When It’s Spiritual Warfare – Radio Classic – Dr. Charles Stanley – How To Talk To God Vol 1 Pt 6

Imagine living in a war zone. The air vibrates with the rumble of constant detonations, and rubble crunches underneath your every footstep. How do you reclaim what the enemy has taken from you?

This is the reality of spiritual warfare. The good news is that the Bible directly addresses how to engage our enemy Satan so that we emerge victorious. In this message, Dr. Stanley shares how to identify and dismantle the strongholds of the devil.

With a message from God’s word, here’s Charles Stanley.
Now there are several reasons that our prayer life is so weak.
But one of the primary reasons is this, we are yet to comprehend the promises that god has given to us as to the release of the supernatural power of god when his people began to pray.
Instead of feeling weak the body of Christ ought to feel strong.
Not strength within ourselves, but strength because of our relationship to him.
Now prayer is more than asking and receiving, and prayer is more than expressing Thanksgiving and praise.
It is asking and receiving It is thanking him and praising him, but it is more than that.
And if you’ll turn to ephesians chapter 6 for a moment because in the 6th chapter of ephesians, as Paul begins to describe our warfare.
He begins in verse 10 saying, finally my brethren, be strong in the lord and the power of his might, Then he says put on the whole armor of god that you may be able to stand against the wiles, the trickery, the snares of the devil.
Then he describes what every believer has to face daily when we’re tempted, daily in our business and our home life, the system in which we face, but we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities against powers.
Against the rulers of the darkness of this world against spiritual wickedness and high places.
The body of Christ is in conflict with spiritual forces that would attempt to destroy it.
Now, if you’re in a war and you don’t even know that you’re in a war, more than likely, you’re going to get wounded.
And if you’re in a war and you don’t know who the enemy is, you’re working at a terrible disadvantage.
And if the enemy has a power base right in your front door and you’re not even aware that it’s there, you are bound to be defeated.
Well, that is exactly what Paul is dealing with in 2nd Corinthians chapter 10.
In this passage, Paul deals with a basic problem that every lost man has and every Christian has to some degree at some time of the or the other and I’m afraid for too many Christians all of their life.
And that is Satan’s strongholds in their life.
So I want to deal with 5 aspects of this, and the first one is to define what we mean and what Paul means here when he speaks of a stronghold.
He says in verse 4, the weapons of air warfare are not carnal, but rather spiritual, but mighty strong, powerful through god, to the pulling down of strongholds.
Now, a stronghold in the Greek is a fortified castle.
Now, of course, when he talks about strongholds, he’s talking about spiritual fortifications in our life.
So let me explain what I mean by that. A stronghold is a power base.
It is, um, as he says, a place of fortification.
That is, it is an area of weakness in our life, or something that we have not yielded to god that he has required, and we’re yet to yield it to him.
It is an area of weakness or it can be error in our thinking.
Satan is the father of all lies.
And if Satan can get you to believing a lie about yourself or about god or about someone else, he can take great advantage of that.
So when he talks about a stronghold, he’s talking about a power base that Satan has set up in our life.
Now, that can be more than one thing.
If it is an area of weakness, if it is, uh, an attitude or rather a, A stronghold of an action or habit that’s developed in your life, whatever it may be, it didn’t come all of a sudden.
And I wanna show you the steps by which a stronghold develops in a person’s lane.
But it is an area of weakness, something maybe that you have yielded to god that he keeps talking to you about, or it could be an area of misunderstanding error in your thinking that has made it possible for Satan to set up a stronghold.
Now, let me just, uh, illustrate what I mean by that. It can be some definite sin in your life.
It can be a stronghold of jealousy. It could be a stronghold of greed.
It could be a stronghold of lust. It could be a stronghold of resentment, of bitterness.
It could be a stronghold of rejection, of a poor self image, or a or a selfish thief.
It could be a stronghold that could be take on one of many forms and there could be more than one.
And you see any area of weakness that Satan discovers in your life and Satan is not omniscient.
He’s tested and tried all of us to the fact that he knows where we’re the weakest and when we’re the weakest, and he knows exactly when and how to hit us.
