How Christians May Be Bound in Mental ‘Strongholds’
In Second Corinthians 10 the Apostle Paul speaks of “strongholds” to describe mindsets in people which are like a fortress locking in falsehoods and keeping out the truth of God.
These strongholds are thoughts, ideas, feelings, and the like which help give the person his/her identity, form a worldview of life, or the church, or God, Christ, the Christian life, etc. They may have come from your own reading of the Bible, or someone you trusted to tell you what the Bible says, or anywhere else. Thoughts that form a false picture of things pertaining to God make a person truth-resistant and not even know it. Indeed, they stand to make God’s actual truth fall like water off a duck’s back all while a person may even be satisfied in him/herself that they hold to biblical truth without compromise. Have you ever heard the phrase “you can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make it drink?” Make no mistake, this is a prevalent danger, this article will shed light on this, and this is a word to the wise.
Insidious prevalent danger
If strongholds (faulty understandings/motives) are left in place they stand to prevent God’s will from being fully implemented in individuals and in a church body as a whole. They may take many forms, but just like a field sowed with tares by Satan, they present a real and present threat to a person’s hope of serving God to their full potential – if serving Him at all in a manner that pleases Him.
The thing Christians need to really understand is such “strongholds” are insidious. Since they are woven into the very framework of one’s mind, they just seem normal. They form your day to day consciousness, how you act and react, and your innate sensibility. They may just be how you have “always thought,” or “always done things,” or the like. Jesus shone His light on the Pharisee’s traditions and ways in the gospel, and do not think the error of those Pharisees was exclusive to them!
The nature of spiritual deception is simply that you do not know what you do not know. Blindness of spirit and mind means seeing you may think you see, but what you see is not the real perspective. It also means you may feel and hold to a view with all your being as true. You may even think the Holy Spirit Himself taught it to you, but you may still be dead wrong while all your senses scream you are right.
Such deceptions can fly under the radar. Anyone not living “life more abundantly” as Christ promised those who truly walk with Him can be sure something is not right in their spiritual life. However, you may think and feel all is relatively well. You may even have a well-adjusted church life, Christian friends and family, and pray, and worship and do the things Christians do – yet that does not guarantee you are not yet in bondage to one degree or another in the spirit of your mind.
But, you might ask, is this possible? Are these just a bunch of scare tactics? Is this hype and drama over minutiae? How could such a thing as “strongholds” be proven if they really are such a big threat?
Simple: the test Jesus gave is to look for fruit, what “manner of spirit” a person is of, and “wisdom is justified by her children,” Jesus said. We’ll elaborate below, but first here is the pivotal verse:
2 Cor:3-6 – 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, 5 casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, 6 and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled.
Paul wrote by the direction and power of the Holy Spirit of God saying that by prayer he wrestled in the spiritual realm to pull down these strongholds of “arguments” and “every high thing,” and “thought” not yielded in spirit and truth to Christ.
He did not only try to correct them with words, but knew his battle was on a deeper level. In Corinth, the apostle was dealing with carnality of all sorts (1 Cor 3). Paul’s goal was Christ’s goal: that they become truly spiritual by God’s definition of the word, not their own. God, who changes not, has the same goal that “Christ be formed in you,” both on the individual and corporate level (See Rom 8:29, Gal 4:19).
Light exposes darkness
The easiest way to expose the presence of strongholds is to compare what God says He wants versus what is.
Much can be said about the kingdom of God which Jesus is King of, and for which He gave His life to bring many children into. The big picture is He is almighty, and can and wants to perform all His will but He needs people to get on board wholly with His agenda.
If they do, the Word teaches they must be surrendered as little children, meek, humble, and understanding they are being retrained for life in a spiritual kingdom. God’s goal is they be holy today and that renewed mind of the spirit is to transition to life in heaven and eternity.
Mt 11:11 – “Assuredly, I say to you, among those born of women there has not risen one greater than John the Baptist; but he who is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.
