Spiritual Strongholds

What are Spiritual Strongholds?

First of all, we need to realize there is an enemy, "satan," and his effort is to capture the minds of men and women and their souls through spiritual strongholds. The mind is the strong tower of the soul.

Under the anointing of the Holy Spirit, the mind rules our hearts and emotions and directs our lives. Satan knows if he can get hold of the way we think, he can expand his rule into every other area of our life.

Prov. 23:7 "for as he thinketh in his heart, so is he."

Satan wants to control your thoughts in the conscious mind but also your motives and thoughts in our subconscious minds.

II Corinthians 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 flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses/storngholds. 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."

What is a fortress/stronghold? It is a walled city with access to its water supply and plenty of storage space for food. The enemy attacks with warfare against fortresses. When trying to break into a fortress, the enemy will dig under walls, climb over walls, bust down the main door, or whatever to get entrance by hurling bounders against the walls and firebombs over the walls.

Paul uses this knowledge to describe the attack needed against the spiritual strongholds of the mind. We can destroy every stronghold because our weapons are eternal and invincible.

The enemy tries to break in with lying thoughts, negative thoughts from others, or feelings that have developed a life of their own within us. We were created in the image of God, but somehow we believe what others have said, what satan says, the accuser or ourselves believes the opposite of God, and that is what a stronghold is. It is a thought or belief that is not true about you, but you believe it.

An individual stronghold is more than a habit. It is a belief of fleshly control within us that uses habits to maintain control over us. Like for example, through belief or feeling, a habit of temper can develop to defend or cover up the insecurity or jealousy of wants, believing God does not want you to be blessed, or developing alcoholism to cover up the pain you are not loved. God's word says you are the apple of his eye.

These strongholds are the fortresses of thought, emotion, feeling, or negative belief about self or what God says about you.

The function of a stronghold is to put up smoke screens to keep things like sermons, teachings, and counseling from piercing our inner man with truths that could bring repentance and freedom.

A stronghold guards the untruths that bond us to self and the flesh. It keeps you from being able to renew the mind from seeing your own deceptions.

Strongholds give us tunnel vision, preventing us from seeing what common sense would tell us is wrong. It creates an inner captivity to deception and misery.

Again, the central core of strongholds are lies the enemy wants you to believe in, getting you to believe they are true about you.

God does not want your past to hold you back! God has made a way out, a way to unpack your bags of grief, pain, unforgiveness, guilt, shame, or even old patterns of relating.

Keywords: strongholds, demons, deliverance, possession, evil spirits, exorcism, casting out demons, deliverance ministry, questions, faq, spiritual strongholds, legal grounds, deliverances

by: Traci Morin