When It's Spiritual Warfare - Part 1

Welcome to the In Touch Podcast with Charles Stanley for Monday, August 28th. God wants us to communicate with him. But have you ever wondered why prayer can seem so hard?

Today's podcast helps you learn how to break through spiritual barriers and enjoy talking with God. Now, if you're in a war and you don't even know that you're in a war, more than likely you're going to get wounded. And if you're in a war and you don't know who the enemy is, you're working at a terrible disadvantage.

And if the enemy has a power base right in your front door and you're not even aware that it's there, you are bound to be defeated. Well, that is exactly what Paul is dealing with in 2 Corinthians chapter 10. In this passage, Paul deals with a basic problem that every lost man has and every Christian has to some degree at some time or the other. And I'm afraid far too many Christians all of their life. And that is Satan's strongholds in their life.

So I want to deal with five aspects of this. And the first one is to define what we mean and what Paul means here when he speaks of a stronghold. He says in verse four, the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but rather spiritual, but mighty, strong, powerful through God to the pulling down of strongholds. Now, a stronghold in the Greek is a fortified castle. Now, of course, when he talks about strongholds, he's talking about spiritual fortifications in our life. So let me explain what I mean by that. A stronghold is a power base.

As he says, a place of fortification. That is, it is an area of weakness in our life or something that we have not yielded to God that he is required and we're yet to yield it to him. It is an area of weakness or it can be error in our thinking. Satan is the father of all lies. And if Satan can get you to believing a lie about yourself or about God or about someone else, he can take great advantage of that. It is an area of weakness, something maybe that you have not yielded to God that he keeps talking to you about, or it could be an area of misunderstanding error in your thinking that has made it possible for Satan to set up a stronghold.

Let me just illustrate what I mean by that. It can be some definite sin in your life. It can be a stronghold of jealousy. It could be a stronghold of greed. It could be a stronghold of lust. It could be a stronghold of resentment, of bitterness. It could be a stronghold of rejection of a poor self-image or a self-esteem.

It could be a stronghold that could take on one of many forms and there could be more than one. And you see, any area of weakness that Satan discovers in your life, and Satan is not omniscient, he's tested and tried all of us to the fact that he knows where we're the weakest and when we're the weakest and he knows exactly when and how to hit us. So if he gets a stronghold, an area that proves to be weak, he's going to do what every military strategist will do, discover the weak point of the enemy and hit him at that point. And if you hit him at that point and you succeed, hit him again, hit him again, hit him again. That's why we discover those areas of our life where Satan keeps harassing us in the very same area.

He is succeeding. Why should he choose some other area? So it can be, now listen, it can be an area of weakness that is developed or error in our thinking and erroneous thinking and allowing Satan to deceive us successfully can create a tremendous stronghold in our life. It is a power base from which Satan begins to harass and to destroy our entire life. Now when we talk about the design of a power base, a stronghold, what is Satan's design? He is the designer of it. What is his ultimate objective for getting a stronghold in your life?

Some area from which he can really foul up your life. Well, his motivation is rather simple because when you begin to look to see how he brings us the past, he is the one who designs it. He looks at your life and my life, he sees our potential for God and then he finds a weakness, an area that you've not yielded, an error in your thinking, some point there that he sees is an area of weakness maybe that you've not developed in your spiritual life and he begins to hone in on that.

Alright, what is his design in all that? First of all, his design is to divide your mind and you and I know that if Satan harasses us in a particular area or we discover some area of weakness that he begins to work on that can divide your mind. Let's say for example that you had a stronghold of jealousy and maybe there is just somebody in your life or somebody around whom you work that somehow Satan has just warped your attitude and you think that person is better than you are.

You think they're trying to get the best of you. You've got all kinds of attitudes about that person. Well, Satan can use that one stronghold in your life to divide your mind.

You're thinking about something else and that person pops up in your mind. You think about some plan you've got, you think about what if they'll be there and so he is continuously dividing your mind through that stronghold. Not only will he divide your mind, a stronghold is a power base from which Satan harasses us and here's what he does. He lies to us for example and he attempts to discourage us and that is he says look what you've done there, you've gone and done it again. What do you think God thinks about you? Don't you know that God's ashamed of you? Don't you know that God is disappointed with you? Listen, that is the devil's lie. Let me tell you why you could never disappoint God.

