By Pastor Ken Keeler, ELM Director of Church Ministries
“For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ…” 2 Corinthians 10:3-5
We saw in Part 1 and 2: We need to realize we are in a spiritual battle-vs. 3, apply by faith the proper spiritual weapons-vs. 4, and use the right strategy for victory-vs. 5.
Now we want see how we can apply this right strategy for victory by using the 4 “R” Approach:
- 1st Recognize the origin of the thought. Thoughts come to us through the power of sin to tempt, deceive, and accuse us. These thoughts are not generated by our new man, but we are responsible. We need Christ’s wisdom from His Word to recognize the tricks of the power of sin.
- 2nd Refuse to accept the thought as ours. We must refuse to dwell on the thought by refusing to let it have entrance into our mind. By Christ’s power and our authority in Him, we can say an authoritative No! We need His power to refuse those thoughts, and entrance into our mind.
- 3rd Reckon ourselves to be dead to the power of sin. The word reckon means to count on it, to be true because it is. Since we have been crucified, buried, and raised with Christ, we are no longer slaves to the power of sin, so by Christ’s authority we can count ourselves dead indeed to sin and alive to God. Our true desire is not to follow the power of sin because we are a new man in Christ. So, just as a dead person does not follow any physical stimulus, so we do not have to follow the stimulus of sin. We need His authority to count ourselves dead indeed to sin’s power over us and alive to God because we have been raised to new life in Christ.
- 4th Rest in the total sufficiency of Christ. We are in Christ and Christ is in us and we have His powerful resurrection life. He allows nothing to come into our lives that he does not either give us the power to escape or the power to endure. We are to thank Him for His complete love and acceptance of us and that we are seated with Him in our heavenly position of victory. We are safe, secure, and strong in Christ and we need His grace so we can rest in His total sufficiency by faith.
Buddy was on his first camping trip, and as soon as he had pitched his tent, he went for a hike in the woods.
About 15 minutes later, he rushed back into camp, bleeding and messy.
“What happened?” asked a fellow camper.
“I was chased by a black snake!” cried the frightened youngster.
The other camper laughed and responded, “A black snake isn’t deadly.”
Buddy said, “If he can make you jump off a 50-foot cliff, he is!”
It is very important what is going on in our heads!
Do we have the mind of Christ and His weapons and strategy for victory?
May we have the right things going on in our heads as we go forth to battle!
Blessings!