As people of God we can no longer be ignorant to spiritual warfare and the tactics of the enemy. The enemy, Satan, does not like the people of God, especially if they know who they are and walking in their purpose. One of the way in which he attacks the people of God is by building strongholds.
See my other article on Fighting Spiritual Warfare
Strongholds are ways of thinking or a thought that the enemy injects in a person. That individual starts believing the lie(s) of the enemy, and will then starts acting out that lie. After a while what began as a thought becomes a stronghold. More importantly, spiritual strongholds are lies by the enemy that you hold to be true. When you are fighting against spiritual strongholds you are fighting against the thought(s) that holds an individual, family, community or even country in bondage. What then became a thought now can now become a culture or way of life for a set of people. That’s how many cultures came about, it began with a thought and then that thought became a way of doing things.
The enemy realize that the mind of an individual is very powerful and if he wants to defeat a child of God he needs to attack him in his/her mind, it is with the mind we serve God (Romans 7:25). Because Satan realizes this, he uses various tactics to control an individual thinking, e.g. condemnation, deception, doubt, and fear. Your thinking controls your actions; your action controls the direction your life is heading. This is why many people will never give their lives to the Lord, and if they do they continue to live a defeated life, as they feel condemn, inferior or any other mental attacks the enemy fit to employ.
[pullquote] A stronghold is a way of thinking or a thought that the enemy injects in a person. That individual starts believing the lie(s) of the enemy, and will then starts acting out that lie. After a while what began as a thought becomes a stronghold. More importantly, strongholds are lies by the enemy that you hold to be true [/pullquote]
Satan will use guilt, thoughts about our past, what people may or may not be saying about us, or speaks lies that ultimately cripples an individual Christian walk. The plan of the enemy is to kill, steal and to destroy (John 10:10) and he will use anything at his disposal to accomplish this.
Disarming Spiritual Strongholds of the Mind
As Christians, we no longer have to live defeated lives but we can live victorious lives, and this starts in the mind. Today I want to teach you how to fight back against Satan and his lie and thus destroy those spiritual strongholds that are holding your life captive.
The following are a few action steps to take in disarming spiritual strongholds.
- Understand who you are. Many people entertain the lies the enemy puts in their mind because they do not know who they are and the power and authority given to them.
- Read and Abide in the word of God. The Bible has truths that if we should read, understand and abide by we will live a victorious life. The word of God has the power of transform our thoughts and live and as a believer we need to flood our minds with the words of God.
- Don’t entertain the lies. Now that you know who God says you are, you are warrior and not a weakling, you are special and not who the enemy says you. You now need to resist the enemy and he will flee from you, he might return but when he does you cannot entertain his ideology or thoughts. When the enemy attempts to invade our thoughts and speaks his lies, do not give him any chance to enter our thoughts.
- Live a forgiven life. The enemy will try to bring up what you did in your past and let you think you have not been forgiven, but you need to let him know that you have repented of your sins and God has forgiven me. Do not let the enemy fill your mind with guilt and condemnation as the Bible says there is no condemnation to them that have given their life to God. Your past is the past and no one has the right to dig up what God has already buried and forgotten about.
- Live a repented life. To defeat the enemy we cannot afford to give him any more ammunition that he already has. Therefore as believers we have to get rid of the old you and try to be Christ-like.
- Be a Worshipper. A worshipper has peace of mind as the glory of God radiates from him. God loves a worshipper and will always draw close to a worshipper. The presence of God will burn out all the deceptive thoughts of the enemy. Worship destroys yoke and the enemy cannot stay around a person who is a worshipper.
- Enter into warfare prayer. Prayer is a very powerful weapon God has given us. Through prayer we pull down strongholds and break yokes. Sometimes as believers or Christians we have to fight for our breakthrough.
The Bible says in Proverbs 23: 7, “for as he thinks in his heart so is he.” What the scripture is basically telling us is that we are who we think we are. If you think you are a warrior then you are a warrior as you will act as a warrior. We no longer can entertain the lies of the enemy but must get up and fight back. God has already given us the victory over the enemy; it is up to us to receive it daily.
What are your thoughts and this topic of spiritual strongholds? Do you have anything you would like to contribute?
