Tag: Breaking Down Strongholds

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Love Your Neighbor

14 When Abram heard that his relative had been taken captive, he called out the 318 trained men born in his household and went in pursuit as far as Dan. 15 During the night Abram divided his men to attack them and he routed them, pursuing them as far as Hobah, north of Damascus. 16 He recovered all the goods and brought back his relative Lot and his possessions, together with the women and the other people. ~ Genesis 14:14-16NIV

Abram wasn’t in any danger. He was safe. His people were safe. His belongings were safe. He was flourishing. All was going well with him, but Lot had found himself taken by the enemy. See, Lot settled in a wicked land. Sodom constantly did what was evil before the eyes of the LORD, but Lot, according to 2 Peter 2:7, was righteous, and his soul, tormented by the wickedness surrounding him, became a victim of that wickedness. So, when Abram heard his nephew was taken, he gathered trained men to go with him to deliver Lot and all that was taken from him.

See, sometimes, as Christians, we go places that we really shouldn’t go. We go to places that have nothing for us. Places that only torment our souls. Places that we don’t belong. We aren’t influencing the community, but the community is affecting us. It’s spiritually attacking us. It’s spiritually oppressing us. It’s bringing us deeper and deeper into spiritual bondage that sometimes we aren’t even aware of.

When Abram, his uncle, saw this happen, he didn’t say Lot should’ve known better than to stay there. He didn’t say Lot got himself into this mess so he can get himself out of this mess. No. Abram not only went after Lot to rescue him Abram got 318 men that he knew were well-trained and that he trusted to help him rescue his nephew.

This is how we should be today. We need to be so prayed up, so in tune with the Spirit of God, that when He tells us someone we love has been spiritually captured by the enemy, we’ll go after them. We’ll do anything it takes to get them, and all the enemy took back from the enemy. We have to be willing to admit that this isn’t something we can do alone, so we reach out for help. Not help from people who don’t know how to spiritually fight but trained seasoned warriors of God. People who have spiritually trained for battle with the enemy through continuous praying, fasting, and worship.

Oftentimes, it’s easier to just say, “They should’ve known better,” and move on, but this isn’t the will of God. We all fall at some point in time. We all make mistakes. We all go places that we shouldn’t go. And when we do, wouldn’t you want someone to come to your rescue? Jesus said to treat others how you want to be treated. Solomon said cast your bread upon the water, and it will return to you in many days. How we treat others and judge others will be how we are treated and judged. Therefore, always act from a place of love, for the entire Law is founded on loving God and loving your neighbor.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Love Your Neighbor.

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A Pleasing Aroma

7 Aaron must burn fragrant incense on the altar every morning when he tends the lamps. 8 He must burn incense again when he lights the lamps at twilight so incense will burn regularly before the Lord for the generations to come. ~ Exodus 30:7-8NIV

Throughout his letters to the different churches, Paul references fragrant offerings and pleasing aromas to God. Except, in these cases, he’s not talking about burning physical incense but spiritual incense. How do we do that? Paul explains that we achieve this through our actions.

One instance in particular, Paul says that we are to love others in the same way Christ loved us and gave Himself up for us. This one caught my eye because this isn’t an easy task Paul is calling us to. It’s a difficult task when we really put it into perspective. See, Jesus took verbal abuse and accusations constantly by the very ones He came to save. He didn’t just condemn them to Hell and turn His back on them, though He’d be justified if He had. Instead, Jesus loved them. He taught them. He answered their questions and accusations with wisdom from His Heavenly Father and Holy Spirit. Even while on the cross, having just been beaten almost to death and now being mocked and berated, Jesus still chose love by praying for their forgiveness.

I want you to remember that while on earth, Jesus was still God but didn’t use that to His advantage (Philippians 2:5-8). So, He had to fight the fleshly desire to return evil with evil (Hebrews 4:15). Because Jesus overcame His earthly desires, we can overcome them as well when we go through Him (John 16:33, Romans 8:37, Philippians 4:13).

