Book Review: Praying God’s Word

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Deception is the glue that holds every stronghold together.” Beth Moore, Praying God’s Word: Breaking Free From Spiritual Strongholds

 

Several months ago, I saw a tweet that said that several Beth Moore books were available for free on Kindle.  I immediately went to the Amazon website and downloaded all of the free Beth Moore books.  Over the years, I have done a few of her studies.  I even remember one about 12 years ago before the internet was so readily available…where I had to log in once a week with a piece of blue string on my wrist as I claimed something related to studying God’s Word to keep me free from the strongholds of this world.  I felt silly tying on that blue string, but the point was to see other women out and about and know that you were in this journey together.  Beth Moore is known for her teaching and writing that is saturated with Scripture.  What an awesome thing to be known for!

One of the first Beth Moore free Kindle downloads I started on was Praying God’s Word: Breaking Free From Spiritual Strongholds.  I love the way this book is organized!  I actually took several weeks to read it so that I could really digest the information.  Beth Moore divided the book into chapters based on several spiritual strongholds that many believers struggle with.  She used the first part of the chapter to talk about the stronghold itself, then she shared testimonies from others who have shared that struggle, and then the last part of each chapter was made up of prayers based on Scripture regarding the stronghold.  This book is an awesome resource to share with someone that is struggling with any or many of these strongholds.  I know it will be a “go to” resource for me to keep my focus on the Lord as well as to be an encouragement to others.

