|
Theme: The Spirit of God wants each of
you to capture any demonic strongholds that hold you
captive and strengthen the stronghold
of the Holy Spirit in you.
2 Corinthians 10:4-5 says:
For the weapons of our warfare are not
carnal, but mighty through God
to the pulling down of strongholds; casting down imaginations, and every high thing
that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and
bringing into captivity
every thought to the obedience to Messiah.
These are
fighting words! Them’s fighting words . . . for us! Amen?
Now these fighting words are
metaphorical:
they speak of weapons,
strongholds, high things and bringing into captivity,
yet these are not carnal or
worldly weapons, but spiritual ones;
not strongholds of stone but of
imaginations or arguments;
not high things in high towers
but high-falutin’ attitudes;
not taking into captivity enemy
soldiers but enemy thoughts.
I think it would be helpful to
consider the figurative aspect of the metaphor a bit
more.
What is a stronghold? Why are
strongholds important in literal warfare?
A stronghold is a defensive
structure:
Psalms 9:9 The LORD is a refuge
for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble.
misgav; properly, a cliff (or other lofty or
inaccessible place);
figuratively, a refuge: - defense, high fort (tower), refuge.
So a cliff could be a
stronghold, because it’s high and inaccessible to one’s
enemies.
1 Samuel 23:14. David stayed in
the desert strongholds and in the hills of the Desert of
Ziph.
Or it could be a man-made
fortress or tower
Ps 144:2 [The LORD is . . .] my
goodness, and my fortress; my high tower [misgab,
stronghold],
and my deliverer; my shield,
and he in whom I trust; who subdues my people under me.
Why would a "high
thing" like to hang out in a high cliff or a high
tower, exalting itself?
Because it’s safe up there!
If an enemy comes, it’s much
easier to drive him away from a stronghold in a high
place.
You can learn about the strategic
importance of strongholds in the history of the wars of
Israel.
While my family was in Israel a
year ago, we visited a place called Latrun.
It’s right off the main
highway from Tel Aviv and the airport heading up to
Jerusalem.
That was the problem with this
place: it’s a stronghold right along the main highway.
It also intersects with a
highway leading from Gaza up to Ramallah,
two
major population centers of Palestinian Arabs.
The Turks, when they controlled
the land, had built this fortress,
near a
monastery and ancient Emmaus.
That’s right, the road to
Emmaus was the road that led up to Jerusalem.
The British converted the
fortress into a police station.
When the War of Independence
began, the Arab Legion controlled the Latrun stronghold.
From this perch, they could
pick off the caravans carrying supplies up to the Jews
in Jerusalem.
This was one stronghold that
had to be taken! It had a stranglehold on Jerusalem!
Five times, five separate
times, the fledgling Israeli Defense Forces tried to
take it.
Again and again the Arab Legion — the
best, British-trained soldiers on the Arab side —
drove
the attackers away.
So the Israelis build a
"Burma Road" circumventing the stronghold,
over rough terrain,
so the
supply trains could get through.
Thank God for the ingenuity and
determination of our people!
The Arabs still held this
fortress — within five miles of Ben-Gurion Airport —
until
1967.
Just before the ‘67 war,
Nasser sent Egyptian soldiers to strengthen the
Jordanian garrison.
Fortunately, they had to
abandon it during the Six-Day War.
Now it’s a museum for the IDF
Armored Forces,
with an
imposing display of tanks, bought, built or captured by
the Israeli army.
So now do you see the strategic
importance of a stronghold?
For 20 years that place
threatened the security of our people in the heart of
the nation.
For how many years has a
stronghold threatened your security in the heart of your
thought life?
Isn’t it about time we went
up there and captured it?
Can it be done? Hey, David took the
stronghold of Jerusalem and made it his capital!
In 2 Samuel 5:6, The Jebusites
taunted David, "You will not get in here;
even the
blind and the lame can ward you off."
They thought, "David can't
get in here."
But David was determined; and
he got in there all right —
Joab broke through a tunnel
that led to a spring and opened the gates to the
citadel.
Ancient Babylon also was built
up as a seemingly invincible stronghold.
But in Jer 51:53 declared,
"‘Even if Babylon reaches the sky and fortifies
her lofty stronghold,
I will
send destroyers against her,’ declares the LORD."
And so he did, sending Cyrus
and the Medo-Persians to take the stronghold,
by
diverting the river that flowed through the city and
marching in on the riverbed!
God knows all about strongholds and He
knows how to take them — and he’ll tell you how to
do it,
if you’re willing to fight!
When you come up against a
stronghold in your life, do you just want to give up?
Or are you going to willing to
fight to take the stronghold?
Strongholds are captured by
people who are willing to fight, people with gumption!
If you, God will help you. The
Word and the Spirit of God will show you how. Amen?
One thing you should bear in mind
about a stronghold: it’s a place, not a person.
A stronghold is only a threat
if there are enemy soldiers inside.
Indeed, a stronghold can also
be a place of comfort, a safe place:
For example, in 2 Samuel
22:2-3, David said:
The LORD is my rock, my fortress and my
deliverer; my God is my rock,
in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my
salvation.
