Note: Even though you will be reading this chapter later in Watchman Warrior Intercessory Prayer, it is important to understand these concepts at the beginning of discipleship.
If you have ever felt like you were stuck in one of those, sin-confess, sin-confess cycles, or felt like you were just plain stuck, getting nowhere- the cause may be a stronghold in that area of your life. Strongholds are like spiritual covenants or contracts that we make with Satan, that give him legal rights to that specific area of our life. Strongholds keep us from turning away from the sin we have come to hate; or they turn us back toward it after we have turned from it. Like a yoyo, they only allow us to go so far away before they yank us back. Satan’s legal right allows him to erect a stronghold inside our mind, much like a military bunker or fortress. These strongholds capture a pattern of thought, its accompanying action, and the demons attached to it, and keep us trapped in bondage.
I have come to realize that the lack of understanding and living within God’s love is often an open door or foothold that the enemy uses to gain a stronghold or place in our life. I once asked the Lord what the most important thing was that I could share with someone, and He immediately answered, “In this is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the atoning sacrifice for our sins” (1 John 4:10).
Romans 8:39 says that nothing shall be able to separate us from the love of God. And yet, as Satan builds a case against us, if we give his lies a place in our minds, his footholds will cause us to alienate ourselves from God, making it difficult to experience and to believe in His love.
Because footholds, strongholds and soul ties are such an important principle to understand, I am going to elaborate on these concepts.
FOOTHOLDS
A stronghold usually begins with the development of a foothold. Dictionary.com defines a foothold as “a firm or secure position that provides a base for further advancement.” Footholds are basically open doors in our life. Some things that open the door for the formation of footholds are:
-iniquity and/or sin (ours and other’s sin against us)
-lineage (generational sin, curses, or traits)
-deception (belief in a lie)
-unjustifiable ignorance (willful spiritual blindness, i.e. rebellion)
-involvement in the occult (including games like Ouija board, Tarot Cards, Yoga, New Age Meditation or practices, cursed or charged objects in our possession, certain video games like Dungeons and Dragons and Assassin’s Creed)
-physical and emotional pain or broken heartedness (recurring crisis, trauma, divorce, accidents, abuse, abandonment, rejection, unfulfilled dreams and expectations)
-attitudes of pride, disobedience, and rebellion; fear, doubt, guilt, shame and a sense of worthlessness; anger and unforgiveness; ungodly relationships and sexual immorality; curses; word curses; laziness, apathy, complacency and fruitless busyness
And there are many more. Each of these stems from a false belief system fed by the deception of the enemy about God, others, or self. Satan sees all of these as opportunities to gain entrance into our life. In Ephesians 4:27, Paul defines a foothold as a “place” (Strong’s G5117, topos), and he specifically told us, “Do not give place to the devil.”
In a sermon about footholds, my pastor, Steve Rogers said that this “place” is like real estate. I love that analogy. Our minds house our beliefs, and Satan is always looking for a way to grab a piece of that property. If we don’t take our thoughts captive and we allow the devil’s lies to fester and settle in, this “place” or foothold will give Satan a secure position from which he will be able to further march right on into our lives and influence us to sin.
Probably the most common foothold that Satan uses to test or try us is in the area of the thoughts of our mind. When we entertain his temptation, that thought becomes desire, and when acted upon, it gives birth to sin. James 1:15 and Genesis 4:7 give a word picture of this. “Then, when lust has conceived, it brings forth sin; and when sin is finished, it brings forth death.” “If you do well, shall you not be accepted? But if you do not do well, sin is crouching at the door. It desires to dominate you, but you must rule over it.”
Since Satan cannot gain a foothold without permission, many times he tempts us with an alluring snare, something that interests or entices us, or that is appealing to our fleshly desires. He will present it as something harmless or seemingly innocent, like a kitten. But when we pick it up and take it home, it gains a place and will begin to work its way into more of our thoughts and our heart. The longer we love and care for it, the bigger it grows until it is as a roaring lion seeking to devour us (1 Peter 5:8). We accepted this snare believing that we could control it, and then realize that it controls us and has interfered in our relationship with Christ as all sin does.
