How to Break Satan's Strongholds in Your Life

Pastor, teacher, and author Adrian Rogers has introduced people all over the world to the love of Jesus Christ and has impacted untold numbers of lives by presenting profound truth, simply stated. Thanks for joining us for this message.

Here's Adrian Rogers. A satanic stronghold. Not only is it harming them and wrecking their spiritual life, but they themselves are contaminating the life of their family and the life of their church because the devil has found an unclean place in that person. And the devil has made a campground, a foul nest, a beachhead, a citadel, a stronghold there. And he uses that stronghold to war against God and against the work of God. Now in Ephesians chapter 4 and verse 27 is a frightening verse. Neither give place to the devil. Neither give place to the devil.

And then in verse 30, and grieve not the Holy Spirit of God. That is amazing. That is astounding. That's frightening. It ought to cause every one of us to sit up and take notice that we, children of God, saved ones, born again ones, could either on the one hand give a place to the devil or could on the other hand grieve the Holy Spirit of God.

Either one should be unthinkable in the heart and mind of a child of God. Now listen. There's some of you who have created a climate for the devil. You have devised an environment.

You have laid out a welcome mat. You have so ordered your life that you have created certain conditions that will make the devil feel at home. You have created a nest and said, Satan, I believe this is the kind of a place that will suit you and you have given him a place. You have literally given him a place. Now let me tell you something. Satan can never, ever take any ground in your life that you do not give him.

Do you understand that? Satan is not greater than our Lord. He has no right. He has no authority. He is an absolute trespasser.

He is out of bounds in your life until you give him a place. That's the reason the Bible warns us not to give place to the devil. Now once you've given place to the devil, then he's going to work on the rest of your life. Suppose you had a piece of property. Let's say there are 50 acres in that piece of property. And you sell me an acre right in the middle of your 50 acres. And you give me a deed to it. And I have ingress and egress across your property to get to my one acre there in the middle of your 50 acres. And let's suppose all night long I'm playing loud music and I'm throwing trash around and I'm just doing everything to desecrate your property.

And after a while you say, I want you out of there. Move out of there. You're bothering the rest of my property. You're desecrating my property.

You're defiling the area. Get out. And I say, I'm not going. I don't have to go. And you can't make me go. You gave me this piece of property. You sold this piece of property to me. I've got a legal right to it. And I am not moving.

If you don't like it, that is your tough luck. I am not moving. Dear friend, you would not be able to move me out because you gave me a place there. Now, some of you have done particularly almost the same thing to Satan. You have given a place to the devil and you cannot dislodge him unless you legally dislodge him, because there are certain things in your life that become strongholds and you've given a place to the devil.

Now, in order to dislodge the devil, you're going to have to be three steps in order to get him out. Number one, there must be repentance. Look, if you will, in verse twenty two, that you put off concerning the former conversation, the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts. Now, the word put off means put away, be done with it, have it out, confess it, forsake it, deal with it.

No other way. There's only one thing to do with sin. That is to repent. But not only repentance, there must also be resistance. Notice again in verse twenty seven, neither give place to the devil.

What you gave to him, you must take back, but you can never take it back until you take away his legal authority. And his legal authority is sin in your life. Now, if there's sin in your life, every area where there's unconfessed sin in your life, as we're going to see in a moment, is legal ground for Satan.

And until you confess that sin and cleanse that sin, Satan has every right to make a campground there. So first of all, there must be repentance. And then after there's repentance, there will be resistance.

But that's not enough. Not only must you resist the devil, and we're going to talk to you more about how to resist him, there must finally be renewal. Notice again, if you will, here in verses twenty three and twenty four. And be renewed in the spirit of your mind. And that you put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and through holiness. Now, you're never going to cease grieving the Holy Spirit.

You're never going to expose Satan and get him out of your life until you take those three steps. Repentance, resistance and renewal. Now, I want us to look here at the context and especially dealing with the area of repentance and the sin that we need to repent of.

Now, a text without a context is but a pretext. And so let's look at the verses surrounding verse twenty seven that warns about giving place to the devil. What kind of things give place to the devil?

We'll back up to verse twenty five. Therefore, putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbor, for we are members one of another. Now, friend, if you are a liar or if your life is not based on absolute, total, impeccable truth, you have created a climate where the devil will feel welcome. Now, let me tell you what the devil's nature is. In John Chapter eight and verse forty four, Jesus said that the devil is a liar and the father of it. If you really wanted the devil to feel at home in your life, then, of course, you live a lie. Love a lie, believe a lie, and the devil will feel at home.

