If the habit persists, a stronghold will form.įor example, an inferiority complex is a mental stronghold. If we follow those neurological pathways for six consecutive weeks, a habit will be established. The vehicle will just follow those ruts, and any attempt to steer out of them will be met with resistance. After the ruts have been established and dried over time, the driver doesn’t have to steer anymore. They are like deep tire tracks in a wet pasture. They are similar to what psychologists call defense mechanisms, and they always reveal themselves in a less-than-Christlike temperament. Some call them “flesh patterns.” These strongholds are memory traces burned into our minds over time or by the intensity of traumatic experiences. Strongholds are mental habit patterns of thought. We are not in bondage to traumatic experiences we are in bondage to the lies we believed as a result of those experiences. Second, we develop mental strongholds through traumatic experiences like the death of a parent, divorce in the home, or various kinds of mental and physical abuse. Different children respond to the same environment in different ways therefore, every child’s mental evaluation is different. These values and attitudes are more caught than taught. First, we assimilate them into our minds through prevailing experiences such as the homes in which we were raised, the schools we attended, and the neighborhoods in which we played. We are not physically born with the presence of God in our lives, so we absorb these mental attitudes from our environment in two primary ways. Research shows that we form attitudes and beliefs early in our childhood. We can tear them down because we have the mind of Christ (see 1 Corinthians 2:16) and the Spirit of truth within us.

They are mental strongholds raised up against the knowledge of God. These strongholds are not physical barriers that fortify a city. He is not using the conventional weapons of this world to tear down strongholds but the divine weapons at our disposal.

The imagery Paul uses in 2 Corinthians 10:4-5 relates not to defensive armor but to battering-ram offensive weaponry. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.

Stronghold in the bible