See, every act of love is a sacrifice to God because you have to crucify your flesh in order to succeed. You have to deny your own feelings, emotions, and pain in order to truly love people. Why? Because people aren’t perfect. We make mistakes. We lash out. We ridicule and mock. Hurt people, hurt people. And we’re all hurt in some form or another. But through Jesus, we can overcome evil with good.

From morning to morning and from night to night, let go of any hurt or pain you have from someone in your past doing you wrong. Let it go as it happens. Don’t hold on to it. Let a pleasing aroma of love be sacrificed on the altar of incense before the LORD, burning always through your actions of love. Because the more we love, the more God can use us. Therefore, let Him use you to be a pleasing aroma to the world. To be a light in this here present darkness. For they will know us by our love.

Dear Heavenly Father, help me to be a pleasing aroma to You. Help me to let go of the past and the hurts and pains of yesterday so that I might walk in love. So that I might be a reflection of You to the world. Help me not to be held down and tormented within my own soul by another’s actions. Help me to only be affected by You and Your love towards me, for I am perfected in Your perfect love. Please fill me with Your peace and cleanse me from all unrighteousness. Help me to follow You all the days of my life. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.

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Focus On Your Call

1 At that time, Judah left his brothers and went down to stay with a man of Adullam named Hirah. ~ Genesis 38:1NIV

Judah’s envy of his brother Joseph led him to sin against him. It was Judah who convinced his brothers to sell him into slavery. Now, after seeing the effect it had on his father, he left his brothers and went to stay with a friend in another city. See, envy will lead us to do evil and wicked things. It’ll convince us to sin against another person at all costs in order to achieve whatever it is saying that person has that we want. The problem is that you’ll never be happy. Joseph was gone, yet Judah wasn’t loved by his father more. In fact, he was loved by his father even less. He refused to be comforted. He went into a deep depression that no one could rescue him from. Now that envy had taken so much from him, it quieted and made room for shame to enter and take what was left of him. His family.

Just as Joseph wasn’t with his father all of those years, neither was Judah. Judah stayed in Chezib until his children were grown and could have children. He most likely never left until he had to because of the severity of the famine. That which he took from Joseph was also taken from him. He reaped what he sowed almost immediately. This wasn’t the outcome that he expected.

Envy will lie and deceive and egg you on all in order to convince you to ruin yourself by trying to ruin someone else. God has called each one of us to a specific purpose. We’re all loved and treasured by Him. Your call on your life isn’t the same as someone else’s call on their life. If Judah knew that the Messiah, God Himself, would one day come through His line, I highly doubt that he would’ve been so envious of Joseph being his father’s favorite. We never know what God has in store for us, so we have to be careful not to focus on others. We have to simply focus on our own call from God.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Focus On Your Call.

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Do Hard Things

12 The two men said to Lot, “Do you have anyone else here—sons-in-law, sons or daughters, or anyone else in the city who belongs to you? Get them out of here, 13 because we are going to destroy this place. The outcry to the Lord against its people is so great that he has sent us to destroy it.” 14 So Lot went out and spoke to his sons-in-law, who were pledged to marry his daughters. He said, “Hurry and get out of this place, because the Lord is about to destroy the city!” But his sons-in-law thought he was joking. ~ Genesis 19:12-14NIV

When you constantly dwell amongst wickedness, wickedness slowly finds a way into your life. Lot was a righteous man, yet he chose two unrighteous men to marry his two daughters. They weren’t upstanding men of God. They were amongst the men banging on Lot’s door in order to rape the two angels that came in human form to destroy the city.

Today, we are no different. We are like Lot, living in a wicked and evil world. Sin is everywhere, from porn being passed as adult entertainment to demonic symbolism, teachings, and plots being passed as children’s entertainment. Everything around us is saturated in debauchery and idolatry. Yet, we must live in the world but not be a part of the world.

We have to raise our children knowing the difference between right and wrong. Good and Evil. Sin and righteousness. We have to raise them up in the way they should go so that when they are old, they may not stray from it. We have to make sure that we aren’t allowing the world to influence them but the things of God. That we aren’t bringing in and introducing wickedness into their lives because of convenience or lack of understanding. We have to make sure that we are immersed in the Word of God so that we can influence the world around us and not the other way around.

