Creating An Image - Part 2
I.
You can’t build a new
image with the old one still standing
A. Don’t build an altar 2
God next a Baal altar; Don’t put a clean diaper over a dirty 1
1. Judges 6:1-12-Mighty man
of Valor is not his image, but God’s trying 2 put that in him
a. 15-He’s the seed of
Abraham, but he’s got the image of his “family”
b. 22-He not conscious of
being the seed of Abraham
c. 25-Tear down the altar to
Baal before you build one for Jehovah
2. Jud 7:2,13,15-When he
heard that dream, it put the image on the inside of him
3. Judges 8:4-9,18,20-He’s
got a victory image now
B. The are strongholds (images,
poverty mentality) that get built up in our mind through our experiences, exposures, and instruction (2
Cor 10:5)
1. Stronghold-Fortresses of
thought (ways of thinking), built by
what you’ve been exposed to, designed to trap you in a way of life (EX:
Eagle and a buzzard)
2. In many believers minds
there’s a middle class, paycheck to paycheck, just enough stronghold; &
they can’t see themselves ever being rich
a. Those strongholds are
designed to trap them in a why life financially
C. If Satan can plant something (build a stronghold) in
u, he can trap u in a way of life
1. Satan knows it’s God’s
will for you to be rich but he wants to plant something else in you to trap you
in a lifestyle that opposes God’s will for your life
2. He doesn’t want some1 2
preach something that challenges that stronghold
3. The seed of God’s word bumps
into a broke image that’s been built up
4. The spiritual warfare is
this: Can he, through experiences, exposure, and teaching build a stronghold in
you that opposes the Word?
D. 3-The battle is not in
the physical, natural realm – (Just like in Numbers 13)
1. We’ve thought the battle
was physical; you’ve thought I can’t be rich b/c I work here or b/c of this or
that. But what I’m here to tell u
is that your financial prosperity has nothing to do with where you work or
what’s going in the natural realm, but everything to do with the image you have and the seed you sow.
a. You’re not broke because
of your job, your broke because of your image
2. The battle is inside; the
biggest enemy is your inner-me
a. There’s a stronghold in u
right now that was created to trap in a way of life
b. If you’re going to
prosper to the degree that God wants u to you’re going to have to go after that stronghold and target it
with the Word of God
E. 4-Your weapons are not
carnal-bodily, temporal, pertaining to the flesh
1. Don’t bring carnal
weapons to a spiritual battle
a. You want to get another
job, change jobs, ask for a raise, refinance, invest, but those are carnal
weapons. You can get a new job and
do all of that, but your image is going
where you go. And that’s why
you did something in the natural and thought it would make a difference only to
find out that you’re about where you were before you did that thing.
2. This Word has the power
to destroy that stronghold and it’s your weapon
F. 4,5-You pull down strong
holds by:
1. Casting down imaginations
that exalt themselves against the Word
a. Destroying &
demolishing (that takes power) thoughts that oppose the Word
b. One of the main problems
with this is that most people don’t even know what God’s Word says about them
financially, so when something exalts itself against that Word they don’t know
it and they just take it and before long they’ve got stronghold of it, that the
word didn’t build
c. Every thought that rises
up against what God’s word says you got to destroy with the Word of God coming
out of your mouth (How to destroy a thought)
(1)
Any
bill, circumstance, person that transmits a thought that’s not in line with the
Word has to come to down
2. Then bring (force into
submission) your thoughts into obedience to the Word
a. You force yourself to
think this way
II.
Paint a new image
A. You’re going to have to
go to the paint of God’s word, use the brush of your tongue, and paint an image
on the canvas of your heart that you are a rich man (Psalm 45:1)
1. What kind of matter is
your heart composing? A broke life or a prosperous one
2. Through my tongue a
relate, rehearse, and declare things to my heart
B. Meditation’s the tool
through which we create a new image; key to inner transformation
1. Meditate-Utter a sound,
thoughtful deliberation with the implication of speaking to oneself, to
imagine, to speak, to talk
a. You have to take the
thought and say it until you don’t have to think to say it (Philippians
4:8-Fix/Attach your mind, Matthew 6:31)
b. Do that until the word in
you becomes more real than the world out of you
c. EX: In my eyes I was rich
long before I had any money
2. Josh 1:8-His victory was
going to be determined by what was going on in his heart
a. Meditate so that you can observe/see
to do
b. Meditate the word to see
yourself rich and then do rich
3. Don’t take a broke image
into battle
a. It seems like we’ve been
trudging through the mud financially because we’re taking a broke image into
this financial battle
b. You give and tithe and
little happens; You can’t sow and tithe w/ a broke image and then stand in holy
wonderment about why you don’t prosper
c. Psalm 1:1-3-No matter
where I go I’m bringing my prosperous soul with me
4. 2 Corinthians 3:18-That
image is going to change as you look at the right thing
a. What you behold will put
the same thing in you and that’s what you’ll become
b. If you’re looking into a
mirror that’s reflecting a broke image back to you, you’ll become what you
behold; somebody is trying to tell who you are
C. Matt 12:33-37-Believing
and speaking is how you got into this thing and is how it works
1. 33-Make the tree good-Make
the image rich and prosperous
a. The tree determines the type
of fruit, the image determines the type of life
b. The tree is known by its
fruit and your image is known by the life it produced
2. 34-You’re going to speak
based on and from the image in your heart (Numbers 14)
a. This can’t just come out
of your head, it has to come out of your heart
3. 35-You bring forth things
from your heart
a. 37-By your words you’re
justified and condemned (Mark 11:23)
D. Your words and your image are
hindering your money seed; they are stout against it
1. You’re sowing seed, but
your image and your words are disabling & crippling
it
a. It’s like praying a
prayer and talking against what you prayed
2. You’re money seed
independent of the Word seed has no future
a. If you have no word in
you, then you’ll have a broke image you won’t speak faith words and that
money-seed won’t harvest or will harvest little
3. The Word is the seed
that’s going to change your inner image (Luke 8:11)
4. The money seed is
responsible for multiplying and coming back to you, but only to the level of
the image that you have and the words you speak (Luke 6:38)