Preparing for Battle.

Fighting for Purpose

Spying out the land
Numbers 13:1-30 The people traveled many months in the wilderness. One day God said to Moses, Send spies into Canaan, the country I am giving you. Tell them to see what sort of land it is. Find out what the people are like who live there. Moses did as God asked. He choosee one man from each of the twelve tribes of Israel. Moses raised his hand and blessed the twelve men as they left camp. After many, many days the men returned. One was Caleb and another was Joshua, the general. Caleb and Joshua told Moses, Oh yes! You should see the land. Its so beautiful, with strong trees, and gentle hills. Flowers bloom everywhere and the crops are rich and plentiful. It really is as God promised a land of milk and honey. There was only one problem. The people who lived on the land were all very good fighters. Joshua and Caleb knew that with Gods help, they could drive those people out of the land. Not everybody agreed with Joshua and Caleb, though. Some of the other spies were troublemakers. In the end, they spoiled the trip for everyone that day. The other spies disagreed with Joshua and Caleb. They did not trust God to help them win their battles. They thought the tribes in Canaan were too dangerous to fight. The Israelites believed these other men instead of believing Gods promises. Oh Moses! they cried. What have you done? Moses groaned. The people were complaining again! Moses, we want to go back to Egypt! Moses, it was your idea to leave Egypt in the first place. We should never have listened to you. Look, now we will die and for what? Moses and Aaron fell to their knees. They begged the people to trust God. Joshua and Caleb ripped their clothes. They swore Gods Promised Land was a good place to live. But the people would not listen. They were very stubborn. They liked feeling sorry for themselves. Once again God forgave the people. But they had to pay for being so stubborn. Too often they had not believed God or trusted Him. Because Of this God said they would never reach the Promised Land. These people must wander in the wilderness, He said. They will all spend the rest of their lives in the desert, all of them except Caleb and Joshua, who believed Me. I could have brought them to the Promised Land within a year. Instead, the people will wander in the desert for forty years. They will die in the desert. Their Children will be the ones to finally settle in the land of milk and honey. This is their punishment. When the people heard this, they cried out loud. It was too late, though. God had made up His mind. Despite Gods punishment, the people decided since the land was so close, they should go and fight the tribes anyway. They had forgotten that God had just said they would not be the ones to drive the tribes away. Their children would do that. The people went off to battle, but they lost. Many men died in a battle which God had not helped them win. For the next forty years the people of Israel would wander from place to place. The Lord did not stop leading them, but He did not lead them straight to the Promised Land.

Their punishment was real. They had to spend the rest of their lives walking in circles, so close to Canaan, but never able to enter it. Israels plight illustrates a point, when we reject Gods promises because of unbelief; we end up wandering in a wilderness, because we refuse to take God at His word. Because of disobedience they were not able to go into the promise land, their children did, but even after they were allowed to go into the promise land, the children of Israel continued to deal with generational disobedience and rebellion against God. Israel sets the example for two groups, those who believed the Lord and those who did not. Because of the unbelief of the majority, the nation was forced to wander in the dusty and rocky Sinai desert for 40-years. We, the saved, should take notice, why did Israel fail to enter the land? Was it because God was unfaithful? No, it was because the people would not trust Him. Why did Israel tremble in fear at Goliath, and David boldly want to fight? In both cases, the faithful trusted the Lord, Joshua and Caleb saw God open the Red Sea, they saw Him in the cloud and fire, they knew their God. David too, knew his God; He was more than capable of giving David victory (I Samuel 17). Before the battle took place in the field, it was in the mind. The minds of the 10-spies were controlled by fear. The army of Israel before the Philistine Goliath, a giant, was defeated in the mind, before on arrow flew. The battle began in the mind, just as it does for us. Here we stand, Gods warriors about to enter battle, how are we to wage war? First, we must remember Pauls instructions in Ephesians, we need to put on the full armor God, having done that, we need to make the conscious decision to stand. We need to choose to stand, as opposed to being taken down by our opponent Satan. We must prepare for battle in this spiritual war; our objective should always be victory through the Lords strength, not our own power. Look in verse 10 and 11 of Ephesians, what is the key to success? The key to Joshua, Caleb and David was their reliance on the Lords ability, His power and might. They were strong in the Lord. In verses 10 and 11, our part is to make a conscious effort. Verse 10 tells us, be strong, verse 11, says put on. Are you willing to move forward in battle trusting the Lord?

