How You Lose
I.
Hosea 4:10-12-They have
left off to take heed to the Lord – The big key issue here is that they
quit paying attention to the Lord and what he was saying and started giving
their mind to and listening to other voices, false voices, evil spirits
A. 11-This whoredom
(unfaithful to God) took place when they started listening to another spirit
1.
Spiritual adultery is
when you listen to and reason with and consider what any other spirit is saying
– You’re communing with a wrong spirit when you yield your thought life
to what he is saying
a. 12-ERV-My
people are asking pieces of wood for advice. They think those sticks will
answer them! They have chased after those false gods like prostitutes and have
left their own God.
2.
12-A spirit of whoredom
has caused them to error – They have gotten off and they were led astray
and they are believing lies because they were whoring around listening to a
wrong spirit
a. If you listen to a wrong
spirit by yielding your thoughts to what it is saying you’re going to fall into
deception and get off and let go of the truth and the Lord and your faith and
you’re going to be led astray
1)
10-Left off-Depart from, leave behind,
Let go; They let go of the truth and the Lord and their faith
2)
12-Err-Go astray, To be led astray
B. 11-This whoredom, wine, new
wine-This is listening to the wrong spirit and yielding to things that
intoxicate you and make you unaware of reality
1.
This
whoredom allowed the enemy to take away their heart and mind and spiritual
understanding; it makes you unaware of reality
a. Voice-Through
prostitution, wine, and new wine, My people have lost their senses;
b. ERV-Sexual sins, strong drink, and new wine
ruin a person’s ability to think straight
c. NLT-Wine
has robbed my people of their understanding
2.
You
listen to the enemy and to what he is saying and he will take the territory of
your heart and mind-2 Corinthians 4:4
3.
Beware of the new thing
C. *This is a perfect
picture of how God’s people can get off; rejecting the truth and listening to
the wrong spirit
II.
2 Corinthians 10:5-Anything
that exalts itself against the knowledge of God you don’t need to hear, you
don’t need to reason with, you don’t need to listen to, you don’t need to be
around; you need to shut if off and get away from it
A. Cast down-Take down,
throw down, with the use of force, demolish, the subtle reasonings of opponents
that you are to refute, two words-first word to take, second word down
1.
You don’t talk about your
wrong thoughts, you don’t express them, you don’t ponder them or share them,
you cast them down NOW
2.
Wrong thoughts and
feelings don’t need to be expressed, they need to be resisted; When you’re
expressing them you’re yielding to them when you should be resisting them and
it feels better only to your flesh – Expressing is not resisting
3.
Because of your ignorance
you think when you express these things that it is helping because you’re
“getting it out” or “letting it out,” but in reality you’re letting more of the
wrong stuff in
B. These thoughts and
feelings and ideas are coming against the truth
1.
Voice-The weapons of the
war we’re fighting are not of this world but are powered by God and effective
at tearing down the strongholds erected
against His truth. We are demolishing arguments and ideas,
every high-and-mighty philosophy that pits itself against the knowledge
of the one true God
2.
MSG-We use our powerful God-tools for smashing
warped philosophies, tearing down
barriers erected against the truth of
God, fitting every loose thought
and emotion and impulse into the structure of life shaped by Christ
3.
Phil-Our battle is to bring down every deceptive fantasy and every imposing
defense that men erect against the true knowledge of God
C. What is it that needs to
be pulled down? What is it that needs to be cast down?
1.
Strongholds-The arguments and
reasonings by which a disputant endeavors to fortify his opinion and defend it
against his opponent
a. Bible translations called
strongholds arguments, reasonings, considerations, counsels, lofty opinions,
false arguments, speculations
2.
Imaginations-Images, Thoughts
3.
Anything
that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, the truth of God, the light of
God
D. What if you don’t pull
these things down and cast these things down? Will you win anyway?
1.
If
you don’t cast these things down but think on them and ponder them and yield to
these things that exalt themselves against the truth you’re going to get off,
you’re going to end up believing wrong, thinking wrong and you’re going to lose
your faith and lose the faith fight
2.
