We have been empowered by God to be the gatekeepers of every thought that runs through the superhighway of our mind and to take captive everything that is not from him. Every lie from the enemy, ourselves, or from others, we are to take captive and reject because we are the gatekeepers of our minds. We are in a war in our minds and must come into agreement with God’s Word, reminding ourselves constantly that his Word is true.
That’s when we come to our senses and realize that we don’t have to suffer from the enemy’s lies. We’ve been given tools that are “mighty in God for the pulling down of strongholds.” These are weapons “for the overthrow and destruction of [all] strongholds” (2 Corinthians 10:3-5 AMPC) – whatever is binding us up, holding us down, confusing our mind, or discouraging our soul. We don’t have to suffer under the bondage of mental oppression – we are free in Jesus.
Where do these strongholds come from?
They come from satanic lies that we come to believe, generational mindsets (things that we’ve been taught, ways of thinking, things we believe about ourselves), or human wounding (things that happen to us or that people do to us). A stronghold results from a lie that we: 1] listen to long enough, 2] believe strongly enough and, 3] own deeply enough. If we don’t stop it, it can become part of our very identity, where we say, “I am this thing – not good enough – stupid – a sinner – stuck in addiction.”
Result of a sinner identity
Guilt, shame, and condemnation create a barrier between us and the fellowship that we’re supposed to have with God. He wants to demolish any such barriers to relationship with us. God wants to know us and for us to know him, and for us to become what he created us to be – free in Jesus’ name – filled with purpose – world-changers who walk with him, both now and for all eternity.
If we let a stronghold form, it will dictate our thoughts, beliefs, actions, and reactions – creating an unholy filter in our mind and heart through which everything else passes – everything gets perverted by it, even things that are good and holy become twisted. God tries to say, “I love you,” but we hear it twisted through the filter as “He loves everyone but me. Others can get free but not me.” That’s what God wants to demolish.
There’s a stronghold of a sinner’s identity and a sinner’s penalty. If we own it deep enough, as believer’s in Jesus – walking with God – we still tell ourselves, “I’m a sinner – I’m just a sinner. Maybe I’m kind of saved and someday won’t go to hell – but I’m a sinner.” That gets repeated in our soul, spirit, thoughts, and mind. It’s a stronghold. The result of that sinner’s identity is the sinner’s penalty – of feeling the guilt, shame, and condemnation that overtakes our life.
Feelings of condemnation – that we’re unworthy, not good enough, we’ll never get it right or be able to stop doing this thing, we’ll never be free of this bondage and addiction because we’re a sinner. This is probably the most detrimental mindset that a believer in Jesus could possibly have because it affects everything else in our entire life. It’s like playing Jenga and pulling out just the wrong little block and the whole tower crumbles.
If we don’t get this right – the identity of I’m a sinner versus I’m a saint – called by God, the tower of everything that God’s trying to build in our life will crumble under the weight of not getting right what God actually says about who we are and what we have in Christ. Nowhere in the entire New Testament is a believing Christian referred to as a sinner.
Ephesians 2:19-22 NKJV
“Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being the chief cornerstone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.”
Sixty times in the New Testament, believers in Jesus are referred to as saints – holy ones – pure – righteous. This is our identity in Christ according to what God says in his Word. Every son and daughter in his kingdom is called and set apart as a saint – not just some lowly sinner. If we are disciples who follow him as Lord and Master, we are saints – not sinners.
This is the conversion that happens when a person is born again, and they go from the old life to the new life – made a new creature – converted – changed by the power of God – not by your works – from the identity of sinner to the identity of saint. We will do whatever we believe we are. As a man thinks in his heart so is he. How are we going to live the life of a saint – a called one of God – if we’re stuck in the mire of a sinner identity? Who we believe we are dictates how we live, and ultimately, what comes out of us. If we walk with a sinner’s stronghold identity, guess what we’ll do? – we’re going to sin. Why? – because sinners sin.
Ephesians 6:10-18 NKJV
“Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.