He is my stronghold, my refuge and my savior - from
violent men you save me.
The person or
persons inside the stronghold could be your enemy or
your friend.
In a spiritual stronghold,
there could be demons or the Holy Spirit.
But just as a physical
stronghold is not an enemy soldier, nor is a spiritual
stronghold a demon.
A spiritual stronghold is a
habitual pattern of thought, built into one’s thought
life.
Satan and his minions want to capture
the minds of people: the mind is the citadel of the
soul.
He who controls the mind
controls a very strategic place!
Romans 8:5-6:
Those who live according to the sinful
nature have their minds set
on what that nature desires; but those who live in
accordance with the Spirit
have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. The
mind of sinful man is death,
but the mind controlled by the Spirit is life and
peace.
If you want
the abundant life and peace that Yeshua promised,
you must let his Spirit capture
the stronghold up there!
Nor only is our conscious mind
the target:
Proverbs 23:7 says, "For
as he thinks in his heart, so is he."
In Matt 12:34-35, Yeshua said,
For out of the overflow of the heart
the mouth speaks.
The good man brings good things out of the good stored
up in him,
and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil
stored up in him.
Strongholds are also storage places,
holding food, water and weapons.
A stronghold gets stronger as
more stuff — more thought — gets stored in there.
In the life of the mind, the
stuff that you were once aware of gets stored up in
unconscious memory,
but it
can make a stronghold a tough nut to crack!
A stronghold is a way of
thinking and feeling that has developed a life of its
own in a person.
It might be a rut of depression
or recurring unbelief or habitually bad temper.
That was a stronghold in my
life, but with God’s help, not any more!
It might be a repeating pattern
of failure:
Sometimes a stronghold will
cause you to provoke others to reject you
(without necessarily knowing you’re doing it)
It might be a stronghold of
resentment or worthlessness.
If a child is sexually molested
and/or badly verbally abused,
a
stronghold of worthlessness may build up a stockpile of
negative thoughts:
"I’m guilty. Nobody
could really love me. I’m good for nothing. I’m
ugly."
She might actually be beautiful
— and certainly is beautiful in the eyes of God.
But a stronghold gets filled
with arguments like these:
"Nobody
would like me if they really got to know me. Nobody
really knows me.
Nobody
really cares for me. Nobody really wants me for
me."
Now all these thoughts may be a
pack of lies,
but
they can be a stronghold keeping out the truth of God’s
love.
Such a person may hear a
message about God’s love, whether from a pulpit or a
friend,
but it
goes in one ear and out the other,
bouncing off the walls of a stronghold of rejection or
worthlessness.
You almost hear the truth come
to set you free, and then comes another thought,
"Yeah, but what about . . .?" Or "You just
don’t understand . . ."
And out comes another string of
lies, excuses, smokescreens, shot down by blocking
spirits.
Thus a stronghold creates inner
captivity to deception and misery.
A stronghold keeps a person
from thinking clearly, accepting the truth,
repenting of sin, and receiving deliverance.
A stronghold can keep a
unbeliever from hearing the good news.
A stronghold can keep a
believer from hearing the fullness of the good news.
So how do you take a stronghold?
First, you have to see it, so
you know what you’re dealing with.
It’s kind a hard to take a
stronghold you can’t even see.
But strongholds of the mind can
be hidden — evil things hang out in darkness.
Satan is the prince of
darkness, but Messiah is the prince of light.
You have been called out of
darkness into his wonderful light!
Nevertheless, if there is an
old, sinful pattern of thought in you,
that is
a place of darkness, a stronghold.
Ephesians 5:11 urges us to
"have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of
darkness,
but
rather expose them."
If you want to let the light of
God expose the darkness, you need an attitude of
humility,
willing
to let the light of God reveal the darkness in you.
In Ps 26:2, David prayed,
"Test me, O LORD, and try me, examine my heart and
my mind."
Can you agree this request?
If not, if you are not willing
to let God reveal any strongholds in your life,
then
the first stronghold you may have to start tearing down
is pride!
Who was the first to be guilty
of pride? Satan! Massively so!
Pride is the armor of Satan —
he uses it to keep demonic strongholds hidden.
Pride keeps people from ever
seeing that they are trapped in demonic darkness.
The Spirit of God is determined
to bring down the stronghold of pride.
Isaiah 25:11 says,
God will bring down their pride despite
the cleverness of their hands.
He will bring down your high fortified walls and lay
them low;
he will bring them down to the ground, to the very
dust.
If pride is
bad news, how much more is humility good news!
James 4:6, "God is opposed
to the proud, but gives grace to the humble."
This is a promise: humility
release grace, the power of God to save you.
James 4:7 continues with
another promise:
"Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil,
and he will flee from you."
Satan can’t stand humility!
It breaks his power over you!
But God loves it! "Humble
yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you
up."
The sacrifice of Messiah is a
perfect shelter of grace enabling you to look at your
needs.
Once you recognize the stronghold, the
next step to bringing it down is repentance.
Be honest before God, and
humbly let the Spirit expose the stronghold in the
darkness.