Hidden snares are not as obvious. They creep in as thoughts or feelings that we deceptively believe are our own and we accept them as such, not realizing that Satan has placed them in our minds. Often, Satan uses other people’s sin against us to capture us in his hidden snares. Through abuse, abandonment and rejection he whispers lies of self-condemnation and worthlessness; hatred, anger and resentment and unforgiveness appear to be justifiable; and ungodly soul ties cause us to struggle with problems and issues that are not our own.
It is easy to minimize or justify these snares and we are often blind to them, but when we accept, believe or embrace these things, they entrap us in the bondage of the stronghold. We then realize that we are held hostage by the very thing we invited in and gave a place to. And you can be sure that Satan won’t stop there. Once he has established a stronghold in that area, he will then look for the next foothold so that he can gain another stronghold to further advance from; and so on, until he has captured as much of our life, our “real estate” as we let him.
STRONGHOLDS
Strongholds are fortresses of thought that can house godly or ungodly ideas. Not every thought we have is our own. Of course, God can give us His thoughts, but Satan can also plant thoughts in our minds. He makes them sound like our own thoughts, but they are always rooted in deception and lies. When we give in to those thoughts and act on them, it is as if we are signing a legal contract with the enemy. Giving demons contractual permission to attach to our mind, allows them to further control and manipulate our thinking; which eventually controls our actions because we do what we think.
Dr. Michael Lake (Kingdom Intelligence Briefing) says that strongholds deal with thoughts and lies that the enemy has seeded into our lives to almost flip us to where we become an asset to his kingdom! He defines strongholds as “a fortified area that grants the enemy a place, not only to reside, but to exert influence in that area.”
Dr. Lake explained, “There is spiritual territory within your soul. And they (demons) will manipulate your mind, will and emotions. One of the favorite things they like to do is to come in and begin whispering things to you, and begin giving you their desires so that you think those desires are yours and not theirs. And what’s amazing is that when people get delivered, their thought processes and desires completely change. They think, ‘God has put new desires in me.’ Well maybe for the first time in your life, you’re experiencing desires that are not demonically inspired.”
He continued, “We have to repent not only to get right, but because that sin has brought us into some kind of bondage, and there is a demonizing spirit that is empowering that bondage. Once we repent and get clean, we need to command anything that came with it or that empowered it, to leave in the name of Jesus, then ask the Holy Spirit to build His Kingdom in its place. Jesus made it clear that demons consider our bodies their houses. It’s not enough to just get the house clean. You better fill it up with God’s Kingdom or else they’ll come back and bring seven-fold worse with them. But most Christians don’t even know that there’s a void that they need to fill up. We get clean but we have to fill the void with Holy Spirit and Kingdom living. And then we need to make sure that we don’t involve ourselves with the things of the past that will reopen that door.”
Dr. Lake and his wife, Mary Lou shared God’s Kingdom Pattern for dealing with strongholds in three words: contend, retrieve, and establish. God contends with the enemy, and He contends for us and His remnant; He retrieves what was stolen or given away; and He helps us to establish His Kingdom in our lives. Our part is to pray fervently that God will contend with the enemy for us; that we will be ready and willing to retrieve or take back the territory of our lives in Christ’s power and authority; and that we would be so hungry for God and in love with Him that we would be faithful to become firmly established in His Word.[1]
Let’s look more closely at several other definitions of a stronghold:
First, a stronghold is a place of refuge or safety, a means of protection or that is inaccessible and will prevail (Strong’s H4581, H5810, H1219). Nahum 1:7 says, “The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of distress; and He knows those who take refuge in Him.” God desires to be our stronghold, our refuge (Psalm 9:9-10). He wants us to turn to him in times of need, to allow Him to be our place of safety, and to trust Him to be our defender and shield of protection so that we can overcome.
