The Lord put on my heart to talk to you about something simply I've titled Strongholds, Strongholds and a Stronghold is something that has a strong hold on you. Can you believe I studied for years to figure that out? A stronghold is something that has a strong hold on you. And folks, the battle that we're in, the battle that we're in is not a it's not a battle of flesh and blood. The Bible says we do not wrestle against flesh and blood. In Second Corinthians, chapter 10, verse three, it says, For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. But the weapons of our warfare are not carnal. They're not worldly. They're not fleshly. They're not earthly, but they are mighty in God for the pulling down of strongholds. One translation says they are powerful in God, they are mighty in God, or they are powerful in God for the pulling down of strongholds. Now, what is a stronghold, more specifically a stronghold, is something that I like to say a stronghold isn't. It's a wrong thinking pattern that molds itself and molds itself with your mind and it becomes a mind set. And what is a mindset? A mindset is similar to the way that you set a thermostat. A thermostat setting is similar in principle or in concept to a mind setting. What does that mean? It means when it means you don't you don't read the thermometer to determine what you want the temperature to be. You read the thermometer to to find out what the temperature is. But you set the thermostat to determine what temperature you want the room to be, because what you set the thermostat at causes the mechanics of your air conditioning or the mechanics of your furnace to elevate the atmosphere. Everything around you rises to the level of whatever you have set that thermostat at. In the same way, what happens with our mind sets is whatever mindset and whatever thoughts begin to get a strong hold in your life. Whatever thoughts become a habitual mind set in your life. What ends up happening is everything around you in your life elevates to that level of wherever your mindset is. If you have the mindset that you always you always fail, you always lose, you always you know, you always blow it. You always make mistakes. If that's your mindset, if that's your view of yourself and your mind is fixed on expectation of something bad happening in your life, then everything around you is eventually going to rise or fall to the mindset that you have set your spiritual thermometer at or your spiritual thermostat at, I should say. And in the same way, if you have the mindset that somehow some way, even though even though I blow it sometimes, even though I make mistakes, sometimes I have the mindset that God causes all things to work together for good to those that love him and are called Conor's purpose. Somehow, some way God's going to turn the situation around for good when you think that way, not just have that thought once in a while, but you think that way as a mindset. What happens is everything around you begins to elevate to the mindset that you've set your mind upon or you've set your heart upon. And it all starts in our head. We've been talking on Wednesday about about making good decisions in our life where our finances are concerned and how to succeed in life, in finances and in every area of life, because God's promises, in his word that that is we meditate on God's word day and night. He will cause us to become prosperous or to become successful in whatever we put our hand to or whatever we whatever direction our life goes in, we will succeed as we meditate on God's word day and night. What does that mean? That that true successful living starts with successful thinking that that financial success in life doesn't start with having the right money. Financial success in life starts with having the right way of thinking. And in the same way, every area of life that you want success in starts with the right way of thinking. It starts with the right mindsets, he says. So the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty in God to the pulling down of strongholds. And then he says in verse five, casting down imagination's or arguments and everything that exalts itself against the knowledge of God and bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. Now, see, he's not talking a. About bringing every action to the obedience of Christ, he's talking about spiritual warfare, is bringing every thought into obedience to Christ, because as a man thinks within, the Bible says, so is he Proverbs twenty three, verse seven says, as a man thinks within, so is he. And the reason why I feel inspired to talk about strongholds is because whatever has a strong hold on you is going to direct the outcome of your life. It's going to control the outcome of your life. Even if you have a heart that is right. If your head is wrong, then your head is what takes your life in the direction that it's going in. That's why a lot of people sometimes when they when they have a problem or something bad is happening in their life or they can't figure it out or it keeps getting worse or the relationship keeps getting worse or their finances keep getting worse and they say, God, what's the matter? My heart is right. You know, my heart. My heart is pure. My heart is, you know, my intentions. You see, you can have the right intentions. I like to call it. You can have the right intent. But if you have the wrong content, it doesn't matter what your intent is. You see, you could get a box, you could get you could get a box of a pancake mix from your cupboard. And your intent is to have a chocolate cake. But instead of grabbing a Duncan Hines chocolate cake box, you grab the pancake box or worse, you grab the oatmeal box. So you want a chocolate cake and your intent, your heart, your intention, your