Demolishing Strongholds is messy

Now on part 2 of Freedom in Jesus Series: "Demolishing Strongholds." You either need the whole "Demolishing Strongholds workbook pdf"or You can download it by segments (pdf). You need the supplements as well because they provide more meat to what we are going to go through in this journey together.

It asks you to complete the questionnaire first. You need to scroll down paste the images to get to the questionnaires. There are two different kinds. One for Christians and one of Non-Christians. The Questionnaires are located here:
http://restorationministries.org/html/booksCD.html 


The Demolishing strongholds workbook and supplements are here:
http://restorationministries.org/html/DemStrVid.html 

I don't know about you but this is stirring up some major issues in my life. Before I started this is was trapped in my own living hell. It felt like I was drowning in poison and loosing the battle with satan. I felt abandoned to some extent by God. Not good enough. Unworthy.

I got to thinking about it the other night. A lake looks clear until you get in and start stirring the waters around. Your feet loosen the dirt and mud and yuck and the water becomes murky and filled with dirt. The more we stir it up, the worse it gets. The dirt and murk was always there, but it was just hidden beneath the surface. That is you and I before we start digging around in our wounds to find the cause and fill it with God's promises to heal us.

Well, I kinda feel murky now. I feel a little overwhelmed with the number of items I had to mark on the questionnaire. Don't get me wrong, the first segment made me understand the power that I gave over to the pain in my life. Essentially I allowed satan to defuse my passion and spirit by allowing self-doubt and fear to enter in. Now that I understand that, 80% of my self made turmoil is gone.

This part 2 will help us identify what strongholds are keeping us captive and preventing us from living a life filled with joy and purpose. The key is being very insightful and honest with yourself about these strongholds. Because some of our wounds are buried so deep, have those closest to you fill out a questionnaire about you also. Don't hold it against them! Make sure you don't have a spirit of resentment for their honesty.They are literally helping you to find those dark spots you may have buried so that you can eradicate them and be free of your bondage.

God bless and happy digging.

Is your branch dead?

                           

I was reading my ministry class material for the last class and came upon a section that made me want to dig deeper. The idea is this: How do you explain that You are saved by faith not by works BUT if you don’t bear fruit then you aren’t of His kingdom.

Epheisians 2:1-9:  ”And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience— among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body^a and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind.^b  But^c God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ—by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus,  so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus.  For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of works, so that no one may boast.” 

Initially, upon being saved 3 decades ago, there was a major shift in my heart and I was on fire for God. But then something happened in the church that turned me sour and I fell away. Later over many years, I began reading books that sparked my desire to know Him again. You could say that He was calling me back. Those books referred to biblical passages. Then when my sister passed away, I picked up a bible for the first time and decided to read it for myself. I felt the embers burning as if the Holy Spirit was leading me but all I did was read. I wouldn’t commit to more. It was still kind of like trying to climb up a mudslide. I was doing it on my own, with little understanding, didn’t have the right tools and always kept my feet planted in the world. Maybe that is why they came up with the term ‘backslid.’ I kept trying and slipped right back down. I was stubborn and independent. I fight that to this day.

You see, you can think you are saved and show minor outward behaviors, when it is convenient, that you are saved but not truly be changed. Churches are full of unsaved people. For, literally, decades, I called myself a Christian, went to church, read the bible, spoke of His miracles, but did not bear fruit of my own. I was a Sunday Christian. I lived in sin. I selected which parts of the bible I wanted to live by and ignored the rest. I even had the audacity to think that I was encouraging others in Christ… and perhaps He granted me that for their sake but I was a hypocrite. I did not truly surrender my life to Him.

You see, you can read about God and claim to know Him. You could talk to Him in your head, out loud during your day and ask for favors all day long, but the fact is, you still are not in relationship with Him. He demands that you believe. When you believe you receive the Holy Spirit. When you receive the Holy Spirit, your heart changes. You cannot continue to live in sin. Why? Darkness and light cannot occupy the same space. Do you follow me?

1 John 1: 5-7: ^5 “This is the message we have heard from him and proclaim to you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all. ⁶ If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. ⁷ But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.”

God/Christ/Holy Spirit is the Tree of Life. You are the branch that has been grafted in by salvation. You can be filled with light or darkness (sin/worldly desires). You have the power to choose. Light is nourishing to the tree. Darkness is bad for the tree (diseased so to speak). When you, the branch, are filled with light and without sin, you are thriving and the Holy Spirit can live in you because you are part of the tree. If you live in sin and worldly ways, then you are filled with disease and must be cut off from the tree. Does that make sense?

