This word is submitted by Heidi Wilson (jiloa@penn.com)

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The Tearing Down of Strongholds

STRONGHOLDS

I had this vision some time ago. We as Christians have learned much about strongholds in our minds and how they protect the enemy's activity, but this vision that the Lord gave me showed so clearly how they work.

The Fortress/Stronghold: I was standing in front of a castle type fortress. As I looked up the high walls, on the top there were soldiers stationed. They were shouting down taunts to me about how strong this fortress was, and how it was impossible for me to get past it. I somehow knew that this fortress was a stronghold and I also knew that it was impossible for me to do a thing about it on my own.

Crumbling: As I stood there at that wall I saw the Lord reach down, and with one finger he just touched the top of the stronghold. The next instant it crumbled... the walls falling down and a cloud of dust rising into the air. As the dust settled I saw the castle, now in ruins. I felt compelled to walk in past the walls, into the ruins. I passed deserted, partially crumbled hallways or chambers, and bats were flying out in haste from them. I moved over the rubble into the center of the fortress.

The work of the enemy: As I neared the center I became aware of a large chasm ahead of me. I walked up to the edge of the chasm, and a huge canyon suddenly stretched out before me. It was very, very deep. I could see that there had been a mining operation going on down in this hole. There were rickety stairs going down and down and down into this canyon (it was comparable in size to the Grand Canyon). There were also pulleys, buckets, picks and shovels... every indication that just moments before there had been a thriving operation at work, making passageways, and deepening the chasm.

I knew that what I was seeing was the work of the enemy. This canyon had been protected by the castle walls so that I wasn't even aware of its presence. As the stronghold (could be rejection, greed, wounds from the past, fear, anger, etc...) had been looming there I hadn't realized all of the ground that the enemy had gained inside of that protected area that he had owned up until that moment.

Restoration: I started down that rickety staircase and only got about 10 stairs down. I had to quickly move back up to the top because sand or dirt from heaven began to fall into the canyon. It quickly filled all of the tunnels and mines, covering all of the equipment. I had to continue to backtrack because after it filled the canyon completely it began to cover the entire ruins of the fortress. As I stood there and watched there soon was no evidence of anything ever having been there. It was amazing. The Lord showed me that when He removes a stronghold from our lives he restores us to the point that it is as if it had never even been there!

A Word: I feel that the Lord is saying now that He wants to do this work in many of us in this season. We need to be aware that we are facing a real enemy and real strongholds, but that God is willing and able deliver us as we cry out to Him and as we appropriate the weapons of our warfare. God wants us to allow Him to bring us to a place of freedom where we are no longer governed or controlled by our mistakes, our past, or by the areas the enemy has kept us bound in our minds. We need to be released from these strongholds so that we can move on with the work that the Lord has for us to do next. I also feel that especially people operating in the prophetic need freedom so that there is less of us, and more of the Lord as we minister in this way.

2 Corinthians 10:3-5 For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 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.

1 Peter 5:10 And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.

I pray that God blesses you with freedom from strongholds, from thoughts that bring bondage and condemnation and that His restoration would flood your lives.

-Heidi Wilson
Warren, Pennsylvania