Transformed | Part 2 | Angela Colyer | Gateway Christian Centre

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:04

Welcome to Gateways Weekly Service. We are so glad that you are here. We pray that this message inspires you, it encourages you, and that God speaks to you in new ways. Now, on with the message.

SPEAKER_01 0:20

We bless you in this place this morning. Lord Jesus, we lift you up. You are the one. You are the one. The one and the only. Does us good to value the greatest thing in our life. Always has been, always will be. Amen.

unknown 1:46

Amen.

SPEAKER_01 1:46

You can go ahead and be seated. Thank you, team. Thank you very much. John has asked me to say his hello. He's actually in Poland today. He's been speaking at a ministers' gathering this weekend, and now he's at um the church that was hosting this. He's speaking there before he heads home this evening. So uh he asked me to say his hello and that he's looking forward to being back with everybody next week for the bank holiday weekend. Can you believe it's the bank holiday weekend coming up? I think this weather is slightly confusing me. But uh never mind. We started a series, or John started a series a couple weeks ago, now two weeks ago, where we began to look at something that's actually quite foundational in our faith, in our life. If I'm being honest, because I'm very young, um, but I wish I wish I had better understood some of this stuff decades ago. Because our life is not just shaped by the things that happen to us, it is very much shaped by what we believe is true. Just like many of you, I can look back on some of the situations in my childhood, in my early years, they were really quite formative. Good ones and bad ones. I can think of one. Um, and we've all have stories to tell, but I have the microphone. But I can remember when I was in uh year seven, it was sixth grade back home, but I believe me and Levi tried to figure it out. It would have been year seven here, and uh, where I I experienced quite a fair amount of bullying, and uh, which many people have. Again, my story's not original. It's just I'm here with the microphone. And that really defined and set the course of my traject the trajectory of my life for quite some time, really. That circumstance did a lot to shape me, but even more than that bullying itself, it was actually what I came to believe about myself and what I came to believe about others that did the real shaping. I became very distrustful. I always held people at a distance, and I had huge self-image insecurities because of that going on. And I know that many of you can relate to that. If we're honest, many of the things that feel true in our lives are not actually truth at all. Victim mentality, scarcity mentality, entitlement mentality. There's a lot of mentalities out there when you Google it. But all these are really just a pattern of thinking. They are thoughts that we have repeated so often and we have reinforced so consistently that they feel like our reality. And they set a trajectory in our life. I can remember my driving instructor getting across to me on this obstacle course with uh of a road that had, I don't know what you call, oh, airbag, big airbag thing, pillows for cars. I didn't know what was going there. Because he was trying to show me, well, a lot of things that day. Um, one was that I was never going to be a stunt driver. I didn't like that stuff at all. Um, but the big thing, one of the big things he was trying to get across to me is you will always drive where you are looking. And I learned that by driving into the airbag that he told me to look at. We set our trajectory with the way that we think and what we're looking at. These are patterns of thinking that become what they feel like reality, they can become reality. You know, society has a name for that. It's called your truth. But the fact that I believe something doesn't make it true. That's not what truth is. And familiarity, a common way of thinking, that's not the same as my truth, but that's my way of thinking. Only truth gets to be truth. And that actually is quite the seismic shift from what culture tells you right now. And some of us, if we're honest, we struggle. Not because life is necessarily unusually difficult, but because something false has become very real to us. I spent so much time thinking that I was second rate, that I was less than, and thinking that people would attack, that those thoughts became very strongly held beliefs. And a belief, if you reinforce it long enough, it becomes a stronghold in your life. And I know that that's something that John introduced, the idea of stronghold two weeks ago. And if you weren't here, you definitely need to go and catch up on YouTube with that. But I want us to look now at 2 Corinthians 10. And I believe John shared this verse last time, but we're gonna look at this now, starting in verse 4. It says, For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but they're mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled. Now, that verse has been in my Bible my whole life. But I feel like I only truly came to see it maybe 15 years ago in its fullness. I definitely knew there were strongholds. There were these areas that the enemy just came against us. It felt like you just couldn't overcome in those areas, whether it be sin or regions, or that was very much how I viewed strongholds. And then one day I found verse five, which strangely enough comes right after verse four. Who'da not who'd have thought, huh? But you pull down strongholds and then it goes on. This