Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: RSS

Breaking Strongholds – Finding Liberty in Kingdom Living

  • Remember, in the process of breaking strongholds, the first step is recognizing your captor.
  • The second step is standing in agreement with God.
  • The third step is tearing down the lies.

Picture the captivity of our thought life like a prison cell wallpapered in lies.  The demolition of strongholds really begins when we expose and tear down the lies fueling our stronghold.

  • Deception is the glue that holds a stronghold together.  By the time a stronghold exists, our minds are covered with lies.
  • Satan uses lies because he is a totally defeated foe.  Lies are all he has.  Thank about a stronghold you have battled or may be battling.
  • You have agreed with God about the stronghold and confessed the sin involved.
  • You have risen to your feet in the spirit.  God sees your willingness to be free and your faith to believe.  He could accomplish what you are powerless to do.
  • He then begins to open your eyes to the lies plastered like graffiti on the walls of our mind.

Now, you begin to recognize the lies wallpapering the prison of your mind, and then you begin to receive His divine strength to rip the lies down.  Picture yourself with eyes pried open to the lies.  Think of what a few of them are.    The most powerful lie and stronghold in my life came from childhood victimization.   I believed all the lies spoken over me as a child and unwittingly these lies carried over into my adulthood. They just became who I was….

  • Ask the Lord to show you what the lies are.  Step out in faith and begin to write them down.   Then find out what God says about you from His word.

We must first ask God to help us see the lies that has been spoken to us for our whole lives, either by the enemy or by people.

  • Ask him where they came from?
  • When we start tearing down the lies that wallpaper our minds, which keeps us imprisoned to our thoughts, the prison doors begin to swing open.
  • It is important to remember that Satan does not have the power to lock us in a prison of oppression.  He tries to talk us into staying there with “The Voice” because he lacks the power to keep us there.
  • He can’t force us into prison cells nor can he make us stay there.  When we agree with him we tighten the lock on the prison doors even more.
  • Unbelief is deceitful.   The demolition of a stronghold really begins when we expose and tear down the lies lining our prison cell.
  • Deception is the glue that holds the lies together because it has taken over our mind.

These are the pictures we get of ourselves that holds us captive to our own misery.  There are many lies people use as wallpaper to keep them in prison in various areas.  You will probably be directed by God to deal with one stronghold at a time…actually, it is only as the Lord reveals to you that you have one in a certain area that you can deal with it…you don’t have to go looking, for if you are suffering defeat in any area it will make itself known.  Now you know what it is…a stronghold.

Faith has to be incorporated.  Remember you can’t see faith, and you can’t feel it either.  I usually feel the opposite.  Do it anyway.  Remember the Jordan River didn’t part until the priests stepped into it and probably got their feet wet.  But then it parted and they walked though on dry ground.

  • If you know a stronghold exists somewhere in your life, and you still can’t identify the lies, then you are still a captive.
  • Remember Romans 8:1 says there is no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.  But there can certainly be captivity.  If you’ve not yet recognized the lies keeping you glued to the prison cell, please ask God to drop the scales from your eyes and help you see….He will do it….

You shall know the truth and the truth will set you free.

  • Remember, Satan lacks the authority to lock believers in prison of oppression, so he works overtime to talk us into staying there.  He can presume no authority over believers.  He can’t make us enter the prison nor force us to stay.   He cannot inhabit our minds if we have Jesus.  But the word suggests that he can strongly encourage ideas, doubts, and thoughts in our minds.

Remember this:  According to 1 John 4:4…you, dear children, are from God and have overcome them (evil spirits) because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.  Meditate on that!!