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I remember on Monday at the Disciplers’ Convocation when Brother Obayomi was bringing the word to us, and made us understand that there are certain perspectives that shape our realities and experiences. He made us to understand that we cannot but confess what we want to see for our realities to change, and the Holy Spirit would be taking us further and taking us to pray about certain things that He wants us to experience a shift about.
I remember last Sunday in the Leadership Fellowship, the Holy Spirit took us through a journey of “The Destiny of a Believers Character”, and one of the things that we mentioned about understanding the believers character is that if you understand the image of God, the mentality of God, the personality of God, then you will be able to enjoy your destiny in God. “If there is no mentality shift, there cannot be destiny shift”.
So this morning, the Holy Spirit wants to shift our mentality so that when we get to the place of prayer, we can pray with a new perspective, a new personality and a new identity. Then we can have a destiny shift. And I pray that would be our experience in His presence this morning in Jesus name.
I want us to start by looking at 2 Corinthians 10, and all the Scriptures we would be looking at would help us to understand and shift our mindset. So as we are looking at this scripture, don’t look at it the way you used to look at it before, we want to look at it the way the Holy Spirit wants us to look at it. So that when you are praying, you are not praying the way you used to pray before because there is a saying that goes thus, it is only an insane person that continues to do the same thing and expects a different result.
Until there is a shift in what you do, there would not be a shift in your experience. I pray as the Holy Spirit teach us this morning, we will start to experience the shift that would bring about the shift that we expect in our destinies and experiences in Jesus name.
3 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. 4 For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, 5 casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, 6 and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled.
2 Corinthians 10:3-6 (NKJV)
What Apostle Paul was speaking to us about spiritual warfare; Apostle Paul was speaking here, making believers to understand that we engage in a spiritual war every day and this war that we engage in; he said “ For though we walk in the flesh,” when you see us, you can see flesh and blood. He said but “we do not war according to the flesh”, when it comes to our warfare, the weapon of our warfare are not carnal. Verse 4 says “For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds” The arsenal we use in fighting are not carnal, they are not of the flesh, they are mighty in God for pulling down strongholds.
So what’s Apostle Paul saying here? I want us to pay attention, he started by saying “though we walk in the flesh“, Though when you see us, it looks as if you are seeing flesh and blood, but he said this people you are looking at, we that you see, we do not war according to the flesh, he said “for the weapons of our warfare”. In Ephesians, the Bible makes us to understand the whole armour of God, and when he started explaining the arsenals of our warfare, one thing that I love about that arsenal is that the sword of the spirit is the word of God.
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He said you can defend with all manner of materials but when it’s time for you to attack the enemies, when it’s time to take the battle to the enemy’s gate; what you need is not physical sword, what you need is the sword of the spirit and he said the sword of the spirit is the word of God. Apostle Paul was saying here that our arsenals are not carnal, they are not things that you will find in the armoury of the army of this world, they are not things you will find in the armoured tanks; they are not nuclear weapons.
Our arsenal is spiritual, and the sword of the spirit is mentioned as one of the major attacking materials in spiritual warfare and he said they are mighty in God. What does it do? When we fight, what do we do? When we war, what do we do? Is it that we love fighting? Is it that we must just engage in battles? Why do we fight? When we fight, what are we fighting for? What do we want to achieve when we fight?
- FOR PULLING DOWN STRONGHOLDS
When you are fighting, you are fighting with the mentality of pulling down strongholds. So when you are engaging in spiritual warfare, when you are fighting, when you are praying, the number one thing you should understand is that you are pulling down strongholds. And if you don’t pull down strongholds, you can’t take over the territory.
When God was taking the children of Israel out of Egypt into the promise land and they sent ten spies to go and spy the land; that this land God said he is going to give to us that is flowing with milk and honey, let’s go and see for ourselves what is there. The Bible said when they got to the land, they saw giants; the land was not free. So when God gives you a promise; the promise that God has given you is not a vacant land. There are strongholds. So when you are praying the promise of God, you are pulling down strong holds so that you can obtain what God has promised concerning you.
I want us to have a shift of mentality this morning. God said you will be great; the place where God said you will be great is not vacant. Before you were born, the devil had being on the earth with his demons, possessing trees, territories and things so God is saying that I am giving you a territory that is occupied, How do you take over? It’s not in the flesh; it’s in the place of spiritual warfare. When you are praying the will of God concerning you, when you are aligning yourself to the will of God concerning you, you must pull down strong holds, principalities and powers that have already dominated that area, that garden that God has promised you, that garden that God has willed to you, it’s not vacant. After Moses had led the children of Israel through, and Joshua started apportioning lands, how many wars did they fight?
