Understanding Demons and Strongholds

If you have tried and tried and tried to get out of a sin

and you can't, you're not dealing with a sin anymore.

You're dealing with a stronghold. Let me do this real quick.

Like 60% of this came from a pastor named Otha Turnbow.

What he did is he went, hey man, let me

give you this quick like teaching on demons and strongholds.

It's a biblical and crazy practical.

And all of a sudden you're like, Holy Moses, that explains a lot.

So one, an open door is how a demon gets in and it's frequently through sin.

You give yourself over and over to sin and you're opening a door for demonic influence.

But he said, number two, a stronghold is how a demon stays in.

Satan is the father of lies.

So how does Satan's minions work?

What they do is they're gonna get in your mind and they're gonna rearrange the furniture of their mind

and start to change the mental pathways and change how you think.

That is why Romans 12, two, when it's like, hey man, do you know

how you're gonna get set free and be transformed in an image of Jesus?

It says, be transformed by the renewing of your mind.

When you sin, demon gets in, but now the stronghold, the demon stays

in and its influence stays. by starting to rearrange how you think about stuff and you're not thinking about what you think about.

Then he goes, number two,

demons must be cast out, strongholds must be torn down.

This is really good, okay?

Second Corinthians 10, four, the weapons of our warfare are not physical but have divine power to tear down strongholds.

And then watch this, it says,

how we destroy arguments, we take every thought captive.

It's alluding to the fact strongholds in your life, they start rewiring through lies, the thinking of your brain

and you're, man, evil things look like good and good things look like evil, that's what that is.

Okay, now number three,

demons are cast out quickly,

strongholds are broken over time.

And dude, this right here, bro, this will mess people up.

So he pointed this out, John 8, 31.

If you listen to the word, continue in my word,

then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free.

It's pointing out, hey man, it's gonna take some time but it's steeping your mind in the truth of the scriptures,

getting yourself surrounded by a band of brothers who are saying true things to you

and stigmatizing evil things. around you, instead of people who are like a band of

evil brothers that are actually encouraging you towards evil things and stigmatizing good things, it's gonna take some time, brother.

You're gonna need to continue in the word to rewire your thinking is what he's doing.

If it took five years and terrible friends to build the stronghold,

it's gonna take longer than five minutes and godly friends to tear down the stronghold.

Last one, number four, the name of Jesus casts out demons.

The word of God breaks strongholds.

So Jeremiah 23, 29.

I love this so much. Is not my word like a fire,

like a hammer, breaking rocks into pieces so much.

If you don't do that, that's how the old you comes back.

If you cast a spirit of deception out without replacing it with the spirit of truth,

it's just gonna come back and I'll bring seven more spirits with it

and it'll be the last state will be worse than the first.