Spied out the landpreparing to assault

Using Israel as our example, what was their first action before they entered the promise land? Moses told them to spy out the land, to survey it, locate the stronghold. We need to do the same; we need to locate places where the enemy has strongholds in our life. What is a stronghold? A place that has been fortified so as to protect it against attack, a place where a particular cause or belief is strongly defended or upheld. History of a Stronghold Today a walled city is mostly outdated, modern warfare has made the walls useless. Airplanes have taken away any advantage the walls can provide. Before aircraft, the development of the cannon demonstrated the days of walled cities were limited. Cannons allowed attackers to pulverize walls with artillery, causing the walls to crumble. Artillery also shocked the inhabitants inside the walls, who never faced anything like it before. The smashing artillery caused a quick surrender of its inhabitants; therefore, the cannon caused the walled stronghold to cease. In history strongholds played a vital role, no army could successfully defeat an opponent and let their stronghold stand

within conquered territory. One of the main objectives of armies were to remove strongholds within conquered territory. We as the Lords army need to take notice, of the objective to remove strongholds. Like conquerors of old, we need to target the spiritual strongholds of our enemy, Satan. Strongholds are an ancient part of human history, as populations of earth multiplied they formed communities called cities. People soon realized living in the open allowed you to become a victim to the fallen nature. Invading or marauding people would attack unsuspecting or defenseless cities, taking goods and people. Putting walls around your settlement, with a gate, gave the inhabitants a source of protection and control, since the walls needed to breached, before contact made. The better the defense, the more secure the inhabitants. Walls also make good offense, because it allowed an army a secure base of operations. An army could rest and relax between offensive campaigns. The more secure the location, the more effective and powerful the force within. City with strong walls and secure location, usually a hilltop or mountain would be able grow in stature and power enriching its inhabitants. As the city prospered, it could then begin to exert control on the surrounding cities and villages, which were less secure. Soon the city would become known as a city-states, examples of these city-states are Babylon, Nineveh, Damascus, Rome, Eventually some of these city-states became nations; some would become empires, like Rome and Assyria. This was a common occurrence throughout the earth, as humanity spread following the days of Noah. Strongholds were points, which were hard to defeat, because of their design, walls, located on a hilltop, along with the offensive capabilities of an army within. The army could launch attacks, and then retreat to the safety of its walled city. Thus, their point of operation became a strong hold. The importance of the walled city would diminish as technology became more pervasive. Spiritual strongholds are represented in scripture, in the same way as physical ones. hey are points of operation, where attacks are waged on outlying areas. The become points of offensive operations, which are hard to remove, unless concerted effort is made to remove them. We have two types of "strongholds" The Lord is our "Stronghold over Satan and the demons and the "strongholds" of Satan and the demons over us that must be demolished and destroyed. "The Lord also will be a refuge and a high tower for the oppressed, a refuge and a "stronghold" in times of trouble (high cost, destitution, and desperation)". Psalms 9:9 As long as we have a relationship with Jesus as our Savior, Deliverer, Lord and King, then we have the Lord as our "stronghold". The Children of God were instructed to obey God's laws and follow Him and worship Him. If they did not, their enemies captured them and put them in bondage and only when they turned back (repented) to the Lord with all their hearts and cried out to Him were they delivered out of the hands of their enemies. Demonic Stronghold. A demonic stronghold is defined as a demonic fortress of thoughts housing evil spirits that: control, dictate, and influence your attitudes and behavior; oppress and discourage you; filter and color how you view or react to situations, circumstances, or people. A demonic stronghold is anything thats compelling enough to hold you in its power. It prevents a person from receiving Gods love and truth. The demonic spirit that lives in a stronghold thats been erected in the soul arouses defensiveness. You tend to rationalize thoughts and actions that are in opposition to Gods Word. And one of the chief demonic goals is to destroy your intimate relationships. Your relationships with our Father and His Son, Jesus, with those in your household and with those with whom you share close fellowship are targets for demonic disruption and destruction. 2 Corinthians 10 :3 3 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. 4 For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, 5 casting

down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, 6 and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled. Spiritually speaking, Paul defines strongholds as an argument or high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God. A stronghold is a point of operation from where Satan can keep the unbeliever captive or the believer incapacitated. In 2nd Corinthian Paul was referring to punishing every act of disobedience among believers who were not walking right with God. The passage does not imply punishing the disobedience of Satan by directly confronting him. It meant confronting the disobedience among believers. This disobedience would be punished not by weapons of this world (such as arguments, lawsuits, physical confrontation, war, and so on) but by our spiritual weapons that have divine power to demolish strongholds (such as prayer, fasting, walking in love, Gods word, faith, and so on). Spiritual strongholds are strongly established sinful ways, false beliefs, and behaviors that have gained a strong influence over a person to the extent that each stronghold sets itself up against the knowledge of God (v.5). In areas that the strongholds are established, an individual is either unable to consistently follow Gods word or is unable to accept it because these spiritual strongholds have an excessive influence on him. Paul is discussing strongholds as mindsets that keep us in bondage. Even though demons are indirectly the cause of these and use these to gain control over our lives, in context, the strongholds Paul talks about are erroneous beliefs, persuasions, and teachings that lead to acts of disobedience (verse 5); religious lies and deceptions the enemy uses to enslave us to his ways of thinking, his attitudes, and actions; false arguments and pretensions that come against a true understanding (the knowledge) of God. In psychological terms, strongholds could be considered practiced ways of habitual thinking that bind us to bad habits, addictions, and lifestyles. They can fill us with hopelessness, leading us to believe something in our lives is unchangeable. Their function is to control our thinking while minimizing anything that contradicts it. On a demonic level, a stronghold can be defined as an influence or grip; a persistent oppression, obsession, hindrance, or harassment. Examples of religious strongholds include these: False doctrines such as denying the divinity of Christ or advocating that man is sinless or salvation is earned. False teachings such as those that say God punishes us with sickness, God wants us poor, or piousness equates to material prosperity.

