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Snare imagined
- Israel has been divided into northern tribes and southern tribes. Jerusalem, the hub of all worship, is in the south. Jeroboam becomes the leader of the northern tribes. Jeroboam is afraid that if the northern Israelites continue going to Jerusalem for worship they will eventually turn on him.
- Jeroboam lays the stronghold in Israel in 1 Kings 12:25-33. Idols are set up in Bethel in the north as a religious alternative to what God said.
- Any place there is a fixed set of ideas, a mindset, or thoughts in conflict with revealed truth, you have the beginning of a stronghold.
- Started as a convenience that was opposed to the clear instructions of God.
- Devil possession begins with the flesh being satisfied in temptation
- The devil takes ground through seduction
- But there has to be a way of getting in. The temptation is not about the temptation. The temptation is the marketing strategy. Remember, the reason Jeroboam is doing this is because he fears the people will turn on him if they worship God.
- Because it’s marketed well, people make excuses for it and justify it. It’s not convenient to travel all the way to Jerusalem when we have everything we need right here.
- God understands.
Snare is strengthened
- The longer a stronghold is allowed to remain, the more difficult it is to deal with.
- The stronghold gains strength because we give it strength.
- Then you begin to fight to protect it.
- Anybody ever say, you ought to quit skipping church and rethink your priorities?
- What about you ought to stop putting wicked things in front of your eyes?
- What about a relationship that the Lord has clearly said stay away from?
- What about eating habits?
- What about getting your tax statement at the end of the year and realizing you spent more on dog food than the things of God?
- The more entrenched in that sin you are the harder it is to deal with.
- Next, we begin to legalize it. It becomes law. It becomes tradition that you don’t touch. It’s sacred.
- In you and me a stronghold becomes a place where the enemy’s thoughts seem more credible than our thoughts or God’s thoughts, because they seem to originate within us. Since those ideas come from within us, we’ll naturally view them as our own. This is the reason the word of God says, Bringing every thought into captivity unto the obedience of Christ.
- Many times we have accommodated a stronghold for so long that our personalities are identified with it.
- We say things like, “I just can’t help it, that’s just the way I am.”
- Our problem is – we have acted in an abnormal way for so long that abnormal seems normal to us.
- Some general categories and specific problems that could be classified as strongholds.
- Categories: COMPULSIONS, OBSESSIONS, ADDICTIONS, FEARS
- Specific Problems: Galatians 5:19-21
- It is a place where the devil has seized control.
- It is a place where an unclean spirit possesses the real estate.
- And in your own personal life, you know where that place is. The devil is the primary influence in that area. It is a wayside area in your life.
- 2 Chronicles 11:13-15 a stronghold is an area of devil possession
- Religious snare
- Generational snare – 3rd and 4th generation growing up in vain tradition started by Jeroboam
- Tradition becomes the darkness that blinds the soul from the light of God’s words
- Tradition takes the place of God’s word – Mark 7:8-9, 13
- This sin (1 Kings 12:30) shows up another 18 times until the northern tribes of Israel are destroyed by Assyria.
- God says Jeroboam made Israel to sin (1 Kings 14:16, 15:26, 34, 16:2, 13, 19, 26, 21:22, 22:52, 2 Kings 3:3, 10:29, 31, 13:2, 14:24, 15:9, 18, 24, 28). For every king in northern Israel, God records that sin.
Destroying strongholds
- You are battling the enemy for the success of your future.
- We are not at a disadvantage in dealing with the strongholds in our life.
- Weapons of our warfare
- Identify the stronghold.
- Quit making it sacred, holy, and untouchable. Knock the idol down.
- Remove associations to that sacred place.
- Establish new associations and new paths.
- 2 Corinthians 10:3-6
- 2 Timothy 2:24-26
