Strongholds

by Adam Hofer

A woman walked into my office and sat down right after I met with another guest. I could see the pain in her eyes as she asked for prayer. This was the first time I met with her. Yet, she started to weep. Before I prayed, I asked about her life, the struggles she was facing, and the reasons behind the prayer. “I feel like God doesn’t love me. I’ve done too many bad things for God to love me. I feel worthless and hopeless,” she told me.

In life, we need to be careful what voices we listen to because the lies of the enemy are often planted in our minds. Over time, if you believe and accept the lies, strongholds form in the mind. And the strongholds impact your behavior and understanding of God and people as long as you allow the stronghold to be planted in your mind.

What starts as “My parents aren’t proud of me” may turn into the stronghold of “I am not enough.” This stronghold may result in you being a workaholic as an adult, always trying to prove yourself. Maybe you were mistreated or neglected as a youth, which led to the stronghold of “I can’t trust people” or “People will always let me down in the end.” As you grow older, you go through life by keeping people at a distance. You keep them at a distance to reduce the chance of future pain. Maybe your family is always angry. Since the norm in your household is anger, you believe the lie that harboring unforgiveness is okay. If you accept this lie, you form a stronghold in your mind, justifying your anger. I could go on and on. All this to say, our enemy, the devil, is eager to plant lies into our minds to tempt us to accept them as truth to create strongholds that impact our behavior. Satan is the father of lies (John 8:44).

As I spoke with the woman, I identified with her strongholds that she has been accepting for years that have been holding her back from her potential in Christ. The main stronghold we identified was her belief that she was unlovable by God. To most of us who are believers in Jesus, we recognize that God loves us. Yet, when we go through struggles, we often feel He is distant, which is a lie. That distance makes us feel like He no longer loves us. “Do you believe in Jesus as your Lord and Savior?” I asked. “Yes, I believe in Jesus,” she replied. “That means God gave you the undeserved gift of faith, which is evidence that you are sealed by the Holy Spirit of promise. That means God loved you so much to come in flesh and die for you. You are a loved child of God,” I reassured her. She needed to replace the lie with truth in her mind. I reminded her to speak the truth into her mind when the lies of the enemy flow in: “I am not unlovable. I am a loved child of God.” We then prayed, and she left in peace.

If we are honest with ourselves, each of us have strongholds, lies that we have accepted as truth in our minds. To heal, we must identify those lies. And not just identify them, but also to combat the lies with biblical truths. In my Bible, I have a quote by R. C. Sproul written down that I read quite often. He said, “You are required to believe, to preach, and to teach what the Bible says is true, not what we want the Bible to say is true.” This is so true, especially as we examine our own thoughts. Are our thoughts supported by the Word of God? Do our thoughts about ourselves go against what is written in the Word of God? Am I living into the Word of God or is my life dependent upon the lies of the enemy? To mature in the faith, we must ask these questions. We must be cautious about listening to the wrong voices. Replace strongholds of lies with strongholds of truth