by: LaDonna Brown

Are there things in your life that seem to keep haunting you; things you find difficult to overcome? If your answer is yes, you may be dealing with strongholds. First let us define a stronghold. Scripturally, a stronghold is used metaphorically to refer to areas where human confidence is relied upon rather than the wisdom of God. It can also be defined as any excuse you adopt to justify your wrong doing. My personal definition is an area in your life where you have difficulty overcoming whether it be a nasty attitude, negative thinking, gossiping, worrying, etc. With these unresolved areas in our lives, we become ineffective Christians, unable to effectively spread the gospel to others whose only contact with Christ maybe through us. God has called us to be holy and has given us the ability to be over comers in every area of our lives, therefore, we should never allow strongholds to set up and take residence in our hearts, the very area where only Christ should reside.

Since a stronghold is a defense mechanism, you need weapons to destroy it. Here are several weapons you must keep well oiled and ready to fire at all times to destroy any stronghold you are facing.

Praise as a weapon: Praise is a very important weapon which takes the focus off you and your problems and redirects it to God. It allows you to see just how small your situation is in relation to the greatness of God. Genesis 18:14 the Lord posed the question to Abram, “Is there anything to hard for the Lord?” Once you begin to praise, you recognize the truth of that question, absolutely nothing is too difficult for God to handle. This truth is further confirmed in Ephesians 3:20 where Paul closed his letter by stating that God is able to do exceeding, abundantly above all that we can ask or think. That is pretty powerful. Beyond what we can ask or even think…Ponder on that, while you ponder, praise and feel the release of Christ’s power flow.

Prayer as a weapon: Proverbs 15:29 states the Lord hears the prayer of the righteous. He has an attentive ear to my prayer and desires to hear from me. Thessalonians 5:17 simply says “pray without ceasing”. That is very straightforward. Luke 18:1 Men ought to always pray and not faint and Ephesians 6:18 Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints. We must earnestly contend for a strong prayer life which is one of our greatest weapons. Surely the enemy knows this. He will do anything to discourage us from praying. Since prayer is one of our strongest weapons we must pray when we don’t feel like it and not allow anything or anyone to interfere.

Fasting as a weapon: You can pray and not fast but you cannot fast and not pray. Fasting is a tremendous weapon and a source of power in the life of a believer. It is a form of worship that magnifies God. Your circumstances may seem so overwhelming that they are all you can see. When you worship, that reduces the power of your circumstances and magnifies God. The most effective thing you can do in the midst of your circumstance is to magnify the Lord. In Nineveh, everyone fasted, even the animals, this proved to be a powerful weapon against the strongholds that kept them from worshipping God. It moved the heart of God and he spared the city. Another great example is when Judah faced a great enemy (II Chronicles 20) they fasted and the Lord fought the battle for them.

Word of God as a weapon: My late pastor always taught us, one scripture well understood and rightly applied can set the devil to flee. Psalms 119 has several scriptures that accentuate the importance of knowing the word. Verses 9-10 tells us our way is cleansed through the word and to seek the Lord with our whole heart to avoid wandering from his commandments. If we know the word, we can apply it to our lives in a time of need, for example, when Jesus fasted 40 days and nights he fought the enemy with nothing but the word. Verse 105 tells us the word is a lamp unto our feet and a light unto our path; if we allow the word to saturate us and be our guide it will enlighten us, encourage us and strengthen us.

Fellowship of the Saints as a weapon: When situations come, one of the first things we do is run from the church or the saints of God. The enemy speaks to us and we will take on an attitude making us stay away from fellowship. During this time, we need to run toward the saints of God for prayer and strength. Don’t run away from your strength, your prayer warriors, and your armor bearers. We are further encouraged to do so in Philippians 2:1-2, to find consolation in Christ and fellowship of the Spirit, to be likeminded, be of one accord and the same mind. We depend on one another to survive. Romans 15:1-2 tells us to bear the infirmities of the weak, we all have a responsibility to edify one another. In edifying others we also build ourselves up through sharing testimony of God’s grace toward us.

Be encouraged to use these weapons in your daily walk as you strive to overcome the strongholds in your life.

I had the awesome opportunity to interview Donnie McClurkin! Nervous is a gross understatement for the queasiness I felt at the beginning of the interview. However, Donnie put me at ease with his light-heartedness and sense of humor.

We discussed his new CD – We All Are One (Live In Detroit). This is an awesome CD that I can’t encourage you enough to go out and grab yourself a copy! My favorite song is “Wait on the Lord.” It’s a song of worship, that compels patience in God while going through rough times,  it features Karen Clark.  To hear samples of each song on the CD visit www.DonnieMcClurkin.com.

His CD is one among many other things we discussed such as a book he is working on, his involvement with Feed the Children, and acting.

This is one interview that I won’t soon forget!