Biblical spirituality entails being born of God (John 1:1213; John 3:58; 1 John 4:7), being transformed by the grace of Jesus Christ (Rom 12:12), surrendered and obedient to the Spirit, living according to the Spirit (Rom 8:411), and being empowered by the Spirit to draw others to find life in the Spirit.
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What does the Bible say about mental strongholds?
The Spirit of God desires each of you to break free from any demonic strongholds that are holding you hostage.
I believe it would be beneficial to think about the metaphor's metaphorical element a little further.
9:9 (Psalms) The LORD is a stronghold in times of adversity for the oppressed.
Because it is high and inaccessible to adversaries, a cliff might be used as a stronghold.
1 Samuel 23:14; 1 Samuel 23:15; 1 Samuel 23:16; 1 David lingered in the fortresses of the desert and the highlands of the Ziph Desert.
and my deliverer; my shield, and the one in whom I put my trust; the one who subdues my people under me
Why would a “high thing” want to elevate itself by hanging out in a high cliff or a high tower?
It's considerably easier to drive an adversary away from a fortress on a high vantage point.
In the history of Israel's conflicts, you can learn about the strategic value of strongholds.
It's just off the main route leading up to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv and the airport.
The problem with this location was that it was a stronghold located along the main roadway.
The Arab Legion held the fortress of Latrun when the War of Independence began.
They could pick off the caravans delivering supplies up to the Jews in Jerusalem from this vantage point.
This was a stronghold that needed to be conquered!
It had a suffocating grip over Jerusalem!
The fledgling Israeli Defense Forces attempted to take it five times in five different ways.
The Arab Legionthe greatest, British-trained warriors on the Arab sidehas proven itself time and time again.
As a result, the Israelis construct a “Burma Road” around the bastion, traversing tough terrain.
Until 1967, the Arabs controlled this fortification, which was located just five kilometers from Ben-Gurion Airport.
Nasser dispatched Egyptian troops to Jordanian garrisons shortly before the 1967 conflict.
includes an impressive display of Israeli army tanks that were purchased, manufactured, or captured.
For the past two decades, that location has posed a threat to our people's safety in the heart of the country.
How long has a stronghold in the center of your thinking life jeopardized your safety?
Is it possible?
Hey, David conquered Jerusalem and established it as his capital!
Joab unlocked the citadel's gates by breaking through a tunnel that led to a spring.
“Even if Babylon climbs the sky and fortifies her lofty stronghold,' Jer 51:53 declares.
by diverting the city's river and marching into the city on the riverbank!
God is well-versed in strongholds and understands how to overthrow them and he'll show you how.
Do you ever want to quit up when you come up against a stronghold in your life?
Individuals who are willing to battle, people with courage, capture strongholds!
God will assist you if you ask for it. The Bible and the Holy Spirit will show you how. Amen?
One thing to remember about a stronghold: it's a location, not a person.
The mind is the castle of the soul, and Satan and his henchmen aim to capture people's minds.
“Have nothing to do with the unproductive deeds of darkness,” Ephesians 5:11 exhorts us.
If you wish to allow God's light shine on the darkness, you must have a humble attitude.
“Test me, O LORD, and try me, probe my heart and my intellect,” David begged in Ps 26:2.
After you've identified the stronghold, repentance is the next stage in bringing it down.
Honesty before God is the best policy, and humbly allowing the Spirit to reveal the stronghold in the darkness is the best policy.
It's possible that you'll have to mute the tiny lawyer who emerges from a dark corner of your mind.
A frontal assault on a stronghold doesn't always appear to work.
So, what are your options?
With a frontal attack, Jewish warriors attempted to take the Old City of Jerusalem.
From the east, I've seen a photo of Israeli generals looking down on the Old City!
They were able to cut off supplies and reinforcements after encircling the city.
After that, the Israelis were able to enter the city with little resistance.
What was the game plan? March for seven days around the city, then blow your trumpets!
How can you encircle a fortress of pessimistic thinking and old rumours?
How about some compliments?
32:7 in Psalms. “You are my safe haven; you will keep me safe from harm and surround me.”
Praise God by singing psalms and spiritual hymns around the fortress.
There's a powerful technique to surround every bad stronghold with God's contrary truth.
If you're fighting a stronghold of rejection, surround it with Abba's acceptance.
If you're having trouble dealing with unresolved anger, try surrounding it with forgiveness.
Surround yourself with the knowledge of God's love if you're battling with a stronghold of fear.
If you're fighting a failing fortress, surround it with the triumph of the resurrection!
Once you've recognized a stronghold, go to the Bible and look up the contrary truth that God has revealed.
If rejection is your stronghold, read everything the Bible says about God's acceptance.
His resistance will swiftly wane, and if he isn't already gone, he will be soon!
Please forgive me for making a compromise. Give me the guts to demolish every stronghold I own.
I bind any evil powers within me that were encouraging compromise and sin.
I submit to the light of the Spirit of Truth in order for any sin strongholds in me to be exposed.
I declare that every satanic stronghold is being demolished by the great weapons of the Spirit and the Word!
I intend to envelop this demonic stronghold in praise and affirming truth from God's Word.
I intend to capture every negative thought pattern and bring it into submission to Messiah.
By God's grace, I intend to persevere until even the ruins of this stronghold are razed.
I intend to consider everything that is genuine, noble, right, and pure.
If there is anything charming or admirableif there is anything worthy of praise
By God's grace, I intend to construct one fortress within my mind and heart:
“The LORD's name is a strong fortress; the virtuous will flee to it for safety.”
What is warfare prayer in the Bible?
The finest techniques for combating spiritual warfare are battle scriptures and prayers. Nothing can compare to the force of God's word and the ability to invoke Jesus' authority via prayer. The most effective strategy to combat spiritual warfare is to use God's word and pray.
Warfare prayer acknowledges the spiritual battle raging around you and prays for victory over the enemy through the power of Jesus Christ.
Whether you are conscious of it or not, spiritual warfare is all around you. Keep in mind what the Bible says about the adversary. There is a real adversary of God who will stop at nothing to prevent you from growing in your faith and being closer to Him. The objective of the thief, according to John 10:10, is to steal, murder, and destroy.
When you understand the enemy's goal against you, you may fully appreciate the value of warfare prayers and scriptures. Warfare prayer points and verses are in handy in this situation.
What happens when you have a spiritual awakening?
As Kaiser argues, this is the start of your spiritual journey, as you begin to doubt everything you previously believed. You begin to purge certain aspects of your life (habits, relationships, and outdated belief systems) in order to make room for new, more meaningful experiences. You may sense that something is lacking, but you aren't sure what it is. It's common to feel disoriented, confused, and down during this time.
Is religion the same as spirituality?
Religion is a collection of organized ideas and behaviors that are usually shared by a community or group of people.
Spirituality: This is a more personal discipline that involves feeling at ease and having a sense of purpose. It also refers to the process of forming views about the meaning of life and one's connection to others in the absence of any predetermined spiritual principles.
Imagine a football game as a metaphor for the link between spirituality and religion. The rules, officials, other players, and field markings all serve as guides as you play the game, much like religion can help you uncover your spirituality.
Kicking a ball around a park, without needing to play on a field or follow all of the rules and regulations, can still provide fulfillment and fun while expressing the core of the game, comparable to spirituality in life.
You can identify as religious or spiritual in any combination, but being religious does not inherently make you spiritual, and vice versa.
Type 2 diabetes affects approximately 25.8 million people in the United States, or 8.3 percent of the population.
1 Non-Hispanic Blacks aged 20 and up account for 4.9 million (18.7%) of the total. 1 Complications of type 2 diabetes, such as cerebrovascular illness, renal failure, and amputations, are substantially more common among African Americans than in non-Hispanic Whites.1
With proper diabetic self-care, these problems can be decreased or avoided. Diabetes therapy relies heavily on self-care knowledge, skills, and activities. The intricacy of sustaining and managing daily self-care activities, such as exercise, food change, and medication adherence, makes diabetic self-care difficult. The American Association of Diabetes Educators2 lists seven diabetes self-care behaviors: being active (physical activity and exercise); eating healthy (diet composition and caloric content); taking medications; monitoring (e.g., blood glucose, weight, blood pressure); problem solving, particularly for blood glucose (high and low levels, sick days); reducing risks (to reduce diabetes complications; smoking cessation); and healthy coping (psychosocial adaptation). These behaviors have been recognized as measurable results of effective diabetes education and should be practiced at both the individual and population level to accomplish the targeted outcomes of diabetes complications prevention and physical and psychological well-being.
Spiritual and religious beliefs and activities can either help people cope with a chronic illness by providing support, confidence, and hope, or they might obstruct successful coping by causing them to ignore self-care activities in favor of prayer and/or meditation.
3 While there is evidence of a link between spirituality and hypertension self-management4, few research have looked at the impact of spirituality on diabetes self-management.
5 As a result, less is known about how spiritual beliefs and practices, as well as social support, influence diabetic self-care among African American adults. 6 Spirituality is an important source of emotional support; God is perceived as central in providing strength to deal with daily challenges; God is frequently called upon for help in controlling diabetes; and a strong belief in God, prayer, meditation, and support from church members were all sources of support in previous studies concerning spirituality, religion, and diabetes in African Americans. 3, 5, and 8 Religion and spirituality were linked to better glycemic control in Black women with type 2 diabetes in one study,9 while religion and spirituality were linked to a lower likelihood of lifelong smoking among African Americans in another. 10
Because of the foregoing findings and a gap in the literature, we decided to look into the possibilities of incorporating spiritual and religious views into diabetic self-management. Spiritual views encompass a connection to a higher being as well as an existential outlook on life, death, and the nature of reality. 11 Religious practices/rituals such as prayer or meditation, as well as interaction with religious community members, are examples of religious beliefs. While spiritual and religious views have a lot in common, the authors decided to look into both of them because they are commonly brought up when dealing with disease. It's also necessary to look into both of these concepts because some people consider themselves spiritual but don't necessarily believe in religion. While religious beliefs and practices are more easily measured, the authors intended to look at the larger context of people's belief systems, specifically their perspectives on life's meaning, disease, and existential concerns. 13 The Systems of Belief Inventory (SBI) was chosen to measure these constructs due to the requirement to examine both spiritual and religious beliefs and practices in the process of coping with an illness.
The researchers wanted to see if there was a link between (a) spiritual and religious beliefs and practices and social support, and (b) diabetic self-care activities in African Americans with type 2 diabetes. Because African Americans have numerous diabetes inequities, this is an essential topic (i.e., highest rates of diabetes, diabetes complications, and diabetes-related mortality rates). 14
Because little is known about how spiritual and religious beliefs and practices affect diabetes self-care in African American adults, this study looked at the relationship between spirituality, religion, and diabetes self-care activities in this population, such as diet, physical activity, blood glucose self-testing, and foot care behaviors. Because some evidence suggests a link between spirituality and religion and lifetime smoking in African Americans10, a negative link between spirituality and religion and smoking was hypothesized. It was expected, in particular, that those who scored higher on spiritual and religious beliefs and practices, as well as social support, would engage in more diabetes self-care activities and smoke less.