Category: Breaking Down Strongholds

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Pray For Your Persecutors

23  A prudent man conceals knowledge, but the heart of fools proclaims folly. ~ Proverbs 12:23

Posting videos online comes with people hating you for absolutely no reason other than they ultimately hate God but can’t get to Him, so you’re the next best thing. We recently got a span of sixteen hateful comments from two random people (hiding behind fake names) having a conversation about how much they hate “Christ-tards” and our God. One explained that God had to be evil to create something as cruel as winter because only the rich can enjoy it, and the poor homeless people suffer. The absurdity of the messages just kind of blew my mind. How silly they sounded while thinking they were wise and enlightened beyond their years. The other made claims of how evil God is and how God Himself claims to create evil in the Bible.

These kinds of comments no longer anger me but genuinely confuse me. If you hate a religion or group of people that much, why are you watching their videos and going out of your way to let them know you hate them and their God (which, by the way, they claim they don’t believe in)? It makes no sense. There’s no reasoning in it. But that’s what happens when you allow hatred and ignorance to consume you.

Hatred is blinding and numbing. It blinds you to the Truth so that you can dwell in the lies that stir and flame the hatred within you, so you never truly realize you are even ignorant in the first place. When hatred gets a hold of you, there’s little wisdom and understanding can do to help. Now, it’s up to the LORD to change your heart. It’s up to the LORD to soften your heart, but He’ll never do it against your will. He will never do it unless you want to know the Truth and not your own twisted version of it.

What a slippery slope hatred is. One that leads to death. One that few are able to return from. Debate and Truth cannot help alone, but coupled with prayer and faith, anything is possible. That is why we love those who hate us and pray for those who persecute us, and we bless those who curse us. We do not return railing for railing, but instead we turn the other cheek, and we love, even when it’s difficult and feels impossible, we love.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Pray For Your Persecutors.

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Prepare Today For Tomorrow

[33] I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world. ~ John 16:33

When I was a child, one of my favorite movies was Matilda. As I get older, the more I liked the musical version of Matilda, as well. In it is a song called, “When I Grow up.” In the song, all the children sing about how easier life will be when they grow up.

They’ll be tall enough to reach the branches you can’t as children. Smart enough to answer questions you need to know the answers to before you’re grown up. Strong enough to carry all the heavy things. Brave enough to fight the creatures that you have to fight beneath the bed each night to be a grown up.

This to such a sad song when I think about it. The world only gets harder as time goes on, as you get older. There’s never a point in time that we suddenly have no more cares of worries in the world. These children’s outlook on adulthood is very much like One new Christian’s ideas of Christianity, like somehow being saved will stop and end all troubles. An unrealistic and unbiblical outlook of life.

Just like adulthood, a Christian, especially a seasoned Christian, faces challenges that are difficult. That don’t necessarily have a clear answer. That take a lot of hard work and effort. That you don’t just wake up and know one day. Challenges and obstacles that take practice and preparation, time and building in order to overcome.

You’ll never just wake up are day and be good enough. You have to work at it duly Grow Train up yourself. Prepare before the obstacle comes.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Prepare Today For Tomorrow.

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Let Pain Go

Luke 2:10-11

[10] And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. [11] For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”

Every year we watch “How The Grinch Stole Christmas” but my nieces prefer the newer animated Grinch, so that has been added to our yearly watch list. One thing I’ve noticed in the movie is a recurring theme, “rejection will consume and destroy you, if you let it.”

See, from childhood the Grinch was rejected and because of that he rejected others first in order to never be rejected again. And because he lived right outside of Whoville, he hated Christmas the most because that is when the whiskey came together as one people and celebrated what he never had, family and loved ones. The community coming together as one brought back all the pain from childhood, because he never let the wound heal.

If we allow pain to consume us, we will remain lonely and in pain. That will be our oppressor. A hard slave master. Christmas should be a time of joy, thanksgiving, and celebration. A time we forgive and let go the pain of the past, be thankful for the present, and look forward to the future.