Lot could have sent to get good, righteous men for his daughters, like Abraham did with Isaac. Instead, Lot’s daughters were betrothed to men who were a part of the wickedness that drenched Sodom. Never allow convenience and ease to influence your discernment of right and wrong. The right thing to do is usually never the easy thing to do, but it is always the only way to please God. Therefore, you must pick up your cross and follow Jesus in every aspect of your life, lest you be influenced by the world and miss out on eternity with Him.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Do Hard Things.

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A Root of Unanswered Prayers

8 The Lord is merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love. 9 He will not always chide, nor will He keep His anger forever. 10 He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities. 11 For as high as the heavens are above the earth, so great is His steadfast love toward those who fear Him; 12 as far as the east is from the west, so far does He remove our transgressions from us. 13 As a father shows compassion to His children, so the Lord shows compassion to those who fear Him. 14 For He knows our frame; He remembers that we are dust. ~ Psalms 103:8-14

This Psalm states that the LORD is a merciful and gracious God, abounding in steadfast love. He is not willing that any should perish, so much so that He does not deal with us according to our sins, nor repay us according to our iniquities, but has great compassion for us.

He wants us to all come to repentance and forsake our sins, and leave off our iniquities, not keep them hidden as secret sins. If we do that and keep our sins hidden, how can we find forgiveness? Not only that, but it could cause us not to be heard by God.

Ever wonder why your prayers are not being answered in a timely manner? The short answer is possible secret sins. How did I come to this conclusion? The Psalmist is saying that if he saw iniquity in his own heart and did nothing about it, it would hinder his prayers, but because he did not do that, he cleared his conscience before God, and therefore, God listened to his prayer and answered him. And that is true of all of us.

Maybe, we don’t see more of our prayers answered because of secret sins. Maybe the answer is we have cherished iniquity in our own hearts. In other words, we have entertained sins that we should be casting out and building up strongholds we should be tearing down. We are to do what Paul wrote in 2 Corinthians 10:5, “…take every thought captive to obey Christ.”

Dear LORD, please help me to tear down every stronghold. Help me to remove every secret sin from my life. Help me to remain in Your love. Teach me to overcome evil with good. Strengthen me to cast down every evil and wicked thought that enters my mind. Teach me to walk in Your ways and cling to Your Word. Help me to run the race set before me with great endurance so that I might finish strong. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.

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Fighting The Stress

8 Finally, brothers and sisters, 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. ~ Philippians 4:8

Paul told us to renew our minds and focus on things that are admirable, praiseworthy, etc. How do we renew our minds? By following this simple instruction: Don’t let anger get the best of you. I know that overlooking other drivers can be challenging, but the results are a health hazard. It releases chemicals in your bloodstream that have adverse effects on your body. So do stress and unforgiveness. Your Health, both spiritual and physical, is not worth those negative emotions.

Dear LORD, help me to learn to control my thoughts, reactions, and emotions. Help me to overlook and forgive that I, too, may be forgiven. Help me to focus on good thoughts and meditate on what is noble, admirable, and kind. Help me to let go of the anger inside, might live a peaceful and low-stress life. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.

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Turn Back To God

19 Who is blind but My servant, Or so deaf as My messenger whom I send? Who is so blind as he that is at peace with Me, Or so blind as the servant of the Lord? ~ Isaiah 42:19NASB

If you think about this statement by the LORD, it is a pretty frightening one. He is not talking about the blindness or the deafness of the heathen, or those who hate Him. No, God is talking about His own people, His own servants. The very ones who are supposed to be serving Him. The ones who should have a close relationship with Him. But instead of closeness we find distance. Instead of intimacy we find lukewarmness. Instead of affection and tenderness, we find separation and detachment.

Just because we claim to have a relationship with Almighty God does not mean we actually have one. So, don’t be lulled to sleep thinking you are all good, because you go to church, or that you serve on the church board, or in some church office capacity. God’s people –the ones who should know Him intimately and serve Him wholehearted– are the very ones who are trampling the blood of Jesus underfoot and making the name of the Holy One something common. That’s why God asks rebellious Israel the questions in Isaiah 1:5 “Why should you be beaten anymore?” “Why do you persist in rebellion?”