So if he gets a stronghold, an area that proves to be weak, he’s going to do what every military strategist will do to cover the weak point of the enemy and hit him at that point.
And if you hit him at that point and you succeed, hit him again. Hit him again. Hit him again.
That’s why we discover those areas of our life, whereas Satan keeps harassing us in the very same area.
He is succeeding. Why should he choose some other area? So it can be now. Listen.
It can be an area of weakness that is developed or error in our thinking and erroneous thinking and allowing Satan to deceive us successfully can create a tremendous stronghold in our life.
It is a power base from which Satan begins to harass and to destroy our entire life.
Now when we talk about, uh, the design of a power base, uh, a stronghold. What is Satan’s design?
He is the design of it. What is his ultimate objective for getting a stronghold in your life?
Some area from which he can really foul up your life. Well, his motivation drive a simple.
Because when you begin to look to see how he brings us the past, he is the one who designs it.
He looks at your life. In my life, he sees our potential for god, and then he finds a weakness, an area that you’ve not yielded an era in your thinking some point there that he sees is is an area of weakness made that you’ve not developed in your spiritual life, and he begins to hone in on that.
Alright. What is his design and all that? First of all, his design is to divide your mind.
And you and I know that if Satan harasses us in a particular area, or we discover some area of weakness that he begins to work on that can divide your mind.
Let’s say, for example, that you had a stronghold of jealousy.
And maybe there is just somebody in your life or somebody around whom you work that somehow Satan has just warped your attitude And you think that person’s better than you are.
You think they’re trying to get the best of you. You’ve got all kinds of attitudes about that person.
Well, Satan can use that one stronghold in your life to divide your mind.
You’re thinking about something else and that person pops up in your mind.
You think about some plan you’ve got, you think about what what if they’ll be there.
And so he is continuously dividing your mind through that stronghold.
Not only will he divide your mind, a stronghold is a power base from which Satan harasses us.
And here’s what he does. He lies to us, for example, and he attempts to discourage us.
And that is, he says, look what you’ve done there. You’ve gone and done it again.
What do you think god thinks about you? Don’t you know that god’s ashamed of you?
Don’t you know that god is disappointed with you? Listen, that is the devil’s lie.
Let me tell you why you could never disappoint god. Well, you just think about this. God is our mission.
He sees your whole life from beginning to end inside and out so that knowing your life perfectly, right, how could you disappoint god when he already knows what you’re going to do?
You can’t ever disappoint God because disappointment requires an expectation to which you and I do not live up to.
God already knows when you’re gonna blow it. He already knows when you’re going to sin.
He already knows when you’re gonna be obedient. So you and I cannot disappoint God.
We disappoint ourselves, and we heat condemnation upon ourselves because we think we don’t live up to god’s expectation Well, I wanna tell you something, friend.
God already knows your weaknesses, and he knows when you’re gonna fault and you’re gonna fall.
It is Satan who lies, doesn’t says, see there?
That we disappoint god, that we embarrass god, that we shame god. So therefore, we get him to Satan’s condemnation.
You see, he finds an area of weakness and then he keeps pointing his satanic finger at you saying, see that.
Look at you. Look what you’ve done.
Now, if you don’t realize what Satan’s doing, you get all under the load, saying, yeah, that’s right.
And you become discouraged. You see, one of the attempts to do with his power base is to discourage you in your Christian life, to harass you continuously.
And, listen, not only that. To bring on you a sense of self condemnation and also to involve himself and your relationships to other people.
So that you can’t get along with somebody else.
It may be your husband or your wife or your children or somebody you work with, but if he can get your attitude all warped and get you down, then your attitude, till the lord is wrong, your attitude, till other people begins to spill out on them.
And what happens? You began to spread your negativeism and your resentment and your bitterness and your appointment on someone else.
And all Satan’s doing is just clapping his hands, and then he’s just shouting all over hell because he’s defeating us.
And he’s defeating us because he’s found and he’s set up a power base, a stronghold, a fortification, and we’re not aware of it, we keep looking around to ask ourselves, why is it that Satan keeps getting the best numbers at that point?
Because it is an area of our life we have not dealt with.