I highlighted several things while reading and have posted my notes below…

  • The key to freedom from strongholds is found, not surprisingly, in 2 Corinthians 10:3–5. Read the words carefully: For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.
  • A stronghold is anything that exalts itself in our minds, “pretending” to be bigger or more powerful than our God. It steals much of our focus and causes us to feel overpowered. Controlled. Mastered.
  • In any warfare waged by the enemy against the individual believer, the primary battlefield is the mind. The goal of our warfare as stated in 2 Corinthians 10:5 is to steal back our thought life and take it captive to Christ instead. The enemy’s chief target is the mind because the most effective way to influence behavior is to influence thinking.
  • The sword of the Spirit, clearly identified as the Word of God, is the only offensive weapon listed in the whole armor of God.
  • The two major weapons with divine power in our warfare are the Word of God and Spirit-empowered prayer.
  • God has handed us two sticks of dynamite with which to demolish our strongholds: His Word and prayer.
  • Prayer keeps us in constant communion with God, which is the goal of our entire believing lives.
  • The fastest way to lose our balance in warfare is to rebuke the devil more than we relate to God.
  • We take our thoughts captive, making them obedient to Christ, every time we choose to think Christ’s thoughts about any situation or stronghold instead of Satan’s or our own.
  • In praying Scripture, I not only find myself in intimate communication with God, but my mind is being retrained, or renewed (Rom. 12:2), to think His thoughts about my situation rather than mine.
  • Galatians 5:1 says, “It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.”
  • Based on my understanding of Scripture, anything that steals, kills, or destroys the abundant, fruitful life of a believer can be considered a stronghold of the enemy.
  • Renewing the mind means learning to think new thoughts.
  • Virtually every stronghold involves the worship of some kind of idol.
  • As long as our minds rehearse the strength of our stronghold more than the strength of our God, we will be impotent.
  • “where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom” (2 Cor. 3:17).
  • We may be forced to realize that our perception of God is something that we, ourselves, have conjured up and not the one true God at all.
  • Shall we call coincidence what God calls providence?
  • Why does God allow us to spend so much of life in the heart of battle? Because He never meant for us to sip His Spirit like a proper cup of tea. He meant for us to hold our sweating hands over the fountain and lap up His life with unquenchable thirst.
  • I am convinced that God would rather hear our honest pleas for more of what we lack than a host of pious platitudes from an unbelieving heart.
  • We act out what we believe. Not what we know. Vickie Arruda
  • Faith never denies reality but leaves room for God to grant a new reality Jim Cymbala
  • Do you see that the Lord’s promises have many fulfillments? They are waiting now to pour their treasures into the lap of those who pray. God is willing to repeat the biographies of His saints in us. He is waiting to be gracious and to load us with His benefits (Ps. 68:19 KJV). Does this not lift prayer up to a high level? Charles Spurgeon, Spurgeon on Prayer and Spiritual Warfare
  • Father God, like Timothy’s grandmother, Lois, and his mother, Eunice, help me to pass down a heritage of faith. (2 Tim. 1:5)
  • The Words of men have often exerted a wonderful and a mighty influence. But the words of God . . . they give what they speak. “He spake, and it was done.” Arthur Murray, The Holiest of All
  • Pride is the welcome mat in every figurative prison cell.
  • My name is Pride. I am a cheater. I cheat you of your God-given destiny . . . because you demand your own way. I cheat you of contentment . . . because you “deserve better than this.” I cheat you of knowledge . . . because you already know it all. I cheat you of healing . . . because you’re too full of me to forgive. I cheat you of holiness . . . because you refuse to admit when you’re wrong. I cheat you of vision . . . because you’d rather look in the mirror than out a window. I cheat you of genuine friendship . . . because nobody’s going to know the real you. I cheat you of love . . . because real romance demands sacrifice. I cheat you of greatness in heaven . . . because you refuse to wash another’s feet on earth. I cheat you of God’s glory . . . because I convince you to seek your own. My name is Pride. I am a cheater. You like me because you think I’m always looking out for you. Untrue. I’m looking to make a fool of you. God has so much for you, I admit, but don’t worry . . . If you stick with me You’ll never know.
  • Pride is the deification of self. Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest
  • Deception is the glue that holds every stronghold together.
  • We begin to recognize lies when we know the Truth.
  • My all-powerful God, enable me to stand firm, with the belt of truth buckled around my waist and with the breastplate of righteousness in place. (Eph. 6:14) Help me to understand that without the girding of truth, I am defenseless against the devil. Truth is my main defense against the father of lies.
  • God’s faithfulness cannot be fathomed by comparing Him to the noblest of men. God is not a man. He does not simply resist ignoble tendencies. He lacks them altogether. You can take Him at His Word.
  • The following words by Oswald Chambers are not only written in the front of my Bible, they are engraved deeply in my mind: “No love of the natural heart is safe unless the human heart has been satisfied by God first.”
  • Jesus Christ, my Kinsman Redeemer and my Bridegroom, Your banner over me is love! (Song of Songs 2:4)
  • O Lord, You are good and Your love endures forever; Your faithfulness continues through all generations. (Ps. 100:5)
  • Although it seems safe and logical to be in charge of your life, being in charge becomes a heavy, lonely responsibility. Your Father graciously offers to take your life, protect you, strengthen you, and comfort you on your journey. You need not fear relinquishment, for it leads to freedom, security, and the real you. Cynthia Heald, A Woman’s Journey to the Heart of God
