set your mind on the Word of God, you’ll also experience soul prosperity and peace (3 John 2). The Bible says that the issues of life flow out of the heart (Proverbs 4:23). The word heart in this scripture actually refers to your soul–your mind, your will and your emotions. If you can control your mind, you can control your destiny. But it will take a quality decision on your part to dedicate your life to changing the way you think.
First Thessalonians 5:23 says, “And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” It is God’s will that your mind, will and emotions be whole, with nothing missing or broken. As a Believer, you can receive a sound mind (2 Timothy 1:7). It is then up to you to enforce and maintain soundness of mind by keeping your thoughts and imaginations in line with God and His Word (Isaiah 26:3).

When your mind is focused and directed by the Word, you will position yourself for success. You’ll have wisdom, discernment, insight and the ability to accomplish anything. A renewed, Word-controlled mind guarantees abundance and prosperity in every area of your life. Don’t let another day go by without a daily dose of meditation. Set your mind on the Word of God and let it become the focal point of your life and purpose!

Mind Management

by Bishop E. Earl Jenkins
“A man reaps what he sows.” Galatians 6:7 (NIV)

Managing your mind should be one of your top priorities. Your mind is like a computer, it only spits out the data you feed it. Winners work hard at investing the right material inside themselves. Dr. Hans Selye researched and popularized a tiny membrane in the back of our head known as the RAS: Reticular Activating System. Your RAS has a primary function: it moves you in the direction of your dominant thought at that moment. We naturally act on what fills our minds.

When we become preoccupied with a thought, eventually we want to act on it. This explains a lot of things – like why so many rapes happen after guys have watched pornography night after night. It also explains the huge amount of violence among young people between the ages of 12 and 24. By then the average young person has seen more than 4,000 murders on TV, not to mention video games. Indiana University School of Medicine studied how the images we see impact our brains. For instance, adolescents who’d a higher level of exposure to violence, had reduced levels of cognitive function. The more violence they saw the less thinking, learning, reasoning and emotional stamina they had. The garbage they fed their minds affected what came out. Their computer stored the wrong information – now they could only retrieve the wrong stuff.

The apostle Paul didn’t know about computers. But he knew about agriculture: “The one who sows to please his sinful nature, from that nature will reap destruction; the one who sows to please the Spirit, from the Spirit will reap eternal life” (Galatians 6:8 NIV). So, manage your mind!

What’s On Your Mind?

by Dr. Betty R. Price
But be transformed by the renewing of your mind.
–Romans 12:2

Your mind–the way you think–has a lot to do with the quality of your life.  Proverbs 23:7 says:  For as he thinks in his heart so is he. What you keep your mind on will determine whether you will be at peace or whether you will be full of anxiety in this troubled world.

Philippians 4:6-8 tell us:

Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God, [If you do what this verse says, then the next verse will come into play.] And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.  [And the way you keep from being anxious for nothing is by doing what verse 8 says.] 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 [constantly think] on these things.

So, what are you thinking about?  The word think means “to consider, reflect, reason and ponder.”  What we think is what we become. Where we have kept our minds is where we are.  Our thoughts shape our behavior. In other words, what we do is what we think.

William Barkley, a Christian writer, says:  “It is a law of life that if a man thinks on something often enough and long enough, he will come to the stage when he cannot stop thinking about it.  His thoughts will be quite literally in a groove out of which he cannot jerk them.”

How many people have gotten into bad situations because they just kept thinking and thinking and thinking about it until they found themselves in a mess. What are you thinking about? Are you thinking righteous or unrighteous thoughts?   Are you thinking:

(1) about the flesh and its lusts?  Are you thinking about gratifying the flesh through such things as pride, self, greed, pleasure, sex, angry exchanges, jealousies, envies, desires, and negative attitudes?

(2) about the lusts of the eyes through such things as immoral pornographic filth flaunted in magazines, films, books, television,  and  clothes that reveal too much of the body in a vulgar way?

(3) about the desire for recognition, honor, position, and power?  It is okay to want to be recognized, but not to the extent that you will do anything for recognition, to the extent of committing a sin or hurting someone in to get what you want.

A mind fixated on the world system and the flesh is what leads to anxiety, worry, emptiness, and restlessness.

Colossians 3:1-2 tells us:

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.

Setting your mind on things above means setting your mind on the things of God, and you find out about the things of God from His Word.  You have to take control of your mind and make it do what it should do by a determination of your will.  Your will is in the mind area.

Romans 12:1-2 tell us what to do with our minds and with our flesh.

I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your body a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God which is your reasonable service.

And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good, and acceptable and perfect will of God.

I know we can renew our minds, but we have to be forever thinking about God and His great love for mankind.  Because if you don’t, you will think more in line with the world than with the things of God.  You have to understand that the body always wants to gratify the flesh.  You have to train the body, make it do what your spirit wants, kill it, sacrifice it.  And sacrifice is not fun, but it is the joy of the Lord you want.

Ephesians 4:21-24 tells us to be renewed in the spirit of our mind. It is our responsibility to do something about our minds.  Once a person has been converted and becomes a new man, he is to focus his thoughts on God, as well as the good things of life.  We, as Believers, should never dwell on immoral, fleshly, worldly, selfish, sinful or evil thoughts.  Sinful and negative thoughts disrupt and destroy our peace.  The mind always goes down to the level of the flesh, but we have to control it because we live in the flesh and that is the thing we gravitate to.  And that is why we need to operate in the Word of God in order to control our thinking, which will control our flesh.

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.