So he just keeps on working to discourage us, to disillusion us, and how many people after all they said, look, I don’t I just don’t think this Christian life works.
Why don’t you think it works? Well, I’ll tell you why. Man, I’ve confessed this. I’ve repented of it.
I’ve read the I’ve been to revival meetings. I’ve been to seminars. I’ve been to Bible conferences.
I’ve been to Bible Studies. I’ve been to prayer groups.
And then I’ve got the same old problem, and nothing worked. I wanna tell you something.
How many times have you told god? I promise you ought to stack a Bible.
I’m not gonna think this or do this anymore. It didn’t last 30 minutes.
Because that’s not the way you get rid of Strongos. Satan’s too smart.
If it were that simple, he’d come up with something new, and he doesn’t need to come up with anything new because he knows exact how to defeat us.
A stronghold is a satanic power base that he’s moved into our life and he’s taken advantage of a weakness and he has sea doesn’t have thinking that after all this, and this is the devil’s lie, everybody’s got weaknesses.
That’s the truth. In some Arab of our lives, all of us have some weakness, some degree of weakness, not everybody the same.
So he says everybody’s got weaknesses. Everybody’s going to sin, You’re not gonna ever be perfect.
So he lays the foundation with all that stuff. Then he says, you might as well just relax.
And just enjoy life and not try to be perfect and not try to be righteous and try to be all these things because you’re not gonna ever be any better than you are.
Everybody is really alike, to some degree, the devil tells us. And so he says, man, just relax.
All he will say to someone, see it’s not working, You might as well quit reading the Bible and going through all this religious jargon because it’s not working.
Proof is, look at your life.
You’ve prayed and begged and pleaded and cried, and it’s not working, so just forget it.
And my friend, you’d be surprised of how many of god’s people have said, that’s right, man.
It just doesn’t work. Back slide on god.
Now, listen, they’re not happy and they are more miserable than they were when they were trying and being defeated, but they think it doesn’t work.
Why should I keep on trying something that doesn’t work? I don’t have time for any more burdens.
The Christianite has become one big whopping burden in my life.
And Satan’s just rejoicing all over himself because he’s telling lies and we’re accepting his lies.
Anytime, listen, any time any believer feels that god condemns him, he’s believing the devil’s life.
Because god has never condemned one of his children. That is purely from the devil.
But you see, he designs that stronghold. He moves into her life in a given weakness.
And what does he do? It just evolves from there until it overflows in every single aspect of your life.
Now the third thing I want us to notice here, and that is how does a stronghold develop in a person’s life?
Well, there are 2 ways they develop. Now watch this. The first one is involuntary. The second one is voluntary.
Let’s look at an involuntary one.
An involuntary stronghold is the result, a power base that Satan gets in our life as a result not of something that we have chosen on something that we do, but rather something that has been preprogrammed in their thinking.
It may be from childhood, from our parents, or the people we are associating with, or it may be later on in life, but thoughts that are fed into our mind.
And and as we begin to think, uh, these thing, these thoughts, whatever they may be, sometimes Satan can get a power base.
Example. Let’s say that you grew up in a home where your parents didn’t get along and your brothers and sisters, they fought and thrust all the time.
And you were the object of continuous criticism all the time.
Until you came along in your adult age, and you just felt like I’m no good, never can do anything, never will succeed at life.
I’ll never get the breaks in life And so you just live in the negative case all the time.
Satan will take advantage of what what entered your mind back down to involuntarily the things listen, the things you learned about yourself.
They were lies told to you by the devil, They were lies told you by somebody else, but Satan took advantage of somebody else’s very poor training, injected them into your mind, and he just takes that little tiny foothold and he just builds on that all of your life.
And I meet people all the time who have tremendous potential It is it you can see it on the inside once they begin to talk.
But at first, they’re all like this. I’ll never be able to mount anything.
I’ll never be able to succeed in life. I’ll never get the brakes. Things just don’t ever come my way.
And and they live almost as if it were emotionally deformed.
They just can’t quite straighten up in face life and believe that god could do something in their life.
Well, you see, that’s just one aspect and one illustration of how A person can be preprogrammed, and Satan will take advantage of what parents say to their children and set up a strong oath that can defeat them all of their life.
