Mike Bickle emphasizes the connection between the bridal revelation and spiritual warfare, illustrating how understanding our identity as the Bride of Christ is crucial in combating spiritual strongholds. He explains that the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but are rooted in the spoken Word of God, which serves as a powerful tool to dismantle lies and arguments that oppose the knowledge of God. Bickle outlines the importance of recognizing personal, cultural, and cosmic strongholds, and how they can be overcome through prayer, fasting, and the declaration of God's truth. He encourages believers to actively engage in spiritual warfare by speaking the Word of God against temptations and lies, ultimately leading to freedom and a deeper relationship with Christ. The sermon concludes with the reminder that our identity as beloved and chosen by God empowers us to resist sin and live in victory.

Well, we're on our Bible School class called the Bride of Christ Studies in the New Testament Session six and here we're talking about the bridal revelation and spiritual warfare its relationship to spiritual warfare and It's a very very significant the bridal paradigm or the bridal understanding of our identity before God Paul the Apostle Shows us here in 2nd Corinthians chapter 10 and 11 how central the bridal paradigm is to spiritual warfare that might be a new idea to some that are Really focused on spiritual warfare, but let's just look at it 2nd Corinthians chapter 10 verse 3 to 5 we're going to begin with the warfare passage Very well known passage for though we walk in the flesh We do not war according to the flesh For the weapons of our warfare. They're not carnal, but they're mighty in God By the way the weapons of our warfare They are speaking the Word of God The great weapon is the sword of the Spirit. It is the Word of God that comes in various ways It's just speaking thus says the Lord it is written right from the Word it is Speaking from our heart saying no to sin and yes to the Word of God and and No to lies and yes to the Word of God It's the Lord speaks to us prophetically gives us dreams and visions and anointed prayers and it's his word in us in that more subjective sense It's not infallible, but it's still the in as much as it's God's inspiration in us It's all the Word of the Lord whether it's the gifts of the Spirit. That's the Word of the Lord Actually, we say be healed in the name of Jesus when we choose righteousness over sin. We're agreeing with the Word of God in righteousness when we dismantle lies in our mind and heart That is agreement the Word of God. So the weapons of our warfare are Not only but dynamically it is the spoken Word of God and that is a Unusual idea to some people but that's the weapon God used Maybe he'd called a tool in Genesis 1 when he created the heavens of the earth. He simply spoke That was the weapon that Jesus drew the sword against Satan in Matthew 4 He said it is written and he drove the evil one away It's actually the spoken Word of God. It's the only offensive weapon in the The armor of God in Ephesians 6 the other five are defensive weapons. It's the only offensive one. It's an aggressive one It's a sword. It's the spoken Word of God again, whether you're speaking at ministry over somebody whether you're speaking it against temptation Whether you're speaking it against lies in your heart whether you're speaking at an intercession and worship It is the spoken Word of God. That is the primary weapon and It seems carnal. It seems weak. It seems human it seemed but it is powerful when it's under the anointing of the Spirit It's what Paul is Highlighting and here's what you do with that mighty weapon called the Word of God the spoken Word of God again Whether you're speaking it in prayer, you're speaking it against Temptations you're speaking in slides you're speaking it over somebody's body who's sick You're in a prayer group speaking the Word of God all holding hands together and somebody just speaks the Word of the Lord Here's what it does It gives two different descriptions Which is really two parts of one reality it says it pulls down strongholds The mighty weapon which is the spoken Word of God it pulls down strongholds we're gonna look at that in a few minutes and The way it does it it tells us in verse 5 by casting down arguments the way you pull down strongholds is by casting down arguments and Casting down every high thing. It's two things casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the true knowledge of God the knowledge of God and so then Paul's gonna say now he said it in the negative way cast down strong I mean pull it down strongholds casting down arguments casting on high things now He's gonna say in the positive way bringing all your thoughts into slavery to the Word of God Bringing all your thoughts into captivity into a glorious Slavery, it's a paradox because we bring our mind into slavery to the Word of God and it produces a free spirit If we go into captivity if we go into voluntary captivity here our spirit we have a free spirit we find our way through temptation we find our way out of the snares of condemnation and Depression and all kinds of Of the works of the enemy against us if we bring ourselves into captivity we actually live in Liberty, it's a paradox But the bringing every thought in the captivity is the is the positive way of saying the negative Which is pulling down strongholds casting down arguments and casting down every high thing Those are really two sides of one coin. They they are very very similar in reality and substance those those Realities are now we're gonna look at those these are sometimes throws people off and they're because of the language is a little bit strange, but Hopefully we can make some of that simpler and then we're gonna tie it into the bridal paradigm in chapter 11 because it's chapter 11 that ties in the application of Doing the pulling down strongholds the pulling down strongholds in chapter 10 Paul actually shows how to do it in chapter 11 and he ties it into the bridal paradigm Okay, first we're gonna give an overview of strongholds to kind of give a bigger picture and have it here in the notes for the Bible school students We have three types of strongholds in the scripture now, they're not all with this terminology The realities are described in the scripture, you know the terminology you could use different terms Number one, we'll call them personal strongholds or mental strongholds strongholds of the mind Those are the ones that give us a whole lot of trouble strongholds of the mind the second they are cultural strongholds and I'll come back to each one of them