John 15:1-11: “I am the true vine, and my Father is the vinedresser. ² Every branch in me that does not bear fruit he takes away, and every branch that does bear fruit he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. ³ Already you are clean because of the word that I have spoken to you. ⁴ Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit by itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in me. ⁵ I am the vine; you are the branches. Whoever abides in me and I in him, he it is that bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. ⁶ If anyone does not abide in me he is thrown away like a branch and withers; and the branches are gathered, thrown into the fire, and burned. ⁷ If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. ⁸ By this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit and so prove to be my disciples. ⁹ As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Abide in my love. ¹⁰ If you keep my commandments, you will abide in my love, just as I have kept my Father's commandments and abide in his love. ¹¹ These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that your joy may be full.”

During my fall out from God, He had mercy on me and answered prayers and gave grace more than once. I recall when I first found out that I was living in a particular sin, I was horrified! I pleaded for Him to forgive me and help me escape the situation with grace. Though I was still not fully vested in Him, He granted my prayers. I have never sinned in that particular way again nor missed it. It was as if it wasn’t me. Unfortunately, I continued to live in other sin that I did not recognize as such or ignored.

1 John 3:6: ^6 “No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him.”

True salvation will look AND feel so completely different than the surface/easy road. If you are truly saved, then you will have the Holy Spirit in you. You will no longer WANT sin in your life. You will not seek to do good works in order to be saved because it is not by works but by faith in Christ only, that you are saved. BUT with the Holy Spirit dwelling in you, your heart will change and out of the desires of your heart you WILL sin no more and you WILL bear fruit. God gives us all the power to do this when we are saved. The result is peace, love and joy.

Galatians 5:16-26: 16”But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. 17For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. 18But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law. 19Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, 20idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, 21envy,^d drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. 22But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. 24And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.

25If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit. 26Let us not become conceited, provoking one another, envying one another.”

[If you are missing peace, love for others or joy in your life, you should go to http://restorationministries.org/ and do part 2 of Freedom in Christ Series called Demolishing Strongholds to find out what wounds/demons may be darkening your soul. If you need help navigating through it, let me know.]

Being saved literally changes your heart so that you no longer live in sin. That isn’t to say that you will never slip here and there. But it does mean that you will not be a slave to sin. You will not purposely seek it out. You will not be in bondage to anything: drugs, alcohol, sex, vanity, greed, etc.

When I came to realize what a hypocrite I was being, and kept struggling with the same sin, I repented, not lightly, but with serious remorse, for my past sins and present sinful ways. I begged God to take them from me and help me make better decisions regardless of the worldly cost. I can even say that I asked Him to eradicate the part of me that was the weakest to make it less desirable or beneficial to sin. He certainly had mercy upon me and took it from me.

What followed was miraculous. God drew me in. I found a deeply spiritual loving church (Assemblies of God). I saw the selfless service they provided to the Teen Challenge Program and wanted that kind of love and service in my life. I stepped away from the worldly sins, some more difficult than others, and began to really see what I needed to do to keep the Holy Spirit in my heart. This isn’t always easy folks. We come with years of wounds and damage and misconceptions to remove and heal.

For example: It is amazing how you can think that the need for a certain income is practical and not enslaving you. People will take all kinds of evil doings just to bring in that paycheck. In reality, I fought the Spirit when I was compelled to leave my job and knew that my job was detrimental to my health. I chose to listen to a ‘false prophet’ claiming to be Christian, and held on to my job until it was no longer an option. I lived in bondage to my income and material way of life. You would have thought that I found out I had a disease, when I was going through that Hell on earth. And frankly it was all my own doing. But God saw me through it. In a very short span of time, my car, which was brand new, was paid off by an error in taxes, I paid my credit card debt and I was able to receive retirement for that same job. The bitterness that followed took some time to eradicate. Slowly the veil of darkness began to lift and I realized how healthy I felt. How freeing it was not to be in bondage to that diseased part of my life. The daily dread was gone and I was full of joy and peace. But it all started with sin and disobedience! The natural consequences were my own to bare. We must choose to trust God and follow Him! We cannot be in bondage and be free in Christ.  

If you need help breaking these bonds, Demolishing Strongholds is for you (see above). You might also want to go to http://www.greatbiblestudy.com/three_stages_bondage.php read the bible study here.

Understand too, the reason we connect with others (fellowship) is because we need more mature Christians to support, empower, educate and mentor us, if even from a distance while you get closer to God and learn what your purpose is. Restoration Ministries has wonderful resources on how to evaluate your wounds and rid yourself of strongholds that our pasts have planted in us. Also because it is biblical as well.

Hebrews 10: 24-25: ^24 “And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, ²⁵ not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.”

One other thing: Notice I didn’t talk about works? Because, and to me this was a recent revelation, you can work in the church and overload yourself with Christian responsibilities until Christ comes back but if you are not right in the Spirit and/or if you are still a slave to sin, He will not know you. On the other hand, you can be filled with such a desire to serve that your servitude comes from the heart and not from obligation. While that won’t get you into heaven, it is part of the fruits that you could bear. So along with the essential fruits such as those mentioned in Galations 5, you could be producing all kinds of fruits from the heart as well. J