If you are not doing
something with your mind, with what you think, with your imaginations and your
thoughts and feelings then you are not even fighting at all and you are not
resisting your spiritual enemy and you will be defeated and you will not have
victory
E. This is warfare, this is
serious, this is a REAL fight and it’s a life or death issue-Romans 8:6
III.
Satan’s objective is to
get you to listen to him and reason with him and entertain these lies because
if do you will believe wrong, lose your faith, lose the faith fight
A. 1 Timothy 4:1-The enemy
lies to you to get you to depart from the faith; and if you give heed to what
he is saying you will depart from the faith
1.
Why
does the enemy come and lie to you? He wants you to let go of your faith and to
believe wrong
a. Why did the enemy come
and give these teachings of devils? To cause them to turn loose of their faith
and depart from it
b. If the enemy can get you
to believe wrong he can have greater influence in your life
2.
How
did the enemy get them to depart from the faith? By getting them to pay attention
to what he is saying–Why did they depart from the faith, lose their
faith, lose the faith fight? Because they gave heed to a wrong spirit and
entertained thoughts they should have cast down
a. If he can get you to listen to him and to just entertain some
thoughts he can deceive you and get you to turn loose of your faith
b. You lose your faith/the
faith fight by listening to the wrong thing; beware of listening to the wrong thing
3.
Satan is after your HEED
B. *1 Timothy 2:14-Eve was
eve deceived, lost your faith, believed wrong because she entertained what she
should have cast down
1.
Genesis
3:1-6-Eve is looking (Saw-Gaze at,
consider, look at, give attention to) at the tree and gave the enemy
opportunity to talk to her
a. She is out here communing
with the wrong spirit and considering what he’s saying and this is how you get
off
b. She’s paying attention to
something she shouldn’t be, she’s considering something she should be
considering
2.
The biggest mistake they
made is that they shouldn’t have been listening to any of this; The biggest
mistake you can make in the evil day is to ponder what the enemy is saying; The
moment you sit there and think about it and don’t resist it, you will start
losing; You cannot allow yourself to consider anything that contradicts the
truth of God’s Word; Don’t you think that it can’t affect you if you sit there
and listen to it
C. 2 Timothy 2:16-18-You got
to realize how deadly these things are to stand there and listen to them
1.
There
are things that you can listen to that will undermine your faith-14AMP
2.
17-There
are words that if you listen to will eat you up and eat your faith up like a
cancer
a. There are thoughts that
the enemy will fire at you that are more deadly than a poisonous snake in your
house, yet people don’t realize it
1)
Romans 3:13-Their throat
is an open grave; with their tongues they have used deceit; the poison of asps is under their lips:
2)
Psalm 140:1-3-Deliver me,
O LORD, from the evil man: preserve me from the violent man; 2Which imagine
mischiefs in their heart; continually are they gathered together for war. 3They have sharpened their tongues like a serpent; adders’ poison is
under their lips. Selah.
b. Romans 8:6-Can thoughts
be a very serious threat to your life? Most are not treating these things as
serious at all
1) Every thought-Do you
think most Christians are doing this? Not even close and that’s the answer to
why so many people are having so many problems and losing so many battles
3.
16-There are words that
you should shun; There are some things that you shouldn’t be listening to;
there are words that are deadly
a. Shun means to avoid it
stay away from it
b. 18-They got a new
doctrine and it’s that the resurrection has already happened; This is a
doctrine of devils and I’m sure they thought that they had some scripture for
it, but it wasn’t rightly divided word; they took a phrase here and a phrase
there and twisted it around and to people who don’t know the Word and don’t
know God it seemed right
1)
18-They
overturned the faith of people who listened to what they were saying; They
erred because they listened to the wrong words
2)
There
is some things that you should not listen to, even part of it; there are things
that you are better off not knowing and not hearing; The world teaches now that
we need to be open to other peoples opinions and appreciate other peoples beliefs
and NO YOU DON’T; Adam and Eve were open to some new ideas about the tree and
that’s what got them in trouble
D. Proverbs 5:1-9-What’s
going to keep you safe? Don’t listen to, play with or entertain anything that
contradicts what God told you
1.
