Power over the Enemy: Breaking Free from Spiritual Strongholds (7 page)

Why do I confess Psalm 91? “For He shall give His angels charge over you, to keep you in all your ways” (v. 11). He has given his angels charge over John Osteen and his household! He has charged His angels saying,
I charge you, angels, to keep him and his household, in all their ways
. “In their hands they shall bear you up, lest you dash your foot against a stone” (v. 12).

It is no wonder I can make application to my own life when I say, “You shall tread upon the lion and the cobra, the young lion and the serpent you shall trample underfoot. ‘Because he has set his love upon Me, therefore I will deliver him; I will set him on high, because he has known My name. He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him and honor him. With long life I will satisfy him, and show him My salvation’ ” (vv. 13–16).

There is no room for the devil’s thoughts when you fill your mind with thoughts such as these from the Lord. I encourage you to pull out your two-edged sword! Wade in the battle fearlessly! Every Christian can whip the devil and drive out his devilish thoughts with “It is written…”

Remember, the battleground is in the mind. Thoughts are what Satan wants to put in your mind. You can see this throughout the Scriptures.

In Acts 8, we have the story of Philip going down to Samaria for a great revival. Many were saved, healed, delivered from the power of Satan, baptized in water, and baptized also in the Holy Spirit.

In this story, we see a man by the name of Simon, who had been a practicing sorcerer. In error, he offers Peter and John money for the gift of the laying on of hands to help people receive the Holy Spirit. Peter rebuked him and said he was poisoned by bitterness and bound by iniquity. He said, “Repent therefore of this your wickedness, and pray God if perhaps the thought of your heart may be forgiven you” (Acts 8:22).

He did not say
thoughts
but
thought.
Pray that God will forgive you for that
one thought
that leads you to wrong action.

Concerning the betrayal of Jesus, the Bible says, “The devil having already put it into the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon’s son, to betray Him” (John 13:2). Satan dropped the thought into the heart and mind of Judas.

You see, the enemy’s primary approach is to drop a thought into our minds. He wants us to accept it and act upon it. “But those things which proceed out of the mouth come from the heart, and they defile a man. For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies” (Matthew 15:18–19).

In Luke 24, Jesus appeared to His disciples after He had risen from the dead. The Bible says, “But they were terrified and frightened” (Luke 24:37). Jesus said to them, “Why are you troubled? And why do doubts arise in your hearts?” (v. 38).

They were terrified. Where did this terror come from? It came from thoughts they let into their hearts. These thoughts were allowed to arise and create tormenting fear.

Perhaps you are gripped by fear. That fear came from thoughts Satan put into your mind. You have accepted them and have lived in the torment they produce.
Cast down those imaginations and arguments! Pull down those strongholds! Bring every thought into the captivity of Christ!

A lying thought can become a stronghold. In other words, Satan’s lying thoughts can have a strong hold on you—or hold you strongly.

After a service I had conducted in a distant city, a young man about twenty years of age came to the platform to shake my hand. As soon as I took his hand, the Holy Spirit revealed to me that a homosexual spirit had attacked him in his mind and was trying to get him to accept the thought that he was gay.

I said to him, “Young man, there is a homosexual spirit after you. He has told you that you are gay.” I looked into his eyes that were filled with the fear of this haunting thought and said, “You are not a homosexual. That thought came from Satan, and he is trying to get you to accept it and act upon it. God created you normal.”

We rebuked the evil spirit, cast out the thought, and he was free! I will never forget the vanishing of the suffering I saw in his eyes.

This precious young man had been held captive by a devilish thought. He had received a thought from the enemy, and it had become a stronghold. It held on to him with a strong hold. It produced imaginations and arguments in his mind. These imaginations produced tremendous confusion and fear. But thank God, he pulled down those strongholds and cast down those imaginations, and he was delivered from the lie of Satan.

Thoughts can hold you like a vise and keep you from the truth. One lie from Satan, placed into your mind, can hold you in a place of sickness, suffering, and torment.

You ask, “How long?”

As long as you permit it.

I have a most amazing story that illustrates this point. It concerns my precious sister, Mary Givens. At a point where the doctors had given her no hope of ever being
well, God restored her health in a miraculous way. But there is one facet of her deliverance and healing I have never written about until now. It has to do with the message of this book.

I remember when Mary first put her faith in Jesus. She was one of the first ones I had the privilege of winning to the Lord back in 1939. What a wonderful Christian she became. She faithfully served the Lord and was a blessing to hundreds of people in her church in Dallas.

After many years of service to the Lord, she became very sick. To briefly state it here does not adequately describe what she endured. She had violent attacks in her mind and body, suffering untold agony for years. She was in and out of hospitals and institutions. The doctors finally sent her home and said they could do no more for her. She was unable to walk. Her equilibrium was gone. She could not feed herself or get up to go to the bathroom. At times, she screamed out in terror and begged to die. The enemy was slowly but steadily dragging her into deeper darkness.

