Holy Spirit

1. The Holy Spirit: Your Ultimate Bondage Breaker

There is no spirit more powerful than the Holy Spirit.

God's will is total victory. The core message is that God desires believers to live lives of spiritual vitality, strength, and freedom. Spiritual struggle is not meant to be a normal part of the Christian life, and believers can and should be set free from all forms of demonic influence. The Holy Spirit is the key to permanently breaking every chain of bondage.

Truth, not tradition. The book emphasizes that the solutions presented are God's solutions, derived directly from Scripture, rather than human religious directives. The Holy Spirit is the partner in living in the truth that will set you free. The book challenges, encourages, and transforms readers by presenting the truth about deliverance, spiritual warfare, and hell's strategies.

Victory awaits. The introduction sets a tone of hope and assurance, promising that a life of spiritual victory is attainable through the power of the Holy Spirit. It encourages readers to raise their faith and anticipate overcoming torment, fear, habitual sin, heaviness, and confusion. The Holy Spirit is the Bondage Breaker.

2. Strongholds: Mindsets Built on Deception

Deception is like a stronghold.

Deception defined. A stronghold is a mindset based on deception, an ungodly imagination, an argument against the truth, or a deceptive way of reasoning. These deceptive thought patterns can become safe havens for works of the flesh, as well as demonic influence. Once established, these ungodly thought patterns become ungodly behavior patterns, and those ungodly behavior patterns are what we refer to as “spiritual bondage.”

Spiritual warfare. Spiritual warfare is the fight to believe God’s truth over the enemy’s lies. What we believe can give power to or take power from the devil and the sin nature. The weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds.

Total victory. The absolute destruction and the complete removal of the spiritual obstacle. To visualize this insight, picture a brick wall. If the wall were to be pulled down in the way described in this verse, not one brick would be left upon another. This is more than the toppling of a structure—it’s the vanishing of it.

3. Truth: The Weapon Against Deception

And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.

Deception brings defeat. If you are still bound, there’s a lie you still believe. If you’re living in bondage, you’re living in a lie. If you’re spiritually defeated, you’re deceived. Where there is spiritual defeat, there is always spiritual deception. If you are not walking in spiritual victory, then somewhere, hidden among your many thoughts and beliefs, is a lie that you unknowingly or unwillingly embrace.

The Spirit of Truth. If it’s the truth that sets us free and it’s the Holy Spirit who guides us in truth, then the Holy Spirit is truly the Bondage Breaker. Without the guidance of the Holy Spirit, we cannot know truth. Without the truth, we cannot be free. All of us have blind spots. All of us get something wrong at some point. All of us need to be reminded of the truths we forget.

Revelation by the Spirit. Most Christians just never come to realize the fullness of their connection with God. Because they lack revelation of who they are in Christ, they simply leave God-given power unused. They live under deception, thinking of themselves as satan’s victims, rather than as God’s children. All who are under spiritual bondage need a major revelation of who they are in Christ.

4. Open Doors: Guarding Against Enemy Influence

Neither give place to the devil.

Open doors defined. An open door is anything that would give the enemy the upper hand in your life or that would cause you to lower your guard against the lies of satan. An open door is anything you do, say, feel, or think that makes you more receptive to demonic lies. Open doors are spiritual weak points that the enemy can exploit to bring you under the power of deception.

Demons return. Demons return to check for weak points. They come back to check on you. When an evil spirit loses a place of influence, it comes back in an attempt to reclaim what it can. In the case of the unbeliever, a demonic being can return to gain full influence, including actual possession.

Four open doors.

• Connections: Your relationships and connections with ungodly people can be open doors for deception.
• Eyes and Ears: What you see and hear can make you more susceptible to deception.
• States of Being: Certain states of being pose huge risks for enemy influence. These states of being include but are not limited to pride, anger, apathy, exhaustion, and doubt.
• The Mouth: The mouth can be an open door.

5. Identifying and Dismantling Strongholds

The most effective way to identify the enemy’s lies is to know the truth.

The Father of Lies. Ultimately, all deception comes from the father of lies. The first to fall for satan’s lies were the angelic hosts who were persuaded to join in his rebellion against God. Then, of course, Adam and Eve would later fall for temptation as a direct result of deception.

Identifying strongholds. Especially if a stronghold has been in your life for an extended period of time, it can be rather difficult to identify the lies upon which it was built. We don’t realize how many of the things we think and believe actually come from lies. That’s the nature of deception. We have blind spots.

Let there be light. Just as darkness is the absence of light, so deception is the absence of truth. You can’t strike the darkness. Your only hope is to turn on the light. The more familiar you become with the truth, the more accurately you will be able to spot the lies. Lies begin to stand out, as you begin to know the truth.

6. Exercising Authority Over Demonic Forces

It was with a simple word that Jesus expelled the forces of darkness.

Two kingdoms. There are only two kingdoms: the kingdom of darkness and the Kingdom of light. Those who do not belong to Christ are under the power of the kingdom of darkness. Those who belong to Christ have been rescued from the dominion of darkness and brought under the power of a new jurisdiction, the Kingdom of Heaven.

Demonic limitations.

• Demons are not omnipresent.
• Demons cannot read your mind.
• Demons cannot see the future.

Not by power or might. Confronting the demonic aspect of a stronghold is the simplest part of tearing down strongholds. By the power of the Spirit, you command absolute authority over demonic beings. It was with a simple word that Jesus expelled the forces of darkness.

