Living Free

I'm still standing still waiting to hear from the Lord the specifics of the new Bible study I will lead, "Believing God"...mostly the when and the who part. So, because I need structure in my quiet time, I moved to a study I bought probably 8 years ago and never did. It's called "Living Free" by Beth Moore. I'm sure this was God-ordained. I decided I would do this study but without a time table...meaning if I had something else I wanted to study over or read, I would put this study aside and not stress over it.

I wanted to share what the Lord has been showing me. Day 1 was all about demolishing strongholds. First of all, I wanted to tell you the definition of stronghold. It's...
"anything that exalts itself in our minds, pretending to be bigger or more powerful than our God. It steals our focus and causes us to feel overpowered. Controlled. Mastered....It consumes so much of our emotional and mental energy that it strangles our abundant life. Our callings remain unfulfilled, and our believing lives become ineffective."
I have SO many of these....so many lies that satan whispers that seem to control me and make me feel hopeless and defeated. So how do we demolish these?

Did you know that the Lord is our stronghold too?! Ps. 27:1 says...
"The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the LORD is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?"
The NIV says stronghold instead of strength. Then in 2 Samuel 22:2, it says...
"...The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer"
As Beth points out in her study, the Hebrew word for fortress here is migav which means "refuge, stronghold".
I'm so glad that even though I have all these negative strongholds in my life, I belong to the One who is The Stronghold. Nothing is too great for Him. Nothing takes Him by surprise. Nothing satan has up his sleeve is shocking to the Lord. I don't know about you, but that brings me such peace....that I serve a Living God that is Omniscient and Omnipotent. I can live 2 Cor. 10:5...
"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 know that God is greater than anything I can face.

Day 2 talked about our minds. She said, "When Satan wages war against us, the primary battlefield is the mind." I never really thought about that before. The things, the strongholds, I struggle with start in my mind. She goes on to say, "We struggle with a pattern of thoughts, words, or actions. We promise ourselves that we'll never do it again. We even genuinely hate the behavior involved. Then we hear those hated words come out of our mouths or we realize we've done it again, and we feel like pond scum. In this process we often make a basic mistake. We assume our behavior is the battlefield and the goal is to change our actions."
All this seems to come back to believing God. You see we tend to act like we believe. If we don't believe all the promises the Lord has given us, we won't act like it. When we believe those lies satan so craftily whispers, he wins. His primary purpose in the life of a child of God is to get that child's mind...he already knows he can't have that child's soul because it belongs to God. So then, why do we...why do I believe those things?...those lies? I don't have the answer. Sometimes I wish the Lord would just take control...complete control of me...no free will...but then of course, I'd only be a puppet, not His follower. What glory would that bring Him?
I have all these truths in my head...I know all the right verses. My only problem seems to be getting those truths from my head to my heart...18" makes a huge difference. I long to feel His heartbeat....to do that I must be oh so close to Him.

Father, You know my insecurities today, my weaknesses, my strongholds. I claim 2 Cor. 10:5 and I cast those things at Your feet. You are greater than them all. Lord, I long to think like You, act like You and believe like You. I praise You that though satan may win the battle today, Lord, You have won the war. He will one day bow down to You. Thank You that even when I fail, You still are there to pick me up and set my feet in the right direction. Help thou my unbelief Lord!