2 Corinthians 10:3-6 “For though we live in the world we are not carrying on a worldly war, for the weapons of our warfare are not worldly but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every proud obstacle to the knowledge of God and take every thought captive to obey Christ, being ready to punish every disobedience when your obedience is complete." Today's episode talks about how important prayer is in our fight to destroy strongholds. It also talks about how the Holy Spirit can give us the power to destroy strongholds when we call upon Him. Music:"Adding the Sun" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Divine Power To Destroy Strongholds
2 Corinthians 10:3-6 “For though we live in the world we are not carrying on a worldly war, for the weapons of our warfare are not worldly but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every proud obstacle to the knowledge of God and take every thought captive to obey Christ, being ready to punish every disobedience when your obedience is complete."
That first line is really powerful, especially with all the controversy over weapons these days. Yes, we are living in the world and yet we don’t fight like the world does. Our weapons don’t destroy people and their lives, we destroy strongholds. Isn’t that a powerful statement that our weapons have divine power to destroy strongholds? It doesn’t say some of us have the divine power to destroy strongholds, it say our weapons. It is talking about all of us, you and me. Are you facing some pretty big strongholds right now? Are you fighting for custody of your children? Are you looking at the giant stack of bills and the empty bank account and wondering how this is all going to work out? Are you struggling with family members or co-workers and dreading seeing them each day? Are you facing chronic pain each day and wondering how you are going to make it though the day? God has given us the weapons that have divine power to break those strongholds. When we face strong holds we might be tempted to give up or to give in. We may feel as though we are in over our head. If we feel like this it is important to remember this verse.
While trying to write this I was stuck here for a while because I kept wondering if that last part was helpful. I wondered if I were facing a seemingly insurmountable stronghold right now, like chronic pain for instance, would I feel comfort by this verse, or would I need some more instruction? God gives us weapons with divine power to destroy strong holds, that is awesome. However, what I keep asking myself is how do I find these weapons, how do I use these weapons? I figured if I was asking these questions you might be too. What came to my mind were a couple of things. First, the second half of this verse is a clue. it says, “Take captive every thought to obey Christ.” When we are facing a stronghold our thoughts can be very powerful and they can help us or they can hurt us depending on what we are thinking.
Our thoughts tell us a story, whether we realize it or not. Our brains listen to everything we say. When we are facing a difficult situation we need to harness our thoughts and make them work for us instead of against us. This means we need to be intentional with what we are thinking and even the things we surround ourselves with. If we are already struggling to feel positive we don’t want to surround ourselves with negative people. We don’t want to share our problems with someone that will jump into our pity party and help us stay there. We need to intentionally seek out things that will help us have more positive thoughts. One way to do this is to spend a few minutes, first thing when you wake up, with the Lord. Talk to God about all the things going wrong and tell Him that you would like His help in all these situations. Ask God to be with you throughout the day and to help you with every situation you encounter. Ask God for the strength to get through this day a little better than you did yesterday. You don’t have to ask God to fix everything, although you can and He will. You can just ask God to give you whatever you need to make it though this one day.
I think the Holy Spirit and Prayer might be the weapons God is talking about in this verse, or at least two of the weapons. You can call on the Holy Spirit any time you are in need. Four simple words and you will have the full power of the Holy Spirit strengthening you. “Come Holy Spirit Come.” It is that easy. When you call on the Holy Spirit He always comes. I have heard miraculous stories of ways the Holy Spirit has shown up for people when they called upon Him. If you are looking to break a stronghold, whether it be an addiction, a struggle in your family, a struggle at work, or lack of work, the Holy Spirit can help you. I remember reading in a book about a minister who felt called to work with teens on the streets of NYC. He was a preacher from Pennsylvania. It was a long road but he ended up helping a lot of them break their addictions. He said he wondered why some kids were able to break their addiction completely and some broke it for awhile and then went back to it. He said it was the kids that accepted the Holy Spirit into their lives that broke that addiction completely. The name of that book is The Cross and the Switchblade by David Wilkerson. I highly recommend that book to everyone. It is such a great book about listening to God’s word even when it doesn’t make sense to us or anyone around us.
Prayer is another great weapon against our strongholds. There are so many different types of prayer. You can pray in the moment whatever comes into your mind. You can also pray formal or prescript prayers. For instance if I am scared I pray the prayer to St. Michael as he is the defender of evil. He is our protector. Also, the simple prayer of saying Jesus’ name. The enemy flees at Jesus’ name. There are also prayers called novenas. This is when you pray a prayer for nine days in a row. You can also have other people pray for you, you can have Mary intercede for you, you can have all the saints intercede fro you. Prayer is so great. Oftentimes we see prayer as a last resort. I have said and I know I have heard a lot of people say, “all we can do is pray.” As if prayer is reserved for when all else fails. We should be praying the whole time, praying when you first find out, praying for a solution, praying for peace and wisdom. Our first stop should be going to our Heavenly Father and trusting the situation in His capable hands. My hope is that we all realize how powerful our prayers are and they can be even more powerful if we realize Jesus gave us the authority to do greater works than He did.
I think this verse is another verse that is very important for us to remember. Yes, we live in this world, but we do not fight like this world. This world fights with weapons and unkind words. It attacks people’s sense of identity, it attacks family values, it attacks love. This world is filled with so much hate and division. We fight back with our prayers. We invite God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit into the situation and we let them show us how to proceed. The Holy Spirit gives us divine power to break our strongholds. One great way to exercise this power is to pray for all we need and to turn our worries over to God. Remember we are called to be set apart. Don’t let the world drag you down, don’t let the world persuade you to fight like they fight. Pray about whatever your troubles are, call the Holy Spirit into the situation and watch how much better things get. I will leave you with Romans 8:31, “What, then, shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?”
Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless all those listening to this episode today. Lord, we want the divine power you give to us to destroy strongholds. Lord, help us to turn to you every time we are in trouble. Help us begin to pray at the first sign of trouble, not as a last resort. Help us to realize the immense power of prayer, so we never again say, “all we can do now is pray.” But instead say, we don’t have to worry because we have been praying and we will continue to pray. Lord we are so grateful you answer all of our prayers. We know they don’t always look like exactly what we want and yet we are grateful anyway. Lord, you are so mighty and powerful. You are the Alpha and the Omega. You are the King of Kings. We adore you Lord and we ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus’ holy name, Amen.
Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I look forward to spending time with you again tomorrow. Remember Jesus loves you and so do I! Have a blessed day!