Heb 12:14,15 – 14 Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord: 15 looking carefully lest anyone fall short of the grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up cause trouble, and by this many become defiled;
God has said His sheep can know His voice, not follow a stranger (Jn 10). They should be moved by the root motive of a deep spiritual godly love that wells out of them (Rom 5:5). They should have power over their sin nature (Rom 6) to the point that by God’s power they may “put to death the deeds of the body” (and mind). (Rom 8:13).
Their chief and overriding understanding should be they are members of Christ’s kingdom whose citizenship transcends their citizenship in the United States, or where ever else they may reside. Since they are sons and daughters of the King, they should expect great things.
Jn 14:13,14 – And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. 14 If you ask anything in My name, I will do it.
Their top priority is to be “well pleasing” to Christ, (2 Cor 5:9) and daily “understanding what the will of the Lord is” (Eph 5:17), and that in all things “Christ may have the preeminence.” (Col 1:18).
Christ by His Spirit is supposed to be in the very air they breath, and like a bride awaiting her bridegroom, or a son who loves and obeys his Father, they see Him as central and they continually press deeper into His revealed will.
At the same time they love God and their neighbor as themselves, and their walk matches their talk. All these things are expected by God of Christ’s sheep who Himself gives them all the power to do all He commands, if they believe, trust, and obey.
2 Pet 1:3 – as His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue,
God is the one who makes the impossible possible. His goal is to create a showcase people whose very lives testify to those in the world around them that God sent Christ as Messiah (Jn 17:20-23), and these are His disciples (Jn 13:34,35).
God says accept no substitutes (2 Cor 11:4).
Ways That Oppose
The psychology of strongholds deserves its own book, but in overview, all false understandings are a product of the fleshly mind (Gal 5:20) and are aided and abetted by evil spirits.
1 Tim 4 – Now the Spirit expressly says that in latter times some will depart from the faith, giving heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons, 2 speaking lies in hypocrisy, having their own conscience seared with a hot iron,
Prov 14:12 – There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way of death.
In short, any thought that opposes the realization of God’s goals is not of God. God’s will is perfectly expressed in the Holy Scriptures, and anything that opposes the full, balanced picture it gives, as illuminated by the Holy Spirit, is not of God.
The Bible was written under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit and may only be “rightly divided” by one guided by the Holy Spirit. God never contradicts Himself! He never forgets His goal. He is relentless, and never slumbers nor sleeps.
However, while people know the Bible is the Word of God, at least on the surface, they may misinterpret it to form a picture that does not create what God truly wanted. The scriptures say people with untrained minds may even wrest the scriptures to their own destruction.
Being self-focused, humans naturally are biased and may not even be very excellent or deep thinkers or discerning. God calls His people “sheep” which means they need shepherds.
Christ is the Great Shepherd, He also is Immanuel, “God with us” (Mt 1:23) who is also God in us (Col 1:27), and He by His Spirit is supposed to keep us from error, but that people routinely short-circuit this safeguard with their fleshly minds is evident.
God also authorizes men as shepherds or overseers or pastors and the like who are also called to feed the sheep. These are supposed to be speaking as conduits of God’s own Spirit.
1 Peter 4:11 – If anyone speaks, let him speak as the oracles of God. If anyone ministers, let him do it as with the ability which God supplies, that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belong the glory and the dominion forever and ever. Amen.
Jn 7:16 – Jesus answered them and said, “My doctrine is not Mine, but His who sent Me. 17 If anyone wills to do His will, he shall know concerning the doctrine, whether it is from God or whether I speak on My own authority. 18 He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory; but He who seeks the glory of the One who sent Him is true, and no unrighteousness is in Him.
Note Jesus – as His true sheep are called to do as well – spoke what His Father sent him to say. As a not entirely unrelated side note, observe that He also said one who “wills to do His will” will have spiritual discernment of the truth. He will “know concerning the doctrine, whether it is from God or whether I speak on My own authority.”
By contrast, a carnally minded person may yet try to teach, lead, correct, exhort, encourage – all the work of ministry. He may use scripture to back his assertions, but he lacks a critical element and that is he “speaks from himself” – his fleshly mind, and not from His spirit in union with God’s Spirit.