heart's intent is to have a chocolate cake. That's your intent. But if you grabbed the wrong box, your intent is not what's going to determine what you end up with after you bake it. It's your content that determines what you're going to have when you're done using the ingredients or the contents of that box. So your heart was chocolate cake, chocolate cake, chocolate cake. That might have been your desire. That might have been your intent, but you grabbed the pancake box and you ended up with pancakes. When you want a chocolate cake, you ended up with waffles. When you want a chocolate cake or whatever, you ended up with something else you want. You want a healthy home and a healthy marriage, but you're not grabbing the contents that produce that healthy marriage. And your intent is to have a great one. But your content is wrong and your intent is to beat the things that are hurting you and and to win in spiritual warfare. You're your intent is right, but you got to have the right content in order to win in spiritual warfare. And that's why he says, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, not your actions, but your thoughts, because how your thoughts go will determine how your actions go. We have to be people who realize this formula, so to speak, or this this this recipe for success in spiritual warfare, because we are all in a battle, whether you whether you signed up for it or not, you got drafted. If you didn't sign up voluntarily, you got drafted. You're in the army now. And so since we're in, we might as well learn to win what we're in. And if we're in a battle, we might as well learn how to win the battle. And the way that we win the battle is by realizing that there are three aspects to this, this spiritual warfare, he said. We're pulling down strongholds. And how do we do that? By casting down imagination's. I think the the King James Bible or the new American standard Bible uses the word imagination's, which I think is a more accurate word for this. If you guys have that it says casting doubt imagination's. And he says, as we cast down imagination's and everything that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and how do we know what the knowledge of God is? The word of God is what gives us the knowledge of God. Now, I don't know if you realize this or not, but again, we're in a spiritual battle. Whether you fight or not is up to you. But I'm not going to let you leave here without knowing that you have the equipment that you need to win. You have the knowledge that you need to win and that you have the reason and the desire to win because you wouldn't be here if you didn't have the desire. But you need to leave here with the right ingredients and understanding the right information and knowing how to use the weapons that you have. So I'm talking about Stronghold so that you know how to pull down the strongholds that are in your life. I'll talk about some of those, but let me tell you what an imagination is. So he talks about strongholds and then he says, casting doubt imaginations. What's an imagination? Well, the fears we imagine the imaginations are the fears we imagine. What if this happens? What if that happens? What if my child this what if my child that what if this happens in my life? What if that happens in my life? This is imagination's the what ifs. What if this we start picturing what could happen, picturing what could happen and then of course we know the thoughts. That are not obedient to Christ and he thought that is contrary to God's word, is a thought that we're supposed to take captive, bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ. And by the way, when he says bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ, that word captivity comes from a Greek word which is made up of two words put together. And the two words are conquer and sword. So if you put these two words together, it's what equals this word captivity. And it literally is translated as to conquer with a sword, to conquer with a sword. So how do we take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ? We conquer the thought with a sword. And what sword do we conquer it with? The word of God. Ephesians six, nine, 18 and 19 says the sword of the Spirit is the word of God. So when we when we speak God's word over the thought that comes into our head, that is contrary to God's word. We are bringing that thought into captivity or we are conquering it with a sword. Now, let me explain something to you. It's very important that you understand that we don't need to defeat the devil. But we do need to defeat his lies. We don't need to defeat the devil, you say what we don't need spiritual warfare is in defeating the devil. Know our spiritual warfare is not defeating the devil. Jesus defeated the devil two thousand years ago. And it says in first John three, verse eight, it says, the the son of God appeared for this purpose, that he would destroy the works of the devil, that he might destroy the works of the devil. Jesus came to destroy the power of the devil, but Jesus does not destroy the power of his lies. We have the power to destroy the power of the devil's lies. We do not have to defeat the devil. We simply have to defeat his lies. We don't have to overcome the devil. We simply have to overcome the lies of the devil because the devil doesn't have any power over you. So he insidiously and and and subtly weaves his thoughts into our minds to try to manipulate us and to try to to try to get us to give up and quit this journey of faith. But spiritual warfare is to pull down strongholds, cast down imaginations or images and take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. Now, listen, Jesus cannot defeat your wrong thinking. You have to. Jesus can't defeat your own