is like descriptive, better explanation of what's been just said. We do that by casting down arguments. I thought I was supposed to cast down the demons, and I'm not saying that there's not a place for that. We know that we saw Jesus cast out demons, but this is telling me to cast down arguments. And every high thing, one version when you really dig into thing includes thoughts, every thought that is exalting itself against the knowledge of God. And then it goes on to say, and bringing those thoughts into captivity. You see, a stronghold is a fortified place. If you look at that up and uh in the Bible dictionaries, when we look at 2 Corinthians 10, it is talking about a mental or a spiritual barrier that is opposing the word of God. And I don't know about you, but I always prefer to think that it's the devil making me do things, that it's the devil who's coming up against me, than it is that it's my mental barrier. But it's a mental barrier that opposes the word of God. It can be a habitual sin, it can be unforgiveness, fear, or lies that we believe about ourselves, about others, about Him. And a stronghold, when it is left unchallenged, will quietly shape the direction of your entire life. Two weeks ago, John began to talk about how we need to spot that wrong thinking. So today I want us to continue and look at how we can start to tear it down a little bit. Last time, John established three key truths. The first was that your thoughts shape your life. The second is that strongholds are not just spiritual forces, but entrenched, stubborn thought patterns that become spiritual bondage. And the third is that you can be genuinely saved, love God very deeply, and still think in ways that limit your life and limit Him in your life. So today let's take that next step because it isn't enough to recognize I have wrong thinking. That is only the first step. At some point, we need to confront what has been built in our mind and make a decision that we don't want it to stay there any longer. Our Jericho has to come down. So today we're gonna look a little bit at how strongholds work so we can begin to break down these thought strongholds in our life. So I've got four points about strongholds today. The first is that strongholds resist truth. You see, a stronghold is not just a wrong thought that is passing through your mind, it's actually become a thought that you defend. It is a way of thinking that has become so established for you and I that it will argue against truth when truth is presented. Do you know how many times I hear or sometimes hear from me? I know the Bible says, but. Oh, I just found a stronghold. It is a way of thinking so established it argues against the truth of God's word. Things like fear for the future. We have so many incredible promises in the word of God regarding our future. But then I turn on the news, or I try to buy a plane ticket, and I think, oh my gosh, what's going on out there? And I begin to worry, or I begin to fear, and I have a choice in that moment, and that stronghold, if it is a stronghold, is going to fight you and it's going to defend its place, and it is going to argue with the word of God and the truths of his word. A stronghold will justify itself, it will explain itself, and it feels right even when it's completely wrong. I know the Bible says to forgive, but that guy and what he did, it can feel right even when it's completely wrong. You know, the Bible example of this is the Pharisees. When I read my Bible and I read the stories of Jesus, he did not come quietly. When he, for his three years of ministry, he was loud. The news and the information about him was loud. The conversations at the water coolers were loud. Something amazing was happening, and everyone was given that opportunity to choose to believe if he was the Messiah or not. He came with authority, he came with power, he was fulfilling prophecy, he was healing the sick, he was raising the dead, he was opening blind eyes. But the Pharisees, who knew the scripture very well, rejected him as Messiah. Not because there wasn't evidence. A couple quick questions would have revealed so many truths that he was born in Bethlehem, that he was all the things about Jesus. I'm not going to go through them for sake of time. But Jesus did not come the way they wanted their Messiah to come. He wasn't political enough. He wasn't taking a stand against the Romans. So he wasn't the Messiah they wanted. He came and he didn't fit into their stronghold, their way of thinking. They had already decided what truth would look like. So when truth stood in front of them, they resisted it. They did not reject him, reject him because they lacked information. They rejected him because they were committed to their mindset. A stronghold will cause you to resist the very truth that has come to set you free. And that is why we can hear powerful teaching where truth is explained so clearly, but we can walk away unchanged. Because the issue is not our access to the truth, it is our resistance in our mind to the truth. Maybe you were bullied, maybe you've gone through something, and someone did make you a victim. But being a victim once does not need to make you a victim for life. But that mentality wants to grip you, and it wants you to begin to look at everything that's happened in your past through that light. It wants you to look at everything that's going on in your life right now through that light, because then it can get you to predict and prophesy that over your future. And so you and I can sit back and go, oh, I don't want that. And so