I mean, live a defeated life because of the lie that Satan injected in their mind You’ll never amount to anything.
You’ll never make it in life. You’ll probably end up in prison.
Well, as you look back in your life and think about maybe a stronghold, even today, that Satan may have in your life, where did it come from?
Is it something that somebody fed into your mind that you began to believe and they’ve been attitude in your life that has really been a problem all of your life?
Okay. That’s an involuntary, but what about the voluntary way?
How does a stronghold development and life rate as you and I are primarily responsible.
Now, listen, all of us are responsible for all the strongholds in our life, whatever there may be, it may be a stronghold of doubt.
It may be a stronghold of fear that somehow you’re always fearing the worst is going to happen.
Maybe you just can’t believe in people. You just can’t believe in god. You expecting the worst to happen.
And and and somehow, you just you just can’t get it together.
And and when you put all the pieces to life together, somehow they just never quite fit.
And you’ve got quite figured out why they don’t fit.
Does Satan have a stronghold of fear, a stronghold of doubt, Well, how does this develop voluntarily?
Well, let me just say something here first, and then I wanna give you about six words for you to jot down.
When you and I deliberately violate the law of god, we deliberately sin against god, and we think, well, you know, one sin is not gonna hurt anybody.
I mean, a little bit of sin never hurt anybody. What we say. That’s what the devil tells us.
And once in a while, we believe that a little bit more, a little bit of poison won’t hurt anybody.
Well, So young person comes along and says, look, you know, I wanna be a Christian, but, uh, I’m gonna wait till I get to be about 25.
When I have really enjoyed myself as it becoming a Christian, you ceased to enjoy yourself.
But that’s the devil’s lie. Once I get to be about 25, then I’m gonna turn my life over to god.
I wanna tell you something. Satan can get a foothold in your life as an unbeliever.
And even after you are saved, unless you understand what’s happening and deal with it, Satan will come right back and he will establish that foothold and that stronghold in your life and he will harass you even as a believer every day of your Christian life unless you’re able to identify, see what’s happening and learn how to deal with it.
So here’s what happens. How does one start? This is the way it starts.
First of all, it starts with a thought. Every stronghold begins with a thought.
It may be a thought about greed, jealousy, lust, or whatever it might be, but it begins with a thought.
The thought moves into consideration. That is once the thought enters your mind, you begin to think about it.
You begin to look at all the aspects of it.
It’s like uh, jewel, you turn around, see hat reflects in every angle. So a thought becomes a consideration.
A consideration becomes an attitude.
The more you think about it, the more you are prone to start thinking in that direction.
So it becomes an attitude. The attitude becomes an action.
You think it long enough and you lean in that direction long enough, the the attitude is gonna become an action.
The action, if con if repeated over and over and over again, is gonna become a habit.
And the habit is going to become a stronghold.
So you began with a very innocent thought which you considered and you considered careful and you considered often.
It became an attitude that developed in your spirit, in your mind, your heart. The attitude became an action.
After a while, you had to vent what you were thinking.
The action repeated once, twice, three times, ten times, a hundred times, became a habit.
And the habit before long, you understood it was no longer you that was in control.
Now the habit is controlling you.
Satan has a power base in your life, And when he really wants to bring you down to the feet, he just calls the play and down you go.
And that’s the way a stronghold develops in a person’s life. And it can develop in a young person’s life.
It can develop in an adult’s life, but you see what you and I have to remember is once a thought comes through our mind, listen, watch this.
Once a thought comes into your mind, every single, evil, thought carries with it the potential of becoming a stronghold from which Satan will harass and defeat and divide and deli disillusion your whole Christian experience.
Run your testimony ruin your usefulness before god, limit your usefulness before god, embarrass you before others.
That’s why we have to be very careful what comes through our mind that we grab and begin to consider.
Many things come through and keep going.
Many things ought to come through and keep going that we oftentimes grabs let me just think about this.
It certainly isn’t gonna hurt me to think about it.
And all the times we are considering it, what’s happening is, it’s like the roots are beginning to grow.
If it just comes through and keeps going, nothing happens.
