Strongholds

I was recently discussing a matter with a dear friend regarding some problems with an individual. I've been keeping this person in the loop about the ongoing saga so that I can gain additional wisdom into precisely what is transpiring spiritually.

For the upteenth time, I had attempted to go to this individual and address some concerns. I was again met with this tremendously defensive response. There was avoidance, changing of the issue, defensiveness, anger, and of course - no resolution to the problem. After several hours of back and forth, the conversation finally closed out - with my realization that this person would just never be able to give in.

After relaying this same, repeated story to my friend yet again he wisely said "Satan has a stronghold."

Wow.

Stronghold.



That was precisesly what it was. A stronghold. And the entire picture came together for me on what was really going on in that situation. This person had something in their life that was gripping them spiritually that they could not shake, and as soon as anyone threatened that stronghold its defenses kicked in.

This launched me into a study on strongholds and what they are, and how to defeat them.

At its base level, a stronghold is a faulty way of thinking based on lies and deception. The stronghold then takes root starts attacking other areas of our thinking and eventually parts of our lives that are more visible.

You can't "see" the real stronghold - lies and deception. You don't know what the thinking is, but you can sure can see the visible fruit of that stronghold. Whereas the fruits of the Spirit are love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, kindness, patience, virtue, the fruits of a stronghold are anger, lack of joy, fighting, impatience, harshness, and even loss of virtue. With strongholds there is palpable fear manifested in defensiveness, avoidance, anger, and diversion. When you get close, the defensiveness kicks in.

A good example of a stronghold in Scripture is Jericho. Jericho was this wicked city in the midst of God's chosen people, Israel. It had tall walls and huge defenses - large and imposing. It was seemingly impenetrable and a threat to God's people. A base of operations for their enemy. Every day it was there, lingering on the horizon, it jeopardized the destiny to which Israel was being called, and they would never really be free.

So God had them remove the stronghold. They could not do it through their own physical means - they needed God's help - it was spiritual warfare. So, with strong leadership under Joshua and the truth of God's promise to them, God's people destroyed that stronghold in their midst.

Do you too want to be free? Then you need to take out those strongholds in your life!

³¹To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, "If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. ³²Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free."

³³They answered him, "We are Abraham's descendants^b]">[b] and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?"

³⁴Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. ³⁵Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. ³⁶So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.

In the above verses, God tells us how to be free of strongholds. It isn't what you think. It isn't getting into a better financial situation, having all your "rights" restored to you, somehow muscling through it, getting what you want, or getting out from under oppressive people.

It is being set free by the Son, knowing the truth, and being free from sin.

Strongholds manifest themselves in defensiveness, fear, attacking others, division, hurt relationships, "unbreakable" habits, and other visible sins. Those visible sins are not the core problem, however - the lie you believe in your mind is the core problem. Satan has supplanted truth with lies, and that lie has taken root and born fruit.

How long has this been happening?

Since the fall of man in the garden of Eden. Satan deceptively approached Eve and got her to "rethink" the truth God had revealed to her. Adam went right along with it, unwilling to challenge the stronghold (lie) in its infancy. That lie took root and bore fruit, causing them to want to be like God. Satan has had a stronghold on minds ever since with original sin.

Welcome to spiritual warfare!

This brings us to the next question: How do we defeat strongholds?

³For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. ⁴The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. ⁵We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. ⁶And we will be ready to punish every act of disobedience, once your obedience is complete.

We fight strongholds with truth, and we defend against them by putting on the armor of God.



You see, the real problem with the alcoholic isn't that he's addicted to alcohol. The problem is his thinking - the belief that somehow harmfully altering his body's chemistry with alcohol if fun for him in the long run or that it will make troubles go away.

So, you can attack the alcoholic's addiction, but if you don't fix the core spiritual problem - truth, the stronghold will only be torn down paritially, not removed. It will build up again to take control of that person.

What are the strongholds in your life? What sin do you accommodate and allow to build up in your mind? Can you see the core problem? Do you see how it causes you to lash out or get defensive?

We need victory over strongholds! Let's tear down the strongholds in our lives!

Planted By Streams of Water

Psalm 1

¹ Blessed is the man
who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked
or stand in the way of sinners
or sit in the seat of mockers.

² But his delight is in the law of the LORD,
and on his law he meditates day and night.

³ He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers.

⁴ Not so the wicked!
They are like chaff
that the wind blows away.

⁵ Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.

⁶ For the LORD watches over the way of the righteous,
but the way of the wicked will perish.

