Satan knows what hurt and trauma will activate our
strongholds, trigger us to fortify them and
to erect new strongholds to protect our deceptions.
Of course,
demons are drawn to strongholds, like vultures circle
death. We need to
get rid of the death.
Matt. 16:19 " I will give
you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind
on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose
on earth will be loosed in heaven." It is very
interesting to actually look at the Biblical definition
of binding and loosing. It is often the opposite of the
way western Christians use the words.
The
Biblical definition of bind
is to tie, gird, join together for the effectual
working of every part, knit together.
I bind my soul to the will and heart of Jesus
Christ.
The
Biblical definition of loose is to
smash, crush, destroy or lacerate.
According to the Biblical use of these words, we loose
our souls from indulging in self-deception and
pretending that we are free already. We
repent of pretending that the problem is in someone else
or ALL THE DEVIL, so that it is not in us! We bind
ourselves to the truth and heart of God, recognizing the
areas where we are not lined up with God's truth and or
choosing God's will
and way for us.
Key: Flesh cannot be cast
out, but must be brought to Jesus and taken to the cross
to be crucified.
We choose to repent and to bring
every fleshly pattern to Jesus so that He can crucify it
on the cross. We choose to follow the
strategy for combat that Jesus gave us in Matthew 4.
We commit to you, God, to pray:
"It is written ..., It is written ..., It is
written ..., " in corporate agreement, for our freedom
from strongholds!
We
receive your truth about our identity in Christ
from your Holy Word and your purposes and plans for
our life in you. We choose to allow you to live through
us with Godly responses to hurt, trauma and offense.
Purify our hearts and minds, Lord, from every sinful
pattern of sinful thinking and sinful behavior.
Jesus demonstrated the use of
spiritual weapons by praying scripture.
We choose
to swing the sword of the Spirit,
the
truth of God's
Word,
in faith, receiving the riches of the gospel of peace
and His gifts of righteousness,
with my salvation.
I pray under the leadership of the Holy Spirit
and declare and decree
God's
Word!
Jesus said, "But if I drive out demons by the finger of
God, then the kingdom of God has come to you.
21 "When a strongman, fully armed, guards
his own house, his possessions are safe. 22 But when
someone stronger attacks and overpowers him, he
takes away the armor in which the strongman
trusted and divides up the spoils." Luke 11:20-22
What is the armor of a strongman
that Jesus will take away?
His armor is made up sinful reactions that we choose
to indulge in. For instance, Christians don't start out
to build a stronghold of bitterness. We put on his armor
piece by piece.
-
unforgiveness -
"until they realize how badly they hurt us and ask
for forgiveness"
-
resentment - we
savor and rehearse our resentment of that
hurt or trauma
-
judgment - we
judge them with condemning and judgmental attitudes
-
anger with sin -
our anger involves sinful thinking and sinful
behavior
-
wrath and hatred -
we lash out in anger that is out of control
-
self-hatred - we
hate ourselves for our reactions and behavior yet
tolerate it
-
violence -
threatening behavior: throwing, slamming, hitting,
punching, fighting etc.
-
elimination -
hoping they disappear, resign, are fired, divorce,
die, commit suicide
-
passive aggression
- aggressive behavior that is planned to look
innocent
-
murder - thinking
about taking or actually taking their life
Now
a stronghold of bitterness has been built. We
have bitter root judgments and bitter expectations that
have not only sprung up but are well lodged and
protected in our mind. Lord, show me how the
strongman has taken my house and my goods; show me the
pieces of armor that I have allowed to make up the
bitterness stronghold.
Eph 4:31 Get rid of all
bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along
with every form of malice. Heb 12:15 ... looking
carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God;
lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble,
and by this many become defiled;
Our
strength is in our power to choose. We can
choose to pray "It is written .... " like Jesus did in
Matt. 4. We can pray scripture in corporate agreement
with others in the Tearing Down Strongholds class. We
can choose to allow Jesus to demonstrate Godly responses
through us in the future. We can resign from being their
judge and surrender them to God, since He is the judge
of all the earth. Our greatest weapons are our own
repentance, God's Word and prayer.