Jn 6:63 – It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.
Christ spoke words of spirit and God’s life. He knew the flesh was useless, indeed worse than useless, it worked against God. The Bible says Christ’s followers are given the same Spirit He had, and thus the same capacity to speak from the spirit words of spirit and life.
True spirituality comes by the true Holy Spirit who never contradicts God’s mission. God is working in all things after the counsel of His will, and His will is that Christ be formed in you.
1 Jn 2:6 – He who says he abides in Him ought himself also to walk just as He walked.
Nothing less satisfies the heart of God, and though His people wander around in darkness calling it light, or have things they do not understand, He is faithful, and His purposes do not change.
Christ is to return, and He gave His life that we might know Him.
Strongholds versus normal ‘growth’
But, someone may object: Why call misconceptions “strongholds” as though they are abnormal? Is it not normal for a Christian’s mind to be straightened out through growth in grace? After all, one could continue, the Bible says people are babes when they first come to the Lord then God helps them grow up step by step. First Peter 2:2 says “as newborn babes, desire the pure milk of the word, that you may grow thereby.”
This is true, God is faithful, there are numerous scriptures saying God is always at work, but strongholds are what happens when you feed a baby junk food. Instead of good milk, honey, water, bread, salt, and meat, they’re fed French fries, Doritos, and bubble gum.
Or more to the point: in one way or another among thousands of theological approaches vying to teach “the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints,” (Jude 1:3), they may get less than the “whole counsel of God” following the spirit of the gospel the apostles taught. Thus they get an unbalanced picture with “errors and omissions” in the story of what it means to be a Christian, who God is, what we may expect or hope for, and what God expects or hopes for from us.
Rom 2:16 – “… in the day when God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel.
This is one of a couple places Paul said that at the Judgement Seat of Christ people will be judged by the gospel as he preached it. His gospel was Christ’s gospel, the apostles’ doctrine, and it included the full spectrum of understanding that gave Christ the preeminence and God the glory. The standard was very high, and Paul wrote in the inspiration of the Holy Spirit that the “ministry of the Spirit” was to be more glorious than the most glorious time in human history under Moses.
2 Cor 3:7-11 But if the ministry of death, written and engraved on stones, was glorious, so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the face of Moses because of the glory of his countenance, which glory was passing away, 8 how will the ministry of the Spirit not be more glorious? 9 For if the ministry of condemnation had glory, the ministry of righteousness exceeds much more in glory. 10 For even what was made glorious had no glory in this respect, because of the glory that excels. 11 For if what is passing away was glorious, what remains is much more glorious.
When the world thinks of Christianity today, does it immediately think of a glory that exceeds the time Moses came down from the mountain with the Ten Commandments as the fire of God consumed the mountaintop, and the children of Israel hunkered in fear? That was the picture the Apostle Paul gave of what God said was possible, but who today dares believe God for a fraction of this?
Paul continued, speaking of veiled minds of those bound by fleshly religion compared to the first Christians who saw with spiritual eyes opened by the true Spirit of Jesus Christ.
2 Cor 3:12- 18 Therefore, since we have such hope, we use great boldness of speech— 13 unlike Moses, who put a veil over his face so that the children of Israel could not look steadily at the end of what was passing away. 14 But their minds were blinded. For until this day the same veil remains unlifted in the reading of the Old Testament, because the veil is taken away in Christ. 15 But even to this day, when Moses is read, a veil lies on their heart. 16 Nevertheless when one turns to the Lord, the veil is taken away. 17 Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. 18 But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord.
The mind may be veiled in reading of the New Testament too, if one does not turn to the Lord, and continue to walk with the Lord as it is meant in the spirit of this passage as Paul understood it.
God’s unchangeable goal is the veil be removed from blinded hearts and minds and what can happen instead is a partial removal, and partial veiling. Second Corinthians 11:4 says even in Paul’s day those who named Christ were ready to accept a counterfeit they would not discern, but obliviously accept while considering all as normal.
