Chuck Pierce is a man of God who hears God’s voice and is full of His Word. This study is excellent and the 7 day prayer focus will help implement it in our lives.
Be blessed as you seek to be more like Jesus.
Julie
“Tear Down Strongholds and Grab Hold of Your Portion!”
by Chuck Pierce Mar 3, 2009
Changing our mind and realigning our thoughts is a process we go through! The Lord is doing so much with all of us during this season. I believe that His main goal is to have us understand His mind as we enter the next level of promise in the land that He has given each of us to possess. You have an inheritance. This is the portion that is linked with your destiny and promise.
Unlock the Creative Genius Hidden in You!
I loved this month’s Issachar Course on “Unlocking Your Creative Power in Time and Space!” I think we have not understood the word genius. Therefore, we limit this category to those with an exceptionally high I.Q. Intelligence is not just linked with a person who has a high I.Q. Our environment and genes play an important part of what makes us think and act. Generational iniquity can rob a person of their ability to think and act efficiently and effectively.
Intelligence is developed in someone who is willing to overcome the spirit of fear and insecurity and break new ground. This type of adventurist will produce an uncovering of what has been hidden. This results in discoveries, witty inventions, and magnificent and new artistic displays. This type of creativity changes the way people view the world, field, or sphere where they are working.
Someone with genius capacity will use their intelligence in a productive or impressive way. Their brain is functioning and agile. They do not overlook information or stimuli that others consider irrelevant.
In “NEW THINKING FOR A NEW SEASON!”, Sharon King, NP-C (Nurse Practitioner – Certified), writes the following: “The brain is the machinery of the mind and these are clearly the days we need our brains regenerated to accommodate new ways of thinking, feeling and doing.
We have a saying in Neurology, ‘Cells that fire together, wire together.’ This statement means that our experience literally wires our brain. If two neurons (brain cells) are connected and are electrically active at the same time, the connection between them gets stronger. But if they are not electrically active together, then those connection points called synapses are pruned or lost. To think in a new way, we need to have new electrical pathways formed in our brains; old ones cannot be remolded!
This is the new wine in an old wineskin scenario that Jesus talks about in Matthew 9. We need to activate new firing to get new wiring in our brain connections!”
The Stronghold Religious strongholds form and have authority to work within our thinking processes when we refuse to connect our thoughts properly. Jesus told us that you cannot patch an old quilt with new material and you cannot pour new revelation into an old structure.
In approaching the “new” we must dismantle the old. Our old thought processes must be dismantled very precisely, and new ways of thinking must be built. New connecting ideas of time, season, action, and methods must align in our thinking process. This entails the tearing down of strongholds that resist our sphere and field from coming into and producing a new crop.
I write about this in The Future War of the Church and Interpreting the Times. When a new thought has a hard time connecting with your existing stored thought structure and then creatively developing a new way of doing things, you most likely have a stronghold. A stronghold is a thought process that is resistant to the will of God. This thought process gets impregnated by a demonic force and causes you to resist aligning your mind with the mind of Christ.
We all process what we see and feel from using our senses, but we do not all process information or revelation the same way. If you are not careful, you can reject someone because they see things from a different perspective than you. Cultures and races process information differently. Your environment influences your thoughts. Genders can process what they see and how they perceive something very differently; a man and a woman can look at the same object or seascape or mountain and describe what they see totally differently.
However, “IN HIM” we should all come up with the ultimate will of the One who created us and know Him when we see Him. How we process and grab hold of the perfect, acceptable will of God in the midst of a world filled with distractions is key to our success. How we “filter” out the distractions and choose the best is key to being successful in the future. Distractions can cloud your decision making and discernment. As we interact we can begin to tear down strongholds and develop our identity for the future.
Every Question Demands a Response
This Prayer Focus is designed for you to interact—”Doing reinforces hearing!” Let’s move by faith these next 7 days and tear down old mindsets that will hinder us in the future.
This may take you longer than 7 days. Take your time. I am giving a week to rethink things between focuses. Think differently. Watch your prayer life change as you dialogue with the Lord in a new and different way each day. When we examine the teachings and ministry of Jesus, isn’t it interesting that He, having all knowledge as the Son of God, chose to ask questions rather than just supply all the answers?
