We have been learning, ‘how to protect our hearts’ by studying the part of God’s armour that protects what enters our hearts, namely the helmet of salvation.
In Part One – Know your rights.
We learned how important it is to know and fully understand what became ours when we got ‘born again’ so that the devil can’t steal what the Lord Jesus Christ died to purchase for you and I.
In Part Two – Know the strategy of the enemy.
We learned to recognize that the attack from the devil would come through our thought life.
Today, in Part Three we are going to address two things:
Exposing and Uprooting hidden enemy arms caches.
Your will – your choice.
1. Exposing and uprooting hidden enemy arms caches.
Replacing the deceptions and contaminated thinking by renewing our minds with God’s truth.
Beachhead – An area of land near the sea or a river that an attacking army has taken control of and from where it can move forward into enemy country.
The territory of the un-crucified thought life is the beachhead of satanic assault in our lives. To defeat the devil, we must be renewed in the spirit of our minds. – Francis Frangipane, “The Three Battlegrounds”
It is true that we have been delivered from the power of darkness and that we have been conveyed into the Kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ (Col. 1:13). We are not trapped in darkness if we have been born of light.
But lurking within our soul are areas of darkness.
Strongholds that the enemy has strategically built into our psyche over many years. These may be opinions, beliefs, wounds, habitual sins, or works of the flesh, pride, selfish ambitions, jealousy, bitterness, resentment, hatred and the like.
Through experiences and misleading information, our minds have been contaminated and influenced by the enemy and the effects of this darkness – these deceptions, these untruths, lie hidden in our soul.
Very often, we are not even aware of these strongholds in our lives but these are triggers that the enemy uses to manipulate our behaviour. They are the ‘beachhead’ of the enemy!
These areas of darkness in our soul are exactly what the Lord Jesus Christ wants to target so that by the Holy Spirit they can be removed from our lives.
If you remember in Eph. 5:25-27, Jesus is busy cleansing and sanctifying us so that we can become the glorious church.
We know that God is working with us to transform us into His image.
In order to transform us into His image, it is God’s determination to write His laws in our minds so that through this gateway, the Holy Spirit is able to put God’s law into our hearts. It becomes a part of the fabric of who we are… The image of Christ.
Heb. 10:16-18 – This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, says the Lord: I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds I will write them, then He adds, ‘Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more. Now where there is remission of these, there is no longer an offering for sin.
Paul implores us in Rom. 12:1-2 – I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that you present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your reasonable service. And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed (How?) by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
As we study His Word, our minds are renewed, and our hearts are changed when we submit to Him BUT it is in this process however, that we will first have to come face to face with what is NOT His image in us.
If we desire for our minds to be renewed, we must realize that we cannot embrace the resurrection of transformed behaviours and attitudes without enduring the cross. We must be willing to die to self, our own will and thus allow Him to crucify what is not His image in us.
Understanding and confronting the darkness in our soul.
If we tolerate this darkness, through the tolerance of sin, we leave ourselves vulnerable to satanic assault. For wherever there is wilful disobedience of the Word of God, there is spiritual darkness and the potential for demonic activity. – Francis Frangipane
This is not talking about areas devoid of visible light but it is essentially a complete spiritual and a moral darkness. It is the absence of God, who is light. Everything contrary to God’s light dwells in spiritual darkness.
It is vital that we recognize that the darkness to which Satan and his angels have been banished is not a physical area. It is spiritual and if we choose to tolerate the presence of sin in our lives, then that spiritual darkness (that area in our soul that is devoid of God’s light) dwells in us.
That is why Jesus warned, “Therefore take heed that the light which is in you is not darkness (Luke 11:35).
There is a light in you. ‘The spirit of man is the lamp of the Lord’ (Prov. 20:27).
Your spirit, illuminated by the Spirit of Christ, becomes the lamp of the Lord through which He searches your heart. There is indeed a holy radiance surrounding a true Spirit-filled Christian. But when you harbour sin, the ‘light which is in you’ is darkness. Satan has legal access, given to him by God, to dwell in the domain of darkness. We must grasp this point, the devil can traffic in any area of darkness, even the darkness that still exists in a Christian’s heart. – Francis Frangipane
That is why it is so important that we don’t tolerate darkness in our own lives!