Strong’s Concordance also defines “stronghold” (G3794 ochyroma) as a fortress or “anything on which one relies,” along with the ideas of clinging to something, to possess or be joined with that thing. When we choose to rely on something other than God, we are joining ourself to it, creating our own strongholds or defenses. These are the things that we run to for protection or comfort when we feel threatened, placing false hope and false security in something other than God. Many people turn to food, drugs, sex, busyness or material possessions to bring comfort, security or escape from reality. Some defense mechanisms, such as dissociation, are allowed by God for certain periods of time in our lives. For instance, children who are abused and have no hope of help often survive or cope by blocking out the memory and/or emotions of the trauma. Yet, in time, Yahweh will ask us to repent even from these, for He desires to be the One in whom we trust.
Another Hebrew word for stronghold is Misgab (H4869). See Jeremiah 48:1, which interprets as “pride, chaos, destroy, and division of house.” This stronghold is obviously not one built on Christ, but is rooted in Satan’s kingdom of pride, of lifting up self. Every demonic stronghold will end up causing us to be confounded and dismayed, in confusion, withering away in discouragement and defeat. There can be mental, emotional, spiritual or physical strongholds, but no matter its position, there will always be chaos, destruction, pride, and division. That’s what the counterfeit roaring lion always does.
There are different levels of strongholds. There are those that are strictly mental and can be overcome with a realization and application of the truth. Then there are those in which demons have become so entrenched that there is a need for spiritual warfare that is born out of repentance, that breaks ungodly soul ties, dismantles the strongholds and kicks out the enemy; then fills the previously occupied place with the Holy Spirit. It is also important to pray for healing of any damage done by the demons.
As Christians stuck in the bondage of strongholds, there comes a time when the Holy Spirit begins to reveal things to us that He wants us to deal with, and He does not want us to use the old way of coping or surviving. He wants us to trust Him and allow Him to show us a better way so that we can move from coping and surviving to overcoming, living in hope and freedom. Up until this point, God’s grace and mercy has covered us as we walked in our own way instead of His; however, once He opens our spiritual eyes to the issue at hand, then we are responsible for it (John 9:41). When we hang on to those old ways of protection, we find that they no longer work because they were founded on deception, unrealistic expectations and misplaced trust, and they will lead to a destructive life style, and possibly death (Proverbs 14:12).
I am not talking about a salvation issue here, but rather about a Christian who is unsurrendered to the work of the Holy Spirit in them, at least in the areas of their bondage. Their life tends to be characterized by fear, insecurity, pride, isolation, lies, defeat, discouragement, depression, anxiety, stress, anger, etc. instead of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23).
Second, most strongholds begin with a temptation or belief in our mind. Strongholds can be defined as holding on to anything that ends up holding us. According to Connie Stoffel, “A demonic stronghold is anything compelling enough or convincing enough to hold you in its power; to keep you from receiving God’s love and truth.”
Connie explains: In 2 Corinthians 10:4-6, Paul is discussing strongholds as mindsets that keep us in bondage. Even though demons are indirectly the cause of these strongholds and dangerous imaginations, they use these to gain control over our lives. In context, the strongholds and imaginations Paul talks about are:
~Erroneous beliefs, persuasions, reasonings that are hostile to the Christian faith, and teachings that lead to acts of disobedience (verse 5)
~Religious lies and deceptions the enemy uses to enslave us to his ways of thinking, his attitudes, and his actions
~False arguments and pretensions that come against a true understanding (the knowledge) of God, especially of the things lawful and unlawful for Christians
In psychological terms, strongholds could be considered ‘practiced ways of habitual thinking that bind us to bad habits, addictions, and lifestyles.’ They fill us with hopelessness, leading us to believe something in our lives is unchangeable. A stronghold’s function is to control our thinking while minimizing anything that contradicts it.
