Power Thoughts: 12 Strategies to Win the Battle of the Mind by Joyce Meyer

passage is a key word: strongholds. What the enemy wants to do in our minds is to build strongholds. The American Heritage Dictionary defines a stronghold as “a fortress; an area dominated or occupied by a special group.” So, strongholds are wrong mind-sets and thought patterns that are based on lies and enable the enemy to dominate certain areas of our lives.
    As a child, I always felt the need to take care of myself because nobody else was doing it. Through fear, which was manifested in worry and reasoning, Satan gained entrance into and built a mental stronghold in those areas. I also felt ashamed because my father sexually abused me when I was a child and Satan used that circumstance to build a stronghold in my mind of insecurity and low self-worth. This wrong thinking affected every area of my life for many years.

    The enemy knows strongholds are effective. If he can trap us in them, he can work all kinds of destruction. God doesn’t want us held captive in fortresses of the enemy’s lies, so He teaches us through His Word how to destroy them. This process is called “renewing the mind,” which is simply learning how to think properly. We need to examine what we believe and begin to ask why we believe that particular way. Millions of people are trapped in miserable lives because they believe lies. They may believe like I once did that they have no value and wonder why they were even born. They might have a root of rejection in their lives, which is a deep sensing that nobody wants them or feels they have any value. Should a person have such a root of rejection they will imagine all kinds of things that are not true at all. They have such an expectation of being rejected that they actually end up behaving in ways that cause people to be uncomfortable and unable to enjoy them. They frequently do get passed over in life, but it was their own thinking that created the problem.

    Think about It
    Worry, reasoning, and insecurity were some of the enemy’s most effective devices against me. What are his greatest devices against you?
     
     
    Tearing Down Strongholds
    The way to get rid of darkness is to turn on the light, and the only way to destroy a stronghold of lies is to dispel them in the light of truth. The greatest weapon you and I have is the truth of God’s Word. Second Corinthians 10:5 says we must lead every thought away “captive into the obedience of Christ.” I can assure you, if we don’t lead wrong thoughts away captive, the wrong thoughts will lead us away captive.

    During the days when Jesus lived on earth, Pilate asked Him a question that has been raised down through the centuries and is still being asked today: “What is Truth?” (John 18:38). Jesus had already answered this question plainly and simply: “I am the Way and the Truth and the Life” (John 14:6). When praying to God in John 17:17, Jesus also said, “Your Word is Truth.” He not only knew the truth but when His own mind was being attacked by Satan, He spoke the truth of God’s Word out loud (see Luke 4:1–13). This is one of the most effective ways to “cast down” wrong thoughts, reasons, theories, and imaginations. I look at it as interrupting the devil in the midst of his temptation.
    That is what God taught me to do when the thoughts of worry and reasoning arose. And that is what He wants you to do with the wrong thoughts the enemy uses against you. When your mind is being bombarded with wrong thoughts, simply speak out loud the portion of God’s Word that opposes the lie in your mind. For example: if you find yourself thinking that you are useless and always fail at what you try to do, then say out loud, “God has a purpose for my life and He causes me to triumph and succeed.”
    We are partners with God. Our part is to trust Him, to know His Word and believe it, and His part is to do whatever needs to be done in every situation. We cannot know the Word of God unless we dedicate ourselves to diligent reading and