2 Corinthians 10:3-6 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled.
As soon as we were translated into the Kingdom of Light, we entered a spiritual war — and we must realize the warfare we face on a day-to-day basis. Constantly contending in our minds, we battle over thoughts and emotions which flow through them. The enemy often attacks by bringing up issues from our past. Failures, regrets, wounds, and traumas all have the potential to drag us down into doubt, darkness and despair. Our tremendous challenge is not to respond to these memories with old destructive thought patterns. Our victory lies in responding to these thoughts and feelings with the mind of Messiah as new creations in Him.
While we don’t necessarily ignore thoughts and feelings from the past, it is vital that we don’t allow them to control our souls and emotions, but that we take them captive through prayers and declarations inspired by our spiritual mind. For example, is the enemy speaking rejection to me causing me to feel unwanted and unloved? I will respond that I am ACCEPTED IN THE BELOVED and that the Lord has shown His love to me in many ways by His spirit and through His Body.
A powerful illustration from the Old Testament is the Lord’s forbidding the levitical priests from entering His Presence if they had touched any dead thing. This is a lesson for us – leave the old, dead mindset behind, the ways that you used to respond to things in the past – instead, enter the Holy of Holies and commune with your Lord!
The battle over past issues is won when the Mind of Messiah in us takes authority over their meaning, purpose and definition in our lives With Yeshua (Jesus) on the throne of our hearts and minds, everything in our past is brought under His authority and works together for our good!
Make it a point to take every thought captive … and in doing so, you’ll be living out what it truly means to walk in VICTORY!
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[worthy_plugins_devotion_single_body]As we approach the New Year, we’re back to making New Year’s resolutions … but this year is a bit different, since it’s not only a New Year but a New Decade! During the past ten years we’ve seen such radical changes in our society; the definition of marriage, millennia-old norms of gender identity, bath and locker-room privacy, have all been affected by court decisions as a sea change in social mores has swept through the western world. People of Biblical faith are witnessing the fulfillment of Isaiah’s warning, “Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter!” [Isaiah 5:20]
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Yeshua (Jesus) gave a remarkable parenthetic instruction in the middle of His Olivet discourse on the time of His coming and the end of the age. While it is unlikely that He himself said this, He certainly inspired Matthew to insert, “..let the reader understand”, concerning this critical event prophesied by Daniel, the Abomination of Desolation. His exhortation intended us (the readers of Matthew’s gospel) to learn what this means.
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Over the past few days, one of our servers that hosts roughly 20 different web sites was breached and used to send SPAM. While there was no real damage done, the thousands of bounced messages literally caused the server to shut down. There was no personal information stored on the server, however, the hours spent setting up a new server in the midst of a speaking tour created chaos which we really didn’t have the time to deal with. However, the worst of it is all over, and we’re back! Just as we’re getting ready to launch another website (https://worthy.bible) for the Kingdom … we get attacked from all sides!