Jeremiah 17

⁷ "But blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD,
whose confidence is in him.

⁸ He will be like a tree planted by the water
that sends out its roots by the stream.
It does not fear when heat comes;
its leaves are always green.
It has no worries in a year of drought
and never fails to bear fruit."

A good friend of mine recently recommended I read through Psalms 1. What a great passage! (I added Jeremiah 17 myself as I studied this topic of planting by streams of water.)

Do you want to be like a tree planted by the water? Do you want to grow, be full of life, bear fruit, and not worry about the hard times?

Then you need to make sure you are planted by streams of water. Living Water. You need to be sure that you have a source of life flowing through and around you. That you are constantly refreshed and filled spiritually.

The cleaner the water, the better. The fresher the better. Water is the source of life, spiritually and physically.

Do you want to be a dying tree? Not dead. Not thriving. Surviving. Barely living. Then plant yourselves further away from the water or in a desert. You'll reap what you've sown.

If you are struggling with spiritual vitality then perhaps you are NOT planted by a stream of living water. Maybe you're getting just enough to survive, but are you growing, thriving, drinking in fresh water daily, and being renewed?

Often times we take our spiritual state for granted. We think it is somehow unrelated to what is going on in the rest of our life. That somehow it is disconnected, and our spiritual state is the result of these physical things that happen to us - the "trials".

Here's how we usually think: Having a rough time being happy and content (spiritually happy)? It is probably because you're not advancing well in your career, your marriage and family isn't where you want it to be, or any other number of other endless "goals" we set for ourselves. So we get dejected and down - our spirit goes bad.

But I say it first starts with the spirit. Guess what? If you are in a spiritually good state - those other things will not matter. Yes, you will have challenges. But they will not overcome you. You will rise above them.

Furthermore, if you are not planted by streams of water - you will eventually wither and die. You can be doing all the right things - trying to make it on your own in a land void of water trying to provide it to yourself or from the occasional, seasonal stream - but you're just not taking root and growing. You have no source of life and energy, and the source of life and energy that you can store within your own trunk, branches, and leaves, will soon be consumed and you will eventually wither and pass away.

This is especially true of leaders. If you are not planted by streams of water - where life flows in and through you from an external source - you will quickly have the life sucked right out of you. Your nutrients will be consumed. Then, the branches and leaves of your life spiritually - family, friends, community - will eventually suffer the consequences as their stream of water begins to dry up.

And it just cascades from there.

So, here's my challenge to you - and thanks to my friend for challenging me in the same fashion - and for the wisdom of their mentors sharing this to them as spiritual leaders.

Plant yourselves by streams of water if you want to thrive and grow (be happy).

Two Kinds of Wisdom

Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show it by his good life, by
deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom. But if you harbor
bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny
the truth. Such "wisdom" does not come down from heaven but is earthly,
unspiritual, of the devil. For where you have envy and selfish ambition,
there you find disorder and every evil practice.
But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere.
Peacemakers who sow in peace raise a harvest of righteousness.

What a great passage!

There are two types of wisdom. That's right - only two.

First - there is true wisdom. It seeks peace. It is impartial and sincere. There are no personal favorites or "politics" at play. It is full of mercy and good fruit. That fruit is love, joy, peace - you know them.

And, it is promised that whoever sows in peace reaps a harvest of righteousness.

So - what does false wisdom look like? Well - look above - it does not seek peace, it stirs up anger. It results in strife. Ever been to a meeting where someone has tried to set a trap for you? Tried to get you to trip up? Came loaded up with ammo to shoot at you? Yet they profess to be wise? Obviously they are not. They are not there to make peace, but rather to attack and beset others.

How can we detect when something is not wise? When there is disorder. Chaos. Strife. Tension. When they are out to get someone.

What is the root cause of this type of situation? Envy and self-ambition.

And what do they reap? They reap strife, unrest. They miss out on a harvest of righteousness. They - thinking to be acting in good - are actually dispensing wisdom that is evil (of the devil).

Let's be peacemakers and sow the seads of righteousness. Not in word only. In action. Anyone can say it. It is much harder to act it. That means we're kind, honorable, wise God's way, longsuffering, tenderhearted, joyful, peaceful, loving, merciful, faithful. If we aren't that way when we interact with others we are not being wise and are tools of evil - even with "good" intentions.

Randomly Selected

So, it's been quite the week.

I normally don't blog about this type of stuff but here goes.

So, Monday, I got up quite early and drove to the airport. I took my safety razor. Now, I poured over the TSA Regulations prior to getting on the plane. Sure enough, they allowed safety razors. So, in they went.

