Pulling Down Strongholds

[ShineTheLight]

What are things you do to pull down strongholds in your mind? I want to handle these type of things better. I communicate to God and confess or repent of my sins. But that isn't enough. I learned that sometimes you have to be aggressive with demons.

Thanks for answers in advance.

 

[Abaxvahl]

What are things you do to pull down strongholds in your mind? I want to handle these type of things better. I communicate to God and confess or repent of my sins. But that isn't enough. I learned that sometimes you have to be aggressive with demons.

Thanks for answers in advance.

Daily praying the Psalms and memorizing the whole book of Psalms. Because they all tell of Christ and are the prayers of Christ either in His Person or by Him in our stead they will begin to transform your soul to think on what Christ thought about and to live as He lived. Not to mention they contain perfect (and divinely inspired, which is better than any prayer we may come up with on our own) prayers for repentance and confession, and war with demons.

 

[Nancy]

What are things you do to pull down strongholds in your mind? I want to handle these type of things better. I communicate to God and confess or repent of my sins. But that isn't enough. I learned that sometimes you have to be aggressive with demons.

Thanks for answers in advance.

Hi @ShineTheLight and welcome to C.B.
Ephesians 6 is a good start, all the armor we are to wear is listed there. And yes, prayer always.
Many of us have strongholds that seem to never go away but, through much hindsight we CAN see where He had indeed helped us.
James 4:7
"Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you."

First we "submit" to God, then we "resist" the devil...and THEN he will flee from us.

Strongholds are really thinking wrongly, so we are to renew our minds.

Romans 12:2
2 "And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God."

Strongholds can bring one down not only in struggles with thinking ourselves unworthy because of guilt from sins past, it can totally affect spiritual strength, faith, and relationship with Him. It all starts in the mind! What we feed upon, is what matters, do we believe what God say's about us, or will we allow thoughts of Satan to enter in?
I have been on a rollercoaster of frustration and anger for several months now and, it's mostly in the mornings this happens. I've much growing to do, and we never stop growing!

We have to realize that Satan loves to remind us of past sins! God remembers them no more so, who are we to condemn ourselves and keep thinking on them? This is how Satan works, keep reminding us over and over again so we end up agreeing with Satan rather than God.
We can choose to believe the devil’s lies and to mediate on our failures, but it will begin to bring us down spiritually, and strongholds will surely start to take over. Then, we start seeing ourselves as failures because we took the bait and chose to meditate on a lie that the devil has fed us!

It's surely a process. And as @Abaxvahl suggested, the Psalms are wonderful for prayer. And, Christ is woven into every page!
A sweet sister sent me a link for audio bible. Somehow hearing as opposed to reading the Word has opened a whole different way of getting the Word in our hearts and minds.
This is getting to be a too long post so, just know I'm praying for you brother.

 

[Radio Waves]

What are things you do to pull down strongholds in your mind? I want to handle these type of things better. I communicate to God and confess or repent of my sins. But that isn't enough. I learned that sometimes you have to be aggressive with demons.

Thanks for answers in advance.

 

[Radio Waves]

You are old enough to remember some super embarrassing things you’ve done or were involved in, correct? I remember getting “dressed down” by the boss one Monday and to make matters worse, he was correct! About an hour later, he walked past me and I noticed his khaki colored pants had a stain on them in a most embarrassing spot! I knew he had a Rotary Club luncheon that day and so I wondered if I should tell him? It was embarrassing to me, so much so I don’t like to even think about some 40+ years later! However, I told him privately and he didn’t thank me! Notice what I said? “I don’t even like to think about it...”. As soon as that thought comes to mind, I STOP IT! I don’t dwell upon it. I don’t try to “reason” with it and I know YOU can do that too! You are NOT a mental weakling. YOU can stop the thought of that strong hold the very split second some trigger brings it to mind! You don’t need to think about it! I know you can do it!!!