Well, you just think about this. God is omniscient. He sees your whole life from beginning to end inside and out so that knowing your life perfectly, how could you disappoint God when he already knows what you're going to do? You can't ever disappoint God because disappointment requires an expectation which you and I do not live up to. God already knows when you're going to blow it. He already knows when you're going to sin. He already knows when you're going to be obedient so you and I cannot disappoint God. We disappoint ourselves and we heap condemnation upon ourselves because we think we don't live up to God's expectation.

Well, I want to tell you something, friend. God already knows your weaknesses and he knows when you're going to fault and you're going to fall. It is Satan who lies, doesn't say, see there, that we disappoint God, that we embarrass God, that we shame God, so therefore we get into Satan's condemnation. You see, he finds an area of weakness and then he keeps pointing his satanic finger at you saying, see there, look at you.

Look what you've done. Now, if you don't realize what Satan's doing, you get all under the load saying, yeah, that's right and you become discouraged and he's defeating us because he's found and he set up a power base, a stronghold, a fortification and when we're not aware of it, we keep looking around to ask ourselves, why is it that Satan keeps getting the best of us at that point? Because it is an area of our life we have not dealt with, so he just keeps on working to discourage us, to disillusion us and how many people after all they say, look, I just don't think this Christian life works. Why don't you think it works? Well, I'll tell you why. Man, I've confessed this, I've repented of it, I've read the Bible, I've been to revival meetings, I've been to seminars, I've been to Bible conferences, I've been to Bible studies, I've been to prayer groups and then I've got the same old problem and nothing works.

I want to tell you something. How many times have you told God, I promise you on a stack of Bibles, I'm not going to think this or do this anymore, it didn't last 30 minutes because that's not the way you get rid of strongholds. Satan's too smart.

If it were that simple, he'd come up with something new and he doesn't need to come up with anything new because he knows exactly how to defeat us. A stronghold is a satanic power base that he's moved into our life and he's taken advantage of a weakness and he has deceived us into thinking that after all, this is the devil's lie. Everybody's got weaknesses, that's the truth. In some area of our lives, all of us have some weakness, some degree of weakness, not everybody the same. So he says everybody's got weaknesses, everybody's going to sin, you're not going to ever be perfect, so he lays the foundation with all that stuff. Then he says, you might as well just relax and just enjoy life and not try to be perfect and not try to be righteous and try to be all these things because you're not going to ever be any better than you are.

Everybody's really alike to some degree the devil tells us and so he says, man, just relax. All he will say to someone, see it's not working. You might as well quit reading the Bible and going through all this religious jargon because it's not working.

Proof is, look at your life. You've prayed and begged and pleaded and cried and it's not working so just forget it. And my friends, you'd be surprised at how many of God's people have said, that's right, man, it just doesn't work. Backslide on God. Now listen, they're not happy and they're more miserable than they were when they were trying and being defeated but they think it doesn't work.

Why should I keep on trying something that doesn't work? I don't have time for any more burdens and the Christian life has become one big whopping burden in my life. And Satan's just rejoicing all over himself because he's telling lies and we're accepting his lies. Anytime, listen, anytime any believer feels that God condemns him, he's believing the devil's lie.

Because God has never condemned one of his children. That is purely from the devil. But you see, he designs that stronghold, he moves into a life in a given weakness and what does he do? It just evolves from there until it overflows in every single aspect of your life. Now the third thing I want us to notice here and that is how does a stronghold develop in a person's life? Well, there are two ways they develop. Now watch this, the first one is involuntary, the second one is voluntary.

Let's look at an involuntary one. An involuntary stronghold is the result, a power base that Satan gets in our life as a result, not of something that we have chosen or something that we do, but rather something that has been pre-programmed into our thinking. It may be from childhood from our parents or the people we associate it with or it may be later on in life, but thoughts that are fed into our mind and as we begin to think, these things, these thoughts, whatever they may be, sometimes Satan can get a power base.

For example, let's say that you grew up in a home where your parents didn't get along and your brothers and sisters, they fought and fussed all the time and you were the object of continuous criticism all the time. Until you came along in your adult age and you just felt like I'm no good, never can do anything, never will succeed in life, I'll never get the breaks in life, and so you just live in the negative case all the time. Satan will take advantage of what entered your mind back yonder involuntarily, the things, listen, the things you learned about yourself. They were lies told to you by the devil, they were lies told to you by somebody else, but Satan took advantage of somebody else's very poor training, injected them into your mind, and he just takes that little teeny foothold and he just builds on it all of your life.

