In Christianity we ignore the fact that the things we see as big warfare are as a result of where the enemy really have access to us, these places are communized that’s why never perceive them as a battle. They are in our flesh; his power over us is rooted in the flesh.
The bible says in John 14:30 “the prince of this world came but he had nothing on me” not having anything on Him or against Him means nothing in our flesh is working contrary to the precepts of God. These workings can be sexual immorality, jealousy, anger, malice, divination, rebellion etc.
Speaking of the flesh, we have to identify where the influences of the flesh springs from which is the soul. What we accumulated in our soul/inner man is either learnt or passed down from the bloodline.
The soul of man is the main personality of a man, the core of his existence that consist of the intellect, conscience and heart. This part of man easily retain information.
Jeremiah 1:5 says, “before I formed thee in the womb, I knew thee and before you came forth out of the womb, I set you apart and ordained thee a prophet unto the nations” you think the devil have not gotten a hint of your ordination.
Genesis 3:15 “and I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between you and your off springs and hers, he will crush your head and you will strike his heels”. When this word was spoken, it was in a seed form, but the enemy went ahead in the earthly bloodline of Jesus in order to destroy and corrupt His bloodline ahead, he made multiple attempts, but never succeeded.
This is the same with our individual self. The enemy looks for an opening to plant seed people right from the early stage of life, when we have no sense of coming to God for a covering. The enemy comes when we are still developing with different life events to utter soul to miss the mark of what it was originally sharpened to be and do.
These encounters leave the soul fragmented and scattered that those known and unknown wounds becomes our reality and form our identity, from here we cultivate desires, cultures and personalities that birth the things that contradict the precepts of God and end up equipping and enabling the flesh more.
Nobody was born with anger, rebellion, jealousy and all the workings of the flesh, it was learnt, experience taught us, bloodline taught us, our environment that nurtured us taught us, but thank God for His sacrifice which has paid from our sin and taken them away and subdued the power of the flesh.
Romans 6:6-13
6 We know that our old [a]self [our human nature without the Holy Spirit] was nailed to the cross with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin. 7 For the person who has died [with Christ] has been freed from [the power of] sin.
8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we will also live [together] with Him, 9 because we know [the self-evident truth] that Christ, having been raised from the dead, will never die again; death no longer has power over Him. 10 For the death that He died, He died to sin [ending its power and paying the sinner’s debt] once and for all; and the life that He lives, He lives to [glorify] God [in unbroken fellowship with Him]. 11 Even so, consider yourselves to be dead to sin [and your relationship to it broken], but alive to God [in unbroken fellowship with Him] in Christ Jesus.
12 Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts and passions. 13 Do not go on offering members of your body to sin as instruments of wickedness. But offer yourselves to God [in a decisive act] as those alive [raised] from the dead [to a new life], and your members [all of your abilities—sanctified, set apart] as instruments of righteousness [yielded] to God.
If we believe that we have been delivered through Christ Jesus, but refuse to deal with patterns, sin, strongholds that has reshaped us, we are walking in deception. Sometimes we have to work out our salvation (deliverance), let it be continuous process; else you start giving the enemy power over your life then look no different with an unbeliever.
When he came to Jesus, the bible said he found nothing in Him. Why your family is going through series of trouble is because there are iniquities and transgressions the enemy is still feeding from, same with your personal life.
The next one is an un-renewed mindset, a mind pattern that never changes from what you were before Christ to what you should be in Christ. 2 Corinthians 3:18 “But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord”.
When we break down the process of the word “beholding” there, it is saying as we keep desiring to be align ourselves as the reflective image of Jesus by getting washed by Him in fellowship, we are being cleansed from our old self/nature to be just like Him.
To break a long time thinking pattern, most especially those that became a stronghold could take a lot of discipline, acceptance, accountability, humility, the kind of strength and understanding that only the spirit gives.
We do know some of our past experiences and traumas has shaped our souls and conform it to what it shouldn’t be, they transformed our mind and thought pattern, now we respond to issues of life from this falsehood.
Recently the Lord revealed something to me, He made me sit down one day just to look back on the journey of my life, I discovered one hidden pattern “I have never really finished anything I started” no matter what it was.
I used to see it as been easily bored or intelligent people don’t know how to stay on a thing for long, but God was actually showing me another thing. He reminded of the time I had series of rejections and near success syndrome which happened from the manipulation of witchcraft in my family while growing up, it birthed fear and doubt and I have structured my mind that way.
It was my defense mechanism from hurt, disappointment and this constant feeling of being a failure. I wait for things to collapse before they do, I project my mind for anything good in my life to fail at any slightest discomfort, I attracted the spirit of abortion without even knowing it.
Within me, I built this strong believe system that something must fail, this mindset influenced my business, my jobs, this blog (I almost shut down at some point),relationships (one time I told one guy I was seeing at the time how we should plan our divorce ahead of time), even the simple daily activities.
Changing mindset still goes deep to finding your identity in-Christ, the enemy can take advantage of anything you do not deal with. He will plant the seed and wait for it to germinate then use it sabotage your life.
Our constant pray should be, Lord search my heart and open the eyes of my understanding to what I am not seeing in my life.
You are unstoppable!
Love from Abba.