1-2-What
if you don’t attend to God’s wisdom and bow your ear to his understanding? Then
you wouldn’t have discretion and your lips wouldn’t keep light and knowledge
and truth and they wouldn’t have the answer to temptation
2.
3-4-Why
do you need discretion? B/C these words that the enemy is speaking are sweet
and smooth, but in the end they will devour you
a. You need light to know
what to resist and what to yield to
3.
6-The
enemy is trying to get you to wander from the path of life, lead you astray and
this is how you’re going to keep this from happening
a. Stay far away from here
and don’t go near the door of her house; DON’T GO NEAR IT, DON’T ENTERTAIN THE
THOUGHTS AND LIES
b. There is some places you
just can’t allow your mind to go; there’s some places you can’t let your mind
go near
c. It’s easier to not go by
her house, then go into her living room and say no, it’s easier to say no in
her living room then it is her bedroom
E. THIS IS HOW YOU LOSE-You
start listening to and entertaining something that you got no business
listening to
1.
You didn’t just start
believing wrong all of the sudden; you started listening to something you
should have been resisting and then after that you believed wrong
2.
Proverbs 1:33-You can’t
be safe as along as you are willing to entertain lies
a. What if you don’t hearken
to God and listen to him, but instead listen to a wrong spirit? Would you be
safe anyway? NO
3.
John
10:1-5-You won’t follow him and get off and be deceived and led astray if you
don’t pay attention to what he says; The voice that you pay attention to is the
one that you’re going to follow
a. We’re talking about this
thief (liar) getting you to follow him
b. Know-To turn the eyes, the mind, the attention to anything; To
pay attention to; Look at, behold
c. John 8:12-If you pay
attention to the truth and follow the truth you won’t walk in darkness
IV.
The faith fight is a real
fight-1 Timothy 6:12
A. The spiritual fight and
the faith fight has not been real to many people, but it is a real fight; We
are in a war
1.
People
are taken back and caught off guard and some fly off the handle when the
experience a little opposition and like it’s a shock or a surprise to them that
they would experience any opposition – Hello! You’re in a fight and you
have an adversary
2.
The good faith fight is a
real fight; it’s not imaginary; your faith is going to be challenged and
tried
a. Is there really an
adversary that is really doing everything he can to get you to let go of your
faith? And if he can will you experience real defeat? Is there real pressure in
the form of real thoughts and real feelings that is really trying to get you to
let go of your faith?
3.
If
nobody is going to get your faith, then you’re going to have to fight to keep
that from happening
a. You try to get the faith
out of us and you’re going to run into a fight; You try to get me to doubt God
and not trust God and I’m going into fight mode and I bristle and I take a
stand and turn into a wall
B. True spiritual warfare is
all about beliefs and your opponent is trying to get you to believe wrong (It’s
to the enemy’s advantage to keep the body of Christ confused about what the
fight is and what we are supposed to be fighting; the fight is not what some
have made it out to be)
1.
Every attack the enemy
makes against is to negatively affect your faith so that he can have an open
door to affect your life
a. It’s about your faith so don’t make it about circumstances
(that would be warring after the flesh)
b. The pressure and the
opposition you experience is not about circumstances and negative situations, it’s
about your faith and the question is what affect did those natural things have
on your faith?
c. You need to not be
fixated on the results and the circumstances and the situation you are and
instead be fixated on your faith
1)
It’s
easy to be fixate on what’s going on in this natural realm and think you’re
fighting a bunch of stuff that’s natural and if you’re doing that you’re not
fighting a faith fight
2.
