The Lord has been preparing us to be both violent and victorious in our spirits: … the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence and the violent take it by force. Matthew 11:12b.
As an outgrowth of that thinking, we find in II Corinthians 10, that there are three things which all weapons in God will cast down, and two basic things to bring forth constructively in the earth. We must learn the things and the mechanics that belong to this end-time walk, and become dedicated to find out how to move mountains. We labor under limitations, where spiritual things are concerned, which are not Scriptural. We accept in our minds and thinking, limitations that God’s Word does not authorize us to accept. That is the old human problem, because the Lord constantly marveled at the unbelief of the disciples: that they could be right there with Him and still have unbelief.
In the midst of our faith there is unbelief. We come to the Lord like the man crying for his son, “Lord, if You can do anything, have compassion on us and heal my son.” And the Lord says, “If you can believe,” putting the “if” back on us, “all things are possible to him that believeth.” “Lord, I believe; help Thou my unbelief,” which doesn’t mean, “Help it to survive,” but “Help me to overcome it, help it to be destroyed.” A civil war goes on within our hearts: that coexistence, of flesh and spirit, faith and unbelief warring against each other, until all of our spiritual energies are depleted like a nation that pits all of its resources and manpower into a civil war. When it is finally over, everyone has lost; there is devastation over the land. That is what is taking place in some of your lives. There is a depletion of energies within your own heart because faith and unbelief are warring against each other. We must face what God is really trying to do with us, that in the end time, “They that know their God will be strong and do exploits” (Daniel 11:32).
How are we to get into it? Our text, II Corinthians 10:3–6, describes something of our weapons. For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh (for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but mighty before God to the casting down of strongholds), casting down imaginations, and every high thing that is exalted against the knowledge of God, and bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience, of Christ; and being in readiness to avenge all disobedience, when you obedience shall be made full.
We have weapons of warfare that are not of the flesh but are mighty through God. Three things these weapons do. The first is to pull down the strongholds. Do you have one in your life? Israel had strongholds to buck against. After they came into Canaan, the city of David was not taken for a long time but remained in the hands of the Jebusites, because it was a city on a hill, properly fortified, right in the heart of everything. It was finally taken, but here was the city that God wanted and the devil had it as a stronghold.
That’s what happens to us sometimes. We find we’re ready to go into important things of our lives, but a stronghold stands that we can’t overcome. It can be many things. It can be something within our own nature—we see one thing after another fall before the grace of God but one sneaky little stronghold remains which we don’t know how to beat. Sometimes it is one little circumstance, one little problem, something within us or about us; but there it is, wedging us in. We may be perfectly free except for one thing, and how we would like to see it broken!
God has given us weapons of warfare that are mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds. Pull them down! There has to be that within your heart that does not accept compromise. Don’t make a league with the Gibeonites; they will plague you for the rest of your days. Coexistence with things you accept will rise up and trouble you later. When you go into Canaan, never lay the sword down until you’ve won. It is a war of annihilation: everything of flesh and the devil, everything that hinders you has to go.
Discipleship in the New Testament began with leaving everything, because there couldn’t be any strongholds left. You must understand that the thing you spare now will rise up and trouble you later; and in this walk, the thing that has made this church move ahead is that we have never come to the place of a mental or spiritual acceptance of something that we have not been able to overcome. We have plowed on and have overcome a lot of things, but that doesn’t mean that we don’t stand and curse those mountains day by day that still stand in the way! We’re still ready to walk those weary walks around Jericho day after day, and the shout of faith is still in our hearts. We must be uncompromising because our weapons are mighty before God to the casting down of strongholds, and anything that stands in the way of our walk with God can come down. God deliver us; the land is our, “Wherever the soul of your foot shall tread” (Joshua 1:3), casting down strongholds.
The second weapon of warfare is casting down imaginations. I wonder sometimes if to cast down imaginations isn’t as big a problem as the other strongholds. The devil can use our imaginations—fear can enter in and once those fears begin to work, Satan can begin to prey on them and other things can come in. Sometimes we have to battle the imaginations of other people, not just our own. Others’ imaginations can become such a force that they can become a hindrance to the Body or to individuals in it. Because they don’t know any better, they can imagine and prejudge a situation and turn lose a certain spiritual force that is detrimental to the Body. God has given us authority to bring down imaginations and every high thing that is exalted against the knowledge of God.
God has given us a weapon for every contingency. He has given us what it takes to win the victory. He has provided the victory for us and has given us the weapons to go after it in the grace of God, and bring every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. We have weapons in the Spirit that are mighty before God to take every imagination and bring every thought into captivity to obey Christ. That is very important for us to believe.
Were you ever in a church where everyone thought alike as much as we do, yet retained their individuality and were more united into one Body? That is the way it is supposed to be. The Christian world has thought that it would have unity through conformity when it thought alike and subscribed to the same little doctrines; when it would go through the same rituals of worship and everyone would belong to the same movement. Then we would have unity? Never. Unity doesn’t come by conformity; monstrosity comes by conformity. Monstrosity? Yes, a body that’s all hands is a monstrosity. God creates unity by diversity—every member is different and distinct. The Body is compacted by that which every joint supplies, and makes increase of itself through love (Ephesians 4:16). We still have our individuality, we have diversity of gifts and we are distinct in function, but it’s the fact that every one of us are so different, yet so united to the Lordship of Christ over us, Christ the Head, that we have the unity of one beautiful Body that is not a monstrosity. Many churches are monstrosities, with everyone doing the same thing. In this, every ministry is coming forth, distinct in what God really wants it to be.
And being in readiness to avenge all disobedience, when your obedience shall be made full. II Corinthians 10:3–6. God gives us a chance. These weapons are in readiness. Judgement is coming to the earth again, but it is good that God has deferred it until the present moment. If He started judging five years ago we would have been on the receiving end of it. Because we have continually judged ourselves and have separated ourselves from the course of this generation, refusing any conformity to it in our spirits, the result is that our obedience is made full. Now the Lord gives us weapons to avenge all other disobedience.
Jesus said, Whosoever shall say to this mountain, Be thou taken up and cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that what he saith shall come to pass; he shall have it. Therefore I say unto you, All things whatsoever ye pray and ask for, believe that ye receive them, and ye shall have them. Mark 11:23, 24. Work on that!