On a demonic level, a stronghold can be defined as an influence or grip; a persistent oppression, obsession, hindrance, or harassment.
This is how a stronghold works:
1. It captures a pattern of thought.
2. It captures an accompanying action.
3. It captures the demons attached.
Connie goes on to explain that there are two categories of demonic strongholds, the tempters and the tormentors. She says, “Their names are self-explanatory. They have an assignment. It will either be to tempt you to sin or torment you in your sin. They may torment your mind, emotions, physical body or all three. Even in this division you will still find them showing up in both camps because they are all in the same army of hell. The type of stronghold is defined by the strongman ruling over it. If the strongman’s assignment is to temp the person to sin, the person will have a stronghold of temptation, even if they are also tormented by their sin. If the strongman is a demon of torment the person will have a stronghold of torment, though he may compel the person to sin in order to torment them.” [2]
Satan is responsible for the temptations we face, not God. God never tempts us and He always provides a way for us to escape (1 Corinthians 10:13). What Satan means for our destruction, God uses to build our faith. When Satan tempts us, he is lying, hoping we will believe it, providing an open door for him to enter. The goal behind every temptation is to keep us from God’s love, from relationship with Him and others, and to hinder His will and plans from being accomplished within us. Basically, Satan wants to restrain God’s Kingdom which lives in us to make us ineffective reflections of Christ.
Third, Strongholds are cords or ties that lead us. God leads with cords of compassion or human kindness and love (Hosea 11:4). Satan leads with cords of deception and lies. He cannot make us do anything, but he can lead us to do things. Strongholds are the cords by which Satan attempts to lead us. For example, when we are bound up in anger, we will be led by anger. The thoughts we think, the decisions we make, the actions we take will all be influenced by that cord. We may think we are controlling it because anger gives us a sense of power, but as with all bondage, it is actually controlling us. “The existence of a stronghold can be recognized because it will be that area of your life in which you consistently have problems and cannot walk in victory.”[3]
Lastly, Bob Larson explains strongholds this way:
“Legal rights are the entries of evil, the ways that demons actually enter a person…basically six strongholds that the devil uses most frequently:
1. Willful sin – things you’ve done in rebellion to God
2. Ancestral sin – curses brought on your life through the blood line of your family
3. Occult entanglement – any act of sorcery or divination
4. Addictions – a bondage which controls, like alcohol or pornography
5. Abandonment – the neglect of those in spiritual authority, like parents
6. Abuse – a severe shock to the mind and emotions when trauma occurs
“Just because the devil gets in doesn’t mean he can stay in. To keep control over a person, he needs a stronghold, something he can hang on to. The six strongholds are:
1. Fear – the failure to walk in faith and confidence in God
2. Anger – retribution that anticipates revenge
3. Rejection – the emotions that result from abandonment
4. Depression – hopelessness that comes from spiritual despair
5. Self-Hatred – the loathing and despising of one’s own identity
6. Abuse – the emotions of bitterness that result when one is abused
“…Beyond legal rights and strongholds, some demons totally dominate their victims. Here are six ways…that demons dominate:
1. Bitterness and resentment – persistent ill will
2. Condemnation and worthlessness – contempt for one’s self
3. Doubt and unbelief – a complete lack of confidence in God
4. Guilt and shame – a sense of self disgrace
5. Hate and rage – uncontrolled anger
6. Death and destruction – the end of all spiritually vital functions”[4]
Tearing Down Strongholds. We must destroy Satan’s strongholds in our lives just as the idols and detestable things in Judah had to be destroyed before the people could be free to worship God (2 Chronicles 34:33).
