Breaking Strongholds

Breaking Strongholds

We live in this world, but we don’t act like its people or fight our battles with the weapons of this world. Instead, we use God’s power that can destroy fortresses. We destroy arguments and every bit of pride that keeps anyone from knowing God. We capture people’s thoughts and make them obey Christ.

– II Corinthians 10:3-5

STRONGHOLD: Anything that exalts itself against God’s Word.  It contradicts the Truth.  It contradicts what God says about you.  It goes against the will of God for your life!

a)      A stronghold begins with a thought, or two or three.

b)      A negative thought unchecked…leads to vain imaginations…and that’s how strongholds are born.

How to Break Strongholds:

1. Go to the source—your thought life.

Proverbs 23:7- For as he thinks in his heart, so is he. He says to you, “Eat and drink!” But his heart is not with you.

a)      We have to evaluate our thought life.  What wrong thoughts have  we accepted and believed that led to this stronghold?

2. Let go of the past pain.

Isaiah 43:18-19 Do not remember the things that have happened before. Do not think about the things of the past. See, I will do a new thing. It will begin happening now. Will you not know about it? I will even make a road in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert.

a)      FORGET the past!

b)      Don’t DWELL on it anymore!

c)      This is a NEW day!

3. Control your thoughts.

Ephesians 6:12-13 Our fight is not with people. It is against the leaders and the powers and the spirits of darkness in this world. It is against the demon world that works in the heavens. ¹³ Because of this, put on all the things God gives you to fight with. Then you will be able to stand in that sinful day. When it is all over, you will still be standing.

a)       Take every thought CAPTIVE and make it obedient to Christ.

b)       We have to deliberately choose what we allow our minds to dwell on.

c)       Decide Right Now:

d)      I am finished with this battle!

e)       I’m not fighting this stronghold the rest of my life!

f)        I am not going to let suicidal thoughts get the best of me!

g)       I am not going to allow poverty to reign in my life!

h)       I am not going to allow bitterness to control my life!

i)         Divine Weapons To Demolish Negative Thoughts—You Have:

j)         The Word of God

k)       The Name of Jesus

l)         Power and Authority over Satan

m)     At The First Sign Of A Negative Thought:

1. Stop and acknowledge that the thought is not from God.

2. Make a decision: I am not going to take Satan’s bait! I am not going to dwell on this

ungodly thought.

3. Resist Satan in the Name of Jesus!

4. Replace that thought with God’s thoughts about you.

a)     Don’t identify yourself with tempting thoughts.

b)     Instead of turning on yourself and attacking your self-esteem when thoughts come—turn

it around and attack the lies!  Deal with the real culprit that is a lie of Satan.

4. Be PERSISTENT!

A stronghold doesn’t develop overnight.   So you have to be consistent and persistent until you see the victory

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I breathe in, I breathe out…

“The letters of the name of God in Hebrew… are infrequently pronounced Yahweh. But in truth they are inutterable….

This word {YHWH} is the sound of breathing.

The holiest name in the world, the Name of Creator, is the sound of your own breathing. That these letters are unpronounceable is no accident. Just as it is no accident that they are also the root letters of the Hebrew verb ‘to be’… God’s name is name of Being itself.”

~Rabbi Lawrence Kushner

Source – Ann Voskamp

 http://www.aholyexperience.com/ann-voskamp/

Unconditional Love

Definition of UNCONDITIONAL LOVE

1: not conditional or limited : absolute, unqualified, Complete Love

“Then the world will know that you [God the Father] sent me [Jesus Christ] and will understand that you love them as much as you love me” (John 17:23, NLT).

Did you catch that? God loves you as much as He loves Jesus! That’s almost too much to even comprehend!

Scripture records that God’s love “never fails [never fades out or becomes obsolete or comes to an end]” (1 Corinthians 13:8, AMP). His love for you can never weaken. It’s impossible. His love for you isn’t based on your behavior but on His faithfulness.

God’s love for us is so all encompassing that we simply cannot comprehend its scope.

“For God expressed His love for the world in this way: He gave His only Son so that whoever believes in Him will not face everlasting destruction, but will have everlasting life.” (John 3:16, the voice).

Why did God give Jesus? The answer is simple: to purchase us back. In Genesis Adam gave himself, and consequently all his offspring (including you and me), to a new lord when he heeded Satan. Adam disobeyed God and separated himself and his descendants from Him. But since God loved each of us so much, He wasn’t willing to assign us the same fate as Satan and his angels.

God purchased our relationship back with Him by giving Jesus in our place. Jesus paid the complete price for mankind’s disobedience to God. He took our judgment.

