Kingdom's Keys Fellowship
Where God's Kingdom Meets Man's Heart.
Lent 18
Lent 18 Pondering the Meaning of the Cross During Holy Week, Second Day
The Cross and Strongholds
Jesus calls us to live under the authority of the Cross. To do that we need to go back to the Beatitudes because they are the direct application of the Cross to our hearts. The Cross is the key to understanding the purpose of the Beatitudes. Through the Cross the Beatitudes become keys Jesus gives us to unlock the unseen. Therein lies part of the reason we are called the Kingdom’s Keys Fellowship.
The Cross enables us to use them to deconstruct what sin has built up in the heart and then, as a series of building blocks, to reconstruct the heart for God’s purposes.
The Cross opens us to the fact that, without the first Beatitude getting us to face our spiritual poverty, the rest are merely moral platitudes that have no connection. They can be interpreted at the whimsy of individual assumption. But, taken in order, they allow the restoration of our heart, mind and soul to become what God originally intended at Creation, individual persons realizing their true identity in God and their purpose in the world.
Take our physical hearts for example. Suppose we discover we have a 100% blockage in the main artery to the heart. Doing exercise and changing our diet at that point won’t help. We need to have the blockage removed and then begin a serious change of lifestyle that involves our mind, our will and daily practice. So in our spiritual heart we need to have the blockage removed that prevents us from keeping in step with the Spirit of God. Then the rest of the Beatitudes, done in order, become our spiritual diet and exercise program. What Jesus did on the Cross was to take and embrace the blockage of our sin in His heart, then dying to remove it and rising to life victorious over sin and death to enable the Spirit to enter us and do the same.
The Cross takes us on the road to spiritual recovery by recognizing and admitting spiritual poverty. At this point, now open to the leading of the Spirit, we move through each Beatitude, one by one, until we find ourselves actually being thankful and not angry or defensive when persecuted unjustly because of Jesus. This is when we become leaders where we are, advancing the Kingdom of God. This is the why the Beatitudes begin the Sermon on the Mount which is the way of the Cross, the application of the Cross and the achievement of the Cross.
Therefore, the Beatitudes are an exercise in placing ourselves under the daily authority of the Cross, God’s spiritual recovery plan. Think of the Cross as a tree planted in the heart, its roots the words of Scripture, watered by the Spirit, reaching deep within, Jesus being the example. His blood shed for us, His rising from the dead enabling us, His Spirit empowering us, in faith we let them shape us. Isn’t this how “He grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men (Lk.2:52)?” See some of the Old Testament parallels:
Blessed are the poor in spirit---Joel 2:28-29, Ezek.11:19
Blessed are those who mourn---Is.61:2-3
Blessed are the meek---Ps.37:11, Gen.17:8
Blessed are the merciful---Hos.6:6
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness---Is.55:1-2
Blessed are the pure in heart---Ps.24:3-4
Blessed are the peacemakers---Is.52:7
Blessed are the persecuted---Ps.119:86
Blessed are you when persecuted because of Jesus---Is.53
Each one challenges an aspect of sin in our heart. Where anything in us resists what each one brings forward, that resistance is what is known Scripturally as a stronghold (2Cor.10:4). A stronghold is any idea, concept or conclusion made outside the Word of God with the exception of one and that is when Scripture informs us that the Lord is our stronghold.
Take the first one about spiritual poverty for example. What conclusions have we made about spiritual reality? Do we believe we have access to the spiritual world through séances, mediums, amulets and lucky charms? Are we superstitious about black cats and walking under ladders? Do we knock on wood just in case? Do we believe in luck and wish people ‘good luck’? Do we believe in fate and things like, ‘what goes around comes around?’ Can we communicate with the dead and beckon spirits to do our bidding? What about ouija boards, black magic and witchery? Where did all those ideas come from and by what authority are they valid?
If these personal issues were not enough, how about unbelief, anti-belief and the nature of other religions? Are all religions part of the truth? If we are moved to accept those propositions in the ‘spirit’ of tolerance what spirit is behind our tolerance and conclusion? Or, in the final analysis, is everything merely a jumble of physical and electrical impulses based on purely natural law with no spiritual reality at all? What authority forms and informs this conclusion? Each of these represents a spiritual stronghold outside of God.
There are many more involving emotions, the intellect and their particular spiritual backing. How they are identified and dealt with is in Scripture. What Jesus teaches opens us to the power of the Holy Spirit through the Word to deconstruct the strongholds by taking them captive (2Cor.10:5). Through the Cross His death was a sacrifice for us based on the Word of His Father and the faith He had in Him. The Resurrection proved and justified He was right.