7. Renewing the Mind: Beyond Demonic Influence

The transformed mind is the key to permanent deliverance.

Honor the basics. Successful athletes and soldiers have in common? They honor the basics. A soldier isn’t trained on the battlefield, and an athlete isn’t trained at the championship competition. A soldier goes through rigorous but basic training before deployment. An athlete spends years conditioning himself to be at peak performance.

Choose to believe the truth. The thoughts you think can either be in agreement with God’s truth or in agreement with lies. The alignment of your thoughts is a prediction of the alignment of your actions. This is why it’s of utmost importance that we filter our thoughts through the truths of God’s Word.

The Holy Spirit grounds you. The Holy Spirit helps us defeat these fleshly complications by keeping us grounded in our true identity. The Holy Spirit is the One who brings inner stability in moments of outer trouble. In moments when we are made weak by negative or unstable states of being, we can ground ourselves using the consistent strength of the Holy Spirit.

8. Specific Strongholds: Temptation and Addiction

But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed.

The nature of temptation. We are drawn into sin by our own lusts and desires. We are ultimately the ones who choose to sin. But demons encourage us in our temptations. This is why Jesus told us to pray for deliverance from the temptations of the evil one.

How Jesus handled temptation. Jesus cut to the root of the lie using the Word of God. No, Jesus did not use His experience, as some attempt to do. He used the Word. Some are under the impression that their power against the enemy comes from their own “depth” in the Spirit or their many years of experience in dealing with demons.

Repent and renounce. To repent is to change your mind, and to renounce is to change your behavior. Repentance brings me into agreement with God. Renouncing is the forsaking of my evil ways. True repentance is a change in mind that results in a change in direction.

9. The Attack of Sickness: Discernment and Faith

He forgives all my sins and heals all my diseases.

Demonic attack. Demons cannot physically harm born-again believers, except for in two ways. Demons can physically attack the believer with sickness, and demons can physically attack the believer by means of a demonically influenced individual. In either case, in order to physically attack a Christian, a demon must use something that physically exists in this world.

Natural and demonic. So sickness is one of the enemy’s only options for attacking the physical body of the believer. We know that sickness can be the result of demonic attack, but are there any biblical examples of sickness being of natural origin?

Dealing with demonic sickness. We know that demons must obey the authority of Christ in you, and if they don’t obey immediately, the remedy the Scripture gives to us is prayer and fasting. So if you suspect a sickness is demonic in nature, speak a faith-filled command against the demonic entity.

10. The Deception of Christian Demon Possession

The Spirit is the guarantee [the first installment, the pledge, a foretaste] of our inheritance until the redemption of God’s own [purchased] possession [His believers], to the praise of His glory.

Demonization always means possession. To be demon possessed is to be overtaken in body by a demonic being. In cases of possession, demons attach themselves to a host and torment the person. They even have control over some of the individual’s physical capacities. To be demon possessed is to be claimed as a host, to have your body owned and inhabited by a demonic being.

A matter of ownership. So if possession is ownership, the question then becomes, “Who owns the believer?” It’s perfectly clear that the believer belongs to God. That’s not even debated among serious Bible believers. You then have to ask yourself, “Can a believer be both owned by God and a demon at the same time?”

Scripture over stories. Realizing that the Bible teaches Christians can’t be demonized (possessed) can be very confusing for some. Because of what I had been previously taught, I personally found it to be quite intellectually and emotionally jarring. However, the truth is not to be blamed for the confusion.

11. Overcoming Fear and Torment: A Path to Peace

For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.

The nature of torment. Torment is a vicious assault of the enemy. Nightmares. Voices. The constant sense of a dark presence near you. This isn’t just anxiety; it’s affliction of the mind. Your sleep is disrupted. It’s difficult to enjoy anything at all.

Don't panic. The stronghold of torment comes with its own unique set of challenges. How can you grab hold of your thoughts when it seems like someone else is doing the thinking for you? Assuming you’ve already dealt with the potential demonic aspects of this stronghold, you can now move on to this first step: don’t panic.

Be persuaded of His love. Even in your suffering, you are connected with God. Perhaps one of the most emotionally agitating lies that comes with being mentally afflicted is the idea that the torment is somehow proof that God has abandoned you. Just because you suffer from a mental health issue or from an unhealthy pattern of thinking or emotional pain or demonic attack doesn’t mean that you’re a fake Christian or that God has tossed you by the wayside.

12. The Stronghold of Accusation: Finding Freedom in Forgiveness

There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit.

The nature of accusation. Have you ever been going about your day with peace in your heart only to be mentally and emotionally deflated by the mere memory of a sin? Maybe you are constantly tormented by your many mistakes, or perhaps there is one sin you committed for which you just can’t seem to forgive yourself.

The accuser. The Bible calls the enemy “the accuser.” The accuser is the one who reminds you of your past. He’s the one who tells you that you’re not good enough. He’s the one who tells you that you’re a failure. He’s the one who tells you that you’re not worthy of God’s love.

The power of forgiveness. The key to breaking free from the stronghold of accusation is to embrace the power of forgiveness. Forgiveness is a gift from God, and it’s available to all who believe in Jesus Christ. When you confess your sins and ask for forgiveness, God promises to forgive you and cleanse you from all unrighteousness.

Last updated: March 11, 2025