we begin to find the scriptures and the verses that talk about who we are in Christ Jesus and how we go over and not under, and how we're the head and not the tail, and how we've been made more than conquerors, and all of these verses that we can find that tell me that I'm not a victim. And I could read those, and that would be great. But I need to understand that the next time somebody does something that hurts me, I have a choice because that stronghold that I have been trying to work on is now going to try to get me to throw everything I've been doing out the window. And I'm in a fight. But it's real and it's important. So we really have to embrace the truth. John 8 and verse 32 tells us, then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. We have to be willing to replace wrong thinking with right thinking. We have to accept that. We have to accept that Isaiah 55 and verse 9 says, as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and so are my thoughts than your thoughts. And I'll tell you what, this is like a training program where you just keep replacing the thought that you're used to thinking with the truth of God's word. When my thinking does not line up with his, I need to have a default that assumes my thoughts are the wrong thoughts, my thoughts are the wrong thoughts, my thoughts are the wrong thoughts. If what I think and what I believe is different than what the Bible says, my thoughts are the wrong thoughts. I need to get that across to myself. Yet we argue all the time with his word, we resist the truth. But, but, but, but if we will embrace that we are wrong and that he is right, that experience has taught me wrong. World's voices has taught me wrong, but his word can teach me right, his truth can set me free, and then the lions can snarl and the fires can blaze, but I can, I am, and he is able. So choose wisely. So that was our first one that strongholds resist truth. The second thing I want to look at is that strongholds are built, they do not just land in your head, this great big, huge city. With a wall around it as high as the clouds. No, that was built. Every time you repeat a thought, you reinforce that stronghold. Strongholds are not formed in a moment, they are constructed gradually, one brick at a time, layer by layer, thought by thought, experience by experience. Strongholds can be built through experiences and trauma. Sometimes a single moment can plant a powerful lie in our lives. You know, a biblical example of this is Elijah in 1 Kings 19. He has just won this incredible victory. He has brought fire down from heaven through his prayers. This is incredible. Watch out, King Ahab. And yet, if we read in verse 1, it says this. Now Ahab told Jezebel everything Elijah had done and how he had killed all the prophets with his sword. So Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah to say, May the gods deal with me, be it ever so severely, if by this time tomorrow I do not make your life like that of one of them. And verse three tells us, Then Elijah was afraid and ran for his life. And when he came to Beersheba in Judah, he left his servant there, while he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness, and he came to a broom bush, and he sat down under it and prayed that he might die. I've had enough, Lord, he said. Take my life. I am no better than my ancestors. That happened on the same day that he called down fire from heaven. This is the same Elijah. But just moments later, he gets a threat from Jezebel, he goes into hiding, and he prays, Take my life. One moment of pressure distorted his perception. He went from victory to despair. Not because God changed, but because his thinking had shifted through that experience. Reality had not changed. What God had done and what God was going to do had not changed. Psalm 34 and verse 19 tells us many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of them all. Guys, if this could happen to Elijah, let's be honest, it could happen to us too. That's why we have to be so diligent. If we don't filter our experiences through the truth of God's word, then they shape our beliefs. So when something bad happens, when something hurtful happens, when something unexpected, terrifying, miserable, it just yuck happens. I need to filter that experience through the word of God, not the other way around. So what was the answer for Elijah? Well, if we were to continue to read his story, we'll read how the angel of the Lord came and ministered to him, fed him, in fact, supernaturally fed him. He didn't need to eat for 40 days after that. It is the ministry of the Lord that we need when an experience has happened. And Elijah got that and things turned around for him again. It will be the same for us. That is an actual promise that there is something about the brokenhearted that draws him near. And it tells us that he saves those who are crushed in spirit. In the darkest moments, God is near. Doesn't that even change how you view dark moments? Don't get me wrong, don't like them. But I do like the tangible presence of God when I'm in them. And when a bad moment happens, that's one of the first things I begin to think about. How near He is to me right now. Change your thinking, change your life. They come, so we said that strongholds are built. They're built through experiences, through trauma. They're also built through words spoken over us. We know this, but the words that people speak over us have the power to define our identity. The biblical example of this is Jacob. Jacob lived under the name that meant deceiver. And for