The Lord asks us questions to cause us to think differently and critically. He stirs our minds and prompts us so that we will seek His way. Our hearts and minds are being stirred to ask a question similar to what was echoed in Matthew 16: “Who do you say that I AM?” God is still demanding a response today to each question He asks and each thought we have that exalts our way of thinking above His. This is what makes God so real.
The Lord has never ceased interacting with His people. What He desires is a people who are willing to gather His thoughts, assess His ways, and then align with His strategies. That is the essence of critical thinking for the astute Believer: aligning with God’s thoughts. To dismantle a stronghold we must go through the process of realigning the way we think. There are steps each of us can take.
Following are a few keys to sharpen your mind, develop critical thinking skills and capture your thoughts:
Define your problem and clarify your real concern. What is your bottom line issue? Evaluate all information you have about how you got into the mode of thinking that seems to have captured your freedom.
Get some help to pinpoint the missing pieces that keep you from thinking in full complete thoughts. You can notice this from your communication if you half way complete sentences or you do not fully think through a problem.
Define your traps. Ask the Spirit of God to reveal your biases.
Clarify your position and authority.
Identify root causes of the problem you are addressing. Determine what point of view you are using in your analysis.
Be willing to shift your perspective at any time. Ask yourself, “Am I limiting my thought processes to only what I know?” Limited thought processes are synonymous with self-righteousness.
Identify anything that you are taking for granted in your analysis. Do not allow your assumptions to cause you to look foolish.
Check to make sure you are not making intellectual judgments based upon partial truths. Ask yourself, “Have I simplified things to the point that I’m missing out on a major component?”
Avoid being biased or prejudiced in the way you receive, perceive and release information.
Be willing to repent and change your mind. Ask forgiveness where appropriate.
Be cleansed. Receive grace and ask for your mind to healed.
Next 7 Day Prayer Focus: Includes Prophetic Word of the Lord
Day 1: Read and memorize 2 Corinthians 10:3-6. “For although we do live in the world, we do not wage war in a worldly way, because the weapons we use to wage war are not worldly. On the contrary, they have God’s power for demolishing strongholds. We demolish arguments and every arrogance that raises itself up against the knowledge of God; we take every thought captive and make it obey the Messiah. And when you have become completely obedient, then we will be ready to punish every act of disobedience.” (Complete Jewish Bible) Ask this question: Am I exalting my thoughts in an area above the Word of God? Am I being arrogant in an area? Are my prideful insecurities keeping me from gaining the revelation and counsel I need for a new dimension of freedom?
Day 2: Embrace and war with prophetic words! Memorize 1 Timothy 1:18-19. “Here are my instructions for you, based on the prophetic words spoken about you earlier. May they help you fight well in the Lord’s battles. Cling to your faith in Christ, and keep your conscience clear. For some people have deliberately violated their consciences; as a result, their faith has been shipwrecked.” (New Living Translation. Also read Exodus 23.) Prophetic revelation is used to produce a “now” thinking process in God’s children. Prophetic revelation and illumination will never contradict the principles of the canonized Word. But revelation from God’s heart, spoken today, gives us the ability to defeat the enemies of this world in this age. While you are reading the prophetic word below, ask yourself the following questions: “How does this word apply to my situation? How am I being deprived? Are my hands prospering? Am I addressing my enemy? Do I recognize the angelic assistance around me?”