1 Cor 11:4 – For if he who comes preaches another Jesus whom we have not preached, or if you receive a different spirit which you have not received, or a different gospel which you have not accepted—you may well put up with it!
The Word says a “different” spirit, Jesus, and gospel may be preached and people will think they are being fed God’s food for them.
A “stronghold” is thus to be distinguished from normal “growth.” As noted, a stronghold stunts or stops growth due to truth being mixed with error to produce a spirit of faith not like in kind to what Jesus wanted.
Remember, the goal is to be conformed to the image of Jesus Christ in our lifetimes – not just in talk but in walk – but how many who name Christ today become even a shadow of a saint in the model of a Stephen (Acts 6:5-Acts 7) before they die of old age? Stephen, the first recorded martyr, might not have been even 40 years old, but he showed what “growth” can be in the New Covenant. He had quickly laid hold of the power of God to follow the way of Christ, and his enemies “were not able to resist the wisdom and the Spirit by which he spoke.”
If this kind of thing is not happening on a regular basis in our day, that means something is falling short, and you can be sure it is not God’s fault.
Falsely indoctrinated
In sum, people may essentially be indoctrinated by what they hold as true, but which does not bear out. Such ones are essentially programmed just like a computer with bad data: garbage in, garbage out.
That a person can hold as true what is not really God’s whole truth is proven when a person who says he/she trusts God’s Messiah yet wanders in a wilderness when Jesus promised green pastures.
Such ones may never know God’s voice, never understand the fullness of the command to walk in the Spirit and not fulfilling the lust of the flesh (Gal 5).
Comfort zone
Why would people content themselves to live on a plateau or sublevel below the normal Christian life? All manner of reasons, but reasons could include they only want a certain comfort zone.
If their “Christianity” is a social thing, or otherwise their chief gratification is what their “Christian life” does for them, then they may be satisfied just like people who are OK with compromise and who settle and do not try for more or in cases even believe more is possible.
God’s kingdom is not supposed to be about us at all, however. We also are exhorted not to settle short, but seek the “true riches,” and “the best gifts.” Unlike a greedy, selfish person in the world, those who seek God’s riches are not like the obsessive money earner who wants to be a millionaire or billionaire. God’s paradoxical kingdom calls the greatest among us to be servants of all, and to lose our life that we may find it. Those true riches are what is called for and He adds no sorrow with them that is not counterbalanced by abundant life.
No heart for true spirituality
The counterpart iniquity to one who we benignly say is “in a comfort zone” is the ugly truth behind the “comfort zone.” There are many who do not wish to die to their soul’s desires.
Jn 12:24-26 – Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain. 25 He who loves his life will lose it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. 26 If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there My servant will be also. If anyone serves Me, him My Father will honor.
There are many who contrive theological arguments that reinforce notions about the Christian life to put dull sheep to sleep who themselves had itching ears and wanted just such a sedative.
Take care Christian!
Any theology that does not reach for the upward call of God in Christ Jesus to the absolute full extent is by definition the seed stock of a stronghold. It may even use God’s words, but it is not God’s word for you.
If accepted as true, even from the pulpit or a book by someone you think knows God better than you, it stands to wrap chains around you and halt your progress to a slower pace or stop you altogether.
Proof that this happens all the time is all around you. Just open your eyes! Look at 30,000 denominations violating the injunction against private interpretations and sects. Do you know it is impossible for everyone to be right including those who come to opposite conclusions based on the same facts? Look also at the spiritually fruitless lives of those who say they are disciples of the Almighty God and His Messiah! Is this powerful God they say they serve so weak that what they have is all He can do? Look also at the world which is largely running headlong into its sinful ways and feeling it may safely disregard Christ’s gospel for the lack of congruent witnesses. God said let your light shine, but many turn people away instead.
Rom 2:24 – For “the name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you,” as it is written.
The Word of God says God’s justified ones will live by faith. What they believe however may be effectively belief in a lie, or unbelief altogether. At that point, their supposed faith is short-circuited. The sneaky and pervasive nature of strongholds are they are a deception that reinforces error in the name of truth!