Finally, she could remember none of the scriptures she had memorized. She felt helpless in the grip of this satanic attack. At this time, she knew practically nothing
about the baptism in the Holy Spirit and healing by the power of Jesus’ Name. We had been taught that these things passed away with the apostles. Suffering, we were told, was from God, and we were to patiently endure it.

My sister spent years in this state, finally coming to the place where she required nursing care twenty-four hours a day. When I finally saw her, she did not know me, and I would not have recognized her on the streets of Dallas.

There she lay! What held her there on that bed?
A thought!
She was held captive by a thought the devil had put into her mind. He told her that her loving heavenly Father was the One who sent this sickness and torment. He told her that she must suffer patiently and be faithful, for this was God’s doing, and she must not rebel against God.

What a lie! Yet this one thought was captivating her mind. It was a stronghold. And God said we are to pull down the strongholds!

When I was led by the Holy Spirit to go to Dallas and pray for her, I did not realize she had been through all this suffering nor did I know the extent of her illness. When I walked into that dark room and saw my sweet sister in that terrible state, I was shocked and became angry. I said in a stern voice, “Don’t tell me God did this to my sister!” That was the Holy Spirit speaking.

My sister was in such bad shape that she did not know who I was, but I learned later that she heard those words and, down in her heart, she said, “Well, maybe this sickness did not come from God.”

This was the beginning of deliverance. She pulled down that stronghold! In her heart, she rejected the thought that Satan had placed in her mind.

We stood over her bed and commanded the demons to leave her, the room, and the house in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ. And they did!

Mary arose and, in a matter of minutes, was healed, baptized in the Holy Spirit, and ran—literally ran—through her home, praising God! She was delivered that day! And that day she went to the table and fed herself.

She rejected a devilish thought that had her in captivity. She pulled down the stronghold.

To be sure, Satan tried to lie to her again and again in the next few weeks. He tried to place a thousand thoughts in her mind. But she refused to listen! She practiced bringing every thought into the captivity of Christ. That happened many years ago, and she remained free and helped bring deliverance to others.

Let me share another amazing story of a dear Christian woman who after eight years of suffering and five painful surgeries recounted her sad situation to me:

“January 1970, my doctor spoke the worst words anyone could hear. He said, ‘My child, you will have to go to bed and make it your life. You will probably be able to get up once or twice a day without too much pain, but that is only to go to the bathroom. I will prescribe painkillers for you.’

“I remember the month of March 1970 as being terrible. Not only was I on Darvon compound every four to six hours, I was also taking narcotics and a sleeping pill at night. On April 1, my body refused to accept any more medication!”

Here was a believer who was not only desperately ill, but who was flooded with the thought there was no remedy. The thought of the doctor’s words, “There is no
hope for you,” lingered in her mind continually. This defeating thought and, I am sure, many others flooded her heart and mind as she lay in that state of suffering. These thoughts became strongholds.

Then she tells of receiving a letter from her sister, and how it lifted her faith and helped her begin to believe for a miracle. That was followed by a visit from a young woman who left one of my books,
You Can Change Your Destiny
, with her. She tells it like this:

“That morning, I read all the words of that book and reread the first chapter six times! The third and fourth paragraphs of the first page stated:
Have you become convinced that your destiny is to suffer pain and disease and defeat? Have you given up and resigned yourself to the position that there is nothing that can be done about your situation? You can change your destiny!

“Get out of your wheelchair, your bed. Open the doors; enlarge your coasts! I have seen multitudes change their destiny by believing these promises and rebelling against the devil. You will never be healed as long as you think God wants you to be sick. It is the devil who wants you to suffer. God wants you to be well. Rebel in your heart and be done with it. Faith is an act. To believe the Word is to act on the Word!”

When she read those words and the truth from God’s Word, she began to change her thinking and to replace
her thoughts of “no hope” with the promises of God. She literally began to pull down the strongholds of Satan by the Word of God.

It was not an easy task, and she did not get well instantly… but she did get well! She stepped out in faith on God’s Word and began to confess His promises. She began to act like God’s thoughts were true.

The battle raged on, but she did not give up. She refused the thoughts of sickness and defeat! She replaced them with the thoughts of God’s promises to heal and deliver. And as she did, a change began to take place in her body. She sums up the complete healing like this:

“The doctor seemed more interested in my charts than in me. I asked him if he believed in miracles, and he said, ‘I most certainly do.’ I said, ‘Would you like to see a miracle walking?’ He looked at me strangely and said, ‘Well, yes.’ Then I danced all over the room! He leaned against the examining table, visibly affected, saying, ‘Tell me about it.’ I told him, and his eyes were full of tears when I finished.”