BREAK FREE – Part 1 – Strongholds

WARM-UP

What are the wounds in your life? The enemy knows that our hearts are fertile during wounds and he attempts to plant lies about God, about us, and about others. Whatever it is: may it be a repeated unhealthy thoughts and unhealthy habits in your life, anything from an addiction to food, alcohol, a spirit of religion, shame, depression, unforgiveness, anxiety, negative self-image. In life, no matter what background you’re from, no matter what nationality you’re from, no matter what financial status you are, no matter what race or color you are, no matter what pay grade you’re in, everybody has a STRONGHOLD that each one needs the Spirit of God to deal with or to release him from.

ONE BIG  IDEA

GOD CAN TURN A TRIAL INTO TRIUMPH, AND A MESS INTO A MESSAGE.

 STUDY (2 Corinthians 10:3-6 ESV) 

“3 For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. 4 For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. 5 We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, 6 being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete.”

LEARN:

Sometimes we’re FREE from the OUTSIDE but IMPRISONED from the INSIDE.

In any church, the greatest challenges that we have to deal with is:

1)People who DON’T KNOW that they’re CHAINED and

2)People who DON’T WANT to be FREE.

STRONGHOLD WE FACE (2 Corinthians 10:3)

The Corinth church is RICH financially but POOR spiritually. Their spiritual immaturity is affecting what God wants to do TO THEM and THROUGH THEM.  This church is very gifted. Paul diagnosed that the church has strongholds. A preacher once said, “A stronghold is a STUBBORN disposition.” Have you met people who are so stubborn? You already warned them not to do what they want to do because it could harm them.  Yet, they’re so hard-headed, so they will still do it anyway.  These are Christians who know what they’re supposed to do but they will not do it.  Or these are Christians who know what they’re not supposed to do but they will do it anyway. A stronghold is an ACCUSATION firmly planted in our mind by Satan.” These are lies, falsehoods, and misconceptions of the identity and goodness of God. Sometimes we go through difficulties that is beyond our understanding. And we ask God why He allowed us to go through it. We begin to doubt His goodness.

Let us have a case study about a young man by the name of Gideon in Judges 6:11-13.Maybe, you’re looking at the mess of your life as the worst in your life. Perhaps, you think that no one cares for you just like what Gideon felt.  But God is looking at your mess (past, present, and future) and He looks at you with love and concern.  The problem with us is we think that God loves us in the past.  Some of us may think that God loves the future us when we do it right or “God loves me when I’m perfect”. But the Bible says in Romans 5:8, “but God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us (ESV).” Gideon didn’t know that God was looking at him, concerned about him, loving him.

Unfortunately, there are times that we’re in a stronghold and we don’t know that we are already in bondage to it. You have to let go of what you’re hoarding (hoarding pains in the past, sins in your life, wrong relationships), because God has something better for you than what you have for yourself. This is why we have to tear down the enemy’s stronghold in us but we need God’s help.

Who among you know the state that you’re in?  Some of you have broken family.  Some of you have broken marriage.  Some of you are broken inside.  When God speaks to you, in the brokenness of your life, He is prophesying to you beyond where you are.  God doesn’t choose you based on what you believe about yourself. God doesn’t choose you based on what other people believe about you. God chooses you based on what He sees in you, the future you, you being in Him. God looks at you in the future perspective – as He’s working in your life, changing your attitude, building up your life. God chooses people that He will work in and work through so that He’ll get the most glory in their lives.

DIVINE POWER TO DESTROY THE STRONGHOLD (2 Corinthians 10:4)

God wants to break yoke of bondage in your life.  God has anointed your hands with tearing down capabilities. You may say, “But what happened in my life is so massive.  

The stronghold is so powerful that made me think small. It made me discouraged, depressed.  The stronghold made me believe that I’m not going to amount to anything.  But God is speaking to you now: Jeremiah 32:27 – “Behold, I am the Lord, the God of all flesh. Is anything too hard for me (ESV)?”  Genesis 18:14a – “Is anything too hard for the Lord (ESV)?”

Maybe, some of you have to visit the bad things that happened in your life, people who have hurt you, people who cheated on you, people who deceived you. Perhaps, there are situations in your life that have stronghold in your life, poverty, lack of education, failures, that are stopping you to reach the destiny God has for you. Some of you might have to go through therapy. Some of you might have to go through counseling that will help you to go to the root of your mindset that made you think of a particular way that the enemy has used against you to stop you from becoming the person God wants you to be. Gideon has to go to his family’s structure.  Gideon has to destroy the altar set by his dad.

Whenever God removes something BAD in your life, He replaces it with something GOOD. Take note, God didn’t tell Gideon to stop worshipping. God replaced the idols with the real God.

What you should do is just take every thought captive to obey Christ. Stop disobeying God.  Stop compromising.  Stop looking down at yourself.  Stop pitying yourself. You belong to God.  God loves you.  He cares for you. He has prepared people who will love you as God loves you. Find them.  Go to them and they will help you destroy your life’s strongholds in Jesus name.

GROW:

Application Questions:

1.Is there a stronghold in your life that you need to destroy? In what area of your life do you need to hand God the stronghold of your life?

2.How do you personally battle negative thinking? What have you found that works? Identify one of your strongest negative behaviors and share an example of how you can experience freedom in one part of your life while still in bondage in another.

3.Share an experience where you overcame a major wound in your life (pains in the past, sins in your life, wrong relationships). How were you able to get through it? Who helped you along the way?

PRAY FOR EACH OTHER IN YOUR GROUP