Making Your Life a Stronghold

It is an unfortunate consequence of covenanting that you will inevitably attract the attention of the enemy.  There is nothing you can do about that – the enemy dislikes people being in covenant with the Lord.  What this means is you need to give some attention to how you are most likely to be attacked, and to deal with those things as far as you are able.

In Matthew 7, at the end of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus says this:

24 “Therefore everyone who hears these words of mine and puts them into practice is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. 25 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house; yet it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. 26 But everyone who hears these words of mine and does not put them into practice is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. 27 The rain came down, the streams rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”

28 When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, 29 because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law.

Without using the word stronghold, He’s describing the same thing.  How do you build your life in a way that makes it resistant to the things that will come against you?  On this basis a good place to start it the Sermon on the Mount. 

There’s a lot in the Sermon on the Mount.  In many ways Jesus is redefining what is righteousness, and raising the bar.  He addresses some important questions (including on what is acceptable – or not – in terms of divorce).  Follow His commands, and apply them, and your house will be built on rock.  So why aren’t we all there?

On this, it may be helpful to make a few other points.

The Foundations of your Stronghold Life

If you want to make your life into a stronghold, you have to decide that it is important enough to do this that you’ll put some other things down.  Because it will take time and focus.  Whether this is hobbies, friendships, extra work time you normally do – something will likely have to give. 

Having made the decision to do it, you will likely need to determine where your weakness is.  I would generally suggest you start in one of two places:

-              Knowledge of God’s word.  It is impossible to follow Jesus’s words if you don’t know them.  And beyond that, to have understood them in context and to have practiced applying them.  If you believe this is your weakness, then this has to be your singular priority.  You need to be able to apply the word in all situations, and I will explain why this is so critical in a moment.

-              Your marriage.  If your marriage is not solid, then this needs to be a priority before work or anything else.  If your knowledge of the word is weak, your marriage may be weak because of it.  The Bible has much to say on marriage and it’s important. 

I believe marriage and the word – along with a strong prayer life – are the foundations of a “stronghold” life.  My guess is if any of these are lacking, the Lord will tell you to fix them before anything else.  Your life is built on these things.  Not on your kids, or your work, or your calling.       

Once the foundations are in place…the second level

I want to suggest a way to think about a stronghold life once your foundations are solid.  Imagine this – suppose the enemy was only able to attack you in the event that you behaved unrighteously, and otherwise would leave you alone.  How would you behave?  Would you be very careful with your actions and words?  Especially words – read this from James 3:

3 When we put bits into the mouths of horses to make them obey us, we can turn the whole animal. 4 Or take ships as an example. Although they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the pilot wants to go. 5 Likewise, the tongue is a small part of the body, but it makes great boasts. Consider what a great forest is set on fire by a small spark. 6 The tongue also is a fire, a world of evil among the parts of the body. It corrupts the whole body, sets the whole course of one’s life on fire, and is itself set on fire by hell.

7 All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles and sea creatures are being tamed and have been tamed by mankind, 8 but no human being can tame the tongue. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison.

9 With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse human beings, who have been made in God’s likeness. 10 Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be. 11 Can both fresh water and salt water flow from the same spring? 12 My brothers and sisters, can a fig tree bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? Neither can a salt spring produce fresh water.

Two Kinds of Wisdom

13 Who is wise and understanding among you? Let them show it by their good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom. 14 But if you harbor bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it or deny the truth. 15 Such “wisdom” does not come down from heaven but is earthly, unspiritual, demonic. 16 For where you have envy and selfish ambition, there you find disorder and every evil practice.

17 But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure; then peace-loving, considerate, submissive, full of mercy and good fruit, impartial and sincere. 18 Peacemakers who sow in peace reap a harvest of righteousness.

