Seven Areas of Breakthrough This Year:
- Faith – your personal walk with God
- Family – family situations, with children, spouses.
- Finances – managing our money, etc.
- Freedom – areas of our lives that we have strongholds
- Fun – we need to enjoy life
- Field of Endeavor – your job or vocation
- Friendships – social relationships outside of family
Jesus wants us to be free in every area of life!
A Christian cannot be demon possessed, but Satan can still deceive us in areas of our lives and those areas can become areas of bondage.
Deception is the only weapon that Satan has that he can use against a child of God.
He is a liar and a very good liar.
John 8:44 | NKJV (44) You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.
There are three words that we all need to know in studying the Word of God where dealing with the devil is concerned:
- Wiles
- Devices
- Deception
Ephesians 6:10-11 | NKJV (10) Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. (11) Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
- The word “wiles” comes from the Greek word “methodos”, and it literally means “with a road” or “on a road.”
What Paul is saying to us is that the enemy travels one road, one lane, or one avenue. In other words, he primarily has only one trick in his bag, but he has learned how to use that one trick very well. The devil is skilled in staying in his lane.
If the devil operates on one single avenue, what is the destination that diabolical road is headed toward?
2 Corinthians 2:11 | NKJV (11) lest Satan should take advantage of us; for we are not ignorant of his devices.
- The word “devices” is the Greek word “noemata” and denotes the insidious plot of the enemy to fill the human mind with confusion.
Confusion – lack of understanding or uncertainty; the state of being bewildered or unclear in one’s mind about something.
Another way of saying this is that it bears the notion of “mind games”.
“…we are not ignorant of the mind games that Satan tries to pull on us…”
We must speak to our emotions and senses dictating to them exactly what to believe.
If we do not renew our minds and yield to the work of the Holy Spirit in our souls, it will be only a matter of time before a solid stronghold of deception begins to dominate and manipulate our self-image, our emotional status, and our overall thinking.
- Deception occurs when a person believes the lies that the enemy has been telling him.
Deception – Greek: dolios – Means to bait someone.
The moment someone begins to accept Satan’s lies as truth is the very moment those wicked thoughts and mind games begin to produce the devil’s reality in his life.
When you embrace the devil’s mind games and perceive them as truth, you give power to them!
We begin to put faith in those lies and give them power to create that reality in our lives.
What is a stronghold?
2 Corinthians 10:3-4 | NKJV (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,
The word stronghold (Greek: ochuroma) Means a fortress or a prison.
This tells us that a stronghold is designed to keep outsiders from getting in and insiders from getting out.
When someone has a stronghold in their mind, he has walls around him that are so thick, others cannot seem to break through to help him.
Like impregnable, invisible walls, strongholds are rooted in people’s minds and emotions to keep others from getting too close to them.
This is a trick of the devil to keep people isolated and especially away from those who could help bring freedom.
These walls are built over time as lies from the enemy go unresisted in one’s mind. Suppose someone permits wrong thinking and wrong believing to go unchallenged hour after hour and day after day. The devil will begin to use those lies, insinuations, and unrealistic fears to build thick, impregnable walls around that person’s life.
Some examples of how these destructive strongholds can affect your life:
- Unrealistic fears of rejection will keep you from developing healthy relationships in your life.
- Unrealistic fears about the future of your marriage will hinder you from functioning in your marriage as God intended.
- Unrealistic fears about potential failure will keep you from stepping out to obey God and do something worthwhile with your life.
There are two types of strongholds:
- Rational
- Irrational
- Rational strongholds are the hardest to deal with because they usually make sense.
2 Corinthians 10:5 | KJV (5) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;
Imaginations: Greek: logismos – where we get the word logic
The logical mind will begin to dictate your life from a stronghold of natural reason.
The logical mind, although necessary and wonderful, will work against your spiritual life unless it is submitted to the control of the Holy Spirit and the Word of God.
- Irrational Strongholds primarily have to do with fears and worries that are completely unrealistic and often are not founded in fact.
Examples: Fear of dying early in life, abnormal fear of rejection, a fear of financial collapse.
2 Corinthians 10:5 | KJV (5) Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;
- The first step to eradicating strongholds in your life is to recognize YOUR responsibility in the matter!
Repentance for allowing the mental and emotional strongholds to develop in your life is absolutely essential – before all else.
- Secondly, If you don’t take your thoughts captive, your thoughts will take you captive!
We must take those “mind games” (devices) that the enemy uses captive and force them into a subordinate position.
You must lay hold of your mind and tell it to submit and listen to what the Word of God has to say!
Ephesians 6:17 | NKJV (17) And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God;
When a strong knowledge of your salvation is wrapped around your mind, you will never again fall prey to the devil’s deceptive tactics.
2 Timothy 1:7 | NKJV (7) For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.
This means having a saved or delivered mind. This is a mind that has been set free and is thinking correctly!
This is what someone who has on the helmet will think like:
- When you are walking in the full knowledge of your salvation, you think and talk like a saved man or woman!
- When your mind is renewed with the Word of God concerning all the blessings contained in your salvation, you think and talk like a saved man or woman!
- When your mind is filled with the goodness of God because salvation is tightly wrapped around your mind, you think and talk like a saved man or woman.
When you “walk” in the helmet of your salvation, you think like God thinks, you reason like God reasons, you believe like God believes and you act like God acts.