| Strong Holds |
Creation Date: 6-Oct-2024 |
Last updated: 11-Oct-2024 |
|
| A A A help |
Sections
A Strong Hold in Christian terminology is usually referred to as a pervasive negative influence on a person's actions that causes a habitual sinful nature in some or multiple areas. The Strong Hold can often be debilitating, and will have consequences in life and losses of Rewards in Heaven.
In some cultural references, God is also referred to as our Strong Hold or Rock of protection, source of life, and peace. Jesus Christ is our Rock of Salvation in many, many scriptures.
| Nahum 1:7 | The LORD is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; he knows those who take refuge in him. |
| Psalm 118:22 | The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief corner stone. |
| Matthew 21:42 | Jesus said to them, Did you never read in the Scriptures, The stone which the builders rejected, this became the chief corner stone; This came about from the Lord, And it is marvelous in our eyes ? |
There are five Strong Holds in the scriptures that are explained in this topic:
| Type | Description | Godly or Evil | |
| 1 | Strong Hold of Protection by God | This is what all of us require in our life. | Good |
| 2 | Strong Hold of Habitual Sin | Caused by repeated acceptance of habitual sin. | Difficult to eliminate |
| 3 | Strong Hold of Deception | Caused by refusing to recognize God's truth and repentance, where God will give the person over to dishonoring passions. | Person will usually not perceive in their mind that there is a problem |
| 4 | Strong Hold of Permanent Disbelief | God gives the person over to a deception to believe in the Great Lie of Tribulation Period. | Cannot be removed |
| 5 | Strong Hold Problem for a Benefit | God allows a depilating problem, that can be from birth, that God is using to protect someone from exalting themselves and to avoid sinful desires because of their gifts of spiritual knowledge from God. | Good |
It is helpful to understand the scriptures are replete with the concepts of our actions in life yield benefits and and negative consequences. Unfortunately, many Christians seem to be only aware of the positive aspects of sowing and reaping, but do not recognize the negative aspects of sinning. It seems that many Christians think incorrectly
Absolutely, confession of sins is required by the Christian to God where:
| James 2:14-17 | 14 What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, Go in peace, be warmed and filled, without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? 17 So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. |
We are required to be Ambassadors for God which means living as God would have us to live as a reflection of someone who has been changed because of God in our life!
Additionally, many may not recognize the areas of Oppression and Possession that occurs in lives of people which are difficult in removing.
Strong Holds, when dealing with anything that is against God's Will in our lives, can be something very insignificant while still being a sin, and an overriding inclination to do anything to the determent of others along with ourselves.
The absolutely wonderful promise from God is victory is obtainable which will free us to gain a more full life with Rewards in Heaven.
Jesus Christ, through the Perfect Plan of God of in the Crucifixion, gave us the ability to overcome absolutely every sinful action before it occurs. Our through which first requires us to recognize the sin and then deal with the thought process to have victory over our fallen human nature and even the Satanic adversaries that build temptations to snare us in a trap that will have us becoming prisoners to sin that are difficult to overcome along with leading to the loss of Rewards in Heaven.
Many Christians are not aware that even with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit in our life, we can develop Strong Holds of sinful habits that seem impossible to overcome.When we are Born-Again, then the Holy Spirit will indwell us to teach us and guide us, but we can squelch and decide to not follow the inner-voice to think and then participate in sinful desires.
Sin is an action that
Often not recognized is the extreme importance of understanding that any kind of sin is against God, even when it is not directed towards God.
| This is an excerpt from the Law
topic: Jesus Christ summarized the facets of the new law many times as He
spoke, which are recorded in the scriptures. In this author's opinion the
best is Matthew 22:36-40 (part of Deuteronomy 6:4-7), where we are to
submit ourselves in loving God foremost, and then our neighbor as ourselves.
When we do these two things 100% completely, then it is impossible to sin
against God. Obviously, we are all a work-in-progress.
In John 14:15-24, Jesus Christ gives us the wonderful news that the Holy Spirit will guide and reveal Himself to all of us who love Him.
As stated above the Matthew 22:36-40 scriptural passage is the same as Deuteronomy 6:4-7, which is part of scriptural exponential consistency. The important point, as detailed in this topic, is the Mosaic Laws were replaced but many aspects were still relevant and to be done.
|
For more information on Sin, see the topic on Sin.