More about the Cross. Stay tuned.
The Cross and Strongholds
Jesus calls us to live under the authority of the Cross. To do that we need to go back to the Beatitudes because they are the direct application of the Cross to our hearts. The Cross is the key to understanding the purpose of the Beatitudes. Through the Cross the Beatitudes become keys Jesus gives us to unlock the unseen. Therein lies part of the reason we are called the Kingdom’s Keys Fellowship.
The Cross enables us to use them to deconstruct what sin has built up in the heart and then, as a series of building blocks, to reconstruct the heart for God’s purposes.
The Cross opens us to the fact that, without the first Beatitude getting us to face our spiritual poverty, the rest are merely moral platitudes that have no connection. They can be interpreted at the whimsy of individual assumption. But, taken in order, they allow the restoration of our heart, mind and soul to become what God originally intended at Creation, individual persons realizing their true identity in God and their purpose in the world.
Take our physical hearts for example. Suppose we discover we have a 100% blockage in the main artery to the heart. Doing exercise and changing our diet at that point won’t help. We need to have the blockage removed and then begin a serious change of lifestyle that involves our mind, our will and daily practice. So in our spiritual heart we need to have the blockage removed that prevents us from keeping in step with the Spirit of God. Then the rest of the Beatitudes, done in order, become our spiritual diet and exercise program. What Jesus did on the Cross was to take and embrace the blockage of our sin in His heart, then dying to remove it and rising to life victorious over sin and death to enable the Spirit to enter us and do the same.
The Cross takes us on the road to spiritual recovery by recognizing and admitting spiritual poverty. At this point, now open to the leading of the Spirit, we move through each Beatitude, one by one, until we find ourselves actually being thankful and not angry or defensive when persecuted unjustly because of Jesus. This is when we become leaders where we are, advancing the Kingdom of God. This is the why the Beatitudes begin the Sermon on the Mount which is the way of the Cross, the application of the Cross and the achievement of the Cross.
Therefore, the Beatitudes are an exercise in placing ourselves under the daily authority of the Cross, God’s spiritual recovery plan. Think of the Cross as a tree planted in the heart, its roots the words of Scripture, watered by the Spirit, reaching deep within, Jesus being the example. His blood shed for us, His rising from the dead enabling us, His Spirit empowering us, in faith we let them shape us. Isn’t this how “He grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and men (Lk.2:52)?” See some of the Old Testament parallels:
Blessed are the poor in spirit---Joel 2:28-29, Ezek.11:19
Blessed are those who mourn---Is.61:2-3
Blessed are the meek---Ps.37:11, Gen.17:8
Blessed are the merciful---Hos.6:6
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness---Is.55:1-2
Blessed are the pure in heart---Ps.24:3-4
Blessed are the peacemakers---Is.52:7
Blessed are the persecuted---Ps.119:86
Blessed are you when persecuted because of Jesus---Is.53
Each one challenges an aspect of sin in our heart. Where anything in us resists what each one brings forward, that resistance is what is known Scripturally as a stronghold (2Cor.10:4). A stronghold is any idea, concept or conclusion made outside the Word of God with the exception of one and that is when Scripture informs us that the Lord is our stronghold.
Take the first one about spiritual poverty for example. What conclusions have we made about spiritual reality? Do we believe we have access to the spiritual world through séances, mediums, amulets and lucky charms? Are we superstitious about black cats and walking under ladders? Do we knock on wood just in case? Do we believe in luck and wish people ‘good luck’? Do we believe in fate and things like, ‘what goes around comes around?’ Can we communicate with the dead and beckon spirits to do our bidding? What about ouija boards, black magic and witchery? Where did all those ideas come from and by what authority are they valid?
If these personal issues were not enough, how about unbelief, anti-belief and the nature of other religions? Are all religions part of the truth? If we are moved to accept those propositions in the ‘spirit’ of tolerance what spirit is behind our tolerance and conclusion? Or, in the final analysis, is everything merely a jumble of physical and electrical impulses based on purely natural law with no spiritual reality at all? What authority forms and informs this conclusion? Each of these represents a spiritual stronghold outside of God.
There are many more involving emotions, the intellect and their particular spiritual backing. How they are identified and dealt with is in Scripture. What Jesus teaches opens us to the power of the Holy Spirit through the Word to deconstruct the strongholds by taking them captive (2Cor.10:5). Through the Cross His death was a sacrifice for us based on the Word of His Father and the faith He had in Him. The Resurrection proved and justified He was right.
More about the Cross. Stay tuned.
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