Don’t be like the Grinch bottling up all the pain and closing yourself off to the world. Instead, open yourself up to hope. The hope of salvation that isn’t possible without the birth of Christ, the reason for the season.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Let Pain Go.

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Crucify The Flesh

24 Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. 25 Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. 26 Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other (Galatians 5:24–26).

Paul writes, “Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.” The word Paul uses for crucified literally means “they crucified”—an aorist active indicative verb. The aorist tense points to a decisive action completed in the past. Paul is not issuing a command here, but stating a fact: those who belong to Christ Jesus have already broken decisively with their old way of life.

If something has been put to death, it no longer has a rightful place among the living. So when any of the acts of the flesh listed in Galatians 5:19–21—or anything like them—try to rise up within you, you resist them as you would resist a clearly destructive impulse. When someone cuts you off in traffic, you do not give in to anger. When thoughts of sexual immorality attempt to enter your mind, you refuse them. They are not your thoughts, and you give them no room to grow. As you deny them nourishment, they weaken over time. Instead of feeding the impulses of the flesh, you feed the fruit of the Spirit—because whatever you feed becomes the stronger influence in your life.

But notice that Paul does not simply say we “put the flesh to death”; he says we have crucified it. Crucifixion is not instantaneous. It is slow, painful, and drawn out. Paul’s imagery reminds us that although the decisive break with the flesh has already occurred, the struggle between flesh and Spirit continues. Therefore, we do not take the flesh off the cross. We leave it there, giving it no leeway, no voice, and no authority. Anything that rises up against the Spirit is to be nailed back to the cross. Its influence diminishes over time, but we must remain watchful and Spirit-led.

So understand that Paul’s statement is both reassuring and sobering. It reassures us that the decisive work has already been done—we belong to Christ, and our old way of life has been nailed to the cross. And it soberly calls us to keep in step with the Spirit, refusing the works of the flesh: sexual immorality, impurity, debauchery, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and anything like them. As we walk by the Spirit, the life of Christ grows stronger within us.

Our Heavenly Father, we pray for strength to resist the devil so that he might flee, and for the will to do Your will and be obedient to Your commands. Grant us favor and prosperity in our Christian walk, in Jesus’ Name, I pray, amen.

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Live Your Unique Life

[20] And he said, “What comes out of a person is what defiles him. [21] For from within, out of the heart of man, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, [22] coveting, wickedness, deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, foolishness. [23] All these evil things come from within, and they defile a person.” ~ Mark 7:20-23

I recently had a conversation with someone who uses Revelation 2 & 3 to defend his belief that the Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews are not the true Jews/Israelites. After going back and forth for a bit, I asked him why he had no problem with the Mizrahi Jews but only with the Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews. His response? The Ashkenazi Jews go around claiming to be Jews wearing their yamakas and believe they are God’s chosen people. It finally made sense to me.

It wasn’t about race or who the true Jews are or anything like that. It was about the fact that they know who they are and are proud of it. Proud of their heritage, culture, religion, and history, whereas he is not.

So often, our hatred, skepticism, criticism, and accusations are rooted in one thing. Envy. Envy, unlike jealousy (in my opinion), is rooted in wanting what you don’t have and what does not belong to you. Jealousy, on the other hand, is seeing what is yours and what belongs to you being taken away by someone or something else. It’s the desire to keep what is yours yours. One is rooted in self-doubt and often times, self-hatred. The other is rooted in the love you have for another.

When you hate someone and speak all manner of evil about them, take a moment and ask yourself why. Why do you have such a strong distain for them? Is it because they are deserving of this distain (in man’s eyes) or is it because you envy the life they have? The life you desire for yourself?

Often times, our own hatred is a projection of how we feel about ourselves. God made each and every one of us unique with a special purpose. If we focus all of our energy on others, we’ll end up missing our own call. Our own path. Our own destiny. God is no respecter of persons. In other words, He has no favorites. He is only looking for one thing. A willing heart.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Live Your Unique Life.