thinking he's given you he's given me the responsibility to defeat my wrong thinking, he's giving you the responsibility to defeat your wrong thinking. But he has given us the ammunition. He has given us the tools. He has given us the weapons of the word of God, the sword of the spirit, the breastplate of righteousness, the shield of faith. He's given us the promises of God. He's given us the tongue to speak. Death and life are in the power of the tongue or death in life or in the authority of the tongue. Or you still with me or do you go home today? Are you getting this? So listen. So we don't need to defeat the devil. We need to defeat his lies and Jesus can't defeat our wrong thinking. He but he's given us the tools to defeat our wrong thinking for ourselves. Satan is the father of lies, John, eight forty four says and he will whisper anything in your ear if he thinks it will get you to do what he wants. If he thinks that he can use that thought to get you to give up or to quit. The Bible says again and John, eight forty for Satan or the devil is the father of lies. He's the father of lies. He's been a liar from the beginning. When he said to Adam and Eve, God said, The day you eat from this tree, you will not die. And the devil said, You. God said, the day you eat from it, you will die. And the devil said, you will not die. So what did he do? The first thing that Satan spoke to Adam and Eve was a lie and a lie is simply defined as anything that contradicts what God already said. So the devil is the father of contradiction, contradicts the Bible and contradicts what God says, he comes against it. He wants you to believe the lies, because if the truth will make you free, then what will the lie do? Come on, help me now, if the truth will make you free, what will I do? Put you in bondage, make you a slave? That's right. If the truth makes you free, then the lies put you in bondage. And so Satan wants to use the lies of the enemy to win in spiritual warfare, to bring your life, your family, your finances, your health, your peace of mind, to bring all that into bondage because he's a thief that comes to steal, kill and destroy. And we got to get we got to wise up and take our place as believers who know how to walk in their God given authority over the power of the enemy. Can anybody say amen to that? So what does the devil do? The devil doesn't care if what he whispers in your ear is true or not. He simply cares if it works. He doesn't care if it's true or not. He just wants it to work. He wants to sow the lies in your mind. You're a failure. You're a loser. But he he says it in a way that you think it's you think it's your voice saying it. I'm a loser. I'm a failure. Nobody likes me. I'm not good enough. I'm not capable enough. These are all lies of the enemy. These are all the strongholds or lies that the devil uses to create strongholds in your life. And he says, oh, you'll never make it. Anybody could do better than you. You got it all wrong. You're getting it all wrong. You're a screw up. You're not pretty enough. You're not smart enough. You're not good enough. You're not talented enough. And he he sews these lies into our minds so that these lies put us in bondage. And we are paralyzed by the thoughts of the enemy that have captivated us from making progress in our lives. And that's why we have to captivate those lies and then we'll start making progress again. Are you still with me? So when we hear all these lies, you know, you say, oh, I don't know if I don't know if I believe that, but do you have children? If you don't if you don't believe in the devil, do you have children? Because I know when the baby comes out of the womb, you're like, oh, my beautiful little angel. And when that child is two or three, they call it the terrible twos, that little angel has grown some horns on his head and a tail on his butt and a pitchfork in his hand. How many know what I'm talking? Maybe you don't know. Maybe you must not have any kids. And I'm not saying that they stay that way, but they go through those seasons. So anyway, that wasn't my point. My point was to say, if you don't believe that the devil is trying to manipulate you with lies, to try to condemn you and beat you up, then take a four year old. And this lady, she told the story of how her little four year old was playing a games on his computer and she told him it was time to stop. And the following conversation ensued. She said to her child, it's time for you to get your pajamas on and go to bed. And he said, But I want to play more. And she said, sorry, it's bedtime. And he said, Can I watch TV after I get my pajamas on? And she said, No, I've told you it's time for bed. And he said, I don't think you're my best friend anymore. And she said, I'm sorry to hear that. And he said, I think you're the meanest mommy in all the cities and towns all around here. And she said, that's too bad. And he said, I don't think anybody likes you. If a child who's four years old is smart enough to try to manipulate the mind of his mother. Who bore him, his mother, who pushed him out of her tummy, his mother that changed his stinking diapers every day, his mommy, his mother that took care of him and fed him. And if if he's smart enough to even for that woman who took such good care of him, that that child still tries to manipulate that woman, how much more do you think the devil is trying to manipulate our minds to try to get us to buy into those lies? You're the worst mother. You're the worst father. Nobody loves you. You're the worst church in all the cities and towns. You're the worst pastor. You're the worst parent. You're the worst business person. You're the worst at this. You're the worst of that. That's spiritual warfare, darling. That's spiritual warfare. Child