How to pull down spiritual strongholds. Five things you need to put to practice today. First
of all, welcome. My name is Vlad for those of you who are watching it for the first time.
I am a pastor at HungaryGen Church, and I also have a ministry that provides digital content free
of charge from books, blogs and reading plans. For those of you returning, welcome again. Concerning
spiritual strongholds, I have another video that deals with the truths about spiritual strongholds.
You can check it out in the description below. But in this one we will dive into how to pull
them down. We see in Corinthians, Paul tells us to pull down strongholds, to cast down strongholds.
The first thing that you need to do before you deal, or as you deal with strongholds,
is you have to get rid of demons. Because you can't remove the strongholds until you remove
demons first. Sometimes you start working with strongholds but if you don't remove the demons,
then you're still pretty much repeating the same cycle. In Matthew 12:29 it says:
So there's a strong man and then there's a stronghold, and so you can't
plunder, you can't destroy the stronghold, until you first bind the strong man. Now the strong man,
it could relate to a dominant demon that is tormenting a person's life. I have another video
that deals with "can Christians have demons?" This video is not for that topic but when you
have a demon in your life, that demon needs to be cast out. And once that demon is cast out,
then you can deal with the strongholds that the demon either have built, or you have built that
help to protect that demon and give him a covering in your life. And so get the demon out first,
bind the strong man, and then you can plunder his house, then you can break down his stronghold.
The second thing that you must do and that is, strongholds cannot be brought down with carnal
weapons. Now, the verse that the New Testament uses that mentions the word "stronghold" is
2 Corinthians 10:4-5, as I alluded earlier.
In other words, you can't bring a knife to a gunfight.
The world's methods are positive thinking, behavior modification and emptying your mind.
God's weapons are prayer, the Bible, praying in the Spirit, praising God, the blood of Jesus,
humility and etc. Before Paul talks about casting down strongholds, he's saying that our weapons
are not carnal. Our weapons are not worldly and fleshly. There's so much focus today on
helping you to refrain and to rewire your brain, your mind with you know choosing your thoughts,
choosing your attitudes, and positive mindset, positive words, positive confession
techniques. That is not the weapon that you can use to fight against the strongholds.
Demonic strongholds in our minds are overcome and broken through spiritual weapons which are mighty
in God. These weapons are made fun of by the culture, these weapons are ridiculed and these
may not seem like a big deal to you. But if you really want to break down strongholds you have to
bring a gun to a gunfight, not a knife to a gunfight. If you want to win,
you got to choose the right weapons and those weapons again are prayer, the Word of God,
praying in the Holy Spirit, praising God, the blood of Jesus and humility. The third
thing you must do to break down strongholds is this, is you pull them down by casting down
imaginations. So the word to "cast down" in the Greek it means to take down or to disassemble.
If needed, bit by bit. It can also be translated to demolish, to destroy, to dismantle, to throw
down, to knock down, to break up, to pull apart and to take it to pieces until nothing is left
standing. This idea, the idea of this word carries a strong commitment and strong determination to
utterly annihilate the enemy's well-defended fortress. The word "imagination" in this 2
Corinthians chapter 10, in the Greek it carries this word or where we get our word "logic."
Pretty much it means logical thinking. So we see that Paul tells us to cast down imaginations,
cast down logical thinking. Now human reasoning is not bad but it has its limitations. Human
reasoning limits us to receive from God because it does not fit what God wants to do into our box.
A lot of times logical strongholds are made up of thoughts that actually make logic sense, and
those could be strongholds. Strongholds are not always like humongous big lies that contradict the
Word of God. Sometimes it's actually logic that contradicts the Word of God because so much about
what God says about us contradicts common sense, logic, your feelings, what you've experienced,
what God says about you and how you feel right now. And the reason why these strongholds are
reinforced is because they're logical, like there's a human logic that's involved in it,
and they have to be brought down. We're not talking about we're destroying human logic.
We're saying that anytime human logic contradicts what God says about us, we have to allow that to
be cast down for God's Word to be built. The other part about our logic is the illogical strongholds,
and these are fortified by unrealistic worries and fears that have no basis in reality.
Meaning it's those things you know when people have like fears or phobias, or certain like
fascinations even in their mind, or certain like things that are happening in your mind that are
just so they're not true, they're not real. The enemy just creates unrealistic scenarios in your
mind, and they become strongholds and they have to be brought down. So there's logical strongholds,
and then there's those that are just unrealistic, illogical strongholds. In either case,
it's a lie that gets into our heart, that we believe, that makes us deceived and enslaves
us. Makes us into a victim of that deception. Remember, behind every stronghold is a lie, and
behind every lie is fear, and behind every fear is an idol. And so to break down the stronghold,
I have to come against the imagination, and what is this imagination? It's logic. Both
logic, human logic and illogical things. Meaning things that are just part of my imagination
but are not even anchored in reality. Reality and fantasy. Both of these things
make up that stronghold and I have to break them down, because that's where the lies of the enemy
are hidden. That's where the fears are hidden. That's where the strongholds, that's where the
idols are hidden. If it opposes God's Word, it's gotta go. Now the fourth thing I want you to
remember, is not only we cast down imaginations, but Paul says to bring every thought into the
captivity of Christ. So the phrase "bringing into captivity" in Greek is the word that has
a picture of a soldier who has captured an enemy and leads him into captivity, with the point of a
sharpened spear thrust into his back. And the captive doesn't dare to resist but is silent,
submissive and non-resistant, and that's pretty much how a Christian is. You're taking every
thought and you're putting the spear of God's Word in the back of the thought, and you're saying,
"Hey, this is a double-edged sword and you gotta obey." That means you're not in your thoughts,
you are in God's Word and you are speaking to your thoughts, you are controlling your thoughts,
you're directing your thoughts, you're making them captives. So we have to lead those wrong thoughts.
