Spiritual Warfare – Strongholds and …

We have considered some aspects of strongholds as we have journeyed through Spiritual Warfare and the Armour of God.  Our enemy is only too keen to take a foothold and turn it into a stronghold!

Unfortunately, the concept of ‘strongholds’ has suffered a lot from “wounds received in the house of [its] friends”, so there may be a bit of unwinding to do here! Some Bible teachers have gone to some lengths to make this apply to spiritual principalities and powers, and associated it with territorial spirits (we will discuss this topic next week) and ‘taking cities for Christ’. I feel that this is a mis-application of the topic. Paul makes it quite clear that the strongholds are in the minds of his readers and we need to be clear on what he does mean and apply it to our own lives!

The key passage where this subject is discussed in Scripture is 2 Cor. 10:1-6. It’s quite possible that Paul had in mind how the Roman general (and later Emperor) Pompey defeated the pirates of Paul’s native Cilicia a few decades before Christ. The pirates would retire to their strongholds built into the cliffs, where they considered they were unassailable and had resisted all forms of attack – until Pompey built special ships with grappling irons that could be catapulted over the battlements. The ships then sailed away and pulled the strongholds down into the sea. The fleeing pirates were then captured by Pompey and brought into obedience to Rome! See this website for more details (and a good discussion of how to deal with Strongholds).

v.1-2 Background is Paul’s behaviour amongst them, recorded in Acts 18 and explained in 1 Cor. 2:1-5

And I, when I came to you, brothers, did not come proclaiming to you the testimony of God with lofty speech or wisdom. For I decided to know nothing among you except Jesus Christ and him crucified. And I was with you in weakness and in fear and much trembling, and my speech and my message were not in plausible words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power, so that your faith might not rest in the wisdom of men but in the power of God.

1 Cor. 2:1-5

Context of 2 Corinthians seems to be that the Corinthians were being seduced by pride in intellectualism (2 Cor. 11:3-6) and despising Paul’s straightforward teaching of Christ and the Cross.

v.2 walked according to the flesh – the ‘mind of the flesh’ is at enmity with God (Rom. 8:5-8) and it’s not eradicated when we are converted

v.3 who is he waging war against? The Greek word is Strateuomai and is found in other Scriptures which may help us to understand it:

• 1 Tim. 1:18 – Timothy’s calling and ministry (in 2 Tim. 3:4 – illustrated from military service)
• James 4:1 – lusts in us (that war in your members) causing us to fight and struggle against others
• 1 Pet. 2:11 – lusts in us warring against the soul

v.4 is the key verse for this whole series on Spiritual Warfare!

v.5 For we overthrow arrogant ‘reckonings,’ and every stronghold that towers high in defiance of the knowledge of God, and we carry off every thought as if into slavery–into subjection [obedience] to Christ; (Weymouth)

See what Paul is up against in chs. 10 – 12.

• Looking at, and judging people on, outward appearance (10:7; 11:5-6) – links back to factions and divisiveness in the first epistle (chs.3 & 4) – the carnal spirit has corrupted their judgement
• Rejecting divinely given authority (10:8-11) – started in 1 Cor. 4 with some exalting themselves against Paul’s authority and then in ch.9 accusing Paul with respect to how his ministry was funded
• Invalid comparisons (10:12) – what started as judging and despising one another in respect of eating things sacrificed to idols (1 Cor. 8) has matured into despising Paul in regard to spiritual matters
• Boasting in the achievements of other while demeaning true spirituality (10:13-18 – started as pride in allowing immorality (1 Cor. 5) and then over-reaction and being proud of it! (2 Cor. 7)
• Beguiled by satan, deceived by false teaching (11:2-4) – started with wrong ideas about sex and marriage (1 Cor. 6-7), the Lord’s Supper (1 Cor 10-11), spiritual gifts and order in the church (1 Cor. 11-14) the resurrection of the dead (1 Cor. 15)
• Matured into spiritual blindness (12:12-13)

How does he deal with this?

Objective: obedience to Christ: “insist that [every thought] bow in obedience to the Messiah” (TPT)

Strategy : taking captive, like prisoners of war, every thought – noiema: a perception, that is, purpose, or (by implication) the intellect, disposition, itself: – device, mind, thought.

