For the last three weeks we’ve been exploring New Covenant deliverance from strongholds. We’ve looked at what strongholds are (imaginations, thoughts, emotions, feelings, and traditions that exalt themselves above Jesus), and we also saw the foundation of the finished work of Christ and our new identity in Him upon which our freedom stems.
Today we are going to continue from where we paused last week and go deeper into how to apply the deliverance of Christ based on His sacrifice, and our new identity in Him as reborn new creation.
Tearing Down Strongholds
Last week, we began reading 2nd Corinthians 10:3-6, and we paused after verse four, but for clarity and to refresh our minds, let’s read all of the verses again as we begin:
“ 3For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh:
4(For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)
5Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;
6And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled.”
Okay, we’ve already examined the verses three and four in last week’s study. Though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh. The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds.
Now let’s look at verses five and six:
It says that our weapons (which are not carnal, but mighty through God) are able to pull down these strongholds. Now if you need a refresher on what strongholds are, or how they come down, verse five tells us that they are imaginations, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God.
This knowledge of God is the knowledge of what He has done, and His plan and purpose for your life, your created value, and every thing which He has called you to be through His power.
These strongholds are the various thoughts and feelings, and imaginations about how we are less than what He has made us… that we are somehow unloved, worthless, or a failure, and sometimes we wrap Christian language around our strongholds and we protect and guard our strongholds, either from a position of fear, or because we’ve been deceived into believing that it is actually the way it should be; a common example of that idea is the phrase “I’m just a sinner saved by grace.”
That phrase is something that sounds, religious, it seems right, but it is anti-Gospel and anti-Christ. Proverbs 14:12, there is a way that seems right but it leads to death.
So let me ask you a question? Did Jesus say that you are just a sinner? I’m not talking about before you met Him, I’m talking about now. If you are still just a sinner the same as you were before Jesus came into your life, then the entire Gospel is a sham, there is no new life or new creation, and we should all just pack up and go home.
You see, these ideas, these imaginations, and these anti-Christ thoughts veiled in a cloak of Christianity are “things that exalt themselves against the knowledge of God” and they are torn down by our spiritual weapons in Christ Jesus. And they are brought into captivity, they are made captive, to the obedience of Christ.
Your Obedience Is to Christ’s Obedience
The obedience of Christ is where strongholds are broken and die, not your self-effort, not your works— this isn’t talking about your performance, this is speaking about something way better!
We are not supposed to try and bring strongholds captive with Christian performance. We are not on a solid foundation if we say “well, I have been really obedient lately, I have really been performing well”. No, the moment we start measuring our acceptance with God by our performance, then we’ve already lost. Instead we are to bring strongholds captive to Jesus’ perfect obedience. Recognizing that He has performed perfectly, He was and is perfectly obedient, and we are in Him. We died with Him on that cross, and we also live through Him. (Ephesians 2:4-16). That’s the only obedience we have today… to truly “die to self” so that we truly live through Him, and that’s where strongholds have no power.
But as long as we keep straddling the fence is “a little but of grace and a little bit of works to achieve spiritual balance” then we’re still trying to put new wine into old wineskins, and trying to sew a new patch of cloth on an old garment, and it just doesn’t work.
Too often when we are pressed mentally, emotionally or physically we respond with religious legalism and performance, almost like an automatic fight or flight response. You see this in prayer groups, where someone will ask for prayer for something that we consider a “big deal” and suddenly the entire group goes into performance-mode and starts fasting and praying, to try and get God’s attention. I’m not calling anyone out, and I’m not condemning anyone, I didn’t even name any names, but let’s just say I’ve seen it a lot. And it’s usually not motivated by a clear revelation of our redeemed identity in Christ, but instead it’s motivated by fear, because we become focused on the need in-front of us rather than who Jesus is, and who we are in Him.
The sad reality is that many of us have yet to truly understand and receive what Jesus accomplished on the cross, and we’re going to be looking at that deeper this year in our upcoming studies.
Your Fulfilled Obedience
As we see in verse six, when your obedience is fulfilled (through Christ) then all disobedience (all of the strongholds) are not only torn down, but revenged upon righteously by none other than God Himself.
I’ve seen this process play out in small groups and bible studies at various times, where I was sharing the Gospel and people would start battling in their soul (their mind and emotions), they may have been sitting down, but the battle of Armageddon was raging on the inside of them. You could see that they suddenly became very fidgety and uncomfortable. Because the truth that was being revealed right then, was tearing down a stronghold in their mind— that’s the battlefield.
It’s not really about the devil, he’s already disarmed. It’s about people, who in many cases, have believed lies and deception their entire lives, and they’ve settled for way less than their true value and worth which Jesus paid to redeem them into by His cross.
In next week’s study we will continue this topic, as we look at how to live as a new creation in Christ, without works or self-effort, but purely through His grace, as defined in scripture.
Be blessed.