Is Your Heart Being Held Captive?

Is Your Mind Being Held Captive?

Is Your Spirit Being Held Captive?

These are three questions we will try to address in the next few days as we consider what Holy Week is all about. Since all three are intertwined we only treat them separately in order to encourage their balance so when the moment to be a witness arrives we act more definitively, more courageously and more faithfully. Let’s look at the heart first.

There are 790…

As we approach Holy Week the Cross looms on the horizon of our daily experience. The claims of Jesus come in the context of Jesus’ declaration that He is the bread of life. It starts early in John as Jesus declares He is life and gives life and intends to share that life through faith. The Feeding of the 5000 builds on the idea of a spiritual feeding.

The abundance of bread and fish point to a deeper feeding available in the Word.

He reprimands the crowds that follow Him…

Vs.13 The armor of God, Gk. panoplion, spiritual covering for the mind, the heart and the spirit.

1. For the mind---against rationalization and self-justification.

2. For the heart---against the attitudes, strongholds that hold the heart captive.

3. For the spirit---against fear, pride and the numerous spirits that war against faith in Christ. The antichrist.

Also “the day of evil” is the present. When we are speaking about spiritual reality it is always in the…

Eph.6:10 "Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. 11 Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes. 12 For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. 13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after…

False teaching is the dangerous satanic interference in every generation. The positive stand of John in his letters is the antidote in every generation. Believers need not only right doctrine for their minds but encouragement for their hearts. This is exactly John’s purpose in writing for the Body of Christ at large.

The subtle infusion of heretical teaching was the devil’s ploy to sidetrack the early Body of Christ. One prevailing example was called Gnosticism. Part of its teaching…

Matt.4:1 “Jesus was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tempted by the devil.”

Here begins the single most important process in the history of human experience. It is the process God gave man to discover who he is, why is here and where he is headed. Given by God, it is a spiritual process that takes place within. It is an invisible spiritual process that defines us by our visible behavior. Through it we know God, we know ourselves and we know each other. It also defines…

You don’t realize now what I am doing, but later you will understand. Jn.13:7

Now that you know these things…Jn.13:17

I am telling you now before it happens, so that when it does happen you will believe that I am He. Jn.13:19

Now is the Son of Man glorified and God is glorified in Him and if God is glorified in Him, God will glorify the Son in Himself, and will glorify Him at once. Jn.13:31-32.

Now [Father] they know everything you have given me comes from you.…

Gems of Jesus

Matt.5:3 Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven

There is no question that Jesus wants to completely reorient mankind’s mind and heart to process everything spiritually; who they are, why they are here and how they behave. His first teachings, the Beatitudes, are all spiritually rooted. Again remember, Jesus was conceived by the Spirit, is led by the Spirit and lives ‘…by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God (Mt.4:4).’ Evidence…

Lent is a great time to consider the depth of Jesus' sacrifice for us and what He came to bring. The following takes a look at 1John and let's us begin a trek into God's intention for us. Follow the logic and let the mind deliver truth to heart. Feel the heart's response and then let your day be an act of faith as you encounter every next moment.

Life, Light and Love Expose False Teaching

False teaching is the dangerous satanic interference in every generation. The positive…

“Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven (Matt.5:10).”

Righteousness, being right with God, self and others, will lead to some kind of persecution be it open or subtly disguised. Faith that makes one peaceful within can be a threat because it defies being controlled by the usual secular forces. Faith builds integrity and integrity builds confidence in spite of circumstance. This progression is part of the heart restoration…

Here is the human condition; people have a mind, a heart and a spirit. They have the ability to trust and justify what they trust in. If all these gifts are used apart from God the end is disastrous.

There is another internal need lurking in those shadows, the need that urges the mind to say ‘It’s OK, you’re doing the right thing.” It’s called self-justification, the need to use our mind to give a logical reason for our behavior. It is the mind that is under attack as well as the…

                                                           The Cross, Mind and Power

                                                           The Way The Truth The Life

                                                                Trust Belief Faith

We apprehend the image of the Cross.

                                                           We comprehend its meaning.

                                                                                       …

The third temptation finds Jesus being taken up on an ”exceedingly high mountain.” The devil’s subtle technique is to make us think that we can be on top of the world if we can find the highest place, the highest social position, the highest emotional binge, the highest educational achievement, the highest accomplishment, in short, being number one. I’ve always considered the mountains to be a kind of experience that carries you to the top of all you are in mind, body and spirit. You climb…

Remember again the first temptation in the Garden of Eden? Doubt God's Word. It happens here in the second temptation as well, Matt.4:5-7. You can almost hear the devil thinking, 'So Jesus chose to live in the flesh alone and let Himself be subject to the world's lures,--- hmmm,--- so He won't give into hunger? Human beings like to be in control. They want physical and material security. Well I'll get him another way. If I can't get Him to prove Himself with hunger, I'll get Him to get His…

Lent is all about seeing Jesus in His humanity coming to transform ours. A disciple of Jesus knows that transformation of self is an ongoing experience of letting Jesus reign within. Let's take a look briefly at the first temptation.

To really get a handle on the temptations of Jesus we have to consider the context. Jesus has submitted to His Father’s will to live in a human body. He is God the Son, a spiritual being having a human experience just like us. Unlike us Jesus never…

Our conscious spiritual life in Jesus began when we asked Him to be the One who controls our hearts. When Jesus was baptized, He didn’t do it to get rid of sin because He was sinless. What He did was to model what our response should be when we accept Him. Being right with God begins with accepting Jesus and then being baptized as a sign of obedience to Him (Jn.3:5) then living a lifestyle of the Cross, faith in Jesus and its place in us. Jesus’ first act of obedience to His Father’s will…