The price of our soul is so expensive that nothing else could have bought us back besides Jesus Himself. “God bought you with a high price” (1 Corinthians 6:20, NLT). “Visualize this: His blood freely flowing down the cross, setting us free! We are forgiven for our sinful ways by the richness of His grace” (Ephesians 1:7, the voice translation).

No person or thing is more valuable to God than Jesus. Yet, God saw our value equal to that of what He prized most. Now here is the amazing thing If you and I had been worth one cent less to God than the value of His Son, He wouldn’t have purchased us because God would never make an unprofitable deal. (Recall the above scripture, “God bought you with a high price.”) A bad purchase is when you give something of more value for something of less value.

In God’s eyes, Jesus’ value is the same as yours! Do you see how important you are to God? This is why Jesus prays, “You love them as much as you love me” (John 17:23, NLT).

I want to go Deeper

I think this says, what I want

 

Lord I wanna touch Your heart
No longer standing on the outside looking in
Lord I wanna see Your smile
And know it’s there because I’m pleasing You
Lord I wanna touch Your heart
So tired of standing on the outside looking in
Wanna be where You are
Lord I wanna see Your smile
And know it’s there because I’m pleasing You

Deeper on
To the place where it can just be me and You
I want to get closer Lord
Gonna find Your heart and lose myself in You
Oh take me deeper on
To the place where it can just be me and You
Wanna be alone with You
Oh oh oh
I want to get closer Lord
Gonna find Your heart then lose myself in You

Deeper Lord
Closer Lord
Deeper Lord
Be strong,
Be closer to You
Deeper Lord
Closer Lord
Deeper Lord
Be strong,
Be closer

Deeper

Deeper Lord
Closer Lord
Deeper Lord
Be strong,
Be closer to You

I wanna be where You are

Deeper Lord
Closer Lord
Deeper Lord
Be strong,
Be closer

Deeper Lord
Closer Lord
Deeper Lord
Be strong,
Be closer to You
Deeper Lord
Closer Lord
Deeper Lord
Be strong,
Be closer

Deeper Lord to the place where I can be alone with You
Closer Lord
Gonna find Your heart and lose myself in You
I wanna be lost in You
I wanna be lost in You

Deeper Lord to the place where it can be me and You
Shall I be outside
Closer Lord
I wanna be closer
Just wanna find Your heart then get lost in You

Deeper Lord
Closer Lord
Deeper Lord
Be strong,
Be closer to You
Deeper Lord
Closer Lord
Deeper Lord
Be strong,
Be closer

This is my desire

Deeper Lord
Closer Lord
Deeper Lord
Be strong,
Be closer to You
Deeper Lord
Closer Lord
Deeper Lord
Be strong,
Be closer

Wake Up..

In the book of Job, as God speaks from a whirlwind, he sets up his challenging “conversation” to Job by sayng “Brace yourself like a man!” Lately through reading scriptures from Job 38-40, having dreams about what will happen in the earth, and is already happening, some, and through prophecy, it’s like the Lord is saying to the church, “!” We have to get ready for what God is about to do, and what he might allow in our nation and in the world. He knows the time and season, Jesus is longing for his bride. And the earth (and the true church) is longing for Jesus…Beloved, the time is NOW to allign our hearts with the will of the Father. To pray in the spirit. To be bold and obedient. To declare with heaven, the glory of God on the earth. HOLINESS UNTO JESUS! The Lord shared with me last year, that he was raising up a generation who’s only cry is “Holiness unto the Lord!” and that he wanted to raise up a “Matthew 5” generation. ARE YOU AWAKE TO THAT? Are you listening to the voice of God or the echo of others? (even “Christians”) In Psalm 103:7, it says,”He revealed His CHARACTER to Moses and His DEEDS to the people of Israel.” Remember when the Israelites did not want to seek God “face to face,” but just allowed Moses (their “Pastor,” so to speak…) to hear from God for them? Well, they missed out on a beautiful treasure, an intimate knowledge of WHO GOD WAS…what He was really like, and could have pleased him a lot better if they had known for themselves. Yes, they saw miracles and provision, God’s “deeds,” but Moses got to see God’s “Character!” Are YOU willing to climb the mountain of His presence? Are you hungry to know God for yourself? To hear his secrets? To know what he’s like and how to please him? DO YOU WANT TO BE CHANGED until your very face shines? It won’t happen through a second-hand experience or a “hand-me-down” word. It will only happen when yousee God for yourself. Don’t settle…Don’t run away from God. Run TO him. get alone with Him and pour your heart out. Climb that mountain and stay there until he reveals himself to you. “Jesus give us eyes to see your beauty and ears to hear your voice. We don’t just seek your hand, we seek your face!” Time is short. Walk close to Him and heed his instructions. Be ready! “Brace yourself like a man.” He’s coming. You will see signs and wonders in the earth. You will feel the earth trembling. Let the Lord shake your spirit as he will shake this earth. Some of the “shaking” you will see, is God, shaking our nation(s) by the shoulders out of sleep, with his own hands saying “WAKE UP!” God is calling for true worship. SOUND THE ALARM! Isaiah 58:1…

