first image: “Recognize the Captor / Bowing to thoughts”
second image: “Stand in agreement with God / No longer bowing to thoughts”
Satan lacks the authority to lock believers in a prison of oppression, so he works overtime to talk us into staying.
Meditate on 2 Corinthians 11:1-3 for a moment. Based on these three verses, what kind of person can be led astray?
“A believer with sincere and pure devotion to Christ.”
How does Galatians 6:1 support the fact that the immature or carnal Christian is not the only one who can be led astray?
“It cautions strong believers trying to help weaker ones that they are susceptible as well.”
Where do these lies [our minds are covered with] originate? Read John 8:43-45. What do you learn about the devil from this passage?
“He is a murderer; there is no truth in him; his native language is lies; he is a liar and the father of lies.”
Describe a little about your own experience with a stronghold and note a few specific lies the enemy used. As always, be general if the subject concerns a sensitive issue or something private.
“With my stuff problem my first and favorite to agree with is that I’ll get to it soon – maybe tomorrow. Then when I do try to work on it, there’s: I might need that again, that reminds me of a great time, I could find a good home for that, and make some money in a garage sale or on eBay; and then there are generally defeating ones: the mess is too big, I’ll just mess it up again, other tasks are more immediately pressing, and I need some ‘me’ time.”
We can be forgiven, however, and still not be free. And if we’re not free, we will soon cycle back into sin.
The believer in our illustration… realized more needed to be done to make liberty in Christ a reality in life.
We possess the mind of Christ (1 Corinthians 2:16), but we still have the full capacity to think with the mind of the flesh. We are mentally bilingual, you might say.
Respond to what you’re learning. If you’re beginning to understand, express the concepts that are becoming clearer to you.
“I think right now I’m stuck on step three [tearing down the lies]. I see the hidden pattern of the lies in the wallpaper, but I still find the pattern pretty and intriguing. Help me Lord to want to tear down the lies.”
Dearest Rachel –
In some ways, going through your studies is like listening to a sad song over and over. It’s not quite a broken record, as the lyrics are slightly different every time I see another page, but the same mournful refrain is there about how you wished to do something about the hold you had of stuff, and how stuff had a hold on you.
But you weren’t, for whatever reason (or, who am I kidding? You knew the reasons; you listed a number of them right here, in fact), able to bring yourself to get the help you needed to actually accomplish that victory over stuff that you seemed to long for, but not quite enough to want to do something about it. In fact, I don’t even know if you’d be pleased that I’ve managed to make headway against all that. In fairness, though, there were certain things that would serve no purpose with you gone that, if you were still around, would still be absolutely essential – you couldn’t go through life without clothes, for instance.
What would you have made, though, of the fact that we’ve managed to remodel our home, now that the kitchen (and the laundry room) could be cleared of extraneous junk? What would you have thought of the tributes made out of certain stuff you will never use for their intended purposes again? I wish I knew; I’d like to think you’d consider it a victory – and since, where you are, you’re already happy without all that stuff, you’ve attained that victory yourself – but would you be sad that you couldn’t have done it yourself on this side of the pale?
That’s what seems so sad about this all; I wish there was something cheerful to add to this, but I can’t think of anything offhand. I can only guess at your reactions, and wonder.
Letters to Rachel 