Your Promised Land

For 40 years, cruel desert winds reminded the Israelite of their cowardice in turning back because they saw giant warriors. To Joshua they were midgets before the power of God. With his leadership in five years of war, the battlefield became a nation of peace and prosperity, and the Israelite enjoyed all the blessings of God, in the Promised Land.
Your freedom will not come without a fight. It will not come without a painful struggle. Your Promised Land is vast and rich but it is defended by giants and 31 kings ruling over their strongholds of pride, lust, perversion, greed, fear, addiction, apathy, deceit, low self-esteem, guilt, shame, depression, envy, malice, mistrust, criticism, resentment, control and every emotion, thought process and attitude that stands against you claiming total freedom in Christ.

Casting down imaginations that stand against Christ (2 Corinthians 10:3-6)

A spiritual strong hold is a thought process that is false and stands against Christ. Anything that stops you enjoying the peace and pleasure of God is a stronghold. A stronghold is a distorted thought pattern where the demonic realm can have power over your decisions and actions. A person with a stronghold cannot serve God in that area. A Christian who gossips has a stronghold that allows the person to be used by Satan in that area. A Christian with an addiction cannot have the authority to take others out of addiction.

For a person who gossips the main stronghold is pride that supports the attitude that other people’s sin should be exposed while hiding their sin. Guilt is another stronghold that supports the stronghold of gossip and focusing on other people’s problems is to feel better about themselves. Each stronghold has alliances for strength.

Strongholds get rooted in our life through believing a lie such as I need drugs to feel good. I can’t live without my soap operas. I need a good stiff coffee every morning. I always blow it. My life is a mess. I can’t handle stress. These statements may appear innocent but they have the power to govern decisions, attitudes, and emotions and allow the power of distorted faith to empower a stronghold.

It is faith that connects us to the spiritual realm. False beliefs twist the power of faith creating power shifts in the spiritual realm. When many people believe the same thing it has an impact on a global scale, creating strongholds in every nation, organization, religion, church, group, family and movement. Each stronghold has multi-tiered levels of power, authority and control that maintains Satan’s earthly kingdom. Many of which are so strong they will stand until the return of Christ.

The Bible says that truth shall set your free but freedom is a lengthy painful process. In six weeks Joshua conquered 26 kingdoms but it took five years for the last five. Some strongholds were quick some took years of assault.

To gain victory, Joshua mastered the art of war and fought effectively. He studied his enemy for weakness and knew his own limitations and strengths. In the same way the conquering of the sin nature needs skill, study, planning, persistence, patience, and the courage to endue pain. Above all, you will need the faith to see yourself victorious, standing against all odds, the amazing person God intended you to be, an over comer, conqueror, enjoying the incredible blessing of His glorious freedom.

By Tom Coghill of Fasting.ws Articles  may be copied or reproduced as long as the back links to fasting.ws are intact and the author’s name is included.