Every war is over
control, then the dust settles and the war is over the winner is the one who
has control; How does the enemy control people on this planet? Through the
mind; the mind is the door way to the heart and with the heart man believes
a. Proverbs 23:7, 4:23,
Romans 8:5-6-If the enemy can get a man thinking wrong and believing wrong he
can influence that man
1)
What
if he can’t get him thinking wrong and believing wrong? He’ll have no influence
over that man
b. Your beliefs govern everything and that’s why the war is over
what you believe
1)
True spiritual warfare is
a battle of beliefs and because it’s a battle of beliefs it has to do with
thoughts because that’s how you come to believe something and the thought was
revealed to you through words and ideas
c. What we believe is the
biggest part of what we are and it governs every aspect of our lives and that’s
what the struggle in the Earth is over and that’s what the enemy and his evil
spirits are working night and day to do, is to prevent people from seeing the
light and believing the truth or get people who have seen the light and believe
it to turn loose of it – THAT IS TRUE SPIRITUAL WARFARE
1)
The
devil can’t make people do anything, but when people come to believe these
things, their beliefs begin to govern every aspect of their lives and they are
believing wrong because the devil lied and they didn’t resist it and stand
against it
C. Fighting the good fight
of faith is connected to laying hold of or possessing eternal life and anything
that falls under the scope of zoe
1.
If
you don’t fight the good fight of faith you won’t possess what’s yours
2.
There’s
some stuff you’re called to and some stuff calling you that to posses you have
to fight the good fight of faith
a. You’re not called to be
sick any more than you were called to be dead spiritually; you are called to
healing and healing is calling you, but to lay hold of it you’re going to have
to fight the good fight of faith
V.
This is 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 is connected to you possessing
what God has promised you; if you ponder and think about and yield to these
wrong thoughts and feelings you will end up believing wrong, losing your faith
and you won’t possess what God promised to you
A. What God gives to you and
does for you is by grace and it is received through your faith (right believing, believing the truth)
1.
Romans
4:16, Ephesians 2:8, Romans 5:2-Faith
is what gives you access to God’s grace and to what God wants to give you by
grace
a. You don’t earn
it with your faith, you access it with your faith – No faith = No access
2.
2 Peter 1:4-There are things that
God has give to you that are yours but you don’t see them or have them
naturally and yet they are yours and you couldn’t’ say they are not yours
because God has given them to you
a. Numbers 13:2-In God’s heart and mind it’s their land and
yet they don’t have it naturally; you couldn’t say it wasn’t theirs because God
said “which I give unto you,” and so if God gave it to them then it’s theirs
and not the giants’ and yet they don’t have it (naturally)
b. God gave it to you when he said it, not when it showed up
1)
Genesis 1-God said it and it was
so and then He saw; it’s so the moment God said it
2)
When did Abraham become the
Father of many nations? When God said it; He was the father of many nations
long before he was the father of many nations; When Abraham went to possess
that promise there was a fight waiting for him
3.
Faith is what gives you access to the things that are
yours
a. You’re not
earning it with your faith because you can’t earn something that already
belongs to you
1)
EX: You can’t earn something
that’s yours – It already belongs to you
2)
EX: You can’t earn your money in
the bank, that money was already earned and it you could die of starvation if
you don’t go access what’s yours and what belongs to you by the proper means
b. You can’t earn what God already gave to you
1)
Romans 5:18, Titus 2:11-Salvation
and righteousness has been given the sinner and they can’t earn it because God
already gave it to them and yet if they don’t access it with their faith they
will die and go to hell – Faith gives them access to it
c. Healing, prosperity, peace, joy, good relationships,
money, protection is yours and you can’t earn it because Jesus already earned
it and gave it to you and it’s yours and it’s by grace, but without faith you
WILL NEVER access it – Faith gives you access
1)
Faith doesn’t give you a right to
it, Jesus gave you the right to it when he gave it to you, faith gives you
access to it
B. Anything that affects your faith will affect the access
you have to what is already yours by grace
1.
If you possess with your faith
what God has given to you by grace, the enemy can’t stop you taking possession
of it, but by one means and that’s to affect your faith, to get you out of
faith and to get you to believe wrong, to believe lies, and not the truth;
2.
If He can affect your faith he can hinder your access to
grace
3.
If he can affect your faith and get you believing lies he
can keep you from possessing what’s yours b/c faith is what gives you access
C. When you go to possess with your faith what God has given
to you by grace there’s going to be a fight waiting for you
1.
