Lesson 27 Warring Against the Flesh: Casting Down Imaginations
Questions 3 and 4
When we feed our minds on pornography or sexual impurity of any kind, we are feeding on ashes (that which has no nutrition). Feeding on impurity starves our souls and poisons our minds, and we end up with deluded hearts, holding lies in our hands, oblivious to our situation.
Notice Isaiah 44:20 tells us that if we feed on ashes, we will eventually get to the place where we do not know that we believe lies. And this is the whole problem with bondage to impurity: we are believing lies and don’t know it. “He cannot say, ‘Is there not a lie in my right hand?’“
This is why to get free we must examine everything we believe in light of God’s Word. Ask yourself today, “What do I believe that has come from the world, rather than from God’s Word?”
Here are a few lies the evil one puts as thought-strongholds in our minds as we “feed on ashes”:
“I have had this sin for as far back as I can remember, therefore I can never change.” The truth counteracts this lie: “If anyone is in Christ he is a new creation, the old has gone, the new has come” (2 Corinthians 5:17) and “that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God” (1 Corinthians 6:9-11).
“I’m powerless against temptation; when the image hits my mind, I have to obey its call. I get ‘triggered’”. The truth counteracts this lie: “For we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin—because anyone who has died has been set free from sin” (Romans 6:6-7). The Christians is never "triggered", only "tempted" (1 Corinthians 10:13).
“The gospel might work for others, but my situation is different. My problem is worse; my sin is deeper; my chains are tighter.” The truth counteracts this lie: “Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. (9) Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings” (1 Peter 5:8-9). Yes, all believers deal with “the same kind of sufferings” and the cure, according to Scripture, is always the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Question 3. Of the above, is there one that you identify with more strongly than the others? If not, are there some things that you believe that might be lies?
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We must understand that the devil takes us captive, puts us in bondage, keeps us slaves through lies. Remember truth=freedom (“and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free”--John 8:32) and lies=bondage. So if you find yourself in bondage to sin, ask God for a heart that is willing to examine everything you believe in light of what God’s Word says, and to reject beliefs that have come from man rather than God.
2 Corinthians 10:3-5 KJV For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (4) (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) (5) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;
Question 4. According to 2 Corinthians 10:3-5, what are believers able to do to our thought-strongholds and imaginations?