He is the prince of darkness and lying, of course, is in the realm of darkness. God's kingdom, on the other hand, is built on truth. John fourteen, verse six. Jesus said he is the truth. In John seventeen, verse seven, he says thy word is truth.

In John five, verse seven, the spirit is truth. Now, dear friend, is there any area of my life, any area that is not impeccably, indisputably, completely honest? If there is an area of dishonesty in your life, that will be the devil's campground. And I'm talking about what is so-called white lies also. Did you know that you can lie with the tone of your voice? Did you know that you can lie by just the arching of your eyebrows?

Let me give you an illustration. When I was in college, I used to pastor a little church 130 miles from the college, the first Baptist church of Fellsmere, Florida, the first, last, and only Baptist church in that little town of 500. And I would drive down there in my old rattle trap automobile.

I drove 300 miles about round trip every weekend, got paid $25 a week, and that included travel expense and everything else and thought I was robbing them. But really, I was just so thrilled. I would have paid $25 to go down and preach.

What a joy to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and preach in that little church, my little college church. But upon a particular night, I realized I had one of my sealed beam headlights was burned out. And I knew it was out. But I was driving back hoping to get back to college, and the highway patrolman stopped me. And I knew what he stopped me for. And so when I got out of the car, he said, Son, did you know one of your headlights is out? Do you know what I said? I said, one of my headlights is out? I told the truth. I said, one of my headlights is out.

I said, one of my headlights is out? He said, Son, you better get that fixed. I said, yes, sir.

When I got back in the car, the Holy Spirit tore me up. He said, Adrian, you lied. I said, no, I didn't lie. I told the truth. I said, you lied. You told a lie. I told a lie by telling the truth. I told a lie by the tone of my voice, by the inflection. And when I did, the Holy Spirit said, that grieves me. That grieves me. I grieved the Spirit of God that was in my heart. I had to confess to him that I had lied.

Friend, I want to tell you something. If there is in your heart and in your life any area that is not based on impeccable truth, if you are a deceiver, if you are a hypocrite, living a lie, telling a lie, loving a lie, propagating a lie, you've made the devil at home. You have created a climate. You've created an environment. The devil says, hey, I believe I can be comfortable there.

Now let me give you another area that creates a climate. Look in verse 26. Be ye angry and sin not. Anger creates a climate for Satan. Are you a person given to anger?

Are you miffed about something right now? Did you know you like the devil when you're that way? Again, the devil has an affinity for anger. The Bible tells us in Revelation chapter 12, verse 12 and verse 17 that Satan has great wrath. That is, Satan is seething with anger. Are you an angry person?

Are you an angry person? Well, I'm telling you, dear friend, if you are an angry person, the devil will feel at home in your heart and in your life. Now, of course, there's righteous anger. Many times in the Bible, we think of the anger of the Lord. But you see, that's righteous anger. That's the reason the Bible says be angry and sin not. And the way to be angry and to sin not is to be angry at sin. But you see, you can tell a man's character by what makes him angry.

Some people don't get angry at sin, but you can find them wrapping a golf club around a tree somewhere. They just get angry at the wrong thing. Is there hostility and anger in your heart? Has somebody done you wrong and you're still mad about it? Angry at your boss? Angry at your neighbor? Angry at your wife? Angry at your children? Angry at your parents? Angry at somebody in the church?

Angry at somebody out of the church? Well, you say they deserve it. Do you deserve it? Do you deserve what's going to happen to you?

Whatever they've done to you, are you going to make it worse and life a campground for the devil? You give place to the devil. Pardon me, but you're foolish to do that.

You're foolish to do that. Then again, look in verse 28. Let him that stole steal no more. You see, not only is Satan a liar, and not only is he filled with anger, but Satan is a thief. You see, the Bible says in John 10-10 that he is a thief that comes to steal, to kill, and to destroy. Now, if there's thievery in your life, there's an affinity there.

There's a climate there. There's something that Satan loves. You see, he is a thief. In Mark 5, there's that man, that demon-possessed man. You think of what the devil had stolen from that man.

You remember the one that was living in the graveyard, the one who was crying and cutting himself with stones? The devil had stolen from that man his sanity. He's stolen from that man his liberty. He's stolen from that man his family. He's stolen from that man his joy. He's stolen from that man his health, and from that man his eternal life. The devil is a thief. Now, listen. I'm going to plow close to the corn right now.

