“For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine
power to destroy strongholds.”[1]
Conviction
1: the CHRISTIAN does not have “divine
power”, the weapons do.
Conviction
2: WE do not destroy strongholds, the divinely powered weapons do.
Conviction
3: Since these divinely powered weapons are not of the flesh, we cannot do
our warfare in the flesh. Simple as that.
I saw this come together in an illustration that helped me
appreciate the various ways that God’s divinely powered weapons destroy the
strongholds in our lives, and transform us through the renewal of our minds.[2]
The illustration follows the familiar journey of the Beatitudinal Valley.[3]
“Blessed are the
poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.”[4]
God has the divine power to make people poor in spirit, not
as though he crams poverty of spirit down our throats, but that he has the
power to give life to the dead, and in doing so, he causes dead people to
realize the poverty of their spirits.
I think of this in relation to an accident scene in which
someone has died as a result of injuries. The accident is his fault. He was
speeding, and reckless, and showing off, and thinking he was untouchable, and
suddenly that deer on the road ruined his prideful delight in how fast he was
going. The situation was hopeless. A deer through the windshield would have
killed him instantly. Thinking he could swerve at such a high rate of speed caused
him to lose control of his vehicle, and end up with his car wrapped around a
tree. Death was inevitable.
However, when CPR was performed, and his body returned to
life, he was still a miserably injured man. He was not going to walk away from
this accident unscathed. The first aid treatment did not restore him to the
good health of a few minutes earlier. It made him alive so that he now had the
opportunity to look at the mess he made of his life, and how injured he was,
and how much damage he had done to his car, and how many people he had hurt in
the process. He was alive to face the poverty of his spirit.
“Blessed are those
who mourn, for they shall be comforted.”[5]
It is better to be a man who can mourn the miserable
condition of his soul, than to be a dead man walking around in the flesh,
unconscious of God, unconscious of the power of sin to destroy our lives,
unconscious of the deceptive nature of Satan’s work to blind us to the glory of
God, and so skipping down the broad road to destruction as though he had found
the happiest way through life. Those who mourn their broken and sinful
condition, experience the comfort of God.
“Blessed are the
meek, for they shall inherit the earth.”[6]
It is better to be an injured man who is fully conscious to
the fact that he cannot do anything to make himself better, or to save himself
from his injuries, or to get himself to the hospital, than to be a dead man who
doesn’t even realize he is dead. It is better to be fully aware that God is
destroying our pride, and forcing us to see the miserable condition we are in,
and to admit how much we ourselves have contributed to our own unhappiness,
than to be left alone to bear the deceptive weight of the devil’s lies, and to
live under the power of the evil one whose only aim is to steal, kill, and
destroy. As we acknowledge we cannot fix what is wrong with us, we discover
that God adopts those who come to him by grace through faith.[7]
“Blessed are those
who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.”[8]
And, it is far better to know that I am hungering and
thirsting for righteousness, than to feel satisfied with the unrighteousness of
the world. It is better to lie awake, wishing I was well, longing to be well in
righteousness and holiness, wishing to know what it is like to love God with
all my heart, and soul, and mind, and to love others as I love myself, than to
think I am already doing much better than God could ever do in me. When we
allow ourselves to hunger for the righteousness we do not have, we are
satisfied with the gift of righteousness that is ours by faith in Jesus Christ.
“For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes...”[9]
The gospel has the power to destroy all strongholds,
including death. It does this, not with some person able to take credit for a
conversion, but by the Spirit of God personally bringing people from death to
life.
Application: While I long to see God work in others,
I can also see what he is doing in my own life. He is purging my heart of
anything that makes me think that winning souls to Christ depends on me.
Although God has graciously chosen to make us partners with him in his work,[10]
no matter what role we play in the body of Christ, it is always God who brings
people to life.[11]
I believe God wants his children to look at the divinely
powered weapons of the kingdom as a gift. The weapons themselves are his gift
to the church, enabling us to do what we could never do ourselves. And our
invitation to use these weapons is a gift to us as well, for he invites us to
partner with him in a work he could clearly do by himself, but wants us to
enjoy the same like-God fellowship with him as the Triune enjoys with each
other.[12]
In the end, while the weapons of our warfare “have divine power to destroy strongholds”,
they are still the weapons of “OUR
warfare”.[13]
We are the army of God who must take them up and use them.
© 2016 Monte Vigh ~ Box 517,
Merritt, BC, V1K 1B8 ~ in2freedom@gmail.com
Unless otherwise noted,
Scriptures are from the English Standard Version (The Holy Bible, English
Standard Version Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good
News Publishers.)
[1]
II Corinthians 10:4
[2]
Romans 12:1-2
[3]
In Jesus’ teaching on the Beatitudes of Matthew 5:3-12, the first four
Beatitudes appear as the down-side of a valley, where God leads us deeper in
humility until we so hunger and thirst after the righteousness we see in Christ
that he can satisfy that hunger with the righteousness that is by faith. We
then begin our journey up the upside of the valley as we become the merciful
children of God whose hearts are pure with first love for him and our
neighbors, and so we become the peacemakers who consider it a blessing to be
persecuted for the sake of the righteousness of the kingdom of heaven.
[4]
Matthew 5:3
[5]
Matthew 5:4
[6]
Matthew 5:5
[7]
Ephesians 2:8-9
[8]
Matthew 5:6
[9]
Romans 1:16
[10]
This is seen in Jesus’ imagery of the branches bearing much fruit because they
abide in the vine (John 15:1-11), as well as many other places.
[11]
Paul spoke of this as one man sowing seed, another watering, but God giving the
increase (I Corinthians 3:5-9).
[12]
The Triunity of God is a source of great delight to me as I stand in wonder of
how God has made us in his own image and likeness so that, to be like him, we
have to walk in the same fellowship with him and the church as was eternally in
the Godhead outside of all space, time, and matter.
[13]
II Corinthians 10:4
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