in a minute and the third is cosmic strongholds or Territorial spirits as it's normally called cosmic meaning in the atmosphere in the heavens So let's go through those three strongholds again and give a sentence or two for each one first personal strongholds cultural strongholds and cosmic strongholds Now those three operate together in relationship to each other when you talk about strongholds more times than not people are interested in talking about the cosmic ones the the principalities and powers that that have Exercise their influence Their negative influence through a place in the atmosphere in the heavenly places according to Ephesians 6 and that is a real stronghold That's a cosmic stronghold or a territorial spirit But Paul's actually talking right now I mean he's including all three of these types of strongholds But he's gonna focus on this personal strongholds of strongholds of the mind because if we get those Broken then we can move on to the cultural and the cosmic strongholds But to skip the personal strongholds and go right to the cosmic ones ends up in a lot of futility and a lot of just a whole lot of Activity that doesn't really make much impact Okay, let's look for a moment what is a personal stronghold a stronghold of the mind very simple It's a collection of ideas a Stronghold of the mind is a collection I'd of ideas of lies that are in agreement with Satan that accused God I'm gonna say that again Strongholds of the mind is a collection of ideas In our mind that are in agreement with Satan they are lies they accuse God and Because they accuse God the inevitable is they accuse us And then the next inevitable if you accuse God in your heart and you will accuse yourself you will always accuse your neighbor and to Get people free of accusing their neighbor their friends And maybe the word accusing I'll lose some of you I just complaining against your neighbors against friends the way that we get free of complaining against people is by Getting free from complaining against ourselves and we get that by not complaining or accusing God. It's one continuum Be Cultural strongholds These are a collection of acts or laws Established in the social and the legal order of a geographic area like in Kansas City There are acts immorality drunkenness thievery lying stealing all kinds of deception and some of those are encoded and Validated in laws they're unrighteous laws and those actions of a society and the laws That support some of those actions together become cultural strongholds it's a Acts and laws established in a legal or social order that are in agreement with Satan again. They're against God's righteousness there are cultural strongholds in every city in most cities have One or two or three of them, whatever the number is a small number that are predominant cities have predominant cultural strongholds see a Cosmic stronghold is territorial spirits. That means demonic powers of principalities that are Established in the spirit realm over cities and nations There's plenty of a scripture about that that Energize they They provide demonic satanic Energizing of an entire geographic area the whole spiritual atmosphere is defiled not the whole spiritual atmosphere is defiled, but the spiritual atmosphere is defiled and our prayers and worship is resisting that defiled spiritual atmosphere and the way that We break through cultural. I mean cosmic strongholds is through solemn assemblies fasting and praying Declaring the decrees of the Lord Okay, my point is it to go through each one of those. I just want to give a minute on each one Let's go to the Roman rule to understanding strongholds. Okay, let's look at a natural stronghold just for the most simple Description of it a word picture and that's what Paul is assuming that his readers all understand what a stronghold is So we're gonna go to the natural stronghold then we're gonna move over to the spiritual stronghold of the mind Then we're gonna talk about how the Bible says to pull it down then we're gonna tie it into the to the bridal paradigm a natural stronghold It's a fortified city in the ancient world. It was a very well known in the ancient world That had a large Stone wall built around it like just hypothetically there wasn't any given size. That was standard a Wall would be 50 feet high and 10 feet thick. I mean picture a wall 50 feet high 10 feet thick surrounded a whole city that was called a fortified city or that was a stronghold. That's an example of a stronghold the point of a stronghold Was to keep the invading army out was to keep a foreign presence out an unwanted presence out So the enemy would come the army invading army would come they'd see this big wall And they go. Oh my we got to break that wall to get on the inside of that city To influence that city Everybody knew what a fortified city was or stronghold Now that was that's a well-known and that's a positive image Because if you lived in a city a fortified city, it means you had big stone walls That means you had a certain amount of protection now Paul's gonna use that this analogy in a negative way He's gonna he's gonna use it in a way that was Opposite of how it would have normally been used because in this case The builder of the wall is Satan. He builds a big stone wall around your mind in your heart To protect what is he says is his to protect his influence to protect his domination of a person's life Now he needs the cooperation of that person to build that wall. That's the key thing The person has to be in cooperation It's a certain certain degree I mean it varies in different setting situations so Satan what he wants to do is he wants to build a big stone wall around your heart in your mind and The invading army is the Holy Spirit wanting it and the Holy Spirit comes in but the God but the Holy Spirit honors God the Father's order the order of his kingdom the order of his kingdom is God will only Influence you for good if you want it if you voluntarily say yes to it He comes with his whispers and his wooing if we say no The Lord says I will so honor the dignity of the free will of the human spirit I will let you say no to be separate from me But that no will be forever because you will it will be a the ultimate expression of your no will go on forever and forever So the Lord's invading and So the Lord's wooing and the Lord's whispers in our heart We have to agree But for many years we've been agreeing with Satan building this big 50 foot high 10 foot Stone by stone we've been developing all these thoughts that are in agreement with Satan against God We Love covetousness more than giving we love bitterness more than forgiveness We love immorality more than