“Submit yourselves, then, to God.
Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.”
James 4:7
True
spiritual warfare requires two components. We must resist the devil and we must
demolish strongholds. What does resisting the devil look like? The best example
of this is found in Luke 4:1-13. Jesus
was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. Three
times the devil tempted Jesus and three times Jesus resisted him. In each
situation Jesus resisted the devil with the Word of God! The Word of God is
your weapon in resisting the devil. That is why it is so important that we know
it and can quote it! Satan is no match
for the Word of God!
Luke 4:13
tells us, “When the devil had finished
all this tempting he left him until an opportune time.” If we resist the
devil, he will flee. However, if we do not demolish the strongholds, he WILL
return. Jesus expounds on this in Matthew 12:43-45:
“When an evil spirit comes out of a
man, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. Then it
says, ‘I will return to the house I left.’ When it arrives, it finds the house
unoccupied, swept clean, and put in order. Then it goes and takes with it seven
other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the
final condition of that man is worse than the first. That is how it will be
with this wicked generation.”
The evil
spirit left the man, but eventually it came back only to find the house it once
lived in unoccupied, swept clean and put in order. The evil spirit came back
and found there was still a place for it to live in this man’s life. If we do
not dismantle the strongholds of wrong thinking that are protecting our wrong
behaviors, we are simply creating a place for the enemy to return to in our
lives.
To destroy
these strongholds we must renew our minds:
“Do not conform any longer to the pattern of
this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be
able to test and approve what God’s will is- his good, pleasing and perfect
will.”
Romans
12:2
“Finally, brothers, whatever is true,
whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely,
whatever is admirable- if anything is excellent or praiseworthy-think about
such things.”
Paul
understood the only way to destroy wrong thinking was to fill your mind with
what is right! As we fill our minds with the Word of God and the knowledge of Christ; the grip of wrong
thinking will be weakened and soon those strongholds will be demolished.
Pastor Scott
Burr
http://faithandworshipseries.blogspot.com/
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