Word of the Lord: “Do not lean on your own understanding concerning the promise that you are contending for and the conflict that rages around you. I am producing the law of the spoil within you that will cause you to govern the field that I’ve given you. Watch with Me! I have put many treasures in your safe keeping for this next season. You will have to learn to watch in a new way to secure those treasures. Allow Me to reorder your prayers that will reorder your steps that will form a new path for you to walk on. There are treasures on this path that will fill your treasure box for seasons to come. “This is a time for you to say, ‘I will govern the spoil that God has given me!’ Stretch out your hands before Me and I will show you what I would have your hands grasp. Many resources are around you that you are not seeing. I will show you how to put your hand on the resource that will multiply and cause you to secure your future. For some of you, this will be like a knob. For others it will be levers. For others it will be a pin. For others it will be a key. Watch until you see the point and moment to grasp what I have for you. “In this shaking season, I will cause you to shake so the unbelief that has entered you will shake loose and you will be detoxed. This will be a divine detoxing season. Many of you will find your diet rearranged. Many of you will find your thoughts have actually agreed with the enemy’s plan. I will detox you from critical, murmuring spirits of unbelief. “I am giving you angelic assistance. I am sending those that you have not known to walk with you. I am sending you help, to help you; to keep you moving; to cause you to be reordered; to cause you to recover; to cause you to come in. This is the beginning of the divine reordering and recovery. “Watch! Watch! For the enemy has planned to overtake you, but I am trumping his hand. Watch, watch, watch with Me. This is the time that you will take your new stand. I will show you! For the season changes today. I will cause My people to get past the blockades that have been in their way. So watch, watch with Me and you will see where to take your stand in this season ahead. Watch, for angels are coming in to cause you to have the strength to rise up and say, ‘Give me that field! It is what God has assigned to me!’”
Day 3: Read Romans 6 and memorize verse 14. “For sin shall not have dominion over you, for you are not under law but under grace.” (New King James Version) Is there an area in your life that has dominion or rulership over you? This is how you detect a stronghold. The thought process linked with this stronghold must be detected and dismantled. Be aware that this may be an emotion that has been wounded and what you are doing or “acting out” is an attempt to mask the real emotional hurt. Ask the Lord for the grace to overcome! Now read Romans 7.
Day 4: Read Romans 8. Know that you can triumph over the condemning cycle of thought that tries to overrule your victory. Memorize verses 6-8. “For to be carnally minded is death! But to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.” (New King James Version)
Day 5: You will start today with a simple thought. Capture that thought. Meditate on Isaiah 55:8. Read Psalm 94. Memorize Luke 21:19, “By your patience possess your souls” (New King James Version). “By standing firm you will gain life” (New International Version). Read Matthew 14. The Lord will teach you how to multiply in new ways! Hear Him saying, “This is your time to rise up and possess your soul. If you will possess your own soul, then I will have you possess the field. You will walk in and say, ‘This is mine. Restore it all!’ Possess that one thought and then I will rearrange and reorder everything you are doing. You have grown complex in the midst of entering in to take what I have given you. Simplify! Start with one thought and then move forward. “I will speed you into the spoil! You will find yourself picking up the spoil of the enemy. Twelve baskets later, you will say, ‘I’m taking back what has been taken! I am learning to multiply!’ Take your field first. There are gifts that you have never allowed Me to rise up and multiply.” Sound produces movement. Know that God can give you the ability to retake ground that you lost.
Day 6: Read Matthew 9:27-31. Answer the question in verse 28. Hear Jesus saying to you: “Do you believe that I am able to do this?” (Matthew 9:28, New International Version). Read Ephesians 4, 1 Corinthians 12, and Romans 12. Because of your insecurities you have said, “The gift within me is not that which it is and should be. Therefore, I will rely upon others.” Ask the Lord to show you how gifted you really are. Take a gift inventory! Be willing to pray for someone in a new way. Know that He is able to develop the gifting in you!
Day 7: Read Joshua 5-7. Stop and allow your heart to be circumcised. Reread these chapters several times. Hear the Spirit of God giving you a strategy over how to proceed into this new season ahead. Wait. Do not talk. Listen. Walk forward. Face the stronghold that would stop you from taking your promise. Circle that which belongs to you. Circle your field and circle it again. Circle it seven times. Hear the Lord saying to you: “I have given you unprecedented access to your future. You will circle your portion. You will circle that which has looked invincible and watch it fall. I will reorder your restorative plan of recovery. I will cause you to circle where the enemy’s hand has come in to reign.” Understand the concept of Ai (mentioned in Joshua). Do not try to hold on to anything that is old. Let go of what God puts His finger on! Give your victory to HIM! Jericho was a firstfruits offering. Give a firstfruits offering and label the offering “UNPRECEDENTED ACCESS!” Go forward learning to be patient, waiting for your strategies, and with a joy in your heart that you will secure the portion God has given you!
Blessings, Chuck D. Pierce Glory of Zion Ministries
ElijahList Publications 310 2nd Ave SE, Albany, OR 97321 www.elijahlist.com email: info@elijahlist.net Phone 1-541-926-3250
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