purity we love boasting instead of serving and humility we love division more than unity and Those are thoughts like that and we spend our life in agreement and and plotting and scheming and thinking and putting more Stones on the wall and Satan is in full cooperation with us and we with him and he puts energy on those He cements them and makes them powerful. It's called a lifestyle of sin and darkness So a person gets saved He's born again. He's going to heaven God lives in him, but the strongholds of the mind are not automatically all gone So Paul is urging them to dismantle them stone by stone to take those thoughts of Agreement with Satan identify them and then resist them and change your thought and you tear the wall down the stronghold You could say the stone wall if you want to tear the stone wall down The reason I would say the word stone wall because some are not familiar with the stronghold that word kind of throws them off tear the stone wall the big stone wall brick by brick stone by stone by Renouncing those ideas and those negative thoughts It's called repentance. It's more than repentance in terms of sinful behavior It's called rejecting lies lies about God Here's what here's what a lie says Lie says sin is more pleasurable and profitable than righteousness at the end of the day It's better to sin than it is to be righteous. That's a total lie against God. It's a lie against God's character and against God's kingdom But it's not just lies related to behavior it's lies related condemnation and in God's character It's lies that says God is not wise. He's not attentive. He's not good. He's not gonna keep his word to you He's not gonna see you through he's neglected you. He's completely Disengaged from you. There's no interest in you. Those are all lies that are accusing the truth of God Those lies each one of them are a stone Every little thought is a stone. There's millions of these Stones in this wall. We've been doing them for years and years and years building that wall against the Word of God be Well, I've said it already, but I'll just say it again We've had the natural strongholds. I'm talking about a stronghold in the name and then in the natural You know a Roman fortified city now. I'm talking about a personal stronghold. I've already said it. It's these arguments It's these it's this negative information It's an argument. It's a mindset instead of the word argument You could put the word paradigm, but a paradigm is a whole mindset, but it's made up of individual decisions And it's a belief system But it's not just our belief system because as believers our general belief system is an agreement with God, but we have many many thoughts Subunits of our belief system a thought of fleeting thoughts that are against the Word of God and against the truth of God That's the weapon Now we would rather the weapon be something else That's the primary weapon and when we speak it to God in a decree we call it intercession when we speak it to God in Adoration we call worship you are you are good. We love you That's worship, but it's just speaking the Word of God we speak it over sickness We call it ministry to one another if we speak it in fellowship With one if we speak it to one another we call it fellowship and encouragement It's just speaking the Word of God. It's the Word of God living in our being flowing through us active powerful as a sword now the problem with the spiritual strongholds is that if we believe lies about God we will believe lies about who we are in God and And then we believe lies and about who the person next to us is in God, and we just write them off It's so easy to write someone off if you're used to writing yourself off The most critical people give them a little bit of mercy because they're the most critical on themselves You know that venom they're there. They're venting on that person or you they do double on themselves when you aren't around I Mean I've been criticized by folks don't like it. I think man That guy goes home with that guy every single night whoa I mean he lives with himself at every car trip. He he can't get free I just I run into him every now and then I mean he's got him forever. Oh wow That's heavy have a little mercy on him They're wearing you out think what they're doing to themselves. It's called the spirit of heaviness. It's called depression They're wearing themselves out like crazy because they're doing to themselves what they're doing to you a little bit See how our personal strongholds established two main ways There's a there's you know you could break down Add a few other little subunits That's not my point my points to get to the bridal paradigm here in a moment here. How are personal strongholds established? By opening the door to Satan again you we could approach this two ways We could approach it through the imagery or the picture of putting another stone on the wall to keep the Holy Spirit's influence out That's one way you could picture it These sinful thoughts keep the Holy Spirit's presence out unless we repent of them Another exact same the exact same truth is the idea, but it's a complete opposite direction, but it's a very same truth It's that if we sin we open the door to Satan we could really understand the idea of opening the door to Satan Satan Mostly it's 100% true, but mostly When people make it a hundred percent true they get they get they have a there's just there's just some contradictions, but mostly it's true that Satan Operates in torment against your life by permission by your permission now. We don't give them overt permission. We don't say hey torment us We live in sin and lies and condemnation and that's what opens the door to them. It's darkness because So we can do it through sinful behavior we open the door and that's why the guy goes to the you know I've said this to so many through the years They kind of innocent kind of looking at a little pornography here there. I go you that's not innocent. You are Absolutely giving legal access to a demon to inhabit your inner man. You're absolutely giving the key You're putting it in their hand and they will come and they will demonize you these demons Then a demonized person does it mean that they have no control that means there's this Heightened energy now of this negative influence on them that it's ten times harder to break the power of it Anything whether it's greed bitterness immorality when we walk in that it's a heightened We open the door for Satan to have a heightened energizing of his influence on our mind and heart our emotions are brought that way and our thinking is brought that way and The Lord says yeah, but you did it you did it you do it the other way