Strongholds

Strongholds

Stronghold: A place having strong defenses, a fort, a fortified place, a place of security. (Webster’s Dictionary)

Or else, how can one enter into a strong man’s house, and spoil his goods, except he first bind the strong man? And then he will spoil his house. (Matthew 12:29)

A stronghold is the strong man’s house. The stronghold and the strong man is about the same. In my experience, I have found out that a stronghold is formed when a person believes a lie from Satan.

I have a friend that was at an evangelistic meeting once, and she heard something from the evangelist that did not make her feel at peace. She asked the Lord, and He explained, “He has believed a lie”. Believing a lie from the devil is the greatest obstacle to receiving deliverance. Believing a lie is a stronghold, the demon that dwells in the stronghold is the strong man, safe and secure in his fortress. Who is the strong defense of this demon? The person who has believed the lie.

Once I ministered to a woman and she had lots of deliverance. From the beginning the flow of deliverance was strong and she was delivered from many demons. A few days later she called me and said that the demon she most wanted to leave did not leave. We met again and she told me the demon was shyness. I started ministering to her and nothing happened. This time there was not a flow of deliverance. She started telling me then how she was very shy since she was a little girl. She told me how very shy she was…how shy she had been…she was SO shy that….etc. I was getting irritated at how much she repeated that she was shy. Then the Lord told me, “Tell her that she is not shy. Tell her that I did not make her that way. Tell her that it is not her personality, that it is a demon”. When I started to tell this, I could see in her eyes that she had received a revelation, that now she knew something that she did not know before. The demon manifested immediately and told me “I’m not a demon, I am her personality.”

I could not get the demon to manifest before, but now he came out into the open. What was the difference? She stopped believing the lie of the demon, which was, “This is your personality, you are shy.” When she stopped believing the lie, the stronghold was torn down. The strong man did not have a fortress and lost his defense. After that, I could cast the demon out.

Another time, I could not convince someone that a certain personality trait was not Godly. She was proud of the personality trait that was in her family. She thought, along with the family, that it was a very good quality to have. This lady had just been having deliverance when this demon manifested. The demon would not come out and she defended it. I could not convince her, she preferred to believe the lie and so she did not get any more deliverance. I could not tear down this stronghold.

If you prefer to believe a lie from Satan, there will not be deliverance for you. The Lord will not deliver you. I can try and try, but nothing will happen, because Jesus is the deliverer. Ask the Lord to show you what lies you have believed and still believe. Once you know them, thank God for telling you and seek deliverance!

Moving The Boundary Stones

Moving The Boundary Stones

The leaders of Judah are like men who move boundary stones; I will pour my fury out upon them like water. (Hosea 5:10)

The leaders referred to in the book of Hosea, men called by God to teach His people where His established boundaries were, were “like men who move boundary stones” in God’s eyes. In the time of the writing of Hosea, stones were used to mark the boundaries of someone’s land, much like fences are used today around our home’s lot lines or to fence a ranch in. Back in the day, men moved boundary stones to enlarge their land holdings illegally, much like moving a fence in the middle of the night to take someone’s land without their knowledge and enlarge yours. The leaders of Judah were like those men, moving God’s boundaries illegally through false teachings.

A generation of leaders move the boundary stones out, and the next generation moves them out even farther.

Emperor Constantine was not a leader of Judah but of the Romans and the Roman Catholic religion. He appropriated the Judeo-Christian religion of his time and celebrated it with an orgy of boundary stone-moving.

One of the boundary stones moved was the fourth Commandment, the observing of the Sabbath, which was changed to Sunday. Sunday was the Roman pagan religion day of worship of the sun god. Thus the name Sun-day.

Another boundary stone he moved was the second Commandment. The Romans worshipped a multitude of gods, whom they represented with images of marble and stone and with paintings. Constantine had the genial idea of integrating the statues venerated by the Romans with the memory of the dead saints, changing the names of the statues to the names of the saints. This is called syncretism (the combination of different forms of belief or practice). An example is the statue of Saint Peter in the Vatican, whose right toes are worn down because of being kissed constantly by the Catholic worshipers. If I remember correctly, it was originally the statue of Zeus/Jupiter, the main god of the Roman and Greek pagan religions.

Constantine presided over the first general Council of the Roman Catholic Church in Nicaea, so he can be considered the first Pope (Peter was never a Pope). Every council held moved more boundaries.

The leaders of Judah had also moved the stones of the first and second commandment:

My people consult their piece of wood, their diviner’s wand speaks to them; for the spirit of whoring makes them err, they go off whoring deserting their God. (Hosea 4:12 CJB)

Since Israel was married to God, the Lord considered their idolatry unfaithfulness, whoring. However, Constantine made idolatry official and blessed in the Judeo-Christian community.

Today the protestant and evangelical communities move boundary stones also. At some point in history someone–maybe Constantine–decided that the Old Testament teachings do not apply today. The teaching of today is that we are under the blood, so we can do whatever we want to do. These teachers claim that God the Father looks at us through the blood of the Son and thus cannot see the sins in us, and so, we are home free.

Most Christians fear and obey the laws of men more than they do the laws of God. They see tangible punishment when the laws of men are broken, but they don’t see immediate punishment when they break God’s laws, so they go along with the teaching. Christians are law-abiding citizens when it concerns the laws of men.

However, disobeying the laws of God brings immediate spiritual punishment, which later becomes physical distress of different kinds. Under this torment, the people of God blame Satan, and they are only partially right. They should blame themselves also.

When a person moves a boundary stone set by God, a demon receives a legal right to enter that person, and his work begins immediately. First, he works on the mind of the transgressor, speaking to it through thoughts and ideas, and making the person believe lies which may motivate him or her to sin even more. Doors are opened to other demons that will work in different areas of the life of the person. Thus diseases, troubles and poverty might overcome the person. God allows this because the person moved the boundary stone.

A truth has been stretched. A lie has been believed. A law has been broken. Legal rights were received by the demon, and he made use of them.

I have heard leaders tweaking the laws. Just pushing a stone an inch or two. Moving boundaries, increasing their activity arena for themselves and for their sheep. Not comfortable with the boundaries? Easily solved, move the stones!

Go in through the narrow gate; for the gate that leads to destruction is wide and the road broad, and many travel it; But it is a narrow gate and a hard road that leads to life, and only a few find it. (Matthew 7:13,14 CJB)