Faith is a fight so to access and
possess what God has given you by grace you’re going to have to fight the good
fight of faith-1 Timothy6:12
a. It’s not God who
is trying to deny you access, it’s the enemy and you’re fight is not with God
to earn something from him, your fight is with the enemy who’s trying to deny
you access by affecting your faith by giving you thoughts and feelings contrary
to the truth
b. If you give heed to these lies and entertain them and
don’t cast them down it’s going to affect your faith and you will lose the
faith fight and that’s how he defeats you-1 John 5:4
c. It’s not that God doesn’t want to give you the victory, but
it’s understanding that what God does for you he does by grace and if you
something affects your faith (like yielding to these wrong thoughts) then it’s
going to affect what God is able to do for you by His grace
2.
Jesus did the work and it’s finished and it’s yours but
that doesn’t mean the enemy is just going let you possess what’s yours
uncontested; he’s going to do everything he can to affect your faith so that
you can’t possess what’s yours
a. 1 Timothy 6:12, 2 Peter 1:4-Lay hold (possess) enteral
life; God has given unto us all things that pertain to LIFE and godliness, by
grace, and we have to possess it with our faith when we go to do that we’re
going to encounter some resistance
3.
It is yours but that doesn’t mean
there’s not going to be some resistance from the evil one and that resistance
is in the form of thoughts and feelings and suggestions and if you cower under
that resistance and don’t fight the good fight of faith you WON’T possess what’s
yours
a. It is yours but that doesn’t mean that there’s not going
to be a fight and it’s a faith fight because believing is what gives you access
b. Whether or not you have victory is not just determined by
how you prayed, but how did you fight after your prayer was finished (“I did
believe I received when I prayed” – Yes but you’re losing the fight)
4.
God’s people aren’t possessing what’s there’s because
they are losing this fight, the faith fight
a. Some don’t know there is a fight, some don’t think you
have to fight, some don’t know how to fight, some are confused about what the
fight is, some don’t want to fight
b. That land is theirs, God gave it to them by grace and yet
they never enjoyed it because they didn’t fight the good fight of faith
D. If you don’t win the faith fight by casting down and
resisting these wrong thoughts and feelings it is a certainty you will lose
your faith, let go of your faith and you will not be able to access what God
wants to give you by grace and you won’t possess what’s yours
1.
Numbers 13-B/C they pondered the
wrong thoughts they lost their faith and lost the fight and never possessed
what God promised to them
a. Somebody said
unbelief kept them from possessing? True, but why did they get into unbelief
and lose their faith? Because they didn’t do 2 Corinthians 10:3-5
b.
This is how you
end up deceived and in the dark and believing wrong and thinking wrong because
you yielded to a thought you should have resisted, you considered something you
shouldn’t have consider, you paid attention to something you should have paid
no attention to at all
2.
They were heeding the wrong things, they were listening
to and communing with a wrong spirit, they were expressing thoughts and
feelings they had when they should have been resisting them and that is why
they got off and into unbelief and lost their faith-Numbers13:28-14:4
a. Are these things they are seeing real? Yes. Are these
thoughts they are having real? Yes. Are these feelings they were having real?
Yes. But all those thoughts and feelings are exalting themselves against the
truth of God so they need to be cast down and not expressed
b. Joshua and Caleb certainly had similar thoughts and
feelings, but they cast them down and that’s why they didn’t lose their faith
and that’s why they didn’t lose the faith fight and that’s why they possessed
what God promised them
1)
You can see it in the verses-The
unbelieving bunch would say something and Joshua or Caleb would cast it down
E. The ones who didn’t want to fight never possessed what
God promised
1.
Many Christians don’t want to fight; they want to possess
what’s theirs uncontested; They want to pray and they want it to manifest
instantly and when it doesn’t they go off the rails and get in fear and
unbelief and they don’t want to fight these thoughts, feelings and lies
a. EX: We prayed
and it hasn’t changed; that’s because you’re in a fight and the enemy is doing
everything to affect your faith and he knows if he can amplify the fact that it
hasn’t changed you’ll let go of your faith, because that’s worked on you in the
past
2.