1 John 3:8 – He who sins is of the devil, for the devil has sinned from the beginning. For this purpose was the Son of God manifested, that He might destroy the works of the devil.
When God reveals areas of darkness in our hearts, it is not to condemn us but because it is God’s determination to destroy the works of the devil in our lives so that we can be free to dwell in His light.
James 4:6-7 – God resists the proud but gives grace to the humble. Therefore, submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.
We must seek to maintain a humble and honest heart before God. He gives grace to the humble. Don’t try to defend yourself when the Holy Spirit shows you an area that needs to change because God resists the proud.
Instead surrender to the Lord. Be honest with yourself. Is what you are doing something that Jesus would do or approve of?
It is essential to understand and know that it is in the context of humbling ourselves before God and repenting for any darkness in our lives, that we will find the devil fleeing from us as we resist his attack against us.
2. Your will – your choice.
Daily, you and I get to choose the fruit of our lives. We get to choose who we will be. We get to choose what we will do. We get to choose what we want to eat and what we will wear. We get to choose how we will behave because we have been given our own free will.
Now, God the Father, well, He has a plan for your life and my life. It will be without a doubt, the best life we could ever live. But… We get to choose.
Deut. 30:15-19 – God said, ‘I set before you today life and good, death and evil, in that I command you today to love the Lord your God, to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments, His statutes, and His judgments, that you may live and multiply; and the Lord your God will bless you in the land which you possess.
But if your heart turns away so that you do not hear, and are drawn away, and worship other gods and serve them, I announce today that you shall surely perish; you shall not prolong your days in the land which you cross over the Jordan to go in and possess. I call heaven and earth as witnesses against you that I have set before you, life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life that both you and your descendants may live.
Now, I ask you, ‘Is God unfair?’
Absolutely not! His thoughts towards you are of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope (Jer. 29:11).
His thoughts about you and His plans for you are good! But He won’t override your will.
Daily, we get to choose.
And I can also tell you, that He is not our servant. He is not going to engage with ‘our’ plan for our life. He is not going to bless ‘our’ plan for our life. Jonah is a great example of that.
Remember, He knows the end of everything… Right from the beginning. And because of that, He won’t prosper something which He knows is going to end in disaster or that steals your purpose.
However, I can also tell you, that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord, shall be saved. If you have stepped off the path He has for you and now find yourself in trouble, Our Father can take what the enemy meant for evil and turn it for good. He can step into the disaster and turn it in such a way that good is birthed out of it.
God the Father warned Adam and Eve not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. This is the ONLY tree in the garden, they were not allowed to eat from. And God had warned them that if they did, they would die.
Yet they were allowed to eat as much as they liked from the Tree of Life. But they never did.
The tree of the knowledge of good and evil is basically following your own will.
No, I will choose my way. And so we choose to go down the slippery path of having to learn, through experience, what is good and what is evil. This is about choosing death and cursing. And it is by experiencing death and cursing that we finally come to our senses and we now can recognize that this was not life and blessing.
Eating from the Tree of Life, however, is choosing to live a life that is committed to following the leading (the leadership) of the Holy Spirit. So in other words, it’s about doing the Father’s will. This is choosing life and blessing.
So again, daily, we get to choose. And that choice is made right here, by the mind. You and I choose what we will accept and what we will cast out.
This is the gateway and the doorway. It is here that you choose the journey you are about to embark on.
Prov. 18:20-21 – A man’s stomach shall be satisfied from the fruit of his mouth. Death and life are in the power of the tongue. And those who love it will eat its fruit.
Luke 6:43 – For a good tree does not bear bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit.
V45 A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks!
Spiritual warfare begins HERE!
It begins today!
God is teaching your hands to war and your fingers to fight!
If you want to change what is coming out of your mouth THEN you have to change what is in your heart. And to change what is in your heart, you have to take responsibility over your thought life.
And part of that is the power of attorney you give to social media or anything else that you give attention to, to mess with your hard drive.
