One Thing Needful

2 Corinthians 10:4 – The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.

Recognize this jingle? “Often imitated, never duplicated, Drabek & Hill” (Have you read the story yet about their mascot, Artie the penguin? Now there’s a story that probably can’t be imitated or duplicated.) Today we’re going to talk about something else which is often imitated yet never duplicated—the weapons of our spiritual warfare.

The weapons we fight spiritual battles with are not like the weapons of the world. They are divinely powerful. They are for tearing down spiritual strongholds. A stronghold is a fortified place of refuge. Now that brings a few questions to mind:

• Where are the strongholds in our lives?
• Who is taking refuge in them?
• How do we tear them down?

2 Corinthians 10:5 tells us the things we are to demolish are arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God. A pretension is a claim to something such as a privilege or a right. So the strongholds that we are empowered to destroy are arguments and claims to any rights or privileges that we exalt in our minds above Christ. When any type of thinking exalts itself above the knowledge of Christ, we are giving the devil a secure place of influence in our thought-life, and inward thoughts soon become outward actions. So how do we destroy the strongholds in our thinking? By taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. In other words, our whole pattern of thinking, that is our viewpoint and attitude must be surrendered to the Lordship of Christ. The prince of the world was judged and principalities and powers were disarmed not by confrontational warfare, but by the surrender of Jesus Christ on the cross (Francis Frangipane). Any area of our heart or mind that is not surrendered to Jesus Christ is an area vulnerable to attack. We must humble our hearts and repent, exercising our faith in God to change us. And change we will if we respond to the promptings of the Holy Spirit Who speaks to us through His Word. Every battle we face in life is over the Word and whether or not we can build our lives upon the faithfulness and integrity of God. The Word is the weapon, the Sword of the Spirit. It is the weapon the Spirit uses to destroy what is fleshly in our hearts and minds. It is the weapon the Spirit uses to judge the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. (Hebrews 4:12) An enemy is anyone or anything that stands in the way of one becoming like Christ. Many times it is our own thoughts, attitudes, and opinions that defeat us. We must replace wrong thinking with right thinking—Biblical thinking. Right thinking may often be imitated by the world, disguised as self-help psychology. It may even be imitated by pharisaic religiosity and legalism. But the divine power of God’s Word at work in the heart and mind can never be duplicated.

THINK ABOUT IT: Two sources of strongholds are the world and our experiences. How have you allowed the world rather than God’s Word to shape how you think? What about your own experiences?

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