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Watch Your Intellect

5 Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. 6 In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make straight your paths. 7 Be not wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord, and turn away from evil. 8 It will be healing to your flesh and refreshment to your bones. ~ Proverbs 3:5-8

Something I’ve noticed and been thinking more and more about recently, is that the more book smart someone is, the more they seem to struggle with understanding the Bible and who God is. I guess sometimes God doesn’t fit our logic. Well, I think a lot of the time, He doesn’t. God does things that we just don’t understand. He does things we disagree with. And what I’ve been really noticing is the smarter someone is, the harder it is for them to fully trust God at His Word, so they use their own logic and their own understanding.

Learning and growing intellectually is important but never let that get to your head. Never let it blind you from seeing the Truth of who God is. Never let it create your own truth. It’s very easy to put your own ideas in the Bible. Here’s what I mean. It’s very easy to twist Scripture to make it say what you want, especially when you are very smart. It’s also very easy to believe that what you have twisted and misinterpreted is correct and truth.

So, what should we do? Stop seeking intellectualism? No. We should always seek to become more knowledgeable, but we should always make sure that our source for understanding is God and not our own wisdom. For the foolishness of God is greater than the wisdom of man. So, don’t think more of yourself than you ought, always humble yourself before God seeking His Truth and not your own. Seeking His wisdom and not your own. That is the only way we can walk a straight path back to Him.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Watch Your Intellect.

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Check Your Heart’s Abundance

[23] Keep your heart with all vigilance, for from it flow the springs of life. ~ Proverbs 4:23

So, there’s no secret I like movies and tv shows, and there’s also no secret that I see the bible in almost everything (if not everything) I watch. Now, one that I genuinely really enjoy is The Hobbit trilogy. Within The Hobbit is a main character named Thorin Oakenshield. Throughout the movies, Thorin is on a quest to return to and reclaim the Lonely Mountain, the home of his fathers.

Now, throughout the movies Thorin is loyal, honorable, and brave. BUT he is also angry, prideful, and worst of all unforgiving. He is haunted and bound by the pain and wrong doings of the past. Now, even though he faces obstacle after obstacle and is captured time after time, Thorin is able to fulfill his quest and reclaim the home of his fathers. Here’s the thing though, the sins of his fathers takes hold of him and ultimately proves to not only be his downfall but his complete and utter demise.

See, his grandfather lost the kingdom because of his love of gold and when Thorin inherited that same gold, he also inherited that same spirit of Mammon. This one fatal flaw of the love of money caused him to lose those three good traits he had previously. Why? Because when we try to focus all of our energy on the past, the past and all of its woes will consume us. Just as Thorin did, you’ll find yourself succumbing to generational curses that should have been broken, and your faint bit of light will found to be dwindling in the darkness as it consumes you.

What should have been a happy and victorious ending with great rejoicing turned to be a sad and disappointing end because one man refused to look forward allowing pride, anger, and unforgiveness consume him.

Our heart controls our actions. It’s the source of all we say and do. What is your heart full of? What It’s full of and what is focus is will be what your destiny is.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Check Your Heart’s Abundance. 

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Be Armed

[14]  Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? [15] What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an unbeliever? [16] What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God said, “I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. [17] Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord, and touch no unclean thing; then I will welcome you, [18]  and I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty.” ~ 2 Corinthians 6:14-18

I had a dream last night that I was walking from the living room to the stairs and the front door was wide open. I slowly walked to it and looked out. There was no one outside. Just a plastic bag blowing in the wind as it rained, yet I got this scared eerie feeling come over me. So I closed the door and crept up the stairs where I saw one other person in my home. He was keeping very low to the ground and told me he was the only one. He then handed me a box of tissues as a weapon. I thought immediately, no I need the BB gun in my side dresser. As I walked back down the stairs to find a better weapon, I woke up.

My home was in danger because the door was left unlocked and there were no defensive weapons in the home to get to. Each and every one of us is a home. A spiritual home. It’s where the Spirit of the LORD, God Himself wants to dwell, but He will never break in and force you. However, the enemy will always find a foothold.

We have to be on guard at all times. What we watch, listen to, thoughts we entertain, words that come out of our mouths, and the actions we make when we think no one’s watching. The enemy doesn’t need a formal invitation or any invitation for that matter in order to enter into your life and cause havoc. He just needs you to forget to lock the door or window. Forget to bring in the key. Forget to have your spiritual weapons on you at all times so that you might fight off his attacks.

