The objective of this writing is to uncover what strongholds are, the trauma behind them and how they are fortified. Strongholds manifest in traditions, habits, and beliefs. Many go undetected because they can appear to be innocent and harmless. We have the authority to destroy the enemy’s strongholds and not allow him to set up residence in our minds. But first we have go in our minds and identify his house. 

2 Corinthians 10:3-4 

 ³ For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh.

⁴ For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds

What are Strongholds?

Strongholds Are

• Erroneous patterns of thinking that are not easily changed
• Mental or emotional space controlled by the spiritual enemy that he uses as a staging area to wage war against you and God
• A fortress in the mind built on fabrications that have taken root in your soul
• A spiritual fortress made up of wrong thoughts fortified by demonic forces that empower these thoughts to action
• Patterns of thinking contrary to God’s truth

Do any of these definitions resonate with you?

Two Kingdoms

The Kingdom of God

The Kingdom of God is here and now.

Matthew 6:10 

¹⁰Your kingdom come.
Your will be done
On earth as it is in heaven.

Matthew 6:33 

³³ But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.

Mark 1:15 

¹⁵ and saying, “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent, and believe in the gospel.”

It is a spiritual kingdom that must be entered by faith (Mark 10:15; John 3:3-5).

We as Christians operate in the Kingdom of God as spiritual beings.

Romans 8:1, 7-9 

¹There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who do not walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit.

 ⁷ Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, nor indeed can be. 

⁸ So then, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

⁹ But you are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God dwells in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not His.

The Kingdom of Darkness

God is said to have created an innumerable number of angels (Hebrews 12:22; Revelations 5:11). Satan’s kingdom consists of a third of them.

Revelations 12:3-4

³ And another sign appeared in heaven: behold, a great, fiery red dragon having seven heads and ten horns, and seven diadems on his heads.

 ⁴ His tail drew a third of the stars of heaven and threw them to the earth. And the dragon stood before the woman who was ready to give birth, to devour her Child as soon as it was born.

The “stars” in verse 4 is a metaphor representing the angels.

The Hierarchy of Satan’s Kingdom

Ephesians 6:12 

¹² For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities [governments], against powers [regions], against the rulers [cities] of the darkness of this world, against hosts of spiritual wickedness in the heavenly places [the atmosphere].

Satan’s “principalities” operates through those that make our laws. His “powers” are sent to infiltrate the minds of those that have regional influence. Finally, his “rulers” are the “blue collar” influencers.

Although Satan’s presence is clearly seen and felt, he knows he is doomed.

Revelation 12:12 

¹² … Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea! For the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has a short time.”

If you are in the Kingdom of God, you are automatically at war with Satan. There is no neutral territory. The command posts of these two kingdoms are in the heavenlies where they reside. Genesis 1:1 state “God created the heavens and the earth”, with heaven being plural. So, we know more than one heaven was created.

Three Known Heavens

God’s Command Post – The Third Heaven (Paradise)

Luke 23:43

⁴³ And Jesus said to him, “Assuredly, I say to you, today you will be with Me in Paradise.”

Revelations 2:7

⁷ “Anyone with ears to hear must listen to the Spirit and understand what he is saying to the churches. To everyone who is victorious I will give fruit from the tree of life in the paradise of God.

After crucifixion Jesus returns to his Father in the paradise of God.

2 Corinthians 12:2,4

² I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago—whether in the body I do not know, or whether out of the body I do not know, God knows—such a one was caught up to the third heaven. 

⁴ …he was caught up into Paradise and heard inexpressible words, which it is not lawful for a man to utter.

From this scripture we know there are at least three heavens. Paradise is in the third heaven where God lives.

Satan’s Command Post – The First Heaven

Satan and his angels thrown out of heaven to earth.

Satan was thrown out of the third heaven to earth.

Revelation 12:7-9

⁷ And war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought with the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought, 

⁸ but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer. 

⁹ So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.