I think keeping in your mind that your actions and words, where these are unrighteous, have consequences for the enemy having rights is a good model for building a stronghold.  Many individuals believe there is good evidence that this actually happens – Arthur Burk and Anne Hamilton are both well-regarded individuals who have talked about this idea of giving the enemy rights (or more rights, perhaps).  It is worth checking out their work if you haven’t.  It will help in how you build your stronghold.

Think also about the fruits of the Spirit, which are described in Galatians 5:

22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.

Note that Paul says against these there is no Law.  Meaning they are righteous by definition.  If you can think about your words and actions in this consequence, then you will go a long way to building your stronghold.  If you are doing a good job in your stronghold, you should be evidencing the fruits. 

After that…A third level

The enemy understands that your motivations can lead you to break covenant or behave in unrighteousness, perhaps without even realising it.  In the Bible, we see examples of covenant breaking for all of the below reasons:

-              Knowledge

-              Status/power

-              Desire to be”independent”

-              Sex/women

-              Easier life/avoid suffering

-              Wealth

-              Protection/fear.

Intermarrying was a key example, where men were led to worship other Gods – an obvious break of covenant – because they married women who worshipped other gods.  Do not fall into this trap.  Be aware of which of these (or other) motivations is most likely to leave you vulnerable and focus on it.

But I would say there are at least two tactics the enemy uses regularly that require you to engage your brain. 

-              Playing to your sense of righteousness to make you become unrighteous.  The film The Usual Suspects has that famous line, “the greatest trick the devil ever pulled is to convince the world he doesn’t exist”.  I don’t think that’s true – I think the greatest trick he ever pulled is to take a position and invite us to oppose it.  And then in our righteous indignation, we create disunity and…in doing so behave unrighteously.  There are numerous Biblical instances where people did the wrong thing for what they thought was the right reason.  And made the mistake in the process of not consulting the Lord.  You need to be alive to this because the problem can emerge in many different forms.  The willingness of many people in the faith to fall into creating disunity is astonishing.  It is justified in many ways but I’d say the Bible is clear on this point.  If you have to create disunity to achieve something, maybe pray for the Lord to create an opportunity to do it differently.

-              Twisting Biblical truth.  You see Satan doing this when he tests Jesus in the wilderness.  He uses scripture but twists it.  Jesus is having none of it and throws it back at him.  Things can sometimes be presented to you as being Biblical, but on close inspection they aren’t.  By far the greatest tool to help you here, alongside a strong prayer life, is good Bible knowledge.  This is why Psalm 1 says “Blessed is he who delights in the Lord’s law, and meditates on it day and night”.  God’s wisdom is the thing you turn to immediately and you dwell on the issue.  There are no shortcuts, unless the Lord chooses to download scripture into you.  You need to spend real time in the Bible understanding the principles it teaches and how to apply them. 

Summary

If you are to enter into covenant with the Lord on a personal basis, you will want to give some thought to how you are ensuring your life is a stronghold.  I suggest the following:

-              In the first instance, pay attention to your knowledge of the word and your marriage, along with your prayer life.  If these three aren’t strong, you will remain vulnerable.

-              Consider achieving control over your words and actions, as if allowing yourself to be unrighteous gives rights to the enemy.  This may take practice but it is worthwhile.  You should see evidence through the fruits of the Spirit being displayed. 

-              Be careful to watch for the enemy’s tactics and particularly an invitation to unrighteous behaviour through what appears to be righteousness, and Biblical truth being twisted.  These are harder because they masquerade as truth.  They often play to your core desires, and you should understand why of these desires makes you most vulnerable. 

There is more to say, but if you can master these three levels, you will be well equipped.  It is almost impossible to do, however, if you do not make available enough time to commit to this.  It takes real time and application, and that must come from somewhere.  As a general rule that time should not come from your wife, family, prayer time or sleep if you can at all avoid it.

As a final word – you should obviously assume the enemy wants to attack you and be vigilant.  But not to the point that it makes you anxious and miserable.  You are meant to enjoy your life in relationship with the Lord.  These suggestions are simply a means of putting in place simple protections to avoid worrying constantly.