2 Corinthians 10:3-6 (NKJV) For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh.  For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds,  casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled.

This scripture is  a powerful weapon of warfare for every one who calls on the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. I use it daily in my walk with Christ, remembering that my victory starts with me willing to bring every thought that enters my mind to the obedience of Christ.

But I wanted to focus on the word “strongholds”. Derived from the Greek word “ochuróma” it means “a fortress, strong defense, stronghold”. Wow! A strong defence, a fortress… and we need to pull those down.

The first thing that comes to mind when I meditate on this scripture is that this fortress is not a physical wall. It is a mindset. A thing that we have allowed to be built up within us that needs to come down. But to bring down these fortresses or walls, we need to war in the Spirit, to bring our thoughts into obedience to Christ.

When I think of thoughts, they appear to be like birds, flying things that first need to be captured. To capture anything, there needs to be a trap laid and watchful vigilance. To capture thoughts, we need to have presence of mind and not be drunk. If we drop our guard, our spiritual defense, we allow the enemy to enter our minds with thoughts that fly in with seeds to impregnate our minds with deception and lead to the building up of fortresses and defenses to the carnal nature.As a believer, coming in from the kingdom of darkness, the enemy has already laid groundwork in our minds that need to be purged. There must first be a cleansing within. We need to first pull down the fleshly walls, the strongholds, the mindsets of the old nature that refuse the entry of the Spirit nature. This must happen in order for the Holy Spirit to have dominion in our lives.

To many times, we see Christians struggling under the burdens of the carnal nature. Even if we long to have a Spiritual Life, we find ourselves easily buffeted on every side by an enemy who is relentless. Strongholds are established in our lives by the things we experience, see, hear and live through daily in our lives. We need to look deep in our lives and ask the Lord to reveal to us the reason for our reactions and actions to certain events and encounters in our lives. What is the reason that I am who I am? The question and answers may surprise even the best of us.

“Stranglehold” is a term that means “an illegal hold in wrestling by which your opponent is choked, a force or influence that stops something from growing or developing” Merriam- Webster Dictionary. The enemy infiltrates our minds, takes territory, establishes strongholds and then makes sure that he chokes out all things that might oppose him as he applies the stranglehold on our lives. As we allow him to do this, mostly because he deludes us so that we feel helpless and captured, as if we have no way out but to submit to him, we become infertile ground for the Spirit of God to manifest the fruit of the Spirit.

We have allowed ourselves to be victimized too long. We live our lives as if we have no way out. We have to realize one thing, Jesus Christ came to set the captives free. We who were captives to the carnal nature, now have the power to take captive the thoughts and mindsets that once overpowered us.

Luke 4: 16-19 (NKJV) So He came to Nazareth, where He had been brought up. And as His custom was, He went into the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and stood up to read.  And He was handed the book of the prophet Isaiah. And when He had opened the book, He found the place where it was written: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed;  to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.

I pray that we will indeed welcome the Christ the Deliverer into our lives even as we accept Him as Savior. For Him to be our Lord, the strongholds and strangleholds MUST be broken and laid bare so that it can never be rebuilt. Amen