We cast down and defeat every imagination and sophisticated argument that exalts itself against the true knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought and plan in order to make them obedient to Christ. 2 Corinthians 10:5

I was recently walking through a grove of tall trees in Redwood National Park. Trees of amazing stature were everywhere. At times the canopy was so thick and so high that I had no idea what the weather was like outside the forest. It brought home the idea of walking among the giants.

In the Old Testament, God sent His people to the Promised Land. It was a great place to live but it also was inhabited by giants which they would have to face and defeat. We too live in a land of giants which we must face if we are to have the capacity to know God’s presence in our lives—if we are to be united with Him in an ever-deepening relationship.

The truth is that we walk among giants most every day…things that are bigger than us which try to stand between us and God. They’re things that try to keep us from being where God wants us to be.

One of the reasons Christians disbelieve in miracles, especially miracles in our day and age, is that believing in miracles isn’t a comfortable place to be. It takes casting down and defeating obstacles to believe in God for a miracle.

That’s King Saul-like thinking and it needs to be cast down. When Goliath challenged Israel, Saul hid in his tent and just hoped the giant would go away. David faced the giant and won a major victory for God’s people. (Not surprisingly, Saul’s enthusiasm for David’s victory was short-lived. People who accommodate giants in order to be comfortable aren’t going to be happy with those who attack those giants.)

God has called us to pull down strongholds (v 4). The word ‘pull down’ means to dethrone. Strongholds are just intellectual idols. When Paul preached the Good News in Ephesus many people were saved (Acts 19:21-27). In coming to Christ they realized they needed to get rid of their idols. They needed to pull down the strongholds.

As people gave up their idols, the local idol makers became alarmed that they were losing business. They said that Paul’s preaching of the gospel had destroyed the magnificence of Diana. In other words, the gospel had pulled down the stronghold of that false god.

That is what we are called to. Through the gospel we pull down the strongholds of this world system we live in. We reject the consumerism, the political ‘saviors’, the religious claptrap that divide us. We accept people the world calls ugly and honor them as we already do the ones the world would call beautiful. (Yeah, that’s a Christian stronghold that needs to be pulled down.)

We are also called to cast down imaginations (v.5). That means we are to conquer them. We are to attack and conquer imaginations of this world. What are these imaginations? They are the deceptive and fleshly way of thinking common to this world system. Paul spoke of this in Philippians 4:10 when he said, “Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

If our minds are dwelling on these rich things Paul prescribe we won’t have time to to dwell on the opposite. It’s time to stop thinking about the lies, the scandalous and the ugly. Because in the end, a giant is anything or anyone that refuses to give God His rightful place of glory. It is what exalts itself against the knowledge of God. This includes people who are operating in the flesh rather than in the Spirit; people whose solutions are limited the natural world rather than the supernatural… just as if God wasn’t in control.

“Beware lest anyone cheat you through philosophy and empty deceit, according to the tradition of men, according to the basic principles of the world, and not according to Christ” (Col 2:8).