This Is Why You Need To Take Prayer More Seriously! There Are Real Strongholds Out There..
as an enemy the devil will never present someone else's weakness or struggles to you he will not plant a thought about alcohol when he knows you struggle with lust no he will always find the area that you are the weakest in and he will use that against you that's why it's so important for us to be honest with ourselves and look introspectively at the areas we need deliverance from because the enemy will see that as a route to disrupt our walk with Christ this point is supported by second Corinthians 2 verse 11 where the Bible says so that we would not be outwitted by Satan for we are not ignorant of his designs the devil is witty and has evil designs so we must be diligent we must be vigilant we must be alert and always on guard against any potential breach by the enemy in our minds as children of God we reject the enemy schemes we rebuke every seed that the enemy attempts to plant in our minds we trust in the blood of Jesus Christ to break every chain and we look to Jesus to continually help us to work out our salvation so if there is an area that you can identify in your life don't be condemned but be convicted to fight the good fight so how do you identify a stronghold the best way to identify what the stronghold you face in your life is you have to look at the area in your life where you face a constant battle the area that you struggle the most and the reason you need to identify this is because the devil is cunning and deceitful he will know what the giant or stronghold struggle is when we talk about defeating your pharaoh we're talking about strongholds we're talking about those chains that restrict you and pull you backwards into oppression when we talk about Pharaoh we're talking about obstacles in the spirit realm that try to stop your destiny as a child of God and so when we Face a pharaoh in our lives we need to pray with aggression and realize this is not a game your life is not up for grabs to be ruled by anything oppressive your life is not to be ruled by anything unclean you have been made free in Jesus Christ you have been liberated you have been washed clean by the blood of the Lamb you have been redeemed by the Lord so there is no room for a stronghold to take hold of you now you need to understand that pharaohs come in different forms for some it's family problems others it's hopelessness and a discouraged spirit for others it's health problems and fear but let me tell you that there is no Pharaoh too big no giant too strong for you as a child of God no stronghold can withstand the power in the name of Jesus Christ so we defeat Pharaoh we defeat strongholds by relying on God's promises we defeat Pharaoh by submitting to Jesus Christ now I would like to point out the different types of strongholds that we can potentially face Giants and strongholds come in different forms sizes and shapes here are some common strongholds that affect people's lives unforgiveness manipulation Pride lying drunkenness sexual sin anger fear let me just highlight a couple of examples fear is a stronghold because we are told that God has not given us a spirit of fear that's something we are not given but when someone becomes ruled by fear and governed by the spirit of fear then it becomes a stronghold this is not to say that you cannot feel fear you can but children of God are not should not be ruled by fear and when it comes to unforgiveness we are told in the Book of Matthew to forgive 70 times seven which symbolizes boundless forgiveness so for anyone who keeps grudges who keeps a scorecard that becomes a stronghold apart from opening up the door to sin in your life it's also important to have an awareness of all the other places where strongholds or Giants can come from unrepented sin family bloodlines false or wrong patterns of thinking so how can unrepented sin become a stronghold let's take this man as an example a Christian man who lies consistently he is aware that he's lying yet he persists to lie he chooses not to repent because in his mind he feels the need to tell all of these lies otherwise how is he going to look to people and what will they think about him he doesn't want to give off the wrong impression he wants to fit in going back to our definition at the very beginning a stronghold is a mindset that hinders your growth so it's important to realize that this skewed way of thinking will hinder his growth as a Christian as this man continues to practice the activity of sin and continues to lie without repenting and I mean without truly repenting and turning away from sin he doesn't realize it but it becomes a stronghold [Music] so how can this man be delivered the solution for this man is a he gains knowledge of the word of God if he starts spending time in the word of God he will find out that Proverbs 12 22 says lying lips are an Abomination to the Lord but those who deal truthfully are his Delight be when he finds out point a that God hates lying lips this is where the renewal of the mind starts to take place where he thought he needed to lie or had to lie because he wants to maintain a certain image his thought process now starts to shift into alignment with God's word see this is where the conviction of the Holy Spirit comes in and it causes this man to repent and have a desire to turn away from that sin this entire process takes a bit of time because you don't renew your mind or change your thought process to God's word in a day you need to meditate and dwell on his word allowing the Holy Spirit to work in your heart and break that stronghold this is a very simple illustration but I hope it gives you some clarity on how strongholds form and how we can be set free [Music]