It's called prayer and worship. You can open the other door if you want Just do it for years and and you will tear down the stronghold, but it's not just Through negative behavior sin will definitely do it but unbelief wrong teaching wrong ideas wrong ideas particularly wrong ideas about God I'm not talking about wrong ideas You know one group says deacons Lead the church the other group says elders lead the church. The other guy says the Apostle is a church I don't mean ideas like that. Those are you know, kind of structural organizational ideas They not so much those kind of ideas though. God has his word on those kind of ideas But I'm talking about ideas about God Those ideas about God if we get wrong ideas about God, it's it's it's an agree We do we inadvertently are agreeing with lies about it And we put another stone on the wall and the whispers of the wooing of the spirit the winds of a spirit are pushed out Or held out yet again and the Holy Spirit's more powerful than those, but the Holy Spirit is bound By God's order. He's God God. The Holy Spirit is part of the of the Trinity God's order is the Redemptive influences the influence for good will only be in as much as the human being wants it and opens the door and says yes to it So it's not like the lie Overpowers God, but the lies said God has created a boundary line. He says I won't step over that boundary line You will only have me to the degree you want me That's not how much you say you want him at a public meeting. It's how much we want him when no one's around He says you'll have me to that degree The issue of strongholds is really the issue of filling our inner man with the Word of God I mean, it's this this is a strange idea But the issue of strongholds is really the issue of prayer and fasting and filling your inner man with the Word It's really true. You get your inner man filled with the Word you can dismantle strongholds personal ones And then you're far more effective in dismantling cultural ones and cosmic ones Now Satan's domain I'm down in C in the paragraph C. Satan's domain is the domain of darkness, right? We all know that And wherever darkness is he has legal access he's the God of darkness God the Father has apportioned him that realm He's called him the God of darkness. He gets to operate With great authority wherever there's darkness if that darkness is inside of us. He gets to operate in us And the darkness isn't just sin. It is unbelief, too It is believing wrong things dark things about God and The ultimate dark thing we believe about God is that God is not good. That's the big sly It comes in a thousand different packages. He's not good and Then the second lie if he is good His mercy comes up short If he's good, well, okay, let's give in there's two truths if he's good, but you're disqualified So you you've gone out of the you've outran his goodness. He is good, but you've outran it You're disqualified. And so therefore the great statement the Lord is good and his mercy endures your sin and my sin forever It endures it it overruns it It's fantastic. Those are the two ultimate statements Against darkness lies because though we none of us would say God none of us would just say God isn't good That's not what we'd say we get an economic problems and we think he forgot us the Lord says well in my book That means you don't think I'm good Well, I wouldn't say you're not good whether you don't think I listen Well, I know you're listening. Well, then that means I'm not good then well Lord, I know you're good. I know you listen, but I'm scared anyway Well, why is what it always comes back to something about God at the end of the day? and that's how that's how it really is and So my point isn't aren't we horrible because we have wrong thoughts I have millions of them as you do My point is is to identify where the battle is We're gonna say the Lord is good but the more specific we get the more powerful that the tearing down the Dismantling is the pulling down of strongholds. Now. Here's what Jesus said in John 14 verse 30 He said Satan has nothing in me. Nothing He has no access to me. I do all of my behavior is in righteousness and all of my All of my thought processes are in truth. Wow All of my behaviors in righteousness He has no door through my behavior and all of my my thought processes. My mental structures are in truth When Satan comes and strikes me, I know my God is good. I don't I even go there for a moment He said Satan has nothing in me. He has no access point. He has no door Now we can't say that we have pockets of darkness that we don't perceive in our and our character our friends perceive it But we don't perceive it we have blind spots in our character and in our in in our Thinking patterns in our paradigms in our thought structures and again, we're not gonna get all down out about it and say Oh, I'm gonna quit because I got darkness in me. No, we were born in darkness We renew the mind and we pull down these strongholds and we use the Word of God Which is mighty if we stay with it, it will show itself to be mighty. I Find that most people don't pull down strongholds. They don't stay with using the mighty weapon the Word of God in their inner man They'll preach it publicly but in their private Meditations when temptations come lies come all sorts of mannered things come they don't say what Jesus did It is written and they speak it right back to the enemy. That's how you pull a stronghold down a personal stronghold So this is all about being filled with the Word Here I am giving you a message on the tearing down strongholds of the bridal paradigm and it all boils down to prayer fasting and meditating on the Word and then speaking it when You're under pressure. We're back to that subject again You go to page two. Okay, let's look at this Okay Let's read it again the weapons of our warfare. They are mighty in God for the pulling down of strongholds I want to get you that term a phraseology pulling down strongholds casting down arguments and actually you pull down strongholds By casting down arguments. We'll look at that a moment but what I have for the Bible school students is the Different translations, but I want to give them some of the others as well Because this terminology confuses us, but it really isn't so confusing. I read this stuff for years I go what on earth is Paul talking about? I mean, it seems so confusing, but it really isn't a Pulling down a stronghold. That's what the New King James is pulling down a stronghold the NIV says demolishing a stronghold Demolishing it not pulling it down Basically the strongholds a big stone wall pulling the stone wall down Brick by brick stone by stone. However, you