~Open in prayer~
Icebreaker
• What is your favorite thing to do by yourself?
• If money or time were no object, what would you be doing right now?
• What movie can you re-watch over and over again?
Message Review
Where the church is silent people struggle. The Bible says my people perish for lack of knowledge. That is why we are learning about the spiritual realm. There are spiritual dynamics at work and you’re fighting things you can’t see that keep you bound. It’s generational curses (nature), which are struggles that have been passed down the bloodline that affect your behavior. It’s also yokes (nurture), which is something that the devil introduces to you at an early age so that he can keep you bound towards that sin. We started talking about strongholds last week. These are not demonic forces in the sky with horns and a pitchfork. Strongholds are where you believe a lie to be true. They are in your mind. If I have a stronghold in your life, it means I have a place in you that I can operate. And for the enemy to have a stronghold, it means he has a place in your mind where he’s got you to believe a lie. What a man thinks in his heart, so he is.
Let’s Talk About It!
Corinthians 10:3-6
For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to it. Your battle is not people. It’s not that rebellious teenager, for example. It’s a spirit that stirring up problems. The weapons of our warfare are not natural, or of the flesh. They are mighty in God for pulling down strongholds. As a result, your warfare is now strongholds. My warfare is not to beat the devil or win because Jesus has already won. My warfare is to get my head straight because you can be saved and have the right heart, but the wrong head. Strongholds are when lies are believed to be true. These lies are arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against what God says. If God says you’re blessed and you look at your life and say you’re cursed, that is against the knowledge of God. Everything thought must be brought to captivity and made to obey Christ. You must deal with your thoughts and be intentional about your thought life because that is the new battlefield once you get saved. The devil tries to control how you think and what you believe to be true.
You have got to take every thought and figure out where it came from. If it’s against the knowledge of God, you must cast that thought down and make it obey Christ. Science says if you meditate on a thought for thirty seconds, then it’s accompanied by a feeling. Then you must deal with the thought and the feeling and feelings are harder to get rid of. For example, you have thirty seconds to think about everything that’s wrong with your life before depression hits. Then you must deal with the depression too, when what you had to deal with in the first place was the thought. The Bible says to think on things that are good, noble and praiseworthy. You always have something to praise God about if you were able to wake up with air in your lungs, you were able to get out of bed and your fridge has food in it. Bring every negative thought captive and instead fill the room up with the presents of God. Why is your thinking so important to your walk with Christ? Why does the devil try to take over your thoughts?
Romans 7:20-24
If I do what I don’t want to do, it’s no longer me doing wrong but the sin that lives in me. He’s talking to Christian’s here who are still doing stupid things, even though they have been saved. We have a spirit, soul (mind) and body (flesh). Your soul and body were fine working together before you got saved. Your flesh sent signals to your mind telling it what to do, which isn’t good because the Bible says there is nothing good in your flesh. Your mind was just the decision maker. Your flesh told your mind what it wants, and your mind listened. The Bible says when two agree then it’s done. As a result, when your flesh and your mind agree, then what they’re agreeing to takes place and it all starts with desire. Then you get saved and here comes spirit. He wants to do what God wants and he’s going to try and separate your mind and your flesh. As a result, your spirit is going to send your mind signals of what it wants to do. So, your mind is confused and going crazy getting signals from both the flesh and the spirit. Your spirit wants you to do what pleases God, but your flesh won’t stop. He continues to send your mind signals that take you back to the same routine. You’re now messing with the same people, stuck in the same cycle, doing the same thing, taking the same drug, and having the same addiction. Captive Christian. He’s been saved, but his mind and flesh hasn’t been affected by that decision. Just because you have said the sinner’s prayer, it doesn’t mean that your head has changed at all. If we never conquer the flesh, then we learn how to hide. We come to church and learn how to blend then we go home and live a life as if we never got saved. Paul is saying I’m tired of getting up every day wanting to do the right thing but doing the wrong thing. With my mind I serve the law of God, but with the flesh the law of sin. Your soul is your mind, will and emotions. Your spirit is your inner man, which delights in the law of God. Your flesh is what has been destroying your life the entire time. It’s not the devil that ruins your life, it’s your flesh. Your spirit is perfect in Christ when you get saved, your mind is being saved, but your flesh is not saved. The Bible says that your body won’t be saved until you get to heaven and get a glorified body, which is a body that cooperates spiritually. We know now that the flesh and the spirit send our mind signals, which one do you listen to? You will listen to the one that you feed. Anything that has to grow has to be fed. You wonder why you do what you do, but you’ve been on Instagram for two hours, on YouTube an hour and a half listening to what you shouldn’t listen to. You’ve been watching questionable things on Netflix, and you get thirty minutes of preaching on Sunday only. Your spirit is getting destroyed and on a fast and your flesh is at a buffet. Your flesh is loud, but you can’t even recognize the voice of the spirit. You don’t read your Bible to memorize the Bible. You read It to feed your spirit. You go to a church that feeds you the Word. You don’t let the flesh rule your life. You are born of the spirit, you live by the spirit, you breathe the spirit, walk in the spirit, you get baptized in the spirit. The flesh will not destroy the purpose of God in your life. Does being saved mean that you don’t struggle internally at all?