Do you want to fight? Do you love to fight? –You
got to love to fight (Rocky: “I’m a fighter Adrianne.”)
a. A boxer doesn’t go into the ring dreading the fight,
dreading the thought that punches are going to be thrown at him, he loves to
fight; believers wake up in the morning dreading the fight and you won’t win a
fight that you’re dreading
b. Most people
don’t like to fight b/c they aren’t fighting right; they’re sitting there being
bombarded and pummeled praying and asking God to do something about the devil
and there’s no verse in the NT that says pray to God and he’ll do something
about the devil
3.
In Numbers 13 there’s a whole
bunch of people who don’t want to fight; not just naturally they don’t want to
fight the good fight of faith
F. *The most important thing is not the result, the most
important thing is “are you winning the fight?” and many aren’t getting the
results they believe they should because they are not winning the fight and
they’ve allowed things to affect their faith and get their faith
1.
The fight is not natural, it’s
spiritual and it’s a faith fight and the fight is all about you staying in
faith and believing right when the enemy is trying to get you to let go of your
faith and believe wrong
a. It’s not a circumstance fight, you’re not fighting
sickness, you’re not fighting lack Jesus gave you victory over those things and
your fight is not natural and your weapons are not carnal; the fight you’re in
is the fight to hold onto your faith and retain your faith and believe right
and believe the truth no matter what happens and if you’re doing that you’re
winning the fight no matter what the circumstances say
b. People have gotten the idea that they are responsible for
taking their faith and making their healing come to pass or making the money
show up, but that would make the fight natural and not spiritual
c. They are looking at the giants and the walls and the indwelt
cities and they are making the fight natural, but it’s not natural it’s
spiritual and they are losing the faith fight and that’s the only fight that
matters
2.
Some are lying to the themselves
about their own faith and they are saying, “I am in faith, I am believing,” all
the while they sit there and sulk in despair and toil in torment and have no
peace and no joy and the truth is they are not in faith and because you can’t
be in faith and hold onto your faith while you listen to the lies of the devil all
day
a. There’s joy and
peace in believing right and if you’ll pay attention to the warning signs
you’ll sense when you’re getting off and believing wrong; in situations where
you’ve lost your joy and have no peace and you’re frustrated and angry and sorrowful,
those are warning signs and they are letting you know you’re off, you’re
believing wrong, you’re thinking wrong, you’re losing the fight and you need
some light and truth and you need to begin to deal in light and truth-(Romans
15:13)
b. This is why you
have no access to what you know is yours and to what you know you should have
c. You’re not going to win that fight if you entertain wrong
thoughts and the lies of the devil
G. Romans 4:16-21-It’s
impossible to win the fight of faith and not let go of your faith when think
on, ponder and listen to the lies of the devil all day
1.
Why
is he not staggering? Why is he not wavering? Why is he not in unbelief? He
staggered not because he consider not, he was strong in faith because he
considered not
a. The enemy is trying to
get him to believe wrong by getting him to consider something contrary to the
truth, but Abraham just won’t do it and that’s why he didn’t let go of his
faith and possessed what God promised him
b. Considering things
contrary to the truth is going to eat away at your faith until you no longer
have any and that means you lose the faith fight and don’t possess what God
promised you
c. You get to this fully
persuaded faith place of total trust and total rest by considering not; You
consider not long enough and you’re going to get fully persuaded and that’s the
place where nothing moves you, no report, no thought, no feeling, no
circumstance, no devil
2.
If you are considering
stuff you shouldn’t be considering it shows you that your faith is weak
a. So the measure for your faith is not what you can quote like
a parrot or the face you can put on in front of your Christian friends, but
rather how much stuff did you consider and think about today that you shouldn’t
have
b. Strong faith won’t consider anything that contradicts the
Word
1)
2 Corinthians 4:18-Faith
doesn’t consider or pay attention to what it sees, how it feels, or anything
that contradicts the truth