Overcome Mental Strongholds in 4 Simple Steps

One of the greatest possessions I've ever received from the Lord Jesus Christ is His peace. You know, I used to have a life that was troubled by anxiety and worry, but I want you to know I'm no longer troubled by anxiety. I have finally learned how to live in the peace that Jesus gives us. And you know, fear is so tormenting. If you've ever experienced fear or anxiety or a lack of peace in your life, you know that it's very tormenting. But the peace that Jesus gives us brings such comfort, and that's the peace that He wants us to have. But it's not just something that you automatically experience because we have an enemy. You know, there is opposition to anything that God provides for us. Jesus' peace must be received and it must be yielded to on a daily basis. You know, the Bible teaches us that the whole world lies under the sway of Satan, and He is giving us plenty of opportunities to worry on a daily basis. You know, this world system, really, it's a system of worry and fear. And so, most everybody that's born into this system, we get highly trained and highly developed in how to worry and how to fear when negative situations arise in our lives. And so, when we come into the kingdom of God, if we weren't actually born in a family where we were taught these things, we have to learn to retrain ourselves to respond to situations differently than we once did. And this is a process, but it can be done, and I'm living proof that it can be. You know, we have to learn that wrong thinking never will land us in a place of peace. And a lot of times, here's an interesting thing about human nature. Because of wrong thinking, most people think they know what their problem is. You know, a lot of times people will come to you and say, well, please pray for me. I need more money. If I get more money, my problems will be solved. Or, please pray for me. If I can get rid of this disease or this pain, then all will be well. Or, please pray for me. If we can get this family situation resolved, then I'll be at peace. But you see, that's wrong thinking. Wrong thinking is thinking you need something that you really don't need. And I'm going to make a statement right now that you want to take note of. The number one need of every believer is probably not what they think. The number one need of every believer is to renew their minds to think right. As a matter of fact, in Romans chapter 12 and verse 2, it says, do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God. So we see this, until we begin to think like God thinks, it's going to be very difficult to live in God's peace. So really, the first task at hand is not get my healing or get more money. The first thing we need to do is we need to start renewing the way we think about things. And you know, I discovered this many years ago, that until I could change the way I was reacting to situations, until I could hold myself in a place of peace, my prayers were really just hot air. You know, you're trying to get God to answer you, but when you're in a place of anxiety or worry, you're not in a place of faith. And so you're quickly praying as hard and fast as you can, but you're really praying to no avail, because until you're in a place of peace or a place of faith, prayer will go unanswered. And it's not because God doesn't want to answer our prayers, it's just simply because He responds to faith and not fear. Now here's the way that Satan operates. Satan is totally aware that peace is our strong place. And so his mode of attack is always against the mind. You know, some people will be afflicted with a pain in their body and they think, well, Satan's attacking my body. But really, the more important issue is when that pain hits you, what's going on in your mind. And so Satan knows if he can get your mind focused on the pain or what the possibilities are, you know, what's causing the pain. And I'll tell you what, he'll feed you every possibility under the sun. But most of them will be lies, because Satan is the father of lies. And so he'll inject one wrong thought after another, trying to get you to accept his doubts and his deceptions. Why does he do this? Because he knows that if you repeatedly think upon a wrong thought, eventually he can build a stronghold in your mind, a stronghold of wrong thinking that holds you in a place of defeat. Now what is a stronghold? You might be surprised to know this, that in the original Greek, a stronghold is actually a fortress or a castle with thick impenetrable walls. So, you know, in the old days they would build castles and they would put these thick walls around them. And of course the purpose was to keep bad things out and to keep you protected. Now the unfortunate thing about Satan's strongholds is they are places in your mind where a particular thought has repeatedly been pondered and then eventually accepted. And now it forms a fortress of belief that's strongly defended. Now if you have a stronghold that lines up with the Word of God, that's a good thing. You want to strongly defend those. But unfortunately we have many strongholds in our minds, even believers, that we're often unaware of. And if we hold fast to those strongholds or we strongly defend those