Well, not so fast. Turns out that they had a problem with it anyways, and made me take out the blade. So, I did. Not too big of a deal.

Well, then I made a connection flight to Boston on my way to Richmond. When I got off the plane and ordered a cup of coffee at Au Bon Pain, I noticed my driver's license was missing. So, I immediately returned to the plane to pick it up, figuring I'd dropped it in my seat getting something out of my pocket. Yes, I had. But - they had already picked it up and sent it to baggage claim.

So, I raced over to baggage claim where they paged me over the intercom and handed me my license.

I hustled back to my flight, but had to go back through security. Ouch! There was ONE line open!

Not to worry - I had 30 minutes at the time.

Well, it took 20 minutes.

Then, I spent 3 minutes bolting to the terminal, where, even with 7 minutes left to spare, they had closed the door and would not let me on.

So I had to sit and wait for the next flight. :(

Fast forward through a whirlwind week of work.

Last night we went to Outback. It was good, but my food was a little raw. By the time I got back to my hotel I was feeling pretty ill. A few hours later? Yep - ill. Got up this morning? Still ill.

So, I thought I'd try to go into work anyways. It didn't work out. After getting one thing done it was obviously not meant to be.

So, I left to go to the airport. On the way I stopped at a Kmart parking lot and rested for a while, still very sick.

Then I went to the airport.

Now, at this point I had almost 6 hours until my plane was scheduled to leave, so I decided to have them bump it up. Yay!

I'm still feeling ill by the way, and am getting weak as I can't keep food down.

I went through the checkpoint to chill out in my terminal for a while. On the way through the security scanner, I forgot to take off my shoes. So, I went through the scanner again. And of course, when I came through I had the pleasure of receiving a full body scan. And they wanted to look through my luggage again. Hey, the razor is empty so no big deal!

I'm amazed at the disparity in airport security. Boston didn't care about the razor. Indy and Richmond did.

Anyways, that's all. We'll see how Charlotte does.

Consulting

So, many of you know - I'm in the consulting business. Well, my friend - Jennifer - sent me this link the other day. It was so funny that I had to share it with you. It is funny, because it is TRUE :P

Excellent Book

So, I've been reading this new book - "Effective Pastoring", by Bill Lawrence, and edited by Chuck Swindoll.

Wow, is it great!

For those who aren't aware, I'm learning everything I can about the ministry as I seek to serve the people in my church as an elder. This is my 5th book so far this year on the subject.

Annyyywwaaaays - props to my friend, Dave, for recommending this book to me. Dave is studying at Reformed Theological Seminary (RTS) right now, and I've been reading the books he's been reading as he's going through seminary. It has been such a great experience for me! He's been a faithful advisor to me as I navigate God's plan for my life.

Back to the book.

Let me start with the foreword, which was written by Chuck Swindoll. In it he talks about two pastors - the "hired hand" and the "true shepherd". The main difference between the two is internal motives. Both look to be "undertaking God's word in God's way", but each is doing it for entirely different reasons. The "hired hand" serves God with wrong or insincere motives. (John 12:12) The "true shepherd" "serves God's people out of a debt of gratitude for all the Father has done and is doing in his life". (Rom 1:21)

Here are two paragraphs from just the forward of this excellent book.

First, on the "hired hand":
Both pastors, the selfish hireling and the sincere shepherd, may seem to be undertaking God's word in God's way. However, over time the flock begins to sense the difference between the two. The congregation of the hireling begins to feel used and manipulated. Hurts and needs either go unattended of are met in a reluctant, superficial manner. Preaching becomes harsh and accusatory. Joy is missing from the congregation. Love and grace are nowhere to be found.

Now contrast this with the subsequent paragraph on the faithful shepherd:

What a contrast to those cared for by a loving, faithful pastor. The shepherd who tends his flock year after year, feeding them a steady diet of God's truth, finds over time he has nurtured a healthy band of maturing believers, people who are willing to step out in faith and trust God to dream great dreams. In the fulfilled flock, friendships flourish, a caring community is encouraged, laughter abounds, emotional wounds are treated, and peace prevails. The pastor's preaching is marked by positive words of exhortation as well as loving warnings of dangers in the road ahead. Compassion flows freely. Enthusiasm is contagious.

Wow, what a difference! Nobody wants to be around negativity!

What I learned from this are good indicators of when a congregation is doing well, and when they are not.

