Fountain of Wisdom Ministries: Participating in Gods Purpose for the Nations - STRONGHOLDS: SATAN’S MASTER-KEY TO DOMINATE PEOPLE

My thoughts on how people are controlled today have led me to study the subject of strongholds again. The constancy and reality of the warfare going on today makes this study so necessary. The battle between the Kingdom of light and darkness is intensifying and the goal is to determine who dominates humanity. The kingdom of darkness uses spiritual ignorance that leads to confusion and confusion opens the way to deception as surely as delusion follows. The Kingdom of Light, on the other hand, works with love, enlightenment and wilful obedience to bring about change in people’s lives. Satan uses the flesh, the world and a host of demons to do his dirty numbers on people’s minds and emotions to coerce or deceive their wills into acting in accordance with his plans to steal, kill, and destroy. Is he doing a good job of it?

God uses His Word, His Spirit and His ordained leadership through which He imparts the grace to live in obedience.

Many today have allowed thoughts, preconceptions and effects of some experiences to build in them certain mindsets that will hinder them from making the right decisions in life. God’s programme for our lives demand our cooperation. With a mindset that stops us from cooperating, we hinder the will of God in our lives. Those mindsets not only hinder God’s will, they also permit something contrary to keep happening in our lives. Since every repeated action from us is based on a belief-system and every belief-system has generated a pattern of thinking, it is safe to say our actions are a result of our thoughts and beliefs. When we believe the Word of God and allow it to govern our thoughts and beliefs, we tend to develop the correct mindset that will enable us cooperate with the will of God in our lives. These wrong mindsets are called STRONGHOLDS. A stronghold is a mindset that permits demonic activities in our lives without our recognition of its presence. The Apostle Paul uses the term strong hold in a war situation in 2Cor.10: 3-5:

For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses [or strongholds]. We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ.

This most dangerous weapon of Satan is virtually unknown to many Christians. Like an underwater mine, it can be planted and left undetected, waiting for the ideal moment to be activated. We usually find out about it when we survey the destruction it has wreaked on us. Spiritual strongholds allow Satan to control Christians and make them do things that bring damage to themselves and to others. It exposes a severe inconsistency between who we say we are and what we believe. Strongholds represent a state-of-the-art manifestation of deceit.

A SPIRITUAL STRONGHOLD IS A MINDSET IMPREGNATED WITH HOPELESSNESS THAT CAUSES US TO ACCEPT AS UNCHANGEABLE, SITUATIONS THAT WE KNOW ARE CONTRARY TO THE WILL OF GOD.

When we find ourselves totally incapable of doing something that God requires of us, we must suspect the presence of a spiritual stronghold. The will of God is usually clearly spelled out, but our reality tells us a different story. In fact, our reality blatantly contradicts the stated will of God, and we find ourselves powerless to change reality as we perceive it, we are having a stronghold problem. Satan can use these strongholds to carry out various schemes of his.

Strongholds manifest as double mindedness. This creates instability in all our ways (James 1:8). What we know to be true in God’s Word is not true in our actions. We are unstable in our ways and double minded. We receive nothing from God and become hopeless in our minds. It is a typical case when we hear a very positive word from the pulpit. We are excited at the possibilities that are open to us in God. Right after this, we face our challenges and see ourselves try to lean on our natural resources to handle the situation. The Word is not our focus or consideration and we begin to be double minded.

1. They are located in the mind. In the book of Revelation chapter 3:14-20, the people in the church at Laodicea honestly believed they were wealthy and self-sufficient only to be exposed as poor, wretched, miserable and blind. They were so far from spiritual reality that the strongholds in their minds blinded them from their true state and hence from dealing with the issues in their hearts. The deception in the hearts of mankind can also be traced to the build-up of strongholds too. Demonic activities go on unchecked wherever strongholds exist. The mind set on the flesh is death and is hostile to God. Such a mind does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not able to do so. Romans 8:6,7.

2. Strongholds are made of good thoughts. We seldom suspect our good thoughts. Our own good thoughts create a blockage for the excellent thoughts of God to come in. In Mathew 16:21-23, Peter had a good thought for Jesus not talking about dying. Jesus called him Satan and said he was minding the things of men not of God. Jesus by this put the things of man in the same perspective as Satan’s. The most dangerous piece of equipment a Christian carries is the mind because of its ability to produce thoughts. Evil thoughts are easily spotted and identified. It is the good thoughts that our minds are capable of that often lead to disaster. Good options can hinder us from God’s best. One way to deny self is to take every thought captive and bring it to obedience to Christ. Taking up the cross implies dying to our speculations and ourselves as well. Following Jesus means leaving behind our own understanding and submitting to His guidance. (Matt. 16:24). Our self-sufficiency is the material of which the “lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God” is made (2Cor.10:5).