want to see it The the revised says destroying the stronghold So once let's pull it down stone by stone. The other one says demolish it like bring in the crane and crash it The other translation says destroy it it's all the same thing It means knock the knock the stones out of that wall. That's all it means. That's really what it boils down to the New American Standard has the phrase it's the Destruction of fortresses that used to because I was on the New American Standard for 20 years I thought what is the destruction of a fortress? It's tear down the stone wall the wall made of of those stones are thoughts against God. That's really what we tear it down Okay. Now the way you do it is by casting down arguments or mindsets an Argument is a mindset. It's more than an individual argument Although there are subunits. It comes down to fleeting thoughts But I mean we have to take our thoughts captive in the even the simple thoughts that come away when we fill ourself with the Word of God We're strengthened to to do this, but there is no substitute Nobody can do this for you, and you can't do it without living in the Word of God. I Run into it all the time says well, let's just tell me something practical. You just tell me to get in the word I go I could never give you anything more mighty and practical than your inner man Being filled with the Word of God Because it's the way you cast down arguments you cast down mindsets or paradigms And I have different translations that says demolish them destroy them cast down imaginations It's you called imaginations or arguments. It's paradigms. It's mindsets. It's a collection of ideas Okay be God's Word at the end of B is like a hammer The way we tear those stones that you could think of it to one of two ways you're on the wall I like I'm visual. I'm either on the wall I try to knock that stone off, but it's all glued in you know cemented in like man I think I put that thing in hard. I must have done that one a thousand times Holy Spirit whispers try a million. Okay, Lord. Okay. I repent I Try to like think of knocking the cement out of between those stones to push it over but you go the other direction and it's a Paul says it's like a hammer and you come against that stone wall and you're just hitting boom And every time you speak the Word of God To your own heart or just to God to the angels against the demons with I'm as they're assaulting your own soul It is written. It's like taking a hammer and you're hitting that rock You're hitting that stone and little by little it doesn't all break down into in one moment But little by little you hit that stone wall enough times that thing is gonna cave in even though the first time you hit it Maybe so unfamiliar maybe so unnatural you may swing and hit it your your arm may shake. You're like, whoa I didn't get very far. I still have that Massive depressing mindset that thing didn't give an edge you stay with it You will find the weapon of speaking the Word of God is mighty It's mighty if you stay with it in faith, it's not mighty If you just do it one time you stay with it It will prove itself mighty because part of the uses of it is the more that our free will is engaged in it over time The more powerful that it becomes in our behalf Okay, I have the word it says it's gonna we cast down every argument and we cast down every high thing Now you're gonna notice a collection of words here and these words are very important. It says We cast an argument down. That's number one an argument Okay, so we know an argument its information. It's negative information against God. It's an argument against God that Satan originated It's an argument against God You can put the word accusation, but just when we cast an argument down, you know It's an argument against God that Satan put in your mind originally Even though he might have used a good friend of yours. He put it in your mind But the word Paul uses his argument here and then the next phrase it says he cast down every high thing that comes against knowledge so What is a high thing? That comes against knowledge. It is demonic knowledge that comes against divine knowledge the high thing When you put all the scriptures together is actually Demonically inspired knowledge. It's the same as the argument. It's the same essence of the argument a high thing That stands against the knowledge of God is demonic knowledge now these demonic beings have it they're filled with it But at the end of the day the principalities and powers only have power in as much as they're embodied with evil Information and they're under demonic influence it's their evil information the high thing that comes against God and then the the the next phrase is is That we bring every thought captive the way that you dismantle the way that you dislodge The way that you tear down this high thing is by bringing your thoughts into captivity My point is on every one of the different phrases here, whether it's Casting down arguments casting down high things that come against knowledge or taking every thought all three of those phrases All three of them have exactly the same point. It's information about God that is wrong that has to be turned around and Again, you can lose your way in that phrase because you're thinking it's all of these other entities It's three phrases that have the same core meaning It's wrong Information it's distorted information about God that has to be turned around. That's the point That's how it works and it's by getting the Word of God not just reading it reading. It's good reading is critical It's using it after we read it It's using it Okay, let's go Roman rule for pulling down strongholds by casting down arguments Okay, a and B. We've already said it three times. So I'll skip it Let's go to B. See, how do you cast out an argument? How do you cast these argue? How do you cast these mindsets down? How do you cast these high things? Against God's knowledge. How do you cast them down? Number one you expose the lies that are lodged in your heart you expose them How same-o same-o fill your mind with truth? You say God is good you're exposing a lie, he didn't forget me and yes, I really blew it, but I'm not disqualified Oh, I feel disqualified. If I was God, I would disqualify me. Well, you're not God and you're not as qualified No, I really blew it this is over expose the lie that's lodged in your heart You have to expose it. You can't do anything with it tells expose that's called that's through teaching Receiving teaching Getting it direct from from Nehemiah Ezra Paul Peter James John Jesus getting it You know the teaching of the Word of God by God's servants and the Word you give you know You