more on tripwires

recently i have been pondering more on tripwires. the Lord has been showing me how they work in my life, and I believe it is a common thing. a tripwire, in the spiritual sense, can be anything that triggers an old way of thinking that used to get you and keep you in a hole of some kind, or cause a mental disturbance that set off an emotional storm. anything like that. its probably different for each person, but the same principal. like me, for example (since i know my own experience best), i saw on the cover of the 'believers voice of victory' the headline for an article called 'living the dream'. it became a tripwire for me. it set off a rash of thoughts about how i always miss out, how i always fail to achieve or obtain, how everyone else gets the prize but i miss it. it isnt a rational line of thinking, but because of a series of events earlier in life a foundation for such a belief was laid, and then later built upon because i had accepted it as my lot, it became a stronghold in my mind. after becoming a Christian, i set about to pull it down because it opposes the knowledge of God. remnants still remain, or else there could be no effective tripwires. thing about them is, you never know when, where, or in what form they are going to be. you know them when you hit one. avoiding them is impossible. dismantling the traps they set off, by casting out imaginations and renewing the mind, is the only way to render them useless. what effect is a tripwire if there is nothing for them to set off? its nothing but silly string then.
so, identifying the tripwires is not important. dealing with the thoughts they trigger is. if something gets triggered, and it brings despair or causes you to feel downcast, identify the belief that is the basis for those thoughts, and see if they match what the Word of God says about you. then start casting out the old belief and replacing it with the Word of God, which is living and active and able to discern between bone and marrow, spirit and soul. the soul must always yield to the spirit, because the spirit is already in the image of God. the soul - the mind and the emotions - is what we renew to make it match the Word.
easy peasy, right? well ... not always so easy. but that quality decision to do it makes all the difference.

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tripwires and clotheslines

recently I have been in a monumental battle. over very little things. but Scripture tells us that it’s the little foxes that ruin the vines. why? because the big foxes can reach the grapes, and so simply eat the grapes. the little foxes cannot reach the grapes, so they chew down the vines to bring the grapes to them. Scripture also tells us the a little rudder steers a huge vessel, and a slight misdirection can send that vessel to the wrong side of the planet.

so it is with tripwires and clotheslines.

Tripwire

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A tripwire is a passive triggering mechanism. Typically, a wire or cord is attached to some device for detecting or reacting to physical movement. From this basic meaning, several extended and metaphorical uses of the term have developed.

Metaphorical usage

The Berlin Brigade stationed in the divided city of Berlin during the Cold War was given the mission to be the "tripwire" for a Soviet incursion into West Germany.

Literal usage

Military usage may designate as a tripwire the wire attached to one or more mines — normally bounding mines and the fragmentation type — in order to increase their activation area. Alternatively, tripwires are frequently used in boobytraps, whereby a tug on the wire (or release of tension on it) will detonate the explosives.

Soldiers sometimes detect the presence of tripwires by spraying the area with Silly String. It will settle to the ground in areas where there are no wires; if there are any, the string will be suspended in the air but not set them off due to its light weight. It is being used by U.S. troops in Iraq for this purpose.

tripwires in life can be anything that sets off a mental mine, an image inside of loss, failure, or insufficiency. maybe something you read, or see, or hear. God tells us in His word to be conformed to His image, and that looking into the perfect law of liberty is like looking into a mirror with Jesus reflection in it. you do that enough times, and go away with that image in your mind, and pretty soon you begin to believe that is what you look like. tripwires set off those inner images from past failures and upsets that, when you hit them, trigger a kneejerk reaction in your own mind designed to throw you completely off the path to victory.

Clothesline

Urban Dictionary

clothesline
a pro wrestling move in which a wrestler puts his arm straight out to the side and knocks his opponent over, either from his own momentum or his opponents'

Hulk Hogan gave a wicked clothesline to the Macho man.

clotheslines in life can hit you unexpectedly from anywhere. they come in the form of people, saying or doing something that hurts, offends, angers. it’s like getting the wind knocked out of you. God says in His word that perfect love casts out fear. that He has not given us a spirit of fear, but of love, power, and a sound mind. that love covers a multitude of sins.

it seems hard sometimes to remember that walking in the Spirit puts us on the path to overcoming, and that keeping the Word of God before us and meditating on it day and night is what makes us prosper and have good success in everything we set our hand to. but once we have tasted the goodness that God has for us, and that walking with Him is, it gets easier to remember. in fact it gets to be the thing we chase after, and desire above all.

we live in a fallen world. it’s a warzone, with a crafty enemy that sets traps and mines everywhere, using whatever resources he can. he can’t overcome us himself, as he has been stripped of his authority, paralyzed of his power, and ruined in all his works, by the blood of Jesus. but he will make use of anything he can manipulate, whether it’s something in our own mind that isn’t renewed to the image of Christ, or someone that doesn’t know God or maybe does but doesn’t realize he’s being used. either way, we have been given the armour, the weapons, and the inner image of Christ to completely overcome every thing the devil sets in our path to stop us.

we can remember that once we are born again, we are not of this world.

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