Spiritual warfare starts with an awareness of the spiritual world. The fruits on a tree represent the physical (seen) world and the roots underground represent the spiritual (unseen).
All physical/tangible sins in our life can be traced back to invisible/intangible evils in our hearts. And if Ephesians 6:12 is true - and if our struggles are not against flesh and blood (i.e. The Physical) then we are left with a spiritual struggle - yes, every time.
For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places (Ephesians 6:12 ESV).
Think about this next time you fight with your spouse or get upset at a workmate or neighbor - THEY ARE NOT YOUR STRUGGLE. They can't be. They are flesh and blood. So, now you're left with only your heart to deal with.
We all think in our hearts. This is why our thought life is so crucial to victory in aporiti warfare. Thoughts, when not taken captive may turn into strongholds, which are fortresses built in our minds to stop us from hearing the voice of God.
Here's a truthful saying: Sow a thought, we reap an act. Sow an act, reap a habit. Sow a habit, reap a character and eventually reap a destiny.
Stronghold = fortress. A negative, destructive pattern of thinking that the enemy has built into our minds, either through repetition or Trumatic experiences or other circumstances that life brings.
What are some signs of a stronghold?
"I can't help myself"
"I'll never change"
"I was born this way"
"I'm just a victim"
"I can't stop busting""I can't stop looking at…"
"People just make me mad"
Most of our misery and strife is directly linked back to the lie that we have believed that, "the world revolves around me." And, if the world revolves around me, then I am always miserable because people, by nature, typically don't exist to serve me because they are serving themselves.
At a dark place season in my life I became a critic.…of everything and of everyone. Everyone around me was an idiot and I was the only one that could do anything right. Pride is a deceptive trap that cannot be uprooted without some digging. And I didn't even realize I had a critical spirit until my friend Dan came alongside me and helped me see that I had fostered a spirit of criticism in my heart.
And Dan helped me see that my critical spirit was not the root of the issue but merely a symptom of many diseases of sin in my life. Near the top of my list was fear - being fearful of exposing my sin to the people God strategically placed in my life. But even deeper than that was the sin of self deception; namely, believing that I could not be loved if people really knew who I was.
Back to the evil thought that "the world revolves around me"
Do you want to be free from the sin of (FILL IN THE BLANK)? Then put a bullet in this notion that the World revolves around you and that God exists to serve you and that Jesus died on the cross for you. Everything God does is for his glory and praise and Jesus went to the cross out of obedience to the Father.
Perhaps our perspective has been too close to the TV to see the big picture. And maybe it's time to take a step back, look beyond the physical struggles, eliminate all the human beings involved and take an introspective look into your heart. The heart of every issue is the issue of the heart. What is on your heart? What is at the root of the issue? What sin needs to be given to God? Give it to Him and utilize the body that he placed you in to uproot those evils.
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