PULLING DOWN STRONGHOLDS

by: Pieter Bos
date: 11/21/1999
Category: Society

Pulling down Societal Strongholds

Presented to the
"International Right to Life Conference"
The Hague, The Netherlands
by Pieter Bos,
Serving the Nations, Almere, The Netherlands.

In our fight for life and for the family we are facing lies against life and against the family, such as
- 10 weeks after conception it is only a bunch of cells - a woman has the right to decide about her own body
- the family is the unsafest place for the woman
- there are too many people, etc

These are not just lose lies, these are piles of lies, even fabrics or structures of lies. The Bible calls these structures "strongholds". ("Stronghold" is also an image of God as person and place of security)
Historically strongholds are structures, built on a high or solid place, 1- to defend the hinterland, 2-to intimidate an enemy, 3-to control the battle field.

Definition of the "thought-strongholds" that we face:
- Strongholds are arguments and every pretension that set it self up against the knowledge of God (2 Cor 10:5), clearly indicating the spiritual aspect of (piles of) lies.
or - "A practised and habitual way of thinking, whose function is to control the thinking and to prevent any thinking that contradicts it." (Derek Prince)
or - "A mind set impregnated with hopelessness that causes us to accept as unchangeable something we know is contrary to the will of God." (Ed Silvoso)

Examples of strongholds at personal level:
Inferiority complex: nobody loves me; I cannot manage; I am ugly; My father never believed in me; God loves every one more than he loves me; I am a failure.
Prejudice: he is ugly; he will never manage; Look, he is failing again.

Examples of strongholds at national level:
Dutch are (always) blunt;
Americans are (always) bossy;
Belgians are (always) just shy;
Black people are (always) noisy;
Politicians can never be trusted;
Leaders are (always) presumpteous;
Yuppies are (always) selfish.
These are (always) very harmful lies.

Examples of strongholds at international level:
Power: power justifies herself; power is for the few; power chooses her own successor; power cannot be questioned but questions the weak.
Permissiveness: morals are rural; morals restrict freedom; maturity transcends morals; social control is out of date.
Technology: what can be done should be done; faster is better; automatization is progress; technology can solve social problems; the measurable is more relevant than the immeasurable.
Homosexuality: the gay life style is normal, as normal as the straight life style; the gay life style is compatible with the Bible; everybody has a right to his own sexuality; you are born homosexual and you cannot change.
Survival: life must go on at all costs; survival of the fittest; values and dignity come after shelter and food.
Mobility: the right to individual mobility; mobility equals advancement; moral mobility through physical mobility is just fine.
Science: what can be understood and proven is real; the scientific approach can be trusted; the scientific approach is the basic approach.

Some of these strongholds are really like strongholds of old: intimidatingly high and solid, to be taken very seriously, in fact unconquerable. Strongholds as impressive as skyscrapers! These strongholds control modern society!

However, Paul says: we must demolish them, pull them down! The full quote is:
"We have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets it self up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. And we will be ready to punish every act of disobedience, once your obedience is complete." (2 Cor 10:4a-6)
The apostle challenges us with four statements: 1. We have the power, divine power (!), 2. to pull down, demolish strongholds; 3. > no longer let yourself be intimidated: divine power is available! 4. we are able to take captive every disobedient thought

You lobbyists are able to pin down the lies we are confronted with, aren't you? Not just lies in general, but lies against God, leading to disobedience to Christ!
We are able to punish every act of disobedience, at the condition that our own obedience is complete. Tthe difficult part: "punish disobedience?", "our own obedience complete?"
HERE is the challenge to NOT be intimidated by the lies.

(Protests against immoral advertisements mainly come from women, because so many men fail in "punishing every act of disobedience", fail in "the condition of complete obedience".)

All of us fail in many ways.
How then can Paul say: we CAN demolish these ruling pile of lies?
The only but also the really effective way to pull down a stronghold is:
1 to call the lie a lie;
2 repenting of living the lie;
3 to speak the truth from Scripture;
4 to pray the truth, and
5 to live the truth at the level of corporateness where the stronghold controls the mind.

to call the lie a lie;
> what the lobbyists are good at.
to speak the truth from Scripture;
> what all lobbyists must learn again and again, to listen to God what to say
to pray the truth
to live that truth
> when we receive truth from God, from the Living Word, from the Way, the Truth and the Life
> when we pray, proclaim, speak forth, meditate, sing, breath the truth, let it be our blood and life's fresh air, life's motivation, when we PRAY it from our spirit > then, such enforced, LIVE it, such divinely empowerd, LIVE it. ONLY THEN we bring down the stronghold!

It was shared: "When we, the Pro Lifers, issued a dayly newspaper, the Pro-Choicers were dumbfounded; it took them two days to be themselves again."
This was a good start, a start in the visible realm.

The real approach against a stronghold is realising: It is a spiritual thing.
Not just bad, unhuman, undemocratic. No, it is a stronghold according to Paul, it is a spiritual thing, therefore to be approached with spiritual means: PRAYER.
The day will come, that the Pro Choicers will be dumbfounded, and KEEP SILENT, because you have pulled the stronghold down: their minds have been cleansed from lies, the "Liar from the beginning" has been silenced in this area.
Slave trade was a stronghold. Nazism was, and Apartheid. These seemingly overpowering strongholds have come down.

