“But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.” (2Cor. 3:8)
When I deal with something in my life, I want to overcome it and never have to come back to it. I think most of us are the same. Recently, I was meditating before the Lord on why some victories are only partial. Why do I sometimes have to return and fight the same battles again? Take my health for example. Why must I deal with hereditary factors when I have already placed the blood of Jesus between myself and my ancestors? Even through water baptism, I have believed that the claims of the enemy on my body were removed when I identified with His death. So, why should I have to continually confess His healing promises over my body? Is it because I have not actually won the victory?
As I was meditating on this, the Lord reminded me of a prophetic experience Rick Joyner described in his book, The Torch and the Sword. With the weapons the Lord had given him, he was restoring life to spiritual movements of the past. Out of curiosity, he wondered what would happen if he used his weapons to destroy a tree of worldly knowledge. What he found out later was that because he did not plant a new tree in its place, another evil tree which was worse than the first grew in its place. “You foolishly cut down one of the trees and did not plant the torch in its place. You know very well that every time you displace the devil, or one of his strongholds, he will try to return, and if he can he will come back many times more powerful.” (p. 102).
I have for a long time understood this principle when it comes to evil spirits, but I have not normally applied it to his strongholds. There actually is a biblical basis for its application to strongholds. When the Lord promised to go with the Israelites to take possession of the promised land, He told them, “I will not drive them out from before you in one year, lest the land become desolate and the beasts of the field become too numerous for you. Little by little I will drive them out from before you, until you have increased, and you inherit the land.” (Ex. 23:29,30). Besides extending the Kingdom on the earth, the land we take possession of is our own souls (Lu. 21:19). Even though we fight the same type of battles, we continue to take on new territories. We are going deeper as we grow in maturity and become more established in revealed truth. We are being changed from glory to glory.
How we win these battles is very important. We must maintain a mercy focus. We extend the Kingdom by receiving and extending mercy. We conquer by bringing all things under subjection to Christ. He has already defeated the enemy on the cross. Our victory is in Him. As we submit an area of our live to Him, the shed blood is applied to it. The land is redeemed by mercy. Paul understood this: “Now all things are of God, who has reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and has give us the ministry of reconciliation.” (2Cor. 5:18). We must not be focused on the enemy, or our problems. What does a focus on mercy look like? You keep your eyes on the Lord, constantly aware of His great love for you. When something gets in the way of your relationship, you deal with. If it is a thought or an emotion that is not Christlike, you confess it and accept His forgiveness, and you give it to Him for transformation. If it is an interference by an evil spirit, you look to Christ within. Greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world (1Jn. 4:4). Resist the enemy, and he will flee from you. (Jas. 4:7).
If we resist this reconciliation, the enemy will strengthen his hold on our land. Overcoming will be more difficult, but God is greater than our weaknesses. We need to take time to fellowship with Him and “behold His glory”. As we rest in His presence, His love will change our desires and imparts to us the anointing which will break the yoke of the enemy (Isa. 10:27). We cannot change ourselves, it is “by the Spirit”.
When we take territory, we must inhabit it. We do this by allowing Christ to live through us. Beholding the Lord brings revelation of truth. We see who we can be, but we must take possession of this truth through obedience (1Pe. 1:22). As we redeem the land, we must put to death the old patterns and establish new ones. The Word will become flesh in us as we “receive with meekness the implanted word”, which is able to transform our soul (Jas. 1:21). It is the Word planted in us that produces fruit. Our responsibility is to provide the right soil and climate. The soil is conditioned by mercy. The climate is the light of His presence. It is not enough to experience His presence; we must abide in it. We must learn to walk in union with the Holy Spirit. “But he who is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him.” (1Cor. 6:17). He will empower us to be vessels of His grace (2Tim. 2:21). He will watch over the Word to accomplish it in us.
Our transformation is gradual. Just because there are areas of our lives that need renewing does not mean that we are not walking in victory. Our spirit man is an entirely new being in Christ. We are a spirit being with a soul in a physical body. The soul is essential for us to function in this physical body, and it must be transformed for us to live in a new resurrected body. The transformation of our soul is the working out of our salvation; it is an expansion of our territory. We have received a new life in Christ, and now we walk with Him to redeem the land (Gal. 5:25). We were made alive by the Spirit but now we must walk in the Spirit to “prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God” (Rom. 12:2).
Highway in the Wilderness 