A Grace That Sets You FREE

 

Grace – Grace is God’s unmerited favor. It is kindness from God we don’t deserve. There is nothing we have done, nor we can ever do to earn this favor. It is a gift from God. Grace is divine assistance given to humans for their regeneration (rebirth) or sanctification; a virtue coming from God; a state of sanctification enjoyed through divine favor

If there was anyone in the bible that understood grace, it would be the apostle Paul, he started out as the chief of sinners, and he ended up the chief of the apostles. The way he made the transition from the chief of sinners to the chief of the apostles was because of GRACE.
Someone once said that if you ever seen a turtle on a fence post he didn’t get their by himself,. So if you ever seen a saint of God seating in church with there bible and their life straighten out there addictions broken and their name written in the lambs book of LIFE.. You know this that they did not get there by themselves or if you have ever seen someone praising God in freedom you know this they didn’t get there by themselves. You can know that God and his grace lifted them up to where they are at. You see Grace is a gift that gets us to the place that we could not get on our own.
The estimate of any object is determined by what a person is willing to pay for that object. When God looked at us, silver and Gold wasn’t enough to pay the price for us. That our worth was more than silver and gold that it was worth his only son’s blood being shed, and if you ever wondered if God loved you, Calvary is God’s answer. You have great worth to him.

In 2 Corinthians 12:8-9 Paul is talking about sufficient grace three times he asked God, get me out of this trial, and three times God said my grace is sufficient for you, I will not remove it, because I am teaching you something I am allowing you to go through the darkness there is treasures out of this darkness, Jesus says what I teach you in the darkness you will proclaim in the light ! (Matthew 10:27). Your going through something and you don’t understand and it’s so dark and you almost want to give up and your on the brink of surrender and walking away from everything. But you have to understand Jesus said that I will talk to you in the darkness about things that you will proclaim in the light. You see the law came by Moses but the grace by Jesus Christ.
In John 8:3-11 there is this woman caught in the act of adultery, meaning since she was caught in the act she was probably barely clothed and dragged in humiliation and thrown down at the feet of Jesus, and the Pharisees said Moses and the law says stone her. Well you see one problem with judgmental people is they don’t know when to shut up. They hear something and They will text and talk on their cell phone about it until the phone is dead and then go home and get on the house phone and talk and talk, cause they don’t know when to shut up and they talk to much. You see if the Pharisees would have just stopped talking and said Moses and the law says stone her. They could have picked up rocks and been in line with the law. And Jesus may have watched it happen. But they talked to much, and they turned to Jesus and said what do you say Jesus?.. But at that moment Jesus made a transition out of the law that came by Moses, but grace and truth came by JESUS, he stepped in Grace stepped in and looked at the woman and listened to her accuser and then.. he stooped down and began touching dirt, maybe the reason he started touching the dirt was a sign to the woman who felt so dirty that he didn’t mind getting his hands dirty to rescue her, that when you can’t get to him he will stoop down and touch dirty messed up shameful filthy lives with his nail scared hands that he isn’t so high and holy that he can’t get his hands dirty. That’s enough but then he stood up and said if any of you without sin throw the first stone, they all dropped the stones and walked away, and Jesus stood and he said where are your accusers now? And she said there none. The only one who could have accused her because he was the only sinless one didn’t have any rocks in his pocket. The bible said as though Jesus thought she still didn’t get it. John 8:8 says he stooped down again, put his hands in the dirt as to say to her that I don’t care how many times I have to stoop, I don’t care how many times I have to get my hands dirty , or how many times you do this over and over I’m going to stoop down and I’m not afraid to get my hands dirty I’m not afraid to touch the dirt in your life because I love you so much I’ll keep stooping down and getting my hands dirty until I get you saved.
Sometimes we think God, I’ve messed up to bad you can’t use me, but you see he stooped down and through his basin of mercy he has poured his grace on you to clean you up. He doesn’t care about your past the messes you have made. He is offering his grace, he paid a price for you and he will turn the bad in to good for his glory.

You see there is NOTHING that you can do to separate you from the love of God. And it’s not what you have done but it’s about what Jesus has done he has stepped in and he gave his life, so you may live. Don’t let your past hold you back from where God wants to take you, because by his grace we are saved. And by his Grace my sins are washed away.
God can and will move in any circumstance, just give it to him and let his grace set you free.