I live on a 40 acre horse ranch in east-central South Dakota. Every spring we get continual torrid wind and heavy rain that drench our ranch – including our long, dirt driveway. When I drive my vehicle to go somewhere, it causes deep, wide ruts that will dry rock hard in the days that follow. After they’ve dried, the ruts will force me to drive down them repeatedly. If I try to drive out of the ruts, they will promptly and violently, grab the wheels of my van and jerk it back into its center. These ruts are like stronghold in our lives.
Strongholds don’t happen overnight. They are birthed from desire; a longing or inclination of the affections toward some specific object or person. The problem with desire is that if gone unchecked, it has a domino effect; turning desire into motive, motive into thoughts, thoughts into emotions, and emotions into actions. That’s the natural, fleshly progression, and if we remain in a pattern of sin, that seed of desire roots itself and grows into a stronghold in our lives.
When my eldest son was just eight, I took him to an arcade where I watched him steal some tokens from someone else who wasn’t looking. I took him not only to the manager to confess what he’d done wrong, but to the police station. I asked a police officer to give my little guy a scare so he’d learn a lesson. When the officer asked my son to step out of my vehicle and he put handcuffs on him, my son knew the cop meant business. His alligator tears broke my heart, but I knew something he didn’t: sin is always progressive. Without spiritual intervention, tokens turn to CD’s, then car stereos, then cars. My son learned a hard lesson that day that has stayed with him another 18 years!
Ephesians 2:3 says, “All of us also lived among them [unbelievers] at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts.”
1 Peter warns us about unhealthy desires, saying, “…abstain from sinful desires which war against your soul (4:1).
Desire is not a bad aspect of the human emotion, but it is a dangerous one. Without intervention, we are on a train headed for a spiritual wreck. Our emotions should never be in control of us, but we should be in control of our emotions by first looking at the desire behind our motives.
Galatians 5:16-17 says, “So I say, live by the Spirit and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature.”
According to the Bible, there are things God wants us to desire such as Him, His will, what He desires, truth, mercy, and an array of other healthy things (SS 7:10; Is 55:11; Ps 40:8; Ps 51:6). The way we measure our desire is by asking our Father in Heaven to show us if our desires are of Him, and if they aren’t, to flee. The truth is though, that most the time we know they are not of God and move forward into sin consciously. But every time we sin we choose spiritual death, and continued sin in the same area leads to ruts or bondage in our spiritual lives. The longer a specific sin goes on, the harder it is to get free from its grasp.
Strongholds don’t have to be a part of your life if you have a daily spiritual inventory where you take note of where you’ve sin and confess and renounce it to God in prayer. Confession is to agree with God that you’ve sin and to renounce is to turn away from the sin and go the opposite direction. Many people have strongholds because they vacate the latter, but it’s a crucial step to walking in freedom.
In closing, I wanted to point out to you that not all strongholds are bad. 2 Sam 22:3 says, “He is my stronghold, my refuge and my savior…”. Psalms 9:9 says, “The Lord is a refuge for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble.” And Psalm 27:1 tells us, “The Lord is my light and my salvation – whom shall I fear? The Lord is the stronghold of my life – of whom shall I be afraid?”
If you have to have a stronghold I know of no better one that Christ Jesus our Lord and Savior. Remember, that strongholds begin with desire, and there is no greater thing in this world to desire than more of Christ. Pursue Him – He is a rewarder to those who diligently seek Him.
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