At the bottom of them may thus be deep feelings to the effect that do not believe God can or wants to come through in power. It may be presumptions and faulty suppositions that led a person to expect something that never panned out and left him/her disappointed.
People may also just want their will, their lifestyles, their pleasures, regardless, and not be willing to surrender as Christ called them to. Theologies that provide imagined escape hatches for such people also are shown false by the results their lives bring forth.
Again: God is almighty. The Word says the same Spirit that raised Jesus from the dead abides in your mortal body if you are in Christ. Do you think what you have is all God can do? What stops Him from doing more? God is limited by His own people, that’s what!
Ps 78
40 How often they provoked Him in the wilderness,
And grieved Him in the desert!
41 Yes, again and again they tempted God,
And limited the Holy One of Israel.
Two opposite poles of Christian carnality
Today there are two opposite camps in the broad spectrum of western-style Christianity. One extreme is the Charismatics and Pentecostals who claim God’s Spirit is far more active today and emphasize a subjective experiential Christianity that may depart from the touchtone of the Word of God.
The other extreme are any number of spiritually dry sects that subscribe to the theory of cessationism. These include the Southern Baptists, and Church of Christ who subjugate the entire faith to the Bible, and teach God’s “voice” (Jn 10) is only the book He left us while arguing that the gifts of the Spirit “ceased” after the New Testament was finalized.
From these opposite poles are a variety of blends of understanding merging aspects from the two extremes, but remember, the definition of what is of the flesh is any false teaching. And, all false teaching carefully merges truth with falsehood to create a composite picture that does not align with the original apostles’ doctrine. And, we test by results, and the spirit produced, not just by an endless debate and war over words.
Both extremes do back their views with scripture. Neither agree. Both say they read the same book, serve the same God, yet could not be any more different. God Most High, who does not contradict Himself, knows the real truth, and all these people are doing is proving man’s vast potential in his earthly intellect and feelings to cook up a new recipe for the faith.
Both are fortified in their strongholds by elements of truth. The Word of God is indeed God’s one reliable source. Everything they think they know came from it! The Word of God is actually intended to lead us to its Author, the Spirit of [the real] Truth, and He is alive and as active as He ever was because the Word says He does not change.
Charismatics have been known to make their Christian experience an emotional one which is a turnoff to cessationists and frightens them. On the other hand, cessationists are so cautious not to err, they can utterly quench the Holy Spirit and relegate all their experience to what they claim is of the Bible.
But the Bible is not the product of man’s mind alone, nor is it possessed or known by man’s mind alone. The Bible says God gave us a new Spirit whereby we may know Him and His truth (1 Cor 2, Eze 36:26). In short, one group may lean on soft elements of the human mind like subjective feelings, impressions, and the like, while the other seeks to satisfy its rational, so-called “objective” side. Both commit fallacies, and a cessationist fallacy can be if they don’t realize “objectivity” is at best a qualified term when discussing unseen matters of faith, and the Bible itself chides those who suppose to possess God in their minds (Jn 5:39,40). Further, cessationists also satisfy an emotional element in themselves in feeling like they have control or security in the knowledge they think they possess.
But a tree is known by its fruits! Are the fruits of what you are doing producing all the results God says should be? Indeed, those in bondage cannot even agree on the fruits that God says should be, and therein lies the insidious nature and depth of a stronghold.
Matt 6:23 – But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!
God’s remedy is come to Jesus. If you can agree God gave His Son in a “better covenant with better promises” to do much more, come to the true and living God with humility and contrition. Acknowledge you are nothing without Him, and you know nothing He did not show you in your spirit. Ask Him to reveal and grant your eyes be opened that you may find repentance and correction from the Lord who loves you. Ask Him to give you the heart of a servant of His whose motives and sensibilities are tempered by the Holy Spirit.
That at least is a good start, there is much more to this discussion, but may God bless you who truly want all of God and will accept no substitutes! God is faithful and well able to perform! Believe it!
