How to Break Free from the Battle Within (And Win It Daily)

the Battle of your flesh on the inside choosing not to let it win choosing to it's why Paul said I will beat my body into submission I'm not going to let my flesh pulling down strongholds his weapons are Mighty second Corinthians 10 by pulling down a strong I take every thought captive that my flesh wants to do and I got to pull it down against the word and figure out what one but it's you said you it's every thought every decision it's like hold on he was like you can't do that about everything you really need to what's it mean and i' I've been asking people everywhere what's it mean to making Lord of your life what's that even mean what's full surrender mean yeah what does that mean full surrender means he's Lord it's it's like the step three I turn my will and my life over to God of my understanding like I just checked the box when I did that when I was in recovery didn't know me yeah I know what that meant to turn my will over to something I just want not get high you yeah that's how it starts right yeah and so I think that that's what I tell people that are in that stuff like go back and really do step three figure out what that means to say I'll surrender like it's what it is it's like I took my will over to his will to me that would mean any important decision during the day any I don't know any anything that like you felt like maybe at the moment the Lord wasn't giving you guidance on you would be referring back to what scripture says about it so just walking out the things that right and not being about yourself in any way thinking about what the Lord has to say about it what he has said about it and what's best for others in almost every situation today we were talking about how how betrayal is literally just picking is picking yourself over the relationship over your relationship with someone else but not even like in a har not even like intentionally in a harmful way just like so if we're going to go eat something like me just being like well I'd rather eat this and so he only gets one piece of food or he only gets two FR Fri Chinese like that's betrayal yeah it is cuz it's selfishness which is we don't even think we're like betrayal is like stabbing somebody in the back for real like what like stealing their car but it's not it's simply choosing yourself over the relationship with someone else and that's the same way with him like that's what it that's what being lower BS down I was reading in First Peter today and it's like he goes on in one and two and I think the beginning of two he's like get rid of all hypocrisy jealousy this and that it's like none of that is the outward sin that we're talking about that's the stuff on the inside and so to make him Lord and like what you was saying if I make him Lord every decision so if you stab me in the back if you betray me I don't I gave up my rights to get mad at you and treat you like crap because if he's Lord I have to go by what he did and what he said if he's my king and I'm following their rules in the kingdom of heaven then I forgive you 7 and I love my enemies and pray for those that persecute me I don't get the well you don't know what they did I don't get all those excuses because I've made him Lord that's the Matthew 56 and 7 teaching yeah it's is the hard gut stuff that if he's Lord we have to look at how to transform into walking if he's Lord if not we're still Lord that's just the way I say I think it's pretty easy to slip in and out of that whole lordship thing on a daily basis even Moment by moment you can slip in and out of it decision by decision yeah it's freeing though if you really live that way live offence live offense free that's what I love one of the things Dam over and Todd White said like I gave up my I gave him up subscription to life issues just gave him up subscribed to them no more like I don't get a right to check the box of being offended and manipulated and all that either way I love you and I'm going look at the Spirit behind it and not Jesus is like forgiven they don't know what they're doing so no in the moment it's hard it is cuz we battle this and I think that's even what he says in first or second Peter he's like to look at it to see but it's it's like making a choice not to act on that making a choice to the Battle of your flesh on the inside choosing not to let it win choosing to that's why Paul said I will beat my body into submission I'm not going to let my flesh pulling down strongholds his weapons are Mighty Second Corinthians 10 by pulling down Aon I take every thought captive that my flesh wants to do and I got to put it down against the word and figure out which one I'm going to chew you said chew it's every thought every decision it's like hold on people's like you can't do that about everything no you really need to really need so going back to strongholds when we talk about pulling down strongholds what does the word strongholds mean to you in scripture I don't know the Greek word for that translation but what do strongholds mean specifically to you to me stronghold is something that you've locked into your mind so it's a way of thinking it's a way of think absolutely is it's what you really believe so there can be good strongholds and bad if the word of God is your stronghold and that's what he's saying like if that's your stronghold then nothing can change that so you take a kid who we've told him make kids mad parents mad every but if I tell my son Santa Claus is real you got to fight him tooth and nail to change that what and it's it's something so it's a stronghold they've been taught it they believe it and so like in an addiction or you're always going to be an addict there's a stronghold I can never get really free best I can do is be sober but I'm always going to be an addict no that's a total lie doesn't line up to the word of God who the sun sets free is free indeed it's my stronghold in the word of God for that and so you have to be able to pull down the old strong and I think a lot of people try to work to dismantle them but then never build new ones so you have to take what you did believe I think they're I think my counselor in prison said it well like their little tags we hang in their mind is truth it's like I believe this is the truth okay well if the word of God says something different you have to pull it down and then you have to replace it with what the word says so that because your brain functions in normal things like it consistently will go like it'll shoot things down and go down a track yeah that neuro pathway and it like forms a rut or almost like a Riverwood marble wood to run a marble through and you so you have to dismantle that thing for a while and every time it begins to come up you have to stop it and shoot it down another path and it takes a while to shoot it down another path before it becomes you could be trying to rut a 30-year thought process it's hard to do so the longer you've had it to renew your mind really you have to that's why discipleship is important that's why fellowship with it's not just a Sunday morning