But if we grab it and consider it, while we consider it, the moon root that begin to grow into an attitude, the attitude becomes an all consuming thing.
And before long, the body has reached out or we have moved out or have spoken or done something, which is the result of an attitude, the action, and then what?
Not one time, but twice, 5, 10, 20, and then there becomes the habit and then there’s the stronghold.
Satan has a power base that began with a simple thought.
That you consider that first simply for a moment you would think about it.
As you think about the stronghold or strongholds.
And you you see, somebody said, stronghold, man, I got a whole bunch of you can have a cluster of them.
Not just one, but many. You can have several areas of your life on several situations where when Satan hits you there, it’s just like you just automatically down.
And you may have resistance in some areas, but you think, why is it in this area?
I have no resistance. Why is it in this areas, Satan hits me and down I go. I promise god I plead I beg. I pray. I do all of these things and still to no avail.
Because you see, it isn’t just an act, my brother. It is a stronghold. Satan has a power base.
And when that thing explodes down, you go.
So that is the way a power base, a stronghold develops in LA.
And the next thing I want us to see is this. How do you detect one of these things?
Anyway, he said, well, have I do I have one of these or do I not?
Well, I think there’s several things that you and I can ask ourselves.
First of all, listen, the area or the act or the thought in your life about which you make this statement.
I don’t know why I keep doing that.
I don’t know why I keep thinking that.
I don’t know why I seem to be weak in that area.
Friends you have identified right then and there a stronghold, or anything that we do to access, anything that becomes excessive in our life, regardless of what it may be, becomes a stronghold.
Anything that we do to says it can be pleasure. It can be eating. Makes no difference.
What it is, anything that becomes excessive in our life is an indication that’s a stronghold.
And so, Satan, he just works as open that area.
So when you begin to look at your life and you think, well, do I have into strongholds?
Are there areas that I have to keep battling? Areas of weakness that just keep coming up?
Uh, things that I keep on confessing. The same old thing over and over again.
Keep on repenting of the same thing.
And listen, the 149th time you repented of it You were just as sincere as you were the first time, and god knows that.
Now watch this so you won’t misunderstand what I’m saying. Listen.
God has forgiven his children of all their sin past present and future.
So when you and I say, lord, I’m just coming to confess this thing to you again. God understands.
But listen, god does not condemn us even for our wrong because for his children, He knows our heart.
He knows how many times you have bent, how many times you have yielded.
And in the very process, you said, god, you know, I don’t I don’t want to yield a sin I wanna be obedient to you.
God knows your heart. God isn’t condemning you. Listen.
The reason that god humanly speaking gets upset, if you and I could put in those terms, is not because of what we’re doing to him.
It’s because of what he sees, sin is doing to us. God’s anger is at the devil.
God’s anger is at sin. God does not condemn his children. He sees our weaknesses. He’s not disappointed.
He knows our faults, our failures, and god is never gonna heat condemnation on his children.
The thing that this serves the heart of god is that he sees that Satan has a power base in their life, and god sees how effective Satan is in limiting our reaching the potential that god has for us.
He sees what sin does to us. He sees what it does to relationships. He sees how it limits us.
He sees how it steals our joy. He sees how it makes us miserable and unhappy.
God sees all of that, and that is what grieves god’s heart. God isn’t in heaven angry at his children.
He’s in heaven grieved over seeing us allow and continuously allow Satan to hinder his will in our life.
That’s what disturbs god. So if you see an area of your life that Satan keeps on having the victory, you just put a big circle around that and right in capitals across it satanic stronghold because that is exactly what it is.
Now the big question is, what do I do to eliminate that stronghold?
How do I get the victory?
How is it possible for me to be able somehow to be delivered from a satanic struggle?
Or should I go back to this passage for a moment?
Because I’ve hardly mentioned it, but I want you to see something.
In verse 4, he says, the weapons of our warfare.
So we’re talking about spiritual warfare, are not carnal, they’re not fleshly, but they are spiritual.
He says, not carnal, but mighty, that is strong through god. That is they are divine.
Listen, they are supernatural weapons. They are not human weapons. They’re not fleshly weapons. They are supernatural weapons.