of God. That's spiritual warfare that the devil is waging against you. Because, look, if our children can wage spiritual warfare against us, how much more can the devil do it? Because that's his game. That's his name. He's the father of all lies. And we're putting a stop to it right here. Right now, we're learning to pull down the strongholds of the enemy today. So what are you going to do about it? What are you going to do about it, Mark? Three twenty seven. Look at what it says. What are you going to do about this, Mark? Three twenty seven says, look at what Jesus said. No one can enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods unless he first finds the strong man and then he can take the stuff in his house. No one can steal from somebody's house unless he binds the strong man. First he noticed what he uses these words strong man. He's talking about the strongholds in life. You can't take back what the devil stole from you until you first find the strong man. What is the strong man? The strongholds of thinking, the strongholds that have become mine, mindsets and patterns of thinking that are controlling you. You're never going to get back with the enemy stole from you. You're never going to get back your time, get back your years, get back your opportunities. Get back the money he stole, the healing that he stole, the message that he stole, the relationships that he stole, the career that he stole. Your peace of mind that the devil you're never going to get back what he stolen until you first buying the strong man and take control over the strongholds and pull down the strongholds. No one can enter a strong man's house and take back his goods. How many? No. The devil is a thief and he's got a house somewhere, you know, an invisible realm or in the spiritual realm. And he's taken your stuff and he's keeping it in his house. And I want my stuff back. How about you? I don't want him stealing from me anymore. And not only do I want to stop him, not only do I want to stop him from stealing from me, but I want all the stuff back that he stole. And the Bible says in Proverbs, chapter six, verse thirty one and thirty two, if the thief is found, he must repay seven fold of what he's stolen. He must pay and restore seven fold of what he has taken and give up all the substance of his house. So wherever he's hiding your stuff in my stuff, I want to plunder his house, but I can't plunder his house and take back what belongs to me. And you can't take back what belongs to you until you bind the strong man. Until you pull learn to pull down these strongholds, are you following me so far? Let me give you an example of how strongholds are formed through imagination's and through thoughts and how Satan comes in and takes what we get, go over with me to job, chapter one job, chapter one. And I want to show you something here, Joab. Chapter one, verse five, job chapter one, verse verse five. This is really important stuff that will set you free. But notice here in chapter one, verse five. So the days of feasting had come to an end run their course and jobs would send and sanctify his children and he would rise early in the morning and he would offer burn offerings according to the number of them. All four jobs said. Now, watch what he said in verse five. It may be that my three sons or that my sons excuse me, it may be that my sons have sinned and curse God in their hearts. So job did this regularly notice what job is what's happening in jobs life. He says it may be that my sons have sinned and curse God in their hearts. And he would offer this burnt offering to the Lord continually and he would think this thought continually. And he would behave in this way continually because he kept thinking, man, my kids might curse God, my kids might sin, my kids might sin. It's the what ifs. What if my son's curse? God, what if my son sin? It doesn't say that they were sinning. It says he said it may be it might happen. So he would continue to say this and continue to do this over and over and over and over again. And these thoughts became imagination's and this imagination became a stronghold because his actions began to take on the nature of his thought life. So he thought, man, this is my kids might curse God, my kids might fail, my kids might not make it. Something bad might happen to my children, something they might curse God and look at what's going to happen. I'm going to lose my kids. This is going to happen and that's going to happen. He's going through all these thoughts. And so he decides because he's controlled by this thought, it becomes an imagination that he's picturing his kids sinning. He's picturing his kids, he's picturing his kids cursing God. And he did this regularly. Then he would go to God with this offering and say, please, God, please God, don't let this happen to my kids. Don't let this happen to my kids. But God doesn't respond to our fears. He responds to our faith. So Joe did this continually with my kids curse God, what if my kids curse, got rid of my kids, curse God with my kid? And so all of a sudden he's got this fear my kids might curse God, my kids, my curse, got my kids not might not turn out right. My kids might not turn out right. And look at what happens in Joab. Chapter three, verse twenty five. Joab chapter three, verse twenty twenty five. Look at what happens. And Joe said in chapter three. Verse twenty five for the thing that I greatly feared has come upon me and what I dreaded has happened to me. If you keep thinking that same way it becomes an imagination and then the imagination becomes a stronghold. It gets a strong hold on you. The fear begins to get a strong grip on you. And what happens is the thing that you greatly feared comes upon you. And what happened is kids ended up