A Strong Hold in times of war, is known as a fortified position to stop invaders from gaining entrance into the fortified area or a territory. In our lives a Strong Hold is similar in purpose where the intention is one of two purposes:
There are numerous scriptures that God gave us to understand that we should commit ourselves to Him and that when we lack knowledge then we can suffer consequences.
| Matthew 11:28-30 | 28 Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. |
| Proverbs 2:6 | For the Lord gives wisdom; from his mouth come knowledge and understanding; |
| Hosea 4:6 | My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because you have rejected knowledge, I reject you from being a priest to me. And since you have forgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children. |
| Isaiah 5:13 | Therefore my people go into exile for lack of knowledge; their honored men go hungry, and their multitude is parched with thirst. |
When we gain knowledge to hold onto the important areas of our relationship with God and others then we will Strong Holds to protect ourselves and others. The requirement for us is to gain knowledge from the scriptures.
| Ecclesiastes 7:13 | For the protection of wisdom is like the protection of money, and the advantage of knowledge is that wisdom preserves the life of him who has it. |
| James 1:5 | If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. |
As Christians, we know about the admonition in the scriptures, in our Churches, and from others that we need to recognize the temptations are coming from three places:
| Ephesians 6:12-20 | 12 For
our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers,
against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and
against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
13 Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that
when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and
after you have done everything, to stand. 14
Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled
around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place,
15 and with your feet fitted with the readiness
that comes from the gospel of peace. 16 In
addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can
extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. 17
Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the
Spirit, which is the word of God. 18 And pray in the Spirit on all occasions with all kinds of prayers and requests. With this in mind, be alert and always keep on praying for all the Lord s people. 19 Pray also for me, that whenever I speak, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel, 20 for which I am an ambassador in chains. Pray that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should. |
| Romans 1:21-32 | 18 The wrath of God is being revealed
from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who
suppress the truth by their wickedness. 19
For what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made
it plain to them. 20 For since the creation
of the world God s invisible qualities, His eternal power and divine
nature, have been clearly seen, being understood from His workmanship,
so that men are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him, but they became futile in their thinking and darkened in their foolish hearts. 22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images of mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. 24 Therefore God gave them over in the desires of their hearts to impurity for the dishonoring of their bodies with one another. 25 They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is forever worthy of praise! Amen. 26 For this reason God gave them over to dishonorable passions. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. 27 Likewise, the men abandoned natural relations with women and burned with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error. 28 Furthermore, since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, He gave them up to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. 29 They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed, and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, and malice. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant, and boastful. They invent new forms of evil; they disobey their parents. 31 They are senseless, faithless, heartless, merciless. 32 Although they know God s righteous decree that those who do such things are worthy of death, they not only continue to do these things, but also approve of those who practice them. |
| 1 Corinthians 5:3-5 | 3 Although I am absent from you in body, I am present with you in spirit, and I have already pronounced judgment on the one who did this, just as if I were present. 4 When you are assembled in the name of our Lord Jesus and I am with you in spirit, along with the power of the Lord Jesus, 5 hand this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved on the Day of the Lord. |
Notice the list of possible consequences for not recognizing God's corrections in lives and NOT recognizing God's Glory:
The Satanic attacks that absolutely everyone will suffer throughout our life will be used by God for our benefit so that when we receive blessing, rewards, gifts, and so much more in Heaven then the perpetrators of evil form the Satanic Realm or Humans will have the opposite end results when we are not the cause of the consequences. Some suffering can be for long periods of years and even an entire lifetime that is a Satanic Strong Hold for our increased blessings and rewards that give Glory to God.
The Apostle Paul experienced a "thorn in the flesh" from Lucifer! Paul recognized the significance of it being for his own benefit, that had the opposite effect that Lucifer intended. God allowed the "thorn" to stay active as God replied my Grace is sufficient which meant God's Grace would be multiplied in Paul's life with "greater revelations".