Tactics: We tear down – as in storming a physical stronghold! Note the characteristics of what he is tearing down

• Arguments (reasonings – they are reasonable!) and every lofty opinion (height as in Rom. 8:39) – every defiant arrogant attitude
• That exalts itself, or is “raised up”, as in 2 Cor. 11:20, people raising themselves up over the Corinthians in order to take advantage of them
• against the knowledge of God – the act of knowing God, not just facts about Him

• The “arguments” are the philosophies, reasonings, and schemes of the world. The “pretensions” have to do with anything proud, man-centred, and self-confident. Rooted in lies and deception, so have to be countered with truth – the truth will set you free! Jn 8:32
• Discipline – continuing on Jesus’ word John 8:31 – which is the pre-requisite for freedom
• Glorying in weakness – countering their glorying in men and fleshly wisdom.

What is a stronghold?

Strongholds are ways of thinking that have become embedded in us, often subconsciously – a subconscious reaction.

A stronghold can be:

• Somewhere you go for safety and protection.
  It’s a wall to hide behind or something to trust in when you feel under attack or are uncertain of yourself or your situation.
• A place of comfort
  Are you a real worrier – the sort of person who worries if you’ve got nothing to worry about! The disposition of worry can be a comfort, like a pair of slippers or a comfortable armchair – it has the warm atmosphere of familiarity; we feel at home in it. We may have different strongholds but they can all have that comfort of familiarity – we may say “This is who I am, I have been like this since I was a child.”
• They can become prisons.
  So we become imprisoned by these old ways of thinking. They can limit our spiritual growth and adversely affect our walk with the Lord and with our fellow believers. Prisoners can become institutionalised and see it as a place of safety if they have been ‘inside’ for a lot of their lives. And the world outside can be a scary place! In the same way, getting free from the strongholds that control us can also be scary! Do we really want to be free?
• Something that controls you
  An automated response driven by something deep inside that you may not even know is there or understand
• Something by which you control some situation or somebody else.
• It’s a place where we may have believed the lies of the enemy maybe to the point that all hope is lost. We give up and give in to the idea that things will never change; we’ll never be healed, we’ll never get out of the mess, our kids will never be saved, or we’ll never be free from this addiction. Even though God can and will bring transformation in our lives, our minds have become impregnated with hopelessness. We’ve become bound by deception.

Where do they come from?

All the wounds of my past have been retained in my soul and are reflected in my character. Someone has said that we give our hearts to Jesus when we are saved, but we may not have given Him our minds. He’s saved our ‘souls’ but what about our minds and emotions? They need to be renewed. We’re quite good at controlling our behaviour but perhaps not so good at controlling our inner beings?

We gave Him our lives when we got saved – yes, our old lives but not our new lives! Jesus wants to transform our new lives and make us free indeed (John 8:32)

Rooted in iniquity

Our enemy plays to the old nature, the root of iniquity in us that the NT calls the ‘old man’, the ‘carnal nature’, that is not eradicated until we get to heaven. It wasn’t eliminated when we got saved – so we are instructed to consider it crucified with Christ (Rom. 6:6) and then to put to death its works (Rom. 6:11; Col. 3:5ff)

They can be places where satan’s throne is

But there’s another aspect to strongholds. Someone has said “Satan’s throne room is wherever a lie is believed.” The only real power that the enemy has over our lives is that which we give him. When you believe a lie you empower the liar … Spiritual warfare is really a battle for your mind; it’s a battle of what you will come into agreement with. Will you agree with God’s Word, which is truth (see John 17:17), or will you align yourself to the enemy’s delusions? Whatever occupies your mind directs your life. Believing lies over a course of time will establish a spiritual stronghold in your mind.

Wounds of life

• Insecurity – in childhood, financial, relational
• Rejection – in family or society
• Abuse – physical, sexual, mental, emotional
• Injustice – false accusation, deceptions
• Fear – of bad experiences, of the occult

Resulting in an inability to sustain real/whole relationships with others, and particularly with God as our Father, Jesus as our Lord and the Holy Spirit as our Comforter.

How do they get there?

Paul actually describes in these verses how fortresses (strongholds) are built, he said, “…speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God” (2 Cor. 10:5). “Speculations” describe imaginations, reasoning, and thoughts, and “lofty things” refers to something elevated that shouldn’t be.

We said earlier that strongholds are ways of thinking that have become embedded in us, often subconsciously, often caused by wrong thoughts about ourselves and others, but particularly about God (think Gen. 3!). If we bury or ignore these, they can just sink into our subconscious and control us from within – the ‘old man’ which has to be ‘crossed out’. So the answer to dealing with strongholds comes through the renewal of mind and spirit (Rom. 12:2; Eph. 4:23).

It may be that the wounds we have received during our past life are still lurking in the soul, not having been faced and dealt with. Or it could be guilt for what we have done. These are very real things which, although confessed and forgiven through Jesus, can be constantly replayed in our minds and bring feelings of guilt and condemnation. We looked at this a few weeks ago, but here we are considering how this impacts our lives and relationships.