dying. His kids ended up into disasters. He lost everything that he had. Why? Because what he feared had come upon him. And why did it come upon him? Because he feared it. And what did fear? Was it just a fearful thought once or twice? No. It became a stronghold in his life. Why did it become a stronghold? Because every day he thought the same thing over and over again. Back in job one, verse five, look at what it says, what it may be that my sons have sinned and curse God in their hearts. And this job did regularly, regularly notice the pattern. It's a mindset. It wasn't just a thought once that he took captive and then it was over. He thought it over and over and over again. And what did it do? It became his imagination. What if, what if, what if? And then what happened? It became a stronghold of fear. And then what happened? What he feared did what. Go back to chapter three, verse twenty five, what he feared did what job three, verse twenty five, what he feared has come upon me and what I dreaded has happened to me. This is the thing that if you don't want the stuff that you're afraid of to come happen to you, then you got to break the cycle of the thoughts that have fed into the imagination and the imagination that has become a stronghold. What if my kids don't make it? What if my kids don't make it? What if they curse God? What if my marriage doesn't make it? If my husband cheats on me? If my wife cheats on me? What if they steal from me? What if they do this for me? And you begin to think about that over and over and over again. It becomes an imagination. It becomes a stronghold. It gets a strong hold on you. It gives birth to the spirit of fear and the spirit of fear leads you into bondage and leads you into slavery. You become a slave to that fear and it controls your life. And you can't make good decisions because a stronghold is something that has a stronghold on you. That is that starts as a pattern of thinking. It becomes a mindset and then it affects how you feel. It affects how you respond to the what the immediate moment and it affects how you make decisions. It becomes it affects how you feel, how you respond and how you make decisions. That's what a stronghold does. And that's why we need to learn how to pull down the strongholds. Can anybody say amen? Now, if you go if you look at this, go back to job, chapter one, verse verse five, he had all these fears. What if my kids knew this? My kids are never going. They're never going to make it. They're going to they're going to sin. They're going to curse God. They're going to sin. And they're
going to curse God. They're going to sin. They're going to curse God. They're going to sin and they're going to curse God. He did this continually. And look at what happens in verse six. Just so you know how dangerous is kind of thinking is now. There was a day when the Sons of God came to present themselves before the Lord and Satan came among them. And what happened? Satan came among them. He didn't just come among the sons of God here in this verse, he came among the thoughts. That job gave over, gave himself over to my kids are going to curse God, my kids are going to curse God, my kids are going to curse God, my kids are going to curse God. Is it any coincidence that as he kept thinking these demonic thoughts, it opened the road way for the devil himself to come among those thoughts? And then the Bible says Satan smote Jobe with all this pain and with all these problems, and he began to infiltrate Jobe's life. This is spiritual warfare, folks. He infiltrated jobs. Life. How? Through his thinking. Through his thinking, through his thinking. Satan's goal is to get into your head. He doesn't he's not after your heart first because you can have the right heart and a wrong head and a wrong way of thinking will open your life up to Satan getting access to eventually release his explosive power into your life, he said. But I thought Satan. I thought Jesus defeated Satan. So how could he have any power in my life? He has power through his lies that we end up agreeing with. When you agree with the lies of the devil, he releases explosive power of darkness in your life. When you agree with the words of God, God releases his explosive power into your life. You've got to make up your mind. And that's. And that, my friends, is what spiritual warfare is. It's who's going to control the decision making power of your life, who's going to control the decision making power of your life? Who is going to control the mindsets that you adopt because your mindsets are going to create the atmosphere for every other area of your life, because Proverbs twenty three seven says, as a man thinks within, so is he. This is so important that we get a hold of this, folks. So important. You know, we the way we let our the way we let our thoughts in, the way we let our the way we let strongholds get control of us is by listening to a thought, even if it's not real. And we have to remember that fear is false expectations appearing real. That's one of the acronyms for fear FBAR, false expectations appearing real well. You know, Gracen, I've been in the same house now for for almost sixteen years, I think fifteen or sixteen years. And every year in that house right around, you know, August, September, October, we get this this this swarm of bees that are living in our they're either living in our attic or someplace in the roof. And somehow they get through into our bathroom and they come through the light fixtures and they start dropping down from the light fixtures into the bathtub and onto the floor. And and they start they start flying around on the windows. And, you know, Grace, if you if you don't if you don't know she hates she really, really hates bees. Now, these bees are swarming in