He says, by these weapons, we can pull down, demolish, destroyer, root out those fortifications casting down same Greek word, pulling down, uprooting demolishing.
Listen, imaginations that is wrong reasoning. Imagination is wrong or reasoning.
If I reason the way Satan wants me to reason, I’m gonna reason myself right into his trap.
He says that he wants to pull down the stronghold, the wrong reasonings, and every high thing, every high thing that itself against the knowledge of God.
Now, listen, watch this. Oftentimes believers have attitudes and thought concepts about god that are erroneous.
And he says that the weapons of our warfare will pull down demolish and root out these reasonings and wrong thinkings and wrong attitudes that are contributing to Satan’s continuing his power base in LA.
That is we’ve got to root out the wrong thinking. We’ve got to see things as they are.
And Satan has these oftentimes he has this, uh, stronghold all covered up.
So we say, well, now, you know, that’s certainly couldn’t be the problem.
I’ve heard people sit and tell me, listen.
I may have problems, but I know vets the problem is just like god’s saying that is the problem.
But you see Satan is so cunning and so smooth. He’s a master at camouflaging the truth.
So he says, we must pull them down.
Those things are against the knowledge of god and bringing every thought.
Listen, every thought that is every every human device in obedience to the desire and to the will of god.
Now listen. How is it possible for a child of god to be delivered from a stronghold? Alright.
I wanna give you several words here, and I want to illustrate one of them to go back to show you something.
First of all, number 1, I’ve got to acknowledge that I’m in a warfare.
If you just say, well, now, I don’t see any war going on, then friends, you are deceived.
We are in a spiritual battle continuously.
First of all, I’ve got to acknowledge the fact that I’m in the warfare.
Satan is doing everything in his power to defeat me, harass me, divide my mind, destroy me, he’s trying to do the same thing to all of us.
Alright. Secondly, I must identify specifically and call it by name identify that stronghold.
It may be 1 or 2 or 3. It may be pride. It may be greed.
It may be a sense of rejection. Nobody likes me. Nobody loves me. I love to get anywhere in life.
Whatever it may be, you’ve got to be willing to be honest and identify.
If you don’t identify it, Satan will keep on trip you up.
So first of all, I’ve got to acknowledge that I’m in a warfare.
Secondly, I’ve got to be willing to identify what that particular, uh, stronghold is.
The third thing is the source. Now, watch this.
If you can trace the source of that stronghold, it is absolutely amazing what’ll happen.
Let me just give you an example of something that, uh, happened to me.
Some time ago, and I was asking all just to show me and and examine my heart.
And, uh, I knew that I had a real problem with impatience.
So I I had to begin to realize, lord, that isn’t just me.
That is a satanic stronghold in my life.
So I began to pray when I thought, I’m gonna find out where that comes from.
I’ve got to find the source of that. So I’ve been praying for a little while.
It hadn’t been too long. Maybe about 25 5 minutes and so forth.
And so I finally decided, well, that’s probably one of those things that you’ll never be able to trace, you know, probably been pay impatient all my life.
And so I said, I either sort of choke thaten off as one of those that you never find the source.
I started to get up And at that time I started to get up, here’s what I saw. I remember where it was, so I know how old I was. I was four years of age.
I was dressed in white short pants. White shirt, short sleeve. I was blonde.
My hair was all slick down. I had on white shoes and white socks.
And my mother said, having bathed me and dressed me and fixed me up just right, now, Charles, don’t you go outside You sit down here and you be quiet and don’t you get dirty.
So then, having got me all dressed up, I had to wait till she started mean, she had to go take her bath and go fix her hair and do all those things.
So in about 5 minutes, I’m saying, mom, are you ready? No. I’m not ready. About 10 minutes later?
Mom, are you ready? Now listen, an hour and a half for a four year old is forever.
That’s forever. And I began to see something.
That I can remember. I can I I get I get angry?
Why doesn’t she come on? We were going to town.
She was gonna buy me something And here I was all dressed up. Besides that, I couldn’t even get dirty.
And and that was the thing that made it so bad.
And I had to keep waiting and keep waiting and keep waiting and keep waiting and keep waiting and hour is forever for four year old.
Well, when I saw that I thought, lord, I see the source of that.