Pray, "Test me, O LORD,
and try me, examine my heart and my mind."
When the Holy Spirit shows you
an area of darkness, repent.
You may need to overcome the
instinct of defend yourself.
You may need to silence the
little lawyer who steps out of a dark corner of your
mind,
pleading, "My client is not so bad."
If you let him, that whiny
defense attorney will defend you just fine —
but you’ll
never see what’s wrong in you, nor face what needs to
change.
Who is the best defense
attorney of all time? Yeshua!
How does He defend you, how
does He justify you? By his blood.
So you don’t need to justify
yourself. Let him do it.
A broken and contrite heart he
will not despise.
Suppose a stronghold has gotten
pretty entrenched and strong?
Sometimes a frontal attack on a
stronghold doesn’t seem to work. What should you do?
Jewish soldiers tried to
capture the Old City of Jerusalem with a frontal attack
a
couple of times in the War of Independence,
but as
soon as they got up to the gates of the Old City, and
were thrown back.
Here’s how the IDF took the
Old City in 1967:
They
swept around the city to the north, then seized the
Mount of Scopus,
then
kept on going up to the Mount of Olives, to the east —
I've seen a picture of Israeli
generals looking down at the Old City from the east!
Thus, having surrounded the
city, they were able to cut off supplies and
reinforcements.
Though the Jordanian army tried
to send reinforcements up from Jericho,
this
time they were thrown back!
When the Jordanian general
inside the Old City realized he was surrounded,
he
realized, "resistance is futile," so he cut
his losses and fled the city.
Then the Israelis were able to
break into the city with relatively little resistance.
So, this is how successful
military planners usually do it:
surround the stronghold and cut off its supplies.
Does this strategy also apply to
spiritual strongholds? I think so . . . Something like this strategy
was at work in the battle of Jericho.
Who gave Joshua the strategy
for taking the city? The angel of the LORD.
What was the strategy? March
around the city for seven days then blow your trumpets!
Here’s what I think they were
doing, in the Spirit:
They were surrounding the city,
with obedience to God’s word, with faith,
with
the praises of God.
Thus they cut off that city
from its supplies, from the realm of darkness.
As the power of faith grew in
the hearts of the marching people,
the
power of the walls of Jericho grew weak.
How do you surround a
stronghold of negative thinking, bad old speculations?
How about praise?
Psalms 32:7. "You are my
hiding place; you will protect me from trouble and
surround me
with
songs of deliverance."
Surround the stronghold with
the praise, singing psalms and spiritual songs to God.
Demons can’t stand praise!
Praise is a powerful way to bring a stronghold.
For every negative stronghold, there’s
a powerful way to surround it with opposite truth from
God.
If you are struggling with a
stronghold of depression, surround it with hope.
If you are struggling with a
stronghold of rejection, surround it with acceptance
from Abba.
If you are struggling with a
stronghold of unresolved anger, surround it with
forgiveness.
If you are struggling with a
stronghold of fear, surround it with the knowledge of
God’s love.
If you are struggling with a
stronghold of failure, surround it with the victory of
the resurrection!
Once you’ve identified a
stronghold, go to the Scripture, and study the opposite
truth from God.
If the stronghold is rejection,
study all that the Bible says about God’s acceptance.
Use a concordance or a chain
bible or topical bible.
Then surround that stronghold
with the word of God!
Listen, once the enemy sees he’s
surrounded by humble submission, praise,
and the
word of God, his resistance will quickly weaken, and if
he isn’t gone already!
Can we take a moment to pray about
this?
"Test me, O LORD, and try
me, examine my heart and my mind."
Show me any areas in my life
that I have not fully surrendered to you.
(If you recognize any area of
chronic sin strengthened by negative thinking,
take a
moment to confess it to the Lord, now.)
Lord, forgive me of compromise.
Give me the courage to pull down every stronghold within
me
without reluctance or willful
deception in my heart.
Thank you, Lord Yeshua, for
forgiving and cleansing me from all my sins,
and
breaking every curse against me, on the cross.
By the power of the Holy Spirit
and in the Name of Yeshua,
I bind
any satanic influences that were reinforcing compromise
and sin within me.
I submit myself to the light of
the Spirit of Truth to expose any strongholds of sin in
me.
By the mighty weapons of the
Spirit and the Word, I proclaim that each evil
stronghold is coming down!
I purpose to surround this evil
stronghold with praise and affirming truth from the Word
of God.
I purpose to take every pattern
of negative thinking captive and bring it to the
obedience to Messiah.
I purpose, by the grace of God,
to follow through until even the ruins of this
stronghold
is
removed from my mind!
I purpose to think about
whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right,
whatever is pure,
whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable — if anything
is excellent or praiseworthy —
I will
think about such things.
I will
talk about such things. I will get involved in such
things.
I purpose, by the grace of God,
to build up one stronghold within my mind and my heart:
the
stronghold of the living God!
"The name of the LORD is a
strong tower; the righteous will run to it and be
safe."
In the shelter of your
presence, O God my Savior, you will keep me safe.
In Yeshua’s mighty name, Amen.
|
