Don’t Drag Last Year’s Strongholds into the New Year

Are you ready for a fresh start? Or are wrong expectations causing you to drag last year’s strongholds into 2021? What you expect is the focus of your faith, and you will get what you expect! Fresh starts require a new focal point.

God allowed us some unusual trials last year that He meant to strengthen the body of Christ. We are living in the days of the world getting darker so our light can shine brighter. That is the promise of God’s word, but if your focus is on the darkness, you will get swallowed by the lies of the enemy.

We are in a war, but God has given us the tools to dismantle the strongholds keeping us in bondage so his bride will reign victorious.

I look at trials as a pile of garbage to be climbed over with red hiking boots. (Red shoes are one of my favorite things) It can look daunting, but the correct view is a training field that strengthens your muscles to reach a promised victory. The wrong perspective sinks you into the stinky strongholds of the garbage pile and turns your red shoes brown.

What is a Stronghold?

 As believers, we know from scripture that a stronghold places itself above the truth of God. The Message Translation calls them “warped philosophies, tearing down barriers erected against the truth of God”. The Passion Translation calls them “deceptive fantasies” and “arrogant attitudes” that oppose God. (2 Cor 10:5) However, the secular world will label these habits- an acquired behavior pattern regularly followed until it has become almost involuntary.

The scientific world will call them neural pathways along which information travels through the neurons (nerve cells) of the brain. In other words, first, you have a thought or desire that will access previous meditation leading you to a familiar action. Wrong thoughts, desires, and actions lead to strongholds of sinful thinking.

“But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then,      when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.” (James 1:14-15 NKJV).

Strongholds, habits, or neural pathways are created by repeated thoughts or actions that, if demonically inspired, are meant to keep you from fulfilling your purpose.

“As a man thinks, so is he!” (Prov. 23:7)

That means whatever you meditate on long enough becomes a part of you because it stores in your permanent memory banks! 

Did you know that every memory or thought that resurfaces never goes back into your stored memory files the same? You can magnify the negative and increase its toxicity or focus your thoughts on God’s truth and begin to tear the stronghold down.

Your perception does not have to be your reality. Here is a simple process to begin changing old thinking patterns. We all have things in our past that need healing, and the following keys will help you think about what you are thinking about and change it.

Five Actions to Shift Your Negative Expectations

1. Start by removing the “I cant’s” from your vocabulary for the next 30 days. You will be surprised how often this word curse creeps in daily to set up demonic limitations. I realized my food choices were dwindling to nothing when I said, “I can’t eat that!” Replace the “I can’t” with I can do all things through Jesus Christ who strengthens me. (Philippians 2:13 NKJV)
2. Think about what you are thinking about and ask God to show you the lies at the root of your negative expectations and when they began. Most negative thinking starts with a root of rejection. Rejection is the first stronghold the serpent used in the Garden of Eden to convince Eve she was rejected from the fullness of Gods’ knowledge. That rejection caused both Adam and Eve to hide in fear and feel abandoned. Hence the earliest stronghold affecting your thinking likely started with rejection, fear, abandonment, and isolation.
3. Ask God to show you his perspective of your current circumstance and know that regardless of how it started, if you trust God, he will use what is meant for evil for your good. Strap on your red combat boots and flex your spiritual muscles to climb over the obstacles!!!
4. Focus your thoughts daily on five things you can be grateful for in your life. This past year brought a lot of challenges. Life as we knew it disappeared. But during this great reset, we can find many things to be grateful for. God gave us time to strengthen the weak areas of our lives to be victorious warriors.
5. Seek deliverance and counseling if you need help identifying the lies at the roots of your strongholds. You may be surprised to find out they started with the wrong agreements from your childhood.

Begin this new year with a new focus on dropping the baggage of last year’s strongholds. We are only one intake form away to help you win the war!