BREAKING STRONGHOLDS – PART ONE
(2 Corinthians 3:1-5)
Introduction:
I. Definition: A stronghold is a fortress, that in which, we put our earthly trust. All believers are in a war … a war with their adversary: the Devil (1 Peter 5:8), and his evil spiritual forces which he dispatches and assigns to perpetrate his wickedness throughout the world. The scripture says that we, “wrestle… against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:12).
- We are well aware of the evil characteristics of Satan, that he “kills, steals, and destroys” (John 10:10). But beyond his routine harassments, temptations or hit-and-run attacks, the Devil’s forces seek territory to establish long-term strongholds in which they may dominate and hold us captive. Satanic forces search for people, cities, and nations in which they are not resisted and where they may flourish.
- Strongholds can merely be a “strong” influence or grip, persistent oppression, obsessions, hindrances or harassment. Many Christians are the victims of Satan’s strongholds.
II. How to Break Strongholds ^ and keep them Broken!
- AUTHORITY — Every believer has the right to use the authority of Jesus’ name to bind and take authority over Satan’s activities. To all believers, Jesus said, “In My name they will cast out demons…” (Mark 16:17). “No one can enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man, and then he will plunder his house” (Mark 3:27). Issue a spoken command to the devil that he is bound and he must leave the stronghold! Exercising authority in the name of Jesus will expel the Devil’s influence. All Believers have Authority over the Devil. All Christians must be aware that God has equipped them to overcome Satan’s power. The Apostle Paul said that “the weapons of our warfare are not carnal (of a fleshly or earthly nature), but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds” (2 Corinthians 10:4). “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name” (Luke 10:17).
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INTERCESSION — Come together with other believers to pray and intercede against strongholds until you get results. There is intensified power in the gathering of more believers. Prayer with fasting intensifies faith, and faith will break strongholds. “Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, “Why could we not cast him out? However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting” (Matthew 17:19,21).
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DISPLACEMENT — Establish the presence of God. Where Satan has been commanded to leave, fill it up with God’s presence. Where the presence of the Lord is, the Devil isn’t! Satan doesn’t want to hang around where people are lifting up Jesus in worship, in singing and prayer. The presence of the Lord displaces the Devil. “For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness?” (2 Corinthians 6:14).
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SUBMIT and RESIST — The Bible says “resist Satan and he will flee.” The Devil runs from submitted, yielded Christians. He runs for his life from your life. “Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you” (James 4:7).
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OCCUPATION — Give no place or vacancy to the Devil. With Satan departed, fill the void with God. Let righteousness be the standard rule and behaviour. Provide no pocket of rebellion, corruption or immorality in which Satan can find refuge to rebuild his influence or strength. The scripture says “do not give place to the devil” (Ephesians 4:27).
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FORTIFICATION — Clothe yourself with God’s armour. Take upon you daily, the full array of God’s spiritual equipment that you may maintain battle-ready status. With the shield of faith, the sword of the Spirit (God’s Word) and the other links of armour (Ephesians 6:13-17), you will be ready to resist any satanic assault, and will be ready to engage the strongholds in others. “Put on the whole armour of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil” (Ephesians 6:11).
III. Let’s just take a look at the strongholds that bind too many lives in the church, that defeat the grace of God!
- Sexual sin: Being led around by your desires. This sin will take away God’s power from our lives, disqualify our ministry, take away our blessings, break our fellowship with God, and we can’t even know the will of God for our life when we are succumbing to sexual sin…”Flee fornication (1 Corinthians 6:18); “Flee youthful lusts” (2 Timothy 2:22); “Abstain from fleshly lusts that war against the soul” (1 Peter 2:12). There are more shipwrecks in the sea of sexual sin than any other ocean!
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Lack of Separation from the world: There is an absolute difference between the believer and the world…”love not the world” (1 John 2:15)
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Its wisdom is foolish.
- The Devil is in control of it.
- We are not to be conformed to it (Romans 12:2).
- We walked in it before salvation, so we are not to walk in it after we are saved (Ephesians 2:2).
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The steady stream of worldly information and experience that continually shaped our childhood perceptions is a great source of strongholds within us. Our parents perception of the world has been passed on to us. Our teachers perception of the world has been passed on to us. Our pastor’s perception of the world has been passed on to us. Jesus said we “will be like our teachers” (Luke 6:40). The amount of love (or lack of love) in our homes, our cultural environment, peer values and impressions, fears of rejection and failure, even our physical appearance and our IQ perceptions, all form our sense of identity and our view of life! “When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child, but when I became a man, I put away childish things”. (1 Corinthians 13:11).
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Trusting in self.
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Self-image, self-love, self-esteem, self-worth, self-awareness…selfishness!
- I want what I want when I want it! Have to have your own way.
- Can never see another’s point of view.
- I’m trying to find myself! The Word says, “lose yourself” and find Him!
- Feelings of rejection, which is based in pride.
- Feelings of: Worthlessness, wishing you had never been born, inferiority, depression, unhealthy introspection, self-condemnation, self-hatred, worries, doubts, fears, resentment, bitterness, rebellion, non-communicative, uncertain, distrustful, fears of failure, an inability to express love, intolerance, hostility, and a denial that any of these exist in the life, even though others see them clearly!
- The Self-Life is a miserable existence…You never seem to get your act together … and Satan loves for you to be like this!
- The Scriptures speak of “The will of the flesh” and it does have a will of its own energized by the devil!
- The self-life must be brought under the control of the Spirit of God through the Word of God…”Let God be true and every man a liar” (Romans 3:4). The only one who has the right to shape our lives is Jesus Christ!
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The only way to have God’s power on your life is through self-denial! This includes a denial of greed and materialism: Like getting rich, working several jobs, sacrificing church and family and relationship with God to get something, that’s not worth having after you get it! … How do I defeat this stronghold? “Set your affections upon things above not on things on the earth”
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PRIDE:
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Pride of Grace (My church, my denomination, disunity is a stronghold).
- Pride of Place (My job, my position, my authority, etc).
- Pride of Face, (Test pilots for Revlon)
- Pride of Race. Reconciliation is an absolute stronghold that withholds the blessings of God.
- God can not use you if you are hung up on any of these strongholds!
- Who is ruling your life? The world, The Devil, Self or God?
IV. The Over Comers (Revelation 12:10,11)
- By the Blood: “The blood of Jesus Christ, God?s Son, cleanses us from all sin.” “And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives unto death.” Our one source of cleansing, one source of life, one body, we are relatives we are “all in the family” This shedding of blood declares our common need of Jesus!
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Telling others what God has done breaks down strongholds and lets the enemy know what’s important to us!
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Total dependence upon God: We can never defeat the enemy as long as we harbour self-pity and self-indulgence. Our willingness to stand upon Scripture and Godly principle, even to the death if necessary, rather than betray our convictions of truth! If we won’t live for Him it’s a pretty sure sign we wouldn’t be willing to die for Him.
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Worship is part of our warfare… Corporate and personal
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In your worship keep your eyes on Jesus, not the worship leaders…They are just God’s instruments to lead us to worship.
- Too much unnecessary criticism of public services gives Satan a stronghold in the church! (Acts 4:24) “And they lifted their voice to God in one accord.”
- Do not harbour anything in your heart against any other person…If you have bitterness and bad feelings in your heart get is settled immediately!
- Seek to be consistent in prayer and intercession.
- Never be presumptuous…Don’t underestimate the power of the enemy… He can oppress us and invade our lives in such a way that we will deny the grace of God…Look at the apostle Peter: “I never knew Him.” “Satan wants to have you so he may sift you as wheat.
V. Getting to the Root of the Problem
- The devil’s primary strategy is to disguise his activities so that it appears that someone or something else is to blame. He wants us to get our attention on his surrogates, his instruments, his hindrances and “wrestle” with them, so that our battle will be directed against the “symptoms” instead of the “real source.”
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We all know that a decongestant will help relieve a stuffy nose, but it will not cure a cold. Likewise, you can fight with the symptoms of the Devil, but you will not end the problems until you deal with the source and bind the “strong man.”
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Remember when Peter resisted Jesus’ decision to return to Jerusalem, knowing that He would be crucified there? Jesus did not rebuke Peter, but turned to Peter and rebuked Satan. “Get behind me Satan” (Matthew 16:23). Peter wasn’t demon possessed, and probably didn’t intend to be an offense. However, the Devil inspired Peter’s statement, and Jesus went after the real source.
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Paul said that our battle is not with “flesh and blood” but with spiritual adversaries (Ephesians 6:12). How important it is that we understand what the real root of the problem is — “who” our real enemy is. It is Satan, not flesh and blood, not our brethren, not our family, not our children, not husbands and wives, not employers, nor our government! The Devil is the enemy!
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Binding the Strong Man. One time, after Jesus had cast out a devil and healed a deaf and mute boy, Jesus explained that in order to overturn the works and activity of the Devil, we must bind him first. “Or else how can one enter a strong man’s house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man? And then he will plunder his house” (Matthew 12:29). In order to neutralize the Devil’s works, we must go and deal directly with the source and bind up the devil so that his hands are tied. Then we’ll be able to take back what he’s stolen and bring a halt to his actions
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Many cities are strongholds of Satan. The symptoms of this are many. Often the local churches suffer senseless conflicts or unexplained problems. The congregations experience little growth, and the preaching of the Word is not easily proclaimed or well received by the community. These are the symptoms, but behind the scene Satan is the culprit. In such cases, those spiritual strongholds must be dealt with and bound for the ministry to be effective.
VI. All Believers have Authority over the Devil
- All Christians must be aware that God has equipped them to overcome Satan’s power. The Apostle Paul said that “the weapons of our warfare are not carnal (of a fleshly or earthly nature), but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds” (2 Corinthians 10:4).
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You may recall the time when the seventy disciples returned to the Lord rejoicing about the results of their ministry. They remarked, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in Your name” (Luke 10:17). But then, Jesus pointed out that the great marvel of this was that the devils were subject to them because their names were “written in heaven.” In other words, because they were saved — because of their relationship with Christ, they had authority over the Devil in the name of Jesus.
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Jesus has given all His followers — all those who know Jesus personally as their Lord and Saviour — the authority to use His name to expel the forces of evil. To all believers, Jesus said, “In My name they will cast out demons…” (Mark 16:17).
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Does God lead into temptation? (James 1:13)…”Let no one say when he is tempted I am tempted by God, for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone.”
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Where do temptations come from? The world, the flesh, the devil. We cannot ward off temptation and sin if we don’t know where to fight it. For example, Let’s say a bomb just exploded at Cape Canaveral … Troops are sent out through the surrounding area to try to find the terrorist, ships are dispatched to search the waters of the Atlantic – while at 65,000 feet, an enemy bomber is escaping! The point being, you can’t fight an enemy until you know from where the attack is coming!
3.Three different methods for detecting the attack. To misjudge the source of any attack, or to attempt a defense against one thrust with means adapted to meet another can only end in failure and defeat
4.Man is a tripartite being, body, soul, spirit…So the enemy attacks from three different angles…If we do not properly identify the area of attack we cannot possibly defeat the attacker.
* Against the soul: He brings the temptations of the world.
* Against the body: He brings the temptations of the flesh.
* Against the spirit: Satan comes himself, seeking to win the allegiance of the old spirit to worship himself.
On this day...
- Breaking Strongholds II - 2024
- Isaiah 2:22 - 2011
- Isaiah 2:11 - 2011
- Psalm 106:43-46 - 2011
- Psalm 106:28-31 - 2011
- Isaiah 1:15-17 - 2011
- 1 Samuel 27:1 - 2009
- ARE YOU FRESH FOR EVERYTHING? - 2009
- COMPASSIONATE LEADERSHIP - 2008
- Valentine's card from Pam - 2008
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