In other words, why are you bringing more punishment on yourself by persisting in your rebellion? He has redeemed you with His own blood. Turn back to God for He takes no pleasure in dealing out punishment. He would rather see you saved than punished. That’s why He made a way for us to be saved with His own death. It is not God’s will that anyone perish, but all come to repentance. But people refuse to draw close to God because they love the pleasures of the world more.

After considering the great price that was paid for our redemption, let us forsake evil and turn from lukewarmness to cling to God in pursuit of holiness, holding fast to our profession of faith and coming unto the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find grace. That is what Jesus offers and desires for us obtain. So, let us lay hold of grace and take serious our salvation so that we are not swept away with the wicked.

Heavenly Father, thank you for the grace that was lavished on us. Thank You for offering us salvation that with You we would never be able to attain. Help me to draw close to You forsaking all else and cleaving to You alone. In Jesus’ name I pray, amen.

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The Power of the Tongue

21 Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruits. ~ Proverbs 18:21

The tongue has power. In fact, James, in his epistle, wrote, “the tongue is a small member, yet it boasts of great things” (James 3:5). He claims that the tongue is set on fire by hell. It is the hardest of all things to control. He goes on to explain that mankind has tamed all sorts of animals, and birds, and reptiles, and sea creatures, but it is useless to try to tame the tongue. It just cannot be tamed because it is a restless evil and full of deadly poison. We are blessing one moment, and the next, we are cursing and carrying on, and all with the same tongue.

Have you noticed, especially on social media, how some people can be so spiritual one moment but very worldly the next? They’ll say things like, this is the day that the LORD has made; I will rejoice and be glad in it. Or if God is for me, who can be against me? Or God is fighting for me. Your house is about to be abundantly blessed. Can somebody help brag on Jesus? Or if it wasn’t for Jesus… They make a big ado about God and the things of God. I’m blessed going in and blessed coming out. Then to read their next post would make a sailor blush.

Then there are the others who post all the dirt they can dig up on somebody they just had a falling out with. They call them all kinds of blanky, blank names and say all manner of evil about them.

This is the deadly poison James is talking about. Running each other down and cussing and going on. Using the foulest, most offensive language, they can seem to find.

God is not pleased with this kind of talk, for this ought not to be. James asks:

11 Does a spring pour forth from the same opening both fresh and saltwater? 12 Can a fig tree, my brothers, bear olives, or a grapevine produce figs? Neither can a salt pond yield fresh water.

James 3:11-12

Therefore, if we are going to please God, we had better begin to bridle our tongues; otherwise, God Himself will deal most severely with us. We cannot please our LORD and Savior, Jesus Christ, acting like that. We must change our ways from unbridled evil to ways that are more pleasing to God.

Start today to put your tongue into check. When you find you’re running somebody down or ridiculing someone else, stop and change your negative words to positive words. Replace curses with blessings, and you please the LORD.

Heavenly Father, please help us to learn how to control our tongues so that we might not use the same tongue to bless and to curse. Help us to take note of when we are being negative and give us the ability to change it to positive words. Help us to take the power out of the tongue and place it in our own hands with Your help. Thank you, LORD, for it is in Jesus’ name we pray, amen.

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The Uncorrectable

11 But when Peter came to Antioch, I had to oppose him to his face, for what he did was very wrong. 12 When he first arrived, he ate with the Gentile believers, who were not circumcised. But afterward, when some friends of James came, Peter wouldn’t eat with the Gentiles anymore. He was afraid of criticism from these people who insisted on the necessity of circumcision. 13 As a result, other Jewish believers followed Peter’s hypocrisy, and even Barnabas was led astray by their hypocrisy. 14 When I saw that they were not following the truth of the gospel message, I said to Peter in front of all the others, “Since you, a Jew by birth, have discarded the Jewish laws and are living like a Gentile, why are you now trying to make these Gentiles follow the Jewish traditions?” ~ Galatians 2:11-14NLT

Peter was one of the Twelve who walked and talked with Jesus Himself. He was arguably Jesus’ best friend. He preached the first message on the Day of Pentecost and brought in 5,000 souls. He was a well-respected leader in the Church; nevertheless, not even he was above correction. When Paul corrected him, he didn’t condemn Paul. He didn’t pull up Paul’s past. He didn’t point out how long he was saved compared to Paul. He didn’t try to drag Paul’s name through the dirt and get him ostracized. Why? Because no one is above correction, but today that’s not a common belief.

