Here's Pastor Alan Wright with today's blessing, a biblical faith-filled vision for your life. In Christ, You're an adopted child, secure. Forever. God wants you to be like Ephraim and Manasseh because Before his words of blessing, Jacob adopted those grandsons. He treated them as his own.
like one of his twelve sons, who became the twelve tribes who inherited the promised land.
So you're not God's grandchild, not a generation removed, not nearly an heir or almost an heir, but you're fully an heir, a co-heir. of Christ. And as the Roman law dictated in Jesus' day, once adopted, you cannot be unadopted.
So. If you're in Christ, you're His for good. You belong to God, so fear less and less. and less until you become fearless. and totally secure.
in the adopting love Of God. Pastor, author, and Bible teacher Alan Wright. We form beliefs. In responses, So stuff that happens. And as soon as we form a belief that's not true.
then the whole wall could start getting built. That's Pastor Alan Wright. Welcome to another message of good news that will help you see your life in a whole new light. I am Daniel Britton. Excited for you to hear the teaching today in our series, Empowered, as presented at Renolda Church in North Carolina.
Um If you're not able to stay with us throughout the entire program, I want to make sure you know how to get our special resource right now. As you listen to today's message, go deeper as we send you today's special offer. Contact us at pastorallen.org. That's pastorallen.org. or call 877-544-4860.
More on this later in the program. But now let's get started with today's teaching. Here is Pastor Alan Wright. People of God, are you ready for some good news? You're not stuck.
I mean, you know, life sometimes it can feel like I'm just stuck in these same old sins, I'm stuck in these same old thought patterns, I'm these same old temptations, same old habits, same old. You are not stuck. There is divine power, Paul said. to demolish strongholds. There is divine power.
to change everything in our lives. You hear me talk about Uncle Stanley a lot. He's been in heaven for years now. And Stanley was one time trying to help his neighbor, a little boy, who was really afraid. of a dog that lived nearby named Lucky.
He wanted to help him. Stan is a pastor, and he's used to helping people. He wanted to help this little boy. He said, Lucky is a good dog. He's friendly and uh The old boy said, I'm afraid of lucky.
And Stanley Tommy said, but he's he's He's a nice dog, and he doesn't bite. He might bite. I'm afraid of Lucky.
So finally, Stanley decided to teach him a scripture.
So he taught him to memorize a passage from Timothy: God has not given us a spirit of fear. but of love and power and self-control. and the little boy memorized it. And then Lucky barked. And the little boy got nervous.
And Stanley said, okay, what does the Bible say? And the little boy said, God has not given us a spirit Of fear, but of love and power and self-control, and I am still afraid of lucky. Like it was part of the Bible verse. I'm talking about those things where you've applied the scripture as best you know how. You've got Bible verses about it.
You've prayed about it a lot. Maybe you've had other people pray about it a lot. Maybe you've had counseling. Maybe you've read 12 books on the subject. And you're still stumbling around with these problems.
You know, the things I'm talking about that can make you feel kind of stuck. That's what I want to talk to you about today. Because sometimes I think the problem is not what is on the surface. but it is what the scriptures call a stronghold. that is giving a kind of hiding place to the root of the problem.
that the stronghold, in the negative sense of stronghold, is giving an opportunity. To The enemy of your soul. to the powers of hell. To Bring about the very negative kind of voices and temptations that are leading to that whole chronic issue in your life. And nobody's immune from this, and Christians are certainly not immune from it.
In fact, as I'll show you today, I mean, you could love Jesus a lot and really want to have improvement in a certain way and not be finding it. And the issue could be. because of a stronghold. In ancient times, Before there were things like airplanes that could drop weapons and stuff down on you. The whole strategic advantage was to those who had an elevated location.
with a really strong wall. Where there is a fortress like that, on an elevated location, a really strong wall. then whoever's behind the wall has got a major advantage. Weapons that are fired against that wall bounce off the wall. Arrows, just think about that.
This is an image for you today: like arrows going up against a strong wall and just impotently bouncing back. And the people that are trying to No. attack that strong what it don't really know what's behind the wall. You can't see behind you don't know how many troops are behind that wall You don't know what plans are being devised behind that wall. you're at a major, major disadvantage.
If you're the one who's having to try to get at an enemy who's behind a strong tower. And this image Paul is using here. In Second Corinthians chapter 10 to describe. a kind of structure of the soul.
So it's figurative. What he's talking about is symbolic. But he's using this image of a stronghold. to talk about some kind of strategy of hell. to get behind these sort of fortresses.
