Tearing Down Strongholds

The giants that we face in our daily lives are generally tied to spiritual strongholds.  Neill Anderson defines a stronghold as "a mindset, impregnated with hopelessness that convinces a believer that something that they know to be contrary to the Word and will of God is an unchangeable in their life."  The sin itself is not the stronghold, it is the deceived thought pattern that leads us into that sin again and again.  These are the rationalizations that we use to justify our actions and they keep us bound up in our sin.  "It's not hurting anybody."  "I know I have a temper, but I'm Irish."  "Well, I just speak my mind, and people will just have to get used to it."  We need to recognize that these false impressions build prison walls around us and they must be torn down if we are going to live victorious Christian lives.  The good news is that Jesus has provided the weapons that we need to tear down these strongholds, the authority of His name and the power of His blood.  Without taking up too much space today, let me walk you through the process of breaking free from the chains of spiritual strongholds.
First, you need to recognize them as sin.  This requires that you take a good, long look at your daily life and ask God to reveal anything that is displeasing to Him.  Then take some time just to listen for His voice and commit yourself to respond to whatever He asks.
Second, you must repent.  Repentance is a change of heart that leads to a change of direction.  It is both a decision and a process.  There must be a point of decision where you say, I am turning from my sin to God and there is a process whereby you actively move away from your sin and draw closer to the Lord.  It takes time and determination to break the patterns that you have developed in your life and to replace them with things that edify rather than destroy.
Third, you need to renounce the stronghold that Satan has had in your heart and mind.  A stronghold is a place of refuge that you have given Satan so that he can return again and again with the same temptation.  You need to evict him in the name of Jesus and through the power of His blood.  Do this out loud so there is no doubt that Satan will know that he no longer has any right to this area of your life.
Next, you need to ask the Lord to reclaim the ground that you have surrendered to this stronghold.  The time, energy, and resources that you have spent pursuing your sin should be dedicated to pursuing a closer walk with the Lord.  Surrender it to Him and ask Him to reclaim it for Himself.
Then, ask the Holy Spirit to refill that area of your life so that it brings forth the fruit of the Spirit instead of the works of the flesh.  The filling of the Holy Spirit is the active surrender of every area of our life to His control.  Strongholds reserve parts of our lives for ourselves or worse yet for Satanic influence.  We need to ask the Holy Spirit to refill that area and use it for God's glory and honor.
Finally, we need to rejoice in the victory that Christ has already won for us.  This is often an act of faith, because we may not see it outwardly immediately, but the Bible says that "Ye shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free."  Your freedom is promised and assured, so go ahead and celebrate.  Show God that you take Him at His Word. 
II Cor. 10:4,5 talk about these weapons and encourage us to tear down the strongholds in our lives.  As long as we are bound up in the prison house, we will never be able to face our giants.  It's time to break free!