How can you make your flesh subject to the will of God?
Romans 8:1-3, 5-6
This is a chapter about liberty and victory. There is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to Him. If you’re saved and you have your flesh in the driver’s seat, you will feel condemnation. You will feel internally that you are living beneath everything that God intended for you and provided for you to have. It is for freedom that Christ set you free. The bible says who the Son sets free is free indeed. If you accept anything less, you are living in condemnation and under the privileges that God has for you. The condemnation leaves once you start acting like you got saved. For those who live according to the flesh set their mind. Those who live according to the spirit set their mind. Could it be that this whole victory thing is a mindset? I can be wherever and whatever I set my mind to. I can start thinking about my loved ones and joy will fill my soul. I can start thinking about those that I have lost throughout the years and fall deep into sorrow. It’s a matter of where I set my mind. If the flesh is the focus, he is in charge. If the spirit is in focus,
He’s in charge.
How much time in the week is given to growing the spirit? Then we complain that we end up in the same old mess and it’s not the devil causing it. It’s your flesh. If your flesh starts controlling your thoughts that thing is going to start dying. If your flesh is controlling your thoughts about your marriage, your marriage is going to start dying. If your flesh is controlling your thoughts about money, then your economy is going to start dying. If your flesh rules how you run your relationships, then your relationships are going to deteriorate. Whatever your flesh is in charge of does not go up, but down. The Bible says letting the Spirit control your mind leads to life and peace. So, to set my mind on the Spirit is peaceful because the carnal mind is the enemy of God. We thought it was the devil and he’s not because God already defeated him. Even the devil knows that the carnal mind is God’s enemy, which is why he’s the father of lies. He just has to get you to think it. The carnal mind is not subject to God, nor can it be. It’s impossible to leave your mind alone and live right. If you want inner peace, what do you have to do? What caused you to go back to the same routine and do what you don’t want to do?
Colossians 31:4
If you have been raised with Christ, which means anointed, seek those things above where the anointing is. In other words, my mind becoming like God is not natural, it’s intentional. Godly life does not evolve naturally. It’s sought. It’s intentional. I have to seek it. I have to put effort into making my mind think like God thinks. It’s a mindset. How do you get free from thinking like the flesh? Free your mind from it and be intentional about thinking like the Spirit. If you can whip it in your head, you can whip it in your life. For you died and your life is hidden in Christ. If any man is hidden in Christ, he is a new creature. All things have passed away, all things become new. When you got saved, God didn’t take you and slap on some new makeup. You are a new species of being that has never existed before. When you got saved, the old you died. Who you really are is hidden in the anointing with God. Where did the flesh get His information? From the tree of knowledge of good and evil. But if you’ve been raised with Christ, He takes who you really are and hides it in your born-again spirit man. So, your spirit knows your past, your present and your future. It’s in Him. Is having a Godly mindset something that you naturally inherit when you become a Christian and what do you have to do to maintain it? How do you live your life according to who you really are and not what your flesh tells you?
Romans 12:2
Do not conform to your flesh but be transformed by renewing your mind so that you know the perfect, pleasing, and good will of God for your life. The will of God is hidden in your anointing. So, renew your mind. Make your flesh think like your spirit, so that when your flesh speaks, your mind allows it. Your spirit knows who you really are. He knows your purpose. He knows your potential and your gifts. He knows the grace of God on your life. He knows everything. Your mind doesn’t, but he makes the decision. As a result, you must take the Word of God and wash your flesh out of your mind and fill your mind with the Spirit. Set your mind on things above where the anointing is. Your life will not arrive at your anointing, it will arrive at your “think”.
What if you’re anointed for it, but you can’t think it? What are ways you can think to help you walk in your full purpose?
Prayer Focus and Requests
Ask your members if they have any prayer requests or praise reports. Encourage one another to stir up your faith and pray BIG prayers this week and expect God to blow your mind with His answers.