Have you ever noticed how some of the same things continue surfacing in somebody’s life—maybe yours—year after year? Have you wondered why it’s hard to get the promises of God to work on your behalf?

There is a reason.

I was asking the Lord for answers during a time at Crystal Mountain a couple of years ago, and the Holy Spirit revealed to me five reasons (causes) we fail to receive. These five causes block heaven’s answers and blessings from reaching us on earth.

1. Comfort
2. Arrogance
3. Unbelief (disbelief)
4. Shame-base
5. Excuse making

It was a penetrating, powerful revelation about strongholds. I had it wrong for decades, thinking strongholds were built by demons and through intercession, they could be torn down. I was partially right but mostly wrong.

Hebrews 12:15 NLT
Look after each other so that none of you fails to receive the grace of God. Watch out that no poisonous root of bitterness grows up to trouble you, corrupting many.

Through this fresh revelation from the Holy Spirit, I recognized that strongholds hold a higher level than demons, because where we allow strongholds, demonic forces can use them to hide behind and operate from them in our lives, marriages, families, businesses, churches, and cities. And this prevents us from walking in the freedom and victory that is rightfully ours through Christ.

Strongholds set us up for self-sabotage if we don’t activate a dismantling process. They are mental and emotional bricks cemented together by:

• Lies
• Imaginations
• Deceptions
• Accusations
• Words spoken into our lives
• Feelings
• Counterfeit beliefs, and partial truths

Deuteronomy 28:18
So that there may not be among you man or woman or family or tribe, whose heart turns away today from the Lord our God, to go and serve the gods of these nations, and that there may not be among you a root bearing bitterness or wormwood;

How are strongholds erected?

When we came to Jesus Christ and were born again, false beliefs and ideas were not automatically eliminated.

Strongholds are cemented with:

• Thoughts contrary to truth
• Arguments
• Theories
• Reasoning
• Imaginations (lies and falsehoods)
• Proud and lofty things
• Purposes contrary to truth (deception)

Truth: You are an amazing, remarkable and gifted person, beloved of God, unique to Him and important to the Body of Christ. Nothing would be the same without you.

Everything begins with a seed. Seeds produce roots. Roots make up the footings (the under structure) for a stronghold’s foundation. Roots produce fruit…after time.

Roots become the pilings; the footings, for the stronghold’s foundation. Brick by brick the stronghold is erected, and cemented together and reinforced with lies, falsehoods, and erroneous beliefs.

John 10:10
The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life and that they may have it more abundantly.

There are four big areas of toxic seed opportunities:

1. Generational and/or environmental
2. Counterfeit (ungodly or twisted beliefs)
3. Wounded emotions: we use strongholds to prevent further pain, thus making them even stronger and more complex, like a growing city
4. Demonic oppression and involvement

But the good news is that God has great goals for us! He wants healed and free people, marriages, families, churches, communities, territories, and cultures. Total freedom is authority from the kingdom to change twisted culture.

2 Corinthians 5:17 (NKJV)
Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. [Greek: a past event with progressive effects; not completed effects].

Strongholds must not be managed. They must be dismantled and demolished. We carry a piece of eternity here on earth, called the Bible. We enjoy a presence of eternity on the earth: the Holy Spirit.

Dismantling Strongholds Seminar

Saturday, September 9, 2023

Dismantling Strongholds

Shattering Five Actions & Attitudes that Block Heaven’s Miracles