  • For the sake of Your great name, Lord, You will not reject Your people, because You, Lord, were pleased to make me Your own. (1 Sam. 12:22) Praise Your wonderful name!
  • My faithful God who is the same yesterday, today, and forever (Heb. 13:8), be to me what You were to Abram: my shield and my very great reward. (Gen. 15:1)
  • You, Mighty Defender, defend the cause of the fatherless and the widow, and love the alien, giving him food and clothing. (Deut. 10:18)
  • You will not take Your love from me. You will never betray Your own faithfulness, O Lord. You will not violate Your covenant or alter what Your lips have uttered. (Ps. 89:33–34)
  • Addiction is a yoke that convinces us we must wear it to survive.
  • I confess to You that I am overwhelmed by the task ahead, but I am thankful that You have authority over all things. Heaven is Your throne and earth is Your footstool (Matt. 5:35); therefore, anything over my head is under Your feet!
  • Lord, You have said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. (2 Cor. 12:9)
  • When Your words come to me, help me to eat them; make them my joy and my heart’s delight, for I bear Your name, O Lord God Almighty. (Jer. 15:16) Increase my appetite for Your Word, my Sufficiency!
  • In a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize. Lord, help me to run in such a way as to get the prize. (1 Cor. 9:24)
  • Never in all of Scripture does Christ resist the repentant sinner. He resisted the proud and the self-righteous religious but never the humble and repentant. Indeed, forgiveness is why He came.
  • God, thank You for disciplining me for my good, that I may share in Your holiness. (Heb. 12:10)
  • Lord Jesus, help me to accept and internalize that if God is for me, who can be against me? (Rom. 8:31) It is You, God, who justifies. (Rom. 8:33) Who is he that condemns? Christ Jesus, who died—more than that, who was raised to life—is at Your right hand, O God, and is also interceding for me. (Rom. 8:34)
  • Physical existence is not what Christ died to bring us. He came that we might have life and have it more abundantly. As impossible and unreachable as this truth may seem, God can restore abundant life. For our present purposes, we’ll define a stronghold after loss as the continued unwillingness or presumed inability to let Him do so.
  • Merciful and faithful Lord, because of Your great love I am not consumed, for Your compassions never fail. They are new every morning; great is Your faithfulness. I say to myself, “The LORD is my portion; therefore I will wait for him.” Lord, You are good to those whose hope is in You, to the one who seeks You. (Lam. 3:22–25)
  • A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, are You, God, in Your holy dwelling. (Ps. 68:5)
  • Lord, because You are my help, I sing in the shadow of Your wings. My soul clings to You; Your right hand upholds me. (Ps. 63:7–8)
  • You say to me, Lord, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Your power may rest on me. (2 Cor. 12:9)
  • God, for now I know in part and I prophesy in part, but when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears. When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. I now desire to put my childish ways behind me. Now I see but a poor reflection as in a mirror; then I will see face-to-face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, Lord, even as I am fully known. And now these three remain: faith, hope, and love. But the greatest of these is love. (1 Cor. 13:9–13) Faith lives in all the places I wait to know fully.
  • Forgiveness is the ongoing act by which we agree with God over the matter, practice the mercy He’s extended to us, and surrender the situation, the repercussions, and the hurtful person to Him.
  • Your ways are not my ways, Lord God. As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are Your ways higher than mine. (Isa. 55:8–9) I may not always understand Your ways, Lord, but they are always prosperous. (Ps. 10:5) Your ways are always righteous. (Ps. 145:17) Your ways, O God, are holy. (Ps. 77:13) Your ways are loving and faithful. (Ps. 25:10) I have considered my ways, Lord. (Ps. 119:59) I choose Yours instead. Keep me from deceitful ways. (Ps. 119:29) Lord God, help me to walk in Your ways. (Ps. 119:3)
  • I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that You, Lord, are able to guard what I have entrusted to You. (2 Tim. 1:12) I entrust this situation to You, Lord.
  • O Father, please cause the love of Christ to compel me to do what is right in this challenging situation. (2 Cor. 5:14)
  • Lord God, I am hard pressed on every side, but I don’t have to be crushed; I am perplexed, but I do not have to be in despair. (2 Cor. 4:8)
  • Help me, Lord, to hold unswervingly to the hope I profess, for You who promised are faithful. (Heb. 10:23)
  • I write this with all reverence: God Himself cannot deliver a person who is not in trouble. Therefore, it is to some advantage to be in distress, because God can then deliver you. Even Jesus Christ, the Healer of me, cannot heal a person who is not sick. Therefore, sickness is not an adversity for us, but rather an advantageous opportunity for Christ to heal us. The point is, my reader, your adversity may prove your advantage by offering occasion for the display of divine grace. Charles Spurgeon, Spurgeon on Prayer and Spiritual Warfare
  • You see, we don’t become a major threat until we begin to walk relentlessly in truth.
  • A genuine walk in truth is a walk of glorious liberty!
  • The Bible has much to say about fighting the good fight of faith and becoming well-trained soldiers . . . but it also has far more to say about the pure pursuit of God, His righteousness, and His plan for us. I believe a wise conclusion to draw from the emphases in the Word of God is: give much time and thought to becoming well-equipped victors in the battle that rages, but give more time to the pursuit of the heart of God and all things concerning Him. Much about warfare. More about God Himself.
  • Satan dines on what we withhold from God. Francis Frangipane, The Three Battlefields
  • I trust in You, Lord, so I’ll let You rescue me. Teach me to delight in You and deliver me, O God. (Ps. 22:8)

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