I’ve been impatient when it came to going somewhere.
When it comes to going somewhere, I’ve always been ready to go right now.
As soon as I saw where that came from, that came straight out of my childhood.
And so I began to see every time that I would become, irritated. Everybody was ready.
That’s little child saying, mama, let’s go. Let’s get on with it.
You are gonna take me to town to buy me something.
Let’s go on and get on with it right now.
Satan had taken something involuntary in my life, And he’d use that to harass me, irritate my family, cause them to get upset with me because I’ll tell you there have been times when I’ve been hard to get along with when they are 15 minutes late.
And you see, and I remember what, uh, somebody said to me one time, until you learn that, you’re gonna keep up with the same problem.
Well, I’m brought to begin to believe that’s true.
As soon as I saw that, god just freed me.
So I thought, okay, lord, the test, I’m gonna get tested within 2 days for sure. Sure enough.
About 15 minutes late, I just said, praise the lord. Praise the lord.
Because I knew I knew exactly.
Little four year old Charles wanna come out and say, let’s get on with this thing. Let’s come on.
And I wanna tell you something, god began to free me of impatience and irritation about being late.
Now if I told you that I’m totally cured, I’d be afraid to tell you that.
But as I began to do that, I I began to search out some other areas of my life, and I think, well, lord, If this is the source of that, I wanna find out what else is back there.
And my friend, if you’ll take the time to get on your face before god and tell him that you want him to straighten out your life and you want him to remove any and every toehold, foothold, stronghold, fortified castle in your life You want him to do it.
I guarantee you, you will be amazed and surprised what he’ll carry you back to.
And they won’t all go back to your childhood. Someone may go back 6 weeks.
Uh, 2 months or 3 months or 6 months or 5 or 10 years.
You don’t have to always find the source, but I’m telling you that is a tremendous help because you see the real problem of what all started.
Okay. The next word. Not only must I acknowledge him in a warfare, I must be willing to identify for what it is, I must be willing to trace it back to its sword as I can in number 4, I need to go to god in prayer.
Now, under that, I want you to put 4 words because these are the weapons of our warfare.
And if you just say that lord blessed me, it’s not gonna work.
He said the weapons of our war, therefore, number 1, the word of god.
And you find a passage or a series of passages of scripture that deal with the stronghold or strongholds that you are trying to deal with.
If you’ll do that, god, he’ll just bring the scriptures to your mind.
Get in the scriptures, just tell the Lord.
You wanna deal with that area, so you want the scriptures to deal with So first of all, get the word of god in your heart, begin to read it and search the scripture number 2.
Yes. You recall he said in the name of Jesus, the name of Jesus, is a second part of our weaponry.
He said at the gate, Peter and, uh, John said, silver and gold have our none, but such as I have give on to the in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth rise up and walk.
He said, whatever we ask in his name, we’re to come to god and to face the devil.
Listen, with the word of god and, secondly, in the name of Jesus Christ, which the devil cannot tolerate.
The third part of that weaponry is the blood of Jesus, which is like a shield to cover us because you and I are facing Satan.
And I wanna tell you, if you think Satan’s gonna give up the stronghold in your life easier, you got another thought coming.
He’s not gonna do Man, that’s his power base. That’s where he works from.
Says in Revelation chapter 12 by the blood of the lamb, they overcame the evil one.
All the way back in the garden of Eden, what did god do?
The Bible says he gave Adamine’s skins, which means he killed an animal, But let’s go to the Passover, that first Passover in Egypt.
When the death angel came like a fog moving over the whole nation of Egypt.
Where there was no blood on the dole lintel, the first born died.
Where there was blood, the death angel could not harm them.
The blood of Jesus Christ has always been symbolical of his protection.
It is our means of access before the throne of god.
How do we get to the throne of god?
Our access, he says, is through the shed blood of the lord Jesus Christ.
What is our protection when we do battle with Satan? It is the blood of Jesus Christ.
When you and I pray, we pray heavenly father in the name of the power, the authority of the lord Jesus Christ.
Under his protection of his shed blood, Then we deal with Satan.
You and I face Satan in warfare ruling out, pulling down demolishing strongholds under the protection of the blood of Jesus Christ.
