If you have tried and tried again to get rid of a sin and you repeatedly fail, you’re not dealing with a sin anymore. You’re dealing with a stronghold. There is a critical difference between sin and tough strongholds.  There are effective spiritual warfare strategies required to overcome a persistent sin, and any lingering strongholds. King James uses the poetic word, the besetting sin, the stubborn sin that keeps tempting us to indulge. Each sin opens a door to a demon of fear and doubt. To know that we all sin and fall short is the truth. To doubt if we are truly saved is a call to examine our ways.  When we open the door to our studied weakness, a demon rushes in.  Without resisting the devil, we surrender our soul over and over to his lies. With remorse, we may repent, but the demonic influence abides. WHY?  The Bible tells us that any stronghold takes time to dismantle. Satan is the father of lies, and his demons work in the mind. For example: If we opened the door to the sin of drunkeness, demons begin to rearrange our beliefs about drinking. Whispering, “it’s okay, God loves you anyway.” The lie penetrates a soul’s mental pathways and that soul soon begins to agree with the liar.

God says in Romans 12:2, “Get set free and be transformed into the image of Jesus by the renewing of your mind.” When we choose to sin, willfully, a demon gets in and stirs up our beliefs. The demon stays to influence our thinking. Demons must be cast out, and any stronghold must be torn down, brick by brick.  2 Corinthians 10: 4. “The weapons of our warfare are not physical, but have divine power to tear down strongholds.” We destroy any argument that sets a lie up against God’s truth.  We do so by taking every thought captive. The warning is clear. The stronghold in a mind set on having its own way, and its own personal will and interpretation, actually rewires itself to trust the liar. This is how a follower of Jesus can begin to think that gay is OK. Evil things look like good, and good things look like evil. The truth is that demons are cast out quickly and easily in the powerful name of Jesus. However, strongholds are broken over time. This messes up the doctrine of eternal grace. John 8: 31, God commands His will. “IF you as a believer, CONTINUE in My Word, then …you will know the TRUTH, and the TRUTH will set you free.” Who is the Truth? Jesus, is the only Way, the Truth, and the Life that lives forever in the presence of a holy God. Our Father tells us that destroying a stronghold is going to take time. So we keep His Word and steep in it. We gladly saturate our mind in the truth of the scriptures. IF we choose to be surrounded by a band of believers who will boldly speak truth and point out  evil, we are likely to stay on the narrow path and enter eternity with Jesus.

Bad company corrupts. To bust up a stronghold requires us to replace evil beliefs with the truth. If it took five years and terrible friends to build and reinforce the stronghold, it will take longer than five minutes and a few Godly friends to tear down the stronghold. HOLD THIS TRUTH TIGHTLY. The name of Jesus casts out demons. The word of God breaks strongholds. Jeremiah 23: 29, “Is not MY WORD like a FIRE, like a HAMMER breaking rocks into pieces?” IF a stronghold exists in your life, enlisting a few accountability partners will keep you on the narrow path that few find. IF you  don’t, that’s how the old you comes back. If you cast a spirit of deception out, and do not replace it with the spirit of truth, it’s just going to come back and it’ll bring 7 more spirits with it.

Unpacking Hebrews 3, and 6: Gods warning for His visible Church. Many will be turned away, why?  If a soul is adamantly convinced that they may deliberately sin, after they received the knowledge of the truth, they have been deceived. ‘Many will be deceived’ is also a promise. God’s Word clearly says, “There no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of judgment and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries.”   Hebrews 6:4.  “For it is IMPOSSIBLE to RESTORE AGAIN to REPENTANCE those who have once been enlightened,(heard the Gospel) who have tasted the heavenly gift, (tasted but not swallowed) who have shared in the Holy Spirit (saw signs and wonders) and have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the powers of the ages to come.” So the many souls that sit in the visible church, then can fall away, since they are crucifying once again the Son of God to their OWN HARM and holding HIM up to contempt.” This word says that there will be people that have repented, who were enlightened, who shared in the Holy Spirit, who tasted the goodness of the Word of God and the powers of the day to come, but they fall away and are NOT saved.