“In order to overcome a stronghold, a person will not only have to set their mind to do differently, they will have to renounce, through verbal confession, old patterns of thinking and then turn away from them. They will have to take on the authority of Jesus/Yeshua to detach from the entities connected to that action or thought pattern, and declare them severed by the power of the blood of Jesus. Next, they will need to attach, or bind, themselves legally to the Truth and the Way of Yahweh.”[5]
I want to make sure we understand what it means to renounce. To renounce is to reject, disown, forsake, separate and leave behind a thing that we previously accepted as a part of our life or our identity; and then to verbally declare or say, “off” for oneself (G550, G2036). It is a recognition that in the past we claimed this thing, but now we are forsaking it, casting it off as we would a filthy garment. This is not usually an easy process. Tearing down and demolishing strongholds usually involves shaking and sifting. Ouch!
Strongholds are torn down as we recognize that they are there, and then call out to God and ask Yeshua to forgive the sins. He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness (1 John 1:9). But then comes the hard work.
We demolish strongholds when we wield our spiritual weapons of repentance. Repentance is a change of mind that we amend because of an abhorrence of our sins (G3340), and it involves these components: Recognize the problem. Confess it and turn from it. Return to God with our mind, will, heart, soul, and understanding. Renounce the sin and the demons attached to it. Replace lies with truth. Rebuild on the foundation of Christ and the truth of His Word. Practicethinking and acting on truth.
It sounds so simple. But let’s think about what this looks like in the physical realm so we can better understand it in the spiritual. Let’s say that I buy a house. A contract is made as I sign the papers making it mine. That piece of property- that stronghold- has just changed hands. I move into the house and begin to recognize that it has major problems. I call the Contractor. He tells me that it’s unfixable and must come down. My first reaction is to deny it, then justify it, then try to come up with a plan to somehow save it. The Contractor waits patiently for me to be ready to accept the fact that it has to be demolished.
Consider how difficult it is to recognize that this home- this stronghold- that I had placed my hopes and dreams in, would have to go. Consider how painful it is to have to begin tearing it down piece by piece. Consider how much time and hard work is involved in the demolition process. This is the shaking!
Then the Contractor lovingly touches my shoulder, and with tears in his eyes because he feels my pain, He gently says, “Let me tear this down for you. Together we will build a new one. A better one.”
Because I am greatly shaken and have chosen to place my trust and confidence in my Contractor, I agree to let go of this house and turn it over to Him. In the spiritual realm, this means that I am willing to confess everything I have tried to hide or hold onto that is ungodly. I return to God in humility and submission. I recognize the lies I was believing that kept me bound to the house, and renounce them and the demons attached to them. I replace the lies with the truth. Immediately I have hope because I am focusing on the new home that we will rebuild together on a firm foundation, Jesus Christ. He will be my stronghold.
“For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ” (2 Corinthians 10:4-5).
Now let’s think back to another visual, the image of a stronghold as a fortress that houses demonic spirits as well as our own thoughts so that we can get an understanding of what this scripture is saying. Can you see yourself reaching inside that fort and literally taking hold of your thoughts, attitudes, and every prideful thing that is working against the knowledge of God, His truth, His Kingdom? Pull each of those things out one at a time and examine them. If they are your own thoughts that are believing a lie, then renounce the lie, reject it. Give it the boot!
Then erect a new stronghold of Truth by choosing to believe in and act on the truth no matter if you “feel” it or not. Feelings change. Truth does not. By clinging to and joining ourself with the truth of God’s Word, we will overcome.
Next, if you pull out ungodly attitudes, then ask the Holy Spirit to show you what the root cause is, and deal with that in truth, repentance and obedience to Christ. Then repent from whatever opened the door for the enemy, command that spirit leave and go wherever Jesus sends it, and tell it not to return.
But we don’t stop there. We must be willing to cut the cord that connects us to the stronghold. Jesus advised us to pluck out our eye or cut off our right hand if either of these was causing us to sin (Matthew 5:29, 30). That’s radical amputation! Jesus wanted us to understand the seriousness of this message, not that we should literally cut off limbs, but rather that we may need to sever ourselves from certain things. What does this look like? Well, what do we trust in and rely on? What causes us to sin? Fear that isolates us? Ungodly relationships? Our phone or computer? What do we love more? This thing we spend our time on? The obsessions in our life? Our sin?