I also see the very severe consequences of what happens when a spiritual leader gets their eye off the ball and their motives go wrong. What damage it can cause!

In any regard, this book - right from the start - has been such a great book! It tells me what I need to be, and to keep my motives in check. It tells me what good motives are!

I can't wait to tell you about the next few chapters! They really level-set thinking on ministry, and what "success" means. It really goes against American culture, but it is so refreshing and eye-opening!

If you're at all thinking of getting in the ministry or becoming a church leader, or just want to learn how to look for a good church leader, I think this book is most excellent!

Tribute To Alan

In the valley.


Well, my friend, Alan, died Sunday morning. He was 34. He took his own life, and I am grieved, upset, sad, and heartbroken over the whole situation. It has been a long, long week of sorrow with little sleep.

Alan meant a lot to me. He was a friend with whom I made an instant connection. We first met a few weeks prior to he and Dara's wedding almost three years ago. He was this big, soft guy - very sensitive and loving. I remember being impressed that he had made the flowers on his wedding cake himself. It was done extremely well - like a professional had done it - but to him it was nothing - he just learned how and then did it. He was so talented and capable.

He also decorated our church's great hall into the most intimate setting I had ever seen that area become at the time for their wedding. It was no small feat turning what is normally used as a basketball gym into a wedding reception. In fact, when Jim and Lara got married last summer, I made it a point to tell Jim he needed to talk to Alan about how to get the chapel looking good.

I remember being in lifegroup with Alan. He was so transparent and honest. Where others in our group were rather guarded he was not - God had done some amazing things in his life and the way his current, shining light was set against a dark, personal background was amazing. Alan knew what grace was and how he had been granted it to experience God's love.

Our relationship grew from there. Alan was a very capable and talented person. I believe he could do anything he wanted to do. He described to me how he had started up a few small businesses, and that they had prospered. I was always very impressed with how he could just get things done - and how he did them so easily without over-complicating things. That is talent, folks.

I remember him being nervous about his new job several years ago. I asked him why he didn't just start up another business. He just wanted to take it easy - way too much effort, and he enjoyed his life with Dara too much to get all stressed out again. He didn't like the travel and being away that his new job required lately, but he stuck with it. And he was the best at it - everybody came to him. He had a very technically astute mind - something we both have in common - so I was constantly amazed at how competent he was with computers - especially given his lack of formal education there. Simply amazing.

My favorite memory of Alan is our trip to the Quest with Sovereign Grace Ministries - a men's conference a year or so back. (If you'll notice - he's wearing that t-shirt in the picture above.) During that trip, we had been assigned 4 men to a room, which meant 2 guys had to share a double bed. Now, Alan is a pretty big guy - and likes his personal space - so he pulled me aside and said "Hey, Nate - I can't do this - want to get a room with me?" Well, I decided I'd join him. The thing is - that night in our hotel room (each in our own double bed) - I got a call from my dad telling me that he had just been diagnosed with cancer. Wow that was hard. And guess who was there to listen to me? Alan. That man had a caring disposition for listening, and really provided some comfort and reassurance to me that night. That is the loving and caring man I got to know.

But the other thing I really remember about Alan is the way he worshipped at that conference. I saw a man unafraid to let their heart loose for God. Me? I was struggling with my dad's situation - but he wasn't - just so full of God's grace there. I remember him singing this song:

I remember looking at him, arms outstretched, as I was wrenching internally from my dad's condition. Alan loved God.

One time Alan said "hey, there's this Promise Keeper's meeting. Wanna go?" So, I did. I learned a lot about his heart. Alan had a heart for service to others. He wanted to help our community by helping the poor and needy fix up their houses. He wanted to help them. We thought about ways we could do that and decided if God ever presented an opportunity to do so together we would.

Last fall I had 4 tickets to the first motoGP race at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway. We had the best tickets in the house. Turn 1, top row, top deck, right by the concession stands, covered. What was really awesome was that we were going with Tim Danz and a friend of his after church. Right before that trip, Tim told us that he had just received word that ALL of their support had been raised for Bangladesh. We were so elated! As Alan was a supporter of theirs as well we were just thrilled! Praise God! We went to the race - it was cold and rainy - one of the hurricanes had just made its way up to us and the icy rain was blowing in sideways. We had a great time together enjoying each other and the good news brought by Tim about their ministry.

I'm going to miss Alan. I can't wait to see him again in heaven, where we can enjoy each other again and glorify God together. I got a little taste of what it will be like to do that with him and I only rejoice that I'll be able to do it forever again in the future.