2 Corinthians 10:3-5 3 For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. 4 The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
Many use the above verse in a context of Christian vs. non-Christian. I agree that this is a powerful verse to remind us that we who are in Christ have access to divine power against those who wage war against Christianity.
I also see another valuable place where this verse reveals help for me. I have access to divine power to fight against the condemning messages that I personally carry within myself.
All of us have at one time or another (or many times) have heard a negative message about ourselves that really landed. We believed what we heard. It may have begun with a simple correction or criticism. It may have been a truth we needed to hear but was not delivered in a healthy way. In some ways, we may carry these messages in order to motivate ourselves to do and be good. Whatever the case may be, we all carry negative messages about ourselves.
These negative messages about who we are inside…are lies! The initial criticism may have been rooted in truth and we corrected our path, but the continual message we carry from that initial correction is false. And we cannot eliminate these without divine power. Accessing this divine power is easier than one may think. Those of us who claim to be redeemed, who are saved, have the Holy Spirit living within us. And The Spirit has power. Yet, it does not always manifest itself in some “Hollywood” fashion.
I believe there are, what I call Spiritual revelations of divine power at my access. Let me give an example: My child disobeys me in such a way that I feel disrespected. My reaction to his disrespect is “over the top”. I begin to raise my voice and verbally beat down my child. This unhealthy reaction is my first revelation: I am exposed. Something else besides my child’s disrespect is going on in my heart. Some semblance of this message is going on in my heart, “I am not worthy of respect”. My unhealthy response is a reaction to a lie I believe about myself. This exposure is the Spirit telling me that something in me needs divine power.
The second revelation is buried deep within my heart. God made me; I am good at my core. This was written in my DNA and awakened of sorts when I accepted Jesus. This is part of the reason I am fighting against disrespect. I don’t believe the negative message at my core. I may be flawed. I may make poor choices and sin. But, I am wonderfully made by the creator of all. Yet, at some level I believe the message/lie and live life accordingly. I must believe the truth about my existence and how I am made in the image of God.
This leads to the third revelation. This one requires action on my part. It is time for me to set a boundary against the lie. I do this by taking “captive every thought and making it obedient to Christ.” This action I take is based in what I know about God, Jesus, and the grace that flows from the heart of God. The action is becoming intentional about believing in the truth about me at my core. God created me good. The lies I choose to believe and the choices I make based on the lies do not change the fact that God loves me, always. The boundary I set comes from my belief that His love and grace is available to me at all times. The truth message must over-power the lie message.
As I go through this process of walking through the Spiritual revelations, the lies begin to fade. However, until Jesus returns, I will have to walk through this cycle continuously. I live in a fallen world. And, I tend to add to the problem by believe the lies. But, I battle daily to believe God’s truth.
Question/challenges:
1.
What are some of the lies you believe about you?
2.
Where did these originate? From what truth have they been twisted?
3.
What are your thoughts around the revelation of
exposure?
4.
What are your thoughts around the fact that God made
you good at your core?
5.
If this is difficult for you to believe, then what is
the reason behind it?
6.
This week, bring before Jesus the lie you believe about
you. Imagine He is in the room with
you. Ask for His opinion about the
lie. Then, ask Him to tell you the truth
about you. Soak that in.
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