For strategic advantage, Against The people of God. And so what we're talking about today is Paul's assurance that in Christ And in the gospel, There is divine power. to demolish those fortresses to demolish strongholds. We have a series called Empowered, and I just feel like this is a really important text, this verse. Because I spend so much of my life A, wanting to grow myself, but also wanting to help others grow.
And I've spent so much time with people who would really like to grow. but often find themselves at these kind of impasses. And I have found that often If we could identify in our lives what the stronghold is and let the gospel be applied to it, it's one of the most powerful things that could ever happen in your life.
So much so that Paul says this is divine power. Any place in the Bible where it says that we as Christians have a tool or weapon that is the actual divine power of God, we should really pay attention to that. Right? Like, this is something. Take advantage of this in your life.
So, what is this divine power? How does it? demolish a stronghold. And that's what I want to talk to you about.
Now, as we start with this, It requires that we be clear what we're talking about when we talk about. kind of spiritual battle and the confrontation of evil. You've probably noticed if you've been part of an older for long, I don't talk about the devil or demons or hell hardly at all. But it's not because that's not real or the spiritual battle's not important. It's mainly like, I want to talk about the gospel, I want to talk about Jesus, and I don't want to give the devil airtime, right?
But But we need to be clear about this. I was reading this past week about. 70% of Americans believe that angels are real, that there's some kind of invisible and supernatural. uh creatures called angels. And about 50% of Americans believe that demons are real.
Which I was actually kind of surprised there was even 50%. I mean, I know people like to go to the scary movies about it and stuff, but I don't know if they really, how many, but way more people believe in angels. Then they do demons, partly because we'd like to not think about the bad. supernatural things. Unless you're gonna go to a scary movie about it, which I don't understand why anybody want to do it.
I was reading this week, A Man Left Chicago for Vacation in Key West. His wife was on a business trip. I plan to fly down and meet him the next day. And when the man arrived in Florida, he emailed his wife to let her know he'd arrive, but he mistyped her address.
So his message went to the inbox of a woman whose husband had just passed away. And when the grieving widow opened her email, she read the message, she screamed, and then she fainted. The woman's daughter rushed into the room, found this note on the computer screen. It read: My darling wife, just checked in. Yeah.
Okay. And then it said, everything is prepared for your arrival tomorrow. And then it said, looking forward to being with you again. Your loving husband. But it was the PS that really got her.
It said, PS, it sure is hot down here. I don't know. Yeah.
We like to make jokes about hell, partly because who wants to think about it, you know?
So we'd like to kind of joke about it like it's not real. And we kind of do the same thing with the devil and draw cartoons of a little guy with horns and the pitchfork and all of that. But simply put, As the Bible describes it, demons are creatures, just like angels are creatures.
So God made. Us in his own image, but he also made these creatures called angels that have obviously different kind of body, and they're what you'd call supernatural. And That there was a rebellion against God, and that those angels that were permanently. uh cast out of heaven and Now exist in a realm that is anti-Christ, anti-God. and anti-love.
So if if being if being a Christian Is being someone who is attached to God. then the exact opposite would be permanently being unattached to God. And so those supernatural creatures that were uh that they're angels, they're essentially just an They are angels that have nothing but hate. And The leader of This is the way the Bible describes the leader of all of hell is a lead demon, really, who is called Satan or the devil. Satan means accuser.
And it is pointing to the principal work of hell to accuse you. and deceive you. And often you could just think of it simply like this, like it's darkness and it's light. But remember light is altogether different than darkness. Light.
is a source. of endless energy. Darkness is the absence of light. Mm-hmm.
So people say, well, how powerful are demons and how powerful is the devil? Hate has a Terrible power to it. And so I would say, well, yes, there is a power, but it's not like the power of light. Light always wins over darkness, right?
So you take, go in a pitch-dark room and light a small candle, and even the smallest flickering candle will dispel darkness. Even a small light. will dispel darkness. I remember some years ago thinking about, but there's no such way that you could Radiate or shine a beam of darkness into a bright room and make it less bright. They're different things, right?
Darkness is the absence of light where the light has been blocked, but the light is always going to win.
So Think of this: God is the creator of the ends of the earth, and there's one creator, God. And so everything else is a creature, and the Creator has absolute sovereign control over everything else.
So, great big God and little bitty devil, in that sense.
So, always keep that in mind. Secondly, There's Christians. is really clear in the New Testament. Christians who have been joined together with Christ are given in Christ a new kind of seat. That you're seated, I'm talking about now in a mystical sense with Christ.
