We have been looking at the Fall Feasts of God—His appointed times as set forth in scripture in Leviticus 23. God’s appointed times mean holy days. In Genesis 1: 14, God declares that He is creating the sun and the moon for “signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years.” God is referring to the timing on His own prophetic calendar. Our times are in God’s hands. (Psalm 31: 15) Charles Spurgeon said: “Not only are we ourselves in the hand of the Lord, but all that surrounds us. Our times make up a kind of atmosphere of existence; and all this is under divine arrangement. We dwell within the palm of God's hand. We are absolutely at his disposal, and all our circumstances are arranged by Him in all their details. We are comforted to have it so.” These feasts of God are relevant to followers of Christ today.
When these feasts, God’s divine appointments, are celebrated, they are to be “dress rehearsals” to the very day and hour on God’s calendar when they would find their prophetic fulfillment of what God is going to do on that exact and hour. There are seven feasts. The spring feasts have been fulfilled with the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus—Passover, Unleavened Bread, First Fruits and with the sending of His Spirit on Pentecost. The fall feasts of Trumpets, Day of Atonement and Tabernacles will be fulfilled at His second coming. When we participate in these fall feasts, we get ready and are preparing for His second coming. The fall feasts of God are all about new beginnings, a fresh start over, repentance, change, transformation and hope. Last week we looked at the Feast of Trumpets and the beginning of the civil new year on the Hebrew calendar and the Ten Days of Awe which is a time of self-examination and repentance leading to the Day of Atonement a day of fasting (ended at 6:00 p.m. yesterday) and letting go of attitudes and actions that are contrary to the will of God and separates us from the fellowship and abundant life Jesus came to give us.
The first two chapters of Genesis reveals that from the beginning God created in us seven distinct needs. These needs provide continuing opportunities for His people to pursue a wholehearted and intimate relationship with Him as we depend on Him to meet our needs. They are: dignity, authority, blessing and provision, security, purpose and meaning, freedom and boundary, intimate love and companionship. As we seek to meet these needs within God’s framework revealed in His Word, we provide the spiritual environment for an ever-increasing conformity to the image of Christ. As we yield our self-sufficiency to Him and focus instead on a God-dependency for all our needs, we will develop spiritual eyes to see His provisions and spiritual ears to hear Him say, “This is the way. Walk in it.” (Isaiah 30: 21) When we strive to meet these needs in a way that seems right to our mind, will and emotions but is not, in fact, God’s way, we will develop strongholds in our lives. Paul reminds us in Phil. 4: 19 that God will meet all our needs according to His glorious riches in Christ Jesus.
Our life is a pilgrimage—a journey during which changing circumstances force us to adapt. Our ability to make those adaptations in the power of the Holy Spirit will determine the level of joy and peace we find in our relationship with God and with others. Our victory of walking in the fullness of Christ will not be achieved until we meet the needs God has created in us, in the manner that He prescribes. On the Day of Atonement, the high priest would enter into the Holy of Holies to make atonement for the people. He would strip himself of all his priestly garments and would come into the presence of God in a simple white garment. Each of us who knows Jesus as Savior belongs to a royal priesthood. We are called to enter the presence of God—but in order to do that, we need to strip ourselves—strip ourselves of our pride, our egos, our worries, our concerns and our strongholds. We must come humbly into the presence of God in the simplest way—as a little child. I believe that God is calling us to unload from the past; the baggage of sin, the baggage of old wounds, of our failures, of our regrets, of our addictions, of our idols (anything that takes our focus and reliance off of God) and our old identity. Believing that “This is just the way I am” is a cop-out and denial of sin.
I believe God is calling us during this season of His feasts to let the old go and draw near to Him and get our spiritual house in order. Let’s look at some scriptures that help us to put off the old and start afresh with Him. In 2 Corinthians 10: 1-6 Paul instructs us how to tear down strongholds: “For the weapons of our warfare are not fleshly but powerful through God for the tearing down of strongholds. We are tearing down false arguments and every high-minded thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God. We are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ—ready to punish all disobedience.” Paul presents the dilemma that we face each day in Romans 7: 15, 17, 24-25: “For I do not understand what I am doing—for what I do not want, this I practice; but what I hate, this I do…So now it is no longer I doing it, but sin dwelling in me—that is, in my flesh. For to will is present in me, but to do the good is not…Miserable man that I am! Who will rescue me from this body of death? Thanks be to God—it is through Christ Jesus our Lord!”