Ephesians 2:2

Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience:

“Air” in scriptures is the air we breathe, oxygenated air. So, Satan’s kingdom is in the first heaven! The heaven we look up at.

Kingdom Spirits

We have established there are two spiritual kingdoms. The Kingdom of God and the Kingdom of Satan (Darkness). The persons occupying these kingdoms are spirits.

Did I throw you off by referring to spirits as persons?

When we think of the word “person”, we automatically think of a human being.

The definition of a person is a being who has certain capacities or attributes such as reason, morality, consciousness (awareness of internal and external conditions)or self-consciousness (heightened sense of the awareness of ones-self and that one has consciousness), and are a part of a culturally established form of social group.

“Person” came from the Latin word persona, which means “mask” or a “false face” which assumes a character. Eventually it evolved to mean “an individual human” or “human being” .¹

Now why did I get all deep in defining the characteristics of what a person is?

I did that so you will know that there are spiritual beings with characteristics that qualifies them as persons. Persons, who are spirits, whose natural state is not housed in a physical body but are just as real as if they had a physical body.

They reason, have a moral code, are conscious of their surroundings, are self-conscious and are part of an established group.

Proof:

God speaks of spirits as he would a person.

Matthew 12:43-45

⁴³ “When an unclean spirit goes out of a man, he goes through dry places, seeking rest, and finds none. 

⁴⁴ Then he says, ‘I will return to my house from which I came.’ And when he comes, he finds it empty, swept, and put in order. 

⁴⁵ Then he goes and takes with him seven other spirits more wicked than himself, and they enter and dwell there; and the last state of that man is worse than the first…

This spirit could reason, was conscious of his surroundings, had a moral code (unclean), and was self-aware (he wanted a body to live in), and part of a social community. I said all that for you to know your enemy is formidable, intelligent foe..

Your Composition

You are a spirit and a soul (person) in an earthly body (1 Thessalonians 5:23). Your earth suit is just that, a house to enclose your soul and spirit.

However, the only way we participate in the Kingdom of God is through our spirit, because the Kingdom of God is spiritual.

Whose kingdom are you in?

Most people who are in the Kingdom of Darkness do not know that they are in it. If one does not intentionally and deliberately choose Jesus Christ, the default setting is the Kingdom of Darkness. Most people won’t put forth the effort to figure out if their choices place them in the Kingdom of God or not. And that is what Satan relies on. Ignorance!

Identifying Strongholds

The Fifth Column

In battle, we expect the enemy to come at us from every direction. But, have you ever heard of the war term “the fifth column”?

We are en garde for the external enemy but don’t expect the enemy to come from within ourselves. This internal enemy is the fifth column. These are the strongholds the enemy covertly plants and fortifies on a national and individual level.

The term “fifth column” is credited to Emilio Mola Vidal, a Spanish general during the Spanish Civil War (1936–39). He ordered four columns of soldiers to attack Madrid on the east, west, north, and south sides of the city. After he emerged victorious, he was asked “was this how he won the war”. He responded “not entirely”. He said his secret weapon was his “fifth column”. These were those who were planted in the city with the intent on undermining the government from within.

This fifth column was to infiltrate positions of policy decision and national defense. From such key posts, fifth-column activists exploit the fears of a people by spreading rumors and misinformation, as well as by employing the more standard techniques of espionage and sabotage.²

How Strongholds Show Up

How does the fifth column work spiritually?

This fifth column stronghold exists on the national level in America today with the mission to dispel “In God We Trust” principles this country was founded on. Remember, Satan’s strategy is to capture ground and lock it down by fortifying it.

On a national level, Satan’s “principalities” are assigned to our government to subvert politicians to create laws and policies that directly reflect or can be manipulated to reflect Satan’s agenda.

These laws trickle down to regional (powers) and local levels (rulers).

Remember strongholds are erroneous pattern of thought that are contrary to God’s truth and righteousness.

Strongholds on the National Level

The “Right to choose” to either bear a child or terminate the pregnancy.