Today, the Church has become unable to take correction. I’ve noticed that when someone doesn’t agree with one of my beliefs, they’ll start very friendly and kind, but as soon as I use Scripture they can’t defend against, they point out three things to me: I’m older than you, therefore wiser than you. I’ve been a Christian longer than you, therefore, I know and understand the Bible better than you. If they’re a man, they bring up that I’m female and, therefore, can’t possibly know better than a man. They never use Scripture. In fact, I was recently condemned and called all sorts of things in the comment section because I wouldn’t accept the beliefs of a man who believes he’s older than me (his age was never said, so I can’t say for sure). His biggest problem with me was that I used Scripture for why I didn’t believe his beliefs. He wanted to discuss the Scripture without quoting it. That is the temperature of the majority of “Christians” today. We want to push our ideology, our narrative, our truth, and when they contradict the Word of God, and someone points it out, we get angry. We get defensive. We get aggressive. Why? Pride.

Pride will blind us, keeping us from seeing the Truth. It will force us to create our own truth and disregard whether or not it agrees or disagrees with the only Truth, the Word of God. It will cause us to lash out when asked for Biblical evidence and see anyone who shows us the Truth in the Word of God as a bigoted hypocrite. This isn’t how the Church is to react. We are to use the Bible for correction so that we can grow. No one is perfect. Not me. Not you. Not even Peter, arguably Jesus’ best friend. Pride will keep us from God, for He humbles the proud but elevates the humble.

If your beliefs are challenged, defend them with Scripture. If they are weighed, measured, and found wanting, then change those beliefs. No one is above correction because no one is perfect.

Dear LORD, please search me. Convict me of any false beliefs, practices, or stances that I have within me. Show me any sin that has made a home in my life. Help me to root my beliefs in You and Your Truth and not in myself or another’s truth. Help me to strive to better myself each day. Teach me to take correction, and humble me so that pride may not build up in my life. Help me to always seek You and Your Kingdom. Guide me in all of my ways so that I may not be led astray by another shepherd. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.

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The Peter Syndrome

21 When Peter saw him, he said to Jesus, “Lord, what about this man?” 22 Jesus said to him, “If it is my will that he remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow me!” ~ John 21:21-22

Just before Jesus’ ascension, He asked Peter 3 times if he loved Him. Peter replied, “Yes, LORD, I love You.” Jesus then told him to feed His sheep. No one is called to be idle; we all have work to do, and that work is feeding the sheep. You don’t have to be a full-time lead pastor to feed sheep; we just need to be knowledgeable ourselves and committed.

Then Jesus goes on to tell Peter how he would die. Peter didn’t seem to be pleased with what he learned about his future. He apparently turns away from the conversation because the Scripture says that he turned and saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them.

He points his finger at him and says to Jesus, “What about him?” This is often us. We look at our trials and tribulations, then at others, and we feel envious of them and their journey. But we have to remember what Jesus explained to Peter. Your job is not based on someone else’s job. Your call is not based on someone else’s call. Their experience is not your experience. Their situation is not your situation.

Your job is to follow Jesus and be obedient to His plan for you. When things get hard, and persecution gets rough, always remember that you are not your own; you are bought at a price. Therefore, the life you live does not belong to you but to Jesus.

You will receive your life in eternity. This life here on earth is only for a very short time, and it is a preparation for eternity, and it is to be lived for Jesus. That is not too much to ask since He purchased your life by giving His own life. Did you notice what Jesus said to Peter? Don’t look around and notice the lush lifestyle someone else might seem to be living compared to yours. What is it to you if it is Jesus’ will to bless someone else extravagantly? You follow Jesus; never forget that.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Remember Whom You Follow.

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