Once we sever ourselves from those things, then we must demolish the strongholds so that we don’t do an “about face” and return to it.
Elisha gives us a beautiful example of this. Remember, he was plowing his field when Elijah called him to become his disciple. Before he left, he made a fire using the yoke as wood, he killed and boiled his oxen, then fed them to his neighbors. He had demolished, cut off ties with his old way of life and everybody knew it. There would be no going back for Elisha. He picked up Elijah’s mantle, and erected a new stronghold, a future that seemed unclear and probably a bit scary, but one that he knew was grounded in His God. (1 Kings 19:19-21)
The sifting usually comes after the demolishing of the old stronghold and the rebuilding of the new. Sifting is like testing that God allows to help us grow in strength, ability and confidence as we practice thinking and living in truth instead of going back to the old strongholds and reverting back to the lies that opened the door in the beginning.
Elisha was tested immediately after Elijah was taken up into heaven. The Spirit that had been on Elijah now rested on Elisha. On his journey, some boys came out of the city and began mocking him. They were saying, “Go up, you bald head! Go up, you bald head!”
This may not seem too serious until we look more closely. In that culture, men shaved their heads when they were in mourning. Elisha was mourning the loss of his beloved mentor, Elijah, and had shaven his head. He may have been fighting fear, despair and depression, or thoughts and feelings of doubt about his calling or his ability to carry on.
In a mocking spirit, the boys were saying, “Go up, go up.” This is the same Hebrew word (ala) used as when Elijah “went up” by a whirlwind into heaven. Most likely these boys had heard what had happened to Elijah, and they were challenging the truth of his disappearance. In a spirit of unbelief, they were making fun of Elisha, taunting and ridiculing with contempt and scorn for not only him, but for Elijah and Yahweh.
Satan was using them to tempt Elisha to give in to his feelings, to isolate, separate and divide him from his purpose, his calling; to make him ineffective. But God was using this to shake and sift Elisha, to confront him with his ungodly thoughts and feelings, and to cause him to recognize the lies. If he didn’t turn and repent and choose to believe and act on the truth, Satan would gain a place in his mind that would hinder his calling.
Elisha passed the sifting test. He saw the boys, then cursed them in the name of the Lord. Immediately, out of the woods came two she-bears that ripped open forty-two of the boys. Had he overreacted? No. He had risen up in the power of God’s Spirit, who will not be mocked. You can be sure that after that, Elisha walked in boldness and confidence under the covering of his new mantle, and the people respected him and his position. (2 Kings 2)
We must boldly and confidently walk in obedience to God as well. Just as Elisha put a quick stop to the devil’s work in his life, we must be quick to do the same in ours. We must take every thought captive and punish all disobedience within ourselves, as well as those tempting, mocking thoughts that Satan taunts and torments us with.
Connie offers an important CAUTION: A lot of times we may be tempted by the enemy to rebuild the strongholds that previously existed in our lives. It’s like picking up old bricks (the old choices we make) and reusing them to start building again. Let me explain. We need to see these strongholds as being built out of bricks and if each brick is a lie that has been placed upon another lie upon another lie, it eventually is built into a stronghold.
It is very important that each brick that we have torn down be completely removed so that we have no access to those bricks, or we will, by our fleshy nature, rebuild. They must be irradicated, crushed and carried off by the Holy Spirit. We cannot and must not pick up or reuse these bricks ever again as they are faulty. The permanent removal of these bricks can only be done by naming each brick, repenting and asking the Holy Spirit to remove the bricks and debris we have torn down. He will be faithful to cast them away as far as the east is from the west. (Psalm 103: 11-12)
SOUL TIES
Soul Ties are some of Satan’s most powerful strongholds, and they are an often-overlooked doorway of ungodly influence, contract or connection. But not all soul ties are bad. Yahweh created us to have intimate or close relationships, to be joined with others emotionally and spiritually which establishes soul ties. Therefore, every person experiences soul ties whether they are aware of them or not. There are godly and ungodly soul ties. 1 Corinthians 6:16-17 describes this for us. “What? Do you not know that he who is joined to a harlot is one body with her? For ‘the two,’ He says, ‘shall become one flesh.’ But he who is joined to the Lord becomes one spirit with Him.”
