Strongholds

For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds; Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalted itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; And having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled.

2nd Corinthians 10:3-6

Many people struggle on a daily basis with attitudes and emotions that they have absolutely no control over or feel powerless when facing these life issues. Does this sound like something you experience? I know I do, then we have what is known as a stronghold, no need to get scared about it, many Christians face this very issue in many areas of their life.

What are Strongholds?

Oxford describes Strongholds as,

A place that has been fortified against attack. a place of strong support for a cause or belief.

In lay man terms strongholds are basically thought patterns that over a period of time has become so engraved in our sprit, soul and mind that they become part of us,

Like molten iron poured in a cast, it solidifies to form a permanent shape. Same way your thought patterns determines who wqe really are or become or even remain.

Proverbs 23:7

For as he thinketh in his heart, so is he: Eat and drink, saith he to thee; but his heart is not with thee.

Thoughts should establish in us that we have the power to resist anything. This is a very difficult task.

How can we identify a stronghold in our life?

The process of identifying strongholds in one’s life may range from easy to very difficult since strongholds at their optimum has already engraved itself in your mind, thoughts and way of life, they have become you!

There are hundreds of strongholds which can exist, greed, lust, fear, lying, unbelief, etc…

Strongholds can be identified sometimes by their destructive habits; we end up doing things that we do not approve off or feel compelled to do things against our own will always giving into the will of what we call in the Christian circle “The Flesh”. You know clearly the right thing we ought to do but every time we are faced with those circumstances we end up failing again.

Peace of mind and heart are clear indications that determine whether there is a stronghold present in our life. Many circumstances in life have the potential to take away our peace and joy and each situation can become a stronghold in our life if it’s not dealt with appropriately.

There are many strongholds that can exist in one’s life and they all have one thing in common, to destroy our life and steal from us our joy and peace of mind and ultimately our relationship with God.

By now we may have identified a few strongholds in our life that have been robbing us of our relationship with God.

The greatest may be that of Unbelief,

If we have not Trusted The Lord Jesus Christ as our Savior, or if we have and have strayed from Him, the forces of darkness and the temptations of life are there to pull us down or even try and destroy us?

Now some decide to go to a priest or a pastor and let them counsel, anoint, pray etc… for them?

Sorry to disappoint, the fact is we may go to many priests and many pastors and still struggle with strongholds.

Is there any hope? The answer is YES!

To rid ourselves from strongholds we first need to identify the strong hold as said earlier, and try and know and understand that that this is the hindering force in our life.

2nd Corinthians 10: 3-5

For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh:

For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;

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;

We have already established that strongholds are setup in our minds, they can neither be seen or touched they exist in a different realm,

“The Spirit Realm”

So that means we cannot fight them with conventional weapons, but we can fight back using spiritual weapons.

Establishing the base of truth to pull down strongholds, we must have a base to launch our attack to defend, this base has to be secured beyond any doubt. And that base is the truth of God’s Word and the weapons are His word to be used like a double edge sword!

Using the truth of God word as our base or basis of judgment we need to pass every thought and ever imagination of our mind through this base for examination.

When the ungodly desires come we need to say,

Are these good and wholesome thoughts according to the judgment of the word, or are they canal thoughts being selfish and destructive.

If these thoughts are indeed canal thoughts,

Then we must try and destroy them by pulling them down,

Using Our TRUE Weapon “The Word of God”

We can say “Lust I rebuke you in the name of Jesus” then ask for the Lords strength, Father in the name of Jesus I plead the blood of Jesus over my mind and I submit my will to the will Lord Jesus.

Long before we know it, we are delivered walking in freedom from that stronghold.

Why is that so?

Because we allow the truth of the word in our mind and soul too stifle the voice of the enemy.

We need to stay in the word since our mind is like a battle ground and we must continue to fill it with the ammunition,

For the moment we stop replenishing our supplies, the enemy will start closing in and take us captive back to the stronghold.

Make no Mistake This is Spiritual Warfare,

These battles WE MUST Fight EVERYDAY to have “Victory in Jesus”