And I meet people all the time who have tremendous potential. You can see it on the inside once they begin to talk, but at first they're all like this, I'll never be able to amount to anything, I'll never be able to succeed in life, I'll never get the breaks, things just don't ever come my way. And they live almost as if it were emotionally deformed, they just can't quite straighten up and face life and believe that God could do something in their life. Well you see that's just one aspect and one illustration of how a person can be pre-programmed and Satan will take advantage of what parents say to their children and set up a stronghold that can defeat them all of their life.

I mean live a defeated life because of the lie that Satan injected into their mind, you'll never amount to anything, you'll never make it in life, you'll probably end up in prison. Well as you look back in your life and think about maybe a stronghold even today that Satan may have in your life, where did it come from? Is it something that somebody fed into your mind that you began to believe and maybe an attitude in your life that has really been a problem all of your life?

Okay that's an involuntary way, but what about the voluntary way? How does a stronghold develop in a life where it is you and I are primarily responsible? Now listen, all of us are responsible for all the strongholds in our life, whatever they may be, it may be a stronghold of doubt, it may be a stronghold of fear that somehow you're always fearing the worst is going to happen. Maybe you just can't believe in people, you just can't believe in God, you expect the worst to happen and somehow you just can't get it together and when you put all the pieces to life together somehow they just never quite fit.

And you've not quite figured out why they don't fit. Does Satan have a stronghold of fear, a stronghold of doubt? Well, how does this develop voluntarily?

Let me just say something here first and then I want to give you about six words for you to jot down. When you and I deliberately violate the law of God, we deliberately sin against God and we think well you know one sin is not going to hurt anybody. I mean a little bit of sin never hurt anybody, that's what we say. That's what the devil tells us and once in a while we believe that.

A little bit won't hurt, a little bit of poison won't hurt anybody. Well, so a young person comes along and says look, you know I want to be a Christian but I'm going to wait till I get to be about 25. Well, I've really enjoyed myself as if becoming a Christian you cease to enjoy yourself but that's the devil's lie. Once I get to be about 25 then I'm going to turn my life over to God.

I want to tell you something. Satan can get a foothold in your life as an unbeliever and even after you're saved unless you understand what's happening and deal with it, Satan will come right back and he will establish that foothold and that stronghold in your life and he will harass you even as a believer. Every day of your Christian life unless you're able to identify, see what's happening and learn how to deal with it. So here's what happens. How does one start? This is the way it starts. First of all, it starts with a thought. Every stronghold begins with a thought. It may be a thought about greed, jealousy, lust or whatever it might be but it begins with a thought. The thought moves into consideration. That is, once the thought enters your mind you begin to think about it and you begin to look at all the aspects of it.

It's like a jewel, you turn it around, see how it reflects in every angle. So a thought becomes a consideration. A consideration becomes an attitude.

The more you think about it, the more you're prone to start thinking in that direction. So it becomes an attitude. The attitude becomes an action. You think it long enough and you lean in that direction long enough, the attitude is going to become an action. The action, if repeated over and over and over again, is going to become a habit and the habit is going to become a stronghold. So you began with a very innocent thought which you considered and you considered careful and you considered often. It became an attitude that developed in your spirit, in your mind, your heart. The attitude became an action. After a while you had to vent what you were thinking. The action repeated once, twice, three times, ten times, a hundred times became a habit and the habit before long you understood it was no longer you that was in control.

Now the habit is controlling you. Satan has a power base in your life and when he really wants to bring you down in defeat he just calls the play and down you go. And that's the way a stronghold develops in a person's life and it can develop in a young person's life, it can develop in an adult's life. But you see what you and I have to remember is once a thought comes through our mind, listen, watch this. Once a thought comes into your mind every single evil thought carries with it the potential of becoming a stronghold from which Satan will harass and defeat and divide and disillusion your whole body. And that's the way you and I have to remember is once a thought comes through our mind every single evil thought carries with it the potential of becoming a stronghold from which Satan will harass and defeat and disillusion your whole body. Thank you for listening to When It's Spiritual Warfare. If you'd like to know more about Charles Stanley or In Touch Ministries, stop by InTouch.org. This podcast is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia.