Overcoming Strongholds

2 Corinthians 10:4-5 NIV
The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the
contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We
demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against
the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it
obedient to Christ.
A stronghold is something that becomes a fortress in our minds that
seals sinful activity in, while attempting to seal God out.
Strongholds are not just addictions. A stronghold can also be: lies,
pride, warped philosophies, thoughts, and plans that challenge God.
Strongholds: finding yourself stuck in cycles, substances, people
and practices that don’t work, or fail to meet your real needs
Two Main Classes of Strongholds:

1. Monster Strongholds
2. Sleeper Strongholds
   Monster Strongholds:
   • Drugs, sex, alcohol, pornography, nicotine
   Romans 7:18-21 NIV
   For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful
   nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it
   out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to
   do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no
   longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it. So I find this
   law at work: Although I want to do good, evil is right there with me.

Sleeper Strongholds:

1. Pride
   Proverbs 16:18 HCSB
   Pride comes before destruction, and an arrogant spirit before a fall.
2. Perfectionism
3. Control
4. Worry
5. Busyness
6. Technology
7. People
   Common Strongholds:
   • Narcissism, food, shopping, social media

Overcoming Strongholds:

1. Admit
   “Admitting you have a stronghold is not a declaration of your
   weakness; it’s asking God for a demonstration of His strength.”
2. Repent
   “Change your thought processes, and go beyond your mind’s present
   state of limitations and sinful habits.”
   Romans 12:2 ESV
   Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal
   of your mind.
3. Attend
   Attend means to take care of, minister to, take charge of, watch over
   and guard your heart and mind.
4. Replace
   We can’t just stop bad habits; we have to replace them with healthy
   habits.
   Romans 6:16-18 NIV
   Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as
   obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey—whether you
   are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads
   to righteousness? But thanks be to God that, though you used to be
   slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of
   teaching that has now claimed your allegiance. You have been set
   free from sin and have become slaves to righteousness.
   Overcoming Strongholds:
   ADMIT — REPENT — ATTEND — REPLACE

Benefits of Overcoming Strongholds:

1. Relentless grit
   Hebrews 10:38-39 NIV
   “But my righteous one will live by faith. And I take no pleasure in the
   one who shrinks back.” But we do not belong to those who shrink
   back and are destroyed, but to those who have faith and are saved.
   James 1:2-3 NIV
   Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face
   trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith
   produces perseverance.
2. Godly desperation
   Psalm 18:2 NIV
   The Lord is my rock, my fortress and my deliverer; my God is my
   rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield and the horn of my salvation,
   my stronghold.
3. Agents of redemption
   Revelation 12:11 NIV
   They triumphed over him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of
   their testimony; they did not love their lives so much as to shrink from
   death.