our in our bedroom bathroom. And I just you know, I just have decided I decided a long time ago I'm not going to worry about it because she's asking me all the time, would you kill that bee? Would you kill that bee? Would you? There's so many of them that if I killed every bee that's flying around in our bathroom, I would have to step down from my position here. And it would be a full time job killing the bees in our bathroom. She's like, we got to get rid of these bees, we've had exterminator after exterminator, we've had exterminators that spraying, we've had exterminators that yell and shout. We've got exterminators that cast out the devil of bees. We've had exterminators dressed as bees. And the bees keep coming back and they keep coming back and they keep coming back and she's like, well, you kill, we kill. Come on, we got to get rid of these. Little does she know they're paying me rent. That's why I let them be. And so one day, you know, she got really upset because I wasn't doing anything about it. I got really upset back and she said, listen, we've got to do something. We got to do something about these bees. They keep coming in and they keep coming in and they keep coming in. And I said to her, let me ask you something. How long we lived in this house, 15 years. And because as you can tell, this just happened and. I said, how about how long we live in the house of 15 years? I said, how many times you've been stung by one of those bees? She said, none. I said, leave him alone. Why I asked her permission in the earlier service was, OK, OK to tell the story. Why did she why was she afraid all those years about those BS? Because she had a mind set of what they could do, but she had forgotten that that whole time they hadn't done anything. Yeah, they buzzed around. Yeah, they flew around. Yeah. They you know, they're bouncing around the mirrors and bouncing around the lights in the windows. But they never stung her and they never stung me. And all those years, even in the middle of the night, you get up and go to the bathroom and they'd be a. Just halfway done and somehow, by the grace of God, we never stepped on one of them never got stung that whole time, but fear had gotten a strong hold in her mind because she believed they're going to sting me. They're going to sting. Could happen. It could happen. It could happen. But. Super faith, Superman, faith stood up and protected her. Now I'm just kidding. That was Roman. He wasn't concerned. You begin to get an expectation and something will happen, something bad will eventually happen if you don't break. The chain of that thinking and that mindset, it's breaking and pulling down the strong. How do we do it? So how do we pull down these strongholds? Because you can't you can't keep the birds from flying over your head or in this case, the bees from flying over your head. But you can sure keep them from building a nest in your hair, can't you? The first thing you've got to do is you've got to identify it, you have to identify what the stronghold is, you've got to realize, man, there are strongholds of fear and there are strongholds of of of retaliation and strongholds of bitterness and strongholds of anger. There are strongholds of trauma. Something happen in your life? Maybe you were abused as a child. It's amazing to me how many stories we get of people who all their life, they thought a certain way, even behaved a certain way. And they didn't even know why until they researched their history and found out that they had had some traumatic experience. They were abused as a child or their or their parents were alcoholics or they had seen their they had seen their their father hit their mother. And they and the spirit of violence came on them. This this this traumatic experience began to shape their expectation and shape their their heart and shape their their their emotions without them even remembering what had happened. And so that trauma can can awaken or cause or create this the stronghold in our life. And and we can we but we have to identify we have to face it. We have to realize that sometimes we say, well, that's just my personality. But we got to realize that, no, God didn't create your personality as a mean, nasty personality. If you're mean, if you're angry, if you're retaliatory, if you're upset all the time, if you're bitter, God doesn't create bitterness. God didn't give you that. God didn't give you that personality of bitterness. God didn't give you that personality of anger. God didn't give you that that personality of resentment and retaliation. He didn't give you that. You can't use the excuse of. That's just my personality. You have to identify that there is a strong hold that has shaped you to cause you to be a certain way. You say, well, I just like the way I am and don't try to change me and nobody should try to change you. But you got to realize something the way you are with that stronghold, controlling how you act and controlling how you behave and controlling how you treat people is affecting everybody in your life. That's why you have to pull down that stronghold. You got to admit it. You've got to face it. You've got to recognize what it is. That's the first thing you've got to do. You've got to identify it. You've got to recognize what it is. And then you know what you've got to do. You got to get fed up with it. You got to be sick and tired of being sick and tired. You've got to be sick and tired of always retaliating when somebody does something that your reaction to to somebody saying something bad about you is you're immediately rejected, you're immediately offended, you're immediately upset. And this is a strong hold controlling your life. And you got to hate it. You've got to want it out of your life. And look at what the