May 23, 2006

• I think the best part of week 9 of Breaking Free by Beth Moore has to do with her five step process of tearing down the high places.

  
  

  Oh how I realized that the high places (idols in our lives) are so destructive, and the high places can be so insidious – we don’t always recognize them as such. Satan does not always use an obvious idol – yes there are some who are addicted to porn, to money, to drugs, goals, but sometimes our idols can masquerade as something good – say a ministry that we invest a lot of our life in, but it is not where God wants us at a particular time. 

  
  

  She talks about the difference between captivating thoughts and casual thoughts. Captivating thoughts hold us hostage, we can’t escape them, but don’t forget that a casual thought can sometimes turn into a captivating thought. We need to turn all our thoughts over to Christ.

  
  

  I wish you could see the little drawings that Beth put in the book to accompany the actions towards freedom. But the process we can use in our lives, and it is necessary. Bob Dylan once wrote a song that said that you’ve got to serve someone. Beth points out that we have a choice. We can surrender to God and be led by bonds of love, or we can surrender to satan and be controlled by his imprisoning bonds of control. What starts out with satan as a small step in the wrong direction ends up being a driving force in our lives that we can’t seem to escape (unless we are willing to repent and turn to Jesus). Satan is a smart adversary, he doesn’t give us the worst case scenario as our first foray into sin, he makes the choice seem attractive, and we give up a bit of ourselves, which leads to more and more and more and more. His goal is to take us down, God’s goal is to build us up.

  
  

  STEP ONE: The first step to freedom is to recognize the captor. We have to take an honest look at ourselves and our lives and identify what are the strongholds in our life.  God can work with truth, and we must admit to God the truth. He already knows it, but it is for us to see the truth of the bondage we are in.

  
  

  All throughout the Old Testament the kings were instructed to tear down the altars in the high places. In our life the high places are the people, things and circumstances that outgrow our thoughts for God. When the Israelites tore down the idols and high places they prospered, when they didn’t God left them to their own devices and they ended up in depravity – at one point even resorting to human sacrifice of their sons to idols.

  
  

  If you think about it, sometimes it is hard to uproot the idols in our lives. We are used to the idols, comfortable with them, they seem safe to us, and unfortunately they will be passed down to future generations if we don’t deal with them. Idols can be anger, unforgiveness, jealousy, etc. And some idols are memories, addictive habits, and anything that takes us away from God. Truth be told, if we don’t cast down those high places, they will pull us down. And believe it or not, we can idolize things that we don’t particularly like, and even hate. Imagine some of the people we hold in unforgiveness, they too become idols.

  
  

  STEP 2: The next step is to stand in agreement with God. We are still not free from the thing holding us captive, but we are aware of the sin that we are committing by holding onto that idol. and as 1 John 1:9 says, “If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just  and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” We just need to admit our sins to God. Our first step in this was taken when we first asked God in our lives, but it wasn’t a one-time thing. We need to ask God into every situation in our lives, He loves us so much that He wants to be involved in our day-to-day business. If we look at our lives, those things which seem to keep the best that God has for us away, are those things that are sins.

  
  

  The beauty of standing in agreement with God is that we then see clearly and won’t be so readily pulled into the things that once oppressed us.

  
  

  STEP 3: Tear Down the Lies. Once we agree with God about the oppression then we can begin to dismantle it. This is an important turning point in our walk towards freedom. Satan does not have authority over us once we have accepted Jesus into our lives. He can woo us into sin, can oppress us, but he cannot force us to stay in the prison of our bondage. We can walk out. Satan encourages us to have our own ideas, doubts, and thoughts. Galatians 6:1 shows us that any Christian can be led astray. We can’t just ignore satan and he will go away, he, just like after his temptation of Christ satan will leave and return at a more convenient moment. He will come when we are in a place of weakness. The only way to keep free from the influence of satan is through the help of the Holy Spirit which directs our paths.  The way to tear down the lies is with the TRUTH of God. For lies cannot stand in the face of truth. Satan has to use lies to trap us because he is a defeated foe and is seeking to pull us down with him.

  
  

  Beth asked us to think of some of the lies that we have believed in our lives, and realize that they are just that, lies. For me some of them are I am ruined for life, unworthy, God can’t love me because of my past, etc.