Overcoming Obstacles To Becoming a Champion

The story of David and Goliath is used regularly in our society to illustrate the struggle of someone who finds themselves facing insurmountable odds.  But as I have said throughout this series, David didn't just stumble into this circumstance, he fought to be there facing Goliath in the name of the Lord.  And if you read the account in I Samuel 17, there were several obstacles that David had to overcome before he ever found himself standing beside the brook at Elah.  Remember, David was just a teenager.  He had been a musician in the king's court for a while, playing the Iron Age equivalent of Muzak so that Saul's temper wouldn't flare up, but then he was sent back home and, as the youngest, was once again relegated to tending the sheep.  The one annointed to be Saul's successor as king of Israel, sitting on a rock watching the sheep graze.  So the first obstacle that he had to overcome was the common problem of inertia, getting started.  Many Christians live their entire Christian lives thinking, "One of these days, I'm gonna really do something for the Lord.  One of these days, I'm gonna make a difference."  And yet they never take that first step toward active service for God.  David's first step was to be the lunch delivery boy.  His father said, "Here, take these cheese sandwiches down to your brothers and bring me back a little report on how things are going."  So, off David went.  But when he got to the battlefield, he ran into another obstacle.  When David heard about the "Goliath predicament," he got stirred up.  How could this pagan Gentile be allowed to say the things he was saying against God and God's armies?  But as he looked around him, all he saw were eyes filled with fear.  And that's when the leader in David kicked in.  He pulled out his little soap box and started to proclaim the necessity for someone to stand up for the name of the Lord.  Someone had to vindicate God by dispatching this bully with a glandular problem.  And David's words were starting to have impact, when His big brother, Eliab, showed up. Now when you read this story, don't forget that it hasn't been that long since Samuel had overlooked, if not rejected, Eliab in order to annoint David king.  So maybe it was jealousy or maybe it was just a big brother's tendency to criticize the baby, but Eliab unloaded on David.  His words cut deep, implying that David had no right to be here, his job was insignificant and maybe he was too, he was arrogant and his motives were wrong.  Wow, Eliab, tell us what you really think!  David had seen the need and had stepped up to face it, but before he could ever confront the giant, he had to deal with criticism from someone who should have been his biggest supporter.  But David didn't let that stop him.  He simply answered, "Is there not a cause?"  As Christians, we must get past our petty differences, some that come from unexpected sources and are deeply painful, and we must focus on the cause, the mission, the giant that is in our path.  David turned from Eliab and continued to address the soldiers trying to motivate them to fight this battle, but in the end, David was the only one willing to take the risk and fight the giant.
When David was brought before King Saul, he faced more obstacles.  At this point David was attacked with doubt about his qualifications and his methods.  The king said, "You're just a kid.  Surely you can't do this."  Once David insisted that he was the man....uhh, or boy... for the job, then he faced another hurdle.  Saul insisted that if David was going to do this, that he needed to do it the way that Saul wanted it to be done.  Saul said, "Here, use my armor."  But it didn't fit David and it wasn't the weapon that God had already shown David how to use effectively.  Many Christians get caught in the trap of trying to do things the way that they have always been done or like old Professor Hornblower used to do it, when God may have a unique pattern and method that He has called for them to use.  David had to fight the battle using the weapons that God had provided and proven.  When David got to the brook at Elah, he found himself face to face with Goliath, and here he had to deal with the most difficult obstacle yet, his own fear.  Goliath saw David heading his way and he began to laugh and mock.  He threatened David that he was going to feed him to the birds.  If David was going to give in to fear, that would have been where it would have happened, but David was walking in faith and all of Goliath's threats slid off like water off a duck's back.  When David stood up after choosing his five smooth stones, there was no turning back. 
We need to remember that if we are going to be champions for God, then we are going to face obstacles.  We are going to have to deal with criticism from unexpected sources.  We are going to have to overcome the doubts of those around us.  And we are going to have to face our fears with faith that God is going to show up.  And we need to keep practicing with that slingshot! :0)