scripture says. It's amazing. In Genesis twenty seven, verse forty. Look at what he says. He says, By your sword, you shall live the sword of the spirit. You're going to have to speak to this stuff and you shall serve your brother and it shall come to pass. When you become restless, when you become restless, then you shall break his yoke from your neck. You're going to be in bondage to your brother. You're going to be a slave to your brother until you become restless about it. You're not going to overcome that strong hold and pull down that strong hold until you are fed up with it, until you become restless about it, until you're no longer passive about it and sleeping with that strong hold. And you know what we are? We got people that are that are more attached to demons and the devils that people that speak into their lives in the strongholds that are speaking over their lives than we are attached to people. We'll cut somebody else out of our life. As soon as we think they've done us wrong, we'll cut them out of our lives. But we fail to see the stronghold is what's doing you wrong. And you'll keep that hold and you'll sleep with that stronghold and you go to bed with that stronghold holding. Jesus is saying, God's saying you got to get restless with that stronghold. You can't get any rest at night. You've got to be like I am now going to bed at night until I pull down this stronghold, take this thing captive, take authority over this way of thinking. I'm going to get you got to get restless. You've got to be like where where is where's pastor series on winning the battle them. I got it. We'll get that book. I win. I got to go get that book on fast and from wrong thinking I'm restless. I'm not leaving here until I get my material and get the stuff I need and get this thing dealt with because I am not going to stay with the stronghold. I'm not going to let the stronghold control me and have a strong hold on me another day in my life. I'm not going to let Delilah's lies wrap there. I'm not going to let Delilah let those Philistines wrap them their bands around me. I'm going to break out of this thing once and for all because I am anointed by God and I'm breaking this yoke from my neck because I'm sick and tired of this thing screwing up every relationship. I'm sick and tired of this thing, messing up my money, messing up my health, messing up my emotions, messing up my peace of mind. I'm sick and tired of this stronghold causing me to bump into this person. I marry them and I get divorced from them. And then I bump into this person, marry them and get divorced from them. I bump into this person, marry them, and I get divorced from them. And I'm thinking, man, I should keep running into the wrong people. I should keep bumping you. You're out of your mind. You don't keep bumping into the wrong people. They keep bumping into the wrong person. The common denominator in your four or five divorces. You. I'm not I'm not mad at anybody if you've been divorced, there's healing there, there's forgiveness, there's mercy there, you get it. But what I'm saying is when there's a pattern there. Hello, Jesus didn't get mad at the woman who at the. Well, she said when he said, go get your husband and you can drink from this. Well, and she said, I don't have a husband. He said, you're right. You've had five husbands. And the guy you're with now, he's not even your husband. We'll go get him anyway because there's plenty of mercy to go around. Amen. But there was a pattern in her life and he's offering her the well of living water. That's going to break the pattern of her life. We got to get restless about this. And be like, no, I'm not going to let this thing control me anymore, and then what do we do? We identify it, then we're fed up with it and then we take our authority over it. How? By speaking the word of God and taking that thing captive with God's word coming out of our mouth. Because as I use the sword of the spirit, the word of God, I conquer that thought with the sword of God's word. Death and life are in the power of the tongue or the authority of the tongue. And I speak that word and it breaks the power of that strong hold over my life. So, yeah, but if it's a stronghold that's been built up over time and you speak the word and it doesn't change, what do you do? You speak the word again and you speak the word again. The devil came to Jesus three times and Jesus kept saying, it is written. It is written. It is written. He didn't just say it once, but then when he finally had a new created a new pattern in his life. Of speaking, well, it was his pattern, but he shows us as we create a new pattern in our life of speaking the word over and over again, when Satan learns that every time he comes against you with his thoughts and his imaginations in his strongholds, you're going to come back at him with it is written. It is written. It is written. The Bible says at some point the devil left him and looked for a more opportune time. And guess what? He never found another opportune time. And he never found another opportunity because Jesus knew how to take thoughts captive. And now so do you you speak God's word. And when it comes back, you speak it again and when it comes back, you speak it again and when it comes back, you speak it again. And when it comes back, you speak it again. And the devil learned his lesson because he doesn't want to keep taking a beating from you. So he goes and tries to find somebody else. And then you bring him to this church, will teach them how to conquer with the sword and he'll give the devil a swift kick in the You-Know-What and. And we'll just keep spreading the word and spreading the love and spreading the gospel and teaching people about the power and authority they have in Christ, Amen.
