For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh:
Though living in human flesh, believers do not fight with fleshly methods, mere human force, or ordinary human means. Their weapons and power are mighty through God to break down entrenched strongholds, to throw down imaginations and every proud and high thing that lifts and exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and to bring every thought captive into obedience to Christ. That divine power is the truths of the Bible held in heart and mind and obeyed in life. It works on the mind to bring conviction step by step, overcome resistance, and subdue the will to Christ, and so convinces and converts the soul, changes the character, and comforts and lifts the heart.
It overthrows false reasonings and everything that lifts itself against knowing God and brings every thought under Christ's rule. It humbles the proud, makes the perverse gentle and repentant, and makes the disobedient obedient. It severs sinful habits and bodily desires woven into daily practice, exposes the thoughts and purposes of the heart, and makes people willing to suffer for their Lord. The Christian life is spiritual warfare, calling for earnest, careful preparation to oppose tradition, superstition, and error.
This warfare is genuine conversion of heart, mind, soul, and body, in which self dies daily, with every individual putting all the intensity of the entire being into personal religious experience in every church and institution under the working of the Holy Spirit. Only those under that working will stand amid the perils of the last days. This warfare is the faith that works by love and purifies the soul. In it self is crucified with Christ, the strongholds broken down are those of self, and those who enter it are worked, guided, molded, refined, and beautified in righteousness by the Holy Spirit.
In advancing the work of God, the weapons for obtaining the means to open new fields in regions beyond are not carnal but spiritual. Applied to the lack of means for missions, this spiritual warfare is the way to solve the perplexing problem of advancing the cause. Believers in America are to deny fancies and self-gratification, bind about supposed wants, and invest what they would spend on themselves to supply destitute missions and erect humble houses of worship for poor new believers whose souls are precious.
Though living in human flesh, believers do not fight with fleshly methods, mere human force, or ordinary human means. Their weapons and power are mighty through God to break down entrenched strongholds, to throw down imaginations and every proud and high thing that lifts and exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and to bring every thought captive into obedience to Christ. That divine power is the truths of the Bible held in heart and mind and obeyed in life. It works on the mind to bring conviction step by step, overcome resistance, and subdue the will to Christ, and so convinces and converts the soul, changes the character, and comforts and lifts the heart.
It overthrows false reasonings and everything that lifts itself against knowing God and brings every thought under Christ's rule. It humbles the proud, makes the perverse gentle and repentant, and makes the disobedient obedient. It severs sinful habits and bodily desires woven into daily practice, exposes the thoughts and purposes of the heart, and makes people willing to suffer for their Lord. The Christian life is spiritual warfare, calling for earnest, careful preparation to oppose tradition, superstition, and error.
This warfare is genuine conversion of heart, mind, soul, and body, in which self dies daily, with every individual putting all the intensity of the entire being into personal religious experience in every church and institution under the working of the Holy Spirit. Only those under that working will stand amid the perils of the last days. This warfare is the faith that works by love and purifies the soul. In it self is crucified with Christ, the strongholds broken down are those of self, and those who enter it are worked, guided, molded, refined, and beautified in righteousness by the Holy Spirit.
In advancing the work of God, the weapons for obtaining the means to open new fields in regions beyond are not carnal but spiritual. Applied to the lack of means for missions, this spiritual warfare is the way to solve the perplexing problem of advancing the cause. Believers in America are to deny fancies and self-gratification, bind about supposed wants, and invest what they would spend on themselves to supply destitute missions and erect humble houses of worship for poor new believers whose souls are precious.