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Breaking Strongholds: Gaining Freedom

What is a stronghold?

The three parts to a person: BODY, SOUL, SPIRIT

o 1 Thess 5:23 Bless whole – body, soul, spirit

o Body – Flesh

o Soul– Will, Emotions, Mind,

o Spirit – The core of us, and the place where the

Holy Spirit dwells (Rom 8:16). We are Spiritual

Beings and we partner with other spirits.

Eph 4:27 ‘do not give the devil a foothold

o Passage about personal discipleship / Christian Living

o V22 – about our body (old self – its desires)

o V23 – about our will (attitude of mind)

o V24 – about our spirit (new self)

o V25 – the importance of truth

o V26 – an example of an entry point for a stronghold

o V27 – a foothold (topos) – place/foothold/opportunity/room/way)

2 Cor 10:3-5 3 For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does.4 The

weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine

power to demolish strongholds. 5 We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets

itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it

obedient to Christ.

o Stronghold (ochyrōma) / Fortress. Think Military Camp, Fortified Defenses. Base of

Operations.

o V3 Realm of War: its not natural/earthly realm, so not natural weapons (eg

counselling techniques)

o V4 Weapons of war: divine power: Word of God, blood of Christ, spiritual authority,

hearing Gods voice, spiritual discernment

o V4-5 Nature of war: the ‘red zone’, balloon image

o V5 Understanding strongholds: Demonic fortresses not susceptible to moral

improvements but only to spiritual warfare

Saved but still held captive? Gal 4:3-9; Col 2:8

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How we allow strongholds to be built?

Believing the Lies: Satan’s primary weapon against you is to make you believe God doesn’t

love you.

Unmet love needs: We are made to love and be loved. Receiving imperfect love, or lack of

love from parents or other significant people in lives can wound us and has the potential to

open the door to strongholds being built.

Sin: One way of thinking about sin, is to see it as our rejection of God and cooperation with

the enemy. It might start with a though, and lead on to a decision, action, set of values, and

into being held captive by a stronghold.

Generational sin: Behaviours, views and beliefs that have been passed down through the

family that are not in line with Gods truth

Word curses: Specific words spoken against you, causing wounding. You take these to be

true and believe the lie over God’s truth.

Ungodly Soul Ties: Unhealthy relationships that have significant influence over your

thoughts, emotions and motivations. Their voices are louder to you. (One example: Gen

44:30-32)

How we can tear down strongholds?

FORGIVENESS:

Unforgiveness traps us in a cycle of sin – but Jesus came to set the captives free (See Isaiah

61)

The Parable of the unmerciful servant (Matthew 18:35)

the kingdom of heaven is like a king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. As he began the settlement, a man who owed him ten thousand bags of gold was brought to him. Since he was not able to pay, the master ordered that he and his wife and his children and all that he had be sold to repay the debt. “At this the servant fell on his knees before him. ‘Be patient with me,’ he begged, ‘and I will pay back everything.’ The servant’s master took pity on him, cancelled the debt and let him go. “But when that servant went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him a hundred silver coins. He grabbed him and began to choke him. ‘Pay back what you owe me!’ he demanded. “His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay it back.’ “But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into prison until he could pay the debt. 31 When the other servants saw what had happened, they were outraged and went and told their master everything that had happened.

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“Then the master called the servant in. ‘You wicked servant,’ he said, ‘I cancelled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. 33 Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’ 34 In anger his master handed him over to the jailers to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed. “This is how my heavenly Father will treat each of you unless you forgive your brother or sister from your heart.”

QUESTION: If I am the one who has been hurt, why is it I that should forgive?

ANSWER: Unforgiveness is a prison which we put ourselves in. We are the ones with the keys to

escape from this. Without forgiveness we are prisoners. God wants us to live in freedom – so that’s

why. The key to getting out of jail is forgiveness.

QUESTION: What if it’s too difficult to forgive?

ANSWER: As Christians we are called to live in Gods strength. Primarily this is about submitting to

God, rather than doing ‘discipleship’ in our strength. If/When it’s difficult to forgive, start forgiving

where/who you can. This can be by forgiving someone who it’s easier to forgive, or by forgiving at a

shallower level, before going back to forgive more deeply: ‘I choose to forgive’.

QUESTION: What are our spiritual weapons for this?

ANSWER: We bind the lies and attacks of the enemies which want to focus on our wounds and want

to blind us to Gods healing. Here we see the difference between power and authority. It is Gods

power alone which binds, but we are given his delegated authority to bind.

REPENTANCE:

Repentance is a GIFT to us, a lifestyle which we can walk in daily. Let us rediscover the joy and power

of repentance. It is the response to Gods kindness (Rom 2:4)

RECOGNISE: We actively invite God to convict us of our sin (Psalm 139:1). Our submission to

God – going for the roots. Balloon illustration. Just like forgiveness, the enemy will try his

hardest to persuade us we have no need to repent, or to distort the full meaning of

repentance. But we resist the devil through our heart attitude (James 4:7-9)

REPENT: This begins with confession but goes so much further (cf James 5:16, 1 Jn 1:8-9). It

is submission to God, and also wielding our own authority in Christ (Renounce, Rebuke,

Receive)

o RENOUNCE: (Prov 28:13; Daniel 4:27) When Adam and Eve sinned they legally gave

permission for the devil to have authority over us. Through the cross this has been

bought back, and we can renounce the authority that was given away to the devil.

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o REBUKE: (‘The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet.’ Romans 16:20).

As well as renouncing, we can exercise our authority in Christ over the specific work

of the enemy.

o RECEIVE: A simple way of understanding repentance is thinking of it as a U-turn. It is

not only turning away from the lies and deception of the enemy, but turning to the

riches that God freely offers us.

REPLACE: This is essential to our freedom and should be embraced on a daily basis. It is

what our ongoing discipleship is all about.

Walking into Gods truth (replacing strongholds with freedom and

truth)

When we demolish a stronghold, we need to build something in its place (see Luke 11:24-

26 / Matthew 12:43)

Fullness in Christ: Walking in freedom is an active and intentional lifestyle whereby we ‘fill

up’ on truth in the mind and the heart and live out that truth through decisions of the will. In

this way we expose the lie and break its power. Confessing sin with other trusted believers is

a powerful tool to use as part of this. This is where many Christians would focus their

discipleship efforts – but we mustn’t forget the spiritual warfare aspects.

Being full: Living out of relationship with God – See Eph 3:19

We need to learn to agree with God – in every part of our person:

o CONSCIENCE: Ask the Holy Spirit to alert our conscience so that we don’t revert to

old patterns and allow the stronghold to be rebuilt

o MIND: The need for didactic truth (Scripture), and the need to take every thought

captive (2 Cor 10:5)

o IMAGINATION: It can often be the imagination which then drives our actions. (Phil

4:8)

o EMOTIONS: These follow the mind, will and imagination. Let us not allow ourselves

to change that order so that selfish emotions rule.

o WILL: Ultimately repentance is a matter of being willing to repent.

Expect internal battle: Help from the Holy Spirit within us, and resistance from our sinful

flesh. The flesh hates to die. You cannot make peace with the sinful nature, it must be

crucified daily.

Know we have the victory