So that the position that should have been his own just for his authority. Has now already, even though he's going to come again, it's already been shared with Christians. such that in that sense you have authority. Over The darkness. You have the light of Christ in you.
The Bible says, greater is he that's in you than he that's in the world. And so, wherever the light of Jesus shines, darkness gets dispelled. And so for Christians, there is to be utmost confidence. that even if you were to Confront. Directly a demon, you are the one in the authoritative position.
So this is just an overview of what the Christian picture of this looks like. And what we're talking about today was strongholds. Is we're not talking the stronghold, is not a demon, the stronghold is. What The demonic voices, temptations, or even direct demonic spirits would want to. Have in our lives in order to have a place of strategic advantage.
to ruin our lives. That's what it is. That's what a stronghold is. And I want to talk to you about this because of My experience is that, again, light dispels darkness, but strongholds keep something in the dark. And if you can get the stronghold down.
Then you now have the strategic advantage as a Christian. Let's look at the context of this passage in verse 1. Paul says, I, Paul, myself, entreat you by the meekness and gentleness of Christ. I who am humble when face to face with you, but bold towards you when I am away. He said this because some people were accusing Paul of being too weak to be a major apostle.
The whole of that Corinthian culture embraced leaders who could use a lot of force and look really impressive, you know, a commanding presence, flashy. And Paul wasn't like that. They said of him, Your letters are bold and big, but then you in person are not that impressive. That's what they were saying of him. And I think partly was because Paul was probably not a physically impressive person, but he also.
He didn't come across as physically impressive because that wasn't the nature of his ministry. Remember, all the things he said was like, I'll boast of my weaknesses. He didn't want. to try to convince people because of his own impressive demeanor. or eloquence or force.
He was deliberately putting Christ on display.
So Paul himself They were kind of saying, You're kind of like the Wizard of Oz. You just seem so big, but then we met you and we were, you know, you're not that impressive. And and And what he's wanting to say is here, please don't make me show you how impressive I can be. Look at verse 2. I beg of you that when I'm present, I mean, I have to show boldness with such confidence as I count on showing against some.
who suspect us of walking according to the flesh. He's just setting the stage here for the discussion he's getting ready to have. When he talks about the flesh. When he talks about the flesh, There are really two ways that the New Testament talks about the flesh, and one is just saying in the natural realm versus the spiritual realm. But another way to understand the flesh is that the flesh is the human effort and human will and human power of trying to do.
What really Is only possible through God. Pastor Alan Wright, our good news message: power to destroy strongholds. It's in today's teaching, the series, Empowered. I encourage you to stay with us. Pastor Alan is back here in the studio to share his parting good news thought for the day in just a moment.
Alan Wright Ministries is more than just a daily radio broadcast. Here are Daniel and Pastor Alan explaining another layer. You know, Pastor Alan, through this radio ministry, it's often been said that this is a friend, a friend in time of need. It's a friendly voice. It's that encouragement I needed to hear, and the Lord used this ministry.
Well, how about your email inbox? Do you think there's ministry there? The daily blessing is such an encouragement. The daily blessing is a positive vision. It's rooted in scripture, so it's full of truth.
And it's something that I believe God leads me into and inspires. And you receive it in your inbox, and you can read it. There's also a video of me presenting it, and you can just take it in. It becomes something that I think gives strength for the day and helps root you in God's idea about you. The world's got all of its negative messages.
And Daniel, we need to fill ourselves with God's truth and God's plan. And blessing is in the Bible. A mystical kind of power, really, a thread that weaves together so much of the whole narrative of scripture. And it's much neglected. It's right alongside of prayer in its terms of its importance.
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Again, that's pastorallen.org. Back here now to share Pastor Alan's parting good news thought for the day. This teaching is power. The power to destroy strongholds, Pastor Alan. What's your word for today?
Daniel, understanding strongholds is very, very important and understanding where the power is and what kind of power we're talking about that destroys. Paul says in Second Corinthians 10:5, we destroy arguments. and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to Christ.
So a stronghold is an argument, not in a sense of like, oh, we're arguing over something, but it is like We mean in a debate. Right. Where I'm arguing point A. And I would say because of point A, then B, and then C. meaning it's an organized or structured way of thinking.
It is an opinion that has become lofty, like, so I think this is the right way.
So what we mean by stronghold is we'll be learning is, and one writer has said, is like a house of thoughts. It's not just about some foothold that the enemy has in our life. It is that, but it's a whole way of thinking that has to get dismantled. by God's way of thinking. Yeah.
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