You would steal so much as a 15-cent pencil carried home from the job. If it doesn't belong to you, you've made a place for the devil. You're saying, wait a minute, wait a minute. All right, now let me give you Scripture. Luke chapter 16 in verse 10. He that is faithful in that which is least is faithful also in that which is much. And he that is unfaithful in that which is least is unfaithful also in that which is much.

Not maybe, not could be, but is. A person who would steal a 15-cent pencil has the potentiality of stealing a $150,000 payroll. If you are unfaithful in that which is least, the Bible says you are unfaithful in that which is much, not could be.

That dawned on me the other day. I used to think, well, yeah, if I'm capable of stealing a little, if I'm capable of stealing a lot, that isn't what God says. God says if you are unfaithful in that which is least, you are unfaithful in that which is much because with God, thievery is thievery.

It makes no difference. And so listen, are you a thief? You kids, do you steal in school? I mean, do you steal answers off somebody else's paper? You're a thief.

Do you gossip and assassinate character and steal somebody's reputation in order to make you feel better by trying to put them down? You're a thief. And I want to plow real close to the coin.

Are you a tither? You say, no, you're a thief. Well, a man robbed God, yet you've robbed me.

But you say, wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings. Well, you say, pastor, that's Old Testament. That's for the Jews under the law.

Yeah, that's right. That was for the Jews under the law. We're not under law. We're under grace, huh? Yes.

Well, let me tell you something. Anybody let a Jew under law do more than we do under grace is a disgrace to grace. You understand this? Friend, I want to tell you that Jesus said, except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and the Pharisees. Ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven. You think I'd let a Jew under law do more than I can do under grace? Somebody says, well, in the Old Testament, one-tenth belonged to God. In the New Testament, it all belongs to God.

That sounds so pious. Friend, in the Old Testament, it all belonged to God. It always has all belonged to God. And I'm trying to tell you, dear friend, that many of us have robbed God with his tithe and our love gift. And when we do, we become like the devil who tries to steal from God, to steal, to kill, and to destroy. And when we do that, what we have done is made a foul nest for the devil. He's a thief. And you say, come on in, devil.

I give you a place. Look again in verse 29. Filthy speech makes room for the devil. Let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying that it may minister grace to the hearers. Skip over, if you will, to chapter 5 and verse 4. Neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor jesting, which are not convenient, but rather giving of thanks. Filthy speech. Not only is the devil a thief, but the devil is filthy.

I was reading in the Word of God in Mark chapter 1 and verse 23 where the Bible says that Jesus took out of people unclean spirits, foul spirits, dirty spirits. I've actually had people sometimes use this verse where the Bible says not jesting, and they say, preacher, you ought not to use humor. You ought not to believe in humor.

Oh, no, that's not what he's talking about now. It has nothing to do with humor. Jesus used humor. God gave us a gift of humor.

He's not talking about that. Humor, rightly used as a gift of God to renew, relax, and refresh us. But he's talking here about that which tears people down. Look at it again, if you will, here in this passage of Scripture.

He's saying, let no corrupt communication proceed out of your mouth, but that which is good to the use of edifying. There's certain kind of language, certain kind of talk, certain kinds of stories, certain kinds of things that are filthy things. They tear down. They do not build up, but they tear down. They destroy. They desecrate. And if you have a foul mouth and a filthy mouth and you tell these kind of stories, I'll tell you why you've got a foul mouth and a filthy mouth, because you've got a filthy heart. And I'll tell you, dear friend, out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh, and that filthy heart, that dirty place is a place that Satan incubates and dwells in.

It's a foulness. You've given it to him, and it is there, and he's there, and he's going to wreck and ruin your life. Make a stronghold out of that thing.

Let's go on. Bitterness creates a climate for the devil. Look in verse 30 and following. Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God, whereby you seal unto the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice. Bitterness.

You know what I've seen lately? I've seen some Christians with bitterness in their heart. I don't know where they got that bitterness. I mean, evidently, somebody hurt them. Evidently, they got to looking at somebody, and they said, you know, I don't like that guy. I don't like that woman. They done me wrong. I don't like the way they look or stand or talk.

I don't like the way they think. But the real problem is there's a root of bitterness down there in your heart, and you see, again, you're like the devil. Did you know the devil is bitter? In Revelation chapter 12 and verse 12 and verse 17, you find the devil pursuing after the nation Israel.

