Strongholds - #005

What if the thing holding you back is a belief or lie you've been agreeing with?

In this episode, we unpack spiritual strongholds—those deply rooted thoughts and patterns that oppose God's truth and keep us stuck. Learn how to recognize, confess, and break these agreements through the power of Jesus and the Holy Spirit.

You don't need perfect faith—just a willing heart. Freedom starts here.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:12

Hi, I am Carrie, and I am with my co-host Ashley. Hey. We have been talking about some miracles, and today we are talking about strongholds. This is all kind of coming along with Pastor Jack's sermons that has been leading up to Easter with miracles. And um in our last podcast episode, we talked about the greatest miracle and different miracles and things that we were talking about were strongholds and spiritual warfare.

SPEAKER_00 0:43

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 0:44

And we really wanted to dive deeper into both of those. So next time is spiritual warfare, but this time we talk about really focusing on strongholds.

SPEAKER_00 0:53

Yeah. So again, just to recap, um, a stronghold is this definition really like hit us in the guts when we first read it, but I'm gonna, I'm gonna read it again. A deeply entrenched pattern of thought, belief, or behavior that opposes God's truth and acts as a spiritual fortress for the enemy. And um, it's something that's preventing us from a deeper relationship with God because Satan has a hold on us ultimately. And that this can go physical, mental, spiritual, emotionally, obviously, all of those things that that our whole selves, you know, this can um definitely impact all of those areas. And so what do we do with that? And we we did touch a little bit on this in the last episode, but just kind of wanted to go over some of these bullet points again with you of searching ourselves and and praying for the Holy Spirit to reveal to us anything in us that we need him in, you know, like what are what are things that we need to submit to him? That's a hard one. That is a hard one. Um, because a lot of times he'll ask us to um hand something over to him that we really want to keep in control. Oh my god, no, not that thing, not that thing, Lord. You know, I that's not a problem for me. Exactly. Oh my gosh, I've denied I've said that so many times. And I'm like, really that? Nah, that's not a big deal. But then it ultimately, you know, what starts out as not a big deal, it will grow if we're not careful into a really big deal. Correct. And so praying that prayer of search me, oh God, know my know my ways, know my anxious thoughts, know like go ahead. It's a brave prayer to pray. It really is. And it takes courage, but you can do it. You can absolutely do it. Um, asking the Holy Spirit, you know, to search our heart and search our soul. And this one is huge, but confession. Confession out loud, not just let me just keep this to myself, this confession to myself, but like confessing it, you know, with another brother or sister in Christ. Like having that dialogue out loud is so important.

SPEAKER_01 3:04

And that's hard because we all want to be the perfect image of everybody. I know, I know. And we and admitting to somebody that we have a problem or a fault.

SPEAKER_00 3:13

Yeah, that can be really difficult. But again, it's like anything that you know you may be thinking or said, like an agreement that you've made of your words, like the power of your words, you know, it can, you know, those thoughts like it can happen for them, but not for me. And um, this is just the way that I am, or that's just how they are, or this is just my cross to bear, or anything like that. Like, stop, stop it, stop it. Um, anything like that. But we need to confess that and repent of it and rebuke it in the name and the power of Jesus. Um, and then like send it to the feet of Jesus because he's gonna take care of it. If we're submitting all of that to him, he is going to take care of it. Yes. Um, and then pausing, being quiet long enough to listen to God. I think we're really great at talking at him. Yeah, which is fine. Like he wants us to come to him, right? Right. And but we we are really good at talking and telling our side of things, and it can be a challenge to be still and not distracted long enough to listen to him. Because we want him to listen to us most of the time. Yeah. And I think like I know for myself, um, stillness and being in my thoughts, and like I have to really practice that because I like to just zoom right past that and oh, you know, I don't want to be alone in my thoughts for too long. Right. But that's like a little red flag of like, Ashley, actually, really need to go be with the the Lord in this because there's something there. Like he's putting his finger on something. And if you don't slow down long enough, or maybe you already know, I don't know. But but that's that's just you know you're feeling a little convicted about it, then that's probably he's gonna put his finger on something, but um it can it can be a challenge, but being still long enough to listen and to hear him, and again, like losing your timeline of it because he doesn't work on your timeline to remind myself of that one a lot. Yeah. Um but asking the Holy Spirit to just unlock and enable our faith. Um, praying for courage, praying for wisdom, praying for discernment and clarity, and also just knowing that like God is not in our little box. Like he is so much bigger and knows. I mean, there are the mysteries of God that we'll never know. Yeah. And we don't get to until one day when he takes us up to heaven and we we are made whole in him. But yeah, these are these are just the the things that we can start to do um to recognize if we are if we do have the strongholds in our lives, um, it's a lot of a lot of reflection, but it's worth it.

SPEAKER_01 6:00

A lot of refinement and doing that holy work. And um, I will say I have to give credit to Bev Maxwell because she gave most of the content that we're talking about today to me when I was talking with her about praying for a miracle in our family, and she just sent me text after text of all of this information and she's so insightful. And um, I just love having someone like that, like like you were saying, someone to just talk to and confess to. And you need these people in your life. So if you don't have one, find a Beth Maxwell and let her talk to you. Yeah, and be honest and open because that is so important. Yeah, that's how we get refined.

SPEAKER_00 6:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:42

Um, because she was talking to me with about me in my situation. She said that the enemy is very legalistic and has rules and things that have to be broken with the power of God, which we have through the Holy Spirit. Yeah, and we have built up these walls for us. We have created these idols or the things that um the chains that we have to break in order for God to do his thing. Yeah. But we have created these strongholds in our lives that God can't work through because we're allowing Satan to be in control. And then we have to then, like you said, confess it, release it to God, and say, we don't want this in control of our lives anymore. So now, God, you can work through me. Yeah. And so we don't have to have a massive faith. Um, like we talked in our last um podcast. It only has to be the size of a mustard seed. And we sometimes make faith complicated. Totally. Sometimes. Most of the time. We make a lot of things complicated over here. We make a whole lot of things complicated. And that reminds me of that song, you know, why do we make things complicated? Yes, whatever, however it goes. But yeah, we don't need to. We just need to sit at his feet and let him do the work. And um, Matthew 17, 20 and Luke 17, 6 both talk about faith as a mustard seed. And when I was looking this up, I didn't realize it was in two different places, and it has two different um parts of what your faith can do. So in Matthew, it says, So Jesus said to them, For assuredly I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, move from here to there, and it will move, and nothing will be impossible for you. So I think about that. Think of those massive mountains. I love hiking and stuff, and I'm like, our faith can move one of those? Like, first of all, where would you move it to? Right. But it's like, okay, that's awesome.

SPEAKER_00 8:42

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:43

I could have faith that big. I mean, that small could do things that big. And then in Luke 17, 6, it says, he replied, If you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mulberry tree, be uprooted and plant it in the sea, and it will obey you. Like we can make trees move. This is crazy. And so I think about that and I'm like, wow, that's what our faith can do. We have so much power through the Holy Spirit, and we don't believe it, and we don't take advantage of it. And I'm not saying to take advantage of it in a negative way, right? But we don't God has given this weapon to us that we never use.

SPEAKER_00 9:22

Yeah. Why? Well, I think I think some of it is that we just don't understand it. Yeah. Um, and that again, I go back to this a lot, but I just think that we're we're a real distracted people. Yeah. We're a real distracted people. And we have our to-do lists and we have all of this like digital connection with everything. And I mean, we're our schedules are jam-packed, and it's we are so distracted.

SPEAKER_01 9:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:51

That I don't even know that we that we know. You know what I mean? It's like we I it's never like intentional, but again, and I think I've said this before, it's just like even the good things, the small things that build up over time, and then ultimately, like it'll drive a wedge if you're not careful.

SPEAKER_01 10:11

It really will, you know.

SPEAKER_00 10:12

Um, yeah. I I often think of that scripture. Um, I think it's in Mark, where it's the father's plea when he's like, Jesus, I believe, but help my unbelief. There are still so many places in me that I have to pray that prayer. Like, I believe, but help my unbelief. There is, there's still so much in me that um I need to surrender to you. And and yeah, and yeah, it doesn't take much. And this is another thing. Like when you were talking about that mustard seed, I'm like, you know what? He takes the little bit that we have and he makes much of it. Like that's that's what he does. I mean, think about when he fed the 5,000 and he just took a measly few fish and few loaves and fed all of these people. Like he takes the little bit that we have to offer, even if it took us crawling and scraping our knees to get there to give it to him. Yeah, he will take it and make much of it. And I just think that that is that's who he is. That is who he is.

SPEAKER_01 11:11

We have to be willing though to give out those little things that we have. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And um, so maybe we have some agreements and chains that we need to take care of, and we they need to be broken. And they can be. Yeah. So it's good news. Yeah, they can be broken. So we need to look at is there a claim on you from the enemy? What bond have you created with the enemy that needs to be broken? And that is a lot of the searching, like you said, search me and know me, God. Yeah, know my anxious thoughts. Yeah. Is there a wicked way in me that we need to take care of? And um is there a claim on us from the enemy? And we can make agreements with Satan that we don't even realize. Like you said, a little tiny thing. Um, we can make an idol and it can put just a little crack in that door where it gets busted right open with Satan. All he wants is that little crack. And he's like, Okay, I'm in. You let me in. Now I'm gonna take over. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 12:17

And it just brings chaos and destruction and all of that. I mean, like, he's the one who drives the chaos. Um, yeah, whatever is being um assaulted in our lives. Um, we can lay claim on it and take it to Jesus in Jesus' name. Like we have the authority as sons and daughters to do that.

SPEAKER_01 12:41

Yeah, we do. Um, James 4, 7 through 10 says this submit yourselves then to God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you. So that just gives me hope right there. Yeah, if we can just resist the devil, he's gonna go away. And we have to though first submit ourselves to it. It's gonna cost us something.

SPEAKER_00 13:02

It's it's it's always gonna cost us something. Yes. But it's usually something we didn't need.

SPEAKER_01 13:07

So yeah, absolutely. Yeah, yeah, oh yeah. And once you get rid of it, you're like, oh, I'm okay without that. Yeah, yeah. Um, and then it says, Come near to God and He will come near to you. Yeah, wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Um, and that's that's that cleansing, clarifying, refining, all of that part right there. And then it ends by saying, humble yourselves before the Lord and He will lift you up. Yeah. And that part, we are so prideful. We need to humble ourselves and make sure that we are falling at the feet of Jesus and saying, you know, we are imperfect people. We have We need you. Yeah, we need you, and we know that you are in control.

SPEAKER_00 13:57

Yeah. And that, I mean, I love that. Humble yourselves before the Lord and He will lift you up. You gotta go down to go up. Correct. And um man, uh sometimes that that fall kind of hurts. But yeah, absolutely. I do think that as we continue to grow in him, though, and we grow in that uh awareness and sober-mindedness, honestly. I think um we start to recognize it a little bit quicker each time. It's it's almost like uh resilience. Like we build, we build up some resilience and we're quicker. I know for me, I I'm I'm a little quicker to go to the Lord than maybe what I was in my early 20s, or you know, um, just through different life circumstances and different things that he's used to grow me. Um, but ultimately, like we gotta do what he says.

SPEAKER_01 14:46

Um, wait, we hear things but then have to do it.

SPEAKER_00 14:50

There's some accountability there, yeah, uh, and taking ownership in that too. I think that what we like to throw this in there. It is the holy work that is real in us. And when we um when we can do what he says and believe, I I like and and use our authority in Christ, but we grow closer in our relationship with him and we can take authority over those things um a lot easier when we're taking that route. Yes. Um, but again, like I said earlier, like it does require something of us. And I mean, it does. Um I have a friend who says if he reveals it, he wants to heal it. So he reveals what he wants to heal in us, and um doing what he's asking us to do, if he's revealing it and we're praying for his will and not ours, it may not look like what we want. It may look like us having to have a hard conversation and asking someone for forgiveness, yeah. Um, admitting that we were wrong. It may require us to stop doing something. Um, maybe there's some form of addiction. I mean, it might be put your phone down. Don't scroll when your family's awake. Like, don't scroll before you go to bed. I mean, it could be other addictions too, like something that has again become an idol that we have allowed, you know, to sit on the throne of our hearts that was never meant to be there. And um or this drink is to just relax me. Right. It can for real. Yeah. It's it's the little things. What is that? The little foxes is it the little foxes that will like run the camp or something. I don't know. There's a saying that I I probably messed it up, but that's okay. Um you know what you mean. You know what I mean. Yeah, hopefully. Um my husband always teases me about that because I can't ever get those little sayings right, but yeah, I think laying those things down and submitting them to him, it will allow us to move forward in a direction that he has for us.

SPEAKER_01 17:02

Yeah. I just found it actually. You did. Yeah. What is it? Little foxes that spoil the vine. And that's actually from from the Song of Solomon. Okay. I was like, I'm on to something here. Metaphor for small ignored issues, it caused major destruction to relationships, spiritual life, or personal growth. There you go. You got it, Ashley.

SPEAKER_00 17:21

I said something about foxes in a camp. I don't know.

unknown 17:23

There you go.

SPEAKER_00 17:25

They spoil the vine. That's true.

SPEAKER_01 17:27

It is, it does spoil it. So um, we are daily refining ourselves so that we become more like God. And we need to know that our words and our thoughts are so important. Yeah. We need to examine it. And like we talked about the last time, what are our thoughts? Are they from God or are they from the enemy? And Proverbs 18, 21 says, the power of life and death is the tongue. And that's so hard because you know, we want to spout off things all the time. And we do need to pause and just think before we speak, because I know I have tried to reel my words back in, and you can't. Once they're out there, you cannot. Yeah. And that's so hard. Um, and we also need to think about if it's anything that doesn't build us up or point us towards Christ and full life in him, then it's from the accuser. Yeah. The father of lies who seeks to kill and destroy. That's his plan. That is all he wants to do. And he wants to destroy everything and everyone who loves God. And he wants to make sure that um we are just so mixed up and confused that we are not on the right path.

SPEAKER_00 18:46

Yeah. The chaos. Yeah. The noise, the spiraling, all of that, the turmoil. Yeah. Um, and plus, like, there's just a lot going on in our in our daily, like the noise and the stuff going on every day in front of us, whether that be coming through media, um, through other people. I mean, it's possible. You know what I mean? Like, yeah, there's so much noise. Um, and if we don't stay vigilant against his tactics, then we will be consumed by it. And that you've said this a lot about um putting on the full armor of God every day. What does that look like every day? Not just, okay, well, now it's on. Yeah. It's like, no, wait, this is a new day. We gotta, we gotta put it all uh on again.

SPEAKER_01 19:32

Like correct. I loved that. Yeah. It's not just, oh, yesterday I put on the full armor and it'll hang out. No, no, it's like you put on a new pair of clothes every day. Gotta be intentional. We do, we have to. And we have to remember that we cannot do this without Jesus. Amen. Um, but the good news is we don't have to. Right. We don't. He is with us all the time. And he's just waiting for us to say, take control. Yeah. Um, here are my chains that need to be broken. Here are my strongholds that I'm holding on to. And just give me that little bit of faith, that mustard seed of faith. And I will make miracles happen. I will help heal you. I will make you stronger and closer to me. Just give me you. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 20:20

Give me your faith. All of you. All of you. All of you. Amen. That's so good. Yeah. So hopefully this episode encourages you. We hope that you take some time and sit with God, um, pray, listen, um, ask him to reveal his heart for you and to you. And anything that you need to submit to him, we just we pray that you would have the courage to claim it and break those patterns and submit that over to him and forgive and ask for forgiveness. And really ultimately, you're just taking it all to the feet of Jesus because we can't do it without him.

SPEAKER_01 20:59

No, we can't. So, next time, this is gonna be a very interesting conversation because we're gonna be hitting on spiritual warfare. Oh, yeah, in our next episode. So stick around. Yeah, that one's gonna be a meaty one. And so um, it's a battle that we're all in until the day Jesus comes back.

SPEAKER_00 21:24

All right, friends. Thanks for joining us today.

SPEAKER_01 21:26

Yes, and we will see you next time on the holy work.