Breaking Strongholds
Well…This is long overdue and for those who have been reading regularly I deeply apologize. I have let a few months slip by since my last blog and I am truly sorry for letting that happen.
A lot has happened over the past few months. One thing is that I have finally found an amazing job that God has blessed me with. I started in July so that is one of the reasons for time slipping past. I have been trying to get comfortable with my new position. I thank my Father for His provision!!!
Marianne and I are feeling like breakthrough has finally come for us and we are excited to see where God is taking us….Thank you for your prayers!
Over the past few months I have been thinking about David (you know the guy in the bible). I have been thinking specifically about 1 Samuel 22 where David flee’s from Saul and goes into hiding. He ran to a cave. The Cave of Adullum. Adullum means “Place of Refuge”. Interesting how he ran to a place where he would find refuge…From our Father…
It got me thinking a little deeper on this. How many of us have run to a cave of our own. How many of us ran into the wrong cave? The cave we thought would provide us refuge. How many of us created shelters around us, built up walls…Or lack of a better word..Strongholds?
What is a stronghold? 
A stronghold is a faulty thinking pattern based on lies and deception. Deception is one of the primary weapons of the devil, because it is the building blocks for a stronghold. What strongholds can do is cause us to think in ways which block us from God’s best.
Does this sound familiar? For me this had been all too familiar. I had developed a faulty thinking pattern from a very young age…maybe even right from the womb. I had spent so many years with so many strongholds which contributed to me making bad decisions. I mentioned before in an earlier blog that my inward garbage slowly became my outward actions…God will always bring to surface those “things” that need “breaking off”
I just thank God that I didn’t stay in my cave forever. My Jesus saved me. But I still struggle with shame and guilt and sometimes rather than going to “Adullum”, my place of refuge, I find myself building my own prison. Just this week I talked with Marianne about some of the shame that surfaced because I was faced with an issue that brought back some old emotions. The enemy wants to keep us in a place of defeat. Maybe some of you still struggle with shame. Shame from your past. Shame from something that happened even this week. It’s a continuous battle but if we align ourselves with our Father, we can find the victories we need. One of my favourite books is Shattering Your Strongholds by Liberty Savard. (www.libertysavard.com…It’s a must read if you are struggling with some strongholds in your life.
In all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:37-39
Simply put…God Loves us…
Our past has been covered by the blood of Jesus. Our present has been covered by the blood of Jesus. Our future is covered by the blood of Jesus.
For whatever reason, it seems the enemy really likes trying to beat people over the head with their past to try and convince them that they are worthless and will never amount to anything…that they have done things that are too bad for them to ever change. That it’s too late to go back.
There may even be someone reading this right now who believes that they can never turn their lives around and allow Christ to heal them because they feel that the things they have done are too terrible for God to accept them.
The blood of Jesus deals with all of that. The truth is that we come before God broken and helpless and hopeless…coming just as we are and He accepts us as we are. Period.
But we must do our part…Call out to Him.
It’s time we come out of our caves. Break down the Strongholds…Find true Freeedom!!!
It’s best thing that has happened to Marianne and I and we continue to work at freedom! We are People of the Second Chance http://www.potsc.com/ . (check the website out)
So rise. Rise up and embrace this life. Rise and step into the destiny that God has called you to.
“If you want to see things you have never seen before, you must be prepared to do things you have never done before!” – Graham Cooke
Can You Believe it?
I find all to often people in the “body of Christ” are giving up. I need to mention that I am preaching to the choir when I say this…
Maybe this is because we have spent too much time “wounding our own” in the church and not enough time restoring lives…Now before we get our judgment hats on lets dig a little further on this. After all, we have stated that our blog is about hope, reconciliation, restoration and love without limits…
It seems that the focus in many churches is getting rid of sin in the church. I read in a book that said “if we spend our time getting rid of sin in the church, we will surely see a lot of empty buildings”…We are all sinners in need of a Saviour.
“Life is a process and we have to go through the process to get to the promise” (Graham Cooke). I am still a work in progress, meaning I am still in the process but I am glad to know that God’s hand is still on me. He loves me so much that He has put people around me to speak life over me and my wife Marianne. I am so thankful that He doesn’t write me off. Did you get that? God will never write you off. No matter what. He loves us. And when we call out to Him, He simply picks us up, shakes off the dust and puts us back in the game.
We are all sinners. I am a sinner but God sees me as righteous. I am His delight…ouch. I still have a hard time with that one.
When I was living with my “hidden sin’s” I felt sick, tired and wretched. I was in so much inner turmoil that I felt like there would never be a way out. It was like disease eating away at my very inner core, yet God still delighted in me. Isn’t that hard to fathom? He loves us even when we screw up.
So what is my point with all of this? Well…
I am in a place where I am battling everyday to change my thinking. Change it to believing. Believing that God delights in me. Believing that He doesn’t take His calling away…even if you screw up. Believing that He can bring a much needed breakthrough for my family. Believing that God will give us new dreams and visions…etc.
Ephesians 3:20
God can do anything, you know—far more than you could ever imagine or guess or request in your wildest dreams! (The Message)
God knows no earthly barriers or boundaries that will keep Him from fulfilling the best plans and purposes for His children.
We can choose to live our lives in the limitations of our own natural understanding and perceived boundaries, or we can choose to believe what God has promised for us. That He is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine according to His power that is at work within us! Our Father is the biggest, strongest and most wonderful Dad in the universe and He has promised that He is able to do exceedingly, abundantly, above all that we ask or imagine!
Can you believe it?
Whatever you are going through, know this…You are loved!
Christopher
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