 

[Nancy]

You are old enough to remember some super embarrassing things you’ve done or were involved in, correct? I remember getting “dressed down” by the boss one Monday and to make matters worse, he was correct! About an hour later, he walked past me and I noticed his khaki colored pants had a stain on them in a most embarrassing spot! I knew he had a Rotary Club luncheon that day and so I wondered if I should tell him? It was embarrassing to me, so much so I don’t like to even think about some 40+ years later! However, I told him privately and he didn’t thank me! Notice what I said? “I don’t even like to think about it...”. As soon as that thought comes to mind, I STOP IT! I don’t dwell upon it. I don’t try to “reason” with it and I know YOU can do that too! You are NOT a mental weakling. YOU can stop the thought of that strong hold the very split second some trigger brings it to mind! You don’t need to think about it! I know you can do it!!!

It was brave AND kind of you to tell your boss about the embarrassing spot, his pride did not allow him to thank you. God sees and knows our hearts!
And you are so correct about stopping the thoughts in a split second...what we feed grows.
Good post R.W.! And welcome here if I haven't already said that.

 

[Two-Edged Sword]

My strategy is:

Reading my Bible and praying almost every morning (or prayer and Bible CDs when I commuted).

If I find my mind starting to reflect on bad things I have done in the past I force myself to think of something current or future.

If I start to think sinful thoughts, I remind myself of Proverbs 26:11 ““As a dog returneth to his vomit, so a fool returneth to his folly” or Matthew 12:45 where the sin comes back 7 times worse and how I would hate to be in that bondage again.

The struggle between your spirit and flesh will never completely end while here on earth but keep Galatians 6:8 in your mind “For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting”.

I don’t judge people on keeping a sabbath, but for myself, I also try to avoid entertainment and worldly activities on Sundays and instead try to keep my mind centered on prayer, spiritual learning, Christian interactions, etc. which has definitely taken my obedience and relationship with God to a higher level.

 

[Ancient]

In the book of Jacob (James) who is the brother of Yeshua (Jesus) who was a Hebrew and grew up in a Hebrew culture and spoke Hebrew.


NKJ James 4:7 Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.

One needs to know and understand what it means to submit to God. What does it mean Biblically to submit to God? How does God declare and teach us to be submitted to Him? A clue is the answer is found in the Hebrew scriptures (the OT) as when Jacob wrote this there was no New Testament yet. The NT wasn't even compiled until centuries later. And even then the very very few had it.

So Jacob has His understanding for submitting to God from the OT. If one doesn't learn this and understand this you can't resist the devil. If you are not submitted to God by worshipping and living the way He teaches to live then you can't resist the devil as you are giving the devil a legal right and hold over you and your mind.

Shalom

 

[farouk]

My strategy is:

Reading my Bible and praying almost every morning (or prayer and Bible CDs when I commuted).

If I find my mind starting to reflect on bad things I have done in the past I force myself to think of something current or future.

If I start to think sinful thoughts, I remind myself of Proverbs 26:11 ““As a dog returneth to his vomit, so a fool returneth to his folly” or Matthew 12:45 where the sin comes back 7 times worse and how I would hate to be in that bondage again.

The struggle between your spirit and flesh will never completely end while here on earth but keep Galatians 6:8 in your mind “For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting”.

I don’t judge people on keeping a sabbath, but for myself, I also try to avoid entertainment and worldly activities on Sundays and instead try to keep my mind centered on prayer, spiritual learning, Christian interactions, etc. which has definitely taken my obedience and relationship with God to a higher level.

Hi @Two-Edged Sword Ephesians 6 is a great passage about the whole armour of God, right?

Good to see you on the forums...

 

[DuckieLady]

What are things you do to pull down strongholds in your mind? I want to handle these type of things better. I communicate to God and confess or repent of my sins. But that isn't enough. I learned that sometimes you have to be aggressive with demons.

Thanks for answers in advance.

No.

We aren't to mess with demons. If you do, they'll just keep going because you keep fighting and you aren't focused on surrendering to Jesus to let Him win the battle- they are getting their way.

We don't need to get in rings we don't belong in! That is a whole other world that we don't actually understand what we are dealing with.

Read Jude 1:8-10

Very, very, very important

"In the very same way, on the strength of their dreams these ungodly people pollute their own bodies, reject authority and heap abuse on celestial beings. But even the archangel Michael, when he was disputing with the devil about the body of Moses, did not himself dare to condemn him for slander but said, “The Lord rebuke you!”

Yet these people slander whatever they do not understand, and the very things they do understand by instinct—as irrational animals do—will destroy them."