What goes in through the gateway of your mind has the power to infect your hard drive – your heart!
If it is contrary to the word or the will of God and you don’t deal with it at the gateway of your mind, then the temptation, the trap or untruth that could have been stopped at the door, grows in influence, and will become a trial and tribulation. And now, you have a fight on your hands.
You must become the commander over your thought life!
You must pray and declare aloud. Out of your mouth comes either death or life. Let it always be life! Remember also that the Angel Gabriel was dispatched because of Daniel’s earnest, heartfelt prayer.
Strong and courageous.
Josh. 1:7 – Only be strong and very courageous, that you may observe to do according to all the law which Moses My servant commanded you; do not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, (why?) that you may prosper wherever you go.
Josh. 1:9 – Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage, do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.
Be strong and courageous. Be strong and courageous.
Let’s have a look at an example of that.
1 Sam. 17:45 – Then David said to the Philistine, ‘You come to me with a sword, with a spear, and with a javelin. But I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied. This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand, and I will strike you and take your head from you.
Why was David so strong and courageous?
David didn’t go out into the battle against Goliath, in his own strength or might. He went out there because he knew that Goliath did not have a covenant with Almighty God. And he knew that he, David, WAS in covenant with Almighty God. God was his covenant partner. The enemy basically, was already defeated. Therefore, he was strong and courageous.
Secondly, he was strong and courageous because he knew that the battle was the Lords
1 Sam. 17:47 – Then all this assembly shall know that the Lord does not save with sword and spear; for the battle is the Lord’s, and He will GIVE you into our hands.
In Eph. 6 it says the following – long before it tells you to put on the whole armour of God.
Eph. 6:10 – Finally my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.
I must add here – it does not say, be strong in the power of your might. You can do it! David didn’t go out there in his own strength and might.
David was strong and courageous because he was strong in the Lord and the power of His might. And David knew that in challenging and mocking the armies of Israel, Goliath had essentially challenged and mocked God – their covenant partner.
So for us it is the same. When the enemy challenges you or comes against you, he is coming against God – our covenant partner.
The Spirit-filled life is not one of ease, comfort, and pleasure. In fact, it is often full of adversity, hardship, and persecution. However, we do realize that we can depend upon the unlimited power and wisdom of God. – David Jeremiah.
And how do we do that?
We draw on His strength by faith, asking Him to supply us with the resources that we need so that we can remain steadfastly faithfully to Him. And because His help never fails, we experience His abiding joy, and rejoice that our difficulties bring us closer to the Lord as we obey Him. – David Jeremiah.
So therefore, faith – is what draws on His strength and on His might.
It is extremely important for us to understand that we are involved in a real battle and the enemy’s goal is our destruction. The devil does everything he can to undermine our faith and impede our progress in God’s will by putting harmful, hidden obstacles and snares in our path. – David Jeremiah.
Why does the devil put harmful, hidden obstacles and snares in our path? To undermine our faith SO THAT he can hinder, hold back our progress in doing God’s will.
But we can resist his subtle tactics and triumph over his schemes by trusting God, arming ourselves with His protection, and obeying Him in every area of our lives. – David Jeremiah.
How do we resist these subtle tactics of the devil? By TRUSTING GOD. And when we trust God, we are arming ourselves with His protection. We also resist the devil by being obedient to God. We are being strong and courageous, when we don’t give in to the enemy but we take a stand against him by trusting that the battle belongs to God, our covenant partner.
Today, I am declaring aloud into the Heavenlies – Let it be known that:
I am the image bearer of the Lord Jesus Christ.
I was disconnected but now the connection has been restored.
I am the image bearer of the Lord Jesus Christ.
The Father is continually updating my hard drive by the power of the Holy Spirit.
I am the image bearer of the Lord Jesus Christ.
I am not of this world.
I am an inhabitant of the Kingdom of God.
God is my Father.
Jesus is my Saviour, my Lord and my King.
I am who He says I am.
I look more like my Lord today then I did yesterday. And I will look more like my Lord tomorrow then I did today.
I am the image bearer of the Lord Jesus Christ.