No fault divorces, removes the accountability element.

Freedom of Speech

Of course, this is a good thing right? However, there are no boundaries on it so free speech can easily become hate speech. This protects my freedom to speak as well as hate groups where they do harm publicly and under cover.

In 1658, the English poet John Milton wrote of “clandestine hostility cover’d over with the name of Peace.”³ Clandestine hostility implies concealed aggression, ill intent carried out in a covert manner with the intention of causing harm. Strongholds are ‘infrastructures’ that house such intentions. The goal is the same, to make Biblical principles culturally unpopular and no longer the people’s choice.

That is on a national level but what about individual strongholds?

Individual Strongholds

On an individual level the strongholds are those conditions that have infiltrated our patterns of thought to undermine our spiritual wellbeing.

Some of these “fifth column” strongholds are:

Pride, self-exaltation.

Rebellion, tendency to go against the grain just because or getting pleasure from being uncooperative.

Negativity, “woe is me” attitude, glass is always half empty.

Gender Confusion, the illusion that simple gender assignment at birth is complex.

Hatred, emotions based on contrived notions .

Selfishness, me first, second, third…

Addictions, drugs, porn, food, social media, etc.

Depression, ideations of harming self or others.

Domination, the need to control  those around you.

Satan desires to dominate. God offers choices. Any church, organization, head of house or person that dominates is modeling Satan.

Indifference, heartlessness, “as long as it doesn’t affect me” attitude.

Jealousy/Envy, measuring your value by what others have.

Poverty, practicing behaviors that do not support self-reliance.

Sexual immorality, normalizing sexual activity outside of marriage.

Religion, choosing traditions or personalities over what the Bible prescribes. Each can evolve into cultish manipulation.

Tradition, a body of beliefs or stories relating to the past that are commonly accepted as historical and true though not verifiable.

Generational Choices, referred to as generational curses.

God does not evoke generational curses.

Ezekiel 18:20

²⁰ The soul who sins shall die. The son shall not bear the guilt of the father, nor the father bear the guilt of the son. The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself.

Individuals in a family are tempted with the same temptation from generation to generation because the enemy detects a weakness in that area. HOWEVER, the individual’s response to that temptation is driven by a personal choice and not a curse. This is not to say choosing a different outcome would be easy.

 

The stronghold is not always obvious and sometimes takes digging to discover it. But you cannot defeat the enemy until you know who the enemy is.

Circumstances that Facilitate Strongholds

Ignorance, lack of knowledge making a person gullible to covert influences.

Mind control, private or public cultish propaganda.

Trauma, molestations, accidents, psychological and emotional trauma.

Rejection, low self-esteem.

All these and more make you susceptible to strongholds. Evil spirits work with weaknesses and vulnerabilities we already have. They study us to exploit and reinforce these weaknesses to fortify their negative effects on our lives.

How does the enemy fortify these strongholds?

• Presents repetitive temptations that reinforce the stronghold
• Places you in the company of people with similar strongholds
• Makes you embarrassed by it so you keep it under wraps and won’t seek help
• Exposures you to sister strongholds with the hopes you’ll pick up additional ones
• Causes you to minimize the stronghold or not believe it is an issue at all
• Change the culture from God-centric to human-centric
• Incorporate policies and laws to support desired deviant behavior
• Sublimely feed and saturate public airways with the “new culture” to all ages and cultures

Summary

Strongholds interfere with your capacity to serve God. They will tell you that you are not worthy or take the opposite approach and tell you “Aww it’s no big deal, everyone has issues.”

Hebrews 12:1 advises us to strip ourselves of every weight and sin which so readily and cleverly cling to and entangles us.

Have you identified your strongholds?

Break Every Chain, Tasha Cobbs Leonard

Next post, Strongholds Part 2

1. Dismantling Strongholds
2. Maintaining Deliverance

References

¹Person – Wikipedia

²Written and fact-checked by The Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica

³ Clandestine Definition & Meaning – Merriam-Webster