can get through hearing worship tapes and get great teaching through hearing it in music and get teaching through through Places like just sitting in a meeting and heritage you can hear teach about reading a book a magazine reading the scripture Fill your mind with teaching because what it does is it exposes lies? Read teaching that pushes you not just Teaching that you know, just kind of confirms your life vision, but read teaching a lot of people That's mostly what they do They just read you know They read their 20 minutes a week and mostly just on the subject that is gonna that confirms what they want to do But do read study push yourself on the subject of the knowledge of God about God himself Exposes lies. Okay exposing the lies is critical. I Found that it's not easy work. We got people they've been here for one month or a year We're teaching on the bridal paradigm and they still in their inner man The lies are still there and there's not even exposed to them that they have lies They don't even realize they have a spirit of condemnation and a spirit of bondage. They don't even understand it They just know they feel depressed and all what's wrong The lie is in their heart are not exposed It don't think if you hear if you hear it ten times in a row the lie is now exposed It takes a while even if you're hearing it It's it gets soaked and marinated in truth before an individual the light goes on and they go. Oh He like really likes me, oh my goodness, I watched the light goes on go on to people all the time Don't think that hearing and singing it is the same thing as the is the lie being exposed it takes a while marinate it Saturate same thing get in the middle of it Secondly, it's not enough to go. Oh, I get it. You have to do number two You have to renounce it actually you have to renounce that lie. Call it a lie repent of it father I repent of believing That you're not good I believe I repent of believing you're not patient. I've repented believing you're not wise I repent of believing your words are false that your promises to me. I repent of that Beloved I have to repent of that thing a thousand times thousands of times because the darkness of my heart It's default button is to say that God's words are not going to come to pass so we just We just peel the onion a thousand times you go over you go right back you renounce it in the name of Jesus It is true. Your word is true We renounce it not just the lies. We also renounce the behavior anything that has darkness in it. We have to renounce it We have to renounce behavior and darkness but not just that not just bitterness and immorality and greed and Anger and arrogance and lack of serving and all that, but you know not blessing your enemies all those kinds of ways of darkness We renounce those but we also have to renounce the lies That keep us condemned after we've repented But number three, this is a another one that It's not enough to have the lies exposed and that doesn't happen automatically just by hearing it And then once it's exposed there's a whole nother thing when you actually come to agreement You're gonna you're gonna declare war against it and you mean it Then Here's the part where so many drop the ball after they've done the first two they don't resist Satan's heightened energy against them So here they are just walking down the road of life and They have this they've they've renounced the lies. They've seen it. It's a process. It's not like one day is the big day you renounce lies all the time and then You're there then all sudden you have this irrational fear this irrational fear this irrational impulse to strike back jump off the bridge Go to the guy's house and just burn the house down Don't just get your money back burn the house down to have an easy Rational the fear. Oh, no, I'm not gonna get my money. I'm I can probably go to jail They'll kill me in jail. Some guy will beat me up, you know, these crazy Here those things are called in Ephesians 6 flaming missiles and what a flaming missile is. It's a heightened It's it's not rational. It's a Impulse that has a response in our inner man. That is not rational It's a I'm just gonna go do the last thing. I'm just gonna go pay the guy back I'm just gonna quit and jump. Anyway, it's over. I'm just gonna It's these crazy ideas that hit the mind It is not just an issue of exposing lies and renouncing our agreement with him there's a time where we say in the name of Jesus and we speak the Word of God against flaming missiles and extinguish them and most believers don't extinguish these heightened Irrational impulses they are demonic arrows. They must be resisted First Peter chapter 5 verse 9 Peter said resist him Don't just say yes to righteousness when those things hit you those irrational impulses say no You know people are so used to when they feel depression just being depressed so used to when they feel like eating they just eat So used to feeling when they got the pornography deal go do it So used to when they they get mad at their enemy. Just just slandering the person they give it They give way to every impulse and they don't understand. It's not just a sinful impulse. It is a demonic arrow It's a flaming missile that hits them and that energizes it for three to ten minutes Fifteen to thirty minutes an hour or two. Everyone's different and we need to actually understand what's happening and resist it That's not enough just to come to a teaching meeting get allies exposed and even come up to the altar time at the end and Say, you know what? I renounce it. No, we have to say it is written Thus says the Lord the Lord is good. This is the Lord. He is my provider Thus says the Lord I can walk in light. I love truth. That's who I am. I am his servant That is who I am. I am my beloved. My beloved is mine. That is who I am when these things assault our minds That's the truth of the Word of God Let's go to page 3 now 2nd Corinthians chapter 11 Paul is going to talk about the specific ways To truth. He's gonna talk about two truths. I talked a few minutes ago. The Lord is good as mercy dues forever That that's the two major assaults, but now I'm gonna use two truths. I'm gonna say I'm a And I'm going in a different direction now it boils it comes to the same reality, but Paul's in 2nd Corinthians 11. Let's look at this. He goes verse 2 and 3 He is actually now going to apply the teaching of chapter 10. Here's the critical issue 2nd Corinthians 10 11 12 and 13 4 chapters 2nd Corinthians 10 11 12 and 13 4 chapters is one subject Okay, you cannot read 2nd Corinthians 10 and forget 2nd Corinthians 11 2nd Corinthians 11 is the rest of the paragraph of 2nd Corinthians 10. Here's my point people