| 2 Corinthians 12:7-10 | 7 Because of the extraordinary greatness of the revelations, for this reason, to keep me from exalting myself, there was given to me a thorn in the flesh, a messenger of Lucifer to torment me to keep me from exalting myself! 8 I asked the Lord three times to take it away from me. 9 He answered me, I am all you need. I give you My loving-favor. My power works best in weak people. I am happy to be weak and have troubles so I can have Christ s power in me. 10 I receive joy when I am weak. I receive joy when people talk against me and make it hard for me and try to hurt me and make trouble for me. I receive joy when all these things come to me because of Christ. For when I am weak, then I am strong. |
| James 1:2--6 | 2 Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, 3 for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. 4 And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing. 5 If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach, and it will be given him. 6 But let him ask in faith, with no doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. |
Strong Holds in our lives happen through three areas:
| 1 | Our own fallen human nature. | Note that when we develop a stronger relationship with God through Jesus Christ, then our Fallen Nature will diminish in strength over us. |
| 2 | Fallen Angels and Demons | Read Ephesians 6:12-20 (shown above in this topic). |
| 3 | Consequences from God | When we refuse to repent from sinful activity then God can choose to give us over to being a slave to the sinful desires. See (Romans 1:21-32 and 1 Corinthians 5:3-5 shown above in this topic). |
Most Christians know of the scriptural passages of people being possessed by Fallen Angels and Demons, but possibly do not recognize that a Strong Hold is a form of Oppression in the Christian's life, that does not require the person being physically indwelled by a Fallen Angel of Demon.
The process of a Strong Hold, that is usually evidence of Oppression for the Christian, occurs through these seven sequential steps:
| Step | Category | Action |
| 1 | Spiritual Weakness | An ungodly thought that we know is wrong that originates from our fallen human nature or Satanic Realm. |
| 2 | Entertaining the thought | We allow our consciousness thought process to think about the justification for doing the wrong action. |
| 3 | Not Resolving | Allowing the thought to stay in our consciousness thought process. |
| 4 | Establishment | The more we entertain sinful thoughts, without resolving, then the sinful thought can gain a greater influence as we contemplate the method to conduct and participate in the weakness. |
| 5 | Access | When we start to participate in the weakness then this allows the sinful action to develop into a habitual Strong Hold which will involve the Satanic world providing options to participate in greater sinful areas. |
| 6 | Double Influenced | Participation in the weakness causes our sensory pleasure areas of our thoughts and human body to become addicted to the sensations caused by the weakness, and the Satanic realm recognizes the opportunity to influence in more negative participation to cause the weakness to be engrained as a habit. |
| 7 | Strong Hold Habit | Having given into the actions from the weakness, the sinful weakness becomes literally programmed into our thought process. The weakness often will become a wrongly perceived acceptable behavior as the participants had to overcome guilt by rationalizing some excuse to become desensitized that the sinful actions that became a Strong Hold are acceptable. One commonly heard expression is "everyone is doing it, so it can't be that bad." |
All Christians, and even some non-Christians and all those under the Age of Accountability, have Guarding Angels present. When there is sinful actions, that includes sinful Strong Holds, which involved the presence of Fallen Angels and Demons, then there is spiritual aspect that we all should try to comprehend that most horribly is thought that a Christian has the Holy Spirit indwelling all Christians. This is a ghastly unimaginable thought to force God to allow the interaction of Fallen Angels and Demons in someone, which is what God had done with the suffering, scourging and crucifixion of Jesus Christ on the Cross!
God will not invade our ability to make our own choice, known as Freewill, but God will have His Name, Honor and Glory defamed forever in the life of anyone. Therefore, God did let us know that He can send deception into our thought process to enable increasingly sinful actions in a Strong Hold.
| Exodus 7:13-14 | 13 And God hardened Pharaoh's heart, that he hearkened not unto them; as the Lord had said. 14 And the Lord said unto Moses, Pharaoh's heart is hardened, he refuseth to let the people go. |
| Exodus 8:19 | Then the magicians said unto Pharaoh, This is the finger of God: and Pharaoh's heart was hardened, and he hearkened not unto them; as the Lord had said. |
As a relatively minor simple example of the seven steps in creating a Strong Hold, consider a person who has Type 2 Diabetic and knows to avoid consumption of foods that have too much sugar,
For the person that is not a Christian then Strong Holds are always a form of Possession according to Biblical Scholars, which this author agrees. Additionally, the consequences are more severe as the person is allowing demonic possession to become fully rooted in the person's life to develop more and more Satanic Strong Holds. As an example of Possession, read in Mark 5:6-9 with the man being possessed by a great multitude of Demons. The rhetorical question is: "Did Possession stop after the New Testament period where the answer is 'no'".
Our mental abilities are built by God to expand cognitive strengths through perseverance against all sinful desires regardless of the source. Conversely, if we do not overcome sinful desires and habits then our mental abilities will have the result of diminishing.
The process of overcoming requires learning the cause of a Strong Hold. The process is similar to alcoholic recovery groups where the first requirement is admitting to oneself that the Strong Hold Habit is part of their life.
