Tag: Breaking Down Strongholds

¹ I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. ² Every branch in me that does not bear fruit He takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit. ³ Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. ⁴ Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. ⁵ I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. ~ John 15:1-5

The bottom in Jesus’ discourse is to abide and “Bear Fruit.” Jesus said that He, Himself was the Vine, and we are the branches. Jesus doesn’t just use any old frivolous analogy here to describe His relationship with us, and ours with Him, and the Father’s obligations in the whole plan of fruit-bearing.

Let me describe the vine for you. The grapevine has a trunk that comes up out of the ground, and then there are two arms of the vine stretching out on each side called canes—a perfect picture of the Crucified Messiah.

Now from the two arms, several shoots grow vertically. Those shoots are the branches that are us, the Christians, the Body of Christ. The growing upwards is a perfect picture of our relationship that we have with Jesus. Our relationship with Him is a vertical one. Our prayers, our intercessions, our requests, they all go upward to Jesus. We even raise our hands upward in worship.

Leaves and grapes only grow from new shoots each year. Therefore, all of the old shoots are cut off and thrown away. This a very good example of the lesson that we cannot live in yesterday’s glory or survive on yesterday’s miracles. We have to keep seeking more. Jesus encouraged His disciples (and us) by telling them that they would do greater things than even He did. Time is so short we can’t afford to dwell in past miracles as if God has stopped working. God is the God of new things. His desire is to continuously do new things in your life until you have become perfected in Christ Jesus.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Seek New Miracles.

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¹ Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, ² looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. ~ Hebrews 12:1-2

Your best life is ahead of you, not behind you, so don’t look back, keep looking forward. Living in the past or yearning for the past disrupts your future. God has something better for you, but longing for familiarity, disobedience, and fear can disrupt this future.

There is a little phrase that plagues the whole human race, and that is “What if….” It’s so popular that Matthew West has a song called “What If.” What if I can’t? What if they laugh? What if I look foolish? What if I fail? What if… What if…

You cannot get to where God has for you if you are constantly looking backward. Stop thinking about the wrong decisions you have made in life. You can’t change them. Start thinking about the right decisions that you will make in your future. The past is dead and gone; the future is bright and promising in the LORD.

Here is the thing, if you try walking looking behind you, you cannot walk a straight line. You will stray. You will swerve off. Now look forward at a specific point and walk toward that point; you will be able to walk a straight line.

The bottom line is: As Christians, under no circumstances, are we to look back longingly. Under no circumstances are we to stop regretfully! We are to keep moving forward, not backward, but forward toward the prize that is before us. God has greater things than we can imagine in store for us; run toward those things. Now is not the time for stopping and resting. Now is the time for fighting for and running toward the prize.

LORD God, help me to run the race set before me. Help me to look forward instead of backward so that I might run a straight line to You. Please help me to give You my past so that I can receive my present and, one day, my future. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.

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¹³ Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead, ¹⁴ I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. ¹⁵ Let those of us who are mature think this way, and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal that also to you. ¹⁶ Only let us hold true to what we have attained. ~ Philippians 3:13–16

Paul said, this one thing I do: I am forgetting everything that has happened to me. All my missed opportunities. All my failures. All my broken dreams. All my hurts. All my pain. All the bad things that have happened to me. Every disappointment. And every teardrop that fell. I’m forgetting all those things, and I’m pressing on to the good things that God has ahead for me. I’m looking forward, not backward.

Is there anything in your past that is worth holding on to? What I mean is this. Is there anything in your past that is worth more than what God has in front of you? What He has in store for us in eternity? I understand that there are some hurts that seem hard to let go of. Maybe a nagging pain when the face of that someone who has done you wrong came into your mind. Or maybe you endured a painful divorce. Or maybe someone willfully slandered you. Maybe someone you cared for betrayed your trust. Or your promotion went to someone way less deserving.

But I want you to know it is not worth holding on to. Now what I want you to do is to symbolically take those thoughts out of your head and crush them. Roll them up in a wad and toss them to one side. Do not look at where it lands because where it lands is where it will stay, and the Holy Spirit will clean up the rest.

You are now forgetting that which is behind you, and you are now looking forward to what is ahead of you. Good things. Bright things. God-centered things.

I want you to make a commitment now that your past will no longer define who you are in Christ. No longer will your past keep you from achieving. No longer will past failures keep you from trying. No longer will the taunts of your past depress you. No longer will whisperings behind your back sidetrack you. No longer will someone else’s carelessly thrown words knock you down. No longer will fear and doubt paralyze you. No longer will popular culture hold you back. No longer will criticisms trip you up. No longer will someone else’s image of you define who you are.