years his life actually reflected that identity until God intervened and gave him a new name, the name Israel. Israel means one who struggles with God. Israel means a prince with God. Essentially, when you take all of its meanings and you try and bring it to one word, Israel means receiver. Isn't that amazing? When your identity changes, your thinking must change. Some of you are still living under labels that God didn't give you. They're not how He sees you. Not quite. Second best in my life had to become daughter, loved, redeemed, friend, chosen, masterpiece. So that's the second way that a stronghold is built, through things spoken, words spoken over you. The third is through repetition. The more a thought is repeated, the more natural and right it feels. The Bible example of this is the Israelites in the wilderness. They had been living in slavery. They viewed themselves that way. Then they are delivered. God parts the sea, he feeds them supernaturally, he leads them with his presence. Amazing things are happening. He has pulled them out and said, You are mine, and this is how I'm going to take care of you. And this is what's going to happen. And I'm going to take you to a promised land, and it's going to be great. And I love you. But what do we hear them keep saying? We can't. We should go back. I think it might have been better in Egypt. They could not find their way out of that slave mentality. They repeated it and repeated it until it became their default mindset. What you consistently say internally, you are strengthening spiritually. That's why it's so important that you are speaking the word of God over your life. You've heard me say this, but every morning I'm pulling out my affirmations. I have said them enough times that I am starting to believe them. I am using them to displace the thoughts that come my way. Like you can't figure this out. You're not big enough for this problem. And then I, oh no, no, no. The Bible has something to say about that. And I go and grab my affirmations and I declare those things. And it is changing how I see myself. We need to do that. The third thing I want to say about strongholds is that agreement is the doorway. Strongholds do not establish their life, their place in your life by force. It didn't just land, knock on the door of your head, and just come whooshing in like you had no choice. You are, they are there and they establish and become as strong as they do because we partner with them and we agree with them. You may not have gotten up this morning thinking that you would agree with the lies of the enemy, but that is how it works. Agreement. The biblical example of this is Eve in the garden. And if we look at Genesis 3, and I'm going to start in verse 1, it says, Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. So he said to the woman, Did God really say, You must not eat from any tree in the garden? The woman said to the serpent, We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die. You will not certainly die, said the serpent to the woman, for God knows that when you eat from it, your eyes will open, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil. When the woman saw that the fruit of that tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and she ate it, and she gave some also to her husband who was with her, and he ate it. And then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked, so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. There is so much in that story. But Eve wasn't forced into anything. Neither was Adam. The enemy did not come with a command or a gun. He came with a question. Did God really say? He introduced doubt. And then he replaced that truth, saying, You will not certainly die. Agreement with his way of thinking. Eve, the knowledge of evil would actually be a good thing to have. A good dose of worldly wisdom is just what you need. Rather than the innocence that you're walking in. You see, Eve didn't fall because she touched the fruit. She fell because she accepted a different narrative than what God had spoken. The fall of humanity didn't begin with behavior, it began with belief. A belief that it would be good, a good thing to be like God and know good. She knew good, but also to know evil. Eve accepted that narrative that she needed to understand evil, and everything changed. You do not have to like a lie for it to affect your life. You just have to agree with it long enough. And today, agreement often sounds like, well, this is just how I am. Or this is just how things go. I've always struggled with this. People always treat me that way. Nothing ever really changes for me. Every time I and those statements may feel honest, but they are not truth if they contradict God's word. I look at some of the Bible examples. In Judges, Gideon was hiding in a wine press because his internal stronghold was a belief that he was too weak and insignificant to be used by God. In Numbers, the Israelites allowed unbelief and doubt to overshadow the promises of God. In Luke, the Pharisees' mental fortress was an inflated sense of superiority and self-reliance. We have to stop agreeing with these thoughts. Disagree with yourself for a change and stop believing everything you think. Taking every thought captive and making it obedience to Christ is a transformative spiritual discipline. It involves intentionally evaluating every mental claim, the fears, the doubts, the desires, and aligning them with the truth of the Bible. Agree with Him. Agree with the truth because it has the power to change your facts. Truth is eternal. Facts