tongue

Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; 2 Corinthians 10:5

We demolish every deceptive thought that opposes Who we know God to be. And we break through every arrogant and self-important attitude that is raised up in defiance of truly knowing Him. We take prison every thought and insist that it bow in obedience to Jesus.

Today’s verse is set in the middle of one long, complicated Greek sentence that begins in verse 3 and ends in verse 6. Paul describes some areas where not only knowing, but declaring, the Word prevails for us:
– We are empowered to declare the Word to dismantle strongholds.
– We demolish beliefs, opinions, theories, and philosophies, not by argument but by declaring the truth.
– We allow our thought-life no wiggle room but declare it captive to what lines up with the mind of Christ.

Last time we talked about Understanding God’s Word. Today we’re looking at Declaring it. In reality, we don’t really understand God’s Word if we don’t declare it… because declaring it is how it’s intended to be used. “Knowledge puffs up while love builds up” (1 Cor 8:1)

So we don’t just use the Word for mental exercise; we use it to speak forth present-day realities. By speaking things that are true, we demolish all arguments and pretentions with the weapons of our warfare that are mighty to the pulling down of strongholds – God’s Word, when we declare it, has the power to effectively dismantle the falseness and lies that people hide behind or use as a defense. It has the power to overcome puffed up feelings that knowledge alone can bring.

Using it, we harness the power to speak so that when temptation comes we can answer like Jesus did (Matt 4:1-11). We can answer with the Word of the Lord. We can speak the Word and cut through the lies of the enemy. (more…)