Because no longer will you put the power over your joy, your peace, your life in someone else’s hands. No longer will you let someone else have that kind of power over you to determine these for you. You are a child of God, and it is God who defines who you are. You are blessed and highly favored. God is for you, and He worketh all things to your good. This will be your best year yet. Believe it. Live it.

LORD God, my past is holding me back, so I give it to You. I understand that I can’t receive the good future. You have in store for me if I’m holding on to my past. Help me to not just say I give You my past, but show me how to actually lay it at Your feet. Show me how to move forward, LORD God. I don’t want to live in the past anymore. I want to live in Your perfect and holy will for my life. Help me to do so. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.

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³³ When a man opens a pit, or when a man digs a pit and does not cover it, and an ox or a donkey falls into it, ³⁴ the owner of the pit shall make restoration. He shall give money to its owner, and the dead beast shall be his. ~ Exodus 21:33-34

From the days of the Law of Moses, the LORD never allowed any wiggle room for the enemy to take away from His people without a way for restoration for His people. This wasn’t something as significant as a house, or land, or family member; this was just an animal. During a time that grace and mercy didn’t abound, God still made sure to put insurance, if you will, on His people and all that His people own. Why? Because God knows that the enemy is the most crafty of all, the Beast of the Field, and he will find a way to corrupt the children of God and/or take away their blessings from God. He’ll find any loophole he can, just as he did with Eve in the Garden of Eden.

If God believed it was important for His people to have restoration for an animal that fell into a pit, how much more will He make restoration for His people that fall into pits? The Devil sets out traps for us to fall into. And when we don’t stumble into those traps, he uses pits that our fellow neighbor dug that weren’t intended for us to fall into. He uses whatever he can get his hands on, but even if we have fallen into a pit or our children have fallen into a pit, it’s not too late. There is restoration for what we have lost. And what we have lost will no longer be counted as ours, but it will be counted as the enemy’s.

Take a moment and write down all that the enemy has stolen from you by trapping you in a pit.

Missed God-given dreams? Why? What was the pit? Was it fear? Was it laziness? Was it distractions?

Estranged Family? Why? What was the pit? Pride? Harsh words? Unforgiveness? Anger?

Whatever the enemy has taken from you and is seemingly killed in that pit, write it down, along with the pit, and bring it to the LORD in prayer. No one could get restoration unless they brought the claim to the judge. We have the chief Judge abiding in us. Don’t just assume that because it’s a promise, the LORD will fulfill it. Write the claim, bring it before the LORD, then claim the promise of restoration.

Don’t allow the pits to keep your dead animal; present that dead animal to the LORD along with the pit so that He might take the dead animal, give it to the enemy and give you restoration. When you receive restoration, take note of that pit so that you may never fall into it again.

LORD God, please open my eyes to the pits that have taken my dreams, goals, call, jobs, promotions, relationships, and blessings. Show me all that I’ve lost to these pits, not so that I can be caught up in the past, but so that I might present them to You for restoration. Teach me how to bring my claim before Your Holy Throne in the Courts of Heaven so that I might receive my promise of restoration. Help me to never accept the pits I fall into, but instead, help me get out of those pits and become aware of each pit that tries to entrap me so that I never fall into them again. Thank you for all that You’ve done and all that you are going to do in my life. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.

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³ Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, ⁴ not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. ~ Philippians 2:3–4

Looking out for others’ interests over our own interests is easier said than done. We see people as selfish and self-pleasing, trampling on us to get what they want with no remorse or apologies. So, it’s difficult to value those types of people above our own selves. After all, they don’t value us at all. It’s not fair.

Well, it was not fair that Jesus had to come and die such a horrific death in order to save us. It is not about being fair; as someone once said, “Life is not fair.” We do not do it to be fair. We do it because we are commanded to, and if we are obedient, we will gain a great reward. Why suffer for all eternity because we refuse to humble ourselves when if we humble now, we will be free for all eternity? The tradeoff is no comparison.

Is it easy? No, but if we make this a matter of priority and a matter of prayer, it will become easy and will become second nature. As Confucius once said, “A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step.” Take it one step at a time. Take it one person at a time, but take the first step and not look back, but pray for strength.

Do not just read devotionals like these or listen to messages like this and think, “Ah, that was good,” but not put it into action. If you would only put things like this into action, you would grow in Christ.

So, this New Year, make it your resolution to grow in Christ. Grow in the things of God, and draw closer to Him every day, so that we will build up treasure in heaven.

