Creating An Image - Part 3
I.
You can’t build a new
image with the old one still standing
A. Don’t build an altar to
God next a Baal altar (Judges 6:25)
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 a lot of believers
minds there’s a middle class, paycheck to paycheck, just enough stronghold; and
they can’t see themselves as ever being rich
C. If Satan can plant
something (build a stronghold) in you that opposes God’s Word, he can trap
you in a way of life that opposes God’s will for your life
1. Once that image is in
there, it’ll work to keep your life in line with it (Prov
23:7)
2. He doesn’t want someone to
preach something that challenges that stronghold
a. The seed of God’s word bumps
into am image that’s been built up over years
3. 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. You don’t have to figure
out how to make it happen; you have to win inside
a. The battle is inside; the
biggest enemy is your inner-me
2. There is a stronghold in
you right now that was created to trap in a way of life
a. If you’re going to
prosper to the degree that God wants you to you’re going to have to go after that stronghold and target it
with the Word of God
3. Your financial prosperity
has nothing to do with what’s going in the natural realm, but everything to do
with the image you have and the seed you sow.
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 change jobs, sell
something, but those are carnal weapons.
You can do all of that, but your
image is going where you go.
b. You’re trying to do
everything except deal with the root issue
2. This Word has the power
to destroy that stronghold and it’s your weapon
a. That word is sword when
it comes out of your mouth (Rev 1:16,19:15,21)
F. 4,5-You pull down strong
holds by:
1. Casting down imaginations
that exalt themselves against the Word
a. Many 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 that the word didn’t build
b. 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)
c. 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 have to force
yourself to think this way because you don’t think this way
b. You have to take the time
to develop this way of thinking
3. 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)
a. Do that until the word in
you becomes more real than the world out of you
b. EX: In my eyes I was rich
long before I had any money
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. Josh 1:8-His victory was
going to be determined by what was going on in his heart
a. Meditate the Word prosper
your soul and then you’re prosper
b. Meditate so that you can
observe/see to do
c. Meditate the word to see
yourself rich and then do rich
2. Meditate-Utter a sound,
thoughtful deliberation with the implication of speaking to oneself, to
imagine, to talk
3. 8 Meditation Keys
(Allowing the Holy Spirit to make the word a reality in your heart)
a. Separation is key in
meditation
b. Meditate the Word with
purpose (Acts 11:23, James 5:17)
c. Speak the Word out loud;
this controls your thoughts (Matt 6:31)
d. Apply the Word to yourself
personally
e. Place yourself in
agreement with what the Word says about you
f.
See
yourself as the Word says you are
g. Dwell on how that changes
your situation
h. Remember the blood
covenant and that God can’t lie
C. 2 Corinthians 3:18-That
image is going to change as you look at the right thing
1. What you behold will put
the same thing in you and that’s what you’ll become
a. If you’re looking into a
mirror that’s reflecting a broke image back to you, you’ll become what you
behold
2. Everybody and everything
out there is trying to tell you who you are
a. Who’s forming your
identity? What mirror or you looking into?
D. Don’t take a broke image
into battle; It seems like we’ve been trudging through the mud financially
because we’re taking a broke image into this financial battle
1. 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
2. Psalm 1:1-3-No matter
where I go I’m bringing my prosperous soul with me
III.
Believing and speaking is
how this whole thing works (Matt 12:33-37)
A. 33-Make the tree good-Make
the image rich and prosperous
1. The tree determines the type
of fruit, the image determines the type of life
a. 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)
B. Your words and your image are
hindering your money seed
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. Your money seed is
looking at your image and listening to your Words to find out it’s future and
it’s destiny and what it’s supposed to harvest back to as