wrong ways of thinking, then the good way of thinking, which is God's way of thinking, has a hard time getting in to change our negative situation. Now like I said, virtually every Christian has a stronghold in some area of their thinking, but they're unaware of it. So then the more time we spend studying God's Word and meditating in God's Word, the more often we hear scriptural messages preached by our pastors or by series like what I'm teaching here, the more we begin to see that perhaps we've been thinking wrong and then we can do something about it. Now here's another thing to take note of. Although these areas or these strongholds can become hazardous to our life in many different areas, people will very often defend them even to the grave. You know, they're going to hold on to them. Why? Because many times people have developed strongholds that also become what they think is their place of security or safety. And we don't have time to get into too much detail along those lines, but I'll share a few examples. One thing that I'm thinking of right now regarding how strongholds are built, and we're talking about conquering anxiety, fear, and depression, so I'm going to use this example. When you repeatedly think a negative thought over and over again, it has the potential to put you into a state of anxiety. Now some people don't recognize it as anxiety. I mean, anxiety comes in the form of worry. If you're continually thinking a negative thought over and over again or what could possibly go wrong, that's anxiety. If you're dreading something, that's anxiety. If you're afraid or fearful, that's anxiety. And so if you keep repeatedly thinking these negative thoughts, it's going to turn into a state of anxiety in your mind. And although this anxiety maybe wasn't there originally, if you allow it to stay long enough, it could lead to a panic attack. Now once a person has actually reached the place where they're starting to panic, and they've had panic attacks, and I know many of you watching have had panic attacks, or you know of people who have, now a stronghold can develop. And that stronghold that develops is that you're going to probably have more panic attacks going forward. You know, I had this problem over 30 years ago. I was originally affected by anxiety regarding some symptoms I had in my body that weren't going away. And I had seen a doctor, they couldn't find anything that was wrong. And I'm a nurse, and you know, one of the downsides of being a medical professional is you know too much. And so you try to self-diagnose. And I had gotten into a state where I was really worrying about what was wrong with me. And so eventually, I didn't realize I was worrying. I got quiet one night after putting my kids to bed, and boom, I was hit by a panic attack, which I'd never had before in my life. So what I found is that this pattern of continually thinking negative thoughts can eventually lead to having a panic attack. Now once I had that panic attack, I stopped worrying about the original symptoms. Now you start worrying about having another panic attack. And so what happened? A stronghold developed. A stronghold that said, you're probably going to have more of this going forward. What are you going to do now? What are you going to do now? You know, some people are so bound by fear and panic disorders that they won't even leave their homes. I've seen people that were so bound by anxiety they couldn't answer the phone, and they wouldn't even go anywhere anymore. And so you can see that's going to lead to a life of bondage and captivity. And now that fortress that's been built is not keeping the bad out, it's keeping the bad in. I even heard the story once of a wealthy businessman who became so convinced that if he ever left his house, I mean literally just went outside the front door, that he was going to die instantly. And you know how they resolved that problem? A famous preacher brought three men with him to go visit the man. They picked him up and they carried him, kicking and screaming the whole way out the front door and threw him in the yard. And when he realized I didn't die, it helped to resolve the problem. You know, sometimes we just have to violate the lies that are plaguing us. You have to go against what Satan's telling you you can't do. So in the case of that man, for instance, he had developed a stronghold of wrong thinking. And it's really just a lie that's meant to keep you locked up in an inner prison. So these places have to be violated, as I said, and it can be very uncomfortable at times to let go of wrong thinking and start allowing new ways of thinking in, because we've so protected. You know, we develop protective mechanisms to try to keep ourselves in a place of peace, but it's a false sense of peace. And we have to understand that it's really not the answer, but God's Word is. Now, if we're willing to face the challenge with the help of God, we can overcome any stronghold. I'm going to read 2 Corinthians chapter 10 and verse 4 and 5 from the Amplified Classic. It says, But they are mighty before God for the overthrow and destruction of strongholds. So we see this, God's given us weapons that can overthrow these strongholds. So we see from these passages, the