We should not mince God’s Word, but take our Father’s warnings seriously.  In context, let us pay attention to what the Spirit of God is saying. This warning is spoken to genuine saved Christians. It is possible for a church attending believer to lose their salvation. What is devastating is that God is emphatic, that once lost, a soul is beyond repentance. The topic of eternal salvation includes God’s set condition.  One must truly believe that God says what He literally means, always. God says that IF a soul keeps on willingly sinning, then they made the choice to never get God’s mercy back. God gave us many chances to slay the liar, to dethrone demons, and demolish strongholds. “It is IMPOSSIBLE to RESTORE AGAIN to REPENTANCE.”

Remember the context of God’s warning, as we dive more deeply at His content in Hebrews 3 and 6.  In context, the author of Hebrews is writing to a church, to a group of souls. It might sound rude, but it’s just reality. Is every single person who attends your church saved? TRUTH BOMB: No, not all are saved, not all will enter God’s eternal kingdom. All visible churches have souls that are both believers and unbelievers. By the way, Jesus said that this would happen. It was true of His disciples and obvious in the parable of the sower.   There are souls who choose to PERSEVERE to the end. In the parable, there are others who bail when trouble comes. Then we remember that Judas heard, saw, and chooses to betray. The author of the Bible points out that there are souls who choose to not continue to keep God’s commands. God speaks the whole truth to the ears of His faithful remnant. Are we willing to listen to what the Spirit is saying?

There are true believers and also those who fool themselves by listening to lies that lead them astray.  Many face persecution and when they are tempted, they  choose to listen to the wrong voice.  To NOT BELIEVE all of scripture is foolish.  Jesus is the only Way and His Word speaks plainly. Souls can lose their salvation, and never get it back. The author does  assume that there are souls in the visible assembly that actually do not believe the entire Word. A salvistic faith has a huge  theological distinction. When a soul walks into a church, they walk into a visible gathering of all kinds of souls.  The Word shows us that the assembly includes souls at all different levels of faith. A variety gathered to hear Jesus preach the sermon on the mount. From a supernatural and spiritual perspective not everybody who gathers visibly has an invisible soul that is in fact eternally saved. Only God knows the heart. He knows whether the souls in the visible church are also actually regenerate believers.  The souls of His remnant are a part of the invisible church of Jesus Christ.  Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal truth as you ponder Hebrews 6: 1-10. Then steep your soul in Hebrews  3. “Take care, brothers, lest there be any of you (plural in the visible gathering) an evil and unbelieving heart. (singular in the invisible). One evil, unbelieving heart in pew. Is that one singular evil, unbelieving heart belong to me? Has my soul been deceived? Have I listened to only those who tickle my ears?

Have I been led astray? “For we have come to share in Christ, if we indeed hold our original confidence to the end.” Hebrews 3:15. Will I be unable to enter because of my own deceived beliefs? During the Exodus, we see a massive group of millions of souls who each saw the plagues, they saw that the blood on Passover protected them. They saw the Red Sea part, but some actually did not truly surrender their souls to God.  They were all part of the same group, but they were not all saved just because they were part of the group. Some preach that we are all part of the same church. God’s warning is that we must NOT assume that just because you’re in the church that you’re in His kingdom. Just because you’re part of the visible church does not mean that your soul is automatically part of the REMNANT church. On our first glimpse of Hebrews 6, we may be swayed to believe that all seated in the church are definitely saved. But let’s just read this again and think of it a different way. “Who have once been enlightened.” Souls that actually heard the truth of the gospel. Who had tasted the heavenly gifts. Many commentators believe that that is communion. Who have shared in the Holy Spirit. They saw the Holy Spirit do incredible works in their midst.  And so these souls tasted it and had an experience. This verse says all that.  But here’s the thing, verse 9 says, “Though we speak in this way, yet in your case, beloved, we feel SURE of BETTER THINGS.” ASK, “better things that belong to what?” Eternal things that belong to salvation. All the other things; being enlightened; tasting; witnessing miracles, do NOT belong to salvation. “We believe better things for you.” TRUTH: Just because you’re in a group, do NOT assume your salvation is secure. Examine your heart to make sure you actually have SAVING faith.