Running Toward Goliath

It's one of the most-beloved of all the stories in the Bible and it is probably the most often used analogy from Scripture applied in the arenas of sports, politics, and business; David and Goliath, the underdog tale of underdog tales.  Whenever someone seems to be facing insurmountable odds, this story is brought to mind.  But there is something here that many people miss, and that is that David didn't just find himself in an impossible situation, he fought to get there.  He had to overcome an awful lot of obstacles just to be standing there beside the brook at Elah.  And when he looked up at the giant, that wasn't fear in his eye.  It was the sparkle that comes when a person knows that he is about to see God do something amazing.  So who was this kid with the slingshot and the dead-eye aim?  Where did he get the 'chutzpah' to stand up to a warrior who had shouted the entire army of the Lord into cowardly silence? In actuality, David was the runt of the litter.  He had seven brothers who were taller, stronger, better looking and more battle-ready.  But David had one thing that they didn't have and it made all the difference.  David had a heart for God.  David had dedicated his young life to following after God, seeking His face, and stepping out in faith to fulfill whatever challenge that God had placed before Him.  When he was charged with watching the sheep, he took it as a sacred calling and defied the lion and the bear to stop him from fulfilling it.  When he found himself on the back side of the mountain in pleasant pastures and peaceful times, he filled the hours with worship and sought to know His God more intimately.  When given the opportunity to go to the warrior's camp, he jumped at it, eager to see the armies of the Lord, fighting the good fight and subduing God's enemies.  What he saw instead were a pack of whipped puppies with their tails between their legs. 
David's approach was simple.  He never looked at the Giant.  He stayed focused on his God.  He looked past the circumstance and looked to the cause.  He knew from experience that it was God's battle and that He would do the fighting.  All David had to do was be the weapon in His hand.  And so, as David crouched there by the brook, his carefully chosen weapons in his hands, he slowly began to rise, each step fell faster than the last until he was running toward the Philistine with all that he had.  And with a final twirl of his wrist made mighty by his passion for God and guided to its target by his surrender to the Spirit, David fired the shot heard down through the ages and Goliath fell.
Over the next several blog posts, I want to show you how to follow in David's footsteps and defeat the giants in your life.  There will be those that question your motives and qualifications.  Others will try to encumber you with their way of fighting the battle.  You will face the mockery of the enemy, but never fear.  The giant is going down.

Christianity as a Way of Life

I have a friend who has a somewhat unusual habit when it comes to eating.  He likes to keep the food on his plate neatly divided, never letting his corn touch his potatoes, or his chicken touch the green beans.  Each separate food isolated to its own area of the plate, and if this pattern gets messed up, he gets very upset.

For someone like me, who sees my plate like an artist sees his palette, mixing the corn with the potatoes and covering it all with gravy, this seems to be a little OCD.  It borders on mental illness, almost like someone who keeps a clean desk. :0)

But in real life, we all are pretty good at compartmentalizing, aren't we?  Keeping one area of our life neatly separated from the others so that the problems and demands remain neatly organized.  When the pressures of our job or the stresses of our home life start to get to us, we throw ourselves into overdrive in some other endeavor and create a world where those other difficulties can be crowded out of our thinking or don't come into play. 

Sadly, in the lives of Christians, this often results in a total disconnect between the things that they profess to believe on Sunday morning, when they are sitting in their pew, and the way that they live their lives the rest of the week, out in 'the real world.'

In his powerful and thought-provoking book, How Shall We Now Live?, Charles Colson addressed this tendency in light of the moral morasse that we find ourselves in today.  He said, "Americans are groping for something that will restore the shattered bonds of family and community, something that will make sense of life.... We must show the world that Christianity is more than a private belief, more than personal salvation.  We must show that it is a comprehensive life system that answers all of humanity's age-old questions.  Where did I come from? Why am I here?  Where am I going? Does life have any meaning and purpose?  Christianity offers the only viable, rationally defensible answers to these questions."

The only way that we will ever have a genuine impact on our society is if our faith in Christ makes an outwardly visible difference in how we deal with the problems that life throws at us.  The only way that we will ever win our neighbors to Christ is if they see in us the answers to the difficulties that they are facing.  Our faith must influence our home life and marital relationships.  Our walk with God must impact our ability to get along with our neighbors.  Our adherance to the Scriptures must be the determining factor in our business dealings and social interactions.  In other words, what we believe must determine how we live our lives from day to day. 

In the very simplest terms, Jesus said that the whole world would know that He came from the Father if the disciples would simply show genuine love for each other.  Did you hear that?  The entire credibility of the Gospel rests fully upon our ability to show that the love of Jesus has the power to influence how we get along.  We are His witnesses!  If we are going to make a difference, we have to be credible witnesses of the life-changing power of truly knowing Christ.  In order for that to happen, our corn is going to have to touch our potatoes.