The dragon pursues after the woman. The devil has a bitterness. The devil has a vendetta against God's holy people, and he is pursuing.

He's on there. He's trying somehow, some way to hurt. Are you bitter? You're like the devil. Are you bitter?

If you're not careful before long, you're going to be full of the devil? I heard of an old couple. She had good eyes, but she could hardly hear. He could hear, but he could hardly see, so they got around.

She'd drive the car, and he'd do the talking. They were going from Memphis to Nashville, and they stopped in Jackson to get some gas. They pulled into the service station. The attendant came out and said, Fill her up. The man said, Yes. She said, What did he say? He said, Fill her up.

I said, Yes. After a while, he said, It's a nice car. He said, It's a Chrysler. She said, What did he say? He said, He won't know what kind of car it was.

I told him it was a Chrysler. He said, You're going far? I said, Yeah, we're going to Nashville.

She said, What did he say? I said, Want to know where we're going? I said, We're going to Nashville. He said, Where are you from? Memphis.

What did he say? Want to know where we're from? I told him, We're from Memphis. He said, Memphis. He said, I used to know a woman in Memphis.

He said, Beyond a shadow of a doubt. That was the meanest, hardest, bitterest, coldest woman I've ever known in my life. She said, What did he say?

He said, He thinks he knows your sister. Bitterness. If the devil loves to find that kind of a heart, you can sit in church with a smile on your face.

You can go through and sing these songs. If there's bitterness there, you've got no joy. If there's bitterness there, you've got no victory. If there's bitterness there, your prayers are not getting through to God. If there's bitterness there, you're contaminating the life round about you, and not only are you ruining your own life, you're contaminating the life of your church, and you're bringing grace to the devil.

But he's not finished yet. Look again in verse 31, and he speaks here of, Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you. Bitterness often leads to slander, and again the devil is called the accuser of the brethren.

Revelation chapter 12, verse 10. Do you know what the word devil means? Do you know what the word devil literally means? It means slanderer. That's actually what the word devil means. If you are a slanderer, if you are a gossip, if you're speaking evil, you're literally doing the devil's work.

Slander, how terrible it is. And the last in these things that he mentions is malice. Look again here, if you will, in verse 31. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and evil speaking be put away from you with all malice. Let me show you something. You see how the devil works.

Now listen, pay attention. First of all, there comes bitterness. You know what bitterness is? You feel wounded.

Somebody's done you wrong. And you feel that you have a right to be bitter. And so that bitterness after a while turns to wrath.

Now look at it. You see he says let all bitterness and then wrath. Look at the word wrath. The Greek word wrath has the idea of something that burns on the inside.

It has the idea of internal heat. It's like smoldering rags in an attic or in a closet. After you're bitter for a while, you know what you begin to do if you don't deal with that bitterness? You get a slow burn. Have you ever felt it?

I've felt it. It's a slow burn. That's what the Bible calls wrath. And then the next word is what? Anger. After a while those smoldering rags burst into flame and it shows up as anger. And that which is internal becomes external.

But the devil is not finished yet. That anger then turns to clamor. That's the next word. Do you know what the word clamor means? It means to speak loudly. Have you ever noticed a person, first of all they get bitter and then they get that slow burn and then they get angry and then they get hostile when you talk to them and they get louder and louder and they get red in the face and you say well you don't have to shout.

I'm not shouting. That's that clamor. And then what happens to the clamor? Then that clamor turns to the evil speaking. You know you're on a roll and you start to say something and the devil says yeah and tell him this too and tell him that and then you start to evil speak. That is you say things you don't mean. You say things that you never really even thought of but you're out of control now and you say I hate you.

Or you'll never amount to anything. I wish we'd never gotten married. I wish I'd never seen you.

I wish you were dead. We say these things that we don't mean. We'd give a million dollars if we could take them back but the devil's over there and he's saying yeah that's right and tell him this too. Oh he feels good the devil does. And then it ends up with malice. Do you know what the word malice means? That means a desire to hurt somebody.

I mean after the evil speaking. I mean after you're on a roll then you want to grab hold of them. You want to shake them. You want to kick them. You want to shove them. Or you want to cut the money off from them. Or you want to walk out and make them suffer.

You want them to hurt. Bitterness. Wrath. Anger. Evil speaking.