The psychological aspects, of how God built all of us, are very straightforward in overcoming ALL Strong Holds.
| Category | Description | |
| 1 | Recognize | Recognize sins are destroying our future on both Earth and Rewards in Heaven along with hurting others. We all are connected to others no matter the circumstances. |
| 2 | Find Accountability | It may be necessary to find an accountability group after failing in trying to eliminate the Strong Hold. When required, which is often the case for Adulterers, then join the accountability group of people, that are best fit for your Strong Hold. It is sometimes necessary that the people be of the same gender, |
| 3 | Scriptures | Use the scriptures to find the rewards and consequences where you must read them along increasing your relationship with God through Jesus Christ. |
| 4 | Avoid | Avoid all people, places, and patterns that lead to sinning in the Strong Hold. |
| 5 | Resilience | Know with a resilience to stop an activity will eventually give sustainable strength to resist resuming to the sinful Strong Hold. |
| 6 | Replacement | All sinful habits in life require the replacement of a sinful activity with another positive Godly activity. |
| 7 | Always Stopping | Understand that quitting a Strong Hold habit requires the action of never stopping the quitting action. There are many groups, that support people in all kinds of habits like overcoming alcoholism, who will tell participating members to know that quitting may take several times to finally remove the habitual pattern. Initially, quitting is a daily goal then a pattern of replacement goals that keep you from restarting the sinful Strong Hold. |
| 8 | Help Others | After elimination of the Strong Hold, then rely on the Holy Spirit to guide you to help others conquer the similar Strong Hold and others. Become an encourager and helper of others in all areas of life. |
Our future with all the promises that the Scriptures have promised is in jeopardy for loss when we do not overcome sinful Strong Holds.
| The following are excerpts from the
Rewards in Heaven
topic: Everything done through faith that:
will contribute to rewards in Heaven that includes our new glorified bodies.
|
When we eliminate sinful Strong Holds, we must remain in victory over the Strong Hold.
It is often seen, as scriptures warn, that people overcome Strong Hold addictions to return to them where the consequences are:
The person returning to the Strong Hold may not recognize:
| Matthew 12:43-45 | 43 When an impure spirit comes out of a person, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. 44 Then it says, I will return to the house I left. When it arrives, it finds the house unoccupied, swept clean and put in order. 45 Then it goes and takes with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that person is worse than the first. That is how it will be with this wicked generation. |
| Proverbs 26:11 | 11 As a dog returns to its vomit, so a fool repeats his folly. 12 Do you see a man who is wise in his own eyes? There is more hope for a fool than for him. |
| Romans 1:21-32 | 18 The wrath of God is being revealed
from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of men who
suppress the truth by their wickedness. 19
For what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made
it plain to them. 20 For since the creation
of the world God s invisible qualities, His eternal power and divine
nature, have been clearly seen, being understood from His workmanship,
so that men are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they neither glorified Him as God nor gave thanks to Him, but they became futile in their thinking and darkened in their foolish hearts. 22 Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images of mortal man and birds and animals and reptiles. 24 Therefore God gave them over in the desires of their hearts to impurity for the dishonoring of their bodies with one another. 25 They exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is forever worthy of praise! Amen. 26 For this reason God gave them over to dishonorable passions. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. 27 Likewise, the men abandoned natural relations with women and burned with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error. 28 Furthermore, since they did not see fit to acknowledge God, He gave them up to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. 29 They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed, and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, and malice. They are gossips, 30 slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant, and boastful. They invent new forms of evil; they disobey their parents. 31 They are senseless, faithless, heartless, merciless. 32 Although they know God s righteous decree that those who do such things are worthy of death, they not only continue to do these things, but also approve of those who practice them. |
| 1 Corinthians 5:3-5 | 3 Although I am absent from you in body, I am present with you in spirit, and I have already pronounced judgment on the one who did this, just as if I were present. 4 When you are assembled in the name of our Lord Jesus and I am with you in spirit, along with the power of the Lord Jesus, 5 hand this man over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh, so that his spirit may be saved on the Day of the Lord. |
What To Read Next?
Our Fallen Nature Peaceful People Belief and WWII is a foreshadowing of the Tribulation Period, Worship What is Salvation? Is it possible to lose Salvation? We have eternal life. Evolution is not real. When a Christian suffers is there benefits from it. Rewards in heaven. Do we Tithe? What does the 3rd Commandment tell us? What is Grace and Mercy? Is there an Age of Accountability? Is there a place of unending punishment and exile form God?