The thoughts that the enemy has brought, we have to lead them with the sharp edge of God's Word.
We have to speak to our thoughts, direct them. Don't let them speak to you and direct you.
We're either captives of our thoughts or we keep our thoughts captive. One of the biggest lies that
the enemy has planted in the lives of people who have strongholds is that "I can't control
my thoughts. My thoughts do the thinking, my thoughts control me. My thoughts, they just
like have a life of their own. I'm just a victim of my thoughts." My friend, you're not a victim of
your thoughts if you have the Word of God. That's why you can't use the carnal weapons and trying to
fight your thoughts with your thoughts. You fight your thoughts with God's Word. You're not a victim
of your thoughts, you're supposed to make your thoughts your captive. But before you can make
your thoughts your captive, you must capture your thoughts. Capture your thoughts, meaning you must
become aware of them. You must become conscious of what's going on in your head. Why are you thinking
those things? Where is this coming from? You got to almost like pull back and just say, "What's
going on? Why am I thinking like that? Where's this coming from? Lord, precious Holy Spirit
could you enlighten me? Could you guide me?" And then you find a verse, you find a Scripture,
and you come to that thought and you thrust that thought with a two-edged sword. Like a soldier,
you're leading that thought to God's Word and you're making it subject to God. Learn
to train your thoughts, don't trust them. So many people listen to the lies their thoughts tell them
and because it's in their own head, they're thinking it's them. It's the
enemy planting those lies, and the only way to overcome them is to capture your thoughts,
and then make them captive, and lead them to where God wants you to go. Number five.
How to break down strongholds is destroying a stronghold
will take time, so be patient. In 1 John 3:8 it says:
The word "destroy" in Strong's is G3089. It means to loosen, to break, to destroy,
to dissolve, to put off. Now, so Jesus comes to destroy the works of the devil. Strongholds are
the works of the devil. They are in here, in our minds. And even if you get the demons out,
even if you come out of the world, but the works of the devil, like
those thoughts and those house of thoughts are not broken, you're still going to suffer. Jesus
comes to destroy the works of the devil and how He does that? By the knowing of
the truth. You shall know the truth and the truth will set you free. But it's interesting
that the word "destroy" also appears in Luke 3:16. It says, "John answered, saying
to all, 'I indeed baptize you with water; but One mightier than I is coming, whose sandals I am not
worthy to loose.'" So the word "loose" is actually the word destroy. It's the same word as it's in 1
John 3:8. That's interesting. He's saying that I'm not worthy to loose you know the straps,
the sandal straps, and then he says, "He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire."
So, what's interesting is that what is destroying of the works of the devil has to do with untying
of the shoes? Think about it. When you untie your shoes, and you apply it, you actually, it's
kind of like pulling down a stronghold. When you untie your shoes, you loosen one string at a time,
until eventually they become loose enough to take them off and then you free your feet. Similarly we
have to untie or loosen the works of the devil, little by little. So I want you to have that in
your mind. That breaking down strongholds is like loosening your shoes, is you untying your shoes,
little by little and then your foot is loosened enough to come out of the shoe. And same thing
will happen with the strongholds. It's not going to happen over one night. It's not
going to happen even in one month. Sometimes we give the devil 30 years to build a stronghold
and then we come to the Lord, we memorize one verse and we're like, "that's it.
I'm ready to you know charge hell with the water pistol. That's it. I'm gonna
break it down. That's it, tomorrow my whole life is gonna change." And that's not how it happens
and we get discouraged. It's kind of like taking off your shoes. You have to loosen those
straps, those strings and then you remove your feet out. It will take time. It will be a process
of deliverance. This is a mental deliverance, by which God will develop your character and
your resolution. So again, how to break down strongholds. As we've mentioned, first thing,
you got to get the demons out. The second thing is that they cannot be brought down
with carnal weapons, meaning you can't use New Age techniques to experience new life.
Number three we mentioned is that you have to cast down your imaginations. Imaginations, actually
it's a Greek word for logic, and sometimes there's a human logic and sometimes there's just illogical
strongholds that we have to break them down, and we said behind every stronghold is a lie.
We also have mentioned that we have to learn to take our thoughts captive, and you have to
capture them first and then put the sword of God's Spirit to every thought and make it obey Jesus
Christ. And number five, we said that we have to buckle up because it's gonna take some time.
It's destroying the works of devil. It's like untying your shoes. You have to loosen things bit
by bit and then freedom will come. Hey, I hope you were blessed by this video and encouraged.
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