study spiritual warfare They read 1st Corinthians 10 and they don't read 2nd Corinthians 11 and they get their whole warfare Theology in chapter 10 and you need to get it in chapter 10 11 12 and 13 It's the way that strongholds are dismantled. It's four full chapters complete with persecution prayer fasting Endurance patience speaking the Word of God and all sorts of things I mean, it's a critical four chapter unit So don't read chapter 10 and just say I got the warfare thing down. Okay, so we're in chapter 11. We're on the same topic Roman numeral 4 on the notes I mean 5 at the page top of page 3 for I'm jealous Paul says with a godly jealously Here's why I have betrothed you to one husband. That's that's truth. Number one. I betrothed you I Helped I led you to a relationship to where now you're engaged to Jesus You're married. You're legally married to him Because in the Western culture you're engaged for a season and then you get married and the married is legal But in the ancient culture when you were engaged you were legally married you had to get divorced to break the engagement So this is a gigantic statement He says I'm jealous for you Why I'm the one that led you to that relationship with God to where now you're married to him because being betrothed or engaged Or espoused those are all different terms Translation once as you're espoused once as you're engaged once as you're betrothed I you know our trend, you know, the most kind of common word for us is engaged You got the ring It's a legal agreement. If you if you break the engagement you get the you have to go through a legal divorce process in the ancient world That's number one truth number true truth Paul said I am presenting you as a chaste virgin to Christ You are a chaste instead of the word chaste put the word pure or clean Now he's talking to the Corinthians The Corinthians were the most carnal church in Paul's generation surpassed only by the Laodiceans later the Corinthians and the Laodiceans the Corinthians were a mess and Paul said I Have presented you right now before God even that very moment there's an ultimate eschatological sense when at the second coming when Paul presents his labors to the Lord on the Day of Judgment, but Apart from that right now You are a chaste a pure clean virgin before God by the gift of righteousness right now Then it goes on he says what verse 3 what I'm afraid of Is someone just like sir the serpent or Satan deceived Eve instead of the word serpents, but Satan and you're thinking By craftiness, that's it by craftiness as Satan deceived Eve by craftiness it says your minds will be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ and He goes on to talk about how look at this This verse 4 is all about the strongholds you cannot understand chapter 10 strongholds without reading verse 4 of chapter 11 How were they deceived by craftiness? How were their minds corrupted? See it's the same themes Deceived that's that that's information, but that being deceived is related information Just like a stronghold is having their minds corrupted is relates to information again. Just like a stronghold does Craftiness deceived corruption three phrases again three words again related to the issue of information a dispensing of information He goes on he talks about a group of preachers that are called Judaizers verse 4 Here's what they did verse 4. They preach a different Jesus. They operate in a different spirit and they have a different gospel I just kind of summarized it for time's sake they preach a different Jesus. They they say Jesus And if when they're pushed they go know the man from Nazareth who died on the cross And the Koreans went Oh same Jesus Paul goes no What has to be Paul? They said Nazareth. They said yes, they said Jesus. Yeah, the 30 year old, you know the guy from Nazareth. Yeah And they say he died at Rhodes. It has to be that they go. No, they got the terms They got the terminology down, but it's not the same Jesus It's not the God of the scripture. It's a God they're using his name and his you know They're using Nazareth and the fact he died. They don't believe what I believe when I say Jesus Great, really? Oh, yes, it goes. They have a different gospel and they have a different spirit They operate by a whole different spirit. It actually is the spirit of bondage in the spirit of condemnation. That's the spirit in this interesting That the strongholds of chapter 10 are related to the teaching ministry of chapter 11 Because okay, let's let's go back and look at a let's look at these two points real quick I don't want to go on and on but we know the two points But I just want to tie them in to your thinking these things are not just nice Friday night points We know Mike teaches on the bride of Christ and Friday night Beloved this is the whole essence of warfare and breakthrough in our lives in our cities and in nations Is these kinds of realities? My presentation of it, but I mean the truths of 2nd Corinthians 11 the teaching ministry of verse 2 to 4 here Number one truth. We're gonna look at Paul says a I have here because I present you as a chaste virgin Now this you're we are presented before Jesus as a chaste virgin. This is the legal truth of how we stand in God's court We stand these these immoral Corinthians Paul said push delete and you stand clean as a virgin before God Because of the gift of righteousness because of the cross it's glorious It's beyond Exaggeration how powerful this thing is? We are a pure virgin by the gift of righteousness 2nd Corinthians chapter 5 verse 21 He became sin him who he who knew no sin became sin on our behalf that we might become thee righteousness of God in Christ Jesus and One moment it occurred instantly on one day you were born. You might not know the day that doesn't matter But there was a moment in time where you received the gift of righteousness Beloved let me tell you something about the gift of righteousness It is God's righteousness You know We're kind of used to the phrase gift of righteousness or the righteousness of God The righteousness of God cannot be improved upon God will not be more righteous a billion years from now than he is right now You will not be more righteous a billion years from now legally than you are right now as a born-again believer You will not be more this righteousness this legal standing cannot be improved upon at all. It cannot be improved upon. I Want to say this this may kind of throw some of you off, but it's just you need to hear it anyway It is the very righteousness of God God's righteousness is not superior to this. It is his it is the righteousness of God that gives you legal standing and when we stumble