The two most relevant Strongholds in this conference are Abortion and Breakdown of family.
Abortion as a separate act is a sin, the sin of murder. Divorce as a separate act is a sin, the sin of breaking covenant.
But as a societal dynamic, a corporate behavior, pushed in place of the truthful behavior both are strongholds, piles of lies in society, at an international level.

Do not fret, whether you are a man or woman of prayer. Demons cannot stand the truth. THAT IS OUR CHANCE! Chasing them away, by us praying truth, their structure of lies will fall apart.

The stronghold of Abortion:
- 10 weeks after conception it is only a bunch of cells...
<> Ps 139:13: "God knit ME in my mother's womb" - A woman has the right to decide about her own body...
<> Lk 1:39 Mary: "So be it to me", unmarried pregnant, and hurried to her wise cousin - There are too many people...
<> Matt 10:30-31 "Your very hairs are numbered; you are worth more than many sparrows"
- pregnancy blocks personal development...
<> Matt 6:27 "Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to his/her life?"
- It is only a bunch of cells; The fetus in not human yet...
<>Psal 22:10 "From birth I was cast upon you; from my mother's womb you have been my God" - Abortion is a matter of personal responsibility...
<>Isa 49:15 "Can the mother have no compassion on the child she has borne?"

The stronghold of Breakdown of family.
- The family is the unsafest place for the woman...
<>Eph 5:25 "Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church"
- Marital faithfulness blocks personal development...
<>Prov 5:18 "May you rejoyce in the wife of your youth"
- Heterosexual marriage is just one form of sexual expression...
<>Rom 1:26-27 "Exchanging truth fot lie1/4 God gave them over to shameful lust1/4 indecent acts"' - Children could be raised by society...
Lk 15:17-18 "When he came to his senses and said: I will set out and go back fo my father" - Parental concent is blocking the development of the child...
<>Prov 1:8 "Listen, my son, to your father's instruction and do not forsake your mother's teaching" - Everyone has right on sex for personal satisfaction...
<>Mic 6:8"The Lord requires of you to act justly and to love mercy and walk humbly with your God"

PRAYER AND OBEDIENCE ARE OUR "DIVINE WEAPONS" IN PRAYER AND OBEDIENCE WE WILL BREAK DOWN STRONGHOLDS OF LIES.

A testimony.
In 1995 I was invited to Atlanta, Georgia, USA, to lead a "prayerful presence" during the "gay pride" in this "gay capital". It was then that the Lord started to show us this strategy.
I explained the above to the around 50 participants: former gays and lesbians, intercessors, counsellors and parents of gays, peoples who live a pure life. We discerned the most relevant "lies" concerning the stornghold of homosexuality. I challenged each of them, after the study, to select with God's help a handful of relevant scriptural truths and to write them on small cards (bibles are so showy).
The next morning we took positions close to the start of the parade at both sides of the road, and for three long hours we did not do anything but silently say these bible verses. It gave us joy and we felt confirmed. After the tail of the 100,000 person parade had past, we joined the parade and, provided with plastic bags, cleaned any piece of litter, condoms, homo bar brochures, bottles and cans and even confetti off the street, as a physical act of cleansing, expressing symbolically that God's truth causes spiritual cleansing. Again, and stronger than in the beginning, we experienced great joy and a sense of power. The parade finished in a park, where a "celebration of gay life" was planned. In a corner of the park our group celebrated Holy Communion, by simply singing a song, reading the relevant portions of scripture, distributing the bread and the wine while singing a song, and receiving the blessing. During the last song it started to rain, just a bit. As we walked out of the parc, just 50 yards, in five minutes time, a tropical shower splashed clean the whole parc: no gay celebration anymore!
Through our prayer action the stronghold had not come down, but is was undermined. All we can do against a stronghold is to call a lie a lie, to speak the truth, to pray the truth and to live the truth, also against strongholds that control the skyline of society.
Because there is much moral sin inside the church, sometimes viewed as insignificant, we are in fact weak in our stand against this stronghold. Because of this the church weakens her position in prayer concerning this societal need AND is deeply indebted to the Bridegroom.

The possible "manning' of the Stronghold.
In each od the strongholds mentions we are dealing primarily with lies.
But of course these lies are leading and have led to all sorts of sin, guilt, sin patterns and addictions. And we can safely assume not only that behind these lies mentioned above not only the devil is active because he is the "father of lies", but that also the devil or a specific and important evil spirit must be explicitly suspected behind the aggressive abortion lobby, mobility lobby, homo lobby, environmentalist lobby, and behind the breaking up of marriages. Important evil spirits are "manning these strongholds".
We dare to assume that the spirit which ruled Goliath, that which provokes and intimidates and which would like to subject the covenant people, and/or the "spirit of Jezebel" that which deceives and manipulates and justifies itself with lies, might be the same spirit behind the homo lobby in our time. Mammon is manning other strongholds. But these are not more than assumptions. Alle such spirits will in the end be connected with the "beast of the earth" who will preach lawlessness and force obedience to the monstrous world government.
Whatever we believe, where strongholds of lies are concerned, we are up against evil spirits of international ranking, manning stronghold "as high as sky scrapers". Over the whole earth on many fronts the aggression of lobbies is evident. However, strong as these spirits may be, their weapon, the stronghold, should not be feared. Strongholds look very intimidating, but to call the lie a lie, to know the truth from the Bible, to speak, to pray and to live the truth in unity and holiness is the means by which strongholds can be undermined.

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