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ADVANCEMENT: BREAKING FREE OF NEGATIVE THOUGHT PATTERNS

April 4, 2025

We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ. 2 Corinthians 10:5

Have you ever gotten in a loop in your mind where you are preoccupied about something, and then you start talking about it, and it becomes a way of thinking for you? Maybe you are worried about one of your children, and you start talking about how you are worried, and then that worry becomes a constant, familiar way of thinking. That is called a stronghold. 
 
A stronghold is a sustained faulty thinking pattern that has been fortified by the assistance of demon spirits to keep the individual perpetually thinking in that pathway. Somebody – even a Christian – can get a mental stronghold in an area that keeps them stuck in a negative loop instead of advancing. The Bible says that we are to be renewed in the spirit of our minds (Ephesians 4:23). When you walk into a room, you are a carrier of the presence of God; that’s why the devil comes to try to stop your development and seize your thought life.

Here are five ways to advance and get breakthrough! 

  1. HAVE DEEP SPIRITUAL CONNECTION. The basis of everything is knowing God. You must have Jesus. Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father but through Me” (John 14:6). If you want to advance and go forward, number one, get Jesus in your heart.
     
  2. DEVELOP A FACULTY OF PERCEPTION FROM GOD’S WORD. After we get saved, we can ask, “God, what do you have for me?” Then He will show us. In Ephesians 1:17, Paul calls it a spirit of wisdom and revelation. That’s seeing, that’s perceiving, where the veil gets pulled away, and things cease being confusing and become clear. 
     
  3. WALK IN THE LIGHT. God invites us to connect with Him, and the gateway is repentance, where we are willing to humble ourselves. We get to come before the Lord and continually receive His infilling, cleansing, washing, and renewing. I am thankful for 1 John 1:9: “If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.” This attitude of humility and repentance pushes the reset button on our lives every day. 
     
  4. GET YOUR MIND RENEWED. What we meditate on, we turn into. To break free from a negative mental stronghold and make the Lord your stronghold instead, meditate on Philippians 4:8. We replace all the past hurts, distractions, and garbage and meditate on these eight things instead: “Whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, [I will] dwell on these things.”
     
  5. PURSUE TRUTH AND KNOWLEDGE. Out with the old ways of thinking. In with the new – with God’s way of thinking. His thoughts are higher than ours. We can change and learn. We have to be willing to cast down imaginations and take every thought captive. If you are dealing with a stronghold in your mind that is keeping you stuck, you can come against every demonic stronghold that has tried to keep you in a mental loop of bondage in the name of Jesus. Negativity, bitterness, hurt – it all has to come into agreement with God’s thoughts and His patterns of being. Advancement isn’t always comfortable because your routine is disrupted. But if your “comfort zone” is actually a place of bondage, then breaking free is worth it.  It is worth repenting; it is worth humbling yourself; it is worth forgiving. 

For it is God Himself whose power creates within you the desire to do His gracious will and also brings about the accomplishment of the desire. Philippians 2:12-13 Weymouth

PRAY THIS PRAYER:
God, I want to advance into the beautiful plan that You have for me. I am a new creation, a brand-new person. I have been made the righteousness of God in Christ. I repent of everything I know to repent of. Show me the areas where faulty thinking patterns keep me in a loop. Since I have the spirit of faith, I command my mountains to be removed. I come against every demonic stronghold that’s tried to hinder my thought life in the name of Jesus. And since I’ve been forgiven much, I love much, and I forgive. I am all about advancement. I am willing to open up and take on new beginnings and seasons of refreshing from the presence of the Lord. In Jesus’ Name, amen!

God bless you,
Pastor Jeff Perry

strong·hold, noun
1. A fortified place: a place of security or survival: fortress, refuge.
2. A place occupied or dominated by a special group or faction.

Copyright © 2025 St. Louis Family Church, All rights reserved. No part of this article may be reprinted or distributed in any form without prior written permission of St. Louis Family Church. Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture references are from the New American Standard Bible (NASB) Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. All rights reserved.  Weymouth, Richard Francis. The New Testament in Modern Speech. James Clarke & Co., 1903. “Stronghold, N.” Webster’s Third New International Dictionary, C. & G. Merriam CO., 1971, p. 2266