How can you recognize if theres a stronghold in you? It will be that area of your life in which you CONSISTENTLY have problems and CANT live in victory. You can tell a spiritual stronghold is established because a habitual pattern of FAILURE or HOPELESSNESS exists. Examples of strongholds in the mindStubbornness, pride, inferiority/superiority complex, confusion, prejudice, and lying. Demonic strongholds include rebellion, lust, witchcraft, idolatry, and the occult. In Pauls day, strongholds in the mind probably included keeping certain man-made traditions or following particular rules, laws, and regulations. These were attempts to please God through works instead of accepting Jesus finished work by grace. Evidently, there were some in the

Corinthian church who were promoting such things as legalism over grace and permissiveness over self-discipline.

Generational Strongholds
When we examine lives of people and families, we see there are strongholds of sins, which, can be traced back for generations. Scripture refers to these strongholds of sin, which transfer from generation to generation. The sins of the fathers are passed to the children, until a generation breaks the cycle. Idol worship was a stronghold in ancient Israel, which eventually caused God to judge the nation
Deuteronomy 5:8-9 You shall not make for yourself a carved image-any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me,

We can see in Jeremiah how this sin was transferred from family to family, eventually corrupting nearly the entire nation. The people became hostile to God and His prophets; they were hostile to the Word, as their sin controlled their lives. Even after Jerusalem was destroyed they fled with their sin rather than obeying Gods word, through Jeremiah.
Jeremiah 7:18-19 The children gather wood, the fathers kindle the fire, and the women knead dough, to make cakes for the queen of heaven; and they pour out drink offerings to other gods, that they may provoke Me to anger. "Do they provoke Me to anger?" says the Lord. "Do they not provoke themselves, to the shame of their own faces?"

Generational strongholds are ways of thinking and blindness transferred from generation to generation. Only the power of Gospel has the power to break these generational strongholds, which can dominate families. Idolatry is a sin transferred from generation to generation, maintaining a stronghold on a family. Many forms of family idolatry pass down the family line. Most are familiar with alcohol; just about, everybody knows families affected by this stronghold. Generational strongholds can include quite a number of variable forms, many of which might not seem so obvious.
Drugs: A drug culture and mindsets can be passed down from generations, as children listen to the glorification of drugs; the stronghold is established in offsprings. Lewdness: Children model what they see, if parents model lewdness by what they watch, and say. The pattern can easily be accepted by children, who think lewdness is part of being adult. Love of money: A successful family member in a family history can set the stage for generations to come. Each modeling their lives after the Idol maker, who taught them the power of money. Politics: Politics has a lure all its own, because one will begin to depend on politicians to deliver and begin to depend on the government. Showing more alliance to it than God. Violence: Family often transfer violence, from generation to generation. Adultery/fornication: Children model what they see, what becomes acceptable for kids, is often what kids look for in spouses. Thus the patterns become a stronghold in the generation.

The affects generational strongholds

One of the greatest examples of generational strongholds was conducted in 1900, A.E. Winship tracked down 1400 descendants of Jonathan Edwards a pastor and university president and Max Jukes, and he published his study of the Edwards children in contrast to the Jukes children. Jonathan Edwards: Born 1703 Max Jukes: Born 1700

A man of God and married to a woman of like character. He was 24 and she was 17. On their wedding night they committed their marriage to the Lord. Their descendants included: 300 clergymen - some missionaries and theological professors. 100 professors. 100 attorneys. 30 judges, 1 dean of a law school. 60 physicians, 1 dean of a medical school. 3 mayors of large cities. 60 authors of fine classics. 14 presidents of universities. 3 State Governors. 1 Controller of the US Treasury. 1 Vice-President of the USA. Aaron Burr Mrs. Eli Whitney Wife of Inventor of the cotton gin. Mrs. Edith Carow Wife of Theodore Roosevelt

A non-believer, who married a woman of like character. She lacked principle, among other indecencies, including the occult. Of their 1200 descendants 310 were professional vagrants. 440 wrecked their lives through debauchery. 130 went to jail - 7 for murder, average sentence: 13 years. More than 600 became alcoholics. 60 were habitual thieves. 190 became public prostitutes. 20 became tradesmen, 10 of whom learned their trade in prison. The descendants of the Jukes Family cost the state of New York $1,250,000.