3. Strongholds often develop in the shadow of our strengths. Satan often targets our natural strengths in order to position his strongholds. We are constantly aware of our weaknesses, thus making it more difficult for Satan to use the element of surprise. But where we perceive ourselves as strong, we tend to relax on that particular point. Proverbs 3:5 says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding.” Confidence in self reduces the need to depend on God. Whatever your strengths are, watch out that no stronghold uses them as hiding places. Where we are strong our confidence is strong and we are no longer watchful, it becomes easy access to Satan’s strongholds.

4. Strongholds are often activated by painful trauma. This happens when there has been some abuse especially in the area of God-given strength. The trauma causes so much pain and builds a life-long reservoir of pain inside. Whenever the opportunity to exercise the gift, the pain gets triggered of and the gift will no longer be exercised. Those with the gift of giving do not want to give again and those with the gift of mercy are not willing to forgive again because of the trauma of the past. If you have suffered pain in the exercise of your gift in the past, watch out that a stronghold is not being built to hinder future expressions of the gift in you. A sometimes-painful trauma in any area builds strongholds there to avoid the pain from the trauma. The places we have suffered pain or rejection is a place of possible stronghold as we refuse to venture into those areas. Whenever we fail or suffer should not mark an end to further attempts at succeeding in the same areas.

5. Strongholds create a double mind that results in spiritual and emotional instability. Since it is possible to receive from God on one hand and have strongholds on the other hand, we can see the reason for a lot of instability in Christians around the world. Selfish ambition can generate strongholds in the mind and our refusal to deny ourselves and lay it down will create in us a double mindedness. We will try to express God’s will with a personal agenda. No matter how good our agenda is, we need to let it go so we can embrace God’s agenda.

RECOGNITION, IDENTIFICATION AND DEALING WITH PREVAILING SPIRITS THAT HINDER OR DISTRACT FROM GOD’S PURPOSES
The subject of strongholds is not complete until we understand how these fortresses are utilised to carry out some Satanic plots in the lives of individuals, churches or families. We will study a few of those spirits so we see how strongholds really are hiding places for demonic activities.

The Jezebel Spirit: Mentioned in 1kings and the book of Revelation, this spirit represents an entity that loves the corridor of power and seeks to control or influence those in authority. It represents illegitimate authority. It is a spirit of witchcraft that seeks to dominate people. It is one of the spirits on earth today that is involved in replacing Godly authority with manipulative and selfish control. In Galatians 5, the works of the flesh includes witchcraft. Witchcraft can start as a work of the flesh before the demons accommodate the one walking in it. Jezebel means control though illegitimate means.

This starts in a person’s life quite early in the days of dependence on others. Either an abuse or any dramatic experience creates a stronghold of fear, suspicion or dislike for authority. It is the stronghold that is thus built that becomes the hiding place for the Jezebel spirit to operate through the individual. The person begins to be critical of or flatter those in authority. The goal is to gain ascendancy and have a measure of control in the place. With a critical attitude, the suggestions from the person will be such that he/she will feel elated when their influence is respected.

The strongholds that were not dealt with will naturally cause corrections to become rejections. The family or church under this influence will not experience the real peace of God. They will feel manipulated and controlled for the benefit of the leader. Absalom had a different kind of controlling spirit. He harboured bitterness towards his father David for not dealing with Amnon his half brother after he took his sister to bed. He later posed as a better king than his father and won the heart of the people to usurp his father’s authority. This same spirit can fasten itself on any assistant pastor to begin to feel like they will be better pastors than their senior pastor because of certain qualities they may have. Prevailing spirits usually seek to usurp authority, defile persons in authority and become cynical or mocking to any person in authority. They seek to replace God’s Kingdom with theirs and as they represent the demonic realm, they replace God’s kingdom with Satan’s kingdom. God’s authority is defied and His purposes undermined. Other spirits like the spirit of poverty seek to hinder the fulfilment of God’s will in the area of provision and inheritance. These spirits also use strongholds to accomplish their purposes. Their goal is to keep us from experiencing the fullness of victory that we have in Christ. The strongholds all have their uses in the demonic realm.

WHAT TO DO WITH STRONGHOLDS
Strongholds must be destroyed. They are not to be remodelled or covered with wallpaper. They must be destroyed.

It is time to declare war on every stronghold in our lives that has permitted the realms of the demonic to have a hold on us in any area of life.