PULLING DOWN STRONGHOLDS_2012
(week 09/12)
OLUBI JOHNSON
2Corinthians 10:4-5 KJV: (For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds😉 (5) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;
A stronghold is a thought pattern or mindset that contrary to the Word but has been accepted as the truth because it has been physically experienced over many years, sometimes centuries and millennia in the Church.
An imagination is a thought that has been accepted by the human will, though not yet physically experienced.
A thought is a thought that has not yet been accepted by the human will.
Using a natural illustration (Rom. 1:20): thoughts can be likened to a gas, imaginations to a liquid and a stronghold to a solid.
So if we don’t correct wrong thoughts, they can develop into imaginations, and then imaginations can become strongholds.
There are three major strongholds in the minds of most men, both Christians and sinners:
1. Fear of physical death
2. Love of sex
3. Love of money
Satan uses these strongholds to control the lives of the majority of men on the earth. Infact most human activity is driven by the spiritual forces emanating from these strongholds: fear of death makes people religious and occultic (man’s search for supernatural power); love for sex makes people immoral and unfaithful; love for money makes people greedy, selfish and proud.
These three strongholds must be pulled down in the mind of every Christian if they are to grow into the perfection and fulness of Christ and perfect obedience.
We pull down strongholds by:
1. Renewing our minds with the light of the revelation knowledge of God’s Word:
Romans 12:2 NKJV: And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.
2Corinthians 4:6 KJV: For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
2. This renewing of the mind is enforced (Mt. 11:12) by praying in the Spirit with all kinds of prayer and travail (Eph. 6:18 and Gal. 4:19).
Doing this releases the power of God in sufficient measure from our spirits into our wills, minds and emotions to pull down these strongholds in a similar way that a physical stronghold or fortress can be destroyed by artillery shells or air bombardment.
In fact the scripture tells us that David’s men captured the stronghold of Zion by going up the water shafts:
2Samuel 5:7-8 AMP: Nevertheless, David took the stronghold of Zion, that is, the City of David. (8) David said on that day, Whoever smites the Jebusites, let him get up through the water shaft and smite the lame and the blind who are detested by David’s soul. So they say, The blind and the lame shall not come into the house.
Now water is type of the power of the Holy Spirit coming from our spirits as we pray in tongues and travail:
John 7:38-39 NKJV: He who believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.” (39) But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, whom those believing in Him would receive; for the Holy Spirit was not yet given, because Jesus was not yet glorified.
Psalms 42:7 KJV: Deep calleth unto deep at the noise of thy waterspouts: all thy waves and thy billows are gone over me.
1Corinthians 2:10 KJV: But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.
So as we pray in tongues and travail, there is noise: the sound of our groaning (Rom. 8:26) or strong crying (Heb. 5:7) and a release of the power of the Spirit, typified as rivers of living water. This power will destroy strongholds in our minds and reveal to us the deep things of God, in the same way David’s men took the stronghold of Zion going through the water shafts!
In our article next week, we will see in more detail revelation knowledge we need to overcome the strongholds of fear, sex and money.