change. They're subject to change. Know the difference. Know the difference. His truth can change my fact. The fourth and last thing I'm going to say about strongholds is build a fortress of truth. It's not enough to try and tear down the one stronghold. You've got to build up the godly one, the godly fortress in your mind. Hearing truth is not enough to produce freedom. If that was the case, everyone who heard good preaching would be walking in amazing transformation. But James 1 tells us this in verse 23. If anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man observing his natural face in a mirror, for he observes himself, goes away, and immediately forgets what kind of man he was. But he who looks into the perfect law of liberty and continues in it and is not a forgetful hearer, but a doer of the work, this one will be blessed in what he does. So a man looks in a mirror, he sees himself, but he walks away unchanged. Hearing truth is not enough on its own. Truth that is not applied has no power to change your life. We have to understand that. We are not at the mercy of our thoughts. I can take authority over them. I can treat them like a small child in my head and deal with it. Because God has not called you and I to simply manage wrong thinking. He has called us to take dominion over our mind. That means that I don't sit back and hope my thinking improves. That means that I don't tolerate thoughts that contradict truth. I actively reject them and then I replace them and enforce the truth. You see, a passive believer remains bound. That's just the sad reality. But believers who exercise authority will walk in freedom. I'm gonna make this simple and actionable. I was talking with someone this weekend who was telling me about a circumstance with a workplace where 10% of the staff have been told, well, they don't know which 10%, the staff have been told that 10% of them are going to lose their job tomorrow. That's not nice, is it? Fear is building. A lot of worried people right now. So what do you do with that? What does this person do with that? Identify the stronghold. Where? What's going on in there? What is the thought? What's the thought really? And when that thought, what is that thought producing? Are they getting stressed? Are they getting fearful? Are they feeling like God is rejecting them? Are they what is the thought that is coming forward from what's been said? Identify the actual thought. They've been given a fact. What is it creating in their head? Number two, call that out as the lie. Not the 10% thing. What's happening in here when they heard that? Call that out as a lie. Don't say, well, that's just my personality, just how I am. No, what you're thinking, does it line up with the word of God? What does the Bible say about your future? What does the Bible say about your needs being met? What does the Bible say about you? Is this going to be the end of you? It does not say that. Call out what's happening in your head. If it contradicts God's word, it's a lie. I'm not saying that that person might not be one of the 10%. I'm saying that won't be their end. I'm saying that there's still good things ahead. I'm saying that God is going to take care of them through that. Let's find the lie and contradict it with the truth of God's word. Step three, deliberately choose the truth. Deliberately replace I feel with God says. God says, God says. Your feelings might be real, but that doesn't make them your truth. Deliberately choose the truth. Number four, speak that truth out loud. Because thoughts grow in silence, negative ones do. But truth can establish itself when you speak it. Their truth is whatever happens on Monday, God's got me. Whatever happens on Monday, I have a future and a hope. He is the author and the finisher of my faith. He who has begun a good work in me will continue it. He will not see the righteous abandoned, nor his seed begging bread. This is my truth. They need to be thinking that. Step five, interrupt the loop immediately. Because the minute I stop talking that way, the thinking stronghold comes back. The fear, the anxiety, the worry, the thought pattern, it'll be back. Stop it again. Keep interrupting that loop. Do not entertain those thoughts. If you have to talk to your head all day long, talk to your head all day long. Interrupt the loop. Do not analyze it, reject it. You do not manage a stronghold, you demolish it. Amen. So I want you to say this with me. I break agreement with every lie I have believed. Sorry. I break agreement with every lie I have believed. I reject every thought that contradicts God's word. I take authority over my head. I choose truth. I choose truth. I choose truth. I align my thinking with God's thinking. His truth changes my facts. Amen. Amen. Hallelujah. Hallelujah. Strongholds were built, so strongholds can be demolished. But you do not break strongholds by wishing they go away. Speak to your mountain. Heavenly Father, we come before you this morning. And Father, I thank you that we, as your children, can be transformed. We can be changed to look, to think, and to act like our Father. That there is nothing in your word that is not unavailable to us if we will change the way we think. Hallelujah. Bless you. Hallelujah. Amen.

SPEAKER_00 44:36

Thank you so much for joining us for this week's message at Gateway. We were so glad to be able to share it with you. If you would like to find out more about what is going on at Gateway or when our weekly services are, you can visit our website at www.igateway.org.uk. Thank you so much for joining us.