Godly Soul Ties. The Lord intended these cords of love to be a source of blessing and encouragement as we relate in godly ways. The most important soul tie we can have is with the Lord Jesus Christ. “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind” (Luke 10:27). These healthy bonds also give us the ability to connect with others, which allows Holy Spirit to freely move in between people, including Him in that relationship. This makes it possible to accomplish the rest of Luke 10:27 that says, “love your neighbor as yourself.”
Godly soul ties transfer God’s Spirit between Himself and us, and then between us and those He connects us with. When we are deeply connected with another person, our souls seem to become blended, shared together. This is the “one flesh” that Jesus described in Mark 10:8. We see these godly ties in marriages between a husband and wife (cleave “dabaq” H1692, proskollao G4347. See also Gen 34:1-3 and 1 Kings 11:1-4), in parent and child relationships, in healthy relationships and friendships as with David and Jonathan. 1 Samuel 18:1 says, “The soul of Jonathan was knit to the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul.”
Godly soul ties join us together at a deep level and help us in the sanctification process as we become more like those we are bound to. Investing in and guarding our relationship with Christ is key so that we become more like Him in nature and character. This is also true of the people we choose to connect ourselves with. Godly soul ties will affect us spiritually, emotionally, mentally and physically. The Fruit of the Spirit will be exhibited in our lives, creating love and unity while encouraging each other to love and good works, turning weaknesses into strengths, and building up God’s kingdom.
Ungodly Soul Ties. Satan loves to use God’s gift of connections to his advantage. He perverts and defiles their meaning and purpose, then offers counterfeit rewards that lead right into bondage.
Ungodly relationships join and blend our soul together with another person’s soul. Without discernment and knowledge, it is easy to enter into them because they appeal to our flesh or sin nature, to the desires of our soul. They sound good, look good, and feel right, and if we take the bait of this alluring counterfeit, we feed our pride, the love of “self,” while we justify our rebellion against God. This is a not the love of Christ, and is in fact a rejection of His love that is beautifully explained in 1 Corinthians 13. Over time, these ungodly connections will affect us spiritually, emotionally, mentally, and/or physically in negative ways.
We usually associate the formation of these ties with ungodly sex, and that is one of the main factors. However, we can become bound to another person or persons in other ways such as by choosing to hang out with ungodly people and joining in their lifestyle. Abusive, over-controlling, manipulative relationships also develop soul ties. Fear, abandonment, rejection and addictions can cause people to depend on others in unhealthy ways, which establishes ungodly soul ties. The occult, cults, mind control and witchcraft also create links. There can be soul ties with ancestors through generational sins and curses that were passed down that hold us in bondage to the physical, emotional, mental problems that we may mistakenly accept thinking they are just “genetic.” It is even possible for soul ties to form with fantasy spirits through things such as pornography, masturbation, and the settling for unhealthy companionship born out of extreme loneliness, etc. And I’m sure there are many more.
Yep, just as Holy Spirit uses soul ties, Satan also uses them. These ties are like chains with hooks on them that connect us with someone else, and they are portals that demons use to transfer back and forth between people. And it’s not only demons, but emotional, mental and physical problems, and the traits of one’s personality or character can also be transferred to the other through soul ties. For example, if one struggles with fear, the other person who never experienced fear in that way may become fearful. They might say, “I sound just like so-and-so.” The bondage of one will try to work itself into the bondage of another.
The transference of demons and the linking of souls in ungodly relationships is a huge hindrance in our walk with the Lord. When we recognize the mess we’re in, and confess our sin and repent, we may find that even though the relationship has ended and we’ve done everything we can to follow God, we still feel stuck in spiritual, emotional, mental and physical bondage rather than freedom. Unbroken soul ties are often the cause of those relationships that you just can’t seem to “get over.”
These ties can be like a bungee cord that allow us to move forward only so far before we are pulled back toward what we are trying to move away from, even when we have truly repented. You know that cycle of sin-confess, sin-confess? If after fully repenting we find we are still struggling with that cycle or with certain sins or lines of thought, it may be because it’s not our issue, but someone else’s. It may be an indication that there are ungodly soul ties that haven’t been broken.
This doesn’t mean that we are not saved. It means that Satan has at least one of his hooks in us. It is not a matter of ownership, but of bondage. Breaking off the physical relationship doesn’t guarantee the breaking of soul ties, and unless we know to ask the Holy Spirit to sever the ungodly soul ties, the issues of the other person as well as demons, curses and generational curses on the other end of that line can be transferred to us. If we want to be totally free, we need to make sure that we “unpack our past” as Peter Horrobin calls it, and allow God to reveal and break off all ungodly soul ties.
The good news is that Jesus came to set the captive free and to open the prison to those who are bound! He’s got an amazing Sword of the Spirit that can sever these ungodly soul ties. When we confess our part to God, repent, and remove ungodly relationships, then we can ask the Lord to sever the ties, to cut the cords, and He will!
A note of caution here. We must be on guard because it is possible for godly soul ties to become ungodly. For example, in counseling situations, sharing creates a certain intimacy or bond between the two involved. This can happen between pastors and members of their congregation, between people on worship teams, co-workers, and anytime there are people sharing their lives together. This is not wrong. However, you can be sure that Satan will try to take advantage of godly soul ties and begin to plant sinful thoughts with “justifiable” excuses inside our minds. Godly relationships can quickly become ungodly. We must be alert and watchful.
When an ungodly soul tie is broken, it is important to establish or put on a godly relationship in place of the old. A fundamental principle of God’s Word is to always put something on when we take something off. So of course, the first relationship to pour our love into is with the Father through worship, His Word and prayer. Then we need to get connected with godly people that will disciple and encourage us.
When King Josiah was breaking generational soul ties- the sins of their ancestors that they had ignorantly accepted, he didn’t stop there! He gathered all the people together to hear God’s Word so that they could repent, and then learn how to follow God instead. He reinstated worship of the One true God. He hosted the biggest and best Passover celebration in the land since Samuel (2 Kings 23). [6]
IDENTIFY FOOTHOLDS, STRONGHOLDS AND SOUL TIES
Identifying footholds, recognizing ungodly soul ties and tearing down strongholds can be a process, especially for people who have suffered for years under abuse and trauma or who have led a lifestyle of sin. Don’t give up. Don’t focus on the process; instead, live to love and please the Lord Jesus Christ and He will faithfully guide you through to victory over each one.
With this in mind, make a list of things that Holy Spirit brings to your mind. We will renounce these at the end of Step 1.
FOOTHOLDS____________________________________________________________________________
STRONGHOLDS_________________________________________________________________________
SOULTIES_______________________________________________________________________________
[1] Dr. Michael and Marylou Lake, kingdomintelligencebriefing.com, KIB 410, Contend, Retrieve and Establish
[2] Connie Stoffel, Teaching on Strongholds
[3] Connie Stoffel, Teaching on Strongholds
[4] Bob Larson, Learn the Six Steps to Freedom, March 2001 Newsletter
[5] Collene James, Nancy Bowser, “The Lie Effect: Overcoming Soul Abduction, A Survivor’s Handbook,” Amazon, 2022, p. 33.
[6] This chapter is also found in Watchman Warrior Intercessory Prayer by Nancy Bowser, Amazon, 2023; and in The Lie Effect: Overcoming Soul Abduction, A Survivor’s Handbook by Collene James and Nancy Bowser, Amazon, 2022.
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