Path to victory day by day:

We live in a body of flesh but our warfare doesn’t come from there; it comes from Christ.

Paul writes in II Corinthians 10:3-5:[3] For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh:
[4] (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)
[5] Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;

“When Paul says ‘to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man,’ how does that work?” asks Jordan. “Here’s our warfare: ‘Casting down imaginations.’

“We’re to cast down walking through that memory gallery of ours, looking at all those old pictures, imagining and remembering. We're to cast down coming up with our own ideas, our own thinking.

“When you cast something down, you throw the thing to the floor and break it. You don’t gently take it down and pack it away, putting it in the closet. You don’t make provisions for the flesh in the future.

“Anything that’s going to contradict what God’s Word says, you get rid of it, ‘bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.’

“For years I misunderstood that verse. I used to think what you needed to do was corral up all of your thinking and make your thinking obey what God says in His Word. Then it dawned on me one day that that was stupid because you couldn’t do that anyway!

“The verse says to bring every thought to the obedience OF Christ, not obedience TO Christ. It’s not about taking your thinking and saying, ‘I have to think the way God says think,’ because you know what? You won’t think that way!

“God’s grace doesn’t say, ‘Here, do this work and I’ll give you this reward.’ That’s law thinking! The reason grace doesn’t do that is grace knows you can’t do it! The law commands and you fail.

“When he says to bring every thought into the obedience OF Christ, whose obedience is the issue in the verse? Not yours; it’s His obedience. That’s where I got it backward.

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“What is the obedience of Christ? Write down Philippians 2:8: [8] And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross.

“Romans 5 says, [19] For as by one man's disobedience many were made sinners, so by the obedience of one shall many be made righteous.

“Wives love to quote the verse, ‘Husbands, love your wives, and be not bitter against them,’ and then they set up the standard where it’s, ‘Okay, if you do this, this and this, that means you’re loving me like Christ loved the church.’

“That’s not how He loved the church! He loved the church according to the will of His Father. You follow that? If you ever get that, it will blow your mind.

“Christ said, ‘No man takes my life from me; I lay it down.’ How in the world could Jesus Christ go to Calvary and be made sin and not be a sinner? Sin is a transgression of the law.

“The difference is He was made sin in obedience, not in rebellion. He loved you and me out of obedience to the will of His Father.

"In other words, He was walking by faith. When you bring your thoughts into captivity to what He has accomplished for you, not what you’re going to do but what He’s done . . .

“It’s not about, ‘I shouldn’t have these pictures in the gallery of my memory.’ It's to be, 'He’s put one up there that shines so bright I've forgotten about the others.' Our task is simply to focus on THAT ONE.

“As Paul writes in II Corinthians 3, [17] Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty.
[18] But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.

“As I behold His glory, the Spirit of God takes that glory, that shines in the face of Jesus Christ, and puts it IN me and then out THROUGH me, and THAT’S what changes me; that’s what transforms me.

“That’s being strengthened with might; that transforming power of God in your inner man by His Spirit. That’s the process; that’s the path to victory day by day and it’s the path to having your life filled with the fruits of righteousness which are by Jesus Christ unto the praise and glory of God.

“That’s the key to what we call the Christian life; Christ in you the hope of glory. Can I tell you, if the Lord tarries another year, or if He tarries only another day, let that life be your life.”