sin we genuinely repent we stand there in the full force of the righteousness of God the The righteousness that cannot be improved upon it cannot be increased It is fully yours. God doesn't have more than you have because he gave you his in the legal court It is just I just want to say the word outrageous, but I mean in such a positive way. It is extreme to the nth degree But the Corinthians had this level of righteousness Bossa, do you have any idea? He goes this truth Will be like a hammer that will shatter the spirit of bondage in your life if it breaks through in your spirit the truth of What I just told you Paul would say you are chaste Virgins you are pure virgins. That's like a hammer He's shattering lies in their mind because I'm thinking well, I blew it today. So I'll lay low for a week Maybe God will get busy I'll kind of rev up a little bit on my prayer meetings and then I'll come back and approach him again and we stand we Try to approach God based on how good we've been the last 48 or 72 hours or month or two And Paul says throw that away. You are a chaste virgin legally There is nothing there is nothing that legally hinders God from embracing you There's things that hinder us from receiving it Those are strongholds in our own mind, but there's nothing in God that hinders him from taking us in now God doesn't mean he's gonna fully anoint us It doesn't mean that he's not gonna discipline us to get rid of some of those dark areas But in terms of his embrace, it's 100% and in terms of his wrath, it's a huh. It's gone 100% We are fully accepted. You cannot be more accepted You will not be more accepted a billion years with a resurrected body and blameless Righteousness that you're walking in you will not be more accepted then than you are right now tonight That is the outrageous Gloriously outrageous gift of righteousness. It cannot be improved upon it is this is the hammer that shattering the lies in their minds the strongholds now Be He says let's go to the next point now that you know, you're standing there. I mean we want to come up with every argument I want I blow it today I want to again lay low for a week or two in my flesh and kind of earn it back up kind of get my Momentum going again Get a little winning streak going, you know before the playoffs, you know that kind of thing. It's not like that we stand as Fully embraced after a 40-day fast of total immersion in God's Word and presence We stand in a resurrected body a billion years later as the second example We stand you whether you just finished a 40-day fast fully Immersed in the word or you're a million years in the presence of God in the resurrected body You stand as much in the gift of righteous right now totally blowing it at four o'clock today And that just bugs us. I mean we like it. We really like it a whole lot, but there's something I don't know. I'm gonna relate to God based on my my maturity level and my spiritual attainment in the last couple days Paul said don't you do that? That's another gospel. That's a total another gospel that will that's coming from another spirit If you succeed you're proud if you fail you're condemned He says get rid of the whole spirit pride in God nation get rid of both of it. Just stand in the raw truth of God Now he goes on to the next truth and he says now I'm gonna tell you another one. I've betrothed you You're the one God Jesus wants to marry this is about his desire. You're the one his heart burns for The first one is legal. This one is emotional It's not just that he said yes, and he removed ever all the hindrances to his full embrace now. He's saying Now he's saying again the hindrances in us aren't removed because we still have dark ideas I know I can't and we stay back and we still want to go do this more than that and and our minds are we get Divided minds and and divided opinions inside of ourself or double-minded, but the Lord says no I'm standing here right with my arm. My embrace is totally available to you, but this other one being betrothed Beloved it it has to do with his passion for you He says you're the one I want. I want you to reign with me forever over the angels I mean when I take you into this relationship a billion times a billion years I will not weary of you at all Beloved this so redefines who we are that redefines everything about our life these two foundational truths These two foundational truths of what dismantle strongholds in our mind if we use them now Here's a I have in my notes here II here's the great core question Now I ask you And the second one's the right answer. So don't blurt out the wrong one Second one's the right answer. Here's the first one. Are we essentially a slave to sin who struggles to love God? Or are we lovers of God who still struggle with sin It's the second one But a lot of people I'm gonna say it again At the at the core of our being our core identity when I stand before God what you do Are you a slave of sin who's struggling to love God? Or are you essentially a lover an authentic lover who's still struggling with sin? total different issue complete different issue because if you're a slave of sin struggling to love in The core identity that man that woman is still a hopeless hypocrite hoping hoping for mercy But the other one is an authentic lover who acknowledges their struggle and asks for help Beloved you are a pure virgin Who is the one God wants to marry you or betrothed you are married to him in the sense of the engagement? The second coming is when the consummation of the marriage is but the marriage is legal The point is that the legality now verse then the point is you're the one he wants. He looked across to his creation He goes I want him. I want her I Want her that's the one I want. He said I'm going after her beloved when we feel chosen When we feel desired When we feel clean when we feel clean I mean we blew it yesterday, but we feel clean. We feel desired. We feel pursued We feel chosen it changes the way we live. That's what shatters strongholds when a person feels Shame they normally walk out Shameful behavior in a continual way. I mean they still have to say no to shameful behavior Even if they feel bad, but I'm telling you we get them free from shame. They will draw back on a Significant amount of shameful behavior when they don't feel shame a dirty person sin a person who feels dirty sins way more way more The same human being I'm talking about the same man the same woman if they feel dirty they give in way more to dirt The same human being the same brother same day. They feel clean and loved They have a tremendous energy in their spirit to say no to dirt and defilement Amen Well, let's just end with that