You will ask yourself ‘did God not promise them the land? Didn’t God say that I will give you’ and you will ask yourself, ‘why are they fighting?’ That’s the same question we are asking as believers, ‘God you have said it, how comes I still need to pray?’ because what God simply did was give you the land and location but that land is not vacant, it’s not free, there are strongholds on that land, on that promise. So when you are praying, the number one thing you are doing, is pulling down strongholds.
- CASTING DOWN ARGUMENTS (VERSE 5)
When God speaks, the devil is also speaking but he is speaking contrary. When God has said something concerning you, the devil comes with arguments. So when you are praying, you are casting down arguments and you are saying no to the devil.
How comes when the word of God comes to you and you have received the word but you start hearing contrary voices; those are arguments the devil is raising concerning the word, concerning the promise that God has given you so you must pray to cast down arguments
“and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God”. So sometimes when believers go lackadaisical in the place of prayer, you don’t understand the reason why you have to pray, it’s not just ‘God said it, I believe it and that settles it’. If that was it, Jesus would not have prayed again in His ministry but the Bible says He would rise up while it is yet night and would go to the mount to pray, why? He needs to cast down arguments; he needs to pull down strongholds.
The same way as believers, this is what we are called to, don’t say ‘when I was praying, oh wow! It was so sweet, it was a wonderful time in the presence of God, I so enjoyed it, God said this concerning me’ and we go to sleep. Then you are ignorant. The Bible says the prayer of a righteous man makes power available, power to pull down strongholds, power to cast down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God.
When you pray, when you exercise this spiritual experience, he said, you are “bringing every thought,” when you are in the place of prayer, you are bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. You are compelling them to obey, to align, you are compelling every thought in your mind, every thought; you are bringing them into captivity as slaves to the word of God. You are bringing your past, your present and your future into alignment, that’s what you are doing in the place of prayer, so what you are doing is not a waste of time. When you are praying is not because God has not said it, you are enforcing what God has said.
When the Bible gave us the model of prayer in Matthew 6:7-13, Jesus said ‘this is how you ought to pray, hallow the name of the Lord’. When you see the steps that Jesus gave as a model prayer, you will see that He put into cognisance all these things. He said deliver us from evil, why? because they are high things, they are arguments, they are strong holds. Jesus recognised this facts, that every day as we wake up, the devil is not tired of fighting us, he is not giving up, that’s why you too must not be tired or weary, you must not be weary of praying because every time you pray, this is what you do, you pull down strongholds, you cast down arguments, you bring thoughts into captivity to the obedience of Christ.
And in verse 6 it says “and being ready”, that’s what you do in the place of prayer, being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled. So when you pray, you are punishing disobedience, anything contrary to the word of God is disobedience, anything that wants to materialize in your life contrary to the word of God, you are punishing them, and he said it is not by your power, he said this weapon of your warfare is mighty, not mighty in you, but mighty in God.
That’s why when you are praying you are addressing God, the all powerful God, the Almighty God because He is the one that is able to do exceedingly abundantly far above all we can ask or imagine according to His power that is at work in you. And Matthew 7:7 makes us to understand that God is ready to answer when we ask, He is willing to give all those who ask of Him and the amazing thing he said in Matthew 6, before he introduced that prayer He said ‘before you ask, your heavenly father knows what you need but he said still ask, ask and you will receive, seek and you will find, knock and the door shall be open to you’. So Jesus encouraged us to pray, he encouraged us to frame our realities, frame our experiences by our words, because that’s what God did. If you are made in the image and in the likeness of God, this should be our daily experience. You are pulling down strongholds; you are a terror to the devil and his host, why? because you are enforcing the will of God in the place of prayer.
You are not just sitting down idling, he said don’t be anxious for anything, don’t be worried, don’t be going helter-skelter looking for what is not missing, but by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving make your request known unto God. What’s your request? ‘Lord that which you have said concerning me, this land that you are giving me, I am taking over, you said in your word that where ever the sole of my feet shall thread upon, you will give unto me as inheritance, I enforce your will over this land, I am taking over in the name of Jesus, I cast out every principality, every power in the name of Jesus that have hitherto held this place bound and I take over in the name of Jesus’ and you blast in tongues as the Holy Spirit gives you utterance.
Enough of sitting down and expecting manna to fall from heaven, that’s babyish, we need to grow up. As believers, we need to grow up, God did not feed the children of Israel forever, it was for a season and when that season elapsed, manna ceased.
[Centre for New Dimension Leadership]
