Just so everyone knows, I wrote this out of honesty. I don't understand much. Just because I experience something spiritual in this way, doesn't mean I understand what I'm experiencing.
Well, I'm going to say something, and all I ask is that you ponder it prayerfully before the Lord.
II Corinthians chapter 10
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3] For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh:
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4] (
For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds)
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5]
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;
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6] And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled.
In the context of "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" or in the context of dealing with "strong holds", Paul mentioned that "the weapons of our warfare are NOT carnal". In other words, we require SPIRITUAL WEAPONS to deal with such things taking place in our minds because these things are themselves SPIRITUAL in nature or demonic.
Earlier, in this same epistle, Paul said:
II Corinthians chapter 4
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3] But if our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost:
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4]
In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.
Satan, who is "the god of this world", has the capacity to blind people's minds, and he does so by these very same "strong holds" that we just finished reading about. A "strong hold" is like a fortress. When it comes to "strong holds" in our minds, they're things which have usually been built up over years of time, and the only way to cast them down is with our God-given SPIRITUAL WEAPONS OF WARFARE. In other words, through SPIRITUAL WARFARE.
About 33 years ago, while I was basically a brand new Christian, I worked for a telecommunications company in New Jersey (which is where I used to live). A bunch of us scheduled a white water rafting trip in the Poconos of Pennsylvania (which is where I currently live), and when the day of that trip arrived, the skies were very overcast and cloudy, and the weather report was calling for rain. We decided to go ahead on our journey, and I was driving one of the cars as we headed towards our destination. While driving, I prayed the following:
God, please let the sun come out today.
To my surprise, God IMMEDIATELY answered me in my spirit, and said to me the following:
You'd be much wiser if you prayed for the clouds to be removed. The sun is already out.
God then went on to relate this to my prayer life in general. In other words, he showed me that there were oftentimes demonic forces (by analogy, the clouds) who were blocking me from hearing clearly from God (by analogy, the sun that was already out, but just hidden by the cloud coverage). As I began to deal with the demonic forces which were at play in my life, then I heard from God much more clearly.
In fact, I've literally been delivered from demons which were "blinding" my mind. There were so many things in my thought life that I thought were just "me", but, in fact, they were demonic spirits who were impressing their thoughts and desires upon my mind, and it wasn't until I used my God-given SPIRITUAL WEAPONS against them that they were cast down.
I'll stop here for now, but I can assure you that there's not much "traffic" in my mind these days, and I'm telling you these things in order to help you potentially get rid of any "traffic jams" in your own mind so that you might clearly hear from God yourself.
Like I said, just something for you to hopefully prayerfully ponder before the Lord.
