So let us seek and let us trust the Shepherd's Heart, who left the ninety-nine to find that one lost sheep... Our Abba Father... the Shepherd of Our Souls.
Strongholds are areas of our life that sin has impacted and we knowingly or unknowingly protect. Satan loves strongholds because they are entrances for him and his dominion. From the very beginning of life the enemy seeks to set up strongholds. He stages his strongest attack in childhood, when the person is most vulnerable. The child’s surroundings play a profound role. The signals received in child’s life are not registered in the conscious, but in the subconscious realms. The brain registers only the images and the soul registers the emotions associated with these images. It is much more complex than this, this is the simplified version. The soul is actually the very battleground, a strategic place in the human being. Therefore, before the mind and the physical brain are developed, they are like open floodgates. It has been proven that up to the age of six, children learn six to eight times faster than adults. Why? They have not yet learned to distrust anyone or anything. Most children are filled with questions and are constantly alert, absorbing all they can. However, as soon as children experience trauma or adversity they become cautious and more selective. The more they get hurt the more they close themselves. The more they close themselves the more they suffer and slow down the process of their development.
The strongholds of the enemy are so deeply hidden in us that many people cannot express what they really experienced as children. These are called repressed or dissociated memories. Every shock and emotional pleasure or violence is recorded in the soul. The mind cannot think about it because of its power of will. It can forget, but from time to time the soul will awaken it, present it to the mind and then the person must deal with it. One will seek to change the subject; another will fanaticize and dream about it. This depends on at what point in life the images had entered and whether they were injurious or pleasurable. If a child had a happy childhood, then he/she can dwell upon these images later on in life when they have times of discouragement, fear, loss, etc. However, when the childhood experiences were not good, then this person will have a struggle because they do not have good memories to look back on to help them through current mishaps. It is here that strongholds come into play.
You have to remember that creating spiritual and emotional strongholds in one’s soul is the enemy’s first and most important task in creating a foothold in one’s life. The constantly open door through which the rest of filth flows can bind a person until total destruction occurs.
Now lets look at the will. Your will is the pure part of God Himself in all of us. This will must always face testing. Abraham was tested until the very end. All the prophets were tested as well. Look throughout the entire Bible and you will find that all great men and women of God faced testing in the power of their will. Have any of you experience that? If you are a Christian I KNOW that you have had this experience. Ben Rubin in his book What is Repentance states:
“Today ministers of inner healing are very popular. This ministry is important and necessary but DOES NOT CURE. It is a cosmetic procedure since many cannot expose all that ails and oppresses them in the presence of a minister or counselor. It is nearly impossible to reach down to these deeply rooted regions of your soul without spending a special private time with God. We concentrate too much on ministry and do not emphasize enough the need for reaching God personally in the secret place. We must teach people HOW TO, instead of making them dependent on a ministry or counseling agency. “Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind and makes flesh his strength”. Jeremiah 17:5)
It is a great temptation to have everything done quickly, painlessly, and without any responsibility. This is why people turn to astrology and the occult. They suppose that all they need to do is pay money. This is not so. Once an individual opens himself or herself to the spirit of lies through secret rituals and chanting, they become the strongholds of sin in the soul. They become the doors and gates for assigned demons to enter and attach to these strongholds.
True repentance pulls the roots out of the ground and kills them so they would not spring up again. Sin confession is like the grass mover that only cuts the tip of the grass. The surface looks pleasing. It is good and necessary and those who go through this cosmetic procedure periodically can maintain their spiritual health but only to a point. At the end they may get tired of dealing with the same deep-rooted problems again and again, therefore they quit and find they cannot overcome the strongholds. It is not enough to mow the grass once. There is still the need to break the ground and pull the weeds with its roots. The Bible teaches us this kind of repentance and our flesh doesn’t like it. Perhaps this is why we replace this wonderful freeing experience with inner healing and a deliverance doctrine. Repentance represents a period cleansing of the house. Many people confuse repentance with confession. Confession is the cutting of the tip of the weed. True repentance is the pulling out of long roots. One is a cosmetic procedure while the other is a deep surgery. Once we sincerely repent for our own sins and the sins of our forefathers, we can also repent for the sins of our own children. This will set them on a righteous course into their future. This way we stop the evil heritage and establish a brand-new line of people who fear God and walk in His ways.”
Once you have sanctified your roots, you, as a tree, are free to produce the GOOD FRUIT with joy. You are free to attain your fullness with each victorious step. THIS IS FREEDOM!
“…..BRING FORTH FRUIT IN KEEPING WITH REPENTANCE” Matthew 3:
