1) It's probably been established over a period of time - and you've gotten used to living with it.
2) It strongly resists change. You can say: oh God, I have a new resolution - a new year’s resolution… but they never work, because they rely on the flesh. They rely on your willpower; and sometimes, underneath it, there's something else.
3) It's empowered by unseen spiritual beings. There's something that energises it; something is giving it power. If you don't dismantle what's giving it power, then you struggle to change. A lot of people come to church, and they love the atmosphere, they love the experience - and that's wonderful, but God wants you to change, and become a worshipper, and become a free person - one that knows how to love people, and serve people. See, that's being free of it.
4) It undermines your relationships, and success in life. If you have a financial stronghold, a stronghold of poverty, it will affect you getting wealth, and growing successful, and prospering - no matter how hard you work. It will increase loneliness in your life, because it's the secret part. It's the part you've got hidden. It's the part you covered up. It's the part you don't want anyone to find out about. It's that ‘little secret’ you're wrestling with constantly - that's your stronghold. In that place where you're wrestling, the stronghold, there's no revelation of love - you're isolated, and alone, and in pain. When we have those strongholds, we try to look good, but in fact many of us are struggling with something.
Finally, here's the key one, which it says very clearly in that passage…
5). It actively obstructs you experiencing and knowing God. One of the key characteristics of a spiritual stronghold… it actively obstructs you experiencing and knowing God. That's why you need to deal with it. That's why you need to find what your strongholds are, and overcome them, because they are standing between you and a greater dimension of God's love and blessing.
If you have a stronghold, for example, of rejection, there will be a wound in your heart, that came some point in your life. There will be a lie, or a belief – that I'm not accepted, I'm not good enough… and that's been there so long, that demons now have gained access to your life, and they continue the torment. So, every time you look at life, you look through the filter of rejection - they don't want me… they don't like me... I don't fit in here... I don't belong here - it's talking all the time. It's a stronghold, with spiritual beings that torment, that keep you fixed there.
When you have a stronghold of rejection, usually then unbelief gets with it, and it stops you believing I could experience from God. It hinders you. It obstructs you. God can be moving, and yet you're gripped in rejection and unbelief, and so you can't receive from Him. That’s why we need to overcome them, because they exalt self. They put you at the front - they put your thoughts, and your ways, at the front; and they stop you experiencing and knowing God - so we want to deal with them.
Let's talk about examples of some strongholds. I know ones that I've wrestled with have been in our family for generations, but God calls you to be the generation that arises in faith and brings an end to that pattern. He calls you to be the generation that brings a breakthrough, and builds a different future, but you can't build a great future if you don't address the things that obstruct you experiencing God, and His provision for your life.