We are to be on guard. Our enemy is not defeated to us. He is a roaring lion seeking someone to devour. Seeking someone to overcome. To destroy. To enslave. We, as Christians, are not immune to his attacks. On the contrary. His attacks are aimed at us with such force, that the majority of us are bound up.

The Church has just as much divorce, depression, adultery, fornication, lust, sexual immorality, hatred, and anger as the world. In fact, we can no longer even differentiate between the world and the Church. How can we say our enemy is defeated? We are under attack and the only weapon we’ve grabbed is a box of tissues. We need to pick up our Sword of the Spirit. We need to pick up our Shield of Faith and fight back against the enemy, instead of living our lives in a false security based on the lie that because I am saved, the enemy cannot do anything to me.

We can be saved and still open doors for the enemy to attack. We can be saved and still have our lives taken from us too soon, before our time. We can be saved and still have strongholds in our lives. These are not conflicting statements, that’s why the Church looks just like the world. Because we don’t address or tear down strongholds that open doors in our lives for the enemy to wreak havoc on us, in us, and through us.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Be Armed.

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Hunger For Meat

2 It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, But the glory of kings is to search out a matter. ~ Proverbs 25:2 NKJV

God has hidden, or has concealed matters, or prophecies pertaining to His people and to His Church, and it is our responsibility to search out those matters. Or surround ourselves with those who can. And those who do. And those who teach such things

The Word of God isn’t for us to write off and say “Well, we’ll never really know.” That’s the response of someone who has been shown the Truth but it contradicts their idea of truth.

And that day, when we all stand before the Great White Throne and we give an account of our lives, including our beliefs. Including how we studied the Bible. How we influenced and taught others. Do you think the LORD will be understanding and overlook you refusing to see the Truth and making excuses for your false beliefs? No.

He has sent us His Holy Spirit. He gives wisdom and understanding freely to anyone who asks. We have no excuse for refusing to believe the Truth the LORD has authored in His Bible. Therefore, lay down your own ideas, feelings, desires, and beliefs at the altar and sacrifice them to the LORD so that He might show ypu the Truth. So that you might grow in wisdom and understanding.

Don’t allow pride to keep you from growing in your faith. We aren’t intended to remain on one level of knowledge and understanding. We are to go from milk to meat. If we refuse to seek out and accept the Truth, we will never taste meat.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Hunger For Meat.

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Decide Which Treasure You Want

[19]  Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, [20] but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. [21] For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also. ~ Matthew 6:19-21

Recently saw an interview with an older gentleman who explained that back in the day, when he would get a paycheck, he’d pay rent 6 or more months in advance. Why? Just in case if he couldn’t book the same amount of jobs, and his money was low, he at least had a place to sleep. He wasn’t looking to spend his money on frivolous things, but on the essentials. He was looking ahead in life, making sure he always had a place to stay.

We are told to live like this man. To live with our eyes focused on storing up treasure in heaven so that we might have a home for us in eternity. Jesus tells us that how we spend our time on this earth will determine where we spend eternity. If we spend our lives storing up pointless treasures on this earth that we cannot take with us, then we will miss out on eternity with Christ. But when we spend our lives on this earth building up treasure in heaven, then we will spend eternity with Christ.

It’s about our heart. It’s about our desires and what is important to us. When our focus is eternity, we build the Kingdom of God. We win souls. We disciple souls. We make sure our loved ones know about Christ, that they’re ready. We spend time with Christ. We worship. We pray. We read our Bibles. We change. We become more Christ-like and put the things of God above the things of this world.

The Egyptians buried their Pharaohs with their treasures, even mummifying their animals in hopes of them being able to take their earthly treasures with them to the afterlife. But here’s the thing, these temporary treasures will never last. This world and this earth will pass away. If our main goal is money, we will perish with our money. If our main goal is Christ, we will live with Him forever and ever.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Decide Which Treasure You Want.

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