DEMOLITION AND CONSTRUCTION

Tuesday 13 May

“See, I have this day set you over the nations and over the kingdoms, To root out and to pull down, to destroy and to throw down, to build and to plant.” Jeremiah 1:10 (NKJV)

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. 2 Corinthians 10:5 (NIV)

Do you know that every believer in Christ is in the DEMOLITION and CONSTRUCTION business? Didn’t we just read the two verses above? Although You may not have thought much about it; it’s true. How? Let’s find out.

We’ll start with the word DEMOLISH.

Demolish is ‘Kathireio’ in Greek and it means to lower, to pull or take down or to destroy. Think about it in terms of a mental building and you’ll be on the right track. When there are obvious defects that have compromised the integrity of the building, it’s best to demolish those things and build something new in their place; isn’t it?

So now we’ve established this fact, what exactly are we demolishing?

A better word than ‘arguments’ here is REASONING which is written ‘imaginations’ in the KJV yet the word ‘logismos’ has more of an implied meaning to someone who is hostile to the faith in their reasonings whether they are saved or not. I hope you caught that. People can argue and imagine certain things to be a certain way based on their mindset. This is why the translators used different synonyms to explain it.

I like the way the NKJV puts the next part of the verse; ‘And Every HIGH THING that exalts itself against the knowledge of God’. The word in Greek is ‘hypsoma’. it means ‘a thing elevated, height, of space or any elevated structure i.e. barrier’, etc. Remember the location of these structures are in the mind i.e. the thoughts of a person. This is why we are told to bring every thought into subjection to Christ. How? By losing the idols built up in our minds that are contrary to what God says and does. Wrong concepts, ideologies and the like.

These are the ‘high things’ that we use the word of God to raze to the ground. Some say we use praise and worship as these weapons that are not man made and my response is; if they are full of gospel truth then yes I agree. Same goes for prayer. The common denominator must be truth which is reality.

What about CONSTRUCTION? Once we have taken a metaphorical wrecking ball to the strongholds which contained wrong thoughts, we don’t just leave it empty. Most people demolish for the sake of building not leaving the land desolate. Now begins the process of building structures or strongholds to contain the right thoughts. Your reasonings are like the building you construct which contain your thoughts.

Look at what God said through Jeremiah. One key word BUILD. Even the Lord wants to see progress and advancement in our mindset. Remember the story of Nehemiah when the walls of Jerusalem were destroyed and the Temple was rebuilt by Zerubbabel? They had a CONSTRUCTION mindset. They said to themselves. Let us rise and BUILD. For them it was literal. For us it is more in the realm of our thinking and reasoning. Out of a renewed mind or reasoning however, all the limitations that held you back will find expression in everything that concerns you. Well being, peace and prosperity etc. in your life.

We root out, pull down, destroy and throw down. Then what? Plant and BUILD. To put it in modern terminology, DEMOLISH the trash, CONSTRUCT the treasure and BUILD your mindset on godly reasoning to house godly thoughts. No wonder the Bible says, as a man thinks, so is he. So no matter who you are or what you do, in Christ you’re in the DEMOLITION and CONSTRUCTION business…Just thought you should know.

APPLICATION

Take a mental inventory of all the things you want to DEMOLISH and start taking steps towards all the things you want to CONSTRUCT that have their basis in the Word.