  
  

  Beth Moore gave a very important caution. “I learned that if you don’t listen to God and obey in the early stages, the longer you wait the less discernment and strength you have.” p. 194 She then goes on to say, “Beloved, I want to say something with tenderness and much compassion. If you know a stronghold exists somewhere in your life (even if you’ve never admitted it to anyone), yet you cannot identify the lies, you are still a captive. That’s not condemnation but truth that I hope will give you a jump start toward freedom. “There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus” (Rom. 8:1). But there can certainly be captivity.”

  
  

  STEP 4: Put up the Truth. Now that we have identified the lies and escaped from them, we need to fill the space that once contained the lies with truth. Just like when Jesus cast out the demons, he cautioned that the demon would come back to the house swept clean and bring seven companions. We cannot let the lies re-establish themselves, so we must fill our minds with the Truth of God, which is the Word of God. We can be forgiven, but still not be free. And if we don’t get free, it is too easy to cycle back into sin. John 8:32 “And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.” In order to put the truth in place of the lies we have to understand the goal, what does God want to accomplish in our minds.We need to adopt the Mind of Christ in the situation. Beth says that so often in our walk we tend to swat at mosquitos of sins, when what we need is all out warfare. God is not going to release us from anything enslaving until we come to the mind of Christ in the situation, or else we would be released to fall back into perhaps the same sin. God wants us not to be vulnerable, and the best way to achieve that is to build up our spiritual muscles with the Mind of Christ.

  
  

  God doesn’t perform lobotomies. We can’t forget the object of our stronghold, because then we would forget our need to praise Him. In order to put up the truth, Beth suggests that we search God’s Word for scriptures that speak the mind of God to our particular stronghold. We can do that by looking up key words in a concordance, and compile a list of scriptures. Beth carries her scriptures that she is praying around with her. She uses an index card binder with index cards or (she showed us in a later study) a small photo album with index cards inserted in the slips) and she carries them around with her. Every time she is in line at a bank, or anywhere, she reads the scripture, and memorizes it. She calls them TRUTH CARDS, and you carry them around and use them until the stronghold is broken and you are walking free.

  
  

  She also cautions us that we must fight for our freedom and expect that when we are close to breaking down the stronghold that satan will up the ante, and things will heat up in our lives. She also suggests avoiding any deception possible, such as media shows that are not edifying, books that are not edifying.

  
  

  STEP 5: Bow thought to the truth. When we were in bondage we were bowing down to the lie, now we are choosing to bow to the truth of God. As we speak and apply God’s truth to our lifestyle, we bow to the truth. Beth says, p. 198 “Our thought life is something we’ll work on for the rest of our lives in our desire to be godly. But take heart in two important facts. Working on our thought lives is the only thing that will keep them from working on us. Either our thoughts have control of us through the power of the enemy or we have control of them through the power of God. Neutral doesn’t exist among the mental gears. That doesn’t mean rest doesn’t exist. In fact, no rest compares to the relief of thoughts captive to Christ….. Staying at work on or thought lives is the very essence of godliness.”

  
  

  Romans 8:5-8 shows us the difference between minds focused on Christ and minds focused on the flesh. Trust me, Christ is better.

  
  

  She also says that when we do not make deliberate choices to think according to the Spirit, we will default to the flesh.  Pastor Don talks about which dog do you feed. The one that you want to take predominance should be the one that you feed – the evil mean angry dog, or the sweet, loving kind dog.

  
  

  She also suggests that we pray and ask God to give us a heightened awareness of the way we are thinking, so that we can spot the strongholds and bring them in line with Christ.  We have to feed the spirit and starve the flesh. We also have to be careful not to give up. Not to get discouraged, we are in a battle, and so many people give up before the old thoughts give out. God’s word will not come back void, we have to trust that as we keep in His word, our beings will change in accordance to His word.

  
  

  I hope this is helpful. I know that I battle thoughts, and sometimes feel discouraged, but just like with my children, sometimes we think that nothing is happening, but when we look back we see just how far we have come. The adventure of walking with Christ though is non-stop. He will keep refining us more and more, and it is for our own good.

  
  

  Have a blessed night.

  
  

  Heather

  • 7:30 pm
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