The only thing you need to is pray, worship, just focus your eyes on Christ and reject whatever it is. "Submit to God, resist the devil and he shall flee from you."

 

[farouk]

The only thing you need to is pray, worship, just focus your eyes on Christ and reject whatever it is. "Resist the devil and he shall flee from you."

@FluffyYellowDuck "Looking unto Jesus', right?

(Hebrews 12.2)

 

[DuckieLady]

@FluffyYellowDuck "Looking unto Jesus', right?

Exactly

 

[farouk]

Exactly

@FluffyYellowDuck Indeed...and I love the Epistle to the Hebrews...

 

[DuckieLady]

In the book of Jacob (James) who is the brother of Yeshua (Jesus) who was a Hebrew and grew up in a Hebrew culture and spoke Hebrew.


NKJ James 4:7 Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.

One needs to know and understand what it means to submit to God. What does it mean Biblically to submit to God? How does God declare and teach us to be submitted to Him? A clue is the answer is found in the Hebrew scriptures (the OT) as when Jacob wrote this there was no New Testament yet. The NT wasn't even compiled until centuries later. And even then the very very few had it.

So Jacob has His understanding for submitting to God from the OT. If one doesn't learn this and understand this you can't resist the devil. If you are not submitted to God by worshipping and living the way He teaches to live then you can't resist the devil as you are giving the devil a legal right and hold over you and your mind.

Shalom

This is very good.

I need to admit that I spent a LOT of time trying to defeat Satan and demons, and fell under very real attacks, and it took a LOT of practice to learn to stop and trust God to do it himself.

They WANT to mess with you. They don't want to mess with Jesus Christ.

Just don't focus on evil. Focus on God and don't give it any attention.

 

[Wynona]

I love to mentally whip out a quick Scripture like Psalm 119:11

Thy Word have I hid in mine heart that I might not sin against thee.

I also avoid listening to any music or watching any shows that are full of worldly or lustful things.

I purposely try to surround myself with Godly things, so I can remain salty.

 

[farouk]

I love to mentally whip out a quick Scripture like Psalm 119:11

Thy Word have I hid in mine heart that I might not sin against thee.

I also avoid listening to any music or watching any shows that are full of worldly or lustful things.

I purposely try to surround myself with Godly things, so I can remain salty.

@Wynona In summary, as regards the character of things, it's a case of 'looking unto Jesus' (Hebrews 12.2), right?

 

[farouk]

2 Corinthians 10.4: "For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds".

 

[farouk]

I love to mentally whip out a quick Scripture like Psalm 119:11

Thy Word have I hid in mine heart that I might not sin against thee.

I also avoid listening to any music or watching any shows that are full of worldly or lustful things.

I purposely try to surround myself with Godly things, so I can remain salty.

@Wynona Such a lot in Psalm 119....and not only because of its length...

 

[marks]

No.

We aren't to mess with demons. If you do, they'll just keep going because you keep fighting and you aren't focused on surrendering to Jesus to let Him win the battle- they are getting their way.

We don't need to get in rings we don't belong in! That is a whole other world that we don't actually understand what we are dealing with.

Read Jude 1:8-10

Very, very, very important

"In the very same way, on the strength of their dreams these ungodly people pollute their own bodies, reject authority and heap abuse on celestial beings. But even the archangel Michael, when he was disputing with the devil about the body of Moses, did not himself dare to condemn him for slander but said, “The Lord rebuke you!”

Yet these people slander whatever they do not understand, and the very things they do understand by instinct—as irrational animals do—will destroy them."


The only thing you need to is pray, worship, just focus your eyes on Christ and reject whatever it is. "Submit to God, resist the devil and he shall flee from you."

Yes! All this unhealthy focus on "a demon under every sin", while the simplicity is just like you've said, resist the devil and he will flee, and, put off the old man.

We have to remember, our flesh is the source of our sins.

Much love!

 

[marks]

I love to mentally whip out a quick Scripture like Psalm 119:11

Thy Word have I hid in mine heart that I might not sin against thee.

I also avoid listening to any music or watching any shows that are full of worldly or lustful things.

I purposely try to surround myself with Godly things, so I can remain salty.

I like to have hymns playing all day and night. Or other spiritual music. And Bible Studies. Anything I can do to keep my mind focused on God at all times.

Much love!