The Bible tells us that we are comprised of body, soul, and spirit: “May God, Himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (1 Thess. 5: 23) The battlefield for believers exists in our soul—our mind, will and emotions. It is here that we face our daily decisions of Spirit-controlled living or sin-influenced living. (Romans 8: 5-7) The decisions we make to give in to temptation open up a foothold for demonic influence. Our weapons of warfare in this daily struggle to choose righteousness rather than succumb to temptation are indeed “mighty through God to the putting down of strongholds.” In the spiritual realm there is a tremendous battle going on for the souls of men. In effect, it is a battle of God versus Satan. Its outcome will determine whether the truth of Jesus and His Lordship will reign or the deception of Satan will triumph. This is why we must put the whole armor of God on daily. (Eph. 6: 10-18)
The term “stronghold” appears at least fifty times in the Bible, commonly referring to a fortress with difficult access or a castle or fortress used as a safe place during war. The Lord is building His Church, and the “gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” (Mt. 16:18) As believers in Christ, we need to make the Lord our stronghold, and He is our safe place and refuge (Psalm 27:1, Psalm 18:2-3, Psalm 94:22). Throughout the Old Testament, God speaks through the prophets about how He will destroy enemy strongholds (Amos 1: 7, 10, 12; Hosea 8:14). The “stronghold” of evil refers to entrenched supernatural forces, and we need to engage in spiritual warfare to combat this foe. Even though we will experience resistance when we begin destroying spiritual strongholds, we can remain confident that in doing this we are being used by the Lord to build His Church, and He will not allow Satan to triumph in the end (Mt. 16:18). Jesus has already won the war. Psalm 144: 1-2 says: “Blessed by the LORD, my rock, who trains my hands for war, and my fingers for battle; He is my steadfast love and my fortress, my stronghold and my deliverer, my shield and He in whom I take refuge, who subdues peoples under me.”
God gives us a choice in every decision we make whether we will choose to be influenced by God and His Word and Spirit or yield to the influence of Satan, the world and the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye and the pride of life. Satan’s influence in our lives is often hidden, controlled through strongholds in our soul. The spirits of darkness have been given permission by our sinful decisions to take up residence within those areas of our soul not yielded fully to Christ. That stronghold is a demonic fortress of thoughts housing evil spirits that (1) control, dictate, and influence our attitudes and behavior; (2) oppress and discourage us; (3) filter and color how we view or react to situations, circumstances or people. As we entertain thoughts and participate in activities that are contrary to the will of God, we open ourselves up to Satan’s snare. When these thoughts and activities become habitual, we allow a spiritual fortification to be built around that spirit and its influence. They cause us to misperceive situations to the detriment of our relationships with others. We develop wrong conclusions to other people’s actions toward us. Many of our incorrect beliefs and attitudes have been learned through our environment, family circumstances, life and relationship experiences and educational influences. Knowledge acquired from secular sources that disagree with biblical truth lodges doubt and unbelief into our spiritual perspective. All our thoughts can be traced back to beliefs based either on the truth of Scripture or on Satan’s lies. God’s word is truth and powerful and demolishes strongholds! We are to put on the whole armor of God each day in order to stand against the wiles of the devil.
The question that we must ask ourselves this day is “who or what is influencing our mind, will and emotions”? Influencers affect a person, thing or course of events—i.e. the pervasive influence of TV, movies, Internet, social media and news and even AI. Influencers can be people whether good or bad that have power to sway or affect our thinking. God delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the Kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood the forgiveness of sins. (Col. 1: 13-14) However, the old person is still conditioned to listen to the old taskmasters of darkness. In the physical world the term “under the influence” can lead to serious problems. Likewise, in the spiritual world the term “under the influence” can have devastating effects. Our work is to let the old nature go—putting it off and allow God’s Spirit within us in be our Influencer and Stronghold! Peter commands us in 1 Peter 5:8 to be sober and vigilant—to be free from every form of mental and spiritual influence that would be enemies of our soul. We must do as Paul instructs—destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ. (2 Cor. 10: 3-5)