Strongholds

A stronghold . . . an intense, bizarre stronghold. But you understand, don't you?

You see, when a difficult emotional circumstance comes into my life, thoughts will come to me suggesting alternatives for handling that circumstance. The way that I choose, the behaviour that I act out, will eventually become my unique flesh patterns, my ways for meeting the stressful situations in my life. The older I become, the more practiced the pattern, the stronger it becomes. I will have erected a stronghold.

Flesh patterns? Strongholds?

Patterns that you have learned to walk in through the years in your private world; patterns where you have experienced success in getting your love needs met or patterns for surviving in a world where love was never available—a world without love. Patterns for meeting the stress that enveloped your life. Patterns for performance. Emotional patterns. Behavioural patterns. Thought patterns. Patterns that have a strong hold on you—a stronghold in your life.

We need to understand two very important definitions:

(1) FLESH PATTERNS:

Those patterns of behaviour used for satisfying my needs independently of God and His grace. Patterns of thought, emotion, and behaviour that I have walked in through the years in my private world and on which I have relied to get my God-given needs met—apart from Christ. These are ways of believing, feeling and behaving through which:

(1) I have experienced success in getting my love needs met.

(2) I have struggled with the insecurity of not being loved.

(3) I have fought to survive in a world where there is no love.

(2) STRONGHOLDS:

Flesh patterns in my life that have become so deeply entrenched that I perform in them habitually—perhaps never recognizing that I am exhibiting “un-Christlike” behaviour or that I even have a choice to resist.