Strongholds

So during this time of Quarantine, Staying @ Home, Staycation from work and life, I want to be productive. Initially I was just thinking that this was gonna be a short time to recoup. Then I looked at the spanish flu pandemic in 1918. That lasted 2 years. Then I read the scripture about the end times and the beginning of suffering. So in my heart I realized that this pandemic would take a toll on us and that life would not be the same on the other side. With that thinking I wanted to not waste this time. I love God and I want to use this time to hold up my relationship with Christ. I was reading Judges and how the people of Israel vacillated between good and evil. When a righteous judge was ruling, the people served the Lord, but then when an evil judge ruled, the people turned their backs on God. After Gideon died his son, Abimelek, decided he wanted to be king and he killed all 70 of his brothers and only one escaped, Jotham. Jotham pronounced a curse on Abimelek because he murdered his brothers and Abimelek ruled for 3 years. But during that time he was in war with the people and as he was fighting and killing the people about 1000 of them shut themselves up in fortified building in the city. This was described as a stronghold-a place where no one could come in and the only way to get out was the way you came in and it was locked and fortified. So what Abimelek did was cut down the branches of the trees in the area and used it to block the people in and then he set the branches on fire and everyone in the fortified building perished.

This was very interesting to me because in christiandom we talk about strongholds and how the enemy will use strongholds to keep people in bondage, but I never looked at it the other way--using a stronghold to hide for safety. When the enemy is coming after the people of course the first thing you do if you can't fight against that enemy is you run to safety in hopes that the enemy will not be able to find you. But the thing about life is that there is no safe place outside of the shelter of God. The Bible says that the name of the Lord, He is our strong tower and the righteous run to Him and we are safe (Prov 18:10). He is our stronghold. So when we are running anywhere else, we won't be safe. Its actually a trap to run somewhere else. The enemy wants to trap us in his stronghold. Some men trust in horses and some men trust in chariots, but WE (the righteous) only trust in the name of the Lord (Psalms 20:7). There is no safety in ANYTHING else!! Anything else is a stronghold of the enemy.

So as I was letting the Holy Spirit teach me I began to think about my strongholds--fear (God didn't give me that spirit), perversity (from being violated as a child), insecurity and anxiety (which are all manifestations of fear).....I began to see how the enemy uses those strongholds and how I use those strongholds to keep myself safe. I DON"T want to come out of my comfort zone. So if I"m afraid of something I just won't do it. In the name of safety I back away. I have fortified myself in my insecurity. I don't know a time when I wasn't afraid of something, when I wasn't insecure about something. And now we have a pandemic that is trying to cause my to be anxious and afraid. But God is not a liar. He said that He didn't give me these spirits and He came to set me free so I believe Him and now comes to work of tearing down the strongholds. Unlocking the door and coming out to face the enemy. If the people unlocked the door they could have saw Abimilek coming and they would have fought for their lives, but because they were locked up and hiding they didn't know that the enemy was blocking them in. We are not ignorant of Satan's devices (2 Corinth 2:11), so was have to see what the enemy is doing and we have to come against him with the sword of the spirit which is the truth of God. So the battle begins.....