greatest weapon of our warfare is a renewed mind, renewing our mind with the Word of God. Because once we know the truth, we're in a position to refute those arguments that come against our minds. And these reasonings will come in any area. You know, I gave you the extreme example because we're talking about overcoming anxiety, fear, and depression. And believe me, I have dealt with dozens of people over the years that have reached that extreme in their lives, where they literally believed things that were just as bizarre as you can imagine. But yet that's the power of anxiety. It can cause people to believe bizarre things. But, you know, we've all developed strongholds to some degree. I mean, for example, I give this example in my new book. You can get attacked with symptoms of a cold virus, and you're going to go into the automatic mode of thinking, oh, I must have a cold. And, you know, the first thing your mind is going to reason about that is, stay away from people, take some medicine, and get into bed and get plenty of rest and fluids. Now, those are natural remedies for a cold, of course they are. But why is it that the mind of the believer doesn't first reason, I think I'll take more of God's medicine today? You know, because the stronghold is that this is the way I always deal with a cold. But really, the fact is, we need to develop the stronghold in the positive sense that the way I deal with symptoms is I take more of God's Word. I meditate on more healing scriptures. I refuse to have a cold instead of accepting it. That's a new thought and concept for some people. And you can have symptoms in your body, and it doesn't mean you're defeated. You continue to stand your ground and say, no, I refuse to be sick because Jesus redeemed me from the curse of cold viruses. But just like this is one line of thinking, there are so many lines of thinking that we deal with in life. And we have to learn to take those wrong thoughts captive or those reasonings that will try to reason us out of the will of God for our life. And we need to turn that around. Now, I want to close today by giving you four steps to help you walk in God's peace. These steps are taken from Philippians 4, verses 6-8. It says, Finally, brethren, whatever things are true, whatever things are noble, whatever things are pure, whatever things are lovely, whatever things are of good report, if there's any virtue or if there's anything praiseworthy, meditate on these things. So God gives us things we should be meditating on instead of the problems. So I see here four steps. Number one, Anxiety and worry are forms of fear. Fear is a spirit from Satan. We have to recognize it, speak to it, and command it to go in the name of Jesus. Number two, pray and make specific requests to God. So whatever it is you're tempted to be worried about, that's what you need to take before the Lord in prayer and talk to Him about it. And He'll direct you in the way out of that situation because He longs to set you free. Number three, thank and praise God that you have the answer before you feel or see it. You know, all of our requests should be stated once, but then after that we continuously praise God and thank Him that He's heard us and that we have the thing that we've asked for. And if you believe you have it, you no longer have a reason to worry or be fearful. And then number four, meditate or fix your mind on the right things just like the passage we read. If what you're thinking about is not truthful or just or lovely or noble or a good report, you have to recognize that it's wrong thinking. And then you start finding something that is true to think about, which is the Word of God. And you hold yourself in a place of meditation on what God is saying about your situation. Listen, our Father loves us. The Father loves you. He cares for you deeply. He wants you to cast every one of your cares upon Him and allow His peace to permeate your mind and your body through Christ Jesus. So be willing to let go of those cares today. Be willing to let the good Word of God into your life. Be willing to let the truth that God cares for you affectionately into your life. And God will begin to work such great miracles in your body, in your mind, and in your entire situation. I want to pray with you. Father, I pray for those watching today. I thank you, Lord, that your plan for us is to have a peaceful mind, not a troubled mind. And especially those suffering from anxiety and panic, I speak to that spirit of fear. I command it to go from them in Jesus' name. Now you open up your heart and receive the peace of God because it's right there for the taking. We thank you, Lord, for that peace that passes their understanding, keeping their heart and mind through Christ Jesus in Jesus' name. Hallelujah. Well, that's all for today. I want to remind you again, if you know of someone who needs this topic or you need this topic yourself, get my book. It's available right now on Amazon. You can scan the QR code or click the link that's in the comment section. Also, please remember to like, share, and subscribe to our channel. Until next time, I want to remind you that God has a purpose for your life, and it's so much greater than you know. God bless you.