I have focused a lot of my recent teachings on winning the battle within. It is a perspective that focuses our attention on the threshold of our breakthrough to liberty and rest. Christ the Savior has defeated the enemy outside of us and now He has sent the sword of the Spirit to enable us to defeat the enemy inside. Our part in this campaign is to bind the strong man.
23 So He called them to Himself and said to them in parables: “How can Satan cast out Satan? 24 If a kingdom is divided against itself, that kingdom cannot stand. 25 And if a house is divided against itself, that house cannot stand. 26 And if Satan has risen up against himself, and is divided, he cannot stand, but has an end. 27 No one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man. And then he will plunder his house. (Mark 3:23-27)
To deliver us from the tyranny of the inner man and his sinful nature, the Lord has given us the sword of the Spirit…Truth. It is written that knowing the truth makes us free. To know the truth, you have to let it abide in you. You have to receive it into your heart through acknowledging it as reality. This creates division inside your soul that leads to the end of Satan’s rule in you. The process of accepting truth uproots the lies, which is the strength of the carnal man. By submitting to truth, you defeat the strongman of the sin nature. When he is defeated, then the house can be taken for the Kingdom of GOD.
51 Do you suppose that I came to give peace on earth? I tell you, not at all, but rather division. (Luke 12:51)
Christ the Savior came to bring deliverance by dividing us from the power of darkness with the light of truth. We must have a resolve to align ourselves with truth whenever it is revealed, no matter how disruptive it is to our lives. This is why Christ says if you save your life, you will lose it, but if you lose your life, you will find true life. When Adam and Eve decided to step from under the wings of the Almighty GOD to fend for themselves, one of the first challenges they had to deal with was the exposure that came with leaving the shelter of GOD. So, they made themselves aprons of fig leaves to cover their nakedness. To get back to the shelter of the Almighty, we all have to abandon the coverings we have made for ourselves and return to the refuge of His word. Today, instead of fig leaves, man covers with lies in the form of worldly rationalizations and popular consensus. Returning to GOD means leaving the false things of this present world.
What makes this so challenging today is that much of the world’s values and falsehoods permeate most Christian congregations. This provides people who are double-minded a space to abide in a compromise with the strongman of the sin nature while deluding themselves regarding their liberation. In truth, they are still captive to the stronghold of worldly consensus.
12 Therefore Jesus also, that He might sanctify the people with His own blood, suffered outside the gate. 13 Therefore let us go forth to Him, outside the camp, bearing His reproach. 14 For here we have no continuing city, but we seek the one to come. (Hebrews 12:13-14)
The sanctification or the division which adhering to truth brings will separate you from colleagues, friends, and family. Not only colleagues, friends, and family who reject GOD in the world, but also those who reject GOD while calling themselves followers of Christ. I have experienced rejection from both groups because both are ruled by the stronghold of consensus, which is no more than a love of man more than a love for GOD. That is why we have to love GOD more than anything else. His command to love Him with all of our heart, mind, soul, and strength is for our deliverance and continued safety. If we will not treasure Him above all, then we will be double minded and compromise with darkness.
To receive resurrection life, we must first die the death of the cross. This means accepting the verdicts of GOD regarding our own selves. Valid is defined as being founded on truth or fact. Christ proclaims that He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. It is only through sourcing our being in Him that we become validated. That means it is only through Christ that our true worth is established. There are many who have parked themselves in the congregation of Christ based on validation by men that will be booted out of the wedding supper for not having covered themselves in the truth of Christ. The King calls it not having the proper wedding garment.
9 Therefore go into the highways, and as many as you find, invite to the wedding.’ 10 So those servants went out into the highways and gathered together all whom they found, both bad and good. And the wedding hall was filled with guests. 11 “But when the king came in to see the guests, he saw a man there who did not have on a wedding garment. 12 So he said to him, ‘Friend, how did you come in here without a wedding garment?’ And he was speechless. (Matthew 22:9-12)
To win that final battle within, stop fighting to preserve yourself. The GOD of truth made you to walk “in” His image, so you are nobody but a lie outside of Him. You are only true, when you abide in Christ, the truth of GOD. When you surrender that fleshy man for the spiritual man after Christ, the Lord will give you beauty for those ashes, joy for all your pain, and a garment of praise for all those false coverings.
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