God Uses a Fast to Break Stongholds

My lovingkindness and my fortress, My stronghold and my deliverer, My shield and He in whom I take refuge, who subdues my people under me. Psalm 144:2

A stronghold is a place that is strongly defended. Psalm 9:9 (KJV) tells us, The Lord is a refuge for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble. Yes, the Lord is our fortress! He is our place of protection against an attack. However, our fight is not physical but spiritual. If the devil can control our thoughts, he can control our actions.

I think, this is why God tells us in His Word to be careful what we set before our eyes and to shun the very appearance of evil. We can have a stronghold in the Lord but we can also be held in a stronghold of the devil. The Bible warns us in 1 Peter 5:8 that the devil walks around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. If you look up the definition of devour, it means to swallow voraciously and quickly. He is not going to nibble around until you wake up and call on God. No, the devil is going to consume you so quickly you won’t even know what hit you. We get in too deep to get out ourselves. Too often, we try to fight the devil with our own intellect. It doesn’t matter what problem you are facing, what habit you need to break or what chaos is surrounding you, you can convince yourself in your mind that you are doing the right thing. We are convinced that we can fix it or change whenever we want. So, why aren’t you?

Maybe the devil has you in a stronghold. 2 Corinthians 10:4 and 5 (NIV) says, 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. The devil doesn’t fight fair and he fights to the death, but our spiritual weapons “have divine power”! God can demolish strongholds!

Wow! What is holding you back?

Bible Reading: 1 Thessalonians 5:1-24