And the last weapon is the Holy Spirit.
The power of the Holy Spirit, he says, he that is within you, is greater than he that’s in the world so that the Holy Spirit within us under the canopy of the blood of Jesus Christ in the name of Jesus Christ and the authority of his word can demolish, pull down, uproot, and destroy any and every single stronghold in our life.
And god is willing to do it when you and I want to face Satan with those 4 weapons, Satan’s gonna run every single time.
But I’m gonna tell you, It’s gonna be tough, and it’s gonna be difficult, and he’s not going to give up easy.
He’s going to fight you to the bitter end with with your doubts.
And that’s the next word I wanna give you is faith.
You’ve just got to believe if you do what god says, listen, It is the will of god not to have strongholds in your life.
It is the will of god to root them out. It is the will of god to have victory.
Is the will of god, him to have his way in your life. 1st John chapter 5, 14, 15.
It is the will of god, and you and I can come to him and plead the blood of Jesus Christ in his name or the power of the Holy Spirit based on the word of god specific word of god about specific strongholds and praise god and thank him for their demolishing, their overthrowing, and ridding them out of your life.
The biggest battle you’ll have is the battle of fear.
Now the next word I’m gonna give you is this, and that is vigilance because he is exactly what’ll happen.
You asked god to remove a strong hope.
Had it happened to me and many other people you ask him to remove a stronghold in your life.
And then listen, if you just walk away and say, well, I’m glad to get rid of that one.
Praise the lord. What’s next? I wanna tell you.
You give Satan a few days, and he’ll be right back with a toehold that’ll fill up into a foothold that’ll become a stronghold right in the same place.
So I kept asking myself, lord, how is it that Satan can come? What is it that we must do?
Here’s what I think he showed me.
Once you ask god to move that stronghold, then you must you see, then that leaves a void.
You there’s got to be healing in that area. How do you heal the place of a stronghold?
You heal it with the word of god?
So you begin to meditate upon the scriptures that deal with that stronghold.
You begin to feel your mind and your heart What you’re doing is you’re building up your defense so that you become sensitive in that area, keenly sensitive in that area so that what once before Satan would trip you up, you can see him coming a mile down the road.
And what happens is, little by little, as you and I are diligent and vigilant in that area, god just heals that area, but you cannot ask him to remove the stronghold and walk off and forget it.
The healing process must take place. It time for it to take place.
And the thing that heals it is the saturation of the mind of the word of god about that particular area.
And my friend, regardless of what the stronghold may have been, god will move it out, root it out, defeat the devil, But if he’s going to remain out of your life in that given area, my friend, it all hinges upon your willingness to sack your rate, your mind and heart and thoughts with the word of god until that air in your life is healed.
Now I can share those things with you, but I can’t make them work.
You have to decide if you’re willing to yield that area of your life and if you’re willing for god through you to root out those strongholds in order to free you to become the person god wants you to be.
Our father, we thank you and praise you that you’ve not left us to Stake tricks, his snares, his manipulations, his connivings, but you’ve warned us against him.
You said we are fighting against principalities and powers.
Satanic power, but you said he that is within us is greater than he that’s in the world.
The Holy Spirit in one believer is more powerful than all the satanic forces in all the earth and all the universe and all the worlds that there may be.
One believer filled with the Holy Spirit represents more power than all that Satan can put together.
So we wanna thank you for the victory, for the liberty, for the freedom that is how was in Christ.
That we do not have to yield. We do not have to surrender to him.
We do not have to give up. We do not have to go down in defeat.
But we can live moment by moment, day by day, trusting in the power of the Holy Spirit of the living god who indwells us, for he is our victory.
He is our peace. He is our strength.
And as our heart and mind is saturated with the truth of him, and all of Satan’s lies are routed.
Then we know that the victory, the peace, the joy, that we want daily in our life is available to us.
I pray, father, that you will sink this truth deep into the heart of every hero, and give them the initiative to put it into action in their life for freedom and liberty and power and usefulness are the results when Satan is defeated, and you, lord Jesus, have freedom and total reign and every aspect of our life.
And this is my prayer in Jesus’ name and for his sake.