thing you have to engulf yourself and in second Peter he says crave the word like pure spiritual milk like a baby does until it transforms you and matures what so you have to get that thing constantly you had kids I do I have a 10-year-old was you around when he was little yes okay so how often did he want to die on bottle when he was all the time every 2 to 4 hours what like Do We crave the word that much do we want this well I think when you get born again you do I think the question really is how to keep that fire lit how to keep that hunger stirred yeah and i' I've noticed that my spiritual hunger will flame up in certain times throughout my life like in it's almost like an opportunity me for me to seize it and Chase it's almost like and I'm like oh I can feel it and if I don't it like it'll dwindle back like it's weird and I'm like did I miss that like was that the Lord like prompting me like hop in that scripture now because like you could because it snowballed at one point in my life what and it really I was burning for a minute and it's I think when that flame not that my desire to know scripture or know the Lord has diminished anyway but there is there's a difference in just generally wanting to know more and to walk further with the Lord and then that burning that like that take me back to my first love burning like that when you first experiened the Lord in a way that you never had and sometimes I'm like I wish I really wish I could get back to that well it's it's it's that's why in Ephesians he Likens it to marriage because it's like when you get married the honeymoon season everything's good intimacy is really good you and then you talk but this is it drives me crazy when you talk to people that's been married 15 20 years they're like oh well that doesn't even happen anymore you that he's like why not where's the passion go because it becomes normal and mundane and we get used to it and take it for granted I think and so you have and in a marriage you lived together got kids life gets hectic it's it's hard to keep the same drive and passion you had when you were first married and so you have to find ways this is why I think getting together and going on trips together and fellowshipping or having men's conferences or something outside of the big things little things too that you can just do with the Lord and then having your own personal intimate time with the Lord every day is vital if you don't do that for a while then it's like oh know this is all right and this snowballs the other one so let me ask you something when you have your personal time with the Lord you do it in the morning or in the evening in the I do it a lot but the morning I start out with you when you say you have super intimate times with the Lord where you can feel his presence you feel like he's speaking to you the holy spirit's moving like in prayer time or if you're doing a little bit of worship then you have other days to where you can read and pray and it's like what do you do when say you start to go on you start to have more days of that than more days of a good question feeling I know we're not we don't as Christians we don't base things off feelings right we base them off what we know the Lord but the fact of the matter is feeling the Lord his manifest presence and feeling the prompting of the Holy Spirit does make a difference in your life so when you don't for a while you can act like it doesn't affect you but it does so how do you combat those dry seasons I had this conversation with a brother that I just talked to for the first time yesterday he reached out to me lives in Hampshire County and we had some really good talks and it's the same talk that we had so it's like you have this is where the stronghold has to be rooted in your brain so to know that even on the days I sat with him I'm trying to teach my five and six-year-old this now because there sometimes he comes in the room we do like five minutes of worship and five minutes of prayer and five minutes of the word with him at night I do yeah and and I try to get him to sit and listen to the worship not really sing every once a while CU they're hyper I'll say I'll put on a fast song and let them dance but lots of times two or three times a week I get them to sit still and I'm like listen one of the biggest things is knowing even when God's sent he's still there ing so I know we like the conversation and all of that and to feel him and know him but rooting the stronghold of the word that says he never leaves you nor forsakes you even if you make your bed in hell I'm with you if you're up in the day if you're out at night like knowing that and making that a stronghold then in days that you don't feel it what it's like even though I don't feel it I know holy spirit's in me and the devil will talk you out of that stuff see this is just a phase it when what but then you're like no what the same power that raised him from the Dead's in me now even if he's not speaking and not talking and I don't feel the Goosebumps and it doesn't feel good he's there because his word says he is and I know it I don't just think it but I so that's just part of maturing as a Christian then you're walk them so let me ask you this on a natural level do y'all have maybe not cuz I know out in the world I didn't have too many friends like this I do now but I have friends now that like Morgan for instance you think you met Chris yeah well no I didn't meet him but I've seen his songs and videos yeah so me and H's been good Brothers for six me and Justin we've been friends for what 10 11 years something like that now and I don't talk to I did mess with him the other week I'm like bro you ain't been talking to me in a while what's up you mad at me but I know that he can call me or I can call him and we don't have to really ask all that questions we pick up the phone and it's like we ain't quit talking what we know we don't have to say hey where are you at you still like so there's this relationship that even in the silence you don't get insecure and worry and that's what rooting that word in you that's what rooting and knowing and making that a stronghold cuz it's like no God never leaves like he's dad you're with me no matter how bad this looks right now you're right here with me and even if I can't feel you I'm going to believe what your word says because it's a truth and that like I said that is even carried over into my friendships now me and Morgan sometimes don't talk for 3 months he'll call and it's like bam and never quit talking so it's that and knowing that that one scripture says they came and made their home on the inside of us like his hom this is his home he's iny he ain't leaving yeah he ain't checking out when I'm not acting right he's still there so this just making that a stronghold and that does it comes with maturity and time just like it would with a woman you start trusting you get there a little bit and after a while you're like you're comfortable and that she could go overseas and you don't have to worry about her cheek going what I me yeah so just it comes with time B in good stuff yeah