Heavenly Father, strengthen us and give us the desire to draw close to You, even if it means we are humiliated because we value others higher than ourselves, even those who place no value on us at all. Help us to bear hardships and trials with the hope of spending eternity with You. In Jesus’ Name, amen.

Scripture Reading

³ Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, ⁴ not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others. ⁵ In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus: ⁶ Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to His own advantage; ⁷ rather, He made Himself nothing by taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness. ⁸ And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to death—even death on a cross!

Philippians 2:3–8

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²⁴ Then Jesus told His disciples, “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.” ~ Matthew 16:24

The phrase “dying to self” may not actually be explicitly mentioned in the Scriptures, but it is without a doubt alluded to as a theme throughout the New Testament. It is splashed across the pages printed in both Red Ink and in Black Ink. It is this very thing Jesus was speaking of when He said to deny yourself and pick up your cross and follow Him.

It is not a very popular theme because it does very little to generate shouts and amens and does even less to fill the church coffers. It is a hard teaching to implement when we live in a me, me, me generation. From ads to even the churches promote that sort of thinking. There was a time when the Church almost fell into error with the name it and claim it gospel. Now, please don’t misunderstand me. I’m not against the prosperity teaching. I believe God wants us to prosper and be in good health, but it’s only as our souls prosper.

God is more concerned about our souls prospering than for us to be rolling in the dough. Jesus, Himself did not shrink from self-denial, for He Himself took up His cross and was obedient even unto death. If you are going to see great miracles, you must die to self. Meaning you no longer do what pleases you but what pleases God.

It is not that miracles have ended when the last Apostle died, but rather, self-denial ended when the last Apostle died. Christians no longer pray through the night. They no longer pray, period, because they have become way too busy. There is work. There is family life. And then there is, of course, football, basketball, and hockey. We can’t do without our sports. We are a sports family, and Jesus would never want me to miss the big game.

Jesus is, in fact, saying, “Deny yourself, pick up your cross, and follow me. Because I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life, and no one comes to Father except by Me.” Now, with that said, how can we not but implement this dying-to-self concept into our lives? We must stop doing what is self-pleasing because it is self-pleasing and be God pleasers because it pleases God, whom we must all stand before, and who will either pardon or condemn.

Father, please help us to be self-deniers and to pick up our cross and follow You. Give us the strength to do want pleasers You and shrink from what is self-pleasing. In Jesus’ name, we pray, amen.

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⁶ For the people of Israel walked forty years in the wilderness, until all the nation, the men of war who came out of Egypt, perished, because they did not obey the voice of the Lord; the Lord swore to them that He would not let them see the land that the Lord had sworn to their fathers to give to us, a land flowing with milk and honey. ~ Joshua 5:6

Each and every year, time seems to speed up. Days and nights are getting shorter and shorter. And tonight, at the stroke of midnight, the year will be over, and a new one will begin. If you were to look back at this year in great detail, would you be proud of your actions? Did you achieve your goals? Did you accomplish any of your New Year’s Resolutions? So many of us didn’t do all we had planned to do at the beginning of this year. This was the year so many of us, including myself, said things would be different, but the strongholds of the previous years still have a grip on us. Why?

I believe it’s because we never address the root of our strongholds that keep us from moving forward. So many of us try to put a band-aid over our deep wounds instead of tending to the wound directly. Some of us have spirits of rejection, fear, shame, rebellion, and guilt that keep us from our God-given call. The Israelites were in physical bondage for 400 years. When they were set free from this physical slavery, they walked into physical freedom, still spiritually enslaved. The Israelites were physically free, but they were still in spiritual bondage. Their bondage, their root stronghold, was fear, which was probably even more rooted in rejection.

They were the chosen people, yet they felt rejected by their God, whom they felt had rejected them. This spirit of rejection led to the spirit of fear. Fear caused the Israelites to not only fall back into the slavery of idolatry but also to physically miss out on their promised land. We can only go around the mountain so many times before we run out of time. What if this was your last chance to stop going around the mountain? What if this was your last year to have the opportunity to enter into your promised land? I challenge each and every one of you to look deep within yourself and ask, what’s your root stronghold? What caused it? Then I want you to give it to God. I know that sounds cliché, but it’s our promise from Almighty God that whom the Son sets free is free indeed. Therefore, go to the LORD in prayer. Bring an offering of fasting at His feet so that when this new year comes to an end, you won’t look the same. Instead, you will be entering or have entered your promised land.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Find Out What’s Keeping You Around The Mountain.

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