What is your relationship with your old nature? Does it have free reign? Do you consider it an ally? Well, the scripture has some serious things to say about this subject!!
For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. 4 For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, 5 casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, 6 and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled.
2 Corinthians 10:3-6
We as people are continually faced with opposition from within and without. It’s a battle that we are faced with on a regular basis. What makes a believer’s life different is that now we must fight the battle in the Spirit realm rather than in the flesh. As a carnal person, we used to be in self-protection and self-preservation mode. For years we lived away from God, so we have developed an independence in taking care of #1 (us). We lived life as orphans fending for ourselves. This meant anything that looked threatening needed to be fought or avoided.
In the world, many times the battle is fought externally, meaning we think a person or a situation is a problem or a threat. However, in Christianity, we learn that in addition to the world system, we have a spiritual enemy who wants to steal, kill, and destroy the work of God in us. We also realize that we have a flesh (old nature) that needs to be crucified and restrained continually in order for us to live a spiritual life pleasing to God!!
When we are born again, God calls us a new creation, and He empowers us to live a righteous life. Now, our prespective on our struggles and opposition needs to change. Our starting point should be to go to God who allows us to fight the old nature in us. The strongholds that we allowed to be erected in our lives must be dismantled!
Hebrew definition of Stronghold: a castle, stronghold, fortress, fastness,
anything on which one relies
of the arguments and reasoning by which a disputant endeavors to fortify his opinion and defend it against his opponent
Our old nature relied on certain strongholds to be able to survive life and protect us from the world. Some people are very proud. Pride gives a fictitious confidence in order to overcome the enemy and make one feel bigger and stronger than others.
Some people rely on fear. These individuals, in the name of caution or carefulness can be very guarded in order not to show any vulnerability to others. That way others can’t hurt them or attack them easily.
Others rely on manipulation to gain unlawful entry and access into a person’s life for their own advantage. Some have strong reasoning skills, so they reason everything through their senses and make decisions that are just based on limited human understanding. There are many other strongholds that people rely on to succeed or survive life.
When Jesus enters the life of a person, He basically tells us that we must remove all those fortresses that we erected in our lives and instead trust Him. This is not an easy task!! Every part of our flesh wants to scream and protest because we are becoming disloyal to the very thing we were enslaved to for years!!!
This is the war that needs to be fought and won by our new nature. As we let go of strongholds and our old thoughts, to the same degree we become available vessels useful for the Lord and immune from the temptations/manipulation of the enemy!!
I like the fact that the scripture tells us that we need to take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. When you think about the natural world, a policeman holds a criminal or menace to society captive in order for the person not to cause damage to their surroundings. This person is held captive by the authority that sets rules of proper behavior for society. When we hold our thoughts captive to the obedience of Christ, we basically are declaring that the little, “unlawful thought” is a menace to me and to the people around me. I am holding you captive to the authority of Christ, the one who sets the rules of right behavior and thought!!
Many of us don’t realize that the strongholds established in our lives started in the form of a thought, which led to an action or a decision! Just because others are not aware of our thoughts yet, it doesn’t make it ok for us to entertain them. In this case our thoughts are not our best friends. They can’t just have free reign in our minds. They are familiar to us because we have entertained them for so long, but we can’t afford to be casual with them anymore.
Intimacy with the Lord is paramount in succeeding with dismantling of the old nature! It’s a vulnerable place to be but a freeing one!! We need to let Him minister to us with His love. The more we become confident in His protection and provision in our lives, the more faith we have to let go of our fortresses and strongholds and trust God for His protection. We are not at war with God. He is on our side to help us succeed in this!!!
How is your old nature doing today?