Taking Down Strongholds
ICS Daily Devotions
Proverbs 18:20-21 (NKJV) A man’s stomach shall be satisfied from the fruit of his mouth; from the produce of his lips he shall be filled. Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love it will eat its fruit.
When God is moulding us and dealing with different things in our life, we must not resist His process but agree with it. Choose God and allow the work of the Holy Spirit to be done in your life. Once we are secure in that God is a good God, we will not be fearing His work in our lives. We will know that His corrections are good.
We recognize the fact that we are not perfect but we also need to live and act on the truth of God. Maybe the fact is that a person is negative or jealous or fearful. However, the truth is that all of that is crucified on the cross of Jesus and that God is in the business of changing and forming us so that old habits will be removed step by step.
Things that start with a negative thought become arguments, imaginations and end up becoming strongholds. Even the strongholds God wants to break down and form. It concerns strongholds that you may have been raised up with but are not in line with God’s Word. Negativity that might be a part of your everyday life, comparison to others, backbiting, or fear, all of this God wants to bring down.
Strongholds are created when the mind is convinced that the situation is unchangeable and hopeless.
Stronghold causes us to accept that things are unchangeable even though they are contrary to the will of God. To the Israelites, Goliath was a stronghold but to David there was no stronghold there. In David’s eyes there was an opportunity, because God had formed him and prepared him for the situation.
If we do not allow God to form and change us, we will always fall back into the same habits and react the same way in the similar situations. The devil tells you that you will not make it through. You may start believing it because that is the way you have been taught to think. We can find ourselves in intimidating or frightening situations and the devil will say that you cannot make it, that you will be the one loosing the job, or that it will not go well for your company financially. God wants to step in here, build faith in our lives and form us so that next time we face the same situation our reaction and confessions will be different.
How can this be done? Invite the Spirit of God to come and do the work needed in your life. You see the situation and you say ‘Lord I need you here – teach me, form me so that I can become all that you have called me to become and that I can walk in a way that glorifies you.’ Fill yourself up with words from the Bible that are in line with what you are in need of. It is not enough to just know about it, we must live it out!
The devil does not want you to get into your full potential for God’s kingdom and work. However, God is working on making you all that He has intended for you. Once God starts His work in us, things will come up to the surface and change.
Sermon Series: God is Forming Us