Responses
Hi God is very powerful as some of you I also had attacks in the mind, Jesus won over the enemy, he gave us power to overcome all of this problems with his Holy Spirit, He said He will never leave us alone, He gave us thousands of promises when he adopted us as his children, Those thoughts are not ours the enemy put them there to stop God plans in our life, but he can not do that because God loves us so much and he knows that our intentions are to follow him. We need to pray more and let the Holy Spirit of the Lord work in our lives, let Him to clean us, to purify us as gold, We need to have faith in the person that died for our sins He already paid the price and wrote our names in the living book
greetings from Panama
Randy, once one confesses Christ, the one who roams the earth and seeks to destroy will attach with lies. If he can keep one confused and feeling condemned, he has robbed one of the greatest truth. God loves you; he takes you just as you are. Not because you “walk in a straight perfect line.” Yes, we repent. Yes, our desire is to be Christ-like, but this is a work in progress not a quick fix. Not only did God give us freedom of choice, with consequences, he created us with a very powerful tool- a brain. More often than not, it takes time to retrain – our thoughts. I know;I have been there. God has made available numerous tools to help us: prayer, praise music, bible studies of God’s love, Christian mentors and Christian friends. Just remember no one can walk a straight perfect line;that is why Christ became our sacrifice. All he wants in return is our love, faith and trust.
I have been under attack ever since I made a commitment to follow Jesus. Enemy tries to convince me I committed the unpardonable sin. Constant thoughts in my mind that Im mot saved. He tries to persuade me that I don’t care either.
Dee, same here! I keep getting intrusive thoughts that say the Holy Spirit “is you know what” in order that it makes me believe I am actually saying that myself, but I know its a lie… Its so bad, doubt and feeling of unloved…. I wish God never put that tree in the garden in the first place, its like we were forced to live in this tyranny war that we came unarmed, it makes me upset because I wish i only thought good thoughts, love and thats it. I’m tired of having constant evil thoughts coming in, like if i was in a jungle full of mosquitoes that will not permantely go away already. I can only hope for the best, i truly wish it was different and we had real leaders to lead us. Why we need Jesus Christ to train us in this disgusting battle between good and evil.
“God is good” why we got to keep our focus on him but sheesh, its hard when you can’t sometimes sleep at night with all these disgusting thoughts left and right. And the more you read the Word of God the more i feel condemned because i have to walk in a straight perfect line otherwise i’d break a law or commandment, its crazy how hard this walk is. But would of been easy if we only knew Good, and no evil. I’m trying to discover how to reverse this “evil” side of me and permantely get rid of it or know how to block it everytime it comes.
You’re not alone Randy. As soon as I started really digging into the word abs becoming a devoted Christian, the exact same attack happened to me. I’m still going through it and I’ll be praying for you!! Please reach out if you need anyone to talk to!
He did that to me too and I will tell you what I’ve been battling for two years he will tell you lie after lie after lie until you say no more my disobedience to God had grave consequences and I miss God’s presence so much I actually came to a place where I denied the Lord why? Because I allowed what the enemy was telling me to influence the truth I hardened my heart too and I will tell you something he inserted fear shortly after God had been working in my heart and life and after I made decisions to follow Christ. The devil knows how to get us as he did with eve however I will tell you what DONT DWELL on the fact that he tells you lies about you committed the unpardonable sin, or that your not saved or that your a reprobate or an apostate he will tell you anything to render you ineffective and in reality it makes a Christian so miserable I lived in fear and he stole my joy period and I was under some major oppression from him please don’t listen to that ok dirty devil get your focus back on Christ. Open your eyes to truth which is Jesus keep taking your cares stress and problems to God. Read an study the Bible in each area that you are attacked when a lie comes you MUST speak VERSES back until it goes away If you don’t the devil will cripple you down to nothing please KEEP your eyes on JESUS he loves you! The devil will lie lie lie because he hates God and he hates Christians do Not listen to him listen to God build your faith by listening to biblical preaching sound doctrine and music and everything that brings you close to God again God will work but not when we aren’t trusting him! TRUST GOD because why Not trust him ? Why listen to that devil he doesn’t care about you or your family except pulling everyone to hell because he knows it hurts God when we sin! No true believer will go to hell but the devil will make you think you are so you can’t reach others pray and Faith it till you Make it Hope in God
the enemy wants to win but you have to control him. your not losing your mind and at least you have God.