Hi there!
I hope you have really enjoyed journaling your morning time with God, jotting down some experiences or awarenesses of His presence today, and now we are going to dive right into the study portion of this lesson on our “Life of Prayer – Hearing the Voice of God” – Below is the WORD document of our study.
Greater Intimacy with God – Lesson 4 – Part 2 WORD
I do want to take a moment to tell you one thing that I didn’t include in the written portion of the study –
Satan’s voice can be so subtle that it is almost imperceivable as lies. Actually, his speaking to us can feel like it’s the most right, most justified thing, and have a form of godliness to it. Satan speaks to our minds with one thought that can completely derail us off the perfect will of God that He has for our life. Just one thought. And here’s the part of this that is actually true and frightening at the same time – that one thought can be the beginning to a series of thoughts that last for years and years setting up in our minds a powerful stronghold!
A stronghold is simply this – a mental pattern of thinking and perceiving that is not from God, but from Satan, that has become a way of filtering so many life decisions. THAT, my friend, is a stronghold. THAT is what we call spiritual blindness. Satan can take one small thought and feed it and feed it and feed it through the course of many months, years, decades and it became THE FILTER through which life decisions were and are made. Not filtered through the Word of God. Not filtered through the nature of God. But filtered through this pattern of thinking that feeds the flesh, keeping our spiritual awareness dull and dumb to truth that sets us FREE!
Watchman Nee in his book, “Let Us Pray” said in his final chapter titled, “The Wearing Down Tactics of Satan”, this:
The Wearing-Out Tactics of Satan (Daniel 7:25)
Wearing Out the Physical Body — Gradually, imperceptibly, we are fooled into ignoring our need for food and sleep until we are so tired and stressed out that we are no longer effective.
Wearing Out Man’s Heart — Little by little, Satan suppresses our peace, our joy, our love for God.
Wearing Out the Spiritual Life — He takes away our prayer life and causes us to trust God less so that we backslide ever so slightly each day.
Wearing Out Our Time — He may send us people to whom we will witness repeatedly, each time without result, in order to exasperate us.
Wearing Out Our Consecration — By constant nagging, he induces us to fail to protect our consecration and our testimony, which allow the power and presence of God.
Must Detest the Wearing Out Work of Satan — We must learn to recognize these tactics and to rebuke them. If we suffer them patiently, he will continue to wear away at us. He only stops when we are finally frustrated enough to repudiate his efforts.
He went on to say that Satan’s tactics are so subtle that we can suffer a slow death to God’s PERFECT will for our life in advancing His kingdom and leading people to Him, because of one pattern of thinking that took root in us and became a stronghold. The only way to destroy a mental stronghold is with the inspired Word of God. That alone is the only weapon that will demolish a mental thought pattern that is setting its self up in us to keep us imprisoned or in a very real form of bondage. We see this often when we encounter pride, self-righteousness, greed, lust, self-pity, worry, fear, and hatred.
So, pray for the MIND OF CHRIST to be YOUR Stronghold!!
“We have the mind of Christ [to be guided by His thoughts and purposes].” 1 Corinthians 2:16
If you haven’t watched the first video to this lesson, here y’a go! But Thursday, there will be a second video on Part 3 of this lesson. Be sure to join our Facebook Group page –