Identify the Enemystrongholds in your land

Building your base camp & cutting off the supply routes
After identifying the enemy the Romans would build a base camp to cut off supplies to the stronghold. When an army decided to destroy a stronghold, one of the first things needed to do was to isolate the stronghold. This was done by cutting off supply routes to the stronghold, one method used by the Romans was to construct wall around the stronghold. This way they could be sure no one slipped in or out without their knowing. The goal was twofold, one; cause the stronghold to surrender by cutting off supplies of food and weapons. Two, prevent anyone from leaving to provide intelligence to allies, who might try to come to rescue the stronghold. The Romans will build the assault camp, the place where the soldiers would camp out, so they can keep an eye on the stronghold. In the same way, we need to surround ourselves with people, who can help us assault the stronghold. Again, if we are serious we need to seek out people who can help us tear down the walls, people with experience. 2 Corinthians 10:4-5 For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, We can learn a principle from Roman siege craft if they understood the value in blockading strongholds, we should follow their example. How can we blockade our strongholds? One way is to cutoff the supply line, which feeds our stronghold. For example, if alcohol is the stronghold, if you are serious about taking the stronghold, you need to destroy your supply. You need to cut off those who would reinforce your supply, such as friends who want to take you drinking. If pornography is a stronghold, the same principles apply, cut off the supply routes, control what gets to the stronghold to supply it. Serious action needs to be taken, to pull down strongholds. Without serious action, strongholds will remain a constant presence in the believers life. Get rid of the cable television, the internet, the subscriptions and the friends who would supply the stronghold. This same principle goes for all strongholds; ask what is supplying the stronghold? You know what feeds it? The goal is to bring every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. From this word we should discover how we prevent ourselves from walking into our promise land. How we are sometimes the strongholds in our lives. Its important to the strongholds that are preventing us from living life on purpose and walking into our land of milk & honey. It is important to identify the strongholds but we should also identify the generational strongholds that are preventing us and generations from walking into our promise land. Once we identify the strongholds we should build a base camp, cut off the supply, prepare for assault and do battle!!

Battle Plan!
How to break Strongholds and keep them broken!
1. AUTHORITY -- Every believer has the right to use the authority of Jesus' name to bind and take authority over Satan's activities. "No one can enter a strong man's house and plunder his goods, unless he first binds the strong man, and then he will plunder his house" (Mark 3:27). Issue a spoken command to the devil that he is bound and he must leave the stronghold! Exercising authority in the name of Jesus will expel the Devil's influence. "And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues..." (Mark 16:17). 2. INTERCESSION -- Come together with other believers to pray and intercede against strongholds until you get results. There is intensified power in the gathering of more believers. Prayer with fasting intensifies faith, and faith will break strongholds. "Then the disciples came to Jesus privately and said, "Why could we not cast him out? However, this kind does not go out except by prayer and fasting" (Matthew 17:19 - 21). 3. DISPLACEMENT -- Establish the presence of God. Where Satan has been commanded to leave, fill it up with God's presence. Where the presence of the Lord is, the Devil isn't! Satan doesn't want to hang around where people are lifting up Jesus in worship, in singing and prayer. The presence of the Lord displaces the Devil. "For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness?" (2 Corinthians 6:14). 4. RESISTANCE -- Submit yourselves and draw close to God. The Bible says this is how we resist Satan and he will flee. The Devil runs from submitted, yielded Christians. He runs from your life, and will run away from where you go. "Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you" (James 4:7). 5. OCCUPATION -- Give no place or vacancy to the Devil. With Satan departed, fill the void with God. Let righteousness be the standard rule and behavior. Provide no pocket of rebellion, corruption or immorality in which Satan can find refuge to rebuild his influence or strength. The scripture says to not "give place to the devil" (Ephesians 4:27). 6. FORTIFICATION -- Clothe yourself with God's armor. Take upon you daily, the full array of God's spiritual equipment that you may maintain battle-ready status. With the shield of faith, the sword of the Spirit (God's Word) and the other links of armor (Ephesian 6:13-17), you will be ready to resist any satanic assault, and will be ready to engage the strongholds in others. "Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil" (Ephesians 6:11).

ASK YOURSELF THESE QUESTIONS TO HELP YOU DIRECT YOUR ASSAULT ON

YOUR STRONGHOLD 1. What is the stronghold in my life?

2.

How is this stronghold supplied?

3.

Do people in my life supply this stronghold?

4.

What in my environment is feeding and supplying the stronghold?

5.

Am I serious about pulling down the stronghold?

6.

Am I willing to make myself accountable to Christian friends?