Strongholds: A Wierd Word

It is interesting, this word stronghold. In some charismatic realms we use it to identify areas where people need some major healing in a particular area in their life. We hear of praying to bring down strongholds. Now I have not begun to read the book, Battlefield of the the Mind, but I did glance at the first page. Actually what I had looked at on the first page was the verse IICor 10:4&5 "For the weapons of our warfare are not physical but they are mighty before God for the overthrow and destruction of strongholds. Casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God and brings into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ". Now I know we will be looking into this further, but for now lets us know and believe from this verse we know we have weapons to bring them down.

But what is a stronghold? Many times we hear people praying for God to break the strongholds, or for the stronghold to come down. But what does that really mean? Is it only for someone who is heavily involved in drugs, alcohol, lust or an area where there is noticably no victory? At times we speak of things but we don't bring it down to our every day level. God opened my mind to a new understanding of the word stronghold.



As I read in Proverbs 21:22, "A wise man scales the city of the mighty and brings down the trusted stronghold." As I first read this verse the word that jumped out at me was TRUSTED. What stronghold am I trusting in. Basically to simplify the word we can ask the question, "What has a Strong hold on me? Asking the question this way we can see it can basically mean anything that has a stronger hold on us than the Lord.

Walls were built around cities to protect them. Strongholds are for our protection. In the BIble it speaks of some specific strongholds. It was considered a stronghold for either the way it was built or it's location. God mocks the Edomites because they trusted in their mountain stronghold. People trusted the stronghold of Petra because it was built out of the face of a rock mountain. When the enemy would come the people would run to the stronghold.

We trust a stronghold because we feel it will protect us. In the spiritual a stronghold is anything that has a stronger hold on us than God. Strongholds are inanimate, abstract, words ideas, thoughts. The outcome of what we trust in can turn to anger , envy, jealousy, bitterness, lust, depression, alcoholism, drug addition or any addiction for that matter. Lets's think about it. When something happens even on a small scale in our daily life what does our spirt respond to? Where do our thoughts run to? What action is produced?

God opened up my mind to unerstand a basic value He has blessed me in over certain time periods of my life. I really could not put into words until now. I know the areas of victory in my life were because of what I believed. The Word of God has a stronger hold on me in certain instances then the lie of the enemy even when my emotions did not match. This means my emotions believed the lie but my heart and mind believed God over my emotions Our problem especially in the charasmatic realm is we want our emotions to line up with what we believe.

We sing of God being our Strongtower, our stronghold? But practically what does that mean? In big trials it easy to run to HIm and trust Him for we are pushed to Him due to bigger trials. But in the everyday? In this verse of Proverbs it says " A wise man scales the city of the mighty and brings down the trusted stronghold." If we are to scale the wall we need to not be afraid to get close enough to it to climb it. We need to recognize this is teh stronghold, take a hold of it, climb it and bring it down. We must have our trust be in what the Word of God says. That must have a stronger hold on us than any thoughts coming into our minds.

As we begin this Bible Study lets really look atthe problem areas of our life and how we respond to them. What is our thought life like? What do we think about, even of ourselves? Are we trusting in the one true Stronghold of Our Lord Jesus Christ?