“Stand therefore, having girded your waist with truth, having put on the breastplate of righteousness, and having shod your feet with the preparation of the gospel of peace; above all, taking the shield of faith with which you will be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God; praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, being watchful to this end with all perseverance and supplication for all the saints”
The helmet of salvation covers our mind. The identity that comes from true salvation in Jesus that protects our mind from these lies and false identities that keep us stuck in the mire of who we used to be. We believe that his salvation isn’t just for eternity – someday in the future – it’s for right now. It’s for us and it guards our mind. The breastplate of righteousness – the identity that we are made right with God in Christ – allows us to stand before him blameless. We’re to guard our heart with the breastplate.
Philippians 4:6,7 NKJV
“Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.” – because we wear the breastplate of our identity as a saint, and it guards our heart in the knowledge that we are righteous before God.
This can change our lives, and by understanding the truth of the New Testament, we will live a holy lifestyle because of who we know that we are. We were sinners saved by grace – now we’re saints. God’s power converted us and our identity changed. There is an eternal difference between a saint who sins and a sinner, that’s who they are – that’s their identity.
“God doesn’t want you to see yourself as a sinner who sometimes ‘saints’, but as a saint who sometimes sins.” – Pastor Steve Berger
1 John 2:1 NKJV
“My little children [adopted of God into his family as sons and daughters, trusting in Christ], these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.”
God’s goal for our lives is that we don’t sin. He empowers us to break free of the chains, bondage, sin, and the junk that defined our old life. So, where does this mindset come from – this sinner identity stronghold? – mostly, unfortunately, from ignorance of what God’s Word says about who each one of us is in Jesus, and how it applies to our lives. Out of that ignorance, Satan leverages it and keeps us in bondage. We are not beyond the scope of God’s ability to help, to set free, and to save.
If we are in Christ, we are not hopeless or powerless, because of his transforming grace. “Sinner” is our before-conversion identity. Guilt, shame, and condemnation are the before-conversion penalty, but they have nothing to do with our walk with Jesus today wherever God is concerned. God is not in that – he’s not promoting that – he’s not speaking that over our life – and it’s not true. That’s not how God operates with us – those aren’t the tools he uses with his kids because he loves us, and calls us sons and daughters.
We’re not to be bound in these things. Guilt says, “I’m not forgiven.” Condemnation says, “I’m judged forever.” Shame says, “I still am what I’m ashamed of.” They can only exist in the life of a believer when we give them permission to be there from devilish places, and we own them – wear them – and allow them to permeate our mind – in contradiction to God’s Word and what he’s done. They’re not from God.
John 3:17,18 NKJV
“For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.” (a before-conversion identity and penalty)
In Jesus, we are saved now from a sinner’s identity and a sinner’s penalty. Salvation is not just for someday when we die – it is salvation from the devil, ourselves, our own thoughts and hearts that accuse us right now. The word for salvation in Greek is soteria (complete and total salvation now, in the future, and forever)
Romans 8:1 NKJV
“There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.”
1 John 3:20 NKJV
“For if our heart [thoughts] condemns us, God is greater than our heart, and knows all things.”
God knows all of our thoughts – what we tell ourselves – the things we’ve done or will ever do, and yet he still calls us righteous, holy, and pure – and a saint. He’s greater than our heart – he can overcome even our own heart. Satan uses the sinful things we’ve done in the past, and encourages us to beat ourselves up and try to pay penance for them – try to atone for them before God. If we can just be shameful long enough, and we beat ourselves up strong enough (as if that’s somehow going to get us somewhere with God), he still says we can’t do that.
It’s impossible to atone for our own sins – besides, Jesus already did it for us. Our sins have already been forgiven – our identity has already been changed. Now it comes down to what we believe, and what we’re telling ourselves in our own mind. satan is a liar. He’s the accuser of the brethren, and if we don’t know firmly who God says we are and what we can have, then it will get twisted up and we’ll have a stronghold in our life. How do we get free of this? We have to aggressively believe what God says.
Psalm 119:11 NKJV
“Your word I have hidden in my heart, that I might not sin against You.”
The key to breaking out of the sinner’s identity and a pattern or lifestyle of sin in our life is, first, to hide God’s Word in our heart, and as we do that, we won’t sin, because his Word will be defining us and dictating our identity – and we will do what we believe we are.
Ephesians 2:8,9 NKJV
“For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast.” We are saved not only from eternal punishment but from the devil and ourselves right now.
Hebrews 10:10 AMP
“And in accordance with this will [of God] we [who believe in the message of salvation] have been sanctified [that is, set apart as holy for God and His purposes] through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ (the Messiah, the Anointed) once for all.”
Hebrews 10:14 AMPC
“For by a single offering He has forever completely cleansed and perfected those who are consecrated and made holy.”
That’s our identity in Christ as saints and we are called to live into that identity – to embrace it by faith and let it come through into the very workings of our lives. It’s not about what we feel – it’s about faith and Truth.
Romans 1:7 AMPC
“To [you then] all God’s beloved ones in Rome, called to be saints and designated for a consecrated life: Grace and spiritual blessing and peace be yours from God our Father and from the Lord Jesus Christ.” – Saints – not ain’ts.
Romans 5:1 NKJV
“Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
– justified (to be made right with God – “just as if I’d never sinned”)
2 Corinthians 5:17 NKJV
“ Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things [not some things] have become new.” – the last thing to be renewed is our mind.
Colossians 1:21,22 NLT
“This includes you who were once far away from God. You were his enemies, separated from him by your evil thoughts and actions. Yet now he has reconciled you to himself through the death of Christ in his physical body. As a result, he has brought you into his own presence, and you are holy and blameless as you stand before him without a single fault.”
This is the goal. God wants us in his presence. He wants relationship and intimacy with us. he wants to speak to us, and for us to speak with him – to know him by experience every day of our lives. That’s what he’s after. Because he’s reconciled us in Christ, he’s brought us into his own presence, yet, so often we try to run and hide.
It says we are holy and blameless as we stand before him, without a single fault. What?! That doesn’t make sense. How can this be? It’s amazing! It’s a miracle! Only God can do it – the One True God who can do all things – who loves us and brings us into his own presence. Condemnation can only exist if we discard the truth. It can only exist in our hearts as a stronghold if we discard Truth in place of devilish lies. The object of the lie is to get our eyes off of Jesus and onto us. – as if we were the source of our own salvation.
What about when we sometimes sin as saints? Do we just not care anymore? We really only have three options on how we can relate to God and position ourselves before him: 1] exemption (rebellion)- for those not in Christ who haven’t submitted to the Lordship of Christ or believed the Gospel and been born again – run from God; 2] Condemnation (religion) – because it’s all about us and what we can or can’t do, and who we think we are – causes us to hide in shame and guilt from God; 3] Conviction (relationship) comes from God – where we humble ourselves and God pulls in close – he draws us near and doesn’t push us away – the work of the Holy Spirit.
John 16:7,8 NKJV
“It is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I depart, I will send Him to you. 8 And when He has come, He will convict the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment…”
God doesn’t excuse sin – he convicts us of it in our heart, in a way that pulls us towards him and causes us to humble ourselves before him, and then he touches us with his amazing grace, and he heals us and sets us free. That’s the work of God. Conviction is the work of the Holy Spirit. Condemnation is the work of the un-holy spirit, and it aims to destroy our identity in Christ – but conviction is designed to restore it.
2 Corinthians 7:10 AMP
“ For [godly] sorrow that is in accord with the will of God produces a repentance without regret, leading to salvation; but worldly sorrow [the hopeless sorrow of those who do not believe] produces death.”
God convicts and corrects us as children and as a good Father – it’s redemptive. Satan shames and condemns us, and tries to make it punitive. The natural response to conviction is one of gratitude, love, and surrender. Like Zacchaeus understood in Luke chapter 19, “Jesus loves me. He calls me by name. He wants to stay in my house – how could I not give him everything?” That’s conviction.
Prayer (Psalm 51:10-12 KJV)
“Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from Thy presence, O Lord, and take not thy Holy Spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of Thy salvation [renew a right spirit within me].”
Father, in Jesus’ name, we ask You today – create in us a clean heart. Restore the joy of our salvation. Break the bonds of condemnation, guilt, and shame over us. God, we believe You. We believe Your Word and we receive Your grace. May we see ourselves today as Your holy, pure, and blameless saints. In Jesus’ name. Amen.
This is an updated edition of a post originally published on The Bridge
Featured Image by horacio olavarria on Unsplash
[…] Open the full article on the kingdomwinds.com site […]