"The Strongman"
"…how can one enter into a strongman’s house, and spoil his goods, except he first bind the strongman? and then he will spoil his house.” (Matthew 12:29) “When a strong man armed keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace; But when a stronger than he shall come upon him, and overcome him, he taketh from him all his armour wherein he trusted, and divideth his spoils.” (Luke 11:21-22)
Who is the strongman? Satan and his imps are the strongmen. What is his name? Other names that Satan is known as are: the devil; the thief; the tempter; your adversary; the destroyer; the serpent; the dragon; the prince of this world; the Father of Lies. What does he come to do? He comes to cause the following (this is not a complete list of things that the strongman comes to do, these are just a few examples):
"…how can one enter into a strongman’s house, and spoil his goods, except he first bind the strongman? and then he will spoil his house.” (Matthew 12:29) “When a strong man armed keepeth his palace, his goods are in peace; But when a stronger than he shall come upon him, and overcome him, he taketh from him all his armour wherein he trusted, and divideth his spoils.” (Luke 11:21-22)
Who is the strongman? Satan and his imps are the strongmen. What is his name? Other names that Satan is known as are: the devil; the thief; the tempter; your adversary; the destroyer; the serpent; the dragon; the prince of this world; the Father of Lies. What does he come to do? He comes to cause the following (this is not a complete list of things that the strongman comes to do, these are just a few examples):
1. Doubt — Makes you question God’s Word and his goodness.
2. Discouragement — Makes you look at your problems rather than at God.
3. Diversion — Makes the wrong things seem attractive so that you will want them more than the right things.
4. Defeat — Makes you feel like a failure so that you don’t even try.
5. Delay — Makes you put off doing something so that it never gets done.
He also comes to cause fear, torment, anxiety, nightmares, ill health, etc. Once you allow one, two or all of these things to be your focus, you have opened the door for the strongman to come into your life.
The strongman uses anything he can to cause you to lose focus of God. He uses people (family; husband, wife, mother, father, brother, sister, aunt, uncle, cousin, friend, in the church; leadership to the layman, and outside the church; business associates, acquaintances, or a stranger). He uses situation, circumstances, and things that we concern ourselves with.
We must learn how to bind the strongman by forbidding him to come back to harass us again in the name of Jesus. Then, according to Matthew 18:18, we loose the power of GOD to fill our life and repair the damage done by the strongman.
Then we have to learn how to maintain the freedom that God has given us. This will keep us from having to repeat the same things over and over again in our Christian life.
After the “house” is cleaned by repentance of sin and rejection of satanic influences we must then feed on the Word of God so that our “house” is transformed into the temple of the Holy Spirit. Trust GOD !!!