Malice. Boy have you done a good job. You've just let the devil come in. I mean he's wrecked it all.

And who did it? You. Open the door. The devil can take no place except what you give him my dear friend. And the Holy Spirit is weeping. The Holy Spirit is heartbroken. Do you know that you can break the heart of God? Do you know what the word grieve means?

Any of you parents ever grieve over your children? And grieve not. Grieve not the Holy Spirit of God.

Can you imagine being saved, redeemed, born again? And this purchased temple bought with the blood of Jesus has become a nest of Satan. And you open the door and the dear Spirit of God is weeping and Satan is laughing and making a mockery of the things of God. You just said, come on in devil. I open the door. I give you a place in my life. Now friend, let me tell you something. You're not gonna get that place back until you repent.

There's one thing God will not accept for sin and that is an alibi or an excuse. You say, well, I've got my rights. You don't have any more rights than a dead man has.

You're crucified with Christ. You don't have any rights, mister. You belong to him. You have no right to grieve the Holy Spirit of God. You have no right to give a place to a foul, filthy devil in your heart and in your life. You're not your own.

You're bought with a price. You're to glorify God in your body and in your spirit which are God's. There must be repentance and repentance is not just being broken over your sin. It is being broken from your sin. The Bible says, put it away.

Be done with it. After there's repentance, there can be resistance. Now even after you repent, the devil's not gonna walk out. He's not gonna walk out. You're gonna have to run him out. The Bible says in James chapter 4 verse 7, resist the devil and he'll flee from you.

If you don't resist him, he's not going. I mean, even if you repent, you've still got a clean house. You have got to go in there now with the power of attorney which is the name of Jesus and he gives you power of attorney.

I mean, when you take back that land, when you say I clean it out, I repent of the sin, I cancel the debt, it's all done. Devil, you have no more rights. You have no authority. Then you can take the blood of Jesus Christ. Christ is your authority.

Christ is your attorney and you can say to him in no uncertain terms, Satan, I have given you a place, but I take it back in the name and the authority of Jesus. Satan, I don't shout at you. I don't plead with you. I don't argue with you. I don't beg you. I bring Jesus Christ against you.

You have no rights. You are working on my Father's property and in the name of Jesus, whose I am and whom I serve, be God. And he will flee from you. He will flee, flee from you. Do you ever think about the devil fleeing from you?

That's the Bible. Resist the devil and he'll flee from you. But I'll tell you, you try to resist the devil with unconfessed sin in your heart and in your life, he will laugh in your face. He'll make a mockery of you. You say, devil, leave me alone.

He'll say, ha, who do you think you are? You gave me this piece of property and I am not moving out. There must be, there must be repentance and then there can be resistance. Then there may be renewal. Look, if you will, again in verse 23 of this chapter. Look at it and be renewed in the spirit of your mind and that he put on the new man. It's not enough to put off the old man, but put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. Don't you love that phrase, true holiness?

God forgive us for this icky, gooey, syrupy kind of holiness, this pretense, which is not holiness at all, but true holiness. Look in verse 30 and grieve not the Holy Spirit of God whereby you're sealed until the day of redemption. Look in chapter 5 and verse 18 and be not drunk with wine when in excess, but be filled with the Spirit.

Now, you've got a choice, folks. You can grieve the Spirit of God and be filled with the devil or you can put the devil out and be filled with the Spirit of God. Be filled with the Spirit. There's no place for the devil when you're filled with the Spirit. I mean, if you're filled with the Spirit, where can the devil go?

He has no place. Do you see when the Bible says be filled with the Spirit, what does that mean? This Holy Spirit is not some sort of a liquid and you're a jug.

That's not the idea. You are a temple and the Holy Spirit is a person. To be filled with the Spirit of God means that there's not one room in this temple where he's off bounds. There's not one closet he doesn't have a key to. You are filled with the Spirit in my sex life, in my business life, in my political life, in my church life, in my social life, in the big things and the little things, in my money, in my exercise, in my sleep, in my eating, in my lying down, in my waking up.

Jesus, I give you the keys to it all. I am filled with the Spirit. Now, when I'm filled with the Spirit, there's no more room for Satan. If there's room for Satan, the Spirit is grieved and I'm not filled with the Spirit. Repentance, resistance, and renewal. Don't try to repent until you're honest and face your sin. Don't try to resist until you've repented. And don't try to be filled until you resist, until you choose against Satan and yield to God's blessed Holy Spirit of God. .