My dears.
Someone responded to the earlier Nougat and I thought I should share my response …
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Strongholds are not human, though played out in human lives and experiences. Rather, they are not of God. Sometimes it is us who create strongholds in our very own lives, through the things we watch, read, say and do. When a stronghold has been established; the strongman seeks to annihilate EVERY and ANY thing that threatens the position or the post. At which point, we (or friends or family or foes) become mere pawns in the strongman’s plan.
As a Jamaican, I think of “garrisons” and “dons”. A Garrison doesn’t just up and form overnight. No, it begins with scarce resources or threats to ones way of being, and the apparent provision of the need or protection from the threat. As a ruler comes forward and rise to the challenge, s/he has to place persons as ‘middlemen’ to help protect the stronghold – whether as payback for favors, or to protect from enemy fire. Any sign of threat must then be annihilated. Any. Just like that. And the don is not always discriminating about who or what becomes collateral damage in the process.
In this grander spiritual battle, it’s even worse. And we are the disposable collateral that’s damaged … Our relationships, our minds, our very lives!
May God’s grace be ours to recognize what and whom we are at war against.
In Christ