The enemy is very good at rehearsing these things and accusing us, but they are lies! When the enemy speaks a lie, we should “take that thought captive” according to Paul (2 Cor. 10:5). Once that thought has been brought before Christ, if it doesn’t align to the Word then we cast it out. The moment that we entertain thoughts and imaginations that are contrary to God’s Word we start to build a wall. Over time, if we continue elevating lies above the knowledge of God, we will feel trapped, bound, and imprisoned in despair and hopelessness.

But how do we become aware of these?

Assuming that I have confessed all known sin, there can still be an awareness that the Lord is somehow a bit distant, or some difficulty ‘getting through’ in prayer. It may be due to some other factors which may, or may not, include some unknown stronghold, or false argument which we have allowed to gain a foothold, ‘lifting itself up against the knowledge of God’

Strongholds are marked by:

• An inability to sustain real/whole relationships in marriage, in family, in church or in society. Difficulty relating to others (can be many causes linked to our personalities – we plan to look at this next year)
• In particular, my relationship with the Lord. Am I walking in the consciousness of God’s presence with me?
• Identity crisis – not knowing who I am, or lack of confidence in my identity in Christ (our armour!)

The ultimate root of any stronghold is damage to our identity. This is the root of both emotional pain and strongholds. This is why Satan targeted Eve’s identity when he seduced her into sin in Genesis 3 and did the same thing when he tempted Jesus. Once identity damage is in place, he can suggest all kinds of “solutions” for our pain from unhealthy forms of self-medication to placation with things like anger or revenge. The ultimate solution for any stronghold is to heal the identity damage at the root of our wounds. This removes the base through which Satan is able to influence in the heart with his lies.

From https://healingthebroken.org/2020/05/03/a-biblical-definition-of-footholds-and-strongholds/

• Maybe there’s some ‘high thing’ lifting itself up against the knowledge of God. Things like:
  • Fear and worry, Despair and depression
  • The tendency to make mountains out of molehills
  • Pride, Rebellion, Selfishness, Attention seeking
  • Stubbornness, Self-justification, Always right syndrome
  • Can’t take criticism, Critical of others, Mental competition
  • Must be in control, Everything that goes wrong must be someone else’s fault
  • Obsessive behaviour – hedonism, obsession with appearance, addictions

How do we deal with them?

These are not things that can be dealt with by ‘being slain in the Spirit’, or a ‘power encounter’. They need careful and prayerful consideration – not navel gazing, but sensitivity to the leading of the Holy Spirit.

• It’s an issue of the heart!

Firstly, we must recognise that footholds and strongholds are not about power According to scripture, they are all about who influences the heart. That is why truth, not spiritual authority, sets you free.

Paul uses the Greek word “topos” to describe a foothold (Ephesians 4:27). Topos means “a place of influence.” When anyone has enough influence in your life, they wield power over you according to the amount of influence they have gained. Satan’s influence always comes in the form of a lie. That is one reason Jesus said truth, not spiritual authority, sets us free (John 8:32). This is why Jesus never said your path to freedom has to go through Satan. Jesus said to come directly to him (who is Truth) for rest and peace from burdensome lies (Matthew 11:28).
(From https://healingthebroken.org/2020/05/03/a-biblical-definition-of-footholds-and-strongholds/)

From https://healingthebroken.org/2020/05/03/a-biblical-definition-of-footholds-and-strongholds/

• Be open to the Word of God challenging us
• Be open to the Holy Spirit identifying areas that need clearing out
• The renewal of mind and spirit (Rom. 12:2; Eph. 4:23)
• Ask others! We all have blind spots which others may be able to see better that we ourselves. But ensure that you consult with a trusted spiritual mentor and advisor!
• Write down any strongholds or wrong thinking (lies) that you identify and then look for Scriptures which speak to those issues – and write them down as well. Then when you are tempted to go back to the old ways of thinking, look at what you ahve written – use the Word of God like a guided missile to destroy the strongholds.
• Be prepared to change!
  Growth = Change; Change = Loss; Loss = Pain; Growth = Pain

See “The Locked Room” for a much fuller discussion of how to deal with strongholds that have deep roots in our hearts.

The truth is that God is our stronghold

Psalms 37:39 But the salvation of the righteous is from Yahweh. He is their stronghold in